By Lynn, on August 26th, 2010%
First of all, in my series of posts about our school plans, has to come the planner. It hasn’t been long since I went back to carrying a large purse/planner because I just love having everything with me, all the time.
I have SO enjoyed working with my planner and getting it just right. You know how often I’m in thrift stores, and it is really fun to look through books, papers, and the bag/purse section of the store to see what I can find to enhance my planner.
The purse planner above started out as a 2-dollar cloth-covered notebook, though the actual notebook part had been taken out of it. Still, the zipper was in good shape, it had room for credit-size cards, and I liked the bright colors. As Gru says in Despicable Me, LIGHTBULB.
I knew my notebook would fit right in and I imagined using something to make a strap and maybe adding a purse part to the planner somehow. Basically, visions of glue sticks danced in my head.
I ended up finding two belts in complimentary colors in Goodwill, and a small satiny purse planner to glue to the front. (Note: fabric takes glue better and holds better than a small purse made from vinyl. I should know.) The belts are the kind that are just fabric with no holes and have the metal rings on one end, so I hooked one to the other and glued them across the “bottom” of the planner and then glued them up the sides, gluing one on one side and the other on the other side, thus ending up with an adjustable strap!
I found that the reproducible planning page provided in the Five In A Row manual was the perfect size to cut in half, hole-punch and put in the planner. I made copies, front and back for 8-10 weeks of lesson planning.
Since I work at home three days a week, I love having everything with me in my purse planner, all the time, so when I’m out shopping or running errands, if I think of something to write down for school, I can do it immediately and not have to re-write when I get home. When you are working and homeschooling, every minute counts.
I made pretty dividers by using pictures from old magazines that inspired me, laminating them and hole-punching them.
The small notebook you see me holding to the left holds weeks worth of lessons once they are done. I keep the pages in my purse/planner until the week is over and then transfer them to the notebook that will be a permanent record of what we did. (I do realize that a purse planner can’t reasonably hold a year’s worth of lessons all at one time. ) The goal is to keep our current eight weeks of study in the planner at all times. More about that in the next post or two.
The planner has sections for shopping, routines, school, to-do, addresses, etc. It also holds one or two things that I just love to read over and over because it helps me stay on track.
So there you have it: The Planner.
It makes sense to me and it works for me. And now I’m always on the look-out for cool paper that I can hole-punch and use in my planner binder. Or cloth-covered notebooks that can be turned into a purse planner with cool belts. Stay tuned.
PS – This planner is indeed 5-1/2 x 8-1/2. I am adding some more pictures to help explain how I did this. Now I’m looking for fabric-covered notebooks everywhere I go so I can make another one!
Important to note that one strap is glued on one side and the other strap on the other side, for balance.
By Lynn, on August 14th, 2010%
I was looking at my morning-glory-covered arbor that marks the entry to the vegetable garden. Call me crazy. My husband, the carpenter, who grew up on a large working farm says they pulled morning glories out left and right where people grew real crops. It’s true I’m not growing any “crops,” but I probably should be more aggressive with all the wild things around here. And the lamb’s quarters is now so thick in the garden that we have a wild baby bunny living in the garden. I don’t think she’s even found the real vegetables yet.
Ahh, the joys of gardening. Or should I say, the joys of an abandoned garden. I mean, it’s not like I have much time to garden to start with, but the heat lately has kept anyone in North Carolina from actually enjoying gardening.
Recently I was talking to a dear, sweet friend. She’s a sweet~pea for sure, and quite witty. I was talking to her about the state of my garden. I said that I really needed to weed and that I had probably let things get pretty out of hand, but that I sort of liked things that are a little bit wild anyway.
“That explains a lot,” she said.
I looked at her with a smile. “What do you mean?”
“Well I always wondered what attracted you to Thomas, but you just said you like things that are a little bit wild”
We all got a good laugh. Trust me, the carpenter man can only be so wild with the family he’s grown for himself over the last 22 years.
On another gardening front, I want to talk to you about the fact that I have multiple Charlottes. Remember when I went out and found the first one? Well, we have now found four of them, all in that same little area. That means there are probably more and we are only seeing four of them. Here are three of them, so you can compare. (The carpenter man found the fourth one after I had taken the camera inside.)
