Thankful Monday Morning

The sun filters through the fog beckoning me to a new day. I stumble out of bed and head to the coffee pot. Cold coffee sloshes into my mug even though each day is worth a fresh pot of fragrant brew.

My girls are busy playing and my teenager emerges to see what is for breakfast. Stomach grumbling turns verbal.

Why do we have to do school today?

Our weekend was too busy.

I try to ignore the moaning, but it’s in my soul, too.

Where is our joy?

We pray, eat together, and lessons begin.

It’s Monday, so I pull out our Thankful Journals.

The day I decided to make these books was a day like the one I described above. The sun had been missing for days. We all felt grumpy. We needed to go to Good News Club in the afternoon, but no one wanted to go.

The internal battle in my own heart was won by gratitude.

I told my soul Good News Club is a wonderful opportunity. It is work. It can be hard, but it is worth the effort. It is an act of worship, an act of love.

As I considered my own internal raging, I thought of my kids. They have opportunities, too. They are blessed, but have they been counting their blessings?

I asked the kids to wait while I went to rummage in the shed.

When I came back, I carried a stack of composition books. Four were brand-new, but a pile of others where full of handwriting and pictures.

Those full books were the journals I made while they were babies. I read a few bits of the prayers I prayed for each of them. I told them that we were going to make something similar.

Scrapbook paper, magazines, and old calendars soon littered the floor as my children found images they wanted to glue onto their notebooks. I joined them in the cutting and gluing and soon we each had our own special place to record our blessings.

These are our Thankful Journals. We pull them out every Monday morning to chase away the grumbling and complaining.

My children grab their books and scatter.  It only takes a few moments to record their thanksgiving, but those moments change the rest of our day.

Inspired by One Thousand Gifts. {Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. If you purchase items from Christianbook.com after clicking this link, I receive a few pennies.}

How the Basket Lady Organizes Homeschool

When the librarian called, he recognized my voice.

Oh, you’re the basket lady.

Should I be offended?

I used to take a backpack to the library and then transfer the books to their place next to the couch, but grabbing my old, wire basket saves a step. It does a great job keeping library books corralled, and it’s the perfect size for our check-out limit.

That library basket works so well, I don’t care that basket lady and bag lady sound so similar.

I have bigger things to battle, things like books and paper.

Organizing Books

Since we don’t have a separate room for our personal library, our living room has three large bookshelves in it. I make space for a few pieces of pottery, because I crave beauty as much as I like books.

Our books are loosely organized by category and size. Curriculum is on the shelf above our binders. Reference books are to the left of my desk. Favorite children’s books are on a separate shelf next to the couch.

Organizing Paper

Besides books, our homeschool fills up with paper. My girls each have an old-fashioned school desk with a bit of storage for their plethora of drawings.

When their desks are full, we sort through and keep their best and favorite works of art.

What we decide to keep goes into a three drawer organizer. I also slip in small treasures, cards, and keepsakes to add to their binders or scrapbooks later.

School papers used to pile in my plan book and languish there.

Then I found a $2 letter sorter to control that disaster. It’s perfect for holding file folders on my desk. Papers that need to be graded and papers that need to be filed are in separate sections. And my plan book fits right in the front.

Organizing Other Stuff

My desk drawers organize all of our office supplies:

• erasers
• pencils
• staplers
• hole punches
• flash cards
• stickers
• paper cutters
• notebook paper
• extra gadgets
• even the bills

I would like a new desk some day, but that might be as strenuous as packing the whole house.

Some of our puzzles, cards, and games are stored in a small dresser that I use as a sideboard in my kitchen.

I even cram things under the couch, but we won’t discuss that right now.

I’m a bit concerned about other nicknames that could arise if I divulge all the places I hide stuff.

What is your biggest organizational challenge?