A Tour of Our Family Binder

Here is a little organizational tip that has kept me sane--in case one of your new year's resolutions is to be more organized. Last year I started keeping a family binder. I wanted a central place to keep phone numbers, family plans, and notes about our family values and family council decisions. I love having so many things ready at my finger tips. Here is a tour of our binder and all of our forms.

In the front I keep a list of handy phone numbers--places like KidCare, the grocery store, or other places I don't call enough to put in my phone but that are still handy to have around. I keep a list of favorite menu items here. And this is also where I keep our chore lists for Saturday morning cleaning.

These are kept in plastic protectors. The front lists the things they are supposed to do (with blank spots for me to fill in as needed), and the back is a reminder of what they need to do to clean their rooms well.

Also in the very front I keep our SODAS form. SODAS is a teaching tool advocated by Nicholeen Peck. If a child doesn't respond appropriately in a given situation, we might assign them SODAS. It gives them an opportunity to think through the situation, their response options, the disadvantages and advantages of the responses they might choose, and the appropriate solution in such a situation. We love SODAS! If a child needs to write a SODAS I give them this sheet (so they can't claim they don't know how to spell situation or disadvantage) and some time to think and write. It's glorious.

The first tab in the binder is for our family values. (I briefly explain that in this post.) Our values are as follows:

January--forgiveness & repentance
February--love & loyalty
March--service & selflessness
April--faith in Jesus Christ & the Restoration
May--health
June--work
July--virtue
August--courage & integrity
September--knowledge & learning
October--obedience & responsibility
November--gratitude
December--listening & understanding

Every month we celebrate one of these through lots of discussion, scripture memorization, family activities, and family night lessons. This tab is where I keep notes of things we could do in the future or things that have worked well in the past.

Our next tab is where we keep our family council notes. (More about our weekly family council here.) Every week we keep minutes of what we talk about and what decisions we reached. This is really helpful in weeks that follow when someone says, "We talked about that in family council!" Then we can refer back and figure out what really happened and what people just imagined happened. (That never happens at your house, right?)

Our next tab is for our learning achievement levels. (That's discussed in depth in this post.) Here I keep track of what skills are supposed to be learned in each level and what each child is still working on before they can move on to the next level. I also keep our little Avery labels for making the kids "merit badges" for each skill.

The next tab is my sanity tab--planning. Here I keep all of my homeschool lesson plans for the year so I have them ready for quick reference and I know what I need to be ready for each week. I also keep blank budget sheets and our monthly planning forms. Our monthly planning form has items on it that we like to plan ahead for each month--when each child will get their individual outing with a parent, where we would like to go for our dates for the month, when we can attend the temple together, and a five-facet review grid that helps us keep track of how each member of our family is doing physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and socially.

Our final tab is for interviews. On the first Sunday of each month one of us sits down and "interviews" each child. We talk about how they're doing, who their friends are, what they like or don't like about life, or any other topic that seems appropriate. We also plan their monthly outing with Mom or Dad--they can choose anything they want within reason, but often it's just a lunch date or ice cream outing where we can talk to them and give them individual attention.

Whew! That was a huge download. Having a big family requires a lot of work and organization. Our family binder holds a lot of information and keeps me sane!

Wonder

Another beautiful Christmas season is upon us. As always I am filled with the joy of the season. I love pondering the birth of a baby, a pure mother, a faithful stepfather, a bright star, heavenly angels, humble shepherds, and wise men. The beauty of the story overcomes me year after year.
                                     
Perhaps it is because this year I have a two-year-old, and I am once again wanting to help my child (and her older siblings) grasp the truths of a God who loves us so much--a God who condescends, sacrifices, teaches, and loves. The best word I have is wonder.

I wonder at His love. We celebrate it at this season with His birth. He taught it throughout his life by miracles and ultimately giving His life.

I wonder at His life--freely given service, selfless care for others. He condescended to be born in a stable surrounded by animals even though He was the King of Kings. He lived in a world that He made for us, but He did so surrounded by the humble, the sinful, and the downtrodden.

I wonder at His mother, so pure and prepared.

I wonder at Joseph, so faithful, so in tune with God's will.

I wonder at shepherds who ran to see the baby then ran to tell everyone what they had seen.

I wish I could have been there to see it all unfold. I can't. But I can fill my children with the stories, the love, the joy, the peace, the hope, and the wonder of a Savior who loves us so much.

Images courtesy of the LDS media library

                                           
He is wonderful to me.

We Need Each Other

In our bedroom we have a frame that Cameron's dad made for us years ago--our wedding certificate together with our engagement picture. When I look at our engagement picture these days, I see it as being rather symbolic.