  
Similar but different.
As you know, today is a work day for me. I’m just taking a little break to update you. I sold a doll this morning, to a wonderful kindred-spirit sort of lady I met a couple of weeks ago. She bought one of the dolls that I was not so sure about at first, but then have fallen in love with as he has sat on my desk watching me work.
I better get busy. I’ve been so happy this past week about the planning I’ve gotten done for school. We will open the school year with Betsy Ross next week and a delightfully-planned-out year of co-ops with our Beyond Five In A Row co-op group. I have also decided to take on the heading up of producing a yearbook for our Five In A Row support group. I hope it will be a wonderful school year.
Enjoy this day.
By Lynn, on July 12th, 2010%
She lives down the lane and helps care for the goats.
Only she’s not holding a goat yet! I’ve not made a goat before. How does one fashion a goat from clay? Keeping trying, I say!
She’s a tomboy for sure, and has the tiniest little…scrape? Scar? At the corner of her mouth. Maybe from flying down the lane on her bicycle? It’s one of the things I love about making figures from clay. There are no two the same and they end up with little qualities that make them real. Well, almost.
Today’s a work day, so I must get busy. If I can just make it through today, then I’m off for a few days. I think I can, I think I can.
Any ideas on names for the little girl waiting on her goat?
By Lynn, on July 11th, 2010%
So, where were we? I think we left off where I was crazy-busy and did not even have time to leave a proper post as I was preparing for the farmer’s market. The farmer’s market. There we are.
I had a ton of fun on Saturday morning with my mom. Yes indeed. It was a slow day for shopping as far as I could tell. Last week I sold two pins in the one short hour I was there. Yesterday I was there for 3 hours and did not sell anything. I did, however, have some interest, and my mom tells me to just be patient, that it’s certainly an up and down thing and it just takes time. I actually got questions about my dress more than anything! Several ladies said they loved it and wondered where it came from.
Did I dare tell them? G.W. Boutique?
Yeah. I told them. Goodwill. It’s my favorite place to shop!
It’s because I can’t find anything I like in regular stores. Seems everything is too short, or too cheaply made, or way out of my price range, or too wild. I find really unusual things at Goodwill: handmade things, one-of-a-kind things, or, like this dress, something that is just sweet and simple. In this case, it is something that is cool in the summertime.
Pokeweed and phlox grow together in the little wild garden. (I’m sorry, Mom.)
I came home just in time on Saturday to sit down at my work desk and type for 8 hours. Whew. It makes for a long day, but the first part is so happy for me, it makes the second part happier! I know that will make sense to you. And it makes Fridays easier somehow. It makes me want to get my Friday work day done because I have Saturday morning with my mom to look foward to!
This afternoon I finally had a few moments to go outside and look around the yard. There were a dozen or so drunken bees hanging out on the sunflowers. I love the bees. The carpenter bees get so mesmerized that you can actually touch them. As a general rule, though, I try to just leave them alone and let them enjoy their world.
I am writing things in my planner tonight and doing some light straightening around the house to get ready for the week. I hope to put the shirt on the little girl doll who will be holding a goat. More on her later.
Life sure is busy.
PS — And look at the dress, not me! I am wilted and tired from the heat and the farmer’s market. It’s the dress I wanted to show you. 
By Lynn, on July 8th, 2010%
Where have I been? I probably wonder about that more than anyone else. The days fly! There is more to do than I can do! And yet I manage to somehow like this busy life that I have.
I’ve been working on a board/stand on which to hang all of my brooch-pins for the farmer’s market. It’s coming along, if I do say so myself, which I do. (In the background you’ll notice one of Michaela’s paintings. I do love it! It says COURAGE.)
This is my current favorite! Seems like out of every batch I make there’ll be one that I just LOVE. Well, this is my current favorite pin. Just so you know. I love the bright blue and the tiny touch of red. The little shoe strikes a chord too.
As I continue to work on the pins, I learn, and learn some more. I find little ways to make them better and more durable. I find myself saying, “Ugh, was I really not doing that before?” Or, “Oh my, was I really including that in the pins!” Seems that the littlest changes make a big difference! I love this learning experience that comes with making things.
