Ta-daaaaa!

I finally MADE myself tackle the bookcase yesterday. I was ready to throw in the towel shortly after starting . (Heck I was ready to throw in the towel before I EVER started!) This picture is of the finished book case, so you can surmise the mess it must have been before I started! I took off all the books that are well below the boys interest levels, and the completed school books from years past. The "baby" books and story books and beginning to read/ write books are in a box for Becky. I moved all the cookbooks I came across to a shelf on the opposite side of the kitchen. As I came across each cookbook, I found myself thumbing through it... and would snatch myself back from the brink of distraction to GET ON WITH IT!!!

The same with all those catalogs I had set aside to look through "later"... which became buried on the bookshelves. Many of these I just tossed... not daring to peek inside, lest I be tempted to spend the rest of the afternoon happily "looking". I tossed out school work... some from as far back as BECKY in the 7th grade. (Is there a 12 step program for pack rats?)
I set a few books aside that I thought Connor and Alana might enjoy.
I tossed old magazines I had saved that had interesting articles on "ORGANIZING YOUR HOME!"
Daniel staged an intervention at one point when I was looking for a place to move my basket of scented pine cones. (I had to move the pine cones to have a spot for the cook books)

"MOM. Mom. These pine cones don't have any scent left in them. They are just dusty and IN THE WAY." He made a move to throw them away. I suggested we could revive them with some scented oil. He says, "Or we could just get new scented pine cones later on... when we have some place to PUT them."
(I didn't even dig them back out of the trash.)

I haven't made any lesson plans yet. I need want a new lesson planner book. Of course, I know myself. I will diligently plan and log lessons for the first month and a half... then when the boys have the school lesson routine down, I lose track of the book and never write in it again. (That's been my track record for some 21 years of home schooling.) The lessons get done, I just fail to record the details. Every year, I think I will do better... and then, I don't. Guess a planner book is money better left unspent!

The library called and put in a special request for Daniel and Sam to schedule a time to work this week. So tomorrow we will be at the library by 10:00 am. (Provided my job doesn't go over in time!)

May you all have a blessed and productive day!