MFW 1850 to Modern Times and First Grade week 11

Its been an amazing year so far! We have enjoyed learning about President Lincoln, Meiji Restoration and the Civil War! Im really proud of us for keeping up with our school work and staying on schedule! Lily learned the sounds for "oo" and started Math Mammoth level 1. Jadon memorized the poem "the Wise Old Owl" and presented it to our co-op. Logan scored well all week in Math. Benjamin aced his spelling test. Natalie completed all her work on time. We only had three days of school this week!

This week has been a bit out of the ordinary! We had Columbus Day off with Dad and did some major cleaning in the kids rooms. Then we had our Co-op Class which was fun! In our class a Dad came in and taught about clay. How the Master forms the clay and has to put pressure on it to make its shape, he squeeze both his had together to center the clay on the wheel. He lays his had on top of the clay to keep it flat and formed and giving it a good foundation for the work he will do to make it usable to him. Then he has to press inside the heart of the clay to hollow out any bad character traits to make the clay even more usable He pulls, and pushes, and cleans, and trims until he doesn't feel the clay can be shaped any more. If the clay is hardened or cracked it is no longer usable and needs to be moistened again to be refashioned again. Sometimes he has to destroy the clay into a fine dust and let it soak up the water again before its usable. It was a very powerful message.

Underwhelming my time

Im reading a book by Lisa Terkeurst titled "The Best Yes".  Im only on chapter 2 and Im seeing a theme which I've encountered many times before in my own life. An overwhelmed schedule leads to an underwhelmed soul is how she puts it in her book. I've never understood why people would choose to pack it in and feel in constant "go" mode. What sticks out most to me is this quote from chapter 3 "We become slaves to others demands and let our time become dictated by requests. We will live reactive lives instead of proactive". This is exactly where I am. I live a very reactive life. I react to other peoples drama. I react to debt. I allow other peoples schedules to dictate mine. I give up even having my own desires to run programs and the like for others. Perhaps its time to stop!

"How we spend our souls matters" Lisa says an underwhelmed soul knows there is more that God made her to do. I often feel that very thing. That i am just not doing that thing, whatever it is that I was created for! Sure Im a homeschooler, I was made for that. But I often go to bed feeling like Im missing something, usually shrugging it off to the missed load of laundry or the shoes by the front door instead of truly taking a moment to consider what I should be doing.

What is that "thing" that I will look back on and wonder why I didnt get it done? Is it merely reading the bible through in a year? Did I accomplish it by leading in worship the last year? Is it all the crafts and projects I skip in our homeschool each year? Im not very sure that those are my calling, the way I should spend my soul. Am I so overwhelmed with other demands that I dont even know what my soul is starving for? Its time to take a step back and spend the 150 extra hours I have each week searching for what my soul is starving for!

Frugal Accomplishments September 24- October 1

This week we had visitors from Burma at our house for 5 days! I was able to feed 15 people for mostly what I had on hand! I did purchase additional milk, cereal, eggs, orange juice, bread and taco shells. I used a large can of tomato sauce and made spaghetti sauce the night before they came. I had enough leftover to make  goulash another night. Broccoli beef stir fry over rice, Sausage Rice, and taco's we some of the other meals I prepared. I save a substantial amount making foods from scratch at home for 4 nights.

We also had a pot luck at church and used some hot dogs and cornmeal to make corndog muffins for the carry in dish. It costed us maybe $1.50 to make 24 corndog muffins. We also had some leftover to have for lunch another day in the week.

 The wife and I also made up homemade lunchables to take with us to the zoo along with our own water bottles. We also bought treats like granola bars and some cheese-its to make the snacks sold at the zoo less appetizing! Cost of extra "fun" foods was $15! for 15 people I think we did rather well!

I saved $28 cutting four of the boys hair at home.

I spent $100 at a consignment sale purchasing a jacket, a complete winter wardrobe in 4T, and pants, shirts, and sweaters for the older children. I purchased new looking clothes for 70% of the retail price. Our winter wardrobe is almost complete minus some winter jackets for big kids and I could use a few pieces eventually.

Our 12 Passenger van broke down this week so we have save a lot of money walking places or taking the smaller van to transport our family places. We also saved money on towing through our tow insurance. We have had our an towed a few times since owning it so its been well worth it. The Husband said he averaged it costed us $8 a tow so far! Not bad!

We borrowed a friends large van for driving to the zoo, which saved us renting.

We used zoo passes that were gifted us this summer making our trip free!

We have not had to run our air conditioner all week.

We also have had leftovers for lunch every single day this week.

I used a gift of $50 to purchase a 20 cup rice cooker.

I used a $30 gift to go out on a Mom's night with some friends for a birthday present.

We completed out allocated spending plan for October for our FPU class.

My Menu plan this week is completely covered by food we already have at home except sliced cheese for grilled cheese. So I will be using this weeks grocery money to stock my pantry with sale items. I also only have 1 vehicle so I will be staying closer to town to save on gas!

We have used the library to rent videos, check out books, and for entertainment this week.