Dressing My Kids II

A couple years ago I wrote about my clothing philosophy and how I plan and shop for my kids' clothing.  It's a hobby for me.  See the original post if you are curious.  People often ask me where I shop for my kids clothes.  With that in mind, I recently started a pinterest board where I pin some of the clothes I have bought or plan to buy for my kids.

In the last 2 years I have used my clothing checklists a lot and modified them.  Mostly, I removed things.  I've learned that I need even less than I thought I did for each child.  Some weeks I even -GASP- put my kids in the same outfit twice.  High quality clothing washes and wears really well so this isn't a problem and means I need fewer outfits for each child.  Isabel's clothes from years past are holding up really well so I buy very little for Chloe.

Here are my updated Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter checklists:

Spring/Summer Clothing Checklist

Liam

o Sneakers

o Waterproof/sandals

o Rainboots

o Sunday Shoes

o ooo 3 PJS

o swimsuit

o hat

SUNDAY

o pants

o shirt

o sweater or vest

o tie

o oo 2 socks

6 Everyday Outfits

o 2 jeans

o 1 pants

o ooo 3 shorts

o oooooo 6 SS shirts

o hoodie

o oo 2 socks

Chloe

o Sneakers

o Waterproof

o Rainboots

o Sunday shoes

o Sandals

o ooo 3 PJS

o swimsuit

o hat

SUNDAY

o oo 2 dresses

o white tights

o sweater

6 Everyday Outfits

o jeans

o shorts

o bike shorts (for under skirts)

o oo 2 skirts

o oo 2 play-dresses

o ooooo 5 SS shirts

o hoodie

o oo 2 socks

Isabel

o Sneakers

o Flip flops

o Sunday shoes

o sandals

o ooo 3 PJS

o swimsuit

o hat

SUNDAY

o oo 2 dresses

o white tights

o sweater

6 Everyday Outfits

o jeans

o oo 2 shorts

o oo 2 skirts

o footless tights

o 1 dress

o ooooo 6 SS shirts

o hoodie

o oo 2 socks

Fall/Winter Clothing Checklist

Liam

o Sneakers

o Rain Boots

o Sunday Shoes

o ooo 3 PJS

o Coat

o Hat/Scarf

o Mittens

SUNDAY

o Suit

o pants

o  oo 2 LS shirts

o Sweater  or vest

o oo 2 socks

6 Everyday Outfits

o ooo3 jeans

o oo 2 pants

o sweatsuit

o oooooo 6 LS shirts

o hoodie

o oo 2 sweaters

o oooooo 6 socks

Chloe

o Sneakers

o Rain Boots

o Sunday shoes

o Mary Janes

o Dress Boots

o ooo 3 PJS

o Coat

o Hat/Scarf

o Mittens

SUNDAY

o oo 2 dresses

o oo 2 tights to match

6 Everyday Outfits

o oo 2 jeans

o sweatsuit

o oo 2 skirts

o play-dress

o oo 2 tights

o ooooo 5 LS shirts

o hoodie

o oo 2 sweaters

o oooo4 socks

Isabel

o Sneakers

o Rain Boots

o Sunday shoes

o Mary Janes

o Dress Boots

o ooo 3 PJS

o Dress Coat

o Puffy Coat

o Hat/Scarf

o Mittens

SUNDAY

o ooo 2 dresses

o oo 2 tights to match

6 Everyday Outfits

o oo 2 jeans

o sweatsuit

o oo 2 skirts

o 1 play-dress

o oo 2 tights

o ooooo 5 LS shirts

o hoodie

o oo 2 sweaters

o oooo 4 socks

Progressing Towards Perfection

I have this crazy hope and plan to one day become perfect.  Not in this life and not without an immense amount of divine assistance but, someday.  I know that sounds a little crazy but I also know I’m not the only person with this plan.  I’ve learned that the quest for perfection can help me fulfill my less-than-perfect potential here and now. I’ve also learned that a realistic approach and attitude can help me guard against the plague of perfectionism, which is antithetical to my goal.  Here’s what I’ve learned about the process so far:

