Do You Have a Mission Statement?

 As I was putting together my new system for a fresh start I had lots of ideas that I had pulled together from here, there, and everywhere, but it lacked direction! I knew that if I was going to make a system that would really, actually work for me, I needed to know where I was going, but all I had were vague ideas and transient, dream-like aspirations ... that is until I read this post; at one of my very favorite blogs -- Keeper of the Home. A light went on! Now, I didn't actually give myself a planning retreat. But I did carve out a few hours on a couple of different days and make myself a mission statement. I loved the idea as soon as I heard it, but honestly I had no way to go about it. Lucky for me, Kat @ Inspired to action has a free e-book : mission statements for moms that I took full advantage of.
I love this quote from the book "Having a mission statement is like having the best version of yourself beside you on your worst days, encouraging you to press on and pointing to the goal." How great is that? So when you make your mission statement, don't worry about how doable it seems, just set your loftiest goals out there! If you don't aim high, you'll never attain.  And you're not setting yourself up for failure, because it's not about getting it all done at once.  Remember, this is not your New Years resolution, this is the mission statement for your life. It's everything you ever want to be in all your roles, beneath all those hats you wear, you superwoman, you!
Kat includes several examples of mission statements that other women have written, as well as her own, to serve as inspiration to you. I don't mind telling you, that even though I had plenty I wanted to say, I was having trouble wording it just so, and I shamelessly copied a few phrases from other women.  I tweaked them a bit later, but there's nothing wrong with that, as long as the end product is your personal goals.  
My mission statement is the very first page in my Home Management Notebook, and it is the backbone of everything that will follow on my blog this year. So here it is for your perusal.

With the grace and help of God,

As a Christian, I pledge to make Jesus my first priority and be more like Him so that my life will testify of Him in all that I do; to regularly and faithfully intercede on the behalf of others; and to cultivate a heart of gratitude daily.

As a Wife, I pledge to nurture my marriage by showing Nathan my love and respect in tangible ways, and allowing myself to be vulnerable with him. I pledge to listen well, submit to his authority, and make his requests a priority; I pledge not to set him up for failure with unreasonable expectations.

As a Mother, I pledge to embrace this season of my life as a blessing while my children are still young, and I am still their whole world; to delight in my children, taking time for fun, and showing them grace and loving, consistent, merciful discipline; to raise my boys to be selfless, joyful, productive men who will cherish their wives and glorify God.

As a Teacher, I pledge to learn alongside my children; to give them a good working knowledge of themselves and the world, and how they are to relate to it; and to patiently instill in them a love of learning that will allow them to grow intellectually, and give them confidence to fulfill the call of God in their lives.

As a Keeper At Home, I pledge to create and maintain a clean, peaceful and beautiful home sanctuary to welcome family and visitors alike, and to practice generous hospitality; I pledge to save money wherever possible, while providing delicious, healthy, nourishing food for my family; and to engage in regular exercise and creative activities that help me feel motivated, invigorated and renewed.

So, that's it. Put it in a prominent place and live with it for a while. Make sure you love it.  Then we'll talk about how to use it to set your goals or New Years Resolutions based on what the most important things are in your life.

Do you already have a mission statement or something similar? How does it help you in your daily life and in your goal setting? 

