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alicegunther
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I am going to try to be as sweet to my children as I am to my husband and others. It is so sad that I take care to be nice to everyone, but I'm often snippy with my poor kids.
I'd also like to make our homeschool much more interesting. We are in a bit of a winter dry patch, but 2006 will be different, starting with a lovely batch of slime mold plasmodium just purchased from the Carolina Biological Supply Company. Now, some of you undoubtedly are laughing to yourselves saying, "Things must be pretty bad if slime mold promises excitement and diversion," but this stuff actually pursues its food! I can't wait to watch that mold envelope an oatmeal flake. 
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
     
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Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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juliecinci
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Actually my first thought was: "But she's pregnant!" I am always a bit nervous around mold. I lived in a very modly apartment for a year in Morocco and ever since I am wary of its impact. Seems so destructive. So do take care!
I don't have any resolutions yet but it's worth thinking about.
We too are in a winter dry patch that I hope to alleviate with skiing! We have signed up for three ski outings and I haven't been in twenty five years. Yikes! Here's hoping I don't come home with a broken leg.
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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alicegunther
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juliecinci wrote:
| Actually my first thought was: "But she's pregnant!" |
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Julie! How smart you are to think of this. I will be careful. Thanks for the very sensible thought.
Skiing certainly sounds like a great way to boost enthusiasm. We keep saying we'll bring the kids, but I don't think it will happen this year. They will have to settle for ice skating and sledding!
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
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mrsgranola
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I'm WAY behind on my e-mail and BB reading but I just had to read this and respond. To keep myself accountable!
My New Year's resolution is to take care of myself better so I can take care of my family better.I've been in a bad cycle: not enough sleep, get stressed and snippy, eat sugar and caffeine to keep up, and then I end up staying up late and the cycle continues. I need to add Alice's wise resolution, too... to be as patient and sweet to my own family as I would be with others...
JoAnna
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Parente Adventures
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Marybeth
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Alice-you always begin the best discussions!
I am hoping to continue to be more organized in the new year. I could have written JoAnna's post so I need to work taking care of my health.
My dh and I are planning to go on 52 dates and several are already set up for January. 
Happy New Year!
Marybeth
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alicegunther
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Marybeth wrote:
| My dh and I are planning to go on 52 dates and several are already set up for January. |
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Now that is the best resolution I've ever heard!
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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Kathryn UK
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I just posted mine on my blog, in the hope that it will keep me accountable. As always, I've been over ambitions. My resolutions are:
* Get back into the habit of saying morning and evening prayer from the Divine Office
* Include one-on-one time with each dd in our regular routine
* Monthly dates with dh
* Exercise three times a week (I'm aiming at an aqua-aerobics class plus two trips to the gym).
* Read one piece of spiritual reading each month
* Read one "living" science book each month
* Make time to scrapbook each week.
Hmmm ... how many of those will I manage to stick to?
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Kathryn
Dh Michael,  Rachel(3/95) Hannah(8/98) Naomi(6/06)  (11/07)
The Bookworm
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cathhomeschool
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Wow, Kathryn! I love your list, and wish I could do it too!
My number one goal is to be to be sweeter to my children and husband. I get grouchy too, because I try to cram too much into a day and then can't get it all done. And in my attempts to do "just one more thing," we're often late getting out the door.
Exercise is getting bumped back up on my list of priorities, as is making sure that hands-on learning happens weekly in our house. We refloored and painted all fall, and in the process the craft projects, field trips, science experiments and nature walks just didn't happen as much as I would have liked. I guess I considered the house to be my big craft project and experiment!
I could (and probably should) go on, but am gonna take babysteps here ala Flylady.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Natalia
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I think I am going to wait to reply to this. I haven't had a chance to sit down and think about the next year and what I want to accomplish. I haven't had a chance to take a look at last year and see what I accomplished. I am going to wait until I go to my adoration hour Thursday night. That is where I do my best thinking!
Natalia
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TracyQ
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As I've been reflecting the past week at what are my resolutions for this year, what changes I want to make, and what changes I did make this year, I have shared them with a few email lists today, so I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote earlier to those lists as well, as it's a lot of typing!