1.     The Process Won’t Make Me Perfect Anytime Soon but it Makes Me Better Today.  I wish I wouldn’t make any more mistakes.  Especially as a parent, I wish I could give my kids a perfect mother.  But I have accepted that having imperfect parents was God’s plan for all of us.  He also intended us to have imperfect spouses, siblings, children, friends, teachers, coworkers, etc.  We are all part of the imperfect mass of humanity and I believe God expects us to deal with it and do our best in less than perfect circumstances.  Even though I know I am going to keep making mistakes and messing things up, I believe the process of trying to perfect myself makes me better every single day.  Some days are better than others but knowing this is the path I’m on gives me hope and helps me be patient with myself.  Because I’m working on this daily, I experience little victories almost every day.  Yes, some days are total losses but I try to learn from those, “pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.”  I try to recognize the little victories as they happen.

2.     I Can Remake Who I Am.  I am by nature, an 11^th hour girl, who is way too comfortable with mess and chaos. I used to leave everything to the last minute; show up late, if at all, to everything; be totally unreliable; always have a messy kitchen; never make my bed; never have a plan for anything and fly by the seat of my pants.  I remember deciding one day, many years ago, that I didn’t like these parts of who I was.  I was very depressed and overwhelmed by these weaknesses.  I decided that no matter what it took, I was going to change.  I started with being on time to things.  It took a lot of trial and effort and years, yes, years, to figure it out.  But with persistent effort I did.  Over time, I have conquered all of those weaknesses.  Now, I am almost always on time, most people consider me reliable, I plan my days and weeks pretty well, my kitchen is rarely messy, I make my bed almost every day, and I rarely leave anything for the last minute.  For some people, these habits come naturally and don’t sound impressive.  For me, they represent a tremendous personal triumph over many of my natural weaknesses.  I still have a looooooong list of things I want to change but I know that I can change them and I will.  I’m not stuck with who I am today.  I totally reject the idea behind the phrase, “this is just the way I am.”  I am who I work at becoming and if I don’t like something about who I am today, I can change it. 

3.     One Thing at a Time.  Leo Babauta has this figured out and I have learned a lot from him.  I think his thoughts on this are dead –on.  He says it so much better than me.  Read his post on The Single Changing Method.   If you want to make real lasting change, you should focus on one small change at a time.  You can do something really dramatic and different for a day, week, or month but lasting change that sticks only comes as you create new habits and I don’t know anyone who has had a lot of success creating several new habits at once.  I am always working on one new habit at a time and I define the success of each day by how I did on that new habit.  Right now I’m working on the habit of reading my Core Book every morning, first thing.  This is something I’ve wanted to conquer all my life.  I’ve finally accepted that I need to focus on making it a habit.  So at the end of every day I ask myself how I did on this.  If I did well, I tell myself it was a successful day.  If not, I tell myself to do better tomorrow.  This is such a simple approach but it really works and the results are dramatic.  When I’ve mastered a new habit, meaning it happens most days without me thinking about, I’m ready to begin working on a new habit.  It usually takes me 4-6 weeks to master a new habit.

4.     Focus on Habits, Rather Than Results.  I think it is important to put my effort into things I can control and not worry about what I can’t.  I can control what I do.  I can’t control anything else.  If I’m working on being on time, I can control how much time I give myself to get somewhere and the speed I drive.  I can’t control traffic, lights, or road accidents.  I try to plan buffer time to cover some of these possibilities.   If I have planned well and done what I think I should to help myself be on time but I’m late because of a messy road accident I don’t consider myself having failed.  The habit of planning and leaving early is what I’m going for and most of the time that habit will get me places on time.  If I’m working on losing weight and being healthier I can control what I eat and what kind of exercise I do.  I can’t control how fast pounds come off or how quickly my health improves.  I know that if I create healthy habits, my health will improve and I will lose weight.  So if I’ve done a good job on my healthy habits, I count myself successful.  If, after I’ve mastered some healthy habits, I am not seeing the changes I wanted to (weight loss and healthier body), I reexamine the habits and try to figure out what else needs to change and then give myself time to work on the new changes.  As I mentioned before, this process can take years.  I just keep learning more, trying new habits, and trying again until I have success – but I don’t make myself crazy focusing on things I can’t control. 

