Successfully Escaping Soda

I think I've found a way to successfully free myself from my addiction to soda!  I had expected this goal to be far more challenging than it has been thus far.  Of course, we still are pretty early on in the year!

My need for soda all started with a lack of wanting water.  Soda is sadly cheaper than juice, which is why I've tended to gravitate towards it in my adult life.  I've tried to keep juice for the kids, but I'll be honest, I haven't exactly given positive modeling for my children when it comes to drinking water.  I shouldn't be surprised that it's a challenge to get them to drink enough water in the summer because of it.

Recently I've started recognizing that my soda consumption has been a lot of things for me, unhealthy, expensive, and a bad example for my children.  I've been telling myself for a while that I need to cut back on how much soda I drink for years.  I've even determined several times that I'm going to stop drinking it.  Of course, it's that much harder when my partner can't jump on board.  He's inclined to drink soda all the time if given the chance.

In the beginning of the year I was left with no option on soda.  I kept telling myself we couldn't afford it.  I had the case of water intended for me to bring to class, so I had plenty of water to drink.  I had to live with that for the time being.  There wasn't another option.  With all the expenses from moving, we just didn't have the money.  Of course, that wasn't entirely true, but you can make yourself believe anything if you tell yourself long enough.  Therefore, I've been able to go without soda since our first night here.

Last night I saw my tea kettle sitting on the stove and remembered I had tea!  Not only did I have tea, but I had tea that helps encourage milk supply, which is something I've needed lately.  My milk supply has dropped far more than I wanted it too, and I want to nurse as long as possible.  Many pediatricians are now saying that if a mother can manage to nurse her child until two years of age, the child will get the most benefits of it.  I have to admit, I've been barely nursing recently (due to my son's nursing strike) but anything that can help, right?  Besides, I know babies well enough to know nursing strikes don't tend to last for long.

I've got two varieties of nursing tea around here, but the only one I can find at the moment is the Yogi Woman's Nursing Support.  I know somewhere around here I also have Mother's Milk Tea, but I don't know where it is, to be honest.  They both taste the same to me, so I can only imagine that they would be completely interchangeable. I suppose when I'm done nursing I can go on to some of their other tea varieties.

It looks like tea has really been the key to kicking caffeine, at least for me, and other unhealthy habits, such as drinking soda.  I guess I have it easier than some because I don't have to face the challenge of a coffee addiction.  In truth, most of the draw to the soda is the sweetness, and something that's a change from basic, flavorless water.  Tea is probably a much healthier option than juice anyway with all that sugar!

The Saga of the Shiny Sink

As I mentioned before, it was my friend The Artsy Eclectic over at Otherwise Quite Good that first told me about FlyLady.  I have to admit, when I first heard the name I couldn't think past the bugs.  Why would anyone chose a name like that?  I thought clean homes weren't supposed to get flies!

It took me a good long while to look into it.  I'd taken the general concept, but threw 90% of it out the window.  Wouldn't it figure that it was the important 90%?  All I could figure was that the goal was to keep on top of everything at all times and get organized.  I didn't take in all of the stuff that makes the system actually work.

Not surprisingly, I completely failed.  I almost wrote the whole system off, but I just decided to walk away from it for a while.  The other circumstances in my life made truly feeling comfortable with taking control of the chaos in my house seem completely unreasonable.  I needed to wait until I found a sense of stability.

When I finally went back to looking at the system again, I gave it a fair shot this time.  I thought the idea of a "control journal" was kind of hoaky, to be honest, but I would do everything else.  I could always leave off the things I didn't like, right?  I mean, seriously, did I need to get dressed down to lace-up shoes?  I hardly ever wear shoes if I can avoid it, even when leaving the house!  Besides, my feet sweating in socks makes them itchy after a while.  I don't need to do that, right?

