Author: Wendy

Simplicity is Not… {Part 3}

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Welcome back to my What Simplicity Means to Me series. I know I usually post these on Mondays, but our computer was out of commission for a few days, so I’m just able to get back on here today.

Today is my last post on what simplicity is not. Next week, I’ll dive in to what simplicity is.

Simplicity is not necessary for a fulfilling life. But I think it definitely helps. Remember that Scripture from Matthew that I shared last week? Here’s my paraphrased version, just for a refresher: Do the work of God, do not collect wages for doing so. Trust God to provide for you, and provide for you He will. How can you do God’s work without needing to collect wages? Live simply.

Easier said than done, I know. Especially in America (and other first world countries). We’re blessed – or cursed, depending on your point of view – with being affluent. Even the poorest among us is remarkably affluent in the grand scheme of the world. And the more money you earn, the easier it is to turn your back on simplicity. Especially (and I speak from experience here) if you spent any amount of time (as an adult) being “poor,” and now are better off. The “five years ago, I couldn’t buy anything, so now I’m going to buy whatever I want” trap is easy to fall into. But it’s important to keep Jesus’ commands in mind when we’re busy buying all that stuff. We must be willing – and more importantly, able – to leave at the drop of hat if when he calls us.

What about the non-material aspects of simplicity? There might be some of you reading this who thrive in the busy-ness of life. Sometimes I do. It’s nice to be needed. By your spouse. By your kids. By your neighbors. Maybe even by your siblings or your parents. As humans, we like to feel important, appreciated. But in all that busy-ness, do you ever feel stressed, even if you like the constant activity? Of course you do. It’s important (but not required) to take some time to slow down sometimes. Enjoy the simpler things in life. Take half an hour to play with your baby. Allow one-on-one time with each of your children. Make something. Go for a drive. Just slow down and enjoy life.

This week’s challenge: Take five minutes to just relax. Go for a walk, and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Turn off your cell phone. Meditate. Whatever you want. But make time to just appreciate the quiet, simple things in your life.

Blessings,

Wendy

Homeschooling Essentials: A Library Card

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5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials

Welcome to my final day of Homeschooling Essentials. Thank you so much for joining me this week as I’ve explored what I find necessary to teach my kiddos.

I forgot to mention it earlier in the week, but please note that there are almost 90 other mamas blogging on this topic this week, not just me and the other nine I’ve been listing at the ends of my posts. Click that banner up at the top for the full listing!

As I was trying to decide what the last item on my list should be, there were a plethora of options. Time, money, a good Bible, curriculum, a Kindle or other e-book reader… the list goes on and on. (And let me be clear: all of those, especially the Bible, are vital, I think. But I had to narrow it down to what I could fit into a week, so that’s what I’ve done.) I’ve found that with the other items I talked about this week (pencils, flexibility, and a plan), none of them would really matter without material to teach. And that’s where the library card comes in. If you have a good library system where you live, definitely invest the time to go get a card. Even if you have to pay an annual fee to access it (if you live outside of city limits and therefore your taxes don’t go to the library system, for example), it’s totally worth it. There’s no other place to get access to hundreds, thousands, millions of books for free.

I mentioned last summer when I was planning our homeschool year that I was going to use Ambleside Online for our core curriculum this year. We’ve stuck with that (for the most part), and the kids adore it. This is by far the best year of homeschooling we’ve ever done. But none of it would be possible without our library card. Almost all of the books prescribed in the Ambleside curriculum are available through our library system. And better yet, they’re not in high demand, so we’ve been able to get them pretty easily. If we’d had to buy all of those books (mostly through Amazon, as Ambleside utilizes primarily older books that a current bookstore isn’t likely to have), it would have cost us hundreds of dollars. But because of our library card, we’ve been able to spend roughly $20 on books is all. A good library system has been a real blessing to our family.

In addition to the schoolbooks, Munchkin participates in the monthly book club that the library offers. (They have one for Seahawk’s age, too, but he’s a much pickier reader and hasn’t been interested in the books they’ve been offering lately.) Without our frequent trips to the library, we wouldn’t know about the book club, and that would be a bummer.

