It is our annual Chex mix before Thanksgiving tradition. It seems to grow every year.

Umm. Yeah. That is one turkey roaster plus 5 large-ish bowls.

"Happy excessive," I would say. 

Arms outstretched to either side, "She does everything B-I-G," my friend, Kath, would say.

Zain: "Kind of psychotic, Mom."

Brownie: "Isn't it a little too much, Hon?" 

Nylah just smiles and laughs, knowing the crazy truth. It is just a lot of Chex mix.

All the rest: "Can't we eat it yet, Mom?" And, new to the tradition this year, I reply, "Not until I take a picture of it."

: )  

My homekeeping threads are lagging and, though I should update my organizational efforts and confess my many flaws, I thought I would try something new instead. : )  I thought I would begin again to think about the timeless homemaking quandry (HT to Melissa),

"Ma, what's for dinner?"

Tonight, for us, it was Broccoli Quiche. I thought it might be nice to share.

I am an unrestrained, conversational cook. Cooking is kind of natural for me (I wish knitting was) and so I don't think in terms of diligent recipe following; it is more freeform. Having said that, my basic quiche format is follows. It is quite tweakable. 

Prepare two crusts (we are a two quiche per dinner family). Even though I prefer to avoid processed food and make my own pie crusts, the reality of my life is such that I better have a few Mrs. Smith's in the freezer for those days when I just don't have the time or the inclination to make pie crusts. Today was one of those days. Thank you, Mrs. Smith.

Sprinkle the cold crust with a nice shredded cheese. This layer of cheese on the crust keeps the egg mixture from soaking into the crust before the egg mixture has cooked properly and, thus, prevents soggy quiche bottom. Soggy quiche bottom is a real drag.

Make the egg mixture. Beat 5 large eggs and, then add a quarter pint of heavy cream.  Heavy cream whipped into the eggs is, in my opinion, the secret to a tall, fluffy, light quiche. Fold in more shredded cheese (the same or a different type) and, if you have them, some fresh herbs. I like oregano or thyme. Add salt and pepper at this stage or you will notice their absence.

Add the broccoli or cauliflower (or a combination of both) to the cheese bottomed crust. When they are seasonal, I will use fresh broccoli and cauliflower. Blanche and flash cool it first and then put it in the crust.  In the winter, I tend towards a frozen blend of broccoli and cauliflower. I microwave the veggies first for a couple of minutes to thaw things out a bit and then dump in one bag per crust. 

Pour egg mixture over the veggies. Top with parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs. At this stage, I love to add some shredded onions on the top also. They caramelize and crisp up nicely but, sadly, my kids all complain when I do that, so I typically don't. 

Bake at 350 degrees for a good long time. About an hour and a half or so.  

I like to serve quiche with soup and bread. I typically make a bean soup, but tonight - if you can imagine - I was out of beans. Sacrilege. I was also going to make applesauce because I thought we had a bunch of aging apples in the fridge, but on closer inspection, there were only 5 apples; not enough to bother. I did make some rye bread, though, and also a fast chicken salad out of leftovers in the fridge. We were out of walnuts, though, so it wasn't spectacular. Overall, the meal held together well, but it is definitely time to go grocery shopping.

I finished the shelves! Actually, I finished the shelves about two weeks ago, but I haven't taken the time to update the blog about it! I did remember to take some pictures while they were clean. And, before I sat down to write tonight, I made sure that they were nice and straightened again so I could write with a clear conscience. Two weeks is more than enough time for shelves to have bad behavior.

These are our book books. Fiction and nonfiction. Adult and child and everything in between.

Below are my shelves. : ) They contain my art books, my fiber books, my decorating books (laughable), garden books (more laughable), my beloved Christmas books, and, the shelf on the far right end is my cookbook shelf. Sprinkled in are all of my magazines. I love magazines! I have too many, but I read them over and over and over so they get a good workout. Every 10 years or so, or when we move or something, my husband makes me purge big, but it is painful. I am always crabby about it. I still regret throwing away the charter first 5 years of Martha Stewart Living. I had every single one and I loved them. I am a diehard Martha fan. I have a bunch (!!) more magazines waiting to be unearthed from musty dresser drawers. As soon as I can buy about 20 more magazine holders, I am going to eliminate all stuffed family on the top shelves, and use that whole top space for magazines. I want access to them. It is time that they all come out to play or, if I can't see them and read them, they must find a new home. Sniff. But, I am going to try and get new holders so my little friends can be saved.  