5.    Don’t Reinvent the Wheel  - Get a Mentor.  With almost everything I’ve ever tried to do, there is someone else out there who has already done it.  Usually there are tons of people who have done it.  I search them out and find one that resonates with me and then learn from them.  Most of my mentors are authors, presenters, artists and others I’ve never met.  I study their work over and over, squeezing out every drop of wisdom I can until I’ve figured out how to do what they’ve done.  Sometimes a personal mentor is what I need.  I’ve heard that “When the student is ready, the mentor will appear” and in my experience that is true.  If you need a mentor for something, start looking and asking around.  If you are truly ready for it, you will find the mentor you need.

6.    I Am Where I Am Right Now, and That is OK.  Even though perfection is my goal, it’s not going to happen anytime soon.  I have to be able to be happy and enjoy my life right now, based on who I am today.  That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on progressing.  It means I’m being realistic and patient with myself.  I don’t need to feel bad about not being perfect.  I should feel good about my efforts to improve.  Whenever negative, self-destructive thoughts come to my mind I treat them like evil thoughts and kick them out.  They just aren’t allowed in my mind.  At the end of everyday I try to think about the progress I made and look forward to the progress I will make tomorrow.

Amateur Art Study

I love art and casually study it on my own.  I know just enough to know I don’t know much at all.  The more I get into it though, the more addicting I find it.  My limited study of Art has really helped me enjoy and get more out every other subject I study.  Here are some of my favorite books and DVDs for learning about Art and sharing it with my family:

For Kids

The Katie series of picture books by James Mayhew

Katie Meets the Impressionists

Katie and the Mona Lisa

Katie’s Sunday Afternoon

Katie and the Sunflowers

Katie and the British Artists

Katie and the Spanish Princess

The Art Book for Children series by Phaidon publishers

Mary Ann F. Kohl’s series of books on Art Projects that combine Art with other subjects, like, math, science, history, etc. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&s\

earch-alias=books&ie=UTF8&field-author=MaryAnn%20Kohl

Usborne Books on Art (there are a lot, these are just a couple examples)

The Usborne Art Treasury

The Children's Book of Art

For Youth

The Art book series by Phaidon publishers

Sister Wendy's books and DVDs (The Story of Painting, etc.)

For Adults

My name is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Letters to His Son Lucien (letters written by Camille Pissaro)

Great Courses DVD classes on art like these:

How to Look at and Understand Great Art and World's Greatest Paintings

The PBS series Great Museums, you can watch it on Hulu.com 

Parents and teachers please note, the Art Tradition includes an extensive study of The Nude.  This means most art books and classes, even some of those designed for children, will include pictures of and descriptions of nudes.  Generally, I appreciate artists’ appreciation of what I consider, God’s greatest creation, the human body.  There are some artists and works that cross the line, in my opinion, and objectify rather than glorify the body.  I recommend that you carefully consider the books and DVDs on art that you want to bring into your home and/or present to children.  I’ve grouped my favorite books and DVDs on Art into 3 lists, based on who I think they are appropriate for but you should review them and decide what you think – don’t take my word for it.

I recommend students of all ages visit art museums as often as you can.  Many museums are free and almost all of those that charge have one day or evening a month when admission is free.  This is when I take my children so that a half hour doesn't feel like a waste of money. The more one is surrounded by art, the more familiar it becomes and the easier it is to learn about and enjoy.  

Core Phase Tune-up

I am learning a lot right now about the Phases of Learning as taught by Oliver and Rachel DeMille in Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning.  I thought I understood them quite well but I’ve recently had a humbling experience that has showed me how little I’ve understood.  I’ve heard and read many times that you never leave the foundational phases, you just add to them but until now, I didn’t really get it. 