Resolutions

Happy New Year! I know, I'm a little late, but it's better late than never, I always say! :D Have you made any new years resolutions? I know I have!! And some of them pertain to this blog. In case you haven't noticed, I've been away from the blog since mid-August.  There are plenty of reasons for that -- some of them having to do with my computer going completely haywire ... some not. Suffice it to say I've got ideas and I'm about to roll with 'em! I am pledging to you right now that I will post something bi-weekly, at the very least, every month this year, and Lord willing, more often than that!
So, resolutions. They're a big thing this time of year, but honestly, in a few weeks, most have already fallen off the bandwagon.  Most have to do with losing a tremendous ammount of weight or "getting healthy" with no real game plan. But as Dave Ramsey says "a goal without a plan is just a dream". I haven't made too many New Years resolutions over the course of my life. I don't really know why. But particularly in the last couple of years it seems very important to take this fresh year and make a fresh start.  It doesn't have to be a new year to make a fresh start, so if you're reading this in July, now is as good a time as any! Jump in! :) Anyway, this year is especially so, since I'm starting my year (well, february is close enough!) in a new home. At the beginning of November, my husband was transferred to Alabama, so we've been in a state of limbo for a while here. He's travelling during the week and coming home on the weekends; we're selling a house here in TN and looking for a new one over there. Nothing feels permanent and I am so ready for my fresh start! But I'll tell you one thing, I don't want to get overwhelmed with all that I have to do and give up. I also don't want to go to the other extreme and not even make a goal. So I have been doing a lot of reading and research over the last months (and really this was in the works before -- but the move, and new year amplified everything) and I've been working on a system to keep me organized and on track.  And I'm going to be sharing it with you.
You see, when I started this blog I had high aspirations of losing weight and getting fit. I had a sort-of plan, but it pertained only to that specific portion of my life and didn't take into account everything else that I already have going on. It didn't work out, because I simply couldn't figure out a way to fit it into my already hectic, crazy life. And that's where my new system comes in! Next post I'll share the first part of that with you.
What are some of your resolutions? And how do you plan to stick with them?  I'd love to be inspired by you!

Keeping it Together

Life as a homemaker is sort of overwhelming. Especially if you're a homeschooling mother, or a stay-at-home mom trying to work a job from home, but let's face it, even if "all you do" is stay home with your preschool kids, that is a monumental task. You're investing in lives that you hope will make a difference in the world someday. You hope they'll reach others for Christ, that they'll get decent jobs, be contributing members of society. You pray that they will be lovers of Jesus, that they'll make a difference. But right now, it's hard to see past the oatmeal sticking to the pot in the sink as you build a puzzle with your little one.
Then there are those who work a full time job outside the home, and wonder where they can make time to spend with their families while still keeping an orderly home, and finding something nutritious to put on the table every night.
I finally came to the conclusion a few months ago that staying home with my kids is not "all I do" It is a full time job and I am on call 24/7. And on top of that I need to manage to find time to do my other full time job: cook, clean, and keep house. And not just any cooking, I care tremendously about what goes into the little bodies I'm growing. I need to prepare healthful food to satisfy my conscience.  Mess, dirt and clutter bug me, but not as much as they bother my husband when he comes home from a stressful day at work, so I need to find time to do the things that are important for Nathan to see when he walks in the door everyday too. 
To top that off, there are the little things that I notice need to be done as I'm flying from one thing to the next during the day, but don't have time to stop and fix right then and there. Take the flowers in the front that need to be deadheaded. It irritates me everytime I walk past that garden to go out somewhere or when I come back home, but as soon as I get inside it's completly forgotten in the thick of all I have to do indoors. And my blog, which I am passionate about, but don't do nearly enough with! I wish I could carve out at least an extra hour per day to spend working on this.
Finally, last but certainly not least my third job: the one room school house I run. A daily adventure is that! There are so many books and binders and activities for all levels I had to find a way to make it all streamlined and orderly.
So, how in the world are we moms supposed to keep it all together?? I'm working on some ideas that, so far, are helping me stay on track.  It's my binder system.  It started out as simply an idea for a Home Management Binder, and that is the backbone of the system, but also included are my Daily Working Binder, and my Student Evaluation Binder (which are my homeschool sanity) and my Prayer Journal; because what's a mom, or a wife, or a teacher without some daily guidance from above? As well as a Recipe Binder. In the next several posts I will be revealing the system I created. Most of the ideas were stolen from here and there and tweaked to serve my needs. I hope you might find this useful as well and tweak my ideas to meet your specific household dilemmas. Stay tuned for ideas and pictures!

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True Confessions

I've been avoiding my blog.  I've been avoiding it because I don't want to think about food, or the grocery store. 

