I'm very much a stay-put kind of gal. Nothing appeals to me more than sitting at home, watching a good movie, and eating ice cream. I guess I'm what you would call a homebody. This is a pattern for my life. I don't exactly deal well with change.

My hubby, on the other hand, is an adventurer. "Do you want to move to Germany?" he asked me many years ago. "Sure," I said. (Back then I still had a little adventurous spirit in me.) The Germany plans didn't pan out, but he still has that excitement in him. If born in a different era, he would have been an explorer or a pioneer.

What does all this have to do with life? Well, he's getting that itch to move. He wants to pick up everything and move away to some new exciting adventure. Everything in me was rebelling this idea. Then I went to Adoration last night. After staying for my scheduled hour, I stayed an additional hour when the next adorer didn't arrive. Then another hour when the NEXT adorer didn't arrive. At 2AM, suddenly dropping everything and moving didn't sound so bad.

Then I got to thinking and praying. By looking for this new adventure, are we just running from our problems? Would we only encounter the same ones if we went somewhere else? Our biggest problems are our inability to say "no" and to involve ourselves in too many activities. And to get ourselves in too deep in the activities that we do participate in. We both tend to take over whatever we're involved in. I think we really need to work on being obscure worker bees and not the bossy do-it-alls. I guess it just seems easier to move away than it is to extract ourselves from our commitments, but I'm not seeing that as any kind of long term solution.

I only wish there was a book about this topic. I love to read other people's thoughts and ideas to help sort out my own. If anyone has any suggestions for this obscure topic, let me know.

Prayers are appreciated.

Although all of the kids in their costumes were great, this one cracks me up. My son, in a wig!

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"

Ricky Martin knows NOTHING about living la vida loca! Ask any stay-at-home-mom and you will get a true picture of the crazy life. I'd have to say that today has been a rotten day - so far. I'm not giving up on it yet, in fact I'm determined to improve it. Honestly, it can only go up from here. So I'm going to vent for a few moments.

Today's plan was simple:
1. Wake up.
2. Eat breakfast.
3. Wash the new clothes purchased yesterday. (We had an emergency shopping trip, because the cold front came and my two oldest had no jeans or sweatpants to wear. Shorts were just not making the grade.)
4. Homeschool.
5. Do more laundry.
6. Make & eat lunch.
7. Go to library and storytime.
8. Pack up dinner.
9. Go to early football game for son.
10. Return home.
11. Get kids ready for bed.
12. Collapse.

Ahh... the best laid plans. Here's what really happened:
1. Woke up.
2. Ate breakfast.
3. Listened to oohing and aahing over new clothes. Listened to questions like, "Do I look like a princess?" and "Why aren't you washing my new clothes first?"
4. Started washing new clothes.
5. Listened to oldest daughter tell me she is cold and repeatedly ask, "Are my new jeans dry yet?" (The same child who usually wears shorts and a short sleeve shirt in 40 degree weather.)
6. Listened to middle child, who is wearing a long sleeve shirt ask, "Is my new long-sleeve shirt clean yet, because I don't have any long sleeve shirts?"
7. Apologized to son for not yet grading his Algebra from yesterday. He responded, "That's okay, I haven't done my Algebra from yesterday, yet."
8. Yelled at son for not doing his Algebra.
9. Homeschooled other children.
10. Did more laundry. Oldest child is now no longer cold, but middle child still doesn't have a long-sleeve shirt (except the one she has not yet realized she is wearing).
11. Checked on son and how he was doing on his work.
12. Woke son up from Latin induced snooze he was taking in his bed.
13. Yelled at son for falling asleep.
14. Returned phone call to m-i-l who needed to know when son's football game begins tonight. Solved the world's problems while communicating this information.
15. Did more laundry. (Still no long sleeve shirt.)
16. Made and began eating lunch.
17. Told everyone to hurry. Received blank stares saying, "Define hurry."
18. Called hubby at work to check on him (Work's been a bit of a struggle lately, so I thought I'd be a nice wife and check on him.)
19. Repeated to children that they should hurry so we can make it to storytime.
20. Informed narcoleptic son that he will not be going to the library with us because of earlier sleeping incident. Was told, "It was an accident." Asked, "Who's responsibility is it to keep you awake? Yours or mine?" Met with blank stare.
21. Repeated to children to hurry with lunch.
22. Attempted to get online to check which books are due this week. Computer locked up.
23. Restarted computer. Attempted to get online to check which books are due this week. Internet service would not connect.
24. Mentally tossed computer through window.
25. Told 5yo daughter to change her shirt because it had pizza sauce on it. Listened to her argue about why she couldn't change it. (SHE actually has several other clean long sleeve shirts!)
26. Reminded everyone that we need to hurry!
27. Listened to continued arguing about changing shirts.
28. Argued with computer.
29. Gave up!
30. Announced that we were not going to storytime or the library.
31. Listened to much weeping and wailing.
32. Prayed.
33. Blogged.