This is the FIRST YEAR EVER on New Year’s Eve/Day that I have not felt those pangs of *guilt and sorrow* for that which I did not change in my life over the past year. This is the FIRST YEAR EVER that I could reflect, and see BIG changes in my life, and I could feel peace about it, and smile a big smile! :oD
NOT that I don’t have many, many more, but I saw progress in several areas that I wanted to see change in, that will continue into this year, such as my weight (I lost my first 40 pounds this year since April)!!!! I am SO excited about that change, because it’s been helpful in SO many other ways in my life now. I still have 80 more to go (well 83 now that I gained back 3 this past nasty Christmas eating week LOL), but when I think about 40 POUNDS, I just grin from ear to ear!
My home has seen changes. Not huge changes that I want to see, but many changes. And from where it WAS to where it IS, and knowing where it’s GOING, I can smile a big huge smile too! :oD I have implemented many habits that I see being adopted, and decluttering has become a joy, rather than a burden most days.  That is significant!
Our homeschooling, though not where I want it to be, has gotten off to the best start ever! It’s not perfect, and I have a LONG way to get it where I want it to be, and to find the balance we need. BUT, it’s honestly the best homeschooling year we’ve had thus far, and that is huge for me! I’m also listening to the Lord, and finding PEACE in our decisions, and beginning to LOOK for the fruits of our decision to homeschool, rather than focusing on the things that aren’t important.
My Faith has been strengthened SO MUCH this past year! I won’t be where I want it to be this side of heaven, because my goal is to see Jesus face to face, but my relationship with the Lord has grown so much this year, and my obedience in these ways of change were ALL to HIS GLORY, not mine! And my reasons for change in my life, are because I wanted change in my HEART, and so I can see how the Lord has orchestrated all of this for me, because it’s what I wanted to do for HIM.
So, seeing wonderful changes this year has been the hugest boost for me in so many ways! I am on a journey, and have a long way to go now. I was thinking what areas I wanted to really work on this year, to go along with the continuation of changes in my Faith, my body, our home, and our homeschool, and decided on FOUR MAIN things that I wanted to make priority along with these four things.
One thing that I want to make priority is SCRAPBOOKING. I have been thinking a lot about it, and I feel that it’s something that I often push to the side, but something I really think is important. I want to preserve the memories of our life, and the life of my extended family through scrapbooking, so that I can leave a wonderful treasure to our family. I want to spend time with our moms, and ask them stories about the people in the family, and write down everything, and scrapbook as much as I can about the stories, and the memories of the family. So scrapbooking and family heritage will be one of my main priorities this year.
I think I may even focus on this for Christmas this coming year, and make small scrapbooks for our siblings as well that we can copy or something, and I can decorate (more mass production somehow), we’ll see. I want this to be something I do for the entire huge family, both sides. :o)
The other thing I want to make a priority this year is my STUDY of our Faith. I want to really delve into a deeper study of our Faith, and Scripture, and make my DEVOTION to the Lord my priority this year. I’m feeling a deep need to really commit myself more to Him now than ever before.
The third thing I want to make a priority for change is FINANCES. This is one area that I am truly not obedient to the Lord, and my heart needs to devote it to Him in this area of trusting the Lord, and letting GO. It’s one way of decluttering too, because so much of our clutter comes from STUFF that is not important! I have begun some changes in this area in 2005, but it wasn’t a priority as it needs to be. So Thrifty Tracy I become this year! ;o)
And lastly, a change I want to make priority, that I have begun in 2005, but need to make more of a priority is RELATIONSHIPS; the relationship with my husband, each of our children, unique as they are, and our extended family, and my friends. I want to LOOK into each one’s eyes, and see them for the beautiful creation the Lord has made each of them, and build MY relationship with them in a more personal, special, and beautiful way.
I have learned so much this year about what TRULY matters in this world, and what doesn’t. I am changing and growing in SO many areas, and have mapped out how I feel the Lord is leading me to continue this change. I was thinking last night while at my sister in law’s house with my dh's family about how so often, I think of the change to the next year as a finale of one year, and a new beginning of another. This year was different. Although a new year helps me to reflect, and feel hopeful about a new beginning of sorts, I also realized that really, it’s just one minute, and then the next minute, we’re in a new year. TIME is passing always, and it’s passing us by quickly. The significance of a new year for me gets lessened each year, and the significance of a new day and sometimes even a new minute takes its place. J And I realize that my CHANGES must be in my HEART for continuation of obedience to the Lord, out of love for HIM, wanting to change for HIS sake, not my own, and seeking His will always in all that I do each day. And that happens every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every year, and on and on. The significance of a new year of time is really not a factor to me as much now as it used to be.