I started out really excited about some things that were going on, and some decisions I had made, but I've gotten discouraged. Turns out the meals in Eat Fat, Lose Fat are just too expensive to make. Turns out eating a tablespoon of coconut oil an our before I eat a meal makes my stomach feel heavy, but not full. Turns out it's really hard to find time to work out and run, even on a treadmill, with a 2 year old who is into EVERYTHING and can no longer be contained by a pack'n'play. So,even though I didn't want to give up,  I did--until I could think up a new plan.

I've been winging it in the kitchen. I get very overwhelmed at the thought of preparing dinne,r or any meal for that matter, because nothing in my pantry seems to go together. I had thought I would get together a list of 21 healthy, nutrient dense meals that would work in our budget; and have a rotating 3 week schedule so I would always know what to buy. HA! All I came up with were soups from my sister, most of which sounded delicious, but required somewhat exotic ingredients that I did not have in my pantry, and which I did not have room to store in my bitty, side-by-side, counter-depth freezer once they were made. Not to mention the fact that my husband does not consider soup a meal without a sandwich. *note that somewhat exotic ingredients nowadays includes ground beef and stew meat and almost anything that is not regularly on B1G1 sales at Publix and Bilo. So, I went back to letting Nathan do his game show shopping and hope I can come up with something to make out of it every night. Right now I am looking at my freezer and pantry. I see boneless skinless chicken tenderloins, 2 tuna steaks, a bag of bay scallops in the freezer; and a whole bunch of spaghetti sauce and crushed tomatoes in the pantry, but no pasta. hmmmm what should I make? See what I mean?
But I have another plan! I WILL conquer this discouragement. And here's how. I read 2 posts at Keeper of the Home this week. Both were on eating healthy on a budget. One included 3 full weeks worth of meals (breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner), recipes included where necessary, that she said could be made on a food stamps budget of $167/week. (I guess that's how much money you get to spend on groceries when you're on Food Stamps-I wouldn't know) Unfortunately I only get $100/week and she didn't soak grains or anything. So that was out. The next day there was another post about making meals ahead so you always have someting ready. Now that was good. She sourced a few different sites where she found recipes. And that is my starting point. I'm not quite there yet, but so far I have decided to make triple batches of a soaked flour pancake batter and freeze them with freezer paper between so they can be thrown in the toaster for breakfasts on weekday mornings, make ahead sausage, egg and cheese biscuits for Nathan to grab in the morning, try my own granola bars for snacks, and attempt again to get a 3 week rotation of meals 2/week in the crock pot.
I also have a new plan for exercising. we have a pretty big walk-in closet, and my treadmill folds up out of the way. So, I'm moving the treadmill in there. Typically no one has been getting up around here until between 7 and 7:30, but you know, good ol' Murphy always comes to visit in times like these. So I'm instituting a rule my little sister thought up. No one is allowed out of their rooms until I turn on the hall light. This way I can set my alarm for 5:30, have 30 minutes for quiet time, 30 min to run on the treadmill/ or do a weight routine and 20-30 more min to get showered and dressed. Then I will be clean and ready to face my munchkins armed with Jesus, and endorphins.
Well, here's hopin'! I'll write again sooner than later. :)

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Nip It In the Bud. A Thought On Discipline

