2012

So the new year has started and everyone is making their New Year resolutions. So I will begin with mine. I follow the LDS Mom's Ed yahoo group.  Being LDS and a homeschooler I latched onto this program a few years ago.  I have never subjected myself to the complete outline, but parts of it.  So the habit I want to create this year for my health is drinking water.  I decided this year not to put a measurement on it, only to drink everyday--if only a swallow.  This will be a vast improvement from drinking it rarely. 
Divinity goal: I want to continue to use my topic journal and start a chapter journal (found at www.theredheadedhostess.com). I did not purchase her new inventions, but have stuck with my old 3 ring notebooks. Read the Book of Mormon daily, even if only 1 verse! To refer to my member study guide and be ready for the Gospel Doctrine class each week.  To read our Relief Society manual George Albert Smith and be prepared for the lessons.  Read the Ensign cover to cover and space conference issues out so that I will be reading one talk a week.  Since I watch conference on the computer via internet, its best if I refresh my memory by reading one a week.
Independent Study: Parelli Natural Horsemanship.  2012 is going to be the "Year of the Horse" I have decided.  (Figure the mileage I walk and ride can't hurt but tone up this flabby body!) I plan to test every three months so March will be online, June-liberty, September-freestyle, and December-finesse). "A line" personality thinking, but I have to get past the fear of failure and just do it. I decided I don't have to read the results when they come back!
Rotational: I chose Education as my focus, so I will be concentrating on our home school efforts with the two youngest children. It will also be in my interest to have a graduation party for the other son this summer.
Enriching Experiences: I have decided that these will not be hard and fast like the previous points, but will be there any time that I want to pursue them this year.  Literature: to read again, I love to read, but mostly put this off as I have a hard time finding something that is good and when I do then it is very hard to put down and get things done around here! But I have read 3 books already this year by downloading free kindle books onto my blackberry.  Music/Art: flute, drawing (this will be my 2013 Independent Study and daily endevour then, for now it will be sporadic, but I hope to do something instead of nothing) and voice.  I once found some vocal lessons that you could by a cd or dvd for.  So I will try to find them once again and see if I can improve the little that I have.  I just believe that "making a joyful noise" is allowed!  Language: German. A goal that has been with me since high school, but which I have never gone very far with!  Since one of my children is studying the violin and his teacher is from Germany it might high time be worth it to give it a try.  Nature Studies: I strive daily to thank my Heavenly Father for the beauty that is all around me.  The beautiful sunrises, sunsets over the mountains, the snow capped peaks, the beautiful stars.  The canvases that He paints each day for me.  I already have spring fever with these last two weeks being filled with exceptionally warm weather.  We have 60 degrees today and no wind. I was thinking that I could use the nature notebook study idea to go hand in hand with art skills.  Why not try again to use color and draw the birds, flowers, snow capped mountains and all the beautiful things around me?  A great endeavor, but we shall see!  I have many drawing projects that are started and many more that need to get started! A quote I found somewhere recently from someone who was reading the book "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Vos Kamp. "Earth is crammed with Heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes.  The rest sit around it and pluck balckberries" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  An interesting quote to think about and makes me want to see what else Ann included in her book, maybe I'll have to add that to a "someday" list as well.

Laundry Humor

So I went into the bathroom. The laundry basket was less than full when I left, now it had my husband's clothes half in and half out of the basket. Hmmm..... So I BBM him, "Which part of your clothes were dirty and needed washed? The half in the laundry basket or the half on the floor next to the laundry basket?"
Luckily my husband has a sense of humor! He wrote back that they all need it.
So is it just me? I just don't understand how husbands (and children) can kick footballs between goal posts, get golf balls into those tiny little holes, basketballs through the hoops, horseshoes, grenades, and the like where they need to be and yet clothes don't.  All I can say is, "Laundry baskets must be the hardest sport to play!"