A Resolve to Declutter Our Lives

Hoping everyone had an enjoyable holiday season. We spent a lot of time doing...well...a whole lot of nothing.

We enjoyed it thoroughly.

Two weeks of nothingness bliss. We would start to say.."you know we should"..and then sigh and say. "nah". Let's enjoy this. The Spring is coming.

And Spring..around here means busy.

Big B and I regrouped with Austen and the families from our homeschool co-op. We have agreed to continue studying the same subjects this Spring: Architecture/Art/IPC/Math/Cooking.

The co-op resumes this week.

In addition Austen and Devin will be hanging out in my living room for 4 hours every Tuesday and Thursday to study World History.

Cody is adding an Intro to the Great Books (Lit/Comp) and U.S. History to his list of things to study. He is continuing with AP Chemistry, his automotive repair course, Financial Peace and Advanced Math (trig/pre-cal) Currently we are reading Profiles In Courage by John F. Kennedy together. Michael has a lot of small automotive repair jobs for him. He is also filling out one scholarship application a week, hoping to find a way to cover some of the expenses of Full Sail.

Soccer season is in full swing for Cody and Mason. Austen is entering OM crunch mode. Meaning..he has a lot of Odyssey work to do. He continues to cook for the Club one day a week and participate in the Club's city-wide paper recycling program.

We resumed community dining this past Saturday. It is nice to return to a full table of family and friends in the evenings.

We had taken a break from Community Dining over the holidays.

The boys continue to cook one night a week. We have had a lot of trial and error..but everyone is beginning to adjust to the new rhythm.

We enjoyed having a lazy Fall. We REALLY enjoyed our break of nothingness.

The business, however, is not limited to the kids. I continue with my 4th semester in the Pastoral Ministry in Training Program. It is basketball season and Odyssey crunch mode (4 teams this year) at the Club. It is also time for our yearly reports. I have the opportunity to serve on a Kairos team this Fall..Which is more weekends of team-building etc. I am still reading The Great Books:)

It seems odd, I think. Because Big B and I both resolved to declutter our lives this year.
..and here we go with over scheduling again.

But we have a plan....

We are starting with material things..26 things a day. We are throwing or giving away.
So far I have thrown away countless bottles of expired medicines (frightening actually) and thrown or given away enormous piles of sheet music.

We are cutting out the time-suckers in our lives. For me..that would be facebook and ridiculous amounts of blogging. (Yes..I see the humor here) And as if on cue, my laptop has crashed. So..I am using an old computer that is very temperamental. So..I am cutting back to one or two blogs a month. You know..like a reasonable person.

We are both planning to transition out of our current jobs in this next year.

I have spent a little over 5 years at the Boys and Girls Club. It has been a wonderful place for me and my family...but it is time to move on. The Club is growing and have plenty of competent staff to keep things going. I need to make the break from this chapter of our lives and prepare for the next ministry oriented chapter.

But for now, I immerse myself in Club life for the rest of this school year. I enjoy this time.

I selfishly hope to have a year to stay home...but only time will tell if this is feasible or not.

Once again. Happy New Year's to all.