Monday, March 30, 2009

monday monday

Here's what's on my mind today.

1. Golden retrievers are the most gentle, social, kind-hearted dogs ever, and I love them dearly. But. They STINK. And shed. And track in things that must be vacuumed. Nevertheless, I forgot to let Taylor out this morning, meaning he did not go outside until 1:45 pm (when we got back home), and he did not use the bathroom in the house. And he lets my children pull up on him and pull his ears without so much as cutting his eyes at them. So I guess he gets to stay, but MAN does he create more work.

2. I have realized lately that my life, and my surroundings, are too cluttered. Too much scheduled time, too many things on the walls, too many full corners, too little time to sit in the backyard with Brian and the kids in the afternoons. I'm working on it, from all angles. Over the weekend we cleaned out our closet (including tearing down the existing wooden shelves, painting the closet, and putting up a new shelving unit). I also decluttered most of the house. I took pictures off walls, gave away about 75 books, put away most of the small frames. In the past month we've taken two carloads of stuff to charities. There's just too much to our lives right now. I used to pride myself in simplicity. There's really no semblance of that anymore - or there wasn't anyway, but I'm working on it. Paring down and slowing down. That is my focus this spring.

3. Before I say this, I love public school. I grew up in it, I believe in the concept, and I thrived in that environment. Also, I have not seen many examples of how home schooling has served children well in the long run. So I'm surprised to hear myself say this, but over the weekend I read an argument for homeschooling that makes sense. It was the first argument that was proactive, not reactionary, and it didn't make me roll my eyes. You can read it here. I'm sure I'll write more on this soon, but for the first time homeschooling for early education doesn't seem like a terrible idea.

And with that I'm off to shampoo a rug and weed a flower bed. Happy Monday to you all.

4 comments:

Jason said...

I love to declutter ....makes you feel good to see the end result !!

Kendra said...

How is your master bedroom coming? Any pics to post of the "upgrade"?

Anonymous said...

yes, i want to see pictures of the upgrade too!! good luck with decluttering! and i'm sure taylor will be glad to know he gets to stay. :)

kerry said...

My best friend just decided that she's going to homeschool their children. She never loved the idea, and then the Holy Spirit really moved in her one night and she's so excited about it now!

Regarding decluttering: have you ever checked out www.flylady.com? I don't use that site much anymore, but I did for a while and it was so helpful in getting loose routines set, getting de-cluttered, etc. You should check it out!