This is a re-post that I did on my other blog back in 2008, but in honor of what would have been Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday tomorrow I am re-posting it here.
People that know me know that I used to be a HUGE political junkie. I have lost a little of that in recent years. Today, I heard a wonderful speech on Laura Ingram that was given in 1976. It was Ronald Reagan's concession speech for the Republican Primary. What he says in that speech is so applicable to today. I must confess that I love Ronald Reagan. I am that way due to my beloved grandfather. I wanted to name my daughter Reagan (true story, Heidi) after Ronald Reagan, but my husband wasn't too sure. I know Ronald Reagan wasn't perfect. No human being is, but I miss him. I hope there is someone like him out there waiting in the wings for the right time. I do feel I should say that I don't put my hope in a person nor in a politician. I put my hope and my trust in Jesus Christ. He is in control no matter who runs what county. That is why I have peace today. I don't know what direction this country is going to take, but I know my God does not change. He is in control.
John 14:27:
"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
John 16:33:
"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
I keep making this post longer, but I found these quotes at this blog.
"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."
- Ronald Reagan
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
- Ronald Reagan
"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
- Ronald Reagan
"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U. S. was too strong."
- Ronald Reagan
"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U. S. Congress."
- Ronald Reagan
"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."
- Ronald Reagan
"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under."
- Ronald Reagan
"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."
- Ronald Reagan
"I've laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: no matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."
- Ronald Reagan
"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."
- Ronald Reagan
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
- Ronald Reagan
"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."
- Ronald Reagan
"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."
- Ronald Reagan
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Preschool and Tot School
This last week I started a new preschool program with my daughter. My friend, Bess, is the one who introduced me to it. I was resistant at first because the website is a bit difficult to navigate and not organized as I would like, but the content is spectacular and it is FREE. The website is 1+1+1=1. She has a "Raising Rock Stars" program and the home page is here so you can get a description for what it is about. She starts with the letter "L" and tells you why:
You will notice a bit of Kumon inspiration in the program also, which is why the letters are presented out of order. I want my son to learn to write the letters, so we begin with the letters which are easiest to write {straight lines}.
She introduces you to the unit and tells you how she does things. I basically followed her format with a little bit of my own stuff added in.
I organized it by the workbox method as she does. I did not buy the book so I am sure I am not doing exactly right, but it seems to be working for us. Miss M wakes up excited to see what is in her first workbox.
I even set up workboxes for homework help for my older son. He has to complete 4 a night and it includes going over his spelling words and his sight words. When he does 2, I give him a fun activity to do such as play the Wii and then he finishes the other 2.
We sorted the dominoes by color. We did easy puzzles. I went over Baby Einstein cards
with him. He especially liked the train and car cards.
We just kept it simple and fun.
I am excited to put together next week's plan. Now that I have done it once already it shouldn't take me quite so long to plan it all out. Hope you get a chance to check out her site. There is a lot of great information on there.
You will notice a bit of Kumon inspiration in the program also, which is why the letters are presented out of order. I want my son to learn to write the letters, so we begin with the letters which are easiest to write {straight lines}.
She introduces you to the unit and tells you how she does things. I basically followed her format with a little bit of my own stuff added in.
I organized it by the workbox method as she does. I did not buy the book so I am sure I am not doing exactly right, but it seems to be working for us. Miss M wakes up excited to see what is in her first workbox.
I even set up workboxes for homework help for my older son. He has to complete 4 a night and it includes going over his spelling words and his sight words. When he does 2, I give him a fun activity to do such as play the Wii and then he finishes the other 2.
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| I bought the stick on letters and the poster board at the Dollar Tree. |
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| This is the set up for now, but I will be making a more sturdy board soon. |
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| And you already know about my scary lion. |
My daughter is definitely more into school than my son was. She likes doing all of these things. She got very good at "reading" her little book. She already knows all of her letters and sounds but she doesn't know her numbers as well or the lower case letters. She loves crafts and she likes to cut. So because of this week she now can recite (with slight help) Matthew 5:16 and she can tell me what the big L and little l is and the L sound. She knows the number 1 and the sight word "see".
If you are thinking of doing this program, she has a "Members Only" section where everything is organized and directly links to the lessons. It is only $12.00 a year and I did end up joining when it was $10. She has made a PowerPoint for each lesson that the kids can navigate through. It is really neat.
It inspired me to make my own PowerPoints. I have one for my son's sight words so he can do them whenever I ask him to, even if I am making dinner, he can do them while I am right there.
I also made a numbers one. It was actually fun making it.
Tot School
I also started doing a little bit of Tot School with my little one (not so little anymore though). Really I just did more intentional and purposeful play with him but I hope to get even better next week.
We sorted the dominoes by color. We did easy puzzles. I went over Baby Einstein cards
with him. He especially liked the train and car cards.We just kept it simple and fun.
I am excited to put together next week's plan. Now that I have done it once already it shouldn't take me quite so long to plan it all out. Hope you get a chance to check out her site. There is a lot of great information on there.
Friday, February 4, 2011
A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place . . . Paper and More!
