Dear God,
Please comfort them and give them the peace that only You can.
A blogfriend posted about pointlessness and failing at what matters most and about whitewashing it all and putting on a happy facehere in blogland (my very rough paraphrase.)
The relative anonymity of the internet makes it easier to be who I wish I was rather than who I actually am. Like her, I fear that if you saw the real me, then you would probably not want me on your friends' list. Unlike her, I am not on very many people's friends' lists anyway.
I do cling to the fact that God's mercies are new every morning. And when I get really overwhelmed and discouraged it usually helps me to read the book of Ecclesiastes.
So, as my title states...
(You have been warned!)
My house is beyond messy. no. seriously. I could be on Oprah, getting her shocked looks as the tape rolls and she queries, "But how can you let your children live like this?!" The upstairs hall is strewn with dirty laundry, the trash in all 3 bathrooms is overflowing, there are dirty dishes stashed in my oven and moldy ones in my fridge, and so on. This is the worst it has been in a while, but it has been this bad for a few months now, and normal really isn't much better.
I'm lazy; which explains why my house is this bad after two weeks of no lessons, during which my first priority was to declutter, clean, and organize.
I waste far too much time at the computer (without actually creating anything like blog posts or menus, etc.) and in front of the television (which i don't even really enjoy.)
I feel guilty for my laziness and time-wastiness, but instead of working at changing i generally take it out on the ones i supposedly love. i grumble. i yell. Sometimes i even utter shameful things.
I don't pray for my husband every day. or my kids.
I am the chief of sinners. totally depraved.
I have so much to be grateful for, and yet i complain. a lot. at times i even question God's judgement in saving me.
So there you have it. No good ~ just the bad and the ugly.
This is the passage that we will be working on this fall.
Psalm 8
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
If anybody actually reads this blog, then you probably know that we homeschool more-or-less year-round; you probably also know that we do not follow the traditional school year, but begin each year in January.
And yet...
There is just something about this back-to-school season, so...
I have been buying new notebooks and pencils and markers and glue, because they are all on sale.
I have been tweaking our routine, because, well, okay, actually, I do that all the time.
I am adding a few new things and changing a few things up.
So, as we begin our final term in about ten days here is what an ideal week could be like:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
6am-730 | Mama's personal time: morning tea, prayer time & walk | Mama's personal time: morning tea, prayer time & walk | Mama's personal time: morning tea, prayer time & walk | Mama's personal time: morning tea, prayer time & walk | Mama's personal time: morning tea, prayer time & walk |
730-9am | Mama: breakfast & daily chores Take Sgt. Elf to babysitting job Kids: morning things | Mama: breakfast & daily chores Kids: morning things | Mama: breakfast & daily chores Take Sgt. Elf to babysitting job Kids: morning things | Mama: breakfast & daily chores Take Frap to babysitting job Kids: morning things | Mama: breakfast & daily chores Kids: morning things |
9am-1030 | Monday Morning Meeting (to help us get on track after the weekend craziness) Memorywork Milne (read aloud) | O Special One goes to Classical Conversations Possible informal co-op with 2 other families for younger ones | Recitations: prayer, catechism, scripture memory, poem, math facts, phonics drill Read Aloud: Beatrix Potter seatwork & tutoring | Recitations: prayer, catechism, scripture memory, poem, math facts, phonics drill Read Aloud: Just So Stories seatwork & tutoring | Recitations: prayer, catechism, scripture memory, poem, math facts, phonics drill Read Aloud: Tales from Shakespeare seatwork & tutoring |
1030-noon | Math Game & Mapwork | Read Aloud: history chores | Read Aloud: history chores | Read Aloud: history chores | Read Aloud: history chores |
noon-130 | lunch Melodies & Masterpieces(art) | lunch Read Aloud: literature drawing or handicraft during reading Boys: gymnastics | lunch Read Aloud: literature drawing or handicraft during reading Girls: dance | lunch Read Aloud: literature drawing or handicraft during reading | lunch Read Aloud: literature drawing or handicraft during reading |
130-3pm | Quiet Time: silent readings | Quiet Time: silent readings Teatime w/person-of-the-day | Quiet Time: silent readings Teatime w/person-of-the-day | Quiet Time: silent readings Teatime w/person-of-the-day | Quiet Time: silent readings Teatime w/person-of-the-day |
3pm-430 | snack Monday's Marvelous Make-it Time kids: chores | snack Read aloud or Project or Productive Time kids: chores | snack Read aloud or Project or Productive Time kids: chores | snack Read aloud or Project or Productive Time kids: chores | snack Friday Freewrite & Friday Funstuff kids: chores |
430-6pm | Productive Time for kids Mama: dinner prep | Productive Time for kids Mama: dinner prep | Productive Time for kids Mama: dinner prep | Productive Time for kids Mama: dinner prep | Productive Time for kids Mama: dinner prep |
supper & clean-up | supper & clean-up | supper & clean-up | supper & clean-up | supper & clean-up | |
At least...
until I change it