2014: My Year to be PROACTIVE

Proactive adj. serving to prepare for, intervene in, or control an expected occurrence or situation, especially a negative or difficult one; anticipatory.

I'm tired of being in "solve the crisis of the day" mode.  Every day just seems like a dash to tamp down a fire -- sometimes, I get it put out, but usually I only manage to beat it back to a smoulder.  I know that fire will roar to life again soon, but for right now, a smoulder has to be good enough so I can move on to fight the next raging inferno.

I had a huge wake-up call a few weeks ago, when I woke up in the middle of the night with an awful pain in my leg.  It wasn't getting any better, and by the time hubby woke up and turned on the light, I could see my left leg was twice as big as my right.  I had a very bad feeling about this one -- and unfortunately, I was right.  This current malady presented exactly the same as when I had a blood clot when I was pregnant with Luke, and after a few hours in the ER, the doc was ready to offer me a job when the ultrasound confirmed what I had suspected.   I had all sorts of blood drawn when I was pregnant and post-partum, and the only explanation was pregnancy hormones.  My doc is not going to bother to re-draw now, because it's pretty obvious how this one came about.  No -- I'm not pregnant. I'm inactive.  Two days a week, I spend six hours driving Jude to therapy and sitting waiting for him, and then spend one or two days each week at duPont's Wilmington campus (a 2 1/2 hour round trip, plus sitting for doctors).  I come home, put out the immediate fires, and collapse on the couch.  I need to become more proactive with my health.  I can't say "I'm too tired to exercise," any longer.  I have to now do it every day to counter the inactivity.  As much as I dislike the treadmill, a few minutes each day to get the blood moving is definitely better than a week on the couch unable to walk. 

As I was sitting there on the couch, I was trying to consider my "Word for 2014," and this idea of being proactive with my health made me think about the rest of my life:

• I don't want to be looking at the calendar and saying, "Oh, crud, that's tomorrow??"  Sure, there are some things that will have to be the night before -- like baking for the school bake sale -- but I want to be prepared for it so I'm not running to the grocery store after dinner and starting cupcakes at 9 pm and yawning as I frost them close to midnight.
• I don't want mornings to be a mad scramble for who has which uniform, who has the right envelope for art club, which therapist are we seeing and do I need schoolwork for that session or not. 
• I don't want every dinner to be a "surprise."  Or late getting to the table because of lack of planning.

Clearly, some of this means better planning, and making time for that.  That is going to take time (and effort!) to find a system for doing this that works for me and our family.  But I also need to learn to look ahead before I say "yes" to something. 

• It means sometimes saying "I'll send something for <school function>, but it has to be xyz that I can buy a week before, I can't cook/bake at the last minute even though that's what I've always done."
• I need to be realistic and say, "No, I can't take that appointment because it fits the doctor's schedule; if we have to wait another week, so be it, but I can't realistically squish a 90 minute drive into 60." 
• Instead of jumping in to help one of the kids with a project, or getting involved in my own project, I am going to have to find a way to put my health first, even if it would be easier to just help and get it over with.  I actually joined a gym a few years ago, but got so wrapped up in helping with homework that I never went - there just weren't enough hours in the day.  It's going to mean everyone in the the house will have to adjust a little bit so it all balances out, but the process starts with me saying, "I can't help you right now, you'll have to wait."  Not a bad thing for them to learn, right?  Kids will also have to learn to ask for help earlier in the process (or at least at the start, I'm going to have to ask them if they need help sooner, so we can plan a timetable together), rather than waiting until an hour before bedtime. 

When it comes to blogging, I need to start thinking what I want to write about, and plan.  I want to start to think ahead on what I may want to write about in a season, and try working a bit ahead so I'm not up until the wee hours finishing things.  I don't want to give up my "in the moment" style of writing -- I want to still be me, but also need to get over the feeling of having to write about our homeschool activities in real time.  If it's a great idea, it's ok if we did the activity a week ago -- it will still be a great idea in a week!   I need to start doing a better job of scheduling ahead, and maybe even solicit some guest posts.  (If you're reading this and want to guest post,  pitch me an idea!)  But that's part of the being proactive and planning the post, rather than reactive and saying, "I gotta get this finished because I haven't posted in several days!"