Lately here I've been thinking it's about time to put my toddler in a toddler bed. I've been dreading it because , as I told my husband, I just know he's going to get out and I'm going to have to spank him. A lot.  And I don't really want to right now. But, I had no choice when he started hanging out on the front rail of the crib just because he could.  So we took off the front of the crib and put on the toddler bed rail.  Then we took a video of his first impression of his new bed.  At first he didn't see it, then we could barely get him off of it.
Still, I had this picture in my mind of my hard headed, strong willed 22 month old getting out of bed repeatedly every night from now until kingdom come!  Fortunately, God is merciful to me, a sinner.  And even when I don't pray about the piddly stuff He comes to my aid. 
I had the thought to sit at the top of the stairs just outsided his bedroom door with my trusty "spankin' hose" and the first time he climbed out I was in there as soon as his feet hit the floor.  No warnings just a swat to his upper thigh. Not too hard, but enough to sting a bit and leave a mental impression.  He got out once more. I met him with the same swift swat and that was it.  Nap time was in the pack'n'play next day but I sat at the top of the stairs the next night too.  Turns out I didn't have to.  Not once has that child climbed out of that bed since.  And not only that, he doesn't get out on his own in the morning either.  He simply sits cheerfully in his bed talking to himself until I come to get him. 
Not only was this good for Wyatt, but it was good for the middle two as well.  They are both great at making up excuses to get out of bed.  We are usually too lazy to go up there each time and typically warn them until we're angry.  Then one of us will go up and yell (we don't spank if we're angry.  When we spank we want it to be in love not anger) But being that I was already up there I just hopped up and swatted them too.  Just a couple of nights of consistent discipline and bedtime in our house is a much more pleasant experience for everyone.
The thing is, this is something I already know.  I just fail to practice it the way I should. Call it laziness. Call it distraction.  It's probably some of both. Regardless, I forget how well it works! This is what Michael Pearl calls "training".  The idea is that you set up a situation in which you know you child is bound to fail, then you sit back and wait for him to do it.  Not that you get a chance to spank, but so you get a chance to teach them what is and is not acceptable behavior before they have to discover it for themselves and recieve discipline for it.  The child learns the meaning of the word "no", he learns what is not tolerated, and above all he learns self control.  Rather than catching your young child in the act and explaining that it is not ok only to catch him at it again, at which point you wonder if he understood; you set up a situation where you are ready and waiting. As soon as he acts you reprove him repeatedly until you are sure he understands, and he no longer attempts to engage in that behavior.  Then if you catch him at it you know that he knows he is wrong whether or not he can verbalize it.  In good conscience you can spank him, just hard enough, and be pretty sure he is not going to do that again.  If you don't set up training sessions and catch him in the act, he may have already been enjoying himself for quite some time, thinking everything is fine.  Imagine his surprise when you show up and take away his fun.  He's only going to look for another opportunity.  But if before he has a chance to enjoy said behavior, just as he is reaching for it he recieves a quick swat and a gentle "no", he will relate that activity or thing and the word "no" with the pain of that swat and exercise self control in the future.
I like to combine this principle with the Ezzo's principal of parenting inside the funnle in which you allow only the mobility and freedoms your child is able to developmentally handle. I make good use of my pack'n'play when I can't be attentive to the youngest, but even so he's getting bigger and I've been lax in my training.  I've got my work cut out for me!

A Small Problem

I've been running into a bit of an issue in the kitchen lately.  Namely my zeal exceeds my skill and my pocketbook.   I just wrote a post on the importance of soaking and souring our grains (and legumes) for consumption in order to get the most from them.  The problem is this: when wheat (or spelt, kamut, rye......) is ground into flour the nutrients immediately start to break down, so buying even organic flour in the store is practically worthless.  I don't want to exclude grains, but I can't justify buying an expensive grinder yet.  To me it would be a foolish purchase without experience in breadmaking first.  But what is the point in making bread when you know that there are few benefits to be had?

So I finally had to make the decision that something is better than nothing.  I can exclude things all day, but if I can't replace them with better things, there's no point.  All we'll do is starve.  So, I'll use store bought flour and prove to myself that I can do it.  I'll get the hang of the processes and the time it takes, and when I'm confident and I've saved enough, I'll buy a grinder.

A main concern I've had  is breakfast.  Cold cereal, even Kashi or Annies organics cereals are formed by a dangerous process called extrusion, which makes the pretty shapes and flakes.  So we cut out cereal, but that has really messed with our schedule.  Eggs are a great breakfast for the weekends, but on school mornings we need something without a lot of prep work or clean up. 

