Praying in the new homeschool year

I plan on printing out & laminating this very nice prayer reminder that was sent to me by another homeschooling mom. You will find it here  on the keeping it personal website you can print out an 11x17 or 8.5x11 size 31 Biblical Virtues to pray for your children chart.

Check it out, it's super nice!!

Have a great weekend.
Moe

Are you a good mom?

I've been pondering that question for awhile now as I've been sick again with corn allergies sneaking up on me from somewhere. I've been miserable and tend to make everyone else miserable during this time. ( or so I think!)

I read a blog post about stay at home moms and as I read through it, I got thinking about what in my mind a good mom is and what a good housekeeper is. Well here is what I came up with, that I picture in my own mind when I think of a good mom and how my home should look.

A clean bedroom, toys picked up and kids playing well together.

The house is always neat, never any dirty dishes in the sink and bedrooms are neat.

Clean house, everything in it's place, bedrooms neat and tidy and no piles of dirty laundry.

 

Smiling happy kids, no dirty dishes, no piles of dirty laundry and clean bedrooms.

Where on earth did I ever get the mindset that this is what my life should be like with my family? Of course there is no dirty laundry, dirty dishes, piles of mail and magazines, messy cluttered kids rooms or toys all strewn about. These are FAKE homes, they are sets/props in which people/actors PRETEND to be homemakers, wives and mothers. Wow can our perspectives on life really be that inspired and convinced by years of media? I'm saddened that I allowed myself to believe this lie, of how things should be in my life. Is this what the Lord has for me? Am I reaping His very best for my life and my family?  Here is a link to the blog post, I hope it helps you to gain the perspective that the Lord has for you and your home. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2012/08/

May you find blessings in your family life this week.
Moe

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!
Oh, wait it's only Christmas at my house......lol. UPS delivered our homeschooling books today. You would think it was Christmas morning around here. Our son is just begging to get into the box. I think I will wait for a rainy day before I let him open it. hehehehe.

Am I mean?

I just praise my Lord and Savior for the blessing that homeschooling has been and is to our family. Just seeing the love of learning that our son has now it's incredible.  There are not many "I don't want to go to school days" anymore. Life of course is no where near perfection, but God's word in the Bible does not promise perfection in our earthly lives.

We have more "What are we learning today" days and that is a blessing. Another one I like to hear is, "Can we do another Bible lesson?" I also take on questions such as "Why do we have to learn story problems?" You will have to tune in next time to hear the answer that I gave to that one.

We are spending some time this week packaging up personal hygiene bags for needy school children and then another day we will be passing those out, along with backpacks full of school supplies to needy children in our community.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Moe

Organized bookshelves? Clutter? HELP ME!!

Moody Radio's In The Market Place with Janet Parshall Hour 2 today was entitled "Too Much Stuff"

It made me do some thinking and I even had my son listen to it. I plan to get the book. You can listen by going to Moody Radio. Here is a snapshot of Kathryn Porter talking with Janet Parshall today.

"Clutter expert Kathryn Porter joins us to clean up
our houses, and our hearts. Her popular book,
Too Much Stuff, now has a second edition.
She’ll share how God loves us amongst our messes"

Kathryn also has a website Clutter Wise check her out and see how you can conquer what is cluttering your life and it may not just be stuff that is cluttering it up.

So this brings me to my blog post for today:

I'm in need of some ideas on how to get our bookshelves more organized. I really think that we would use more of our materials if we could find them! lol.  Our son has been bored (we don't use that term, but for lack of another word I will  :-)  this past week and so he started digging through the bookshelves and found some science experiment books. He asked if he could do some and I told him that was fine, but to make sure that he marked the pages so that I could count the hours for the up coming school year ~YEAH for the teacher who has a Thinking Cap on!~ 

I also reminded him what science is all about: (Did I say that I just love this homeschool thing!?)
 *thinking ahead (what is going to happen),
 *thinking about why it's going to happen (cause/effect)
 *thinking about how it happened (process)
 *thinking about the outcome (was I correct in my assessment).

Got to love homeschooling and how kids love to learn. The teacher even told him that he could write in the book. GASP! In the past I have said "Don't write in that! I'll resell it." Well, I'm changing my tune on that one as of today, why not use it if you bought it. So write away! lol

Ok, now that I have taken us down that little rabbit trail (friends  you know how I am with rabbit trails, I've never met one that I won't follow!).

So on to organizing the books. I'm just not sure how to do it. I've got several different grades of materials and also many subject areas. One of my main areas that drives me CRAZY is the second shelf from the top on the right side. It's all the CD's DVD's, VHS's that are school stuff. What on earth can I do with those to get them orderly? It's just a mess and I try to hide it with my cute little shelf sitters. I have 2 snowman (ya know I can't pass up a snowman.) and a cute little scarecrow girl that falls off the shelf all the time. GGRR!  There is clutter on those shelves too, I have some recipe books and such that has made there way and other misc. items that need homes.

So send me some ideas on how I can get our school year off to an organized venture!  Feel free to post your areas that need some help and we can put our heads together.


Hugs,
Moe