Organized Chaos

I have an online friend Heather is calling her homeschool "School of Order and Chaos" and today I spent the day trying to bring order to some of our homeschool chaos.

We are planning to use My Father's World for both Kindy (J) and Exploring Countries and Cultures (E and G). So today I spent the day organizing my files for MFW K. I have a file for each week and in it I am putting all the things that have to do with that week. I still have some work to do on these but they are coming along nicely. I have gone through most of my files and school resources to find things that fit with the themes for the week. I was amazed at how much we have and at how much fun I think it will be.

I have been looking at the idea of workboxes but I am not so sure that idea is going to work for us. I am still reading and trying to wrap my mind around it. One thing the idea has inspired me to do is actually relocate all our misc homeschooling material into one area. My reasoning is that if it is in one area then I will be able to get to it and it will make planning easier. So I spent a part of today pulling out the various manipulative's that I have for each subject and grouping them together and then trying to figure out the best area to store to them. I am still working on that. We are contemplating turning our guest bedroom (with no bed) into a school room. I am just not sure how that is going to work. So I am still thinking.

I will try to post some photos once I get it all settled in place.

10 on the 10th

10 of my favorite things in my house...



This is the chair in my living room, I love the chair but I really love the quilt which my Grandmother made when we got married. The pillow is from a dear friend in Alabama. I love them both.



This is beside my front door. It is my Granny's sewing machine. It is an old singer and still works great. My Granny was a great seamstress and I still remember her sewing everytime I was around her. On top is a Polish runner with a piece of Polish pottery my sil gave me.



Another heirloom from my Granny, this little rocker was in her house as long as I remember. I loved it when I was a child. It is the perfect size for a ten year old girl to sit and rock. My mom got it for me when my grandparents passed away because she knew how much I loved it. I really need to have it recovered but I am terrified to hand it over to anyone to do the repair work on it.



This is the wall in our breakfast area. The piece in the middle is a mirror we bought in Israel. The little side shelf holds two antique plates members of our church in Washington gave us when we left. There are also two bluebirds of happiness. The smaller one was given to me by a close family friend and I had it in my bouquet when we got married.



The window over my sink holds more Polish pottery. I love looking at it first thing in the morning and it helps me to remember to pray for my family as they are serving in Poland.



This little red rocker was mine when I was a little girl and it is the perfect size to hold my bunnies. The one in the long dress Tim's aunt made. I saw it and fell in love and she gave it too me. The other bunny was given to us as a house warming present while we were in south Florida.



This little dish was handpainted by a lady in our church in Tulsa. I keep my everyday jewlry in it.



Amish Quilt Tim bought me for my birthday one year. I use it during fall and winter on our bed. I love the log cabin and our bedroom is filled with bears so this fits right in.



Another childhood treasure, the dresser not the adorable little boy that is. The dresser was mine when I was little but it was a plain white dresser. When we were expecting G I asked a friend of our if she would paint it for me as a shower gift. I gave her the quilt we were going to use in G's room and she did a marvelous job. (It is a given that the adorable little boy in my treasure. He loves to have his picture made, you can tell he is his mama's.)



The quilt that inspired the dresser and room decour in the little's room. While we were in Washington state my home church made this quilt for us during VBS and sent it to us. It was such a special gift and now my little boys love it.

New blog that is a great read.

First I encouraged Tim to get on facebook and then he decided he needed to go one step further and he began to twitter. Well he finally decided to start his own blog and true to form his first post is both thought provoking and heart felt.

So if you haven't visited Tim's blog, you really should.

Timbo.