My boys are squeezing the last few drops out of the summer while mommy is pre-occupied with preparing for the homeschool year.
And painting my game room “greige”. Goodbye, teal blue “underwater” school room. You were fun. My husband is convinced that this will be the magic that brings the buyer we need for the house. Ha! I can’t say I don’t agree with him that it looks more grown up. It matches the downstairs “cowgirl renovation” distressed wood vibe. The new carpet we are putting in (thanks to Lowe’s credit) is going to blend it all in perfectly with a carpet that has grey and beige and brown (and is STAINMASTER® warrantied and “pet-proof”). Personally, I think the carpet will be the magic touch. Sad carpet is just not something you can overlook. At least I can’t.
Here the gameroom was before…
And here is the new color (behind my desk area). Ignore the multiple sets of readers, stacked up to-do box, and last year’s planner that I’ve been going through to remove bits that are important. I had just moved the desk back against the wall after painting… my life has been a bit scattered and busy lately.
I’ve been making my NEW and HUGE back to school planner and doing more than ever this year to plan because we are also packing up the books for an imminent move. I actually got rid of two full book cases and boxed everything we aren’t reading this year already. I’ve emptied boxes and boxes worth of paperwork, gone through file cabinets, purged teacher manual and curriculum shelves, and so much more. My teacher planner is looking more like the work of a major overachiever at the moment, because there are so many good things I just don’t want to get rid of after nearly two decades of homeschooling. I’ve been loving reading through them again.
Funny thing, a friend of mine who is a WORKING homeschool mom offered to pay me to make her a planner this year. “I want one JUST LIKE YOURS”, she says to me. To which I reply… “Are you sure? You need a moving box to lug it around instead of a purse.”
She laughed and told me she wants it, would pay me for the materials and my time to make it… but I don’t think she really understands how fat this thing is. It’s more of a centerpiece than something you can toss in a duffel bag and lug to the library. It stays in a FIXED location. Hahahaha!
I told her it was a “Psycho Homeschool Mom Planner”. She remains undaunted. She wants it. So we have made a plan for her to come see mine when I finish and she can pick and choose what parts of it she still wants for her own.
In the process, I’ve been making printables for my homeschool year. I’ve created an emergency and important number list, a back to school interview, an annual year-at-a-glance form that I use to plan out what we study by week, a graduation projection chart (oh, lawdy – I’ll be 57 when my 7 year old is done!)… and more. If you sign up for my blog via email and request them from me, I’ll shoot you the pdfs I have available for your own planning purposes. You can sign up in this post below…
I might do a planner post later that is an update to my really old one from nearly 13 years ago. {Yes, I’m a blogging dinosaur. I admit it.} I’ll offer a few of the planner printables on that post, too. You can already download one of them on my KONOS planning post. I’m doing KONOS again with the boys this year and am so excited about it. We are doing chronological history, unit studies, nature study, science readers, math, bible and character training, memory work, narration, notebooking (in binders), states books and geography, penpals, field trips, and even an online accountability show-and-tell co-op. I’m inviting others to the co-op (mainly for elementary ages) later this week. Check back in for that.
Until then… I’m off to get back to my piles, purging, and planning. We start school on September 4th.
Also I wanted to mention that Pam Kenyon was the winner of the science book(s) from the last give-away post. I use a random number generator and unfortunately, it was a little too easy since there were only 7 comments! Seriously sad that more people aren’t in to science experiments for kids. Such cute books and ideas! Pam will be getting two science books provided by some really great publishers so she can add some oomph to her homeschool science this year.
Also of note… I’ll be going in Tuesday for my 3 month lab checkup at the oncologist. Say a little prayer if you think about it. I know it has been two years since I was diagnosed and had surgery, but it always is a little unnerving every few months when I have to go back in for check-ups and await the results. Chris Wark of Chris Beat Cancer says the two year and five year mark are real hot-points for returning cases. It can’t ever hurt to keep praying and juicing and leaning on Jesus for the victory.
We’re working on getting our house ready to put for sale by owner, also. The realtor path did not work out the way we hoped. Prayers are appreciated for us to get a solid contract and a green light for our country move, too.
Life is crazy, right? Trying to wait constructively because we know that God is working behind the scenes. Excited to see what He has up His sleeve!
I’ll leave you with this little graphic I made last week… it still stands for this coming Monday. Re-entry is not always easy.
Happy weekend!
Like my links, lesson plans, teacher’s tips, and field trip reviews? Subscribe by email for updates and PDFs! You can do so here and not miss another post:
[mc4wp_form id=”14272″]
Thanks so much for reading my blog!