The first week and every week...

The first full week of school is over.

And I'm still standing.

barely

I asked myself this week a least a hundred times, "What is wrong with you? You only have three kids. You are only schooling three kids..."

I felt like it was a hundred. 

at least

It takes us two weeks to adjust to school. I know that. One more week, and we'll be better. 

So here are some things that have really helped this week. 

Number one is my morning quiet time and exercise time. I'm not going to lie. Getting up at 5 am has been the hardest part of school starting back. (Did you know it's PITCH BLACK at 5am? I didn't.) But that time spent in the Word and the time spent pounding the pavement as I ponder, worship and pray are the ONLY way I am able and ready to pour into my kids. The only way. 

And it's during this time that I'm being taught. And grown. And challenged. And changed.

Never mind that I PASSED OUT every day at 3:30 in the afternoon. The kids loved it because they got to watch an episode of "Phineas and Ferb." I felt horribly guilty about napping, especially after Laney finally asked me if I was getting sick. I am NOT a nap taker, but all this took its toll on me. I'm hoping that this week I can be nap free. 

That said, it is worth it. Two things I won't compromise on.

Number two is home management. This picture shows the lack of home management. I had to sort and organize four years worth of curriculum to see what I wanted to keep or sale. And find homes for it all. 

I nearly had a nervous breakdown. 

It's all better now. 

I did realize that my kids are old enough to really help out, though. So boy, are they "helping." 

For instance, the boys are in charge of emptying the dishwasher in the morning. Never mind that they are climbing on stools, dangling from the counter, and generally scaring me to death. (It's better for me to just leave the room.)

Laney is in charge of gathering up the laundry and starting a load of wash first thing. She then transfers it to the dryer, and I hang out of the dryer what I can. (I don't dry a lot of our clothes) Then while the kids are in the bath at night, I fold up what did go through the dryer. Then they put away their things, and we're done with laundry. It never piles up that way. (I either ask hubs to hang up his hanging things or I hang them up on the way upstairs at night.)

They also are in charge of cleaning the downstairs at night after dinner, along with their rooms. 

The deep cleaning I help them with once a week or so.

I also gave Jude a bottle of wipes and told him to clean the bathroom one day, just to see what would happen. He did a pretty good job. I think they may be capable of more than I think they are. 

Which is unfortunate for them...

Number three of things that helped this week was just spending time relaxing a bit each day. Whether it was a walk after school or a walk after dinner or just a little bit of time in the front yard. Yes, there are a hundred things that I could be doing at any given second, but I don't want to stress my kids out. I need to relax. And breathe. And enjoy them. And let them enjoy me. And let them see me not stressing out every second.

Number four is meal planning. The days that I can get dinner in the CrockPot in the mornings make our entire days so much easier. This lady has done all the work for me. I am sticking to the "only run errands on the weekends" rule again this year, which means planning a week's worth of meals and having those ingredients on hand. And even if it's not in the CrockPot, I can still know that Monday is Sloppy Joes and Tuesday is Chicken Piccata, etc.

I found this which is just about everything on our dinner rotation. It's older, and I need to modify it a bit, but meal planning from this list will simplify so much. I need to get back to "meatless Monday" and a fish night too.

This picture doesn't go with the next point, but after the guy "fell through the grass into the hot lava and see his head is all that's left after he sunk down..." I just had to put this here. I'm not sure what motivated the 5 year to artistically  express this, but it made me happy. Especially the look on the guy's face. I felt like that a good bit last week...

Number five was joining the large counties' library system just north of us. It was $50, but it really opened up the number of books available to us. (I balked on the price, but then realized that it worked out to 96 cents a week to get a plethora of books.) I can search their database, order books from any library and go pick them up on Saturday. I'm not buying books much this year, except a few that were used for several weeks. I don't know if this site is good or not since I haven't received any of the books I ordered yet, but these prices are crazy good. I mean crazy good even with shipping.

Anyway, the library also has books on cd and even these i-pod type things that are books that you can check out. The kids went nuts. I love to get books for them to listen to while they clean their rooms. Good stuff.

Number six is using Google Calendar to schedule our school days. I didn't think of this on my own. This amazing lady, appropriately dubbed "The Internet Princess," presented this info to our home school support group, and it really has changed my life. I can schedule everything with one click, making it all repeat each day, Monday through Friday, and then just go back and edit in with what we actually did. Or, when I get my brain this year, schedule it all a head of time. I can list the times we did school, notes for myself for the next day or week, books I need to pick up  and it's accessible from my phone. And it never goes away. I can print it out if I need to at any point. Everything is documented and planned out.  

I nearly cried with relief. SO good. Whew.

Number seven. This is one of the biggest reason I home school. Being near my kids. As tired as I was this week, as much as I missed seeing my friends, as overwhelmed and stressed as I felt, every time Zane crawled in my lap to hear me read, everything time Jude asked me a question that had eternal ramifications, and yes, even when my daughter said, "When are you going to tell me about, you know, that..." I was thankful that I was there. I got to be the one to answer those questions, get those hugs, feel the kisses, lead, guide and teach. 

I don't need to lose sight of that as a privilege. 

I don't have to do this. I get to do this.

Feel free to remind me of this when I'm a weepy, exhausted, frustrated and hopeless mess.

 

Number eight. The main reason I didn't lose it this week is because of some very sage advice from a sweet friend with six kids. She said, "Don't start everything at one time. Start and then add subjects week by week." We were standing in her front yard at the time, and it was like a light from heaven shone down on her and angels started singing. 

It felt like that, really. 

So that's what we did. We started with most subjects, and over the next couple of weeks, we'll gently add to our load.

Genius. 

It saved my sanity. 

I am so thankful for the wise and kind women in my life who are along on this journey with me. Women who get how hard this is, but also the blessings that come with it. I'm just weak with thankfulness.

And this says it all - I let two of the kids have a "sleep over" this weekend, and we ended the first week tired but happy.