I hope this New Year is a blessing for you, and each of your precious families! You're all a blessing to me, and a gift from God that I treasure! :o)
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Mary G
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Kathryn, you and I must be soul-mates. Your list is very similar to mine (altho I would substitute knitting for scrapbooking, but God's house has many mansions ). I'd also add, writing in my Blog everyday -- it's a great way to keep up my writing and forces me to synthesize why I enjoyed a book or not....and how it fits into a homeschooling family.
On the spiritual side -- I have time in the early morning and time in the evening to do some meditiation -- and, don't think I'm weird -- I'd love to find an online daily meditation that would kick off my morning. Is there one out there that wouldn't be new-Agey of crystal-gazing? 
Any ideas you web wizards?
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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Taffy
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Personally, I enjoy the daily meditations from Word Among Us. They are available in magazine format as well.
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Susan
Mom to 5 on earth and 1 in heaven
Susan's Soliloquy
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alicegunther
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Tracy, I loved your post--thanks so much for sharing!
A little note on scrapbooking--I've signed up for a class that meets once a week. Who knows how long it will last, but I think it will be fun to make something beautiful from our memories!
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
Cottage Blessings
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TracyQ
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Neat Alice!
My mom, sister, and I get together once a week (most weeks) for a craft night. Here, we gather our gift lists, decide on gifts we may want to make through the year (birthdays, Mother's Day, Christmas, etc.), and we make crafts.
We've never gone year round before, but plan to this year, including some scrapbooking as well, because my sister and I love to scrapbook.
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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alicegunther
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TracyQ wrote:
| My mom, sister, and I get together once a week (most weeks) for a craft night. Here, we gather our gift lists, decide on gifts we may want to make through the year (birthdays, Mother's Day, Christmas, etc.), and we make crafts. |
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You see, now this is why I wish I had sisters! My mother is the greatest, but she is not into crafts at all. I can imagine my five girls doing these things together one day though. They've certainly spent a lifetime working on projects, so it should come naturally to them when they are adults.
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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mumofsix
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My new year's resolutions are:-
To complete the Fatima devotion of the First Five Saturdays.
To spend one evening a week reading, studying and discussing a book with my husband, on a parenting or religious or moral theme.
To become a flybaby.
To speak to my children with love at all times (okay more often), even when correcting them.
To love the truth and to trust it will always come out.
Jane.
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Sarah
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Here's what I wrote to myself since I have a problem with feeling terrible and acting mad about my messy house:
Vow of Happiness (this is kind of dorky- I thought this would be funny in a vow-type form for myself! )
I, Sarah, promise to take one moment at a time when it comes to housework, remembering that I've assigned "hours of the day" [like Leonie's "pegs"]for things householdish to get done, keeping in mind that my first priority is to God, my husband, then children. I will not allow material things to ruin those things that remain forever (i.e. people). I will remember that I am human and only one person and can't do better than my best. I will keep in mind the ages of my children, understanding their need for creativity and thus comes some chaos. I will remember that they are forming memories and a memory of an insane mother is not healthy.
Throughout 2006 I will give stuff away and avoid purchasing more clutter.
I will keep the family up on chores and try to work cheerfully together.
I was way too freaked out about my house in 2005 and I've come to realize that it will be messy whether I'm mad or happy.
-Also I'm going to try to have a more creative homeschool
-Less negativity. Keep my mouth shut when I want to complain.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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mumofsix
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Here is another new year's resolution: to keep a journal of our homeschool with the aim of convincing the doubters. (This will be a pen and notebook journal: I am too shy to write a blog.)
I wrote the first entry yesterday: here it is.
"The carefully decorated Christmas tree now looks as if the box of Christmas decorations was simply turned upside down while held above it. Post-Christmas debris spills like a tidal wave all over the house, new toys trodden underfoot whilst still freshly unwrapped. It is the time for New Year's resolutions, and I have been thinking about mine.
We have been home educating, off and on, for some ten years now. It has been a richly rewarding journey and we have met, and in many instances become close to, scores of inspiring families, also home educating, and in all sorts of different ways. The one constant, in these successful families, is the closeness of their family bonds. Parents and children alike live and learn together in an atmosphere of quiet joy. Not every day is perfect: they have their ups and downs like anybody else. Yet there is a special quality that distinguishes these otherwise very disparate families, and that is the quality of their intimacies with one another, their profound closeness and mutual respect, which sheds a warm light on their adventure of learning together.