Looking at the whole system, it did make a lot of sense.  At first I did find it completely ridiculous to shine your sink.  It's just a sink!  Nobody cares!  However, I do understand what she's getting at here.  I tried it, straight down to bleach and everything as directed, even though I'm allergic to bleach.  The sink was clean, sterile, and as shiny as it was going to get!  It would never be great because that sink leaked and water constantly was running down it.  However, it was so nice to go out into the kitchen and see one small place of cleanliness.  It was a little patch of heaven to get up in the morning and not look at a sink full of dishes everyone was too lazy to do the night before.

I have to admit, I never got much beyond the kitchen when living with room mates.  Again, it's hard to feel in control of your space when you're not the one with the final say.  When it came to dishes, I could insist all I wanted that there would be no dirty dishes left in the sink, but sure enough, there always were.  It was a great recipe for giving up time and time again.

I used to joke with my partner that I was off to "FlyLady the kitchen".  He would always get a kick out of it, but secretly, I think it made him happy.  He knew that meant we would have a clean kitchen, which was always something he found important.  As much as he never wanted to have to work at having a clean home, the cleaner his living space, the happier he is.

Now that we're in our own place we're doing the FlyLady thing again.  I'm really trying to adhere to the major points of the system without getting too hung up on details I know aren't going to flawlessly fit my family.  I can always work on that later.  One step at a time, right?

Looking at some of this, I have to say, I really do understand a lot of where she's coming from, even if I thought it was silly before.  There's a purpose behind all of it, and I think that she's really doing a service for families everywhere by her advice, "FlyRules" and everything else.  There are some things I really have grown to love about her system.

• Shiny sinks do actually mean something.  I have to admit, shining the sink doesn't necessarily make sense to me at this point, but I can see the benefits of a clutter-free, clean, empty, and dry sink.  On top of that, it encourages prompt action on my part.  When I walk into the kitchen and see a dish in the sink thinking, "Oh no!  A dish!  Not in my newly shined sink!" instead of getting angry at the person who put it there, or worse, ignoring it entirely and moving on, I wash the dish, wipe down the sink, and make it clean and shiny again!  At the end of it all, the dish is in the dishwasher, the sink is clean, dry, and empty again, and I now have a reason to smile.
• Cleaning really is a great way to bless your home.  It's more than cleaning out the negative energy for all you Pagan folk out there.  Everyone feels better in a cleaner home.  Everyone feels better when they can find things.  Better still, everyone feels much happier in a home where their stuff doesn't own them!
• Conquering Mt Washmore one load at a time is completely something I can do.  Of course, right now it's not easy because we don't have a washer and dryer, but when I could simply throw in a load of laundry every day and call it good, I found that I never got buried under a pile of laundry bigger than I am!  It also makes folding, sorting, and putting away the laundry that much more likely to happen.  Folding and putting away one single load every day takes no time at all.  When you've got a whole bunch of loads, it's way too easy to get behind and buried under your clean laundry, only to have it never go away, get on the floor and dirty, and then need to be washed again.
• Calendars are key to organization.  If I want something to happen, I really need to write it down.  The control journal concept is the same thing, just another way to stay organized and on top of things.
• While I may not feel the need to be dressed down to the lace-up shoes, I do believe that when you look good, you feel good, and that carries over to everything you do.  That means getting up in the morning, getting dressed, doing my hair, and maybe even throwing on a bit of make-up one of these days will help keep me in good spirits.  When you look good, you feel good.  When you feel good, you get stuff done.
• I love her concept of FLYing, Finally Loving Yourself.  That's what it really is, isn't it?  The whole idea is to have a clean home because it makes you feel happy.  More importantly, people with messy, cluttered homes are usually expressing a very big idea about themselves, that they just don't care about themselves.  They don't care enough to keep their environment comfortable.  As a result, cleaning your home is an act of loving yourself (and your whole family)!
• Taking on all of this 15 minutes at a time is much less intimidating than taking it on all at once.
• "You're not behind.  You don't need to catch up.  Just jump in where you are."  The whole idea is great!  It's easy to feel overwhelmed and like you'll never get anything done.  That reminder is incredibly helpful every time I think about it.
• Getting rid of everything you don't love, haven't used in the past six months, and won't likely use again in the next six months is a brilliant strategy.  I've built myself into the mentality that I can't get rid of anything because I might need it for something and I just won't have it.  That's the trials of living in such a fluctuating situation as I have.  When you have no stability, it's easier to cling to stuff figuring that stuff will somehow give you stability.  The reality is if I can go a year without using it, I probably will never actually need it again.  Someone else could make better use out of it.  The same goes for things I don't love.  If they bring back sad or painful memories, why am I keeping them?
• She always adds helpful reminders for healthy habits, like menu planning and getting a home cooked meal on the table, something that many families never get.  That's a perfect example of a healthy practice that seems too much for most people.  She's also always on her reminders to drink water (I think she even put it into her routines!) which is good for people like me who let themselves get dehydrated.  Another good one is reminders for anti-procrastination day, cleaning out the refrigerator, and using things before they go bad.  Let's not forget the importance of good sleeping habits and taking time out for yourself!
• There's no such thing as perfect.  I just need to do my best every day and stop letting my perfectionism eat away at me.  Just because my house won't be perfectly clean, organized, and clutter-free in a day doesn't mean I'm doing a bad job.  It just means I've got a lot of work ahead of me!