I “did” core phase and love of learning phase several years ago and have spent the last few years focused on scholar, depth, and mission phases.  When you begin Leadership Education as an adult, you typically will be working on a couple or a few phases simultaneously – not ideal, but if you miss the opportunity to take on the foundational phases as a child, you will probably have to do them while building and caring for your family.  In the last 6 months, I’ve noticed more things going wrong in my life than right.  As I’ve pondered and examined, I realized that 99% of my problems are rooted in core phase issues.  After being painfully humbled I accepted the fact that I needed to put my scholar and depth phase studies on hold while I focused my mental and emotional energy on a core phase tune up.

At first I worried that I had developed major character flaws and was becoming a bad person.  I worried that my personal core had become rotten.  This horrified me.  I want badly to be a good person and live with integrity.  After a lot of talking and pondering and processing I realized that I hadn’t totally lost my integrity and character, I had lost the habits that keep my character in check and protect my integrity.  I realized that making these habits is what Core Phase is all about.  For me these habits include things like:

• Reading from my core book daily
• Praying daily
• Being a good friend, daughter, sister, wife, and mother
• Following my family’s routine for personal hygiene and personal chores, especially taking care of myself before the kids wake up (things like going to bed and waking up on time, making my bed, exercising, showering, etc.)
• Using a system for family work, meal preparation, family finances, and shopping,
• Keeping my home organized and clean

At one time I had habits that addressed all of these things.  But in the last 3 years, my life has seen a fair amount of upheaval. 3 years ago, me, my husband and our then 5 yr old daughter moved to Utah for 3 months to adopt and be with our twins who were then very sick micro-preemies in a NICU (Born at 25 weeks at 1.5 pounds each).   Then, when the twins were 10 months old, on my oldest daughter’s 6^th birthday, I had to have brain surgery.  It has been a wild ride.   Miraculously everyone is healthy and happy and together.  We survived. 

What didn’t, were my fundamental habits and systems.  We have been limping along for the last three years with a routine and systems that were designed around a different family in totally different circumstances.  And the most important of my personal habits?  They've all but disappeared.  Of course I’ve made changes along the way and we aren’t doing things the same way we used to but mostly, I’m just not doing half the things I used to.  I understood that with all the upheaval I would need to take a break from scholar and depth phases and I did.  I pulled out of my GWU classes, said no to every commitment outside of my home, and focused on my family for a couple years.  But what I missed, what I just didn’t get, what I’m being forced to learn now is:  When my circumstances change in any significant way, I need to redesign and reestablish all the habits, routines, and systems that keep me and my home running well.  Establishing or reestablishing a habit, routine, or system takes an enormous amount of mental and emotional energy.  I have found that I can’t work on more than one thing at a time, with any degree of success.  This is a very frustrating truth but I see no way around it.  Leo Babauta, one of my favorite bloggers, wrote an amazing post on this concept: The Single Changing Method.   I use a little bit different language to talk about this than Mr. Babauta (I’m not opposed to the word goal) but in principle, I’m with him 100%.

I evaluate the success of each day on whether or not I accomplished my one mini-goal for that day.  Of course I do a lot more than one thing each day, but it is all pretty much out of habit or in response to someone asking (or hollering) for my help.  The only thing I give a lot of mental and emotional energy to is my daily mini-goal.  Right now it is reading from my Core Book first thing in the morning.  When I don’t have to think about it anymore and it just happens, I’ll work on something else. Hopefully within a year, but maybe longer, I will have my new and improved routines and systems running in a smooth, habitual way.  Only then, will I be able to add scholar and depth phase back into the mix.  

Leadership Education Family Builder

In my last post I mentioned a new resource I recently learned about, Leadership Education Family Builder.  I'm a huge fan of this program.  A new online group, mentored by Diann Jeppson, co-author of TJED Home Companion, is beginning this month and you can join it if you want to.  Here is what Diann says about it:


Are you ready to significantly improve the education of your family? Then…


I invite you to join with me, and parents from many communities, as we meet monthly to help YOU…

1.           Create your own unique family vision

2.           Develop a family master education plan

3.           Design and implement your own custom made family systems

The Leadership Education Family Builder program is designed to mentor parents who wish to implement Leadership Education in their homes. (This methodology is also known as Thomas Jefferson Education, or “TJEd”).



