I don’t have much to say this week, but I mentioned FlyLady last week and it’s still going strong here with great results. As I said before, I found her years ago and cleaned my sink every night while following her plan. This time around, I scrub it every day in the morning after everything is cleaned up from breakfast. I’ve also been swishing and swiping every morning, rotating through my bathrooms so I do one per day. Because I’m keeping up on it and doing a little each day, it’s SO much easier than spending one marathon afternoon cleaning all of the bathrooms (that haven’t been cleaned in at least a week) at the same time.
I also like that she breaks everything down into zones. I have modified her plan slightly so we’re doing the overall weekly home blessing on Mondays, but some of those tasks, like wiping doors and mirrors, are done only in that zone for the week. I enter all the tasks in my planner the week before and put a little box next to each task in the color of the person responsible for it (eg. all of us are green, B is blue, C is pink, I’m purple), and the kids can see which tasks they have left by checking my planner.
Another great thing is that she emphasizes short spurts of cleaning (except the home blessing hour) so I’m only doing a little bit each day. It doesn’t feel like much but it’s making a huge difference in how our house feels. I really hope I can keep it up after school starts again! Anyway….I’m done talking about FlyLady for now. 
On to the links!
The difference between a homeschool plan and homeschool planning “Please, let me encourage you – the plan is not the goal, nor is your execution of it an assessment of your ability as a homeschool mom. It is in your planning that you are preparing yourself for whatever this school year may bring Your curriculum selection matters. Your daily schedule matters. Your outside classes, field trips and co-ops matter. Of course they do! But not a single element of your plan will go exactly as expected. It doesn’t mean you are failing. It means you are living a full life.”
Why now is the best time to Stop Seeking Perfection “If you are on the lookout for things to complain about, you will absolutely find them. And you won’t just find them, you’ll magnify them. If you are looking for the downsides to yourself and your experiences, you will absolutely find them. But we can find God everywhere instead. We can find Him in the unlikeliest of places—we can even find Him in people who haven’t found Him yet.”
French site where Vincent Van Gogh created his last painting may have been revealed I have written a Picture Study Aid and a Common Place Quarterly article about Vincent van Gogh. In the process of researching for both of these things, I felt as if I got to know him better, which was bittersweet. He was such a talented and profoundly deep man, but also so sad, lonely, and troubled at times. This discovery is fascinating, but also very sad.
Librarians turned Google Forms into the unlikely platform for virtual escape rooms This is absolutely awesome. In another life, I was a librarian. And I got the Theseus question immediately thanks to The Heroes in AO Year 3.
30 Jane Austen-inspired books for Janeites of all ages I am very, very cautious about reading Jane Austen fan fiction of any kind because I have experienced (and abandoned) some really, really, really bad books extending (or manipulating) her universe. This list is intriguing as I trust Anne’s judgment in books and a few of them I have actually had on my TBR list for a while. I will note that I hated Eligible and I don’t use that word lightly, but The Jane Austen Project wasn’t bad (though racy in parts). Goodnight Mr. Darcy was also one of the first books I ever got for C.
From the blog…
Gentle Kindergarten Math: A Guide to MEP Reception I absolutely love MEP Reception for the kindergarten year (so much so that I broke it down, week-by-week, in the kindergarten curriculum). The lessons are wonderfully short and usually involve counting, very simple math operations, coloring, a game, or some kind of hands-on activity. It’s a very gentle program and both of my kids responded extremely well to it. One caveat, however, is that some of the scripted parts can be a little confusing. So I posted a little guide this week that hopefully provides some clarity!
(2016) Charlotte Mason-Inspired Kindergarten Curriculum (Term 1) This was the first post I ever wrote about my school plans and also what started the kindergarten curriculum I sell on my site now. It feels like a million years ago.
(2012) Feeding the Spirit. “I’m so obsessed with food and feeding my little family nourishing, whole foods that will keep them healthy and thriving. I even take extra time and care to prepare some of these foods as they require the extra effort. And while I’ve seen the changes in my body, I had never thought that maybe the reason I wasn’t changing on the inside was because I wasn’t feeding the spirit within me. Maybe I was allowing it to subsist on Twinkies and Mountain Dew (singing along with an occasional praise song on the radio, reading a single Bible verse offered up somewhere, or shooting out a little prayer thanking God for finding me a parking spot at the grocery store) and expecting it to completely transform me. Maybe I needed to start giving my spirit a traditional foods diet.”
Have a lovely weekend!
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