The list goes on and on.  I know some people find her a little out there.  She's definitely more geared towards homemakers than towards career women (though she does include a lot geared towards them as well).  I have to say, her women oriented feel to everything is a little overwhelming, to a point, as though women are the ones who are supposed to be cooking, cleaning, and everything else, but the reality is that very few men are actually homemakers.  Very few men do all the cooking and the cleaning, and even fewer men are willing to jump on board with this idea at first.  I guess in my experience, women are more naturally inclined to have a clean home that's inviting to their family and any company they might have.  I guess that's also the reason for the stereotypical bachelor pad and the need for "a woman's touch".

One of these days I'll actually pick up a copy of Flylady's book, Sink Reflections.  I have to admit, I'm rather curious about it.  After reading everything on her site, I'm very interested to read it!  She also has Body Clutter: Love Your Body, Love Yourself, but I don't think that one would be near as useful for me.

I know there's a lot out there about FlyLady being some God driven crazy lady that needs to hold everyone's hand because there are people who need to be told every moment of the day, but in truth, it's not about that.  Yes, there are some people out there who hold on to the most ridiculous stuff (see the show Hoarders...) but the reality is most people aren't like that.  Also a true thing, most people who are looking for books on storage solutions, organization, and are considering buying a bigger home just to house their stuff probably could use a system like this.  It seems these are the people who claim the system to be the least useful of all.

Honestly, FlyLady has given me the tools needed to pull things together and start getting my house in order.  It's not about hand-holding.  I don't need someone to tell me what I need to throw away or give away.  However, it's nice to have reminders that this needs to get done, and if I'm dedicated enough, I can stay on top of this.  Without FlyLady, I'd probably find a way to make it work, but until then, I'd still be buried under all this stuff!

Chores, Children, and Responsibility

It seems everyone has an opinion when it comes to chores and children.  Some people feel that kids should enjoy their childhood and chores are completely inappropriate.  Others feel that children should do all the chores since their parents spend all their time and energy working to keep a roof over their head and food in their bellies or actually staying at home and parenting.  There are, of course, tons of people who fall somewhere in between.

Where do I fit in all of this?  Well, I'm certainly not an extremist by any means, but I do have my opinions on the matter.  Some of them come from my own upbringing.  Some of them come from my own experiences.  Also have taken the time to understand the wide range of varying opinions on the matter.

Thinking back to when I was a child, my sister and I had no chores.  We didn't have any responsibility around the house, and therefore, didn't have any respect for my house.  I didn't need to worry about doing my dishes because someone would always be there to do them for me.  I didn't need to worry about cleaning up my room because my mother would eventually get fed up, come in, and do it for me.  I didn't have to do anything but go to school, do my homework, and play.  It wasn't until I got older and my mom stopped doing everything for us, and seemed to stop caring all together, that I finally picked up and started doing my own chores and cleaning.  It got to the point where doing a dish meant washing one to use, and everyone really stopped caring.

