7 Quick Takes Friday

1. Last week’s conference attendance came about like this: I have a history of seeing conference brochures come in the mail, tossing them at Craig and saying, “We should totally try to go to this!” I spend 15 minutes planning the logistics of how he could get out of whatever he’s supposed to be doing and who we could ask to watch our kids. I then forget all about it. We never end up going. That’s what made Craig’s decision to send me such a surprise.

In keeping with tradition, though, I have to say I wouldn’t mind attending this one either. Craig, you have a teacher in-service that Friday. We could totally make this work. *wink*

2. Having said that, I’m not exactly looking forward to spending all day this Saturday in a training meeting for Classical Conversations directors. Granted, it will be better than the way I went through training last year – six hours on the phone – but I’m rather dreading the time, actually. Okay, dread is a strong word. Maybe I should say instead that I’d rather spend that time with my sister and her family. That’s where my girls will be. I’ll be sleeping there two nights but won’t get a lot of time with them and that makes me sad.

3. And all that leads up to this: Craig rented a man movie for tomorrow night and invited some guys to come over here and watch it with him. That just cracks me up on so many levels. Here’s to them and the leftover chili they plan to eat for dinner tomorrow night. More power to them. Please get all those movies out of your system before the girls and I come back on Sunday. *grin*

4. I’m considering declaring March “Spring Break Month”. Anyone with me on this?

5. I have no idea why this happens, but I’m continually surprised by the amount of laundry generated by my family. I don’t have a good system right now which means that every six days or so somebody comes to me worried because she no longer has any pants to wear. Every time this happens I’m all, “Really? Already? Didn’t we just go through this last week?” I then scramble to wash everything we have in the house. I spend an entire day folding it and putting it away. I then retreat back into my normal state of laundry denial for the next five or six days. Wash, rinse, repeat. I have a college degree. You’d think I could figure this out by now.

6. It’s still only February, yet I’m already dreaming about when it will be warm enough to go camping again. Camping! As if going once makes us experts or something. But when you’ve had as many bad vacation attempts as our family has had, only to have one of the first really good ones be a camping trip, you sort of want to go again. The girls do too. I’m thinking April. Think that’s too early?

7. The YMCA homeschool swim class has been one of the best things we’ve participated in. The first time we did this I met two of my neatest friends, both of whom I still do stuff with. Our kids all like each other. It’s nice. We then took a year off and rejoined last month. It’s happening again. Something happens at the Y while the kids are swimming and the moms just wait around and start talking. It’s a good investment on several levels. That one is a keeper, me thinks.

9 thoughts on “7 Quick Takes Friday”

  1. Maria says:
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    I enjoyed your quick takes, especially number 5. I tend to do the same thing!
    I have been researching CC lately, thouh I have a year or two to make a decision since my eldest just turned four. Can you use CC as a whole cirriculum or is it more of a supplement?

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  3. Marcie says:
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    You mean you ladies are out of town on Sunday? J and M will be so disappointed. They were counting on seeing you guys at church. They are spending the weekend with A.L. That is too bad. Maybe next time.

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  4. Margaret says:
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    Alas, a college degree has nothing to do with laundry. I seem to have spent most of college avoiding it.
    I’d rather clean the bathroom than do laundry.

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  5. martha10 says:
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    when all our kids were home, i found that having laundry as part of the daily routine where you do a load a day made it much less of a chore. doing a load a day either first thing or last and getting it in the dryer soon after it is washed (right after bkfst.? or during the evening while working on a project then taking the 10-15 min. to quickly fold…with the girls as you train them (which i wasn’t good at…but wasn’t homeschooling them). i am NOT a pro on housework but learned the hard way that it was a necessary evil:) many of the skills i learned in nursing were helpful ie. doing the most hated jobs first and get them out of the way; don’t think too much about whether you feel like/want to do certain jobs or they won’t get done; get as many of the housework jobs into a routine so you don’t have to think about them and they’ll get done. what i learned from people who were much better at this than i was to get as many jobs as possible into 5-15 min. segments and do them in those little time segments…and delegate, delegate, delegate. unfortunately i didn’t learn early enough to delegate to my kids when i should have. they were much too clever at getting out of work than i was able to keep after them on a consistent basis. hopefully, my daughter won’t write in to tell you that she never remembers any of this. i did do most of the work and didn’t delegate very sucessfully but that is not my recommendation. who has the energy? (they do) who has LOTS of responsibility and other work to do (you). who needs to learn all these skills for life and benefits by the discipline of it all (in a good way, not the rigid kind)…your kids…particularly daughters who will be swamped when they are responsible for their own homes some day.
    ok i’ll get off my soap box. laundry is one of those things that no one notices until it isn’t done…like a lot of things around the home. why live in dread of “laundry day” when you don’t really have a day to give to it and don’t have time to fold all those clothes anyway? just as in many things in life, doing a little along the way makes it so much simpler. take a month and try a load a day…occ. 2 loads and see if you don’t find yourself having a totally different outlook on laundry. some of your kids would be able to work together to put the laundry away, even if it just on the bed of the person it belongs to, to be put away that nite.
    gotta get to bed NOW. love, m

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  6. Margaret says:
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    Okay, Megan, I dreamed about doing laundry in my college dorm last night. Pathetic!
    PS My mom made my sister and me do the family laundry every Sat from the time I was 9. It has resulted in a lifetime of laundry hating for us both!

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