It is ideal for the homeschooling family; both beginner and veteran, and also for any parent wishing to improve the quality of their family’s education.



Click HERE for information about the Family Builder Program, and for registration details.

You, Not Them is the Way To Begin

I love helping people learn about and live TJED principles.  TJED is a lifestyle and for most people it takes a lot of conscious effort to develop a TJED lifestyle in their own home and family.

A lot of people read one of the TJED Books and then ask, “But how do I really do it?”  There are a lot of really great answers to that question.  Some of my favorite answers are in the books Leadership Education and The TJED Home Companion. 

Family Builder

I’ve also learned of a new resource that aims to mentor families and groups of adults through the process of developing a TJED lifestyle:  Family Builder.  It is amazing.  I whole-heartedly recommend it.  The first 3 audio downloads are free.  Listen to them and you’ll know if Family Builder is for you.  The program consists of audio lectures and worksheets that take you through the Family Builder process.  Ideally, you would be part of a local Family Builder group, led by a Family Builder Facilitator that would meet regularly to work through the Family Builder program together.  I hope to get trained as a Facilitator and lead a group in my area someday.  You can also do the program on your own or with an online group. 

I have my own way of answering the question, “But how do I really do it?” and my way really isn’t different from what all those other resources say but sometimes it is helpful to hear the same information in a variety of ways.  My thoughts draw heavily on the TJED books and an audio lecture titled, Adult Phases, given by Julie Earley at a TJED Forum. You can buy it here.  So here is how I answer the question, "But how do I really do it?"

A Shiny New Dream

Most often (definitely not always) it is the mother in a family who discovers TJED and decides she wants to “use it” with her family.  My thoughts apply to fathers and singles who want to “use” or “do” TJED too.  My imaginary narrative will be about a typical aspiring TJED mom.  Mom has usually discovered TJED at an event or after talking to a good friend who “does” TJED.  She is really excited and dreaming of a home cleaned by her children who spend their afternoon studying Calculus, Greek, and Philosophy and then relax with a family reading of a novel like Les Miserables.  When her children grow up, they save the world in half a dozen different ways.  Her dream really inspires her and she wants to see it become a reality, tomorrow. 

I think that dream sounds lovely and living a TJED lifestyle will very likely yield some if not all of those results but that is not what TJED is about.  TJED is about building leaders, also known as statesmen.  Building leaders works best when the future leader grows up in a certain kind of home environment with a certain kind of family lifestyle that inspires and helps them to progress through the phases of learning.  An individual who progresses through the phases of learning will become a leader no matter how old they are when they begin the process.  Success is not limited to children, homeschoolers or farmers. 

Reality: a Rocky Start

Mom comes home with a stack of classics and half a dozen plans for how to start “doing” TJED.   She begins to share her dream with her family, sure that they will feel just as inspired by it and get right to work on fulfilling it.  But they aren’t and they don’t.  And she isn’t even sure what to tell them to do.  She is sure that if she can just figure out what “they” should do, it will all come together.  At this point she is seriously tempted to give up and go back to what she was doing before she heard about TJED. Or, she may ask, "But how do I really do it?"

The answer is one of the 7 Keys of Great Teaching, from A Thomas Jefferson Education:

You, Not Them, is the Way to Begin

If you want to develop a TJED lifestyle for yourself and your family, you must begin with yourself and leave everyone else alone.  You must progress yourself through the phases of learning, beginning with Core Phase.  You cannot inspire someone to pursue a Core Phase or mentor them through it if you haven’t experienced it yourself.  This is hard to swallow for most people and it probably sounds all wrong but I know it works.  It doesn’t just work, it shoots the moon.  You won’t believe the results you’ll see if you give this a try.  I’m talking totally transformational, revolutionary results.