I've known plenty of kids who have grown up not having to lift a finger around the house.  In many cases these same children have grown up to have challenges in cleaning their own homes as adults.  I've even known a few who, as adults, have their mother come over and clean their home for them.  It seems there's a correlation between having no responsibilities or chores and learning to keep house later.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the kids that have all the responsibility for the chores in their house.  I've known a few like that.  When the kids do all the chores and get the feeling that their parents sit by and do nothing all day, it can often end up with adults who feel that, now that they are adults, they shouldn't have to do any cleaning either.  It leads to challenges with keeping their own house clean, and the added hatred and frustration of having no choice but to do it.  They may want a clean home, but hatred of the task leads them to despise the work involved.

For those of you who know, I've been working a lot with the whole FlyLady system of house cleaning.  The Artsy Eclectic over at Otherwise Quite Good introduced me to FlyLady about two years ago now.  The idea is that a clean home is a blessing to your whole family.  The emphasis is on decluttering, doing everything fifteen minutes at a time, and organization.  Everything for the next morning should be ready to go on the "launch pad" the night before to reduce the craziness of finding things to get out the door and get stuff done the next day.  When going through items in your home to reduce clutter, if you don't use it and don't love it, it's gone.  There's no reason to be carrying around things you don't love and don't need, especially if you're not going to be able to display them so they can be enjoyed.  She believes that if you have a problem with something, rather than getting upset about it and taking actions that lead to negativity and don't get things done, leading to more negativity.  The final thing she encourages is for children to get involved in the process with the Riley Challenges she puts out.  If children learn that keeping a clean house isn't about doing work (work is a four letter word in my book!) and instead it's about loving themselves, respecting their home, and respecting their family, then they'll be more likely to carry that on into their adulthood, bringing forth another generation of organized people with clean, clutter-free homes!

Well, more on FlyLady later.  Right now my topic is about kids and chores.  For the longest time I believed that children shouldn't have chores.  Children shouldn't even have to clean their room if they don't want to because it's their space and they'll keep it the way they like it.  I somehow had this vision of my son's room always being tidy (because that's the way he likes it) and my daughter happily surrounded by scattered toys everywhere.  Once I was finally out on my own and away from my ex I became very aware of exactly how unrealistic that was.  Letting my daughter's room stay a mess often ended up in toys being scattered all throughout the house that she didn't want to pick up.  She would always demand, "Why do I have to put them away?  I don't have to clean my room.  Why should I have to clean anywhere else?"  Then the two children were forced into sharing a room for a while and things got worse.  My normally organized son didn't want to clean up any of his sister's toys, and refused to clean up when she was anywhere to be found.  He wanted to do it on his schedule, before a nap (if he took one) and before bed.

That very day that my daughter complained to me was the one I started putting my foot down.  My children couldn't live chore-free anymore.  They had to learn to keep after themselves, if nothing else, because I just didn't have the energy to keep after them anymore.  I started to feel under-appreciated, like I was expected to be a maid in my own home, and worse still, no one cared if the house was clean or dirty.  Something had to be done about it!  I started instituting room cleaning as a chore.

Just this past fall I found Chore Wars.  I started setting it up and assigned points to each of the chores.  I started with simple things for the kids that they could really handle themselves and really should have been doing anyway, cleaning their rooms and putting the dishes next to the sink when they were done eating so the table was clear and the dishes could be washed.  I told my daughter that they could earn rewards for things like that, and the gold was going to be directly exchangeable for money.  This wasn't something that we were just doing for the kids.  This would allow my partner and I to have an allowance for our own fun spending.  This would mean I could earn my yarn budget from my partner's paycheck without having to dip into child support (unless it was to make something the kids needed) or my business.  It would mean I could pay for a date night to the movies, dinner out now and again, and everything else without feeling too guilty about spending my partner's hard earned cash.  It would also give me a great way to keep track of exactly how much each family member got done each day.  Since my partner was often under the misunderstanding that I did nothing around the house all day.  Let's be honest here, if I do my job well enough, no one will notice that I've done anything, just that things (at the very least) don't get any more messy and cluttered than they were before.  More importantly, it's easy not to notice that the house is cleaner and less cluttered when it doesn't suddenly happen all at once.  The small changes are the hardest ones to notice.

