PAY ATTENTION

Hello Folks,

How’s it going? I told you I would let you if we made it to church on time. Drum rolls please, dddddddddd, NO! We did not make it to church on time but it was not because we were not ready to go. Brian was stuck in traffic and returned home later than expected. Okay now that we took care of that let’s get started.

So I woke up this morning to a beautiful day. The birds were chirping, and the sun was shining through the windows. Spring is in the air. If you live in the eastern part of the USA it feels more like summer is in the air. The weather changed abruptly and gave me “Spring Fever”. For the past couple of days I have not wanted to do anything that resembles work or rather schoolwork. Distractions have slowed our school day down not because of the kids but because of me. You see there is something about this time that makes me want to relax, chill, take it easy, cool out, fall back, you get the point. Oh check out my new slang phrase, fall back. I just learned this from my little brother. Just trying to stay up on what’s happening, LOL! As I was saying school is the last thing on my mind to do.

To give you an idea of how distracted I am, I started to daydream about cleaning out the pantry in the kitchen. Yes I was rearranging the Corning Ware dishes and the glass bowls in my mind. Trying to figure out where to put this new bread maker we just acquired. I even considered nixing school for the sake of cleaning Brandon’s room. Yesterday (which would be Wednesday) I had the great idea to do school outside, thinking that it would satisfy my need and the kids need to be outdoors. So I pushed my traveling desk and chairs out on the back deck, gathered all our necessary materials and sat down to work. It did not work out as I planned. The kids complained about the sun (we do not have an awning or any kind of covering on our deck). They were paranoid about the bugs; yes my two boys are afraid of bugs, go figure. The wind that was presently cooling things off kept blowing the pages causing