In 2005 we met a different kind of family, the kind that, frankly, gives home education a bad name. Our involvement with this family, which developed over the first half of the year and then took us most of the second half of the year to disentangle ourselves from, made 2005 our "annus horribilis". Never have I looked forward more eagerly to the fresh new start afforded by a new year.
In the popular mind, this is what home education is: a retreat from normal life into dysfunctional chaos behind sinisterly closed doors. Whilst that reality does exist, in my experience it is rare. Yet how to explain to the doubter and the prejudiced that, contrary to myth, the vast majority of home educating families are in fact healthy, well integrated and, simply, ordinarily happy? How to convince that real learning happens? I have often thought, when such doubts are expressed: "if you could only be a fly on my wall you would see learning take place each day in an ordinary, unaffectedly happy family".
This is the idea behind this journal. I intend to write in here, a page every two days or the equivalent, jotting down the everyday incidents of our lives here as we live and learn together. "Show, don't tell" is the writers' mantra. That is what I am going to try to do: instead of writing a treatise on the benefits and advantages of home education, I am going to show, day by day, how it happens, what happens, what the children say and do. I believe that my children, like the majority of home educated children, are the best arguments for home education themselves. Bring them alive in the pages of this home education journal, and the doubters that any kind of education can take place in a family home will be able to see with their own eyes that, oh yes, it does, and singingly.
So, that is my New Year's resolution for 2006! (Alongside ... to stay calm, to lose weight, not rise to the bait, spend less time on the computer, clear up all the pine needles by August, keep the house tidy, stop moaning, give up cocoa at bed-time, exercise daily, cut the rabbit's toenails more often, cut the children's toenails more often (the rabbit's are easier), be like the Mom in "Little House on the Prairie", NEVER get sucked into arguments ... is a year long enough?)"
Jane (Mum to three boys aged 23, 18 and 4 and three girls aged 16, 9 and 1.)
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Elizabeth
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Hmmm...not sure about committing these to print :
*To pray a daily rosary by myself and spend an hour at adoration weekly.
*To journal regularly, but never to blog.
*To catch up the scrapbooks. I've enlisted some help here. It's going to be a buddy project with Kim in CO. I think with her expert help, I can create some books that will be treasures.
*To eat and exercise as if my life depends on it. Every bite, every step. I just read about long-term effects, 15 years out from cancer treatment and it kind of wigged me out.
*To get everyone caught up at the dentist and the orthodontist and the pediatrician by the end of March. This is huge: seven kids, they're all behind on checkups and at least one is ready for braces.
And then, I'll borrow from Jane and just change it a bit:
to stay calm, to lose weight, not rise to the bait, spend less time on the computer (I am actually going to put a timer up here. Just haven't quite decided how much time is reasonable), clear up all the dog hair daily (no pine needles here-asthmatics buy artificial trees and greens), keep the house tidy, stop moaning, give up coffee forever, exercise daily, brush the dog's teeth more often, brush the children's teeth more often (they do a pitiful job on their own), be like the Mom in "Little House on the Prairie," NEVER get sucked into arguments!
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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TracyQ
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Jane,
You write SO beautifully! I LOVED your post, and found myself smiliing from ear to ear while reading it.
I love the journaling idea, and have thought long and hard about doing it myself lately. I had this idea that if I put what I'm thinking down on paper, it could be dangerous.
But then I realized that what I hold in my heart is JOY, true joy, and I'd love for my future generation to know who I was, and who our family was, and who our their huge extended family was!
I do not have to share the most intimate of details, but the nuts and bolts and joys and some sorrows, and the quirks and treasures of our lives would be a treasure to someone some day. We often don't think about that.
I remember once reading out of my Grandma's journal. She'd just jot down a few sentences daily, and it was about weather, and the simple things of life that she called her own.....nothing fancy....nothing incredible. But to ME, it was a treasure to SEE my Grandma's handwriting, and to feel her there with me once again.
I think journaling will be something I will add into not only my scrapbooking (which is part of it), but I will keep a simple, daily journal like my Grandma.
I LOVE the idea of a homeschooling journal as well. VERY cool! 
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Topic: New Year's Resolutions
