Struggles of this Homeschooling Mom

Well, while I am waiting for my turn on the TV (to do my workout) I figured it would be the perfect time to pour a cup of coffee and update my blog :-)

I know it has been a while since I have been on here, we just spent a nice long weekend visiting my sister in Illinois.  It was a nice to just get away and not have to think about anything :-)  Although I do have a hard time turning my head off! 

My first plan was to start school when we got home...yesterday the 16th.  I always like to start school early so we can be done by my oldest daughter's birthday...May 17th.  This year I will have to do Standardized testing with my oldest 2, so I would like to be administering the tests the week before her birthday, so we can do the testing and be done....but we will see :-)

We got home late Monday night, so Tuesday was spent with grocery shopping, unpacking, and starting laundry.  Today is finishing laundry, so my SECOND plan was to start the girls this week with the clay.  Just playing with it and showing them how to roll it and such so they can get used to it.  But that has not started yet...and it is Wednesday :-)  I wanted to get the girls place mats to do their clay stuff on, so I still need to get those.  I decided to have the girls do the clay work in the basement on the old table....instead of my new dining room table (smart decision I know) So that brings me to.....

My THIRD plan ;-)  Today I am PLANNING on, well finishing laundry of course, and moving the "school room" down to the basement.  I have been doing school at the dining room table (which I like because I can do a bit more around the house that way).  I thought though if I am going to have all the clay stuff down there it would be a lot easier to just do all of school down there.  It is a big room, and I think it will work out nicely.  Also I thought it might lessen distractions for the girls and myself!  Also I am planning on turning my phone off during "school hours" as that causes a lot of distractions too! 

So this morning I have cleaned up the basement and vacuumed...now I just need to move stuff around!  Which might be a workout in itself!  Then I need to rearrange things...I have a bed down there (for when we have guests...which has not happened yet, so I might give up on that as no one really WANTS to visit us in SD! which I don't understand because SD is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!), a sewing area and all the toys.  So I need to figure out how to organize all that, then move all my school stuff down there...books, bookshelf, supplies, (those who home school know how much "stuff" there is going to be)  Then I need to do a tiny bit of shopping, then HOPEFULLY I can start the clay work tomorrow afternoon and Friday...even over the weekend, so I can "officially" start school on Monday! 

I don't usually take all the 1 day holiday's off like the public schools, and I don't have to do teacher conferences (unless by that point I am regularly talking to myself and answering myself...which might happen), and I don't take a full Christmas Break or an official Spring Break, so I am confident we can be done by mid-May :-)

Now if I am posting again tomorrow with yet another plan...I might need prayers :-)  HA! 

PS....can you PS on a blog?  Don't know, but I just did ;-)

I have been "THINKING" of all the stuff I learned in my class a few weeks ago!  I am not sure about you, but sometimes I HATE my thinking!  Satan really attacks me with a lot of this stuff.  I have been going over in my head everything I learned, so when I go to start it all with my girls I will HOPEFULLY know to some degree what I am doing :-)  Well I keep struggling with thoughts of "I am not going to be able to do this", or "my girls are so severe that this little bit I learned is not going to help".  So I could really use prayers in this area!  I know with all my heart that God has called me to home school, and I know with all my heart that HE will help me teach my girls how they need to be taught.  But sometimes I get so discouraged with these thoughts of inadequacy.  I know I cannot do it on my own, but with God all things are possible....I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. 

Prayers are GREATLY appreciated ;-)