But it will sound so simple you might be tempted to dismiss it.  I beg of you, just try it.  You will probably be able to do steps 1-5 in an evening.  One week of working on step 6 will probably convince you the process works.  Here’s the specific steps I recommend:

1.  Don’t change a thing.

Whatever your family has been doing, don’t change it, just let them keep on keepin’ on.  Whatever routine your family has right now, maintain it.  Of course if someone in your family is in a dangerous or harmful situation then get them out of it immediately but don’t make them do anything else.  Even if you’ve pulled your kids out of school and the default routine is for them to play all day, let it happen.  Sometimes nothing really is better than an inferior something.  A little detox time with lots of play will not hurt your family while you figure out what you are going to do.

2.  Determine your Core Book and Authority Figure.

Fundamental to TJED and Core Phase is a learning good/bad, right/wrong, true false.  Your Authority Figure and Core Book define these for you.  An Authority Figure is often a higher power or a transcendent human being.  Someone like God, a Prophet, a Political Leader, a Philosopher etc. that you turn to for answers to Life’s Big Questions.  A Core Book does the same kind of thing and some people use a Core Book as their Authority Figure.  Some examples of Core Books are The Bible, The Bhagavad Gita, The Torah, The Koran, Shakespeare’s Collected Works, The Declaration of Independence, and The Humanist Manifesto.  Some people use a combination of 2 or 3 books/documents as their Core Book.  What is your Core Book and who is your Authority Figure? 

3.  Assess your current routine.

Write down your current personal daily and weekly routine. We are creatures of habit.  Most of what we do every day, we do on autopilot, out of habit.  What do you habitually do every day?  Every week? What time do you wake up?  When do you eat and what do you eat?  When do you work?  When do you play?  When are you home?  When are you somewhere else?  What else do you do?  When do you sleep?  Do not include anything you are not personally involved in. It is important to focus on your routine, no one else’s.  Write it all down, in chronological order.

4.  Determine an ideal routine.

Now remember, we are talking about your routine, the things you will do daily or weekly in an ideal world, not what you hope anyone else in your family, workplace, etc. will do. 

An ideal TJED Core Phaser routine includes:

•       Time to read your Core Book
•       Time to pray, meditate, or otherwise communicate with your Authority Figure
•       Time to work (This includes your responsibilities inside and outside of your home)
•       Time to play
•       Time to be inspired
•       Time to eat
•       Time to sleep
•       Time for relationships
•       Time to take care of personal needs and hygiene

There will be other things in your ideal routine.  What are they?  It’s also important to note that I’m using the word routine, not schedule.  If you are most comfortable with a minute-by-minute schedule, I suspect that is routine for you.  But it isn’t necessary.  A routine is a flow of events that happens habitually.  It is good for a routine to be flexible and allow for deviations.  Specific activities take more or less time on a given day.  Where people and their needs are concerned, it is especially important to take the time it takes to meet those needs.  Often you will be doing two or more basics at once. For example, most of my work and play is also time for relationships. 

Now review your current routine and compare it to your ideal routine.  What do you notice about your current routine?  What is good about it?  Are there important things missing from it?  How happy are you with this routine?  How happy do you think you would be if you were following your ideal routine?

5. Begin Implementing Your Ideal Routine

Proceed with caution.  Remember three things as you begin. 

