A Place for Everything; Everything on Floor.

WFMW is having a special themed edition on organizational tips today. Organization is not one of my strong suits as my title suggests. My late brother made that wry observation once, noting that while I often had an elaborate organizational system nothing ever seemed to get where it was supposed to be.

So why am I just not laying low until next week? A good question. I think what I want to share today is what I would title as a "Works For Me" in progress, something that I chronically struggle with but hope to subdue someday.

Here are some ways I am trying to get Organization to work for me:

• Looking through the mail.

Before: Stopping everything I was doing to get the mail when it came in and invariably leaving junk mail and catalogues I "was going to get to" all over the house.

Now: Try to wait until I am able to deal with the mail to take it out of the box. Go through mail near garbage can so I can throw away all junk immediately.

Working On: To be able to deal with all mail in one setting putting bills and correspondence where they belong and disposing of rest.

• Keeping house in order.

Before: Leaving job after job 1/2 done with idea of getting to later. Dealing with cleaning and organization on as needed or crisis to crisis basis.

Current: Attempting to order as I go. Finding that I often still am under the command of the tyranny of the urgent. I also have tinkered with "multitasking" which usually ends with a 1/2 cleaned mess in every room and a frazzled and frustrated me.

Working on: To finish one job completely before moving on with another. This isn't to say that I can't have the lunch in the oven while I'm finishing the morning lessons. But the idea of helping one kid cook ramen, one with a computerized math lesson, and one with math at the table simultaneously while emptying the dishwasher is now a complete anathema to me.

• Involving the children with the household tasks.

Before: Spend most of my day coaxing the children to do minimal amounts of work and generally having to redo their work myself.

Current: Every one has a routine in the morning that is to be completed before school starts. I try to split up tasks like preparing for or cleaning up a meal so each child can participate to their abilities. I still find myself cleaning up after them much more often than I'd like.

Working On: Breaking responsibilities in component parts and assigning them in advance. For example: Emma is in charge of feeding the bunny and replacing his hay each morning. Charlie changes his water bottle. I empty the bunny's tray each day. Emma is teaching Lucy how to brush the bunny's fur and they will rotate that job. Charlie, Emma and I rotate vacuuming the area where the bunny's cage is. I also am working to have them complete a job without my intervention.

So working on getting organized works for me. To see what works for those less organizationally challenged than myself step on over to WE ARE THAT FAMILY. To see all my other WFMW posts click Here.

Next Time: Hoppy Birthday

Giving September it's due and avoiding plagarism

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets, and what nots of Home School Dad.

Tonight's Episode: 7 Word September

NEWSFLASH: September is the ninth month of the year. September is the ninth We're all cool with that, right? Well, if September is the ninth month, why does the prefix Sept mean seventh? November has the proper prefix for ninth and it's the eleventh month. What's with that?

Well, September would be the seventh month, if it weren't for the Cesarean section of the calendar. July and August are name for those great rulers of old, Julius and Augustus Caesar.

Imagine you're on the month naming committee. You have 10 perfectly good names for months already; the last 4 actually mean the seventh through tenth months, respectively. Then the Emperor's people come in and say, "Hey! Don't forget about Julie and Augie. We need months for them too you know!

So, what do you do? The only way to keep the numbered months in their correct place is to put July and August at the end of the year. That doesn't work with the Emperor's people. Who wants to have a July pool party when it's 40 degrees out and all the leaves are off the ground and in the pool?

September through December don't mean what they're supposed to mean and every body's okay with that?!? I for one don't plan to sit idly by while September gets shafted. Here's what I'm doing about it:

All this month I will have September embrace it's seveness by titling all my posts with exactly seven words. I got the idea from Cate at Show My Face dot com. Each Saturday she hosts SIX WORD SATURDAY, where people sum up their lives in six words and then write 3-400 more to explain their six.

