Organization, decluterring and getting ready for 2014 School year!

Wow, I can't believe it's almost time for another school year to begin! 2 in school this year is pretty exciting for me and if I am honest, a little intimidating...So knowing myself, I prepared EARLY this year, and started major organization...the more organized I am in the beginning, the easier and more smooth things will go throughout the year, right?! :) I can hope! I absolutely loved homeschooling last year, the time spent with my kids and the opportunities I have had to teach Kolby not only "school" stuff but also life lessons...and most importantly God was in every subject and lesson. School was out in June but the lessons haven't stopped! I think the biggest lesson we are working on right now is greed/discontentment with what we have, our circumstances, and our choices or lack there of...the only thing we ever always have a choice of is our attitude and unfortunately too often I see my kids choosing a negative attitude with TOO much complaining. I have been studying Ecclesiastes this summer and one point Solomon makes is that we need to watch out for our love of money (and "Stuff") because it won't make us happy, it will only encourage us to want more and more (GREED/COVETING)...nothing ever satisfies, it's all vanity. While self examining my own desires and attachments to things, I realized that we breed greed in America. We have SO much stuff, excess in pretty much every area of our lives, and we continue to want more! I am guilty of this at times and my children are definitely guilty as well. So how do we teach our kids and raise them to NOT be this way in a society and culture that breed this greed? I have no idea, but Im going to try and battle it because it only creates unthankful hearts which is the exact opposite of what we are supposed to have...we are supposed to be filled with thanksgiving and praise to God in EVERY circumstance. So here is what I have done, and I am praying fervently that it will help! 1.) Had a chat with my kids, told them my concerns and shared with them how fortunate we are, I showed them a touching video of kids in Africa, who have nothing, not even clean water, yet they wore the most beautiful smiles on their faces- this actually worked how I had hoped it would...it gave the kids a visual and a better understanding of who these "kids" are when I tell them there are kids in the world who have nothing...and now they want us to adopt one of the kids ;) So as a compromise, we will be "adopting" a child and sending money each month...They are very excited! 2.) we went through ALL their toys and they were allowed to keep 10 items/types of toy. We got rid of everything else. Kamryn has barbies and was allowed to keep 5 (as "one" toy) and got rid of 8 just like Kolby was allowed to keep all his millions of legos :) You know, they honestly haven't missed anything... 3.) We went through ALL of their clothes...They were allowed to keep a certain number of each type of clothing (ie. Kam loves dresses so she got to keep 7...mind you we got rid of about 10) I let them pick out what they wanted to keep and they did SO good with it...if they had me their number but came across a few more items, they just traded what they would rather have. I was seriously SO proud of them. We donated 3/4 of their clothes and they were very happy to do so... 4.) Thankful wall- They can add daily to it with things they are thankful for...I haven't got this up yet but we will be starting this Monday when we start school! 5.) Once a week, we write a thoughtful note or thank you note to someone of their choice. 6.)We will be doing a character study this year in homeschool! Now before you start to judge me for being "mean" to my kids, know that I TOO went through ALL of my stuff and got rid of 3/4 of my clothes as well...It was very easy for me to do theirs and to expect them to do it with a good attitude which they did, but when I came to my room, I had such a sinful heart and did not want to do it...but about halfway through, God changed my heart and I was SO happy to get rid of my excessive clothes and God really opened my eyes to see how I am my children's example...I can do all those things that I wrote about above but what will make the biggest difference in their lives is how I live my life not just in words but in deeds. God is so good and I seem to always learn such amazing lessons myself, when I am trying to teach my children... Here's ALL our bags of clothes!

Now beyond those HUGE lessons for me and the kids, as I said before, I started getting organized for homeschool in July and I am so glad I did because I am READY for school to start next week :) Woohoo! I am so excited about our curriculum this next year! We are studying the human body in Science, the Mystery of History-Creation to the Crucifixion, Spanish, Language arts and of course good old Math! I am using a workbox system this year and I have my calendar organized for school up through December! Yay me! (Ill post some pics of our school area another time) And I decided to go back to monthly meal planning! I literally have it planned out for every meal/snack...I know that seems like a lot and for some people that would be absurd, but I work SO much better being organized, the less organized, the more stressed I get and so I am being proactive...but I am also very ok with NOT following all my calendars and schedules to the T...life happens and I am ok with that...I think that's another huge lesson I am currently learning and I can say with God's help, I am learning to let things go, and let the Spirit lead me...Praise God for that...I am also learning to say no to doing things...this all may seem like a lot to some of you reading this but to me, it's not...I often do WAY too much and lose my peace...in bible study, I read this quote that John Wesley said and it is something that I try to remember daily... " Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry, because I never undertake more work than I can go through with calmness of spirit." It might seem like a "duh" kinda statement but I had never realized that...now I have been really trying to examine and consider all I put on my plate, if I feel like it will take away my calmness, I say no or I let go of something else so I can do it. Again, I want to be an example to my kids and this world is all about keeping busy and I really dislike being busy, when it comes to running around and such...so keeping a balanced plate is good for me and my family and being wise about what activities we do is also very important. We haven't done sports yet and I am thinking this year will be our first...and I am ok with that but will not let it become an idol in our lives (when I was a kid, sports was my idol-I played sports every weekend on traveling teams) With God's help, we will put sports and any other extra curricular activity in its proper place: after God, church and family...Well I want to leave you with some mom encouragement from one of my favorite blogs (confessionsofahomeschooler.com) , this chart on Super mom vs Abiding mom...it blesses me everytime I read it..and I hope it does you too!