New Year's Resolution

"Happy New Year!"

I love New Year's day. The feeling of a fresh start, the challenge of writing my new resolutions-it simply makes me giddy. It may sound cheesy, but its true. Each New Year is a clean slate, cleared of the past and wide open to possibilities.

Now, as you read this you may be thinking, "It really has been a long time since this chick updated her blog", but stop right there. It's still 90 degrees outside and the mosquitoes are still going strong. I'm actually celebrating the the new academic year.

I'm excited about starting a fresh year. Last year we barely hobbled across the finish line. By June we were all tired of school and generally uninspired. I don't want to carry that same attitude into this school year. So at the end of July, I got out my pen and went to work writing resolutions.

My resolution was this: the wanna be, her five-star husband, and her four reluctant children are going to go on a schedule. (It's similar to a diet, but a little more unpleasant.) We would wake up early and have the majority of our time planned out.

Let's pause here and state for the record that this is not a normal act for he WannaBe. I am a creative, global thinker. I do not like things to be repetitive or linear. I get bored easily, and I have a tendency to buck anything that feels too rigid to me. But for the sake of my few remaining brain cells and the continued integrity of our homeschool, I felt compelled to create a schedule for my family. And...

It's been great. We are on week two, and everyone has adjusted well. My children have actually thanked me for creating the schedule (never at six in the morning, which is the new wake up time, but sometime in the day after the initial shock has worn off) ! Now, I have time for a quiet time every morning and free time every afternoon. I actually feel far more relaxed on a schedule than I've ever felt without one. At the end of each day I know I have gotten done everything I needed to, and I can stop worrying. It's lovely.

I hope to post back in six weeks and report our continued success, but for now we're taking it one step at a time.

So, Happy New Year to you! I wish all of you homeschool moms out there a great start to a wonderful new year. May God bless all of your efforts!