Love Me As I Am

Educating My Mind

Christi — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:16:08 +0000

One of the basic tenets of Thomas Jefferson Education is “you, not them,” meaning that you are to go back and figure out where your own classical education is lacking and start there, educating yourself. Your children come alongside and learn with you at their own page. Their education is their own. (There are TONS of great tenets of TJEd and it really is more of a lifestyle than a “curriculum” – we’ve only implemented a few and already our family is much stronger).

My education is very much lacking. My public school experience was not one in which I really learned anything worth knowing. I memorized facts to pass a test but I never learned anything. I had no idea history was interesting until I started using Story of the World with my kids – and I find it fascinating.

I recently purchased The Well-Educated Mind as a resource to help me get a better education and have not been disappointed. This book is so helpful. Susan gets into the why and the how and goes so far as to give lists of books in each genre (in chronological order, as they should be read to really get the most of them) for you to start with, right down to the ISBN’s of the versions that she feels are best and why.

I can’t wait until the first book, Don Quixote, arrives on Saturday!

This Week’s Meals

Christi — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:00:21 +0000

The kids are LOVING it when I put all kinds of stuff on the table and let them make their own plates. Thanks to one of my BFF’s (yes, I’m blessed with more than one!) we now have a table big enough to do this on!

I usually plan a few meals and then on the other days we eat leftovers and veggies/fruits.

Here is the plan for this week:

Zucchini and Meatballs (didn’t get to make it last week)
Ranch Soy Tacos (minus the tortillas) – served over Cabbage Noodles?
Sweet Potato Chicken Salad (this is soooooooo good!!)
Grilled burgers and Zucc Fritters
Chicken and Grilled Cabbage
Cabbage and Bacon Pancakes

What We’re Reading April 24, 2012

Christi — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:22:10 +0000

I need to check out some new books but this is what we have right now:

Cat and Rat : the legend of the Chinese zodiac
The Cheshire Cheese cat : a Dickens of a tale
The golden age of pirates : an interactive history adventure
Leif the Lucky
The time traveler’s guide to medieval England : a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century
Don’t let the pigeon stay up late!
Knuffle Bunny : a cautionary tale
Pigeon finds a hot dog!
Famous men of the middle ages : [history for the thoughtful child
Days of the knights : a tale of castles and battles
Good masters! Sweet Ladies! : voices from a medieval village
Knight
Knights
On board the Titanic : what it was like when the great liner sank
A samurai castle
Sir Cumference and the sword in the cone – these are the best math books!!

I’m almost finished with “Deconstructing penguins : parents, kids, and the bond of reading” – it’s amazing, I’m going to have to buy my own copy, I can see.

I finished Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea and am now reading Anne of the Island – loving these books!

Our family read-aloud right now is Charlotte’s Web, we’re over half way through it and are making lapbooks I got from Confessions (she’s got unit studies for 10 different books, you should hop over and check it out).

I ordered The Well-Educated Mind and Little Britches from Amazon yesterday and thanks to prime they’ll be here tomorrow – I can’t wait! Some friends and I are starting a monthly book club and Little Britches is our first book. If you are local and wanna join us shoot me an email!

Time for a Change

Christi — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:09:40 +0000

Mr. Fox has agreed to give hard-core Paleo a go with me. We have been 80% or so but never really committed to it. Last week we did. We’re still having a cup of sweet tea and I still have cream/sugar in my coffee so we’re working slowly to get rid of those. BUT we’ve not had any wheat, nor any grains, really.

I’m exercising and keeping track of what I do/eat here. I know it doesn’t seem like much but this fat girl is working her butt off (hopefully literally.)

