The Habit-ual Offender

What is it with habits? They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit (as in a thing that sticks) and we all know it takes years to break a bad one, evidenced by the prevalence of nose picking in traffic, if nothing else... so, when I've spent months honing good, productive habits, and easy routines that let me get everything done, I want to know why it takes approximately ONE day to flush the whole thing down the toilet and I can never seem to get back into the groove. I don't understand and I demand an answer! I've gone from actually hunting for laundry to do as part of my routine, to cowering as I sneak past the towering, festering pile in my bedroom. I know I did all of the vacation laundry when we came back... and then that was it, apparently. Other things to do? Holidays? The Husband being home? (not that he wears more laundry when he's home, just that we tend to find other things to do when he's around for an extended period and I don't have a "catch-up" day, like I do when we plan things for his regular off days.) Hard to say but, whatever the cause, I have now resorted to the "idiot's scavenger hunt", with notes taped in various places, starting with the coffee pot, directing me to the next task in my morning.

School has taken a nosedive, too. We're just seemingly doing this random learning thing. I wouldn't debase unschooling by calling it that. This is definitely non-schooling. Again, is it the holiday weirdness, looming other crap that I need to address? Who knows. I've decided to take a new approach. Every day, we will cover the quick and dirty basics - spelling, handwriting, math practice - and then have a day dedicated to each subject. Monday will be history/geography, Tuesday, science, Wednesday, math (as in more in depth math than the morning practice), Thursday, language arts. Friday is co-op day, so we don't do lessons, other than Bailey telling us about hte content of her classes. Each day, we'll focus our reading on the subject at hand, do projects / experiments, watch any shows I can Tivo, and play games that fit with the subject. Hopefully, that will get us back into the groove. Part of our (my) problem seems to come from the added labor of setting up / cleaning up when we move from subject to subject during a day and the need to plan various lessons over the course of a week. It just seems easier - to me, anyway, having not done it yet - if I can spend an hour in the evening, planning a single subject and related acticities/reading for the next day. We shall see, shant we?

So, onto new recipes...


Chicken Char Siu and Chinese Barbecued Pork Tenderloin, both from Cooking Light, were on plates and in tummies this week. Both were reviewed very highly by the under-10 set, particularly served with rice and green beans sauteed in toasted sesame oil. The chicken is a nice, tasty, moist satay and the pork is juicy, with a complex tasting crust, thanks to the layers of flavor that include Chinese Five Spice powder and hoisin sauce. Both would be delicious on a salad with Cardini's Asian Sesame dressing, if you can find it in your neck of the woods. The Husband - my personal shopper - has bought out the stock at Graul's in Annapolis, yet again. It's the only place we can find it. I wonder if they think he's deranged.