Kids had a blast at my parents this weekend. Fishing with Grandpa off the dock and cruising around in the little car my mom got them at a garage sale.
Obviously I haven't done the best keeping up with the daily updates as I calculate its been about 15 days since I posted. Kirk home, summer time mowing and gardening, book writing and general living take a lot of hours;-). I am starting a time log based on the book 168 hours by Laura Vanderkam- there's also a website with a time chart you can download for free. I know I could be a lot more efficient with my time and hope the time chart gets me there!
Goals update.
Marriage - Going very well here. We've had a LOT of long talks about our goals, our lives, what we want, where we're headed both individually and as a couple, what we need to do to accomplish those goals. We're are definitely more in tune with each other here.
Parenting - Kirk's morning hour of home school is a blast - at least for me. We do a wee bit of reading, math, science, Spanish, spelling and writing. It takes about an hour without breaks, and an hour and a half if we do 2 mini-lessons, then take a break, then two more, etc. His reading and spelling and math are going really well, not so good with the Spanish. We've just been trying to learn words here and there with workbooks and neither of us is retaining much. Will have to see if I can find a game or something. He definitely prefers the board games and card games as learning tools to the flash cards or workbooks so I try to mix it up a lot. The biggest battle now seems to be the bickering between the two boys. I got three books from the library on sibling rivalry yesterday and will start reading to day for ideas and insights into this.
Business - We found a company that will we can use to offer the Revolutionary War set. It's a very, very small profit margin, but will at least allow us to test our concept of the books being acted out. I'd hoped to have it out to market by this Christmas, but now that I'm writing, I'm not sure it'll be done by then.
Book - I go to a friend's book club tomorrow night to read my version, at least the beginning. I was tempted to cop out and just tell them about it or reschedule, but I don't want to be a wimp;-). Also found the headquarters of the Midwest Book Review is located here and called the editor in chief for my search for a professional editor and illustrator and he had lots of good ideas.
Health/beauty - Signed up to run a 5k in August after I read in one of the 10 Shape/Self/Health magazines that I hauled home from the free bin at the library yesterday that you can do this in 5 weeks by following their plan. I'd also read if your goal is more than 6 weeks out, it can be hard to follow through. So I went home, did a Google search and signed up for the first one that popped up. Tried to run a mile last night to no avail, but I will get there! I also told Kirk if I drink more than one Diet Coke a day, I have to pay him $2 and after adding $6 in three days to our $126 a week food budget (which was already tight) I have been doing well at this - other than the last two days when he and Kai were at the grandparents and I could drink as much as I wanted;-).
Spirit - Upped my positive input. Now listening nightly to various C.D.s on creativity, peace by Kelly Howell and that is enormously helpful to keep at bay worries, concerns and stress.
Garden - Looks gorgeous - but so many mosquitoes now in WI that I mostly enjoy from inside until August when the bugs will abate.
FI - Did a few good things. Finally called the gas company about why our summer gas bill is still so high - over $50, and she told me to turn off the gas to the pilot light on our fireplace and that could save as much as $10. She said most of the cost was coming from our hot water heater likely, so I did a quick search and found the biggest user -- clothes washing 32 gal, showering 30 gal (likely higher as we take long showers) dishwasher 12 gal. and so on. I posted this on my fridge to remind us to reduce our hot water usage. Our electric bill was up to $150 from $105 last month despite the fact that we haven't even turned on the air conditioning this year, so I may call for an energy audit. We are also doing pretty well following our budget.
House - Hit or miss on any given day:-) Still boxing up clutter!
Good wishes to each of you on your journeys! Five months to go! Eileen
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