• We are only talking about your routine, not what your family, roommates, or coworkers are doing.  Just leave them alone. 
• You will be successful if you focus on 1 or 2 small changes to your routine at a time.  If you try to change a lot of things all at once, or you try to make a drastic change you are unlikely to stick with it.  I know limiting yourself to 1 or 2 small changes seems like it won’t work.  I promise that it does. 
• The process is more important than what is accomplished.  This is another way of saying, Trust the Process.  Something magical happens when you consistently work on something small – it becomes a habit.   If the change is a good one, the positive effects ripple throughout your life and world.  Say for example, that time to study your Core Book is not part of your current routine but you decide to work on developing the habit of reading your Core Book for 5 minutes every day.  Even though it is only 5 minutes, it will take a tremendous amount of mental and emotional energy to work this into your routine.  It will take at least 3 weeks of tremendous daily effort to make this a habit.  But, you will experience positive results after just 1 day of reading for 5 minutes.  Some of those results will likely be that your family and/or those around you will see your example and be inspired to do likewise.  Seriously, it will happen. The positive results will make you feel great.  They will motivate you to keep working at it.  They will increase with each successful day.  Resist the urge to start requiring more of yourself.  Define your daily success by whether or not you read your Core Book for 5 minutes.  If your ideal goal is to read for 30 minutes each day and on day 2 you kept going and read for 10 minutes, that is just fine but what really matters is that you read for at least 5 minutes.  Developing the habit is the point.  Once reading your Core Book for 5 minutes a day is a habit, you can work on increasing the amount of time.  Going from 5 minutes to 10 minutes won’t be such a stretch.  Going from no minutes to 10 minutes would be a big change.  And bigger changes are a lot harder to turn into habits.  I was once told that it is our habits that determine our destiny, and I believe it.

After you have made one permanent (habitual) change to your routine, you can begin working on another one.  Keep working at making new habits until your current routine matches your ideal routine, most of the time.  Please note I said, most of the time, not every single day.  Unless you are perfect, you will never be able to follow the ideal routine every day.  If you obsess about perfection you will prevent yourself from fulfilling your potential and you will teach those around you to do likewise.

Depending on how different your current routine and your ideal routine are, this process may take a few months or a few years.  Your definition of ideal is likely to evolve, especially as you progress through the phases.   And you will fall out of some habits and have to make them again.  I have a pretty good personal routine that I’ve worked on for years but I am continually improving it.  This week I’m recreating the habit of making my bed before breakfast.

When you don’t have to think about your ideal routine to make it happen, you can begin working on Creating an Inspiring Environment.  And that’s a post for another day…

American History Dates

I'm at the tail end of the American History class I'm taking through George Wythe University, online.  For this class we read and discussed the following books:

John Adams by David McCullogh
A History of the American People by Paul Johnson
Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood
Great Speeches by Native Americans
Great Speeches by American Women
Great Speeches by African Americans
Famous Documents and Speeches of the Civil War

For part of the written final, I'm supposed to memorize 100 dates from American History.  The class mentor supplied half the dates and each student chooses the other half of the dates they'd like to memorize.  Each student's list of 100 dates will be unique.  Based on my love of books and authors, I chose a lot of book publication dates.  For the curious, here is my list of 110 American History dates to memorize.  When I started making my list I had about 200 dates that seemed important to me - it was tough to cut it down.  I knew hardly any of these at the start of the class but I'm almost there on memorizing them all and even better, based on the books we read and discussed, these dates actually mean something to me - I know what the events were. If you were to make up a list of your own, what would it include?

1492-1599 (1-8)

1.     1492: Columbus discovered the New World

2.     1497: John Cabot begins British Colonial presence in the Americas

3.     c.1514: Ponce de Leon “discovers” Florida and enslaves the inhabitants

4.     1520s: Spaniards, led by Cortes, invade and destroy ancient Mexican civilizations

5.     1539-1542: Hernando De Soto explores areas of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina

6.     1540: Chief Acuera refuses to treat with De Soto

7.     1587: Roanoke Island colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh

8.     1590: John White finds Roanoke Island deserted

1600-1700 (9-18)

9.     1607: Jamestown colony settled

10.  August 20^th 1619: Yeardly and others at Jamestown purchase the first Africans as slaves.

11.  November 21^st 1620: Mayflower Compact

12.  December 11^th 1620: Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock

13.  1636: Roger Williams founds Rhode Island and Providence plantations

14.  1649-1650s: Maryland passes the Toleration Acts

15.  1675-1676: King Philip’s war

16.  1676:Bacon’s Rebellion

17.  1686-89: New England directly governed by Britain until the Glorious Revolution

18.  1692: Salem Witch Trials

1700-1799 (19 – 40)

19.  1730s-1740s: First Great Awakening led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield

20.  1754-1763: French and Indian War

21.  March 5, 1770 Boston Massacre

22.  December 16, 1773 Boston Tea Party

23.  1774: First Continental Congress

24.  1775-1783:  American Revolutionary War

25.  April 1775: Paul Revere’s Ride

26.  April 19, 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord

27.  June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill

28.  July 4^th, 1776:  Declaration of Independence

29.  Oct 19, 1781: Surrender of Cornwallis

30.  Sep 3, 1783: Treaty of Paris

31.   1787:  Constitutional Convention

32.  1787: Northwest Ordinance

33.  March 4^th 1789:  U.S. Government under the Constitution begins

34.  1791:  Bill of Rights

35.  1791:  First Bank of the U.S. chartered

36.  1794: Whiskey Rebellion

37.  1795:  Jay’s Treaty

38.  1798:  John Adam’s signs the Alien and Sedition acts

39.  1798: XYZ Affair

40.  Dec 14, 1799: Death of George Washington

1800-1899 (41-83)

41.  1803:  Marbury v. Madison establishes Judicial Review

42.  1803:  Lousiana Purchase

43.  1809: Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle

44.  1812-1814:  War of 1812

45.  1820: Missouri Compromise

46.  1823:  Monroe Doctrine

47.  1825: The Corrupt Bargain

48.  1826: James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans

49.  1830: The Book of Mormon

50.  1831: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

51.  1831: Edgar Allan Poe, Poems

52.  1832: Jackson vetoes the 2^nd Bank of the US charter renewal

53.  1832: Nullification

54.  1836: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

55.  1836: McGuffey Readers

56.  1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

57.  1850: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

58.  1850: Fugitive Slave Law

59.  1851: Herman Melville, Moby Dick

60.  1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

61.  1854: Repeal of Missouri Compromise

62.  1854: Founding of Republican Party

63.  1854: Henry David Thoreau, Walden

64.  1855: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha

65.  1855: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

66.  1857: Dred Scott decision

67.  1859: John Brown Hanged

68.  Nov 6, 1860: Lincoln elected President

69.  Dec 20, 1860: South Carolina secedes

70.  1861-1865:  Civil War

71.  1862-1863:  Emancipation Proclamation

72.  April 14, 1865: Lincoln assassinated

73.   1865-1877:  Reconstruction Era

74.  Dec 6, 1865: 13^th Amendment abolishes slavery

75.   July 9, 1868: 14^th Amendment allows Former slaves to become citizens

76.  1868: Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

77.  1869:  First Transcontinental Railroad completed

78.  February 3, 1870: 15^th Amendment gives all men the vote

79.  1875: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

80.  1881: Henry James, Portrait of a Lady

81.  1884: Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

82.  1889: Washington State admitted to the Union

83.  1890:  Wounded Knee Massacre

1900-1999 (84-110)

84.  1901-1909:  Theodore Roosevelt’s progressivist presidency

85.  1906: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

86.  1911: Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome

87.  1913: Willa Cather, O Pioneers!

88.   1914-1918:  World War I

89.  1915: T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

90.  1916: Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

91.  1918: Strunk and White, The Elements of Style

92.  1919: The Education of Henry Adams, receives a Pulitzer Prize

93.  Jan 16, 1919: 18^th Amendment establishes prohibition

94.   Aug 18, 1920:  19^th Amendment gives the vote to women

95.  1925: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

96.  1929:  Stock Market Crash begins the Great Depression

97.  1932: Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Little House in the Big Woods

98.  December 5, 1933: 21^st amendment repeals the 18^th, ending prohibition

99.  1936: Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

100.                 1939: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

101.                 1940: Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls

102.                 1940: Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book

103.                 1941-1945:  US Involvement in World War II, Pearl Harbor to Atomic Bomb

104.                 1947-1991:  Cold War

105.                 1952: E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

106.                 1957: Dr. Seuss:  The Cat in the Hat

107.                 1955-1975:  Vietnam War

108.                 1960-1965:  Civil Rights Movement

109.                 1966-1969:  Hippie Movement

110.                 1973:  AIM seizes the trading post at Wounded Knee