Running With Spears

Seven things your kids should see you doing — so they know you’re human!

I see posts sometimes of all the super-important things you must do everyday, and morning routines you should implement, and evening routines, and cleaning habits…and then there are things you have to not only DO but also make sure your kids SEE you do, and I mean I don’t even click on these things so I don’t know for sure, but based on the pictures I’m pretty sure they involve sewing homemade clothes and baking extravagant meals from scratch, and having an hour long quiet time that begins at 5am, and keeping every nook and cranny of your house sparkling clean, and hitting the gym every day, and wearing meticulously styled outfits that are never covered in spit-up or snot or peanut butter…and, of course, ALL THE THINGS!

Just one little problem…there’s not a chance I could manage to be a perfect suzy homemaker, super-mom for one day, much less non-stop.

However, I do have a few things that I make sure my kids see me doing consistently…just so they’re sure I’m human and not a robot or an alien or anything. 😉

1. Sleeping – If I were to get up at the crack of dawn every day, how would my kids know I sleep? This one is super important. Just to make sure they really notice, I like to throw in a shout of, “You get to watch TV as long as you let me keep sleeping!” as soon as they come bounding into my room asking annoying questions like, “What’s for breakfast?”

2. Drinking Coffee – Bonus points for this one if I can get one of my kids to actually prepare the coffee for me while I’m still in bed, that way there’s no question in their mind about what I’m drinking.

3. Eating Chocolate – I keep a bag of Hershey’s in my desk drawer at all times to help me meet this goal.

4. Ordering Pizza – This one is crucial…what kind of human actually makes dinner every.single.day? Not one that I’d believe is real, that’s for sure!

5. Vegging in front of the TV – Granted, this mostly takes place after the kids are in bed, but sometimes I make it a point to put on an episode of Gilmore Girls or Psych in the middle of the day and just chill…probably with my baby and toddler both in my lap, cause it’s not like moms get to actually relax alone when kids are awake, but I do my best to be unproductive and lazy for a good chunk of time.

6. Procrastinating – I do this several times a week by waiting until the last possible minute to scramble and try to get the house decent before my husband gets home and sees how ridiculously messy it got during the day.

7. Spilling Stuff – I do this so often that my kiddos pretty much just laugh when they spill something themselves and call it, “Pulling a Mommy.”

So there you have it…my super important list. I am quite certain my children will never doubt my humanity, because I rock at all of these things! 😀

Meet Wren

Hey guys! So awhile back I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Wren at finchnwren.com where she blogs with her sister…so cool! Wren also introduced me to the Schoolhouse Review Crew which I ended up joining this year thanks to her, so – yayness all around! I love her recent post, “Encouraging Books to Start the New Year.”

Anyhoo, Wren was super sweet and answered some interview questions for me. I’m excited to share her answers with you, so here goes! 🙂

1. Tell us a little about yourself in 140 characters or less.

I was amused to find that the Myers-Briggs test described me pretty well! “Loves: people, children, animals, food, clothing.” (It forgot to include books.) I’m also a wife, a homeschooling mom, writer, gardener, volunteer.

2. What subject do you most enjoy teaching?

I do love teaching art. And history. If I can combine the two, even better!

3. What’s your fall back dinner when you can’t think of anything else to make?

Soft tacos. Especially if we have avocados lying around for fresh guacamole!

4. If you knew you were about to be stranded on a deserted island and could only take one book with you (other than the Bible), what would it be?

I think I would have to find a water-resistant, solar-powered Kindle. Because there are way too many to list here. But I do have a photo of some of my absolute faves!
(If you find/invent that Kindle, please let me know…I need it, too!!!! 😉 -Heather)

5. What’s the hardest room in your house to keep clean?

The bathroom. Does it help explain this if I add that I am the only female in my home?

6. What’s your favorite winter themed craft or activity?

I love preparing and sharing with my family treats (remember, the Myers-Briggs?) that we don’t have in any other season. Like: hot cocoa with whipped cream; hot tea; meatloaf and mashed potatoes; and so on. You get the picture.

7. Most importantly, how do you like your coffee? (Black, Starbucks Frapp, by the pot, whatever.)

I suppose I am a creature of habit! This will sound complicated, but it’s really not.

Every morning I get a cup, add ¾ inch of chocolate soy milk. Then ¾ cup of hot coffee goes on top of that. I finish with ½ inch of Silk French Vanilla Soy Creamer. Ta-da!

Thanks, Wren! That coffee sounds (and looks) AMAZING! I’m definitely going to have to try it as soon as possible! I hope you guys all enjoyed getting to know a smidgen about Wren. She rocks socks! Have a great day, everyone! 😀

Pray at Noon

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” William Wilberforce | Running With Spears
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, which is part of Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

An estimated 2.5 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex industry.

National human trafficking hotlines receives more calls from Texas than any other state in the US and 15% of those calls are from the Dallas- Fort Worth area.

Human Trafficking is happening – around the world and in our own backyards.

You can find out more information here: The Truth of the Matter.
And practical ways to get involved here: You Can Make a Difference.

I’d love it if you checked out those links and learned about the issue. That would be super swell. The main reason I’m writing today, though, is to urge you to join me in one super simple step you can take.

Pray.

Not just once or twice, but every day.

For a few years now I’ve had an alarm set on my phone that goes off at noon every day and simply says, “pray.” When it does, no matter what else I’m doing, I pause for a second and at least say a super quick prayer for the end of human trafficking. I mean, seriously sometimes it’s a super crazy moment and all I manage is, “Father God, please end human trafficking.” Other times I’m able to spend more time in prayer, and I’ll also pray for my family and friends and whatever is on my heart.