So that’s it from me. Thanks again for joining me this week! Next week, I’ll be back to more of what I normally write about. I don’t what all I’ve got on the agenda, but there’ll be at least one recipe :). I’ll also try to have a Picture of the Week up later today or tomorrow as well.

Blessings,

Wendy

Don’t forget to click the banner up above for a HUGE list of Homeschooling Mamas talking about their essentials! And for just a taste of the topic, check out these lovely ladies:

Lisa @ A Rup Life

Jordyn @ Almost Supermom

Jenn @ Teaching Two Stinkers

Crystal @ Crystal Starr Blog

Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Brandi @ Brandi Raae

Jodi @ Insane in the Mombrain

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Lynn @ Ladybug Chronicles

Homeschooling Essentials: A Plan

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5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials

Welcome back to the Homeschooling Essentials series! I hope you’re enjoying reading about everyone’s Essentials and maybe even learning some tricks and tips for including some of them into your homeschool.

Today’s Essential from me is a plan. I have to know in advance what I’m going to be teaching or it doesn’t get done. It’s as simple as that. I’ve tried it both ways, with a plan and without one, and hands down, it’s better when I plan things out. I was blessed enough to win a copy of The Well Planned Day Homeschool Planner earlier this school year, and it’s made a huge difference in our school. Things are no longer crazy “what do we have to do today?” And the kids are more focused too ;).

You don’t need any specific planner, although I do highly recommend the Well Planned Day. Just find one that works for you and your specific needs. The things you’ll need to include are the different subjects you need/want to teach, and a space for the lesson required for each child. That’s it. You can even make your own. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to work.

Even though my kids are in different grades, we do pretty much everything except silent reading and math together, so my planner looks kind of blank, but it’s really not. I should be a veteran teacher by now, since this is our third year of homeschooling “seriously,” but most of the time I still feel like a rookie. Having a good planner and taking the time each week (or ideally, planning out more than one week in advance, although that rarely happens) to fill it in really helps me a lot.

In case you’re curious, here are the subjects we do regularly:

Bible (typically, I read 2-4 chapters aloud to the kids; last week, we read the Gospel of Mark, this week, we’re reading some of the epistles)

Math (currently the kiddos are learning their multiplication tables using flash cards; once they have those mastered, which I suspect will be soon, we’ll move on to age-specific stuff for them)

Reading (Munchkin participates in a book club at the public library so he reads that book; Seahawk decided he didn’t love book club, so he’s reading Johnny Tremain right now – he loves history, so historical fiction was the right choice for him)

French (we’ve been using the lessons from SchoolhouseTeacher.com, but I recently got a membership to Mango Languages – look for the review near the end of February!)

Science (another review coming soon – Science4us.com; also reading The Burgess Animal Book for Children)

English (we do a grammar lesson and/or creative writing/pen pal letters)

History (reading An Island Story: A History of England for Girls and Boys)

And that pretty much fills our day. I try to have us done with lessons by the time Small Fry goes down for nap (at 2:00) so that the kids can go play with their friends while the baby sleeps. There’s another homeschool family just around the corner from us, so our kids and their kids play together a lot. That’s been a real blessing. While the baby sleeps and the kids are out playing, that’s “my” time. I use those couple of hours to tidy the house, take care of the breakfast and lunch dishes in preparation for dinner, and then do any sewing or quiet reading of my own.

So there’s my thoughts for the day.

Don’t forget to check out the other posts, linked below.

Blessings,

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Lisa @ A Rup Life

Jordyn @ Almost Supermom

Jenn @ Teaching Two Stinkers

Crystal @ Crystal Starr Blog

Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Brandi @ Brandi Raae

Jodi @ Insane in the Mombrain

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Lynn @ Ladybug Chronicles

Homeschooling Essentials: Flexibility

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5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials

Welcome to Day 2 of my Homeschooling Essentials! Today it’s all about flexibility.

You have to be flexible to be a homeschooling parent. Things don’t always go exactly the way you planned, and that has to be okay. There are unexpected sick days (for the kids and you), last minute errands (or days of errands…), and burnout days. You have to be flexible enough to let things go and say “There’s always tomorrow.”