I'm not big on New Year's resolutions.   Usually they are blown by the second week of January. I also don't really like "plans."  That's how we wound up homeschooling in the first place.   So I'm not going to call it a "resolution" or  "plan" for the new year, but rather a new way of living with a symbolic date to start: in 2014, I'm going to work to become more proactive instead of reactive.

Join the crew in setting a theme for your 2014.  Link goes live at 8 am EST on New Year's Day!




©2012- 2013 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

A new Violin Tuner - and a MacPhail Update.

 Today was our first "on us" lesson with Jeremy Swider of MacPhail Music.

I am as pleased after this lesson as I was before.  I'll be honest - as genuine as everyone seemed when we were reviewing the program for the Crew, they all knew who the Crew members were and who to be on their best behavior with.  This time, they had nothing to lose -- they already have my payment for the semester.  Celia's lesson today was just as fantastic as the one she had two weeks ago, if not even better!

When your violin is in tune, you can do a TON more during your lesson.  I had bought a tuning app back when Celia was first learning, and it would indicate we were in tune.  I assumed the instrument was when she went to her school lessons.  Then we had our MacPhail lessons.  We'd tune the violin, the lesson would start and she'd be spending half of it re-tuning.   The tuner said we were in the green zone, but we clearly were horridly out of tone.  I downloaded a few other iPhone/iPod apps, but they were not user friendly, Out of desperation, I went back to iTunes, this time on my laptop, and found SteadyTune for Mac.  It seems brand new - what info I can find from it are from late July.  It cost us $7.99, and while not a cheap-cheap app, it's cheaper than half a music lesson!  It's the best 8 bucks I've spent on music gear.  It tunes all sorts of string instruments, including violins with GDAE strings.  Not only will it tell you when you're on pitch, but how far above/below your target you are.  This is super-helpful when you're trying to determine to use the pegs or the fine tuners - you can tell just how far off you are and which you need.

Now - why it is so awesome?  Prior to Celia's lesson, we tuned her violin using SteadyTune.  We checked that all strings were on where they should be.  At lesson time, Celia hefted her violin, picked up her bow, and played G.  It was right on.  She and Jeremy zipped through the rest of the strings, and started right in on her lesson.  (I admit, I probably looked like a total idiot when I squealed and did a little mini-Cabbage Patch that we had finally gotten it right.) 

So, back to the lesson.  They zoomed right through all the stuff she had learned from before, and then moved on to new ideas.  I was busy keeping kids away from the study, so I'm not sure exactly what they were doing, but I heard something about using three fingers on a string.  Celia came out of the study giggling and saying something about she would be getting an email (her homework comes as a PDF).   Mr. Swider was just as fun as ever -- they were discussing half-rests (I think, I was only half listening) and heard him say "See how it looks like a hockey puck?"  I had to laugh --  I could tell he was from Minnesota.  Based on the folks that ran the local ice rink, Hockey isn't just a sport around there - it's practically a religion.  I could hear her agreeing about it...she's had plenty of experience dodging pucks as an ice skater when others were using them for training gear.

 Celia is looking forward to going back to school and taking lessons with Miss Sara.  She wants to perform in the spring recital so she wants to take lessons to make sure that she is eligible, but she can't wait to show Miss Sara how much she learned with "Mr. Jeremy."





The rest of the family?  We're just glad we have something new to listen to her practice after two straight weeks of Hot Cross Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb. 


©2012- 2013 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Come, Lord Jesus!

We are celebrating Advent in our home. This year I actually had candles on time, and we were able to start celebrating with the first Sunday of Advent.  Each night at dinner last week, we lit the first purple candle, and now are lighting the first and second candles.

