Jun 11
Known since the middle ages under a variety of names, flavored with strong spices like anise and caraway, and prized for their keeping quality, jumbles are a virtually indestructible and somewhat nourishing cookie, if not exactly a delicate morsel. Think hardtack biscuits. Principle thoughts, not cookies, are my current jumbles. Read more
Time Tracking Activity Chart This is a blank chart for you to pick whatever you want to time. Believe me, this can be fun!
Time Trials This is a chart of suggested activities to try timing, with room to record 4 trials for the same item. You can use this as an idea prompter in case you have trouble dreaming up things to time. You can use it for yourself to get base line times for activities you want to coordinate for yourself. You can use it for a family night as a time trial Olympics. You can assign it as a project for teens to work through timing themselves.
Give that cell phone stopwatch a work out!
Jan 24
Our first was born in the thick of the “feed your infant when they cry” philosophy, based on the reasonable premise that a baby knows when he/she needs food for that tiny little tummy. Part of this philosophy was that the youngster would settle him/herself into a routine.
The proposition sounded like a great experiment, so I made a chart: days and times on which I could color code blocks for eating, fussiness, sleeping, and contentedness. After several weeks, it was clear that no pattern was emerging; the chart was put away and we began moving toward a family schedule. Read more
Schedule. What is it about HOME and SCHEDULE that do not seem to go together? The same doctors that tell you to feed your baby whenever, and let your children sleep whenever want to tell you those things during a set appointment time. Schools and work places dictate arrival and departure times but HOME can’t set any boundaries. People fill agenda books with all sorts of professional appointments and project lists, but HOME can’t find a time for all its inhabitants to meet together and projects are planned on the whenever-we-get-to-it-basis.
The first place children should learn about schedules is in the home, not school. The most important appointments a business man keeps should be his home appointments. The schedules that ought get the most coordinated, thoughtful attention between a husband and wife ought be the in- home schedules, not the coordinating sports-music-school-business trip-chauffeuring schedules. The most successful schedules an office manager arranges ought be his/her home schedules. Read more
Jan 8
The elegant dining room held a full wall of built-in cherry wood cabinets designed for a stunning array of fine china and silver; the interior lighting allowing the gold-rimmed dishes, silver bowls, and trays to shimmer and sparkle behind their glass doors. The display cabinets, tastefully carved table, and comfortable leather chairs all spoke of evenings of fine conversation and fine eating, so the offer of tea from the beautiful dishes was an invitation readily accepted and delightfully anticipated. Read more
Priority Stewardship 