Earlier this month, we had half a week of the need to be flexible. Right around New Year’s, Small Fry was sick. I think it was New Year’s Eve, actually. He was just feeling puny and was not himself, and finally, about an hour before bedtime, it became clear why when he threw up all over me (sorry if that’s TMI…). That was on a Wednesday. Thursday was normal, and on Friday, Munchkin was sick with the same thing. He spent the day in bed, but was fine the next morning. But that morning, Seahawk was under the weather and slept most of the day. Sunday of that week, the day before I’d planned to start school up again, was fine. We went for a family bike ride and all was well. During the night, though, I came down with the illness. Here’s where the need to be flexible really struck. Even though it was Monday, and the day we were “supposed” to get back to school, there was no school happening with Mom stuck in bed. Let me also say, I am incredibly blessed to have a husband who’s self-employed and works (mostly) from home. He was able to take that Monday (which happened to be our anniversary…) off to take care of the kids so I could sleep and recover. Enter Flexibility Day 2: Tuesday. We’d missed school on Monday, and because we’d also missed our anniversary, we took Tuesday off from school, too. The kids spent the morning with Grandma so hubby and I could have our anniversary date. (We went to see Saving Mr. Banks. Have you seen it? Very good. I don’t even care for Mary Poppins and I liked Mr. Banks. In fact, hubby’s been reading the book Mary Poppins aloud to the kids this weekend. Then we’re going to watch the movie, and on Tuesday, which is discount day at the cinema, we’re all going to see Saving Mr. Banks again.)Anyway. So we started school on Wednesday the 8th instead of Monday the 6th. And did anyone die? Nope. Because we understand the importance of being flexible.

Now, this is not to say that you can call yourself a homeschooler and just never “do” school with your kids. There has to be a balance, and I think it’s better to err on the side of more school days than less. The education has to happen, whether you’re at home or sending your kids to school. But you have to accept that things aren’t always perfect.

So that’s my thought for today.

Don’t forget to click through the links below and see what everyone else is writing about today!

Blessings,

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Lisa @ A Rup Life

Jordyn @ Almost Supermom

Jenn @ Teaching Two Stinkers

Crystal @ Crystal Starr Blog

Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Brandi @ Brandi Raae

Jodi @ Insane in the Mombrain

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Lynn @ Ladybug Chronicles

Homeschooling Essentials: Pencils. Just Pencils.

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5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials

Hey guys! This is my first blog hop, and I’m really excited to spend the rest of the week talking about what I view as “Homeschooling Essentials.” When you’re done reading my post, make sure to head on over to the master list and read about everyone else’s Essentials too!

The essential I want to talk about today is very simple, and one we can’t do without in my homeschool: Pencils. Yep. Just the basic, yellow pencil. It might not be worth mentioning at all except when it’s time for school, the kiddos can never find one! No matter how many I buy, they’re always lost.

Have you ever seen how pencils are made? We watched a YouTube video with the kids once, a few months ago, and it was actually quite interesting. Here’s the short version. First, the wood, typically cedar because it’s soft enough to sharpen but hard enough to hold up under your grip, is cut into pieces and then a groove is added for laying the lead into. A layer of glue is added to each groove, and half of the wood sheets get lead in their grooves. Each sheet is enough to make 8 or 10 pencils. The other half of the sheets are then laid on top if the leaded sheets, where the “lead sandwiches” are pressed together with a vice for an hour while the glue dries. The pencils are then cut and painted. I found it interesting that it takes four coats of paint to fully conceal the wood grain. If you have five spare minutes sometime, I encourage you to watch one of the pencil videos (just search “how pencils are made” on YouTube; there are several to choose from). I think it’s good to know things like that, if for no other reason than to keep us from taking things for granted.

