While The Hoolies are Away...

I cannot remember the last time that I had my home utterly and entirely to myself for a good span of hours.  Seriously - I think it's been years.... possibly pre-children.  I've had pockets of time here and there, but usually when the kids are up at Grampy and Grammy's house, it's because of some trip that we are taking for work or ministry.

This week has been different.
Mom and Dad - in their own words - were "craving those boys," so we handed them over for a couple of days.  Thus, giving me an entire day home alone yesterday.

Oh my Heavens. 
It was lovely.
This is where I stayed planted until about 10:00 a.m.:

Two cups of coffee, one blog post, and a check up on the Facebook world later, I roused myself out of bed, went for a wee little run, sat and stared into space for awhile and marveled at the silence, took an uber long shower, and then got down to business...

My dear friend Esther-la-Visa, aaallllmost convinced me to go and pick blueberries with her, but I resisted, knowing this gift of solitude might not come around again until I'm 80.

Our next school year is almost upon us, and at least for this next year while our lives look the way that we do, we are going to homeschool for another round.  Their big ole box of books has been sitting in the kitchen corner waiting for such a time as this, so for the rest of the afternoon, the OCD organizer within me was in my glory sorting, chucking, rearranging, and getting ready for homeschool year #3.

We have no schoolroom, per say.  Our kitchen is where ALL of life happens.
And I mean ALL of life.  So, I need it to be as productive and as simply organized as possible.  First, I conquered the craft cabinet.

Oh Heavens.

All three boys are in here every single day of life - which I love - but she had gotten just a wee tad out of control...

Better.
I expect this to last for all of one week...but at least I know what's in there now....
And even when it gets trashed again, I can just shut the door, and the mess will all go away.

The beautiful thing about doing this on my own what that many MANY things that the boys (hopefully) won't remember and wouldn't allow me to throw away if they were here....got chucked.  An entire trashbag full, to be exact...

And THEN!!!  we moved onto school...
Just the tiniest of plugs...
THIS is why I love Sonlight Curriculum:

 Our Read Alouds...

 Our Science...

 Kaden's readers...

And our Bible...

Sonlight is purely Literature driven.  There are no textbooks and very very few workbooks.
I have a deep, deep love for books and for reading, all of my boys love to be read to, and none of them love to sit and do workbooks....so this curriculum suits us well.  Plus, the teacher's guide comes with lesson plans for each and every week already drawn up.  My lesson planning is literally minutes on a Sunday evening, and over in these here parts, time is money.

AND - while it is one of the more expensive homeschooling curriculums, over 90% of it is re-usable for your next child.  When it's time for Jesse to enter these grades, all I will need to purchase for him will be a Math and a Handwriting book, and the same thing will go for Ransom, as well.  So when you look at it that way, and depending on how many children you have, the cost gets cut dramatically...

I am actually an "unschooler" at heart, and I firmly believe that all of life is a schoolroom - you just take a couple of hours each day to do textbook learning.  So, if we continue on this homeschooling journey, and as I get braver, I can see myself moving farther and farther away from structured, pre-packaged learning.  However, for the here and now, and while I am such a newbie - this is perfection for us.

Kaden's corner:

I hate junk.  I hate clutter.  But all of school fits into three little wooden boxes, so I am totally cool with school happening in my kitchen.  I actually kind of love it this way.

And finally....onto other news....

Right before I went off to work for the evening, I put the final touch on my puttering day at home.  Whenever the boys leave us, they know that there will always be a tiny little gift waiting for them on their beds upon their return.  It's usually never anything big - just a token gift letting them know that we missed them and are excited to be all back together again...

THIS is their gift this time:

NOT the whale....the cat food...just in case you couldn't find it.... Oh, the surprise is going to be DEE-licious!