Last week I talked about "A place for everything and everything in its place". This week I want to start sharing how I am slowly getting to that point. The first thing you should know is that I am in a constant state of de-cluttering. You have to be to make this work. I live in a fairly small house so we don't have a lot of storage. This really has made me start getting rid of more stuff that I don't use on a regular basis. I still have several hot spots to take care of but I work on them when I get a chance. Such as my sewing closet. I will not be showing you that if you ever come over. I will work on that in the coming months but right now I just keep the door closed (ha).
I think one of the most common problem is paper clutter and what to do with it and what to keep and what to shred. I will share with you what I do, but everyone is different so what works for me may not work for you, but maybe you will get some ideas that you could use.
I was inspired to really get a handle on this from I Heart Organizing's January Paper Challenge. I have to keep things simple or I won't use them, so for me, this is a simple process and it works for my family.
How we do our mail:
1. We open all of our envelopes. My husband gets the bills and he does those (thank goodness). He pays some online and mails others. He stores them in his filing bin that he can carry around. He only stores a year's worth of bills and documents in there and then we shred what needs to be shredded and store what needs to be stored in a bigger filing cabinet in the garage.
2. I get my portion of the mail - cards, reminders, invitations, kids school work and papers (not part of the mail) and the kids college fund paperwork which I keep and file.
3. Here is what I do - I set up my little system with labeled file folders. I have a folder for each child, a shred folder, a "to do" folder, a "to buy" folder and a "to file" folder, flexible spending folder (I keep receipts to turn into the flexible spending company) and Taxes (I keep these for my husband). I have a "to buy" folder because of lists from school or church that I need to buy things for.
Here I store all the things we use frequently like index cards, paper clips and my chalk markers.
Binders! I keep a lot of binders as you can tell and if I kept things more aesthetically pleasing they would all match but I just use ones that I get for free or have found. I have a binder for each of the kids. I have a binder with holiday plans and information, gift ideas and project tutorials and ideas. I have my homemaking binder (to be discussed later) and my prayer binder.
The first binder is where I keep all of our office electronics manuals and CD-ROMs and such. I bought CD/DVD Binder Insert Pages (kind of like these
).
Next is what to do with DVD's, well, we don't honestly have a lot of DVD's. I sold a ton of them on Amazon a while back and now we only keep kids DVD's. I keep them in the above mentioned CD/DVD Binder Insert Pages in a bigger binder. I did throw away the cases (*gasp*) because they are bulky and I did not need them. I keep this up on a high shelf now to keep little fingers from grabbing it, but I do allow them to look through it and pick out their own movie when I am watching them.. As for VCR tapes, we have a few that are kept in a nicer looking container.
Going back to our mail - whenever I get invitations or make appointments I write them on our lovely chalkboard calendar that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I use the Bistro Chalk Markers
to write on it because I hate touching chalk.
And here is a crazy part to my system (it works for me), but I have a magnetic calendar on my fridge for the next month that I write more stuff on because I found that just having the current month wasn't working. I know I can use a regular wall calendar but this works for now. I write other things down on my small planner that I have when I have to make appointments way in advance.
Next is my most brilliant system ever - a bag! It is my library book system. After the "Magic Schoolbus" DVD incident (I had to pay for it after we lost it), I now keep this bag close to the back door and I put all of our library books and DVDs in it. If I take a book out to read I immediately put it back in the bag when I'm done. If we watch a DVD, back in the bag it goes as soon as we are done and that is it.
Tools I used:
Label Maker
CD/DVD Binder Page Inserts
Magazine Holders
3 Ring Binders
Chalkboard Calendar from Hobby Lobby
Dry Erase Calendar
There you have a glimpse into some of my systems. I will share more next week if you are interested. Just remember, even if you only have 15 minutes declutter something - like your kitchen or bathroom drawer or one file folder. Then whatever you are keeping MAKE a home for it!
I think one of the most common problem is paper clutter and what to do with it and what to keep and what to shred. I will share with you what I do, but everyone is different so what works for me may not work for you, but maybe you will get some ideas that you could use.
I was inspired to really get a handle on this from I Heart Organizing's January Paper Challenge. I have to keep things simple or I won't use them, so for me, this is a simple process and it works for my family.
How we do our mail:
1. We open all of our envelopes. My husband gets the bills and he does those (thank goodness). He pays some online and mails others. He stores them in his filing bin that he can carry around. He only stores a year's worth of bills and documents in there and then we shred what needs to be shredded and store what needs to be stored in a bigger filing cabinet in the garage.
2. I get my portion of the mail - cards, reminders, invitations, kids school work and papers (not part of the mail) and the kids college fund paperwork which I keep and file.
3. Here is what I do - I set up my little system with labeled file folders. I have a folder for each child, a shred folder, a "to do" folder, a "to buy" folder and a "to file" folder, flexible spending folder (I keep receipts to turn into the flexible spending company) and Taxes (I keep these for my husband). I have a "to buy" folder because of lists from school or church that I need to buy things for.