We couldn’t do school without pencils. I’m sure my kids wish we could, but I’m not one of those homeschool moms who goes the “unschooling” route; I need some sort of record of what the kids have done, and I need to push them to do things that they wouldn’t necessarily choose for themselves, which is the antithesis of unschooling. Don’t get me wrong – I totally want my kids to love learning, and I want them to develop ways of learning naturally. But I can’t leave their education up to them. Otherwise Seahawk wouldn’t be as strong a reader as he is, Munchkin wouldn’t know anything about history, and neither one would be proficient in their times tables. All of those things are important – as important as having fun learning. And without our trusty pencils, we wouldn’t have a record of what they’ve learned.

So that’s my first homeschool essential. Make sure to visit my fellow bloggers to read all about theirs, and come back tomorrow for another of mine!

Blessings,

Wendy

More Homeschooling Essentials:

Lisa @ A Rup Life

Jordyn @ Almost Supermom

Jenn @ Teaching Two Stinkers

Crystal @ Crystal Starr Blog

Jennifer @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Brandi @ Brandi Raae

Jodi @ Insane in the Mombrain

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Lynn @ Ladybug Chronicles

Simplicity is Not… {Part 2}

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Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your weekend was as relaxing as a weekend is supposed to be.

Did you make anything that you normally buy? I didn’t try anything new this week, but I did make a batch of corn tortillas; we had some friends over for dinner Thursday night, so I made tacos with fresh tortillas. Definitely gave my tortilla press a workout, making 40-ish tortillas!

Today I want to talk about another thing that simplicity is not.

Simplicity is not getting rid of all your stuff. That’s minimalism, which has its own benefits, but I’m not going to go into that too much today. Unless my thoughts lead there as I type… we shall see.

Here’s the thing about possessions. If you use it regularly, it’s not superfluous. If you’re willing and able to get rid of it at a moment’s notice, for whatever reason, it’s reasonable to have. If it has a home in your house that you’re happy with, then keep it. Get my drift?

But. You knew there was going to be a “but,” didn’t you?

But. If you don’t use it, wear it, read it, or have a good place to keep it, then you have to do some thinking and searching within yourself to decide if it’s really worth keeping. I still struggle with the “what ifs,” and I like to think I’m pretty go with the flow regarding our possessions by now. We have two deep-dish casserole dishes, for example. Could I get by with one? Probably. But (there’s that word again…) I do occasionally use both, particularly on church potluck days. It’s nice to have both in case I’m cooking for a large group. And they both have a home in my cabinet, and are not (usually) in the way. So I keep them.

Along with simplicity not being the same as getting rid of your stuff, it also is not against the idea of purchasing new items. For example, I got an Amazon gift card for Christmas, and I could have used it to buy a Kindle book or an Amazon digital video (something that wouldn’t take up real estate in our home), but I chose to get a tortilla press. I’ve just been rolling our tortillas out by hand until now. The tortilla press has given me the ability to make fresh tortillas more often, which is a win in my book. There’s nothing bad in a homemade tortilla (well, a corn one anyway; flour ones need some sort of fat to taste good). So the more we can have this delicious delicacy, the better we are in my book. Before you make a purchase, though, you want to make sure that the item you’re buying fits in your values, whatever they may be (yes, I know they probably aren’t exactly the same as mine, and that’s okay).

For my final thoughts on this subject, I want to explore Scripture’s take on minimalism.

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,  but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

~Matthew 10: 5-15, ESV~

Did you catch what Jesus sent them out with? Nothing. The disciples weren’t supposed to take a bag of belongings. They weren’t supposed to accept wages for their work while they were out preaching the gospel. They weren’t even supposed have an extra tunic or pair of shoes! They were promised food. That’s it.

This week’s challenge: Think through each purchase you make (at least one or two of them). If you don’t know whether or not you’ll use the item, or if you can’t think of where you’ll put it once you get it home, don’t buy it. You can always go back for it once you’ve answered those questions.

Blessings,

Wendy

Picture of the Week: Teamwork

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Seahawk and Munchkin have alternating chores. On even days, Seahawk empties the dishwasher and Munchkin takes out the compost; on odd days, they switch. (Neither minds emptying the dishwasher, but both hate taking out the compost. This way both chores get done but the kids don’t fight … as much.) Small Fry just likes to play near the open dishwasher. I mean, “help” empty it.

