Cleaning The School Room

I have been putting this off for weeks. Today was the
day I decided to finally get to the school room. I had to haul
all of these books out of the closet. So it looked like this.


All of that came out of this little closet. This is just part
of it. I have lots more out in my shed.


Then I had to go through each box, looking for the books
I will be using this year. You would think as many times as
I have done this I would have a better solution but I don't.

This is how it looked when I got everything back in
the little closet. There is a reason I call it the Doom
Closet. The closet slopes to the back because it was wasted
space the builder used instead of walling it over. All of the upstairs
rooms have these little closets as you can see they can hold so much.

I wonder so often how come I quit sewing for 25 years. Today I ran across
my lesson plan book with one of my schedules in it from the school years of 1998-1999. I was teaching all of my children
at home. My students were two,
four, six, eight and eleven, sixteen. So what is that, baby, preschool, first grade, second grade,
sixth grade and my daughter must have been a sophomore in high school.

This is my daily schedule:
5:15-6:45 My quiet time.

5:45-6:45 Breakfast for Ron to prepare, fix lunch for him, start first load of laundry Mon-Fri.

6:45-8:00 Aerobics with Kessie, shower, breakfast for kids.

8:00 -9:00 Get house cleaned, beds made, kitchen cleaned. (That was the kids chores, yes, even the baby at two made his bed. )

9:00 to 12:00 Start Bible (we were doing Genesis that year) Work on Math with Em, Elliot,
Will and Ben. Kessie worked on her own. Language arts and handwriting.

Monday and Wednesday Read aloud break at 10:00 AM Literature, History and Geography

Tuesday Art, Poetry, Music

Thursday- Science

Friday- I took them to a art teacher my poor babies at that time took their naps in car seats.

12:00 - 1:00 lunch

2:00 - 3:00 break for Mom ( I called it Quiet Time.)

3:00- 4:00 We had to come out here because my son was showing a steer at the fair and he
had to work on it everyday. We were living in town.

4:00- 5:00 Dinner ( In those days I cooked 30 meals a month that I took out of the freezer.)

6:00 to 8:00 Dad read aloud, and baths for little ones and then bedtime.

We didn't have a T.V. but we did listen to radio dramas a bunch. My husband was a worship leader at our church and I had a woman's Bible study, meeting in our home every Wednesday night. Not to mention we
had a homeschooling meeting once a month at our house and a once a month science class co-op at our house too.

I am glad I ran across that because I look at that schedule and wonder how I ever did it. I wonder how my poor kids ever put up with me and turned out so nice. I must have been a terror to live with. I think I was so afraid of failing and having people tell me they knew I couldn't do it
that I tried to do it all.
My poor girls are getting the insulting remarks about too many kids like I did and I was one
of those nut jobs that thought she could teach her own kids at home, so I had that to
contend with so I think because of that I had to prove I could do it all. Now it isn't so
bad but when I started home schooling I did it behind drawn drapes and
lived that at any time CPS could knock on my door and take my kids away.

I am so glad it isn't like that anymore. I am also glad I am not that person anymore either.
I bet I was just no fun to be around.
It is nice to look back and see what I did and I am so glad that I am where I am right now.
It was a wonderful time of life and I am so thankful for the gift of serving my family the way I did, but I am having so much fun now. It is a good reminder to me, how hard young mothers work.
No wonder my hair is gray.

~Kim~