Is It Naptime Yet

For my numerous years as a stay-at-home mom, I’ve only had a car for about half of them. The first few years I stayed home all day, every day, except when my good friend Marcie came and rescued me about once a week or every other week. I had school to keep me busy and a church calling, but I was home for most of my life then, except in the evenings when I would finally get to run errands.

As time has gone on, I have a car, and depending on the time of year or what we’re doing, I’m gone for 3-4 days of the week, and always busy, and my house is always mess. I would go on cleaning spurts, the kitchen and the living room would look great, and I might even get the girl’s room organized, but there was always a mess somewhere else in the house. (My bedroom was not listed, so this is one place that is always crazy.)

Life hasn’t changed much, but what I’m realizing is I need a schedule and I need to stick with it, and in the past I’m not very good at schedules, or at least making myself stick to ’em. (Hence the most consistent at being inconsistent award in my previous post.)

I don’t know what it is, I just don’t like schedules, unless it’s full of only things I want to do, and that usually does not mean housework or exercise, though I’m finding a little more joy in the later.

With my new goal of being a consistent homeschooling parent, I’ve realized I need a house cleaning schedule, because my days are getting pretty full, especially since I love to sleep in and stay up late doing nothing of importance, and house cleaning is last on my list.

I tried really hard to put some order to our house before I started school, and that’s why we started a week late. Over the summer our home became very full of stuff, and even though I’ve recently given away tons of baby clothes and plan on getting rid of a crib and a few other things, we acquired a ton of camping gear, lots of books, food storage, and recently some dutch ovens and frying pans, which came in a handy wooden chest, it’s where to put the thing. Plus, Jon did some house cleaning of his own, and our hallway has items that use to be in our closet.

What I’m getting at is: My house is crazy, and every time I make a dent, some other area overflows with items that need a new place because I decided I didn’t like where they were, and within a week the organized room/space is no longer organized.

It’s exhausting and somewhat discouraging. I may be on the Internet a little more than needed and stay up late watching Netflix because I’m avoiding these areas. Also, I’ve just gotten use to things being in not good areas, like our hallway.

In my effort to be a little better about my home, I’m trying to allot some time on Wednesday and Friday morning, my only two mornings without something scheduled, since my afternoons are full of school, and writing blogs about how overwhelmed I am.

Today I decided to clean. But get this. I cleaned my bookshelf! Well one of the 6 we have in our house, but with cleaning it I also cleaned in front of it, which still has stuff, that I need to find a new home for.

Yeah, I’m really wise in how I use my time. I’ll let you know when I get my act together. I do plan on mopping my floors tonight, since I finished my series on Netflix and I there is little on there that interest me now.

So the best way to get me to do anything: Make my life boring as heck, but even then I’ll probably find something else to do.

I’m off to clean some other random place in my home, like the hall closet, but it really does need to be organized once more, since I have items I need to put in there, that no longer fit. It’s just, what will I take out of the closet that will need a new home, and where will that item live till I find a good spot for it?

Blah.

If you know me, you know I’m one of the most consistent at being inconsistent home-schooling moms there is. We go through good schooling times and less active schooling times. It’s true my girls are pretty smart and intelligent, where our unschooling has taken place, but they definitely have some areas where they lack the know how, or just plan practice.

I started our formal schooling last week and I have a few areas of heavy focus, which means we’re working on them 4 times a week, since we take Mondays off and I’m trying to be practical and help them in areas they have interest, or have taught themselves, but are lacking, because well, they taught themselves.

One is writing, like how to write letters properly. Both girls know how to write all the letters, except lowercase q’s, but are not writing them all properly, or starting out in the correct areas, so we’ll be working on those.

Second is spelling. Both my girls read like crazy, but only one is where she needs to be spelling wise, and that’s Eden. Eden learned most of her reading phonetically, so she understands spelling and spells things correctly, for her limited writing, where as Lilah writes a lot, but does not spell everything correctly. I have an actual curriculum I’m using for this, and putting them both through it, and we’re starting at the very basics. I like it and think it will help them a lot, especially Lilah.

Last is math. They both know a lot, but I’m finally getting to the point I need an actual book for Lilah, rather than just work books and real life situations and discussions with us. Lilah’s in the third grade, which is totally crazy to me, and I finally feel that a more curriculum based math is what she needs. We’re quickly working through some lower level math books, and by January I hope to start her at a third grade level book. She’s able to work completely on her own, with a little help from me, which is exactly what I want for math, until she gets older, and even as she gets older, I’m fine if we wait and she might be a little behind, and then she’s able to read through and work things out for herself at a later point. It’s finding a good curriculum that tells them the why and not just the how to solve a problem.

Some might judge that I’m doing my girls a disservice. How could I let them get so far behind on such basic things? But honestly, I think they’re fine, and they learn quickly when the time is right. I’ve enjoyed having them home, and I love that they get to play for most of the day. Some of their play time is spent reading, a lot really, and some is spent fighting over Mario Cart, though for the most part they get along, it’s when mom says no that the arguing ensues, and most is spent with us as a family and that’s just the way I want it.

So there’s what we’re doing for school this year, of course I have other goals for us, but these are the areas we’re lacking and I feel it’s starting to interfere with their learning or ability to grow and learn more. I hope I can be a more consistent home-schooling parent. I think we’re all under agreement that we need to step up and put more into school. Lilah has been really cooperative and is really wanting to get better at all I’ve mentioned, while Eden is being the stubborn one in some areas. I’ve really enjoyed our school time last week, and found it really encouraging for us. I know we’re entering a new phase in our schooling and we’re doing just what we need to.

I’m not trying to do public school at home, I’m trying to make my home a place of learning and growing.