My consolation should be that this is not a normal day, but lately it is! Sigh... I think if prayer was #2 instead of #32 things would improve.

Tomorrow's goals:
1. Wake up
2. Pray
...and the rest is gravy

Things I have discovered since instituting my Mother's Rule of Life:

1. The kitchen counter top
2. My desktop
3. Empty laundry baskets!
4. What a good night's sleep feels like

I've also discovered a few things about myself. I now realize that part of the reason we homeschool is because I just don't like being on someone else's time schedule. I don't like to be told what to do, and I don't like people checking up on me. Could this just be a product of being an only child? Can you say princess?

So I implemented my Mother's Rule yesterday. I've wanted to do this for some time now, but I seemed to be under the mistaken impression that I would just wake up one morning and remember all the things I had listed on the schedule, and just do them. Wrong! So this time I got myself a clipboard and put all the schedules on them. I gave each of the kids a list for their morning and evening chores, stuck a list of breakfast, lunch, and dinner chores on the side of the fridge, and made a checklist for myself to check up on all of their work. Guess what happened? It worked!

The problem before was that I just assumed the kids were doing their assigned chores, but I never checked on it. It was only later when they were asleep that I realized toothpaste was caked on the bathroom sink, trash was spilling over the trash can, and toys were out in the hallway. But now, the checklist has worked wonders for me. Now I don't have to remember everything I have to do and everything they have to do too. I just look at my master list as a reminder. I even handed the list over to my husband last night while I went to the grocery store. When I came home, all chores were complete!

So with all this success, why was I so bummed out last night? The house was clean, laundry finished, schoolwork prepared for the next day, grocery shopping done, and meals planned for the week! Yet, I was really despondent. That is when I realized I didn't even want to be accountable to myself! With my list made, I can't ignore what needs to be done - I am fully aware what needs to be done, which means I have to do it, and check up on others that are doing it. There's that deadly sin again - sloth.

So after some prayer last night, I've had an attitude adjustment. I need to be accountable to someone, namely God. Although I've not acknowledged it, I've been accountable to Him all along, He just hasn't called me on it yet. So my renewed efforts, however small, are my offering to my Lord. And for the first time ever, I can say I'm doing my best.

I love to read. Okay, maybe I'm a bit obsessed with it. But in recent years I've discovered that most of my reading consists of books about homeschooling and previewing books my kids will read for school. These aren't the most edifying choices.

But with all the trash being written out there, where do I find the good books? Thankfully, I came across a handy list: The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan. In some ways, I was just excited thinking of all the new books I get to buy to stock my already overflowing bookshelves. Then I realized I already own many of these books and just haven't read them yet! So before I buy new bookshelves, I think I'll dive in to a few of the books I already have.

In addition to the Reading Plan, Fr. John McCloskey has a terrific article about the benefit of daily spiritual reading. Here's an excerpt:

"A good complement to the daily reading of Sacred Scripture is the reading of a spiritual book, normally recommended by your spiritual director. As a whole universe of books could not tell all that Jesus did and taught in His life, it will be impossible ever to run out of classic Catholic spiritual books. These books can include works from the magisterium of the Church, lives of and books by the saints, works of theology, and a plethora of Catholic spiritual classics."

Since I am currently without a personal spiritual director, Fr. McCloskey's list will have to do! Conveniently, his list includes books from the categories listed above, and then some.

Now, where to begin...