I was a little concerned about running with this idea for fear of stepping on her toes. I talked to her about it and she says her toes don't mind. I even have a special 7 word September/ Six Word Saturday tie in planned. Tune in Saturdays to see what I have cooking.

If you're not into minutiae, skip ahead to the next paragraph. As you may have observed, I end all my posts with a blurb about what is coming in the next post. I usually just write the title of the upcoming article. For September I will just say the upcoming subject. That way, no one will know the seven word title until the actual post, That's me, Mr. Suspense Builder.

Welcome back non minutiae people. If anyone, minutiae likers or not, would like to give September it's due you can try ant of the following:

• Title all your blog posts with seven words
• Give $7.00 to each of your followers
• Give away a copy of 7 brides for 7 brothers
• Start a petition to have 7-up produce a September 7 pack.

Next Time: WFMW Themed Edition

A Bunny at Last

When my oldest daughter was 4 months old, my mom gave her a red stuffed bunny for her first Christmas. She named him red bunny and he became her favorite toy and started her life long love for bunnies. Not only would she sleep with it, each and every night, she would also suck on its ear, as if it was a pacifier. She did this so much that the ear became black and her teeth started getting black marks on them. We tried to have her switch ears to no avail. In the end, we had to cut off the bunnies ear making him Vincent Van Bunny.

Now she has had a couple of dozen stuffed bunnies over the years, none of them as important to her as red bunny. Until, I should say, a few years ago at her cousin's birthday party at build-a-bear when she brought home Alice. Alice became her new best friend and bedtime companion. The great thing about Alice for us was that she was the best consequence we could ever use to discipline her. When we'd ask her to bring Alice to us, and she knew we meant business!



Soon after she got red bunny, she became enamored with real bunnies and especially the possibility of owning one. She began to learn the ins and outs of the bunny business. When she was almost 3, she taught me that baby bunnies are called kittens. When she was about 5, to curb the requests for a bunny, we told her that when she was 10, we would get a pet. Well quite honestly, we never quite expected her to become 10. But 5 +5 is alas, 10 and today I bought my bunny her first real bunny.



About 6 weeks ago she and I went bunny searching at the Kane County Fair. We encountered a girl who had 6, 2 week old bunnies and was willing to sell one to us after they were weaned. Emma was keen on getting a girl bunny and the seller was pretty sure that at least one of the kittens would be a girl. Earlier this week, I contacted the seller and alas, all 6 kittens were boys. She did have a 6 month old doe, and she was willing to sell her. Bunny decided that she would rather have an 8 week boy than a 6 month girl. Yesterday we bought all the needed equipment and today we bought the bunny, a grey jersey wooley, which Bunny has named Smoky. In a future post, I will put up pictures of the 3 most significant bunnies (stuffed and otherwise) in her life. But the most significant bunny in MY life is my little bunny girl!

Next Time: 7 Word September

A thought for My Pennies

Give-a-way: 200 pennies for Lincoln's Bicentennial.

When I was in college, I volunteered at a Campus radio station from 10 pm to 1 a.m on Tuesday nights. The radio station broadcast primarily in a few of the dorms and also could be heard on one of the campus t.v. channels that broadcast school announcements.

My show had an average listenership of maybe 10 people. I did it because, a) I loved playing Christian music and had the only christian program on the station b) I loved talking on the radio, reading copy introducing songs the whole thing and c) I love having crazy ideas and gimmicks and when you are doing a latte night radio show that virtually no one listens to it is the perfect place to showcase your crazy ideas and gimmicks. One gimmick I would sometimes do is give away a package of ramen soup to the 100th caller. Now I could buy the Ramen generally 10 for $1.00 at the Local Hyvee. So at 11:30 at night I am giving away ten cents worth of soup to the 100th caller when I have maybe 10 listeners.

The thing is people would call. I always gave the package away. One time somebody called in to request a song and didn't even know I was doing the give-a-way and they were the 100th caller.