Have a great weekend! And make sure to join me for a series/blog hop next week: Homeschooling Essentials. Should be fun!

–Wendy

Our Favorite Sandwich: Chicken Paninis {recipe}

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panini

photo 9c2d3d39-9e5d-4351-b060-d6251ee13eaa_zpseda17cd5.jpg

Sandwiches are not a simple meal in my house.

We have lunch together most days, because hubby works from home about half the time. Most of the time, I cook a dinner-type meal, just in a slightly smaller quantity, for lunch. But sometimes we have sandwiches. And everyone has a different preference for them.

Seahawk prefers egg salad. Interestingly enough, he hates eggs, but egg salad is his favorite sandwich. I have no idea how that works.

Munchkin likes peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes grilled cheese.

Small Fry typically eats whatever we give him. Sometimes I make him a tiny grilled cheese sandwich, sometimes it’s just some of the filling from the other sandwiches.

Hubby and I like paninis, and that’s the recipe I’m going to share with you today.

I usually buy the sourdough rounds for this sandwich and use the smaller, outer pieces for the kids’ sandwiches and the bigger ones from the middle for the paninis. First thing to do is spread some pesto all over one side of each slice of bread, much like you would mayonnaise or mustard for a cold sandwich. Put a few peppers over the top of the pesto (any kind you like – I usually use pepperoncinis or banana peppers), and then some cheese (again, whatever your favorite is – I use cheddar). You can use sliced cheese or shredded; I happened to have shredded on hand the day I took the pictures, so that’s what’s there.

panini prep

Next, put your meat on top of the cheese. I usually slice up a chicken breast and cook it while I’m prepping the bread, but you could easily do it with lunch meat.

Then, cook the sandwich just like a grilled cheese sandwich with one change. You have to squish it down. The texture of the final product is off if you don’t. If you have a panini press, you’re way ahead of me! I just weigh mine down with a cast iron skillet. Remember to put some kind of fat on the outside of the sandwich for browning purposes. You can spread butter, but what I do is spray it with non-stick cooking spray. I find that works just as well, if not better, and is way easier.

What’s your favorite sandwich? If you don’t like sandwiches, what’s your go-to lunch option?

For more great recipes, click here.

Blessings,

Wendy

Simplicity is Not… {Part 1}

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Welcome back to my exploration of what simplicity means to me. This week, and for the next couple of weeks, I want to explore a few aspects of what simplicity is not. Once we establish those parameters, we’ll dive into what it is.

The aspect I want to explore this week is that simplicity is not taking the easy way out.

In other words, simple is not synonymous with lazy.

The idea for this series came to me while I was rolling out some homemade flour tortillas the other day, and my brain started working, asking “does making tortillas meet your goal of living simply?”

In a word, yes. It does.

But Wendy, making homemade tortillas is way more complex than buying them. Isn’t it? 

Again, yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an aspect of simplicity.

To me, simplicity means caring for my family in as wholesome, edifying a way as possible. It means providing my children with a non-rushed, well-rounded childhood, while imparting our values on them. It means offering food that is not only healthier, but tastes better, than the processed items. It means striving for self-sufficiency.

A couple of months ago, the kids and I read Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher for school. It’s a lovely novel, written in 1917, about a girl who is suddenly thrust from city life to country life with virtually no warning. It takes Elizabeth Ann (later called Betsy) a lot of adjustment to acclimate to life on the farm, but in the end (spoiler alert) she decides that she likes it better. When given the chance to go back to city life at the end of the book, she declines. Betsy learns that the simple things in life – the birth of kittens, churning butter, walking to school – make her happier than she was being coddled by her aunt in the city.

I think we can learn a lot from Betsy.

I don’t mean that we should all go and live on farms in order to find our own brand of happiness, because honestly, that probably wouldn’t make most of of happy. But we can find peace in the things of the past that are considered “lost arts.”

My challenge to you this week: Think of something you normally buy and try to make it instead. Tortillas, bread, butter, paper… the list is endless. But pick one thing and see if it brings you a sense of calmness while you’re creating something with your own hands.

–Wendy