Fav Song

"Be Thou My Vision" is one of my favorite songs. I found the following video on another blog site after googling the title for Kai. We sing one of his lullabys to the tune w/lyrics from the last verse of "Away In A Manger"--he wanted to hear it this afternoon. Please enjoy!

Planning

I always liked the beginning of each new school year. New pencils, new crayons, new TrapperKeeper, new clothes, new teacher....yaddax3. Now I'm 11 years removed from the last time I began a new school year. Yikes...that makes me sound old. Oh yeah...I IS old!

So now it's time for my munchkins to experience the whole 'new year of school' thing...but with a twist as we are homeschooling. Granted it's just pre-school for now, and to them just an extension of what we already do each day with reading and games and coloring etc...but I still want it to be special! So today I spent the afternoon planning out what our weeks *hopefully* will look like. Eric took one look at my meticulously wrote out plan and scoffed "So when are you doing all your running around? I'll bet you'll keep to this for maybe one week." Ah-ha, a challenge...guess I'll have to prove him wrong and stick to it for at least a week and a half...maybe even 2 weeks!

Seriously though, I purposely planned with lots of wiggle room...and school is only 2 mornings a week this year so I think just having a schedule wrote down will help us stay on track if things start rolling out of control. For now, this is a picture of me, relaxed and ready to embark on a our new homeschooling adventure. Maybe in a couple months this picture will change into a crazy psycho woman. But I doubt it. Oh, and in case you wondering why I rambled through all this...I really just wanted a new picture for my profile and thought I'd give myself some therapeutic blogging time. TTFN!

'Puter Nerd

I guess I'm now a computer nerd. Besides blogging, I'm on myspace, facebook, cafemom, have my own website, get all my recipes online, google things left and right, communicate mainly through email, pay all my bills, and today finally figured out how to download my checking account balance directly into MS Money so I never have to use a pencil and calculator again! Whew! (The funny thing about the whole download my checking thing is that when I was a working girl (I use that term loosely), I was part of the helpdesk team that assisted customers in figuring out how to do just that! How many years did it take me to jump on the bandwagon???)

Well, anyway, just wondering if any of my bliends (that's Rustin's new term for blogging friends) are on any of thee above. Surely you are. Send me an add & we can be 'puter nerd friends together!

BTW, Eric bought me a snazzy new 19" flat screen monitor last weekend! Yeee-eeee! I is so excited!

Hey! Hey! Vox Dei!

Vox Dei Community. That's it! The brand-spankin' new name of our church. I like it even more now that I've seen the prelim graphics for some of the handouts and flyers etc. Cool. Oh yeah, so what's "Vox Dei"? Well, for us "non-philosophical" and "never took a lick of Latin" folks out here it is "Voice of God".

The meaning behind this name is about as deep and wide as the story of God gets, so if ya want to read more check out this over at the Myth's blog. Or you can go to our website!

Baby Who?

So Eric picks up a Baby Einstein DVD that I have set out to return to a friend and tells me about a new research study (you can read about it here). These DVD's apparently make our kids dumber. Lovely. Well, I'll just be glad we never plopped our kiddos down in front of one. We stuck with other mind-numbers like Sesame Street & Little Bear. I mean really, do we think that TV of ANY kind is really going to help our kids improve their cognitive activity? Sitting and staring sure makes me think hard, what about you? Ha. I say, let's just go for moderation in all things. That's all for now. Thanks.

FLYing Lessons

So I'm learning to FLY. I've always wanted to be a butterfly and flit around then soar on the wind...okay, somedays an eagle would be nice so I could get an even better view. But...this is flying of a different sort.


I'm a tad bit of a scattered kind of gal. One thing to the next, project to project to project, little bit o'this, little bit o'that...ya know (in flyland they call us SHE's--Sidetracked Home Executives)! Anywhoo, this causes piles of things not done to magically appear around my abode and those little piles have a tendency to turn into the dreaded CLUTTER! Yuk! I just hate it. So one of my little projects is always trying out new methods to get my picking up and cleaning in line.



Enter the FLYLady.


I had heard about her off and on over the years and actually joined her group back in '99 when she was just starting out...but back then I was a working girl w/no kiddos at home so it didn't stick...though I should have tried. Good grief...would you please get to your point, Reese? Sometime in June, Jodi (that's my sis) said she was trying the FLYLady stuff so I decided to give it another whirl. Let me tell ya...I'm a new woman! And my home is a new place! Not perfect mind you, but the FLYLady methods help scattered gals like myself learn to build routines that keep things neat and tidy w/out overwhelming us with guilt or a ton of work.


You'll have to go to FLYLady.net to check it out for yourself, but here are some of the things now built into the routine of life around our place:


1. That clean and shiny kitchen sink!
2. No more yucky bathroom to clean thanks to the swish & swipe!
3. A load of laundry a day keeps CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome) away!
4. I get dressed & ready usually before 8 a.m. everyday (this is a biggie since I LOVE PJ's!)
5. Clutter is starting to get up and leave.


It's certainly a Martha Stewart "Good Thing". I could ramble on and on about all this...as I love finding something that works in my pursuit of my profession...but tis late so will leave it at that!

Link to CO Pix

This weekend is drawing to a close, and I haven't posted a lick about our vacation! Ahhh...but Eric has worked many hours putting up a ton of pix here. Fantabulous! I'll hit the hi-lights later. I do know it must have been a good vacation since I'm still exhausted...slept in til almost 10 a.m. this morning...probably would have been noon if Elena wouldn't have woke me!

Beginnings and Ends

Ah, the end of vacation. Today was the buffer day...yesterday we traveled about 12 hours in the car from the Colorado Rockies to Home Sweet Home. Tomorrow it's back to work...Eric to the J.O.B. and me to...well, let's see, no food in the house so grocery shopping and maybe some garage saling? This weekend I hope to start to post some pix etc. of our time in the mountains. I'm still in amazement that I managed to survive seven whole days w/o checking my email!

As for beginnings, our team that has been working on a new name/brand for our church arrived at a decision this afternoon! Yay! I'm totally excited about it...the meaning, the uniqueness, everything. Of course, being sworn to secrecy for two weeks and two days won't be particularly enjoyable, but I'll survive. I'm only sorry that Tisha's "JackCass Church" idea* didn't make the cut.

Then there is the end and beginning of a new year of life for moi. Yes, I am shamelessly promoting my birthday which is this coming Monday, August 6. And, yes, I like presents. But, no, I am no longer broadcasting my age since my dear lover says I can't pass for 25 anymore. Bring on the face cream!

*(In case you're not familiar w/this area we're close to "Jackson County" and in "Cass County".)

Peace...