And, finally, the homeschooling shelves:

There is curriculum, art supplies, math manipulatives, science lab supplies, paper, our full science and history stacks (they wouldn't fit on our nonfiction shelf section) and the far right shelf containes all of my education books. : ) Love those. That huge stack of books you see on the floor is about 20% (80% is hidden out of view) of what I pulled off of the shelves to donate or sell. The white wall above the baby stroller is about to become home for two large bulletin boards that I would like to get soon.    

Cleaning the shelves made me happy and fired me up to get back on track with some schooling. Clearing out stuff that we no longer wanted was helpful because it gave us some book breathing space and, of course, room for more books!

I also cleaned out the toy totes. You can imagine that with six kids, there are lots of toys. These totes are housed in the unfinished part of our basement and we rotate them out when the kids want to play with something. I can't stand to have toys cluttering up my floor all of the time; it give me a nervous twitch. : ) There is a block tote, a lego tote, a dolly tote, a dishes tote and others. We have something like 4 stuffed animals totes. : ) I try and purge those too, but it is not easy. My girls love their stuffed animals. All are named and have a real history. Thatsallata names and history, believe you me! 

With this cleaning and sorting run, I eliminated two toy totes! Woo hoo!

On to the garden and the craft room!  

There are so many things to do. There never seems to be time in the day. I often get bogged down with the day to day stuff so much that it interferes with my ability to see the bigger picture of what it is that I need to do. Even in my listmaking, I am distracted by minutia.

But, not this time. I am focusing on one area: homekeeping. And one small set of goals to be accomplished in a short amount of time.  Here they are:

By the onset of Fall (September 21) I hope to accomplish these homekeeping goals:

1.  reorganize the homeschooling room and toys;     

2.  paint and organize my craft room;

3.  paint Nylah's bedroom and bathroom;

4. make the front garden less embarrassing; and

5. tend to, at least, 50% of the back hedge.  

So, in an effort to accommodate the new homekeeping direction of my blog, I am moving all of the accountability threads to the new homekeeping section. I hate to get rid of them all because I know that they will be a good reminder of where I used to be and where I do not want to return. They remain with their original dates, so they actually precede my homekeeping introduction. 

And, I know that there is more than just homekeeping in those accountability threads, but that is okay. That disconnect will not irritate me. 

It will not irritate me.

I want to write more about homekeeping and this is how we begin. With a new set of goals.  

I love pretty much all things about homekeeping. I enjoy cooking and preparing great meals and treats. I love (the idea of) sewing and, of course, all things fiber arts that are relevant to homekeeping. I miss the long lost days of ironing and I wouldn't mind laundry, in general, if there just wasn't so jiminy much of it. I enjoy cleaning, and organizing, and scheduling - all those facets of homekeeping that can either make you or break you. In fact, when I am stressed, they are my collective coping mechanism. 

And, I am okay at homekeeping. My house is not one of those that you would say, "Man, that house is a sty." Or, "Poor child, who taught her to cook?"

(Actually, my mom taught me to cook and clean and she did a pretty good job of it, having herself been taught by my father. It is one of those odd things with my mom. I, for the most part, do not see our common ground. Or, fairer to say, I have to look real hard for it. But when I think back and remember how she used to practice making cheesecake (we ate cheesecake for months and months) or that she would explain the top down cleaning approach to me or the importance of making food look good on a plate, I know that we did, and do, have some common heart. But, like all things with my Mom, it wasn't allowed to be nurtured, so her best was probably stifled. But, I digress).

But, I am not great at homekeeping. Some things, like gardening and decorating, are worse than others. Okay, I am really bad at gardening and decorating. And sewing. (My mom is much better at all of those things than I am). I have the ideas and inspiration (from years of obsessive magazine reading) and great, noble head knowledge (from the same), but I lag considerably in my ability to practice what I dream and, sometimes, I falter merely on maintaining the mediocre efforts are my standard fare. Some things, like canning and preserving and gift making, fall somewhere between mediocre and abysmal. Call it: really not great.

God, though, in His great love and determination to use one small and weak woman (me) continually reminds me that He has called me home. Home to care for my children; yes, absolutely. But, also home to care for my husband and the actual space that surrounds us. I know that how I steward these responsibilities is directly correlated to how God would use me in the life of my husband, especially. Said another way, my husband would be considerably blessed if I was an above average homekeeper. And, though, some days I would like to forget, God keeps bringing it up as well.

