Back on Track.....well at least inside my head

So today is the first day of the rest of my life! All right so maybe I'm being slightly dramatic, but, I am hoping to change a few things around here. Flylady is back in my life. Honestly the only time I can remember really having it together was when i was religiously following her plan. So flylady is step one. Step two, finances. I really need to get back on track here. All though in general it is easier to pay the bills when you have money to do so, i can still keep better track of what has or has not been paid. Won't it be nice to not have cell phones get shut off or get disconnect notices for the power. Budgeting is not my strong suit. I really do try. I am great at getting costs down. I usually grocery shop for under $150 per week which i think for a family of 6 is pretty darn good. However, I am really bad at the actual paper work. In my defense, Mike is self employed. This means he never makes the same amount of money. Some weeks are great, some are not. Trying to balance it all out when you have no idea what is coming in is where my frustration lies. I guess it still isn't a good excuse to just leave the envelopes unopened.
School is our next area for change. Yes, AGAIN! Forrest has decided he really wants a structured curriculum. He has realized it is too hard for him (super unorganized, wonder where he gets it) to be self led. He also wants to shoot for graduating at 16. I said i would try. So we are ordering some courses. I am a little concerned. The work we can afford, correspondence courses, are straight forward, but boring. He is going to have to focus. I am choosing a different math curriculum. Math-u-see i even understood the algebra, and it got excellent reviews. Gaynor will also be using this curriculum. For the rest of Forrest's course work i think i will be going with Keystone High School. We will start with Biology, history, English Lit and maybe add art history. We are still using Rosetta Stone French and love it. All to the lovely tune of $800 ish, maybe more if we go with AP or Honors. YIKES! I guess compared to private school it's cheap but we would never be able to afford private school so how can we compare. Gaynor will be staying with an eclectic mix of subjects and curriculum. He seems to do just fine with what ever comes his way. I am going to try and step it up a bit with him though. He is definitely capable of so much more. We will also be adding music to the mix now that the boys will be in lessons. Each is expected to practice their instruments (electric guitar and drums) for a minimum of 20 minutes per day.
The next big change will be schedule. We decided on a 7-11:30 am school schedule. This was Mikes Idea and it seems to be working for the most part. I would never want to work this way, I like to break things up. For Mike and Forrest, however, constantly changing direction is a giant distraction. Gaynor is so flexible he could go either way. He has decided to try Mikes Idea so as to be finished at the same time as Forrest. Now all we have to do is get our butts out of bed! I'll keep you posted on how it is going.
As far as the littles go, i am getting them more involved in chores. Harland has been down right defiant in this area. He simply says "NO" when i ask him to help. I have been finding what chores he enjoys because clearly picking up toys is not one of them. He loves to vacuum out Indigo's highchair and around the cabinets. He also loves to sweep and will usually fold and sort laundry. Getting dressed is an other story. Indigo loves to do laundry and run the big vacuum. He also sweeps but watch out for your heads.




I am also debating losing the binky this weekend. Have to wait until mike doesn't have to get up at 5:00 AM. I think it could be a long couple of nights. He only has it for bed but he really shouldn't have it at all. I sometimes think it keeps him up. I was so happy to finally have one child out of four that would take a pacifier. Now I wish I had never given it to him. I wonder if it contributed to him weaning himself??? A long and sad story for another time.

I have so much more to talk about but part of my new plan is not staying on the computer all day! I do need to post Harland's birthday day letter, Sorry dude, yet an other way you get screwed having a December 27th birthday. I also wanted to tell you all about skiing, but i'll get to it at some point. Hope every one's holiday is starting off great. I'll leave you with some little things i hope to do this year.

A citrus fast, january 10th-?
adding to my apron collection via sewing
learning to knit (anything besides a scarf)
making more and buying less,
learning to re purpose
growing most of our food or at least half
less sugar (in theory any way)
quiting coffee (don't get too excited I'm only switching to tea, baby steps!)
sleeping baby ( can i actually plan this? probably not but i am hoping)