Category: Holidays

I will say that last month went pretty well, and our home does feel a bit more KIND. This month, our theme will be PATIENCE. We will be looking at ways that we can be more intentional in showing PATIENCE to others through our actions.

Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.” — Anonymous

I’m going to take a quick look at what we have planned for the month so you can get a little idea about how all of our systems work with each other.

Calendar

My morning routine means that I check our calendar every morning, and here is what I am looking at:

• There are few appointments that are noted, and I have reminders set in my Cozi app. One appointment is this week, so I remind my husband about it to make sure he remembers.
• There are a couple of birthdays, and I am noting the special meals in my planner.
• A few ‘special holidays’ that we would like to include.
• Days that the public school will be out for one of the older kids.
• I also try to look for a day that will be a good time to go to the flea market or produce market for seasonal produce.

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Chores

I also like to review the chores at the beginning of the week, as we have them listed by daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Daily chores are pretty automatic, but our monthly chores rotate by the day of the month… I try to keep things as easy as I can.

Some of our daily chores include:

• Getting ready for the day – make beds, brush teeth/hair, get dressed
• Animal/Garden chores – watering and feeding
• Breakfast – see our Breakfast Routine here
• Laundry – see our Laundry Routine here
• Planning the day – check calendar, to-do list, meal plan, etc.
• Morning Routine – see a sample day here
• School
• Lunch
• Quick Clean up
• Afternoon Chores – water animals, check eggs, etc.
• Dinner
• Clean up

If you click on the links, you can find more in-depth information about each task.

Some of my weekly chores are:

• Home Blessings
• Homeschool Planning – look for lessons ideas to go along with our monthly task and upcoming holidays
• Menu Planning – check that we have everything we need for upcoming meals
• Garden Planning – check what needs to be transplanted, seeded, started, and bought.
• Other Planning – Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl?, President’s Day, income taxes, and possible outings/vacation; check for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries
• Grocery Shopping & Errands
• Desk Work/Paper Work/Bill Pay/Budgeting

Some of the monthly chores this month are:

• cleaning light fixtures/cobwebs
• cleaning the tops of the fridges and freezers
• cleaning windows and doors -washing curtains and/or blinds
• cleaning out the top cabinets and wiping all the cabinet fronts
• deep cleaning the countertops, sinks, dishwasher, cutting boards, and dish drainer
• cleaning under the sink, and the kitchen drawers
• deep clean the stove and oven
• declutter the dish cabinet and island storage
• move and clean behind the large appliances
• take an inventory of what we have in the freezer and pantry – incoporate things into the menu
• clean/organize the linen cabinet
• deep clean the vacuum cleaner, and clean/change filters for the vacuum and ACs
• deep clean the high chairs
• deep clean bathrooms

Some of the yearly chores for this month are:

• Stock up on sunscreen and bug spray
• Clean the AC units, if not already completed
• Check the BBQ supplies and restock, as needed
• Make Plans for upcoming holidays

Sometimes the kiddos are tempted to skip over chores, but it catches up to them later on when things break down or run out. We are trying to teach them important skills that they will need later on in life, skills that will hopefully make them successful in all that they do.

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Homeschool

Today, I check my Homeschool Manager app for anything that I might not have added to the main calendar. I normally look over the next week’s schedule on Thursdays, after we finish our school work.

• We have started back to school so we are adding in lessons a little each day.
• I add the appointments to the monthly lesson plan calendar as well, so I can plan accordingly. I realize that I may need to alter our start date and just use that as a Home Blessing day to get the house back in order, so I just swap a few things around really quick.
• I am adjusting some of the planned reading materials so that they will all line up a little better.

These quick changes will keep us from having a very frustrating week back to school… at least I pray it will.

This month, I will be focusing on adding Foreign/Alternative LForeign/Alternative Language anguage tasks to our homeschool routine, so I will look over those tasks to see what I can work in with our lessons.

Foreign/Alternative Language (May)

The kids have informed me that they would rather try to learn Spanish again, instead of Hebrew so we will make that change in the next week or two.

Some ways we are doing this are:

• Loving our neighbors:
  • by learning another language it allows us to share GOD’s love with others who may not otherwise learn about HIM
  • it can also help us to show respect to other cultures as we learn about them
• Global Mission:
  • learning other languages can help spread the word of GOD to other parts of the world also… you never know when it might come in handy!
  • ex: 1 Corinthians 14:10-11, Romans 10:17
  • verse about Pentecost: Acts 2:4-11
• Memorization:
  • have fun learning new Bible verses and songs in ASL!
  • find a good ASL channel on YouTube to learn from.

Devotional

We have a new devotional for the month as well – I did make it for 31 days, so it could be used at any time of the year.

Growing in Patience

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Bill Paying

I usually sit down to pay bills on Fridays.