Melissa has been a great encourager to me in this area. Where Carolyn has helped me control my mighty knitting ambition and keeps me focused on the area where I actually am at the time, Melissa has set a similar standard for homekeeping. I have such a tendency, in both regards, to try and do everything all at once. Inevitably, I am unable to meet my own expectations and I feel horrible about it. Both Melissa and Carolyn have demonstrated a style of progressive accomplishment that, though missing in my life, greatly appeals to me. I don't mind my excessive enthusiasm to do it all, but when it slows growth, indeed even hampers maintenance, then you know it is time to re-evaluate. 

So, this time when I saw a need to set some goals and get some homekeeping done, I invited (okay, begged for) Melissa's input. Her advice: simplify. And, I am going to try real hard to do that. 

April flew by and I missed writing my goals altogether. I was working on them but, mostly, I was still trying to get things from March done.

I have also really been struggling with disorganization in my homemaking and homeschooling. It is partly seasonal and it is not unusual for me to, close to the end of the school year, start feeling bad bout all of the things I have not been able to do. One thing I know is that I am really tired of feeling bad that I don't have the kind of homeschool that other homeschoolers whom I admire do have. I know that kind of condemnation is not healthy and is not of God.

For this month, I am going to just focus on bringing some order to home. I feel like I need to get in the Word and to praying on this because I know that I am most always encouraged best by God. 

As I set out here at the beginning of the month, writing these goals, I am struck by how often they appear over and over on my pages and in my life. I hate that I cannot seem to make progress. I get so stuck on implementation. And I label Nylah as the Queen of Perseveration. Ha. I confess that I already know that I will get stuck again. The only thing I can think to do is to simplify my goals. And depend on God.

Keep them simple. Keep them honest. Keep them faithful.   

Goals for May:

Pray, study: order, discipline, training.

establish my routines:

    1. a (simple, honest, faithful) schedule for me 

    2. cleaning schedule for me: daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally

homeschooling focus:

    1. language arts notebooks for the littles 

Spiritual

• Pray out loud daily.
  
• Be aware of complaining. Repent every time.   
  

Homekeeping 

• Clean basement.
• Empty ironing board in craft room.
• Touch up paint in craft room.
• Map Nylah's bedroom plan. 
  
• Update Quicken.
   

Homeschooling

• Focus on memorization of math facts with littles.
  
• Nylah: GED pretests; outline a study plan for GED.
• Establish WRTR phonics/spelling protocol with littles.
  
• Zain: WWI.
• Quarterly reports with letter regarding work permit.
• Re-establish checking system for homework and chore completion.

Fiber

• Alpaca preparation for the RP.
• Finish spinning thrums. 
  
• Complete the spindling project.
  
• Knit a sweater for Raeah using lopi. Make a tote instead.
  

Create

• Mosaic bulletin board.
• Book shelf.
  
• Box purse.  
  

Health 

• Pray for stability.
• 10 pounds.
• Plan for indulgences.
  

I'm coming into this 8 days late and with a short month, so I am trying to keep to the bare minimum of self-expectation.

Note: you can get an idea of how well I have done by the degree to which my cross out line covers the task. If my cross out line completely obscures the task, I did it! If it only goes (e.g.) half way across the task, I have only managed about (e.g). 50% of that task.  

Spiritual

• Pray out loud daily.
• Be aware of complaining.
  

Homekeeping

• deep clean kitchen appliances
• get basement big stuff a little more orderly
• begin to move stuff into craft room

Homeschooling

• establish new screen protocol: work before play, please.
  
• news essays for Zain
• begin GED preparation for Nylah
• finish MCP phonics for the littles
• review math facts for speed for the littles 
  

fiber

• alpaca preparation
• finish wool/mohair hat (dumped!)
  
• finish spindling wool/angora
• spin thrums, if there is time

(virtually no progress in the next two areas)

Create

• mixed media box
• glue table
• strengthen bookshelf  
  

Write

• Boone review   

Health 

•  pray

Ha! So much for accountability.  I gave up and couldn't keep up.  Rather than run from my wicked ways, I think I will confess (aka publish) them and march onward. Should I not chase after the wagon so that I might jump back on after I have fallen off??

It may be too much to actually blog a daily list and I don't want the blogging to become more a priority than the necessary praying. I may keep my daily priorities in my cute little Franklin Planner I bought.

So, she says as she latches onto the handle and starts to heave herself back into the wagon, today I will focus on praying through the rest of the February plan and the week's inventory.