What I've Learned During My Early-to-Rise Challenge

Well, here it is ...the last week of the Early to Rise challenge. And I have learned a few things about myself.

First of all I have learned that being a night owl is deeply ingrained in me. I absolutely love those late hours when the kiddos are {hopefully} asleep in bed--I do have a night owl daughter, too--and I can relax, watch a favorite show, work on lesson plans or another project, read a book, even make a late-night run to the store ...whatever I want to do. Sort of like if I got up early before everyone. And while in my mind I would really like to flip-flop this to get up earlier than everyone else, it never fails that I get this massive second burst of energy every night around 9 and the kiddos are all tucked in. To go to bed early would literally require sleep-aid every.single.night. because even when I've gotten up extra early it doesn't make me any sleepier at night.

Secondly, I've learned not to condemn myself if I don't/can't get up as early as other people. The pictures that people have been posting of their alarm clocks going off at 5am, 4am, even 3am have really made me feel guilty some days. And like a big, fat loser-ha! But as one blog friend commented, "find the schedule that works best FOR YOU. ...don't beat yourself up." I SO appreciated that! It totally made my day! And I am coming to terms with that. Early mornings are not my best time. Even on the mornings that I have been able to rise early I can't say that I'm really very productive because I spend all my time just trying to wake up. And hoping no one else wakes up and expects me to talk to them...heehee

And, lastly, I've learned that I really do want to improve my waking-up-time. Even though I love late nights and probably always will, I do want to rise earlier than I have been. It mostly likely won't be at 5am, but that's okay. I'll enjoy the early moments that I can get. I have enjoyed the challenges presented (not that I've done them all) in the book Early To Rise by Andy Traub. He presents some very good arguments for starting your day early and it's definitely worth the read.

So what about you? Do you rise early? Have you participated in this challenge? What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them!

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The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

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