Yesterday:

warm up with jogging/knee lifts in place
25 jumping jacks
50 push presses with a small bar (all I could find)
more jogging in place
a few minutes of leg kicks with punches
15 jumping jacks
25 push presses
more leg kicks
walk down the hill and back
and then I walked around the driveway until my heart rate came down

Food:

Breakfast: smoothie (banana, walnuts, hemp powder, dates, almond milk)
Lunch: egg salad with the last of the GF crackers
Dinner: burger salad

Today:

I walked up the hill and back.
10 sit ups
5 burpees
3 pushups
5 stepping box jumps on the steps out back
10 box jumps (jumping on the smallest step)
10 more sit ups
5 burpees
then I walked the steps for 10 on each leg
10 wall pushups

Breakfast: coffee, sausage
Lunch:
Dinner:

Meal Plan April 18-24, 2012

Christi — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:43:51 +0000

Pizza
Tacos (seasoned meat with veggies)
Zucchini and Meatballs
CP Mexican Chicken

Easter Basket Planning

Christi — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:18:19 +0000

Last year I did a Resurrection basket and it was fun but since we’re doing Resurrection Eggs this year I wanted to do something different for the baskets. But I still don’t want a ton of sugar or junk toys all over the house so thanks to Pinterest I’ve come up with some great ideas. I’ll be back with pics once I get it all made.

Eggimals

Christi — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:13:00 +0000

We made these today – it was a lot of fun and we had even more fun mixing and matching them!!

Meal Plan March 25, 2012

Christi — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:11:32 +0000

Going to try something new to help me establish a better routine. Each week 3-5 days will be the same thing.

M – Chicken Broccoli Casserole
T – Taco Tuesday
W – Spaghetti
T –
F – Crockpot
S – Grilled meat and veggies
S – leftovers

This weeks fill-ins are:

M:
T: Ranch Soy Tacos
W: Pizza Pasta
T: CP Bacon Sour Cream Chicken and Smashed Potatoes
F: CP Enchilada Soup
S: Grilled meat and veggies
S: leftovers

Lunch:
Chicken Salad
Boiled eggs and veggies
leftovers

Snacks:

Fruit (apples, grapes, pears, cantaloupe)
Energy Cookies

193

Christi — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 03:14:07 +0000

That’s where I am in counting His blessings. Technically, I’m further along because I’ve been writing them down in two other locations, but in the main journal I’m on 193.

Here are few I took pics of instead of listing:

160. blooms

162. her love of flowers… that are usually weeds. To her, a flower is a flower and they’re all beautiful.

165. this beautiful tree in my BFF’s yard – she says, “my poor tree” but I see the promise.

178. birds chirping in the dark
179. kids bending and twisting through yarn laser beams in the hallway
180. a tent in the living room and two girls curled inside, smiling
181. R3 “Mommy, it’s a squirrel… a lizard… a moth! Come, look!!”
182. yard work, hard work
183. friends who come not only to play but to help
184. stains on clothes, actual wood stain
185. red: shorts from a friend
186. red: skin after working hard in the sun
187. hard: BFF moving to NC

What We Are Reading – March 14 – 20

Christi — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:56:58 +0000

First of all, have you seen this site?

We Give Books is a free website that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don’t have them, simply by reading online.

VERY cool.

Mr. Fox came home from work today, after a stop at the library, with an armload of books I had requested. So now R1 is reading The golden age of pirates : an interactive history adventure.

And together we are enjoying:

Lon Po Po : a Red-Riding Hood story from China

Ms. Rubinstein’s Beauty

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! – R3 really enjoyed this one. Cute story about a gardener trying to keep the rabbits out.

Where’s Walrus? – there are NO words, which was a pleasant surprise – R3 had so much fun telling me the story!

We started Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy last week, got about 2 chapters into it and discovered we weren’t really all that interested. So, now we’re gonna give The Cheshire Cheese Cat : A Dickens of a Tale a try starting tomorrow.

I just finished One Thousand Gifts and am looking forward to perusing How They Croaked : the Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous that Mr. Fox brought home today. I’ve got about 8 more books on request that go along with the Middle Ages (where we are in Story of the World).