So how does this really tie in with my kids?  My daughter has been asking what else she can do around the house.  She's asked me if she can have doing the dishes as a chore.  She's informed me (didn't know she was in a position to tell me how it is!) that she was doing the sweeping and I'm no longer allowed since it's her chore.  Part of this is the whole Chore Wars thing and the ability to earn a bit of money to buy things she wants, but part of it is the whole feeling of helping.  She's seen how incredibly happy the whole family is when the house is cleaner, so she wants to take part in that.  I have no problems with it.

Since my daughter's started doing chores around the house, she's become more aware of how much of a mess she and her brothers really make.  She and her older brother use team work to manage the dustpan and broom, since we don't have a regular dust pan and brush.  She has decided that making the table before dinner is going to be one of her jobs.  Now that we're in our own home, washing dishes is going to be her responsibility too.  She's not going to be washing sharp knives or incredibly dirty cooking pots, but the difference in her behavior and her outlook on everything has drastically changed.  She cleans up after her own messes more often.  She even keeps after her room more regularly!

I'm not saying I'm going to pay my children with allowance to clean the house.  However, I don't believe in giving children money just for being kids.  In the real world, you don't get paid to do nothing.  I don't believe in my children being my maids either.  However, I do believe in including my children in keeping after the house to teach them the valuable lesson that a clean home is truly a blessing to your family, and cleaning is just one of the many gifts you can give your family.  Helping with house cleaning will create positive patterns for their future, something they can take with them through their whole life, and encourages responsibility.

Children having chores is a benefit to the whole family.  It makes keeping the home a process that the whole family is a part of, so it truly feels like every member of the family is contributing to the home.  Most importantly, children learn important life skills from having the responsibility of doing chores in their own home.  As much as I would like my kids to do nothing all day but be kids, these valuable lessons will help make their own futures brighter.  Not only are my children learning to "bless their home" as FlyLady puts it, they're learning to create a positive, healthy, happy home in their adulthood long before they even get there!

Arts and Crafts: Plastic Loom

When I was little I had one of those plastic weaving looms.  I loved that thing.  I remember it came with conveniently bright neon loops to make things with called Hot Loops, perfectly adapted for the 80s when I got it.  I made more things than I could count with that silly little loom!

My daughter has had one for a while now, but she never wanted to use it.  I told her how it worked and she always said, "That's a lot of work.  Let's do it after I play some more."  She was just never interested.  I have to admit, several times I thought about giving it away.  I was getting pretty sick of toting it around with me everywhere.  It was one more piece of clutter that would never get used.  However, I hung on to it, figuring if my daughter was never interested, perhaps one of the boys would some day think it's fun.

While I was digging through one of our boxes trying to unpack and organize, I found the box for the loom.  Irritated that I didn't have any loops for it, I tossed it aside.  Later I found a bag of the loops and went digging around for the loom.  I was about to give up when I saw the box with the loom sitting tossed off in the corner.  I pulled it out and called my daughter.  We'd give it another try.  What's the worst that could happen?  The loom gets tossed in a box again and forgotten for a while?

My daughter put the first row of loops on without a problem.  It went together quickly and she was quite happy with the way it had looked.  She was working in a pattern because she thought it would be fun.  She chose the colors she liked best with the full intention of making the whole thing in some elaborate pattern.  I had never been able to get her to so much as sit down before, so I was thrilled that we could sit down and work on a craft for once!