And I love the little birdie! It is A Bit of Birdsong, after all.
So that’s where I’ve been. That and a million other things. I kept thinking on Tuesday and then on Wednesday that I’d get a second to pop on here and say hello, or post a picture or two, but the days went by like a blur. I really must refine my schedule for my days off! We are trying to get used to having a violin lesson for Michaela crammed right in the middle of the week, and it’s been a huge job for the entire family to try to keep the vegetable garden watered (from our water barrels) during this intensely hot and dry few weeks we’ve had. And meals. And laundry. And errands. And… I know it’s the same for us all.
There are more things to do today to prepare for Saturday morning. I have to make up a little sign with prices and finish up a doll I’m working on. I always feel I need to make more pins. I’m nearly out of business cards, so that’s on the list as well. I better get busy!
I hope your day is happy!
By Lynn, on July 5th, 2010%
This past Saturday was the second Saturday that I have set up with my mom at a local farmer’s market. What that means for me is that I type 8 hours on Friday, which tends to be a long day. As you know, housework, errands, mouths to feed, and child-related responsibilities don’t disappear just because I work! So I usually end up not getting to bed before midnight onFriday nights. On Saturday morning I jump into my already-packed van (that’s the goal, anyway!) with my cup of hot coffee, and I meet my mom at the farmer’s market where we laugh and talk and sell things for a few hours. I have to be home and in my work desk by noon, where I work (type) another 8-hour shift and then my weekend is done. Once again, it seems impossible to get to bed before midnight, even if I do not do the farmer’s market.
Having said all that, there’s something about the farmer’s market that makes me really happy. It allows me to work at what I really love doing, and hopefully some day that will be all I do for an income: something I really enjoy. It gives me something to look forward to.
For the 4th, we did not head out to watch a fireworks display, though that would have been mighty fun. Instead, Michaela and I went through a few boxes of sparklers. I marched back and forth in front of the house a few times, saying in my best British accent, “I, John Adams, do proclaim that we are free from the British!!”
Michaela said in her best 11-year-old daughter accent, “Mom, be quiet!”
Then we called each other Abigail and Betsy.
It was a long, tiring but very good weekend.
By admin, on May 17th, 2010%
I forget sometimes that I’m on a mission. I get caught up in meals to be cooked, being angry that some of my children don’t seem to understand the difference between dirty and clean clothes and where they go, and wondering when the rut will end — the day in and day out checking off chores and lessons from our list of things that have to be done.
Yesterday afternoon, as six of us moms sat around an outside table at Guglhupf, watching dark clouds roll closer, bringing the rain that would dominate today, one of the moms asked if any of us had a mission statement for our homes and our families. Over our coffees and desserts, we talked.
Oh, it was just the questionI needed! I do have a mission statement. I made one a couple of years ago when I decided to bring Michaela home to homeschool. I felt I had to have one because it’s not an easy thing to work and homeschool. Both are huge commitments and require my full attention at times, and I am often left feeling like there’s no room for me. It is so easy to get caught up in the mechanics of it all — checking off lessons, dragging myself to my desk with a lack of joy, robotically preparing for the next fieldtrip…
A lively discussion began about our children’s hearts being the most important thing — the reason all of us are doing what we are doing. Stories were exchanged about how easy it is to get into a military-type mode of, “do your math sheet, do you math sheet,” yet forgetting that our children’s hearts must be nurtured, protected, fed, searched, and so much more. If what we started out to accomplish is on the back burner, as we lifelessly check things off of a list, then why are we doing what we’re doing? Goodness knows it’s not an easy job no matter why you’re doing it!
I was encouraged to dig out my mission statement, and sometime this week sit down with my husband and children and talk together about what everyone believes the mission of this family to be.
By admin, on April 12th, 2010%
Would you care for another walk this beautiful Monday morning?
It is a beautiful Monday morning here! I’ve had several walks this morning, gathering greens for the bunnies.
The little bunnies ate, and ate, and ATE. You should have heard the little crunchy munchy sounds from this group!
