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Mother said, “It’s time for a nature walk. Take the camera.“

They walked around the yard and stopped to watch a bug. One took a picture of the creature.

They observed the bug some more, then walked around again. The little ones picked and observed some leaves.

They all then went inside and flipped through the insect guide. One looked at the picture in the camera, then interpreted it on a clean paper. “It definitely is a paper wasp.”

Another girl was quite satisfied with her leaf page.

On days like this when all we have got to work with is the backyard, this is nature study at its best:)

photo credit jrodrigues

It was another beautiful, cool morning, much like yesterday. You could hear the familiar serenity… and the sound of the Beatles, as the children sang along.  The aroma of freshly baked muffins lingered as I hung the clothes outside, and I couldn’t help but stop for a moment. Days like today cause me to remember what blessing it is to keep home.

It is going to be another busy day. Full of mess, dirty hands, dishes to wash, floor that would need cleaning a few times, mouths to feed and lessons to learn. But what joy… to watch the children’s happy faces as they create with homemade playdough… to play with a little baby who just learned to smile a lot… to wear an apron that has marks of labor all over it… to fill a picnic basket with watermelon, salad, cornbread and cloth napkins, and take the kids to a quick play at the park.

What joy.

So I took time today. In this busy day. To remind others like me. To encourage the weary. There is so much joy… much more than the sweat, the challenges and even the frustrations of keeping home.

There is nothing extraordinary about today. Just a grateful heart.

we are loving our new mei tai.

we, meaning husband, me, the baby… and big sister.

see what I mean?

It’s that time of the year again, so I want to share with you one of our favorite homeschool tools: Homeschool Tracker.

It is a homeschool planning and record keeping software that would allow you to manage, copy and reassign or reschedule assignments. It is useful for recording field trips, attendance, readings and daily journals. You will love the printable reports.

A feature I like about it is the Reading Log where I can enter not just the books we are currently or finished reading, but also the ones we plan to read- which is helpful especially with requesting books from the library. You assign a date; otherwise it defaults to today’s, but you could always edit it. This is an excellent place to record titles that you couldn’t tackle at the moment, or the book recommendations that you need to save for another timetable or study.

The Assignment area is what we use Homeschool Tracker the most for. This is where you would plug in everything that each child need to do for the week. You could be as general or as detailed as you like, utilizing the Subject, Activity and Resource drop-downs, and the blank fields for page/lesson/chapter and for Directions. You check the assignments as they are completed.

I could go on and on, but I suggest for you to just check it out, see the pros and cons, to see if this would suit your needs. And why not? The download is totally FREE, unless you opt for the upgrade. Honestly, the Basic FREE VERSION is ample enough. Here is a helpful review (or this ) if you decide to explore more.

I am working from scratch again this year with scheduling, but for part of last year, we used Tapestry of Grace, and Homeschool Tracker worked perfectly alongside it. I would say it would do well with the other curricula out there as well.

If you are a homeschooler, what kind of planner and record keeping system do you use?

Today is Back to (Home)School Day over here. How well did we do?

The morning started with prayers and singing unto the Lord. Including Dad, we wrote our individual homeschool expectations down on small index cards, then prayed for them. The five-year old even participated and wrote hers down with mama’s help. I’ll share hers just to bless you:

1. Learn about God.
2. Memorize verses.
3. Learn to read and write.
4. Go on field trips and meet friends.
5. Always tell the truth, not lie.
6. Treat people with respect.
7. Pray for all the people in the world.

Isn’t she a keeper? I am preserving the expectation cards in my binder. It should be interesting to go back to them in a few months.

The schedule I originally drafted last year didn’t work out for very long so I decided to be more practical this time around. We managed to do morning chores, including laundry, breakfast cleanup and putting clean dishes away, among other things, before school started. On time.

Zurielle (5) is most eager to do school, so although my intention was to wait a little while for academics, we are starting some, discerning as we go along. Aliyah (11) didn’t have a drop of anticipation at all, until I started moving things around, changing the look of our homeschool corner and sprinkling some fun in the mix. When I got done, she commented that she’s actually looking forward to doing school again. Mission accomplished.

