August Syllabus, July Report Card B-

August. This is what I think of when I say the word. August. Hot. Very Hot. Also overwhelming. This is the last month before the down swing into the holiday season. I've found that the year is a lot like a roller-coaster. The faster you go up to the top, the faster the drop. Since this year has flown by so far I guess there's really only a few weeks until Christmas. Okay so I'm exaggerating. A little.  I've noticed my anxiety levels climbing lately. I'm starting to freak out worry about practically everything, even in my dreams. I'm starting to fray around the edges a little so my August projects might seem a little more Me-focused, than they have been.

Back to business. July Report Card.

House Projects - B

• Hang Curtains: A
• Find Something for Kitchen/Ruby work surface: C (I did find something. It needs to be painted and brought over. Since that wasn't done maybe I should give myself an incomplete or something.)

Personal Project - C
I did get a binder for all of the recipes I saved. I didn't organize them, but plan on it today. I also have a cute idea to make it look like my existing recipe book but it involves a trip to a color copier and I have not wanted to provide that amount of effort.

Group Project - B+
We went on all of our field trips. We watched less tv - with the exception of yesterday. It was too darn hot. Plus yesterday was technically August.

So based on my superior math skills I say July was a B- and I'll take it.

August Syllabus

House Project

1. Make-up work from last month. Finish the kitchen.
2. Bedroom Makeover. Clean it. Move it around. Get rid of junk.
3. Clutter purge

Personal Project

1. Make-up work from last month. Finish the recipe project.
2. Cousin Lilly's birthday project

Self-improvement Project
Walking program.
I've signed up for a daily newsletter for a walking for fitness and stress reduction plan. Gives goals and set daily requirements and some required thinking activities. I'm hopeful. It seems doable.

July Syllabus

July. My birth month. My Month. Starts with independence, parades, and fireworks. Has some grilling, cherries, berries, sun and family fun in the middle. Ends with presents and a celebration of me and all of my awesomeness.
Okay, so I like July. Realistically. It's hot, humid and almost always end up with a sunburn, but hey...it's summer and that's how it's supposed to be.

Whitewater WI 4th of July Parade




Field trips scheduled for this month:
I am determined to go Blueberry picking. There are some farms west of us and a little south. That may happen next weekend but we'll see. There's really only a month worth of Blueberry season and it's been open a week now. Pressure is on people.

We'll be taking another trip to J's parents summer house, on a lake in Wisconsin. We went for a big family gathering for the Fourth of July weekend. We all had a great time. No phone, no internet, no TV. That's what I'll be doing in honor of my birthday. A nice quiet family getaway to bond as a family. How nice is that?

"Hi Grandpa, do you like parades too?"


On to the Syllabus:

Personal Project for July

Since I went through all my magazines last month and now have a mags worth of recipes I'm interested in trying, I feel like I need to put them together somehow. Organize them. Maybe in a binder of some kind. Though not a binder because I think that's ugly. This project will take a trip to the office supply store to check out my options.

House Project for July

Finish the curtains, hang them in the kitchen window. Find new desk, table, workspace to make cooking dinner with Ruby, safer, easier and more fun. Maybe some new pot holders and an apron.

Group Goal for July - Exercise/Activity

I want to get out, once a week, all three of us and walk, bike, play lawn games, kick a soccer ball, or even just my Roo's favorite game of 'runa round.' Acceptable activities include going to the botanic gardens, walking in the forest preserves. Going to a field park and kicking the soccer ball for at least and hour. I know J and I aren't getting enough activity and I'm starting to think Roo would be a little more compliant sometimes if she was a little more worn out toward the end of the day.
To encourage this goal, I am instituting a no TV on Sunday, before 6pm, policy. If I said all day, J and I would never get to watch our shows together. We barely have time to now and we really enjoy the time together.

I am continuing the cleaning schedule I cam up with last month. Seems to work well. I'm also going to continue to try and not throw out leftovers. Speaking of leftovers, Menu to follow.

"Ruby loves swimming and Grandma"

Monday Progress Report

It's Monday and I believe I have successfully accomplished my goals for the week.

I stuck to the meal plan until Sunday. We made an impromptu visit to the in-laws house to fix my aging and unruly back. I enjoy the perk of having a physical therapist in the family by marriage. After that I was in no mood to cook any of the delicious things I had picked up from the farmers market that same day. Fresh English peas, local red currants, fresh Madeleine cookies baked by a local French catholic abbey. Yum. We ended up picking up our dinner instead. Since technically Sunday is my 'fun' day on the meal plan I still consider it a win.

As far as the cleaning schedule, it was all completed just some of them weren't completed on the same day I had listed. Some early, some late, some like the magazine de-clutter project is still going on. In fairness, I had eight magazine holders full of old Cooking Light, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, and Cooks Illustrated to go through and keep only the recipes I was likely to make. So far I have removed about a magazines worth of pages from six of those magazine holders. Only two to go and I'm planning on finishing that up tonight.
On the agenda for this week:

Monday - Finish magazines project, grocery shopping
Tuesday - Clean bathroom and wash floors, Fold and put away laundry, unload car and vacuum car out.
Ew to the car. Toddlers are messy and I don't remember the last time we did this.
Wednesday - Vacuum, straighten balconies, Father's Day project
Currently our balconies are being used by an expecting squirrel couple. We've been giving them their space but my parents will expect somewhere to suck on their cancer sticks away from the rest of us.
Thursday - Dinner with a friend, Finish up Father's Day Project.
Friday - Hanging with the parents
Saturday -Dinner with Friends
Sunday - Father's Day

It's a light week because we're entertaining most of the time I usually have to do things around the house.
Next week I'm going to have to start my house project and personal project if I'm going to finish by July.