Unfortunately, Jude's craft wreath got lost in the shuffle.  We all came home from vacation in various states of flu recovery, and Jude had an extended vacation. (Apparently there is no "substitute teacher pool" with homeschooling.) Tonight, while Neal took the big kids to Mass, we caught up on our Advent wreath and devotional.

Our Advent Wreath:

Materials:
1 8x11 felt or construction paper sheet of each color:
   blue (or other contrasting color)
   purple
   pink
   green
4 yellow or orange pom poms
scissors
glue
marker for drawing outlines

Directions:

Draw candle outlines on purple and pink felt.  Cut out candles.

Jude is working on straight-line cutting, so I drew 2 lines parallel to the short side of the purple, and one on the pink, about 2" apart.  I also drew a line dividing the strips in half, for Jude to use as a guide for cutting.

Draw a large circle on the green felt, and a smaller circle in the middle.  Cut out so you have a "ring" with an open center.

With a little help, Jude was able to cut along the outer line of the wreath.  I needed to cut the inside one for him - his motor skills weren't up to it.

Apply glue to the wreath and center on the blue felt.

Space three purple and one pink candles around wreath, and attach with glue.  

You will have extra pink/purple "candles" from the cut strips.  Save them for another project that just needs some scraps, if you like.

Add pom poms for "flames." 

If you are "lighting" one candle each week, start with the purple candle OPPOSITE the pink candle for the first Sunday of Advent.  Work around the circle so that a second purple is "lit" for the second Sunday, the pink candle on the third, and the last purple candle on the fourth.

We added two flames to catch up.  The other pom poms are set aside for the next two weekends.  (Yes, the candles are a little crooked.)

You can also cut out felt leaves, berries, flowers, etc. to decorate your wreath if you like. 

Our Advent Devotional

Image source: Amazon.com

The Adverbs of Advent is a Kindle e-book devotional.  Though I have sometimes been disappointed in devotional books in the past, especially for children (they sometimes make God seem unapproachable and rigid), for 99 cents, I figured it was worth a download.  I was very pleasantly surprised with the tone of this.  It's a very approachable book for children of all ages.   The author uses the traditional stories that wind through Advent and Christmas (Creation, John the Baptist, the Annunciation, the Nativity and visit of the Magi).   Though the author has chosen to limit his one-word themes to adverbs, you don't need to know what an adverb is to pray with the author.  Highlights so far:

Sadly (Gn. 3:23-24) - "...Sadly, they chose to disobey God...But then God told them his plan...Their sadness, and ours, will be turned into great joy..." (First Sun. of Advent)

Quietly (Lk. 1:18-20)  Zechariah cannot believe he and his wife will have a son; because of this, god strikes him mute. "..Zechariah waited once again. He waited for the birth of his own son.  He waited for God's promise to come true.  And he waited quietly..."

Humbly (Lk. 1:35, 38) highlights the story of the Annunciation: "'...I am God's servant,' [Mary] humbly told the angel. 'I will do just as God asks...'"

The daily stories and prayers are short enough to keep Jude's attention, yet still have significant content.  The little prayers and thoughts at the end of each "day" help prepare our hearts for Jesus to come. Now that we have caught up, we will read one each day as we progress through Advent.  The third week of Advent advances the Christmas story a little "early" - as it focuses on Jesus' birth itself.  However, this allows the fourth week of Advent to move from the stories of the Bible into today, and celebrating the birth of the Babe and God's promises fulfilled.  With the words "Now," "Joyfully," "Hopefully", and "Forever" the adverbs allow us to celebrate the coming of Jesus so many years ago and prepare us to await his return.  It is written in a way that it can also be completed after December 25 (if the fourth week of Advent only has a few days and is not an entire calendar week).

This is a book that I am sure I will use for many years, either as a teaching tool for the children or just for my own devotions and prayers. It also could be used as a starting point for other lesson concepts (use the word chosen for the day and find synonyms for it; take the Bible passage and find another theme in the day; etc.)

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Linking our Adventure through Advent with other friends: