The Summer of Blog Neglect

Apparently I can't keep up with this blog during summer.  I'd say I'll do better, but… yeah, I probably won't.  I feel like I should say something like, "It's been 20 days since my last confession…"

But I won't do that, either.

I started seeing a therapist a week and a half ago.  I've only seen her once, for the initial intake, but I liked her.  I go back later this week to start actual therapy, and if the first visit is any indication, I'm going to need a big box o' Kleenex.  At least this time I'm going in with a week or so of decent moods under my belt and not weeks of emotional lability.  It's the little things.  I also have a plan for the future, more or less, and have started working toward it, doing things like putting together a resume and filling in the odd online job application.  Of course, I'm sure I'll wind up doing something through a temp agency because nobody wants to hire a cold-call nobody with an empty resume, but it's a start.  I'll keep working.

I got back from a brief trip today.  A few weeks ago one of my friends announced that her husband was moving his start-up company to some rented office space, which meant that she was going to have a finished garage space to use as a school/game room for her kids, and she needed furnishings for it.  Which meant that she wanted to make a run down to Ikea in Dallas.  Oz and I had been talking about running down there and getting some bookshelves from Ikea at some point (and really, if Doodlebug will ever manage to learn how to take care of property properly, we'd get him new bedroom furniture, too), but he didn't really care if he went, so he agreed to watch the kids, and suddenly I was headed to Dallas.  We also took along some rented muscle - a friend of mine's boyfriend, because my friend wanted another dresser to go with some other Ikea furniture she'd gotten on her recent trip down to the Big D.

Both of them had been to Ikea before.  I hadn't.  We got there when it opened at 10, and Oz texted around 12:30 to ask if we'd left yet.  Nope… we sure hadn't.  We had actually eaten lunch AND made it to the area where we were pulling boxes, which was an impressive feat that no doubt would never have been accomplished if my girlfriend hadn't made a wish list, including aisle and bin numbers, before we even headed out.  That store is an adventure and a half, for certain.

I didn't even wind up getting proper bookshelves… well, not the ones I'd planned to get, anyway.  I got this instead:

It seemed more appropriate to the space, my taste, and the varying sizes of the books and whatever else the kids might want to stash on the shelves.  I like breaking up the monotony a little.  I got home around 6 and put this together before the kids went to bed.  Oz helped a bit when I got frustrated… mostly I hate Allen wrenches and didn't know he had a bit for that in his screwdriver.  That would have been nice to know before I started, but c'est la vie.

Back to reality now and appointments the rest of the week.  I actually booked myself a spa visit for one day this week (using a gift certificate Oz got me for my birthday in April), so that should be an interesting experience in itself!

I am NOT a Saleswoman

I went upstairs and started going through the school room today.  Yes, I could have waited until later in the summer to do this, but A) that room gets pretty warm in the mornings and then the whole upstairs is warm in the afternoons when it's hot in an Oklahoma summer and B) people are curriculum shopping for next year NOW, and they won't be when it's July.  So I figured I'd get 'er dun.

Anyway, so the actual purging of the shelves didn't take too long.  There was, naturally, a giant pile of books and papers that had been used or saved in the binders that were overflowing from all the work we'd finished throughout the year.  And by giant pile, this pile was - IS, because I haven't moved it yet - a foot deep in the middle and probably 3-4' in diameter.  PILE, I tell you.  It was a PILE.

Then there was the pile of things to get rid of.  I'll come back to that in a minute.

Then I went into the closet and pretended I couldn't see the fact that my children had totally trashed it and took out all the extra resources, all the curricula that I'd been saving in case I needed it for Boo, and went through that.  All the resources went onto the bookshelves where curricula had sat before, so that now we have a shelf of history materials, a shelf of literature/writing resources and math manipulatives, and a shelf of science books.  The kids already have their own dictionaries and thesauruses that sit under their desks, and there are a few books that don't fit on the shelves, so they sit next to the bookshelves… I may move those up to the top just so they aren't sitting next to the trash can where the electric pencil sharpener gets dumped, but we'll see.

Finally, I took down some of the posters from the walls, put up a few new ones, and then went through the posters to see what I wanted to keep and what I no longer wanted, and I added the latter to the pile of curricula to get rid of.

Then I made the fatal mistake of not writing it all down.  You'd think that being as pedantic as I am, I'd know to make a list.  But no.  My brain was - IS - so done that I just thought, "Oh, yeah, I'll remember."  I posted a list of all the posters on a local homeschool curriculum group and told folks they were free - I had gotten them for free and just wanted them gone, honestly - and then posted in another group that I had a bunch of stuff to get rid of.

After that, I walked out of the room.  Fatal mistake.  We ate lunch, and I sent the kids up to turn the closet back into some semblance of normalcy.  I got on the computer again to see if there had been any nibbles… and that's when the trouble started.

For the record, do not allow your children to read you the titles and information off of the sides of books.  It does not matter how literate they are, they will screw up.  And then you will pass bad information on to prospective curriculum buyers - TWICE, at least - and then you'll go upstairs to start sorting through things for yourself and realize the errors and have to go back and eat your words.  Twice, at least.

Clearly I should not be allowed to sell things when my mind is not as organized as it normally is.  This, people, THIS is why I'm normally anal retentive to an insane degree.  At this point, I *do* have a list of what I'm selling and most of the prices figured out (would've been smart to figure those out before posting, too, but again, I'm not so bright today), but I still have to keep them all straight.

Now I just hope I don't send the wrong items to the wrong people.  Can you tell I've never worked retail?

Back to it.  Let's see what I can confuse now ;)

Homemade History, Week 7

Just as we get into the really interesting stuff, it's time for a break.  It's Labor Day week here in the ol' US of A, and I don't do four-day weeks.  I find them unproductive.  So instead, we just take the entire week off.  Since we've been going hard for seven weeks, it's time.  This first block is one of the longest continuous stretches of school we'll have all year.

Week 7 Topic:  Egypt's Old Kingdom + mastabas, pyramids, mummies

Monday:  Reading and notes.  The kids picked two of the following choices:  Story of the World chapters 2 and 4, Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World pages 28-31, Usborne World History Encyclopedia pages 114-117, or Life in Ancient Egypt pages 4-9, 20-22, and 26-27.

Tuesday:  The kids finished their reading, and we noted any necessary revisions to their nine weeks' papers.  They'll finish revising the paper and type them up in weeks 8 and 9, and hopefully I'll be allowed to post their work here.  Doodlebug especially has surprised me - he decided to write his paper entirely from second-person perspective.  It's an odd choice, but I think it works.

Wednesday:  We filled in a map of Ancient Egypt, complete with the locations of pyramids, ancient cities along the Nile, and the general geography in and around Egypt like the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sahara.

Thursday:  Definitions (hieroglyphics, pyramid, pharaoh, and papyrus - Doodlebug was fascinated with the method of making papyrus) and critical thinking questions:  How did geography affect the lives of ancient Egyptians?  What were some of the problems that Pharaoh may have faced?  That second question is to get him thinking about the problems all rulers face, but he doesn't know that yet.

Friday:  On Friday the kids played a game called Mummy Maker on the BBC Kids web site.  Then they wanted to make their own cartouches.  We discussed the function of a true cartouche, and then I told the kids that if they wanted to make their own, they had a choice.  I could look up some close hieroglyphic representations of their names and they could make Egyptian cartouches or they could make their own indecipherable cartouches based on their interests and things that are important to them.  Of course, being Generation 2.0 children, they wanted their own custom images.  Doodlebug made his out of clay; Boo made hers from paper.  Both are designed to be hung from strings like necklaces so they could, theoretically, wear their cartouches everywhere.

I have to say, you can see the differences between them just by looking at the images!

I also gave them options of making scented oil - basil, rosemary, garlic - or virtually touring the inside of the Great Pyramid.  These are definitely other project/video options to consider.

Week 8 Topic (when we return):  Phoenicians and "Sea People"

Inspiration in Adulthood is NOT the Same as That of Childhood

Yesterday I found inspiration in the Facebook status update of a friend.  It read, in part, "Just purged the upstairs playroom, craft room, and the girls bathroom.  I threw away a whole bag of junk."

It occurred to me as I read this that I'd been unhappy with my upstairs closets since we moved in.  I had instantly unpacked the visible stuff, of course, and the general contents of the closets were acceptable, but when it had come to actually unpacking and arranging everything that was tucked away out of sight, that process... had never happened.  It had fallen by the wayside.  In the back of my mind (and in the forefront of my mind every time I opened the closet doors), I knew there were candles I'd never burn again, decorations the kids no longer wanted, pictures that will never be hung on the walls of this house, and just a bunch of stuff that, in general, doesn't need to be here.  The kids' game room closet was in similar shape.

I don't have any 'before' pictures because, really, I don't know anyone who takes pictures of their closets (except that I really do intend to take pictures of the contents of everything in the house one day, just in case, for insurance purposes, because I'm actually paranoid like that), but I do have a couple of 'after' images.

The carnage of empty boxes, trash box, and giveaway/sale items 

All purdy.  It won't stay like that, but for now, all purdy

The kids are working hard on the game room closet.  It's in even more appalling shape than my closets because A) they're kids and B) I told them that as long as the door closed and things were relatively tidy, I wouldn't gripe at them.  But they're making progress.  They're discovering playing cards that they thought were long gone, puzzle pieces they thought they'd never see again, and various unidentifiable items that I'm just not even asking about.  Ostrich Syndrome.  Part of me wants to sneak up and take a picture of them working, but I'm finally ensconced on my couch with a sense of accomplishment and a stomach full of FreeBird and have no desire to move.

All I know is that we're going to make a massive donation to Goodwill soon.  It feels so good to get everything cleaned out and rearranged into 'final' places.  I did the same to a couple of kitchen drawers a couple of weeks ago and that felt good, too.  I never, ever would have felt this way when I was a kid (I'm sure my kids are mentally cursing my name upstairs), but sometimes being an adult means taking pleasure in the little things.  Like clean closets.

Preventing Boredom

It's probably a darn good thing that I am good at compartmentalizing and managing time down to almost the minute.  Last week this house threatened to get boring, and summer break seemed interminably long.  This week?  Not so much a concern.  In fact, by Sunday we will all probably welcome a quiet day.

Today - any minute now - my stepsister's kids are showing up to stay till Wednesday morning.  That will be an adventure.  After they leave on Wednesday, the kids and I are going to run errands.  Specifically we're going to drop off a book I'm selling, going to the library, and perhaps going to the grocery store on the way home.  In the afternoon, they're going to do some research for a meeting we have on Friday.

Thursday will mean house cleaning and probably some laundry.  The kids aren't very thrilled about that, but I've told them that the advantage of having a big house is that we CAN have groups here; at the old house, it wasn't as hard to clean, but we also couldn't invite people over like we can now.  The good, the bad, the ugly... it's a balance.

Friday means our meeting, which is going to be a potluck lunch event, plus any laundry that didn't get done on Thursday.

And Saturday means a hair appointment for me (and possibly M2) followed by a different potluck in the evening with a different group of people... still at my house, though.

There's no way anyone here will be bored this week.  It's probably a good thing.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Random Thoughts.  Hope you're all having a lovely day.

--- Last night I went to my photography class while the kids and Oz went to a swim meet.  I left last and got home first.  As I walked through the house flipping on lights and putting things away, I realized I don't have many years left until coming home by myself at 8:30 p.m. won't be unheard of.  The kids will have jobs, friends, a car.  Then they'll move out.  It made my heart ache a little.

--- The photography class is fun.  The teacher has been teaching it for years, and while he has a vague outline of what he wants to cover in each class, he flies by the seat of his pants on actual class content.  This means that when we understand (or seem to understand) a concept, he digs deeper, and if we get stuck, he can stop and show us examples and ask questions until we get it.  I appreciate that.  For one thing, it shows true knowledge of his topic.  For another, it means the class isn't dry and boring.  Finally, it means that he understands the actual definition of the word 'beginner' and doesn't expect spectacular photos straight out of the gate, which is good, because I haven't an artsy bone in my body.

--- We've suffered some setbacks in our 12-week program.  M1 has suddenly decided that he wants to be a grown-up, not the little kid that he cried about not being last week, but apparently 'being a grown-up' means, in his world, that he can tell Oz and me anything and we'll instantly believe it, no matter how far-fetched it sounds.  We call this "making a hippo-rat," because he read something the other day about a scientist who lived a couple hundred years ago who thought hippos were extra-large rodents, and I used it as an illustration to inform M1 that just because you BELIEVE something to be true or WANT it to be true, it doesn't MAKE it true.  Evidence is evidence, bucko.  We've had lots of hippo-rats wandering our house lately; I think we're finally nipping them in the bud.  I hope this phase is short-lived.

--- I looked in M2's drawers last night when I discovered a roll of paper towels under her bed and put them away under her sink and discovered several other things, which led to several other things where those were supposed to go, which led to... you get the idea.  She burst into tears when I asked her what had happened.  She loves to organize things, but she's 'organized' herself into chaos.  She has everything crammed into drawers and almost nothing in her closet, and she doesn't know where anything is any more.  So she and I are going to spend the week going through her room and putting things in one place, where they shall (hopefully) remain.  My first clue that I needed to do this came when she got a sewing box for her birthday and promptly announced that she was going to take everything out of it and put it in various places because "that's where they need to be organized."  Um, no, dear.  Items like needles and pins and scissors stay in the sewing box.  That's what it's for.

--- I would like to get outside and dig up the garden and transfer the surviving herbs (I have the hardest time hardening plants off without killing them, but I've only lost four out of the 11 I started with, so that's really good for me!!) into actual soil, but it keeps raining.  I'm not whining about that - not at all - but it's still frustrating.  I don't like moving items from one day's to-do list to the next... to the next... to the next.  The rain has also been bringing colder temperatures with it, so today it's only supposed to get up to about 45 degrees.  I don't want the rain to stop, but I would like warm spring rains instead of cold winter ones if you please, Mother Nature.

A Week Off

We're taking this week off of school.  It sounds lovely and relaxing, right?

HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!

This morning, I got up at 8, which is slightly later than normal but not by much.  Since then, I have:

• Folded and put away 2 loads of laundry that I sorted and washed last night
• Made more laundry detergent
• Cleaned and refilled the litter boxes
• Trimmed the boy's hag claws, otherwise known as fingernails
• Discussed personal responsibility with the boy (again) after making a disgusting discovery that I promised him I wouldn't reveal
• Exercised
• Called our attorney (well, OK, I called his wife/secretary) to discuss changes to our trust
• Made sure the girl was properly packed for an overnight trip to Grandma's
• Made sure the boy was properly packed for his swim meet
• Taught the children how to repot plants; M1 then repotted his bamboo and set it out front

Now I'm off to change clothes and make myself look decent so I can take M2 to her grandmother's and then go to lunch with friends, some of whom I haven't seen in ages.

Tomorrow is going to be busy, too.  It's Mardi Gras, so I've promised the crew jambalaya.  Even though we aren't doing school lessons, they still have violin and swimming lessons/practice, and I need to clean out the fish tank as well.  I've also promised to take the kids to the aquarium sometime this week, since they both desperately want to see the new sea turtle exhibit, and on Friday we're going to meet with some friends to perform at an assisted living facility for Valentine's Day.  Oh, and Thursday IS Valentine's Day, for which I still have precisely squat in the way of plans.

And to think that I had big dreams of studying German and working on my story all week.

I should know better.  Still, if I can get all this stuff whipped into shape this week, maybe next week won't be so bad... right?

Poetry Unit

Spring semester (ish): The time when we start anew and work on entirely new topics.

During the fall, we worked primarily on handwriting skills.  M1 finished the Handwriting Without Tears series and is now doing some of his work in cursive, because his handwriting is infinitely neater and easier to read that way.  M2 developed her print skills; though her writing is tiny, it's in neat, straight lines and isn't all over the place.  I, for one, am thankful for all these improvements.

However, rather than continue with the next HWT book, we're stopping and switching gears between now and May.  Over the next few months, we're going to talk about poetry, literature, research, how to express an opinion in writing, etc.

We're starting with poetry.

A couple years ago, I purchased a series of five books from Scholastic called "Poetry for Young People."  It contained books with selected works from Carl Sandburg, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost.  The kids have used the books a few times, but we've never really done a poetry study, per se; we've just read poems and enjoyed them for their worth.

And I'm okay with that.  Both of them love poetry way more than I ever did as a child, and I don't want to squash that.  Occasionally, though, they want to write poetry.  Sometimes they do well and sometimes they don't, and when they don't it's painfully clear that the idea of poetry is a little vague in their minds.

So we're going to sit down and talk about it all.  Today we started with the simple questions: What is poetry?  What is verse?  What is prose?  The kids were a little freaked out when I stood in front of them and wrote stuff on the whiteboard because they've never experienced any sort of lecture format before, but they really enjoyed the talk.  They came up with a bunch of poetic keywords - song, rhythm, tell a story, verse, rhyme, etc.  Then M1 looked up the definition of prose and we talked about the difference. 

Over the next two weeks, here is my plan to help them stretch their poetic minds:

Tuesday - Discuss rhymes and write couplets and clap out poetry rhythms.  I'm going to use "I Dream a World" by Langston Hughes and "My River Runs to Thee" by Emily Dickinson to illustrate the point. 

Wednesday - Talk about poem titles.  Discuss how Emily Dickinson didn't use them and the effect it has on a reader.  I'm going to use some of her riddle poems to show how not using a title makes you think a little harder about what the poem is about.  I may let the kids write a riddle poem (M1 is dying to write a riddle limerick) just for fun.

Thursday - Haiku.  We'll discuss the history of haiku, the incorporation of nature elements and some of the ways to write them, then write a few together.  This will reinforce the idea of syllables in poetry.

Friday (no writing on Friday around here)

Monday - Introduce alliteration and repeated lines in poetry (using "Hey!" and "Hey! Hey!" by Langston Hughes and some Poe works) and how these things work inside poems.

Tuesday - Talk about rhythm (introduce the idea of meter/feet for M1) and how it can make a poem easier to read.  I may or may not break out some Shakespearean sonnets.

Wednesday - Discuss narrative poems (Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg) and free verse.

Thursday - Compare/contrast poems about fall ("October Paint" by Carl Sandburg, "October" by Robert Frost, and "The morns are meeker than they were" by Emily Dickinson) to show there are many ways to paint a picture with poems.

Obviously we're not digging too deep here.  I only hope to enhance their understanding of poetry, not cause it to be drudgery.  Fingers crossed that it goes well!

The 2013-2014 School Year; Or, Why I'm a Dork

It's January now.  That means it's socially acceptable to start planning for the 2013-2014 school year, right?

I know some people school year-round, but we don't.  We'll get done with this school year in early May, take two months off, and go back in early to mid-July.  I had considered taking a longer vacation and having more of a traditional school year next year, but M2 nixed that idea pretty quickly by requesting the same schedule because "I like it," and M1 backed her up.

All righty then.

M1 will be in fifth grade next year, M2 in third.  Technically they're ahead in a few subjects, but it's easier for me to keep track of things if I use their age-based grade levels, so that's what I tell them.

I am really, really looking forward to next year, primarily because of the fifth-grade component.  This will be M1's second run through some of the material, but he'll get to delve more deeply, and I love that.  I love that we have a microscope and slides.  I love that he's old enough to research and write papers.  I love that he'll get to ask the big questions like, "WHY did that happen?"

Mostly I love this with regard to history.  I love that instead of just learning that the Greeks were renowned philosophers, he'll get to learn about the philosophers themselves.  Instead of learning that the Visigoths sacked Rome, he'll get to learn that Alaric was a disgruntled former Roman army commander who came back with a vengeance.  Yes, there's more work involved, because there's a lot more writing required, but the payoffs should be amazing.  I think I'm more excited than the boy.

Part of the reason I'm excited about history is because for the first time, I'm making the curriculum.  I've done a few things here and there, mostly with writing, but for the most part, I wing all that.  For example, for the next two weeks we're doing a poetry unit, and I still have no idea exactly what we're doing (I'll be panicking tomorrow).  I've never sat down and planned out an entire year's worth of assignments, from the reading selections to the writing assignments to everything else.  So far, it's been fun.  I've decided what topics to cover and in what order; next I have to find what to read and how it's going to be covered for each child at his/her age level.  M1 needs to write independent outlines; M2 needs to fill in summary prompts.  I'm hopeful that I can find some good videos, either at the library or through various web sites/streaming sites, to supplement as well.

And since M2 hasn't learned ANY of this stuff yet, I'm excited to teach it all to her, too.  There's just so many fun things to teach about the ancient civilizations, and I love that I get to impart all this knowledge to her.

I know I'm still a bit premature in planning for the next school year.  I realize that probably makes me a giant dork.  But if I can make the kids half as excited about history as I am... well, I can handle being a dork for that.

Settling In

We got the moving done today.  I'm eternally grateful to my husband, dad, and brothers-in-law who spent the day lifting, hauling, and working in the 100-plus-degree heat to help us move.  Thanks to them, my previously empty house now looks like this (minus photos of M1's room... when I entered, I was told, "MOM, no pictures until my room is totally done and looks good!  Get out!"  I couldn't help but chuckle and accede to his request):

M2's room

The other half of M2's room

Casual dining

Formal dining

Half bath - my sister made that drawing years ago... we finally have a place to hang it!

The kitchen

Living room - the TV is on the entertainment unit now,
and Oz is going to hook up the surround sound sometime soon

Master bedroom

Also master bedroom

Oz's office

School room

Other side of the school room

It's been a long, long week, but it's finally over.  The kids are asleep in their new rooms.  Oz is thrilled to have his ottoman back.  I took a lovely soak in the whirlpool tub, and the cats are still prowling around, figuring the place out.  The dog?  Well, he's sacked out on the floor near the end of the couch.  We're definitely settling in.

Countdown to Chaos

Boxes are starting to fill my home.  From where I sit, I can see three different stacks because I'm trying to keep them out of the walkways for as long as possible.  There is a stack in the hall and another in the kitchen.  So far I've packed up things like knick-knacks, the china, extra coffee mugs, extra linens and pillows, and appliances I won't be using in the next three weeks.  The kids have picked out some books to read, and I've packed the rest.

We had inspections done here on Friday afternoon.  We have a few things to fix but thankfully nothing major.  Inspections for our new house are scheduled late this week.  We're not expecting to find anything big, but you never know.  Once those things are taken care of, we get to wait on the appraiser.  Then we get to wait on the title information.  And in the meantime, I'm supposed to be educating the children because our first school day is tomorrow.  We may or may not take a week off while we're moving; I haven't entirely decided yet.

Once we get into our new place (knock on wood, etc., etc.), my mom, sister and I are headed up to visit my grandmother.  She's decided that she wants to move to an assisted living facility... before winter.  In her mind, this means September or October.  It's a facility with studio apartments, and she gets to bring her own furniture, but it's still a studio apartment, not a house.  My mom, sister and I have to make sure the facility is going to be a good fit, get her moved, and then go through everything in the house and sell, give away, or otherwise dispose of all the furniture, goods and detritus that accumulates throughout 88 years of living... and that includes the car and the house.  I'm not really looking forward to this, for many reasons.  It's odd and uncomfortable to be talking about getting rid of so many things when their owner is still around to hear about it.

I'm also waiting on word from my sister.  Her husband had a phone interview for a job out of state (WAY out of state), and if he gets it, they'll have to be moved by mid-August.  For their sake, I hope he gets it, because it sounds like it would be a perfect fit, but at the same time, I don't want my sister to be so far away!

I'm taking things one day at a time right now, because if I try to look too far ahead, I'll have a full-on nervous meltdown and simply won't function.  I'm one minor catastrophe away from the Land of Straitjackets and Valium.  I don't handle stress well, and moving myself is bad enough - I wasn't planning on EVERYONE moving this year, know what I mean?


I will make it through this, I will make it through this...

The Start Date Looms

I know it's not even the end of June - and if we're being particularly specific, summer just began - but our 2012-2013 school year begins in two weeks.  July 9, to be precise.  I'll be updating the curriculum link shortly, but I have to say that I'll be ready to get back to school when the time rolls around.

It's not so much that I'm all done with summer; it's more that I'm ready to get back into a school-ish routine.  M1 has still been getting up with the birds, and M2 is up shortly after.  Without something to do, M1 is the full-on embodiment of the old adage, "Idle hands are the devil's playground."  (Poor kid... he's hexed with the curse of his mother.  I don't know how many times my own grandmother applied that particular epithet to me in a vain attempt to get me to leave my sister alone.)  M2 has lost all semblance of ambition and hasn't properly practiced her violin in weeks.  Both of them think the perfect afternoon means lounging on the couch and either bickering or begging me to turn on the television.

Clearly it's time to regain a sense of purpose.

With that in mind, I've whipped the homeschool cabinet into shape and created a new 'art closet' out of our coat closet in the living room since I had to take all the art supplies out of the cabinet in order to fit all the curriculum for both kids in there.

I love newly-organized cabinets.

And I really, really want a school room.  But for now, let the countdown begin.