Our First Day of School

We are finishing our third week of school tomorrow, so I thought it was time to share our first day of school pictures!

The first week and a half of school was stressful to say the least. I ran out of day before I finished my list every single day.  And then things began to pile up.  I was getting more and more behind in my school schedule.  I was not happy.  I forgot to be thankful.  I was grumpy.

And then I found this blog post.  Please take the time to read it, and then add Finding Joy to your list of regular reads.  Rachel spoke directly to me.  I know she did!  I immediately thought of my dear friends Lynn and Heather.  I sent them the link to the blog post the very next morning.  By coincidence, my friend Anita shared the link to the very same blogpost on Facebook the next day.  She had read it too, and she knew that all of us needed to read it.

So I changed my attitude.  It has been a week and a half since I began reading Finding Joy (and I am reading it every day), and my attitude and my outlook regarding my homeschool and my homemaking and my family in general is much more positive.  I am no longer a slave to my to do list.  I have stopped saying that I am behind in school and housework, and laundry....behind who?

I still make a list.  I am still trying to be as productive as possible every day.  But I am not stressing about it.  I am choosing to enjoy my children and my husband.  To love them and to love the moments.  I am just doing the next thing.  Over and over again. 

Wednesday I did school with the children for 7 hours 50 minutes.  Then I folded the clean clothes that had piled up since Monday, and that took one hour.  Then I finished preparing supper (crock pot refried beans tacos), and then we went to Bible study at church.  It was a very full day, but I purposed to keep a happy attitude.  Did I leave items unchecked on my to do list?  Of course!  But instead of focusing on that, I recalled all that I did do.  

And that has to be enough.

So here are the pictures of our first day of school for the 2012-2013 school year.

These smiling faces are why I love my job!

 Sam-1st, Leah--3rd, Clay--8th, Julie--10th, Olivia--12th

After taking the picture, I gave the children the first of 10 clues for our annual Back to School Treasure Hunt.  This year I even made rhyming clues!

 heading down to the garage for another clue

 visiting Ribsy

 up to the back yard

 this clue was in the tree

 this clue was eaten by our dog, Pokey!!

 a clue in the workshop

 Sam, with the final clue

 the final clue

(The prize was in our upstairs hot water heater closet...which leads to our Christmas decorations storage area)

the prize!

Mr. Scenty scented markers

just like the ones they had when I was a child

I want to encourage you not to compare yourself to other moms.  Not to become weary in well doing.  

Encourage your friends.

Love your family.

"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails."

1 Corinthians 13:4-8