Bookworm Lost

As we start out on this homeschooling adventure with our children I get a little overwhelmed looking ahead to what could potentially be their high school reading assignments.  I start thinking that maybe I should start now so that I may have most of them completed by the time they are ready for high school.  Then I relax (a little) and realize that I should enjoy books with them now that THEY enjoy.

I had to reflect a little on my reading history...

When I was younger (5th-8th grades) I read all. the. time.  My dad could barely keep up.  For whatever reason he didn't ever take me to the library.  Apparently it was just easier to take me to the local book store at the time and let me pick out a book or two.  This was a weekly or a twice a week visit and I would still find days with nothing new to read.

As I entered high school and assigned more reading and finding new hobbies and activities my desire to read dwindled.  It was also during this time that I realized that reading in a vehicle caused motion sickness.  It was something that I had never experienced before but it cut down the time that I normally had to read.  However, I had some phenomenal teachers in high school and felt that I was fairly well read... more on that later.

The story continues into college.  Reading was assigned and nothing for fun.   At this point in my life reading outside of things assigned did not seem appealing.  Anything but reading.  Sad.

I think later I got caught up in reading a lot of heavy spiritual things for classes that I took while I was on staff with CRU.  It's not that they were bad but reading something light and fun rarely crossed my path.  When I married I was introduced to people that were extremely well read.  I could barely hang with them.  I realized that I had also missed out on some pretty awesome classics - Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, etc.  I wondered why?  Then it hit me that my very liberal, feminist (although I love her dearly) high school teacher would not have approved of some of the story lines that these authors presented.  Again, sad.

More and more I am convicted that while I want to produce readers and see the desire at different levels in my girls... I am no longer a reader.  I must recover what was lost.  I've cut down on the time I waste playing games or dinking around.  I am looking into the lists I have made and would like to tackle them.  I am also wanting to find more interesting books for my girls.  I desire to make the library a habit and familiar place for them.

So, readers... suggest books... classics or otherwise.  I'll let you know if I've read them or not.  However, I cannot do things that are overly violent or overly sexual in content... I'll stop and drop anything that are too much in that area for me.  Just an FYI... and thanks for joining me!

Day 1: Purpose

Today begins the Homemaker Challenge with the ebook, 31 Days to Clean.  I am glad that my task today was "merely" to create a mission statement.  I know some other folks have already jumped on to the next day's task.  I may or may not do that as there are some other things that I would like to get accomplished today.  Mondays can be a little crazy as we have grandparents over in the morning to take care of Miss A while I take Miss L to speech therapy (today was AWESOME!)  On top of that, today began our shower remodel so we have an assortment of people in and out of the house.  Thankfully, they were done well before nap time and will resume tomorrow.  Minor adjustments but still more activity around here than we are used to for sure.

So, a mission statement.  I have never been good at writing them as I always think that all the ones that other people write are far superior and much more eloquent.  I read some of the statements written by others in the challenge and found a few that I liked.  However, Joyful Mothering recommended reading Inspired to Action's Mission Statements for Moms e-book.  I skimmed it enough to have some tracks to run on and I finally settled on the following mission statement:


My family needs a sanctuary in which to find peace, strength, encouragement and love.  By the grace of God I hope towards this by doing my best to model loving, godly behavior, be diligent in our work in and outside the home, and to speak words that strengthen the souls of my husband and children so that we might be continually united as a family that endeavors to create a life-giving, loving and Christ-centered home.

I think that this was a good exercise in that I have a clear and concise vision of the end goal.  This is vision that I can put in front of myself for many years and not just a short season until "such and such" is accomplished.  For me, it is also convicting as I reflect on how much damage my tongue can do and has done.  (ouch!)

Somehow I am supposed to make it all pretty and such.  I may do that later but I will print it up and post it on the inside of my pantry door where I keep other Scripture, encouragement, my calendar, and meal plan..  I'll see it... often.

I look forward to reading more statements.  If you stop in and have a post about yours, please leave a link in the comments!

Challenge: 31 Days to Change

...my heart
                ....my mind
                               ....my motivation.

This challenge and this ebook came along just in time.  It was like it was meant to be.  I can do all the FlyLady stuff or read all the books by the local Queen of Clean but in the end if my heart, motivation, and reasoning do not line up for what my Lord has deemed for me as a wife, mother, daughter, friend... woman... then it is all in vain.  My ultimate desire is that my husband, my children... and then myself.... would feel comfortable in our home.  Safe.  Relaxed.  I want them to see that from me as well.  I don't want frantic and task to be my default mode.

While I have already skimmed over most of the month there are heart things that I will find VERY challenging.  I am not sure that the "tasks" will help get my WHOLE house clean it will help in some trouble spots.  Some of the tasks don't apply.  (For example, I don't have a window in my kitchen to clean)  But I will supplement other things that I am doing and try to keep up with what has been working so far.  There have been some recent developments that will challenge me further in a good way but those things will be revealed later in the month as we encounter different challenges and tasks throughout the month.

If you would like to join in on the challenge you can click on the photo in this post and it will take you to a series of posts that will let you know what to do.  I appreciate that we will be taking the weekends off for this challenge (Which also means it doesn't start until Monday, May 2nd).  It will take us a little beyond May 31st but that is just fine.  You can also buy the ebook as a download or for the kindle for $4.99 -- totally worth it even if you don't do the challenge.  It will be an interesting journey to take with other women (one of which is a long-time friend!)

Let the cleaning (of heart, mind, and house) begin!!

What I am Reading

It All Starts Somewhere

I have been married for (almost) five years and I am still trying to figure out what this whole homemaking thing looks like.  It seems like others have a really good grasp on it but I continue to flounder.  A move and two little ones don't always help things along with a routine.  I understand that others have more to deal with but this is where I am right now and I am okay with that.  I think the first step is grace and the the second step is kicking it into high gear.

I have been blessed with two little "future-homemakers" and I really want to be a lovely example to them so that they do not end up in the same place that I am today.  I also started this little adventure to track my own progress, learn with and from others along the way.  Maybe someday my girls can look back on this?  Who knows?  Maybe this will be utter failure.  I'm okay with that, too.

It seems like I get in a rhythm with thing and it get toppled over for some reason or another and I can never quite climb back on the wagon.  Or what worked before doesn't work now... at all.  I understand that things will need fine tuning along the way but I seem to be finding myself having to wipe the slate clean each time.

I read a post over at Raising Homemakers (I would link to it but they are having issues right now) and it talked about one of the things a homemaker should be doing is making things.  Novel idea, right?  So, I hope to undertake some of those challenges.  I am thankful that there are others that I know and love who love to make particular things and may be able to point me in the right direction.  I love that even though many of them are far away I can still pick their brains and learn from them.  Gotta love modern technology.

So, here we begin.  If you have a favorite homemaking blog that you would like to recommend... I'm all ears!