The girls liked the idea of having their books for the week in their own sturdy wire baskets that they could carry around. Aliyah is now doing a lot of her school work independent of me, so my time is mostly divided between Zurielle- who certainly demands it; Lyrica- who wants to do everything big sisters are doing; and the one we couldn’t give a schedule yet to- the baby.

It was a fun and most fulfilling morning, turning out better than I anticipated. But then Ron was home to help me. Tomorrow we will see.

We are still keeping the afternoons open for more reading, nature studies, outside activities, and lots of play and free-time. This afternoon, to celebrate back to school week, Ron took the girls to this waterpark. They very much looked forward to it, and that’s probably why they were so diligent with their tasks this morning.

Do you homeschool all day? Do you think half a day is too short? We insist on keeping the afternoons open, at least while the children are younger. They could work more vigorously and attentively in the morning, get more done in shorter time, and still have room to be inspired… to dream and to imagine. If they dawdle or allow too many distractions, then they spend the afternoon finishing up, instead of playing outside, reading a good book, or doing whatever it is they love to do.

I have a confession to make:

I miss blogging. I miss this blog.

I continue to read blogs that inspire me. the ones that keep pointing me to a gracious Savior. the ones that simply make me smile. Lately though, I have been itching to update my own… just could not squeeze it in my day. I know if I want it enough I could make it happen, but I guess it really is a priority issue.

I decided, instead of moping about it, I would just bake a favorite vegan chocolate cake, which I had been craving all morning, and call it the family meal. Then I would head on over here and ramble.

It had been a quiet day. Dear hubby left for work early in the morning as usual, and he won’t be home until late in the evening. (And that explains why it’s okay to feed the kids chocolate cake instead of a real meal. lol) The girls are busy playing downstairs and would only come up when hungry.

I took advantage of the sun and did three loads of laundry to line dry. One was for cloth diapers, which I have been doing every other day. Who would have thought that folding clean diapers could be so therapeutic?

We’ve assigned the eleven-year old to help with the kitchen floor, but as you probably know, it means cleaning the floor all over again.

We’ve been keeping Johann indoor, and I have been giving him daily baths, because he has developed heat rash. (That also means we have the air-conditioning going all the time.)

With the new addition in the family, we have yet to form a solid revised routine for the rest of us- though I know the sooner, the better. Like today, the two younger girls didn’t take a nap. I got so busy, and they weren’t bothering me as much- so of course, I forgot about nap time until it was too late. Now I’m listening to a screaming three-year old, the sort of thing that doesn’t happen here, unless the girl is extremely tired. Someone is going to bed early tonight.

Those of you busy stay-at-home moms of little children who are able to maintain an orderly clean home, serve healthy home-cooked meals everyday at the table, homeschool, and still manage to blog regularly: share your secret.

In the meantime, I am moving at my own (slow) pace, showing up here when I can, endlessly thanking my Source for every single day. No matter how monotonous, uneventful, quiet, or chaotic my days are, I am grateful that they are always beautiful.

Zurielle holding Johann Israel at 3 days old

Johann Israel

born 6 pounds, 15 oz.

at 11:40PM on Saturday, the 21st of June.

between enjoying this sweet little boy, the girls and some family time, taking some precious naps and catching up on a few chores, i really haven’t had the chance to be on the computer at all this week…

but just so you know, baby and mom are doing really well…

just enjoying this exciting time in our lives…

can you tell how happy the girls are?

For her blog anniversary giveaway, that is. Yes! I finally won something- thanks to the cute hands that picked my name! Last week, I received the two awesome bulk bags (a small and a large) from Willowluna of A Crunchy Life. I wasn’t able to take a picture of the neat package, but the bags are similar to the ones she photographed here. If you want to check them out, she’s got some up on her etsy shop.

I meant to use them as bulk food bags, but I couldn’t resist using the larger bag to store some stuff we have in the family vehicle. So it has found a new home there. Very crunchy! Thanks again, Willowluna!

Crunchy Chicken’s Extreme Eco Throwdown has begun. What exactly is this challenge about?

No plastic, no paper products, no driving, local food only, no garbage output, no excessive water usage, no electricity.

It is just what the name says: EXTREME!