Here is the definition of and reasons for food extrusion by Ohio State University:

Extrusion is defined as "shaping by force through a specially designed opening often after previous heating of the material." Extrusion is the continuous forming of plastic or soft materials through a die. Several types of extruders include ram or piston types and screw or worm types (Harper, 1981).

Cooking extrusion combines the heating of food products with the act of extrusion to create a cooked and shaped food product and is a process in which moistened, starchy, proteinaceous foods are cooked and worked into a viscous, plastic-like dough. The results of cooking the food ingredients during extrusion are:

1 ) gelatinization of starch

2) denaturation of protein

3) inactivation of raw food enzymes

4) destruction of naturally occurring toxic substances

5) diminishing of microbial counts in the final product.

Upon discharge through the die, the hot, plastic extrudate expands rapidly with loss of moisture and heat because of sudden decrease in pressure. After expansion cooling, and drying, the extruded product develops a rigid structure and maintains a porous texture.

Advantages of food extrusion are versatility, high productivity, low cost, product shapes, high product quality, energy efficiency, production of new foods, and no effluents or waste.

In addition, the extrusion process renders these foods toxic. So, I made cereal yesterday.  Once I made the decision is was easy to do.  I got the recipe from Eat Fat, Lose Fat.  The boys haven't tasted it yet, but I'm optimistic. :)

Sources:

Eat Fat Lose Fat

Nourishing Traditions

http://class.fst.ohio-state.edu/FST401/401%20product/Lab%20Projects%202002/puffs.htm

Starting with Sourdough

I've decided I'm going to try my hand at bread making again.  Sourdough is the way they used to make bread before the advent of packaged yeast.  It's the way Caroline Ingalls fed her family.  It's old fashioned so it appeals to me immediately.  I'm an old fashioned kinda gal--ask anyone who knows me :) So I just ordered a sourdough starter from "Friends of Carl".  Friends of Carl is an organization that carries on the tradition of Carl Griffith who gave away, free of charge, a bit of the sourdough starter which came from a sourdough culture carefully nurtured and preserved in his family for over 150 years.  It is the same starter his family brought with them on the Oregon Trail in 1847.  I love a bit of history :)  besides, it's free! 
I made an attempt at sourdough bread before, but I think I fed it wrong and it died.  My bread started turning out pretty badly so I threw it out.  But recently I discovered Sourdough Home.  Mike is very thorough and reading through this site has given me the confidence to think that maybe I can do this.
Anyway, nowadays nutritionists urge us to eat whole, unrefined grains--a very smart idea!  Refined grains contain little to no nutritional value.  Because all the nutrients are stripped out during processing they now "enrich" white flour with synthetic vitamins which aren't much better, I assure you.
A look at Egyptian mummies and hieroglyphs will confirm that while the peasantry ate their grains whole, Pharaohs and nobles had slaves pound and sift until they had white flour.  While the peasants seem to have lived fairly healthy lives, their noble counterparts suffered from scoliosis, rickets, and osteoporosis.  The problem is that while the bran of the grain contains vital nutrients, it also contains phytic acid, which combines with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc in the intestines.  This blocks our bodies' abilities to absorb them leading to deficiencies and degenerative diseases.
Grains, whole or not also contain gluten which is difficult to digest.  This country is seeing a rise in grain allergies, celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, chrones and yeast overgrowth.  But there is a simple answer to all of these problems.  A simple process of which primitive peoples were aware, and practiced, but was lost along the way with industrialization.  Nearly all primitive peoples soaked, soured or sprouted their grains.
When we soak grains and legumes in yogurt, buttermilk, whey or sour milk (or lemon juice if you happen to have a milk allergy) or when we sprout them prior to grinding the phytase introduced from the souring breaks down most, if not all of the phytic acid.  This leaves vitamins and minerals available for absorption.  The souring also introduces lactobacilli which helps to break down the gluten into more digestable components.
And that's where sourdough comes in.  It is a great way to make bread because it sours or ferments your grain for you in the process. It is also quite delicious.