As I stated, we have a small house so we don't have a seperate room for an office. Instead we purchased a corner unit from Ikea (on our bi-annual Ikea trip). We have a computer in there but we don't use it. I plan to load educational games on it for the kids but not have access to the internet on that one.
Here I store all the things we use frequently like index cards, paper clips and my chalk markers.
Here is where we keep the extra office supplies - extra tape, paper clips, staples, etc.
It is a box I got at the Goodwill a while back and I think it is for CD storage or something.
Binders! I keep a lot of binders as you can tell and if I kept things more aesthetically pleasing they would all match but I just use ones that I get for free or have found. I have a binder for each of the kids. I have a binder with holiday plans and information, gift ideas and project tutorials and ideas. I have my homemaking binder (to be discussed later) and my prayer binder.
The first binder is where I keep all of our office electronics manuals and CD-ROMs and such. I bought CD/DVD Binder Insert Pages (kind of like these
).
I keep our printer in a separate little cabinet. I don't love it, but it works for now. I keep my new laminator under that with the paper and labels on the shelf under that.
For various other things I use these magazine holders from Ikea. I actually keep magazines in a few of them. I keep keepsakes and pictures in a few others until I get the chance to organize them. I keep some Bible study books in one and some reference books in others.
Next, what to do with all of those kids' papers that we get everyday or every week. Here is my current system, as I said I have a file folder for each child and everyday I put papers in there. But, honestly, I do my best to keep up on them everyday. I take them from the folder and immediately three hole punch them. Then I put them in a three ring binder with the child's name on it. I will go through this at the end of the year and keep only the most special ones (such as the paper below!). I will probably file it in a special file such as I Heart Organizing's system.
Next is what to do with DVD's, well, we don't honestly have a lot of DVD's. I sold a ton of them on Amazon a while back and now we only keep kids DVD's. I keep them in the above mentioned CD/DVD Binder Insert Pages in a bigger binder. I did throw away the cases (*gasp*) because they are bulky and I did not need them. I keep this up on a high shelf now to keep little fingers from grabbing it, but I do allow them to look through it and pick out their own movie when I am watching them.. As for VCR tapes, we have a few that are kept in a nicer looking container.
Are you bored yet, don't worry we are almost done. Next, is my homemaking binder. Here is where I deal with school calendars, church directories, garden plans, etc. You can find lots of resources on the web on how to make one and what to put in it. I would caution you to keep this one simple! I now have only about 5 tabs or so. The front contains any calendars I need - school, basketball, etc. The first actual section is addresses. I keep our church's address book in there and also my own family addresses that I store in Excel and print out in Word. I keep a few blank cards in there so I will be more apt to send encouraging cards, but I need to get better at that. I also have my garden file which contains plans and outcomes of the last few years. I have a schedule part that I don't use much and a planning section that I use for various things and that is about it. And I know it is not pretty I told you I'm pretty basic.
Going back to our mail - whenever I get invitations or make appointments I write them on our lovely chalkboard calendar that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I use the Bistro Chalk Markers
to write on it because I hate touching chalk.
And here is a crazy part to my system (it works for me), but I have a magnetic calendar on my fridge for the next month that I write more stuff on because I found that just having the current month wasn't working. I know I can use a regular wall calendar but this works for now. I write other things down on my small planner that I have when I have to make appointments way in advance.
Next is my most brilliant system ever - a bag! It is my library book system. After the "Magic Schoolbus" DVD incident (I had to pay for it after we lost it), I now keep this bag close to the back door and I put all of our library books and DVDs in it. If I take a book out to read I immediately put it back in the bag when I'm done. If we watch a DVD, back in the bag it goes as soon as we are done and that is it.
Tools I used:
Label Maker
CD/DVD Binder Page Inserts
Magazine Holders
3 Ring Binders
Chalkboard Calendar from Hobby Lobby
Dry Erase Calendar
There you have a glimpse into some of my systems. I will share more next week if you are interested. Just remember, even if you only have 15 minutes declutter something - like your kitchen or bathroom drawer or one file folder. Then whatever you are keeping MAKE a home for it!
Go forth and Organize!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Wednesday's Week in Review . . . February
Well, this may be a long one because we have a lot to review. Let's see . . .
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| Isaac squared playing some Mario Cart |
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| Friends over for a play date |
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| Dominoes |
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| Dominoes |
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| And more dominoes |
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| Isaac's first b-ball game |
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| I threw my niece a cake decorating party |
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| making roses |
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| And my sister tried her hand at making some roses |
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| then my niece decided to eat a hand full of icing |
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| and here are the girl's lovely creations covered in serious icing |
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| Happy Birthday Jamy |
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| Makenna wanted in on the action |
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| And then we ate her birthday cake that she decorated |
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| and we started a new preschool program for the fabulous Miss M! |
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| She's showing off her mad tracing skills |
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| Batman and our little ninja turtle became friends |
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| We had one of our favorite snacks - homemade popcorn and lemonade slushies |
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| Little man likes it too |
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| And the ice storm of 2011 |
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| Our neighbors clothes line - notice the ice cycles |
And there you have another week at our house.
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