Except for the driving part, we have already been doing something in the other areas, but accepting the challenge was another story. It was just too extreme all in one go. But instead of focusing on that, we’ve decided to jump in on the ones we could practically do, and improve on what we are already doing: but thinking LESS OF, instead of the absolute NO.

LOCAL FOOD ONLY: This would have been very doable in the summer. For now, since we live in Minnesota, and the bulk of our grocery is produce, and since we couldn’t justify buying meat, I’d say can’t do right now.

NO LESS PLASTIC: Though we buy minimal processed food, the fact remains that these babies would always come in plastic or paper, or some other mean packaging! If you open our freezer, we have bags, and bags of frozen fruits from Trader Joes. For their price and convenience, and for what we use them for, we are just not ready to give them up yet.

On the positive side, I have acquired more, and better, fabric produce/bulk bags from Etsy. I’m also bringing my own containers to refill vinegar, oil and other liquids at the co-op.

My awesome husband has been bringing his own bags at the stores CONSISTENTLY. This is such a big deal (to me, at least). The first time he brought canvas bag to the Asian market, the owner commented that in his 18 years of owning the store, he’s never seen anybody bring their own bag there. The next time, the girl at the register asked him, “What’s the bag for?” (LOL)

PLASTIC FOR NON-FOOD: We buy coconut oil and cocoa butter in jars for moisturizing. The lotion we use is refillable at the co-op; so are the shampoo and conditioner. Our cleaning products are mostly homemade. I make homemade toothpaste too, but some of us still have to use the tube kind (including me, when I feel too lazy to open the toothpaste jar), you know.

NO PAPER: We stopped buying paper napkins ages ago, and recently- paper towels, but have made further changes as I mentioned in this post.

NO LESS ELECTRICITY: Our latest $30 electric bill says it all, and I’ve talked about giving the dryer a much needed break by using the clothesline. So what else are we doing?

• I put a lamp in the main bathroom, so that we are not always using the multiple-bulb vanity lighting.
• The whole family usually stays in one area of the house in the evenings, and lights in other rooms are off.
• Between me and the children, and my husband working at home part of the day, we have quite the computer usage. But (to appease me) everyone hibernates them when done, and they always get turned off at the end of the day, or when we leave the house. There will be more days though, when the children are not allowed to go on the computer, and mommy- just to check emails or pay bills. Did I mention no TV? Go outside and explore!

NO EXCESSIVE WATER CONSUMPTION:We started doing this even before the challenge, and is by far the most gratifying adjustment of all. I have now been so conscious of running water when washing the dishes. I also used to just let the water run when brushing teeth, and it had to be warm water. (My husband seemed to have more sense in this area than me!) That has changed, too.

Since we are home on most days, I figured less showers make sense, especially for the little ones. I am also convinced now that I don’t have to wash my hair everyday, or I could simply turn the water off while shampooing. I have learned to take navy showers, Aliyah and Ron take “Filipino showers.” Of course, you’d have to be a Filipino, or know a Filipino, to know what that means:)

My family in California, and even my in-laws here, each keep a bucket in the tub. They have been doing it for years and I never got it! Until now, that is. Our bucket stays in the tub to catch shower water that we could use for flushing the toilet.

Reflecting on these changes, and also the one-month Buy Nothing Challenge, none of these seem so drastic and hard for me (and my husband) considering where, and how, we were raised. Water and electricity (even paper products) were, and still are, precious commodities in third world countries like the Philippines.

Our family never had to deal with water shortage, because we were blessed with our own hand pump, and electric pump. But I’m telling you, even as a kid, you would use water very wisely when you have to pump it yourself, and then bring it in using a bucket into the kitchen, or the bathroom. We also didn’t have hot water, so if you want a more tolerable bath in the early morning, you would have to boil water and mix that with the cold. Even driving a family vehicle was a privilege not to be taken for granted. And yes, gasoline has always been expensive.

For us then, these changes are really more like going back to the basics, with EXTRA benefits to be enjoyed: with hot water always available just with a spigot-turn… no pumping water… no washing clothes by hands… no worries that electricity might be off for days or weeks at a time! None of these are really an inconvenience or sacrifice. See it for what it is: a better appreciation of the GOOD LIFE!

We are but stewards.