Now for the obligatory picture of my daughter doing something supercute.

The Asian Chicken Noodle Salad was a big hit with everyone. Even when she had cold leftovers for lunch one day after. This weeks meal plan to follow.

June Syllabus

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Picture from Style Me Pretty

June. Month of roses, marriage and the pearl.
It's named for Juno, Mother of the Gods.
Well, at least she got a month named after her. I have a hard enough time taking care of one human child. God-children? No thanks.

So the meal plan for the week.

Monday - Baked Pollock with homemade macaroni and cheese, and Ruby's favorite, peas.
Tuesday - Taco Joes, Southwestern rice, corn on the cob with lime butter.
Wednesday - Asian Chicken Noodle Salad with Green beans
Thursday - Vegetarian Fried Rice
Friday - Date Night(I do have a plan but I can't say yet because he might read it)
Saturday - Family Pizza Night
Sunday - Slow roasted BBQ rubbed chicken, Potato Salad, and farmers market veg.

I'm really digging For the Love of Cooking. I'm looking forward to trying the salad recipe. I'll post pics and the official Ruby review.

So we know the dinner-time schedule, let's talk about the "home"work.

Monday - Clean out the fridge
Someone should probably take away my sanitation license for not practicing at home as well as on the job. I mean it's not that bad, mostly a little embarrassing. More embarrassing that it's been worse.

Tuesday - Mop kitchen and bathroom floors
Again with the ew. Normal people just do this stuff right?

Wednesday - Bathroom deep clean
I'm usually pretty reliable with this one - no worries here.

Thursday - De-clutter Day.
Pick one small space, before and after pictures.

Friday - Vacuum a la husband.
He's pretty good about this one too.

Saturday - Toy purge/switch(every other week) and
Our family's Good 'ole-fashioned Laundry party. Yes - We know how to have a good time on a Saturday night. Honestly it's because we share a laundry room with eleven other neighbors and there is NO competition on Saturday night.

Sunday - Farmer's Market and Pancakes.

I'm excited about this. So far, seems pretty doable.

Projects will be revealed tomorrow as I am getting the sleep queues from the Roo and I have approximately 5 minutes until she official reaches monster status.

Where does the time go?!

A month? Seriously...wow. So I'm going to pretend that didn't happen.

Here are some of things that happened.

"Hi Mommy!"

"Yes I do know how cute I am."

Mystery tree flowers/leaves/things that I love.

"Mommy. Is this a worm on my shirt?"
And for my next trick I'll need a volunteer."

On to business. I have decided that every Monday will be the day I put up my syllabus for the coming week. This Monday will be no exception. The syllabus will include the following:
A menu
Goal for the week
Daily 'Home'work Assignments
A monthly Personal project or the update
A monthly House project or the update
A monthly Group assignment or the update

I have a list of tons of project ideas. We've come up with a meal plan. I'm excited and ready to go. Since this post was a little more a catch-up post, I will make the official syllabus for this week a separate post to follow...after dinner but before bath time. Promise.

Words to Live By

       This fantastic little cross stitch kit found at Home Ec Shop sums up all of the emotions, worries, and whines that I have been having over the last year, possibly longer. I need to Shut 'my' Piehole. It is time to stop whining about how tired am all the time.  Of course I'm tired. Who isn't? I work full time. I attempt to keep a house just clean enough so that child services doesn't come in and declare it unfit for child habitation. Oh, and the child thing; I'm a parent of a three-year old. Big deal, she's not the only three-year old in the world. She's healthy. She's happy. I'd also choose her over my husband to have my back in a bar fight. Let's just say her middle name should be Sassy. She's a handful. What three-year old isn't?
       But that's not why I'm here. I'm here because I am currently failing at life. I'm talking grades, my fellow crazies. (I mean we're all a little crazy, right? Especially us bloggers- talking to faceless strangers about all our inner most secrets and fears. Documenting all of our beautiful and sometimes outlandish likes, talents, and skills.)
       Back to the fail. It's a numbers game. Simply put, there are seven days in a week. In a good week I'm completing just enough tasks to get to the next imaginary "weekend." I wash just enough laundry, that rarely gets folded let alone put away. I cook the basic components of a nutritious meal prepared with no added joy or excitement. Then it's a waiting game until bath time and bedtime so that I can finally go to bed, wake up, and repeat the whole day over again in the great race toward the weekend. For parents, there are no weekends. I've been conditioned my entire life to see the weekend as some sort of promised land, home to all the rewards due from the hard work I had to endure and suffer through Monday through Friday. Every Saturday through Monday, in parenthood, has been one big disappointment and filled with the same drudgery as the work week. Wow, that statement took a long time to realize. Again, back to the math.  Time to confront my demons.


Momma K's Typical Report Card
7 - days a week
0 - projects done
0 - activities for spiritual growth
0 - major home making jobs done
0   Super awesome MoMent.

Those zeros are about to change. Well, I want them to anyway. I have decided it's time to start living, doing, and start passing the course. Throughout my whole life, I have always done barely enough to get by and I have FINALLY realized that simple fact is the reason for my hardship and unhappiness.


Realization: I barely get by.

So, the grand plan:

I will give myself one personal homework assignment in four subjects.
Personal Project, Spirit, House Management, and Mommy:101.
As someone always fond of grading on a curve and realism,  I have dropped one day from the equation, hence:

4 assignments/6day = passing grade.

Coming soon: The Syllabus.
God Speed, fellow crazies.