After she got the first direction of loops on came the challenging part.  The loops we had were really tight, so she had a hard time weaving them through then getting them on.  As she got further along, the loops she put on first started to pop off and she got quite frustrated.  I eventually had to finish it up for her because it was driving her too crazy.  However, next time we're going to work from both ends towards the middle and I think that will be much easier.  I had to weave the border on it because they were just too incredibly tight for her to work with.  I was having a hard time with them!

Somehow I remember when I was younger this whole thing was a lot easier.  Perhaps it's just the batch of loops we got that were really tight.  It's entirely possible that another batch would yield loops that stretched more and were easier to work with.  I just couldn't remember having quite so many challenges with making pot holders when I was a kid!

However, the box had some great ideas!  It shows the edges stitched together to make blankets and purses.  The ideas they suggested were really fantastic!  Of course, right now we need pot holders the most, and I don't think my daughter would have the patience to weave a purse right now.  Actually, she thought making a pot holder would be great.  She gave it to my partner because she didn't get him anything for Christmas and he had been complaining that we didn't have a pot holder earlier when he tried to pull a cookie sheet from the oven.  He ended up using a kitchen towel instead.  My daughter was so proud of herself and her creation.  She's asked me to get some more loops for her so she can make more pot holders!  "We need some more for the kitchen," she says, "and for the play kitchen too.  Maybe I can use them for blankets and rugs for my dolls too!"

It's taken her a while, but I'm so glad my daughter has finally decided that using her little loom is actually fun!  When they boys get older I may need to pick up another loom or two so that we've got enough for everyone to have their own.  I know I used mine until I was in high school when it soon was replaced with art and jewelry making.  I don't want there to be any fights over who gets to use the loom next!

This whole experience is one more that I find incredibly valuable.  Children need to experience the act of making something for themselves.  It's especially beneficial when something they make is something they can use in their own home.  It teaches children to view things differently in our take-and-toss culture.  It's a lot harder to give up on something you bought at a store than something you made yourself.  Where a store bought potholder might get tossed when it starts to look like it's seen better days, a handmade one will generally keep on being used as long as it still remains useful.  Better care is also often taken of handmade goods, since they hold some special value.  It also teaches children that if they want or need something, maybe they can save a bit of money and get some entertainment out of the deal by making it!

Setting Limits Chapter 5: Are Your Limits Firm or Soft

Okay, it's time for my Monday book review continuation.  I had really meant to keep this going through the holidays, but I'll admit it, I got sidetracked!  With all the moving and everything, it's not surprising.

So here we are again, back at Setting Limits Chapter 5.  This chapter refers to us as parents like a stop light.  Obviously green means go.  However, many parents give their children a yellow light and expect them to stop.  Let's be honest, how many of us really stop at a yellow light?  How many people actually speed up to try and get through before the light turns red?  That's kind of how soft limits can be to kids, like that yellow light that tells them they should stop, but they don't have to.  Kids need a solid red.

The author gives a pretty good list of "soft limit" expressing behaviors:

• Wishes, Hopes, and Shoulds
• Repeating and Reminding
• Speeches, Lectures, and Sermons
• Ignoring the Misbehavior
• Unclear Directions
• Ineffective Role Modeling
• Bargaining
• Arguing and Debating
• Bribes and Special Rewards
• Inconsistency Between Parents
• Ineffective Follow-Through

Each of these is followed by a good, clear description and why these limit setting behaviors aren't giving red lights like you may think they are.  Some of them are pretty obvious, but if you want to know more, I'd suggest you check out the book.

Then we get into the other half of things, tips for giving a good, clear, firm red light:

1. Keep the focus of your message on behavior.
2. Be direct and specific.
3. Use your normal voice.
4. Specify your consequence if necessary.
5. Support your words with action.

I think it is important that the author broke this up into five simple things to keep in mind.  It goes along with the repetition used in the end of the book.  The more reminders you have and the easier to remember, the more likely you'll get it and keep a solid understanding.

The one thing I do like about this chapter over the rest is hidden in the parent study questions is a little practice exercise.  This exercise is to practice setting firm limits with your children and note how they react.  Make note of them.

