Carey Jane Clark

January 3 in 30: Progress

January 22, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

It’s been a busy week, but I managed to stay mostly on track. I broke the going-to-bed rule a couple of times, but still managed to keep the days reasonably together. I’ve been kicking myself a little bit feeling like if I don’t demonstrate orderly routine to my kids that they won’t know how to get to work on time when they grow up. But then I get a dose of reality and realize our lives for the last few months have been a bit exceptional. We are in the midst of moving internationally, after all.

Go to bed at 10:00. As I said, I transgressed a couple of times this week, but for the most part, I kept it together. Late nights or ~~lazy~~ disorganized mornings meant only three days of exercise this week, but I still ended the week lower on the scale, and feeling good about where my exercise is going. I’ve even been adding a new habit to my life: getting up even earlier to write at www.750words.com.
Spend at least an hour a day purging and sorting. I am proud to say that there are areas on my desk where the surface is actually visible. I also deconstructed our homeschool space and sorted my summer clothing (the kids’ clothing is already sorted). I don’t think I’m being delusional when I report that we are more ready for this move than all the ones that have gone before it.
Keep homeschool time sacred. This has been accomplished mostly by trimming homeschool time to the essentials two days a week, and keeping the other days focused. We touch every subject once a week, but not necessarily even every other day. I thought I would hate this, but turns out, we all LOVE it. We may be onto something here…

The end of January (and move #1–to my parents’ home) is looming close! How are you doing with your goals?

Stick with it Saturday

January 21, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

This week, I allowed life to take over a bit. But I did manage to exercise three days. Admittedly, they weren’t the best workouts in the world. Twice, after missing my own exercise, I tried to squeeze it in later in the day–once with the kids as part of their homeschool time. (If I give a good effort, though, I still manage to work up a sweat):

Monday – One mile walk with kids
Tuesday – Tore the cellophane off that Turbo Jam video and did the Learn and Burn.
Thursday – Interval training on the mini-trampoline. These are definitely the most productive workouts. I should have done another one this morning, but I was just plain lazy. Not much more can be said about that.

I’m going to make a sincere effort to get back on track this week, but I’ve kicked the moving and packing into high gear so we can be moved out by the end of the week and clean the house top to bottom on Saturday, so I’m prepared that I may not always be in bed when I should and therefore not always up in time to exercise. I’m going to do my best.

The Importance of Vision

January 18, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Some time ago, some blog friends introduced me to Pinterest. At first, I saw Pinterest as another tool to distract me, but recently I began to see possibilities.

When I dug into Tell Your Time by Amy Lynn Andrews at the beginning of the year, I began to think about being a dreamer. Andrews encourages people to think out their roles. And to all the ones that immediately spring to mind, she encourages the addition of one more: dreamer.

And I began to think: what are my dreams? Many have come true:

be a mommy
homeschool my kids
write a novel

That’s a pretty satisfying list right there. But I haven’t stopped dreaming.

The “experts” will tell you that a big part of making dreams come true is vision. You’ll never reach a goal if your sights aren’t set on it. I used to have a bulletin board where I’d post pictures of the things I dreamed about: a vision board. Some keep clippings in a folder or scrapbook. But since we’ve become a little nomadic, I haven’t had a place to put these things.

Enter Pinterest.

On a sudden burst of inspiration, I put together my own vision board.

For a closer look, click on the image. What do you think?

Pinterest is also a great place to collect homeschool information. See my friend Sam’s great post on that subject.

To obtain a Pinterest account, you must first be invited. If you want an account, and don’t have one yet, I’ll gladly invite you. Simply click the contact button on the menu up there and send me a message asking for your invitation.

And keep those eyes on the prize.

Tortilla Soup

January 17, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

The theme for December was small, flat and light: we requested that all gifts from family members fit those three characteristics.

The theme for January has to do with meal preparation: fast, family-pleasing and nutritious. (Don’t tell anyone, but I might let the last one slide.)

Last Tuesday, I packed half the day and accomplished quite a bit:

eliminated summer clothing that won’t fit, is no longer suitable or wouldn’t pass down because it’s just too worn
cleared a staging area for our bins (we use light plastic bins because they’re lighter and easier to pack than actual suitcases)
sorted through homeschool books to decide what we’d actually use in the next one or two years and what should be filed away for the next cycle through the trivium
removed CDs and DVDs from their cases and stored them in a media folder and organized the DVDs we’ll want for homeschool (like Math-U-See) into a separate, smaller media case

I also made several important phone calls and sent a number of emails to follow up on items that need to be accomplished before we leave.

At the end of all that, I looked up and realized I hadn’t done anything about the dinner I’d planned. Oh dear.

Enter the internet. I found this great, very quick recipe for Tortilla Soup that used just the amount of leftover chicken I had in the fridge. It was a total hit! (I made some adjustments, as always.)

2 T. Vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 c. shredded leftover chicken
1.25 oz. package taco seasoning mix (preferably chipotle)
4 15oz cans chicken broth
1 can tomatoes (When not pressed for time, I used fresh tomatoes. Canned are awful in comparison.)
Toppings: Shredded Monterey Jack cheese, chopped cilantro leaves, tortilla chips, lime wedges.

Saute onion in oil until soft. Add remaining ingredients. Stir well and simmer for at least 10 minutes. Garnish and serve.

Note: I had no chipotle-flavored taco seasoning mix, so I used the seasoning mix plus a small piece of chipotle in adobo, Delicious!

Bon appetit!

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