Maybe it’s a smidgen lame to have to have an alarm set to remind me to pray…but, you guys, I am NOT one of those super awesome prayer warrior types who gets down on my knees for hours a day and prays for all the things. I wish I was, but I’m just not. Maybe I’ll be more awesome someday, but for now, I have an alarm, and I pray for the end of Human Trafficking every day.

Join me, won’t you? It’s so easy, and I believe prayer makes a difference…even one second, alarm reminded prayers. 🙂

Review of SchoolhouseTeachers.com

I’m so excited to get to tell you guys about the Yearly Membership from SchoolhouseTeachers.com as my first official review with the Schoolhouse Review Crew!

SchoolhouseTeachers offers everything you need to homeschool your kids including online classes, printable lessons, educational games, streaming videos, planners, e-books, tips from other parents, encouraging articles, and more! It’s also a great resource to supplement whatever you’re already doing in your homeschool.

We’re very eclectic homeschoolers and for the most part I encourage my kiddos to pursue whatever interests them, so when I first signed up I encouraged my oldest two to look around the site with me to see what looked fun.

Boo, my six year old free-spirit, didn’t see anything that caught her interest right away so she wandered off. Nevertheless, I’ve found plenty of hands-on activities for her, and lessons that she can participate in along with her big sister, which she likes.

Artist, my eight year old, is another story! She loves to learn, (especially science) and was seeing so many things she wanted to check out that I ended up logging her in on her computer so she can browse on her own and click on
ALL THE THINGS. She’s currently soaking up every known fact about puffer fish so she can quiz me later and laugh maniacally over how much more she knows than I do. 😉

My favorite feature of SchoolhouseTeachers last month was their roundup of Christmas related lessons and activities because Christmas is just the best!!! Only 354 days until next Christmas! Oh, I’m sorry am I not supposed to be that obsessed with Christmas? I actually plan to take down my Christmas decor by mid-January this year, rather than waiting till Easter, so give me a break.

*Ahem* Anyway…I printed out a few Christmas themed spelling and vocabulary word lists with word searches, crossword puzzles, and other festivity! The lessons also included copywork that we skipped because I didn’t care for it, but since everything I’ve come across so far at SchoolhouseTeachers is self-paced and geared for picking and choosing what works for us, that wasn’t a problem. I also printed out a snowman math game that was a huge hit with Artist…even though she pretends to hate math. 😉

This week we decided to kick off our return to school after Christmas break by jumping into an elementary art series focusing on twelve famous artists (and by drinking the absolute maximum amount of coffee allowed while pregnant, because — oy to the vey! ).

The series starts with Michelangelo and had a very brief introduction to him and his artwork, as well as one example to look at. My girls were interested enough that I think they would have been happy to learn more, but the sources listed for extra info for the lesson were library books and I’m way too un-planning-ahead-ish to have checked them out before the lesson. (Plus I’m the worst homeschool Mom ever and just can’t handle libraries…I wouldn’t remember to return the books till after I’d amassed fees equal to 3 times their total value.)

Anyhoo, per the lesson’s suggestion I taped paper to the bottoms of some chairs so my girls could see what it’s like to do art lying on your back like Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel! Even Smiles participated in the project and they all thought it was super awesome. 😀

They’re already begging to get to do the next lesson which is on Picasso and includes cutting out shapes and creating cubist pictures. I’m sure they’ll all have a blast with it, and I’m looking forward to showing my girls how very different Picasso’s artwork is from Michelangelo’s because Boo sometimes feels that since her masterpieces don’t turn out anything like her big sister’s it means they’re not as good. Discovering that all famous artists have their own unique style should be a huge encouragement to her!

For Smiles, there’s a course called “Letters, Numbers, Shapes, and Animals” that has educational videos I can distract her with guilt free while I ~~engage my older two in enthralling, marvelous lessons~~ drink my coffee in peace. 🙂

I expect to get a ton of use out of my membership this year. As soon as Artist finished her required schoolwork today she asked if she could get on SchoolhouseTeachers and proceeded to find a lesson about chordates and copy down key pieces of information to read to us all over lunch. (Yes she’s a little quirky. No, I wouldn’t change her for the world. ) She’s also informed me that she plans to use the site to learn French and guitar and “at least a little bit of everything,” which is just over 200 different classes, so we’ll see, lol.

The Yearly Membership is typically $139, but through the end of the month you can use the code “CREWFOLLOWER” to get 50% off!

FYI it doesn’t benefit me in any way, shape, or form for you to purchase a membership, but I do think it’s pretty awesome, and 50% off is a fantastic discount — just saying. If you’re intrigued but want more people’s opinions, there are a bunch of other Crew reviews you can check out. 🙂

Also, here’s a video that probably does a better job of telling you all about SchoolhouseTeachers.com than I did: Introduction to SchoolhouseTeachers.com. 😀

And while I’ve been busy blogging, my girls took all the cushions off our massive couch and turned them into a giant “mush mound” that I’m afraid they’re about to start leaping off like crazy little hooligans, so I should probably go intervene…or pretend I haven’t noticed quite yet, cross my fingers for the best, and go make myself some coffee (decaf unfortunately, I’ve already hit my limit for the day – pregnancy problems, ugh).

I hope your 2016 is off to a great start! And that your coffee is strong and plentiful. 😉

Savor

I haven’t really made New Years Resolutions in awhile…it’s just not my thing. But last year I decided to choose one word to focus on for the year. I chose act, as in — do something.

This year it took me awhile to settle on just the right word…but after a relaxing, candle-lit bath the other night I realized that what I really need to be more intentional about this year is savoring the little things, the quiet moments, the giggles, the snuggles, the coffee…all the things. 🙂

So that’s my word…SAVOR. I hope I manage to make it a big part of my year!

So that’s my word…SAVOR.
I hope I manage to make it a big part of my year!