I have to say, finally, on chapter five, we're making it to the meat of the book!  Isn't this what the whole book was supposed to be about?  Learning how to implement firm limits?  It looks like the book is finally starting to get to its point!

An Educational Card Game?

My daughter got this game a while back, I think for her birthday, but that should show you exactly how well used this game has been to this point.  It's largely been forgotten in all the moves we've had over the past year.  We decided on New Year's Eve to break them out and give them a try.  I gave the directions a read through, and since my daughter still swears she can't read, decided I would read the trivia cards and she would get to answer the questions.  Her goal was to get all the cards in the end.  It turned out to be educational, informative, and a lot of fun!  I can only imagine how fun this game could be with several players.

So what was this game that was so great for my family?  There were actually two games, Professor Noggin's Earth Science card game and Professor Noggin's Outer Space card game.  The game is fairly simple to play.  There's a six sided die with each game, though it only uses numbers one through three.  The cards all have pictures on them with the name of the subject the questions will be on, such as stars, Saturn V Rocket, astronauts, comets, etc for the Outer Space version and rain, continental drift, rain forest, etc for the Earth Science version.  There are two levels of play on each card with three questions in each level.  If you answer the trivia question right, you get the card.  If you answer it wrong, the correct answer is read aloud and the card goes to the bottom of the pile, recycled back into play.  Each player rolls the die and is given the corresponding question on the card, 1-3.  You can choose the harder or easier level for knowledge, or mix the levels to allow those who are more knowledgeable to play with those who are less so, like parents getting the harder questions and children getting the easier ones.

I have to admit, I expected my daughter to do a lot better on both trivia sets than she did.  In part, it was late and we were both tired, but I was also surprised at how hard some of the easy questions were!  Well, it's not so much that they were hard as some of them were answers I didn't even know, like the Russians being the first country to have a manned space expedition, or that the first creature to orbit earth was a dog.  In some cases, these were things I feel I should have known, but must have forgotten somewhere along the line.  I didn't take a look at the harder trivia questions, but I'd be curious to know.

While I do think the subjects were great as stand-alone games, I did think about how fun it would be to play a mixed category kind of game with cards from each of the subjects they offer (and there's a lot of subjects!) to create some larger game, though working through all the questions would surely take forever.  I do think the idea of having mixed genres for information would be a lot of fun.  It would also take slower to cycle through the cards.  Once the child knows the information fairly well and the trivia starts to become easy, you can then go on to the harder questions, or you could add it to the list of those to use for mixed trivia to keep the brain sharp, jumping from subject to subject, something I always enjoyed as a child.  I have to admit, collecting all the sets could become quite pricey, but if you use them regularly, it would be a good investment.  It's also yet another fun game that can be played as a family.  While the younger ones may not be ready to tackle the harder questions, by listening in as the parents try to answer the questions, or have the right answer read to them, they'll start to pick up on the answers themselves!  It's a great learning tool that the whole family can be in on (and learn something from!) which is also excellent!

My family does best with learning in a fun and engaging way, such as playing games.  Because of that, games such as these are perfect!  They take subjects like science out of books and turn them into something really fun and interactive.  Unlike science experiments, these games allow the family to work with trivia that can open up the curiosity to expand deeper into the subject or not as the child chooses.  Science experiments are also wonderful, but take time, resources, and typically a lot of clean-up!  The card game can be opened up and started in less than a minute and goes away in slightly longer than that!

I love these games.  I'm really looking forward to being able to make the investment on more in the future.  We haven't been working on them long, but this has been a great way to learn some new, fun facts for my daughter!  Who knows?  It may start with these card games, then end up with a love for something even more challenging, like Trivial Pursuit!

New Year, New Home!

It's the first day of 2011!  We've just spent our first night in our new home.  Many of our possessions were already here from moving throughout the week, but yesterday we got some of the big stuff done.  If all goes well, all of our stuff will be moved, taken care of, and done in no time.

