Summer Lists

I've had a couple of requests to see the kids' summer lists, so I thought I'd share them here.

They're working really well for us and have been a huge blessing. Hopefully, they can be helpful jumping off point for others.

These are modified/expanded/pared down versions of the lists we had during the school year. When we head back into homeschooling in the fall, they'll get yet another revision.

Morning Lists
Daily Lists (We're doing a semester-long study of Texas in the fall, and we're trying to get ahead on our reading, both to take advantage of the library and to have some school under our belt, so we can take some time off when the baby is born, hence the two blocks of "Read TX Books" on the list.)
Bedtime Lists
Weekly Lists

New Lists for a New (Temporary) Life

Way too much to catch everyone up on right now, but suffice it to say, we're spending the school year in the US. Suprise! To everyone! Including us!

Hopefully, I'll be able to come back later and explain all of that, but right now, I've had a couple of requests to look at the morning, after school and bedtime lists I have adapted for this season.

Oh, did I not mention that the kids are going to school? For the first time? Ever? Well, they are. And, consequently, we have had to learn a whole new system, including lunch boxes and homework and PTF committee meetings (okay, so those aren't on the lists, but . . . ).

To keep my sanity (you may laugh right now), I updated our old lists, and then revised and revised them. I'm sure they'll undergo continual revision, but these are relatively final, so I thought I'd go ahead and post them. (We aren't doing individual family responsibility [aka "chore"] lists right now, because we're just doing chores as we have time. [Read: Mommy and Daddy are doing most of the work])

Hope these are helpful in spurring ideas for other families:
- morning list
- after school list
- bedtime list

You'll notice that ZL now has his own lists. He loves them. Seriously, he thinks it's so cool that he has his own lists. And, no, he does not watch TV from the time he finishes his morning list until the Bigs get home from school (although "Nick, Jr. is like preschool on TV!" ). We pull the plug relatively quickly, but this gives me an opportunity to have an extended Quiet Time on occasion (although it is pretty surreal to be listening to worship music via earbuds and have Olivia playing on the TV in front of you).

(My apologies for the funky format of some of the lists. They get simplified when they're uploaded to Google Docs, and they lose all of their pretty colors, etc.)

Mommy/Baby Hospital Lists

Quietly announcing that I'm going to try to post something to one of my three blogs each day in February. I figure that's a smoother attempt at getting back into blogging than to try to jump full force into one of them (or worse, all of them). We'll see how I do.

A friend here is due any day and has been packing (and re-packing) her hospital bags. I remembered that I had an ongoing list in my Palm software, so I looked it up and sent it to her. Thought it would be good to post here among all of my other lists.

the "adult" bag (myself and dh)
coffee (for ML & prepared for me)
pillows
hair towel
towel obviously from a previous pregnancy, since the current hospital provides these
camera
house shoes
socks: both
pads
Tucks medicated haven't needed these since my first, but I guess I never took them off
underwear: both
bra
q-tips
lotion
make up
toothbrushes
toothpaste
scrubby
wash cloth
tylenol
ibuprofen
deodorants
hair gel (ML)
brushes
pajamas: both
clean clothes: ML because we got there without any for him one time; oops
t-shirt
jeans
iPod
khaki pants a trusty pair of "transitional size" pants
water bottles: sm 1/2 froz, lg froz again, the more recent hospital provides cold water
OJ
kids' books for when they visit the hospital
phone charger think we forgot this one time, too
blood work
admission papers
bananas/dried apricots

the baby's bag (aka everything else)
candy to give out at the hospital, a cultural tradition
diapers
wipes
hats
gowns/sleepers
under shirts
shoes
pacifiers
blankets
changing pad
alcohol pads
bottles
formula
baby blanket

Ringtones

True confession time: I knew I was a ringtone junkie; it was not until I typed up a list for posting here, though, that I realized exactly how bad it was. I have 85 ringtones on my phone! (Thank goodness for automatic numbering in Word.) I've added a few at a time over the year that I've had my "fancy phone" (as opposed to the bottom-of-the-line model I've always had previously). Wow, that few-at-a-time sure adds up, doesn't it?