So, we have established that back in 1987 I was as crazy (if not more) as I am today. Which brings me to my give-a-way. A few weeks ago I started the give-a-way with this post.

Earlier this year I gave away a set of 50 state quarters. I think that post had the most comments I had ever received. The Pennies give-a-way has not been so successful. So far I have had only 2 comments on the original post but both from the same person. I am making entering this contest very easy, though comment on any of my posts from the original until September 23rd and you qualify for one entry. So I encourage you to go to the original give-a-way comment there and comment on all the later posts including this one.

On September 23rd I will randomly pick from the entries and give-a-way the 100 pennies. I am also giving another 100 away to those following my blog. Yes it's crazy. Yes it's more work than is needed to get 100 pennies, you can simply go to a bank and get 2 rolls easy as you please. But that's where the fun is. Anyone can enter for a meaningful give-a-way but how cool will it be if you actually are the one who can say "hey I won 100 pennies from Crazy Dave. He paid more than that to send them to me!"

Remember if you blog about this give-a-way you get an extra entry. Just leave a comment on this or the original give-a-way post with the link.

Join in the madness! Another kind of madness is Six Word Saturday. Join in that by heading directly to Show My Face dot com. No passing go, no collecting 200 dollars. But you can collect 100 pennies if you are the lucky winner! If you'll excuse me I have to go listen to some Christian music and eat some ramen.

Next Time: A Bunny at Last.

A Legend in My Own Mind

Fits me to a T

My Life in T-shirts

Some of the darkest days in my sartorial life were those that my mom was choosing my wardrobe. I could make an entire post of the joy of going to Zayre, Venture or Sears with her and picking out my New School Clothes, but my therapist doesn't have enough open sessions. (Okay I don't have a therapist, which is telling in itself, but I liked the line.)

Worse than anything we ever purchased, were the t-shirts she bought from catalogues. Remember, it was the late seventies early eighties, and when it comes to fashion, early eighties really means seventies. So T-shirts with crazy sayings were in. Probably the worst shirt she ever got me was "runners do it for the health of it." It was embarrassing. However there was one shirt that I actually liked. It said "I'm a legend in my own mind." I wore it regularly, which was different than what I did with the shirts she bought me which I did not like. Those used to spend weeks at a time under my bed. Those who knew me then would rightly say that most of my belongings spent weeks at a time under my bed. Again, fodder for another post.

As I began to research this segment, where I write snippets of my life history based on the shirts I wore, I started to think of that shirt and its implications.

While my shirt was more of a demonstration of my self-effacing humor, the phrase itself can be more of an indictment of false pride, than I at that time had intended. Often in false bravado, we believe our own press about how great we think we are. Pride comes before a fall and since autumn is less than a month away I thought this might be a good time to discuss it.

In the pivotal scene of Quiz Show where Charles Van Doren, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, is confessing his involvement in the quiz show scandals in a congressional hearing he states:

"I've been acting a role,maybe all my life, of thinking I've, I've done more... accomplished more, produced more than I have."

When I think of that phrase "A legend in my own mind," I think of that quote. It is so easy to think of ourselves as basically good to cover up our blemishes and imperfections. The disgruntled employee says " Sure I steal money from my company by surfing the internet, when I am supposed to be doing my job, but that's a lot better than what most everybody else is doing." I don't believe man is basically good. I believe at that our core we are all sinful and self seeking. It is very easy though, to deceive myself into thinking that I have somehow merited God's favor. The truth is that everything I have has been given to me by God. My life, my health, my wife, our ability to earn money and maintain a residence, my ability to reason, my ability to type on this keyboard, even the planet I dwell on was formed by Him. God is no legend, he is real, and as the psalmist says the heavens declare his glory. If I were to have any prowess that would be considered legendary, it would be given to me by God, or only exist in my mind.

A special welcome to those visiting from the CREATIVE CARNIVAL. Be sure to read some of my more recent posts before heading back to Write Anything.

Next Time: A thought for my Pennies.