• Pay the bills due, pay more if money allows
• Check accounts to see what payments have cleared, and highlight them on the worksheet
• Note any bills still left to pay

I usually do this first, so I know what I have left to spend. My bill pay worksheet makes things much simpler as I can see what I have paid, and what needs to be paid.

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Meal Planning & Grocery Shopping

I normally do my menu planning on Wednesday or Thursday. I print out a couple of meal planning sheets and a grocery list so I can fill them in as I look over our Spring Meal Plan.

• I write in the birthdays and special holidays for the month, and then add those ingredients to the grocery list. Clicking on the link will give you a ready-made list of holidays for the month and links to recipes and menu ideas to make them special.
• I look over the planned meals and pencil them in.
• I note the days when we have appointments and swap those meals for easier meals, if needed.
• I check the grocery list that the kids have been filling out on the fridge, and add items to the main list.
• I also check my pantry restock list to see what I need to add to the list, if money allows.
• I make sure I have the ingredients to preserve the produce that I plan to pick up this month as well. I will add supplies to the grocery list, if needed. Some of these posts have not been published yet, but you should be able to find the printables in the library.
• I will either schedule a time to go shopping or place an order for groceries and set a delivery or pickup time that works for us. When I go to town, I usually plan to take care of several errands at once.
• At the beginning of the month, I will also place a Sam’s Club order for bulk supplies to be shipped, as well as any supplies we need from Amazon.

Special Holiday Meals: May Edition

Some of the pantry restock items I added to list are:

• Canned Fish
• Canned/Dried Meats
• Rice/Barley
• Sugar
• Vitamins
• Sunscreen/Bug Spray

Some of the produce I’d like to buy for preserving:

• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Herbs
• Dried beans for canning

In April, we were also able to stock up on some veggies and cabbage for pickled veggies and sauerkraut. These aren’t canned but they do last a bit in the fridge and help make meals a little more interesting. We also pickled some eggs have we have an abundance of them right now and they make great protein filled snacks!

If money is short, we can skip the restock and the preserving items until next month. I don’t like to skip things too often, but we do have our pantry pretty well stocked, and as long as we replace what we use, we should be fine.

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Garden & Animals

I usually try to get feed and garden supplies once a month to cut down on the number of trips I make to town. The feed store is in the opposite direction of our normal grocery store, and I need all the space in the back of the van for feed, so I can’t really combine these tasks, or I would.

I go out to the greenhouse and garden just about every day, so I keep a running list of things that I need. I will also check my monthly list of tasks that need to be done. I went over my lists this weekend, and I have:

• placed online orders for seeds and plants

I need to:

• get some more seeds started for the Summer
• fill in any gaps in the garden
• build rabbit pens and move the rabbits
• transplant some of the greenhouse starts to the garden beds
• deep clean the coops/pens
• get the shade structures in place
• get some chicken tractors repaired and put in the gardens

Some of the tasks are also listed with my yearly tasks to make sure that I don’t forget them 🙂

I also check with the kids to see what animal feed we have, check that against my master inventory list, note down what we need in my phone, and then I will make time to go get the feed. I try to combine a few tasks during the same trip.

When I go to get the feed I will:

• get feed and animal supplies
• pick up seeds or plants at the Farm Center
• check with the nursery to see what they might have available
• stop at the grocery store, if there is anything we need before the next grocery order
• fill up with gas on the way home

When I get home, I always have the kids unload the feed right away, mix anything that needs to be mixed, and put the surplus in the old freezer that we use for storage. Once the feed is taken care of, they will clean out the back of the van 🙂

I try to make sure to do this mid-week, as Fridays & Saturdays are a bit crowded at the Feed Store. It’s always a bit stressful when we get too low on feed as well, so by making sure we have a regular schedule, we can alleviate some of the stress and replace it with PEACE, as we know we have what we need. We can also use these tasks as ways to show LOVE to one another.

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To-Do List

I also like to start a To-Do List because things always pop up that I can’t fix right away. I also find things when I am out in the garden that need to be taken care of, I will usually snap a photo and then add it to the list if it can’t be taken care of right away.

This is our list so far:

• Master Bathroom
• Fix Master Bedroom Floor
• build new garden beds – we finished the first ones, but then bought more
• add solar lights to chicken coops
• finish chicken tractor
• hang cameras
• put the StarLink on a pole
• add trellises to garden beds
• create a sensory garden and/or integrate sensory-themed activities into our existing garden – we have had to change the plans a bit.
• Finish our new poultry area
• Build a new area for our bunny bunnies
• Add shade pergolas to the garden
• Build rabbit cages for the new area

The list keeps growing and it will continue to grow longer the further we get into the year… hopefully, we can stay on top of it.

This is just a quick look at my weekly plans… I have all month long to work on some of them, and I will try to knock out as many as I can. I know that by handling the smaller things now, it will free up time I might need in the future for BIGGER and BETTER things. A little maintenance helps to keep things running nice and smooth… it also helps us to appreciate all that we have been BLESSED with.

I pray that you will find something useful in these links.

God Bless!