In this new year we will be moving our beloved pets to a friend's house.  She'll be watching them for us for a while until we can put down our pet deposit here, something we won't be able to do until we're a little more situated.  As much as it's sad to know our pets won't be coming with us for a while, I know this will only be temporary and our whole family will be here before we know it.

Already we're settling in to our new home.  Books are put away on the shelves, food was stocked in the pantry.  I'm honestly happy to have a pantry!  With as may cabinets as we have, I wasn't expecting one!  I was also worried about having to spend a good deal of money for starter foods in a new house.  Apparently I hadn't thought about my own spending habits.  I'll admit it, I learned to shop like my family always did.  You always buy more food before you need it and make sure plenty of it is non-perishable.  I've lived that way my whole adult life.  I have to say, it's wonderful to know you have no money for food, then look into the refrigerator to find it empty, only to be pleasantly surprised by a stock of mac and cheese, pasta, and plenty of canned veggies.  As a result, we may still be largely all boxed up, but it's really starting to feel like home!

Yesterday we packed up the kids and waited at the new house.  They sat and played with Play-Doh while the adults took care of moving, unpacking, and everything else.  I got all the chapter books I found put up on the shelves.  I sorted out the toys to be put into separate rooms.  My daughter was thrilled to have her baby doll and her Springfield doll back.  She's only disappointed that her doll clothes aren't here.  I'm sure those will be moved some time today.  We all sat around the house and ate Taco Bell (an indulgence we really couldn't afford, but it will be the last for a long time and we had no pots with which to cook!) while drinking soda.  When the kids started to get tired (but couldn't sleep thanks to the fireworks crazy locals), my daughter and I played card games and on the computer.  I have to confess, it was secretly a moment of homeschooling, but it was fun and kept her busy.  It also kept her brothers out of her hair for a while!

After everyone went to bed, I went and made the house my own.  We still need to spend a good deal of money in making this house an actual home with all the preparations necessary, but that will come in time.  For the time being I threw cleaning rags under each of the bathroom sinks, the kitchen sink, and draped across the center divider of the sink for a dish rag.  I've got them color coded for each area they get used on, just so we can keep track of what belongs where.  We had to get new cookie sheets, casserole dishes, and utensils.  It's amazing how much stuff you lose along the way when you move so much and don't need it.  They all got put away neatly, and I expect them to stay that way!  We picked up a broom, dishwasher detergent, and blue dawn.  At least we know we'll have clean dishes!

Today we have a sad need for more shopping.  Shower curtains are a necessity.  We need cleaners for the house to wipe up the stove, counters, and table.  We need some thumb tacks for hanging things on the walls.  While nails are definitely better for pictures and things, tacks are much easier and hold up pretty much everything we could want on the walls fairly securely.  Besides, there are some things, like artwork from the kids and posters, that tacks are ideal for.  As I'm unpacking, pictures and posters will start going up.  Artwork will start to appear on the walls too, I'm sure.  That's a part of having a real home, not just a place to dump your stuff and fall asleep at night.  I hate to say it, but I've never had that before.  In most of my homes the walls have been these pristine surfaces of white.  Rarely did we put up even a single picture.  I know that was a largely a factor of my ex-husband.  After living with him I was shocked when my partner finally started staying in my room and put his band posters up on the wall.  I wanted to cry.  He just couldn't do that!  The walls had to be bare!  Posters and things were just tacky!  Of course, now I really love it.  I think it really brings out an element of personality in a home.  He tacked up pictures that he and my daughter sat together and colored for me one day.  I still have them.  Now I'm starting to think about the kinds of arts and crafts projects I can make with the kids and hang up on the walls to decorate for every holiday.  We could be in for a lot of fun.

Again, I'm getting side-tracked, but the point is, for the first time in a very long time I look around my house and think, "I'm home."  It's a new year in a new place.  I'm leaving behind a lot of my old friends (though some are definitely going to continue to be a part of my life!) and I'm starting over fresh.  From the looks of it, 2011 is going to be a great year, and it's already starting off on the right foot!