Our little triplet brown bunnies (they look like their Grandma Coco) all lined up together, as if they knew they were exactly the same color.
The little twin black bunnies flanked them on either side.
My one large azalea is in bloom. I cannot really take a picture to do it justice.
This bunny is free from cages and human-gathered greens. He runs around the garden at night, doing what he wants and gathering what he will. He’s always very still during the day, however.
The walkways are adorned with creeping jenny and thyme. I have so many garden chores. And there’s never enough thyme. (I crack myself up.)
Our beloved stone garden maiden, Sarah Elizabeth Gramble (Joseph named her when he was about 8). She stands with an apron full or petals, an arch of rose buds hanging overhead. I love the purple money plants that surround her.
Let’s stand under the arbor where the Lady Banks rose is planted.
And this is the Lady Banks in yellow bloom. Maybe if we stand under the arbor long enough, and stand still enough, my supervisor will forget that I have to work today. Do you think?
The purple-blooming ajuga is out everywhere! It makes a great ground cover.
The columbines are starting to bloom too. There’s just so much this time of year! I could stay out all day long and not want to go in.
My Knock Out roses are starting to bloom. They are easy, easy, easy and so pretty all the gardening season.
The carpenter man’s favorite flower: old fashioned purple iris. He dug these up for me years ago from an old homeplace. In fact, we planted these the first year or two that we were in our house, so we’ve been watching these bloom together for about 21 years.
One of my favorite trees is in bloom. No, it’s not the crepe myrtle which is just starting to get its leaves, but a tree that was growing on my mother’s property. She dug up some shoots for me and now I have two of them. They have lovely white blooms this time of year.
The bleeding hearts are in bloom. Aren’t they just so pretty?
Get over here! I said we were hiding under the arbor so I can get out of work, and there you’ve wandered off to the bunny cage. Well, I guess you’re right that I probably should get my work done. Michaela will be working alongside me, moving on with her Saxon math and researching whether or not carpenter bees can sting. (She asked yesterday, so doesn’t is just make good sense for her to find out for us?)
I hope you have a beautiful day!
By admin, on April 10th, 2010%
I’ve been working on brooch pins, but there’s so much else going on, they have been slightly on the back burner.
This one, Whatsoever is Lovely, is in the shop.
“Wonder,’ reminding me ever so much of Alice in Wonderland, is a keeper (not that I don’t want to keep them all). She’s in my jewelry box. They are both from pages from an old Degas artbook.
Working today, but enjoying the bright sun, hot coffee with vanilla coffee beans from my antique grinder (it’s the fun of it, you know), and trying to focus on just how quickly it’ll be the end of the day and I’ll be off tomorrow.
By admin, on March 29th, 2010%
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ~Alice, Through The Looking Glass
I don’t really work. My desk is merely a means to an end: a decoy, if you will. When I’m sitting still and quiet and seeming to be preoccupied, the garden fairies come out from under their mushrooms and out of their little rabbit holes (only they’re not rabbits) and make their plans. From the corner of my eye I can see them through my large office window.
Oh, but garden fairies have the finest clothes! They are spun, after all, from the leftover silk from cocoons, their sashes being lashes of saffron or the finest fibers of hemp or flax. It is with the most tedious ease that I sit and wait. Today, especially, will be a day of wonder! Every green thing is heavy with fat raindrops, which means the fairies will be carrying their bright umbrellas. You do know, don’t you, what fairy umbrellas are made of?
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About Lynn
I am a 40-something-year-old mother of four delightful children, have been married for 22 years to my carpenter husband, and live in a 1921 farm-style house. I find the most joy in my garden, growing and harvesting herbs and flowers and caring for our pet rabbits.
I have a 21-year-old son, a 19-year-old son, a 16-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly (and very funny) 11-year-old daughter who is homeschooled.
I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I'm a book lover, bird lover, gardener and aspiring herbalist. I seek no help for my thrift store addiction. I do medical transcription from home part-time.
The Players
Mom and Dad
Daniel
Big Joe
John
Princess of the Universe
Annie
Oreo
Coco
Basil
Midnight
Boomerang
A Pond of Goldfish
My Symphony
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
Contact Me 
I would  for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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