Notice how our outfits are virtually identical? Yep, when we were engaged we thought of ourselves as being very similar.

Ten years later I think of us as being different in complementary ways. He is technically gifted, good at math and science and solving problems. I love to hunker down with beautiful literature or music. He's a night person. I'm a morning person. He loves rice. I love bread and pasta. But the truth is, we need each other's differences. Together we have balance and life is beautiful--much more balanced and beautiful than it would be for either of us alone.

On a recent Saturday afternoon our kids (and some of their friends) were running wildly through the house, brandishing plastic swords, hiding behind (and occasionally dismantling) furniture, and yelling names at each other. I squelched my first instinct, which was to shoo them outside so I could enjoy some peace, quiet, and tranquility. I thought of my sweet husband and how much we need each other's differences. And I realized that I also need these wild but sweet, boisterous but tender children of ours.

I crave silence. They love noise. I crave order. They create chaos. I crave alone time. They love to climb all over me. Together we achieve balance. Without them, my life would be oh so sterile and lonely. I need them.

Parenthood is about many things, but the process of becoming is certainly one of those things. These people God puts in my family teach me patience, understanding, sacrifice, and love. I learn to appreciate their differences--my way isn't always the only way or even the right way. God is slowly carving me through these people and experiences. In time He will help me be much more balanced and much more like Him.

Thank goodness God gave us families to mold and shape us and balance us out. I love my ragtag, noisy bunch--displaced furniture, disasters, and all!

Christmas Gifts to Jesus (A Wonderful Christmas Tradition)

One of our most-cherished Christmas traditions began back when we were a blissfully happy twosome, expecting our first child. It was Christmas Eve, and Cameron realized he hadn't gotten a stocking stuffer for me. So after I went to bed he stuffed my stocking full of notes. On Christmas morning I was greeted by sweet notes--like one he had written from us to Jesus, giving the baby boy we were expecting to Him. To this day, reading these notes still makes me emotional.

Now for as long as I can remember we have been gathering as a family on Christmas Eve to write down our gifts to Jesus. We like to remind the kids about this in the days and weeks leading up to the event so they can be thinking of what they would like to do.

When all the gifts have been written down we stuff them in Jesus' stocking--a simple hand-crocheted stocking that was made for me many years ago by a roommates' mom. Throughout the year the stocking hangs in our kitchen. Every so often we'll pull it down, get all the gifts out, and make sure everyone remembers what they've promised to work on.

This year Jake made a goal to read the whole Book of Mormon through by Christmas. He has developed a habit of borrowing our phones at night to listen to the scriptures on the gospel library app before bed. Often we have gone in and found it still running after he has fallen asleep. Last Sunday Cameron and I sat and read Moroni 10 with him to help him finish his goal. We are so proud of our boy!

 Abby took a cue from Jake's gift and wanted to read the whole Book of Mormon Stories reader. I have loved snuggling up with Abby (and anyone else who comes to join) to read through this throughout the year. We finished that last Sunday, too.

My goal was to memorize The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Wow, I love the pure doctrine in that document!

I love seeing different family members working on their gifts. And I love working on my own gifts and trying a little harder to be more like Jesus. That should be what Christmas is about all year long!

Homeschool Highlights: Knights and Chivalry

I loved reading my kids chapter 17 from Story of the World Volume 2. I could see some lights going on in Jake's head as we learned about knights and chivalry. (Ahhh, finally some reinforcement for what we try to teach him about opening doors for people and being selfless!) It was wonderful. I also loved reading about how knights were taught loyalty to God. That's exactly what I want my children to feel--loyalty to God.

So we decided to celebrate all of this knowledge with a little family jousting tournament that weekend. We started by going to the fabric store, choosing some ribbons and posterboard, and making some princess hats to match my girls' gowns. (The idea for this came from Days of Knights and Damsels by Laurie Carlson.) Our little ladies had to be properly attired for the tournament, of course!

I told the kids a jousting tournament would be a big event, possibly with some fancy medieval food. We used the marzipan recipe from Days of Knights and Damsels. (This is really a recipe for a butter cookie, but we had fun shaping them to look like marzipan. We also looked at pics of marzipan online. My kids were suitably impressed.)

We shaped oranges, bananas, strawberries, and pears. 

Friday night we had our little jousting tournament.

Grace turned out to be a fierce foe, princess gown and all.

Cameron wore our dollar-store knight helmet for the occasion

Abby has the facial expressions down!

                           

As you can see, our girls wanted to join the action, gowns and all. It seems our re-enactments are never very authentic, but I think we usually have fun anyway!