So, here they are:
24 Theme Song
411 Packet
A-Team
A-Team 2
Get Your Adverbs Here
Al in This Together (from HSM)
Back to the Future
Batman (old TV show)
Belly of a Whale
Be Your Friend
Breaking Free
The Bunny Song
Cheers Chorus
Chocolate Rain
CTU Phone Ring (from 24, text alert)
Do Do Do (from HSM)
Eye of the Tiger
False Hope – Barack Obama
Family Ties
Greensleeves
Firefly Theme Song
Fruity Oaty Bars (from Serenity)
Inspector Gadget, instrumental
Inspector Gadget, siren (text alert)
Inspector Gadget, theme
Ghostbusters, instrumental
Ghostbusters, intro
Ghostbusters, theme
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cindy Lauper
God is Bigger (Than the Boogie Man)
Go Gadget Go
Go Speed Racer
Hairbrush Song, Japanese
Hard Days Night – The Beatles
Hero of Canton (from Firefly)
His Banner
Honeyful Day
Hotel California
How Great the Father’s Love
I’m Still Here (from Treasure Planet)
I’ve Never Had (from HSM)
I’m Bad – Michael Jackson
In the Name of Love – U2
Jeopardy, text alert
Jeopardy, text alert 2
Jonah Was a Prophet
Welcome Home – JWGulley
Kim Possible, text alert
Light My Fire – The Doors
Little Einsteins, theme
Little Einsteins, text alert
System Failure – LOST
LOST, title sequence
Love, Love Me Do – The Beatles
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, theme song
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Mii Channel
Muppets Theme
Name Above All Names
NCIS Theme
No Sweeter Name
Numa Numa
Numb3rs Theme
Power Rangers Theme
Soarin’ Flyin’ (from HSM)
Speed Racer Theme
Speed Racer, text alert
Spiderman (old show)
Sweet Home Alabama
Thankful Heart
Tigger & Pooh Theme
Twilight Zone
Walk Like an Egyptian
Walk the Line – Johnny Cash
Wedding March
Welcome to the Jungle – Guns ‘N Roses
White and Nerdy – Weird Al Yankovic
Wii Sports
Wild Cats – HSM
With or Without You – U2
X-Men Theme
X-Men, text alert
Yes We Can – Barack Obama
Yip Yip Telephone (Sesame Street)
You All Everybody (from LOST)

The fascinating thing to me is that I've used probably 80% of them at one point or another.

Details

I recently learned something about myself, I'm a perfectionist. One would not have known that by looking at my room (or my school desk or locker) growing up or by living with me in college.

I have been reading Kevin Leman's The New Birth Order Book, though, and in his chapter on perfectionistic first-borns, I found myself (and my husband, too, much to my [and his] surprise). I'll save the various other specifics as to how I am a perfectionist later, but the one related to this post (and this blog in general) is that I like lists. I like to make lists. I like to check things off of lists. And I like to assign lists to other people, so watch out.

Usually, though, the only people I assign lists to are immediate family members, and usually just the ones younger than me. For several years now, that has been just lesson plan check lists (with boxes for actual checks, of course), which has worked well. What has elluded me, though, has been a system for chores, or "family responsibilities," as we like to call them.

I have recently found what I think, at least in some evolved form, is going to be a good system for our family in the long run. Hum dul Allah (and I really mean that, in case anyone thinks I'm being sacriligeous).

What does this have to do with this blog post? Is it really so important as to be my very first blog post?

Yes, actually it is. It's one of the reasons I finally decided to create a blog, to have a place to share my lists with others! :-/

Seriously, I get asked occasionally for some list or another, some form I've created for schooling or parenting or, well, one of those two things, because those are the things I do.

So, I'm hoping to post those kind of things on this blog so as to be able to refer people to them more easily.

What remains to be seen is whether blogger allows for Word, Excel and/or pdf attachments. If not, I may be searching for a new blog host. If so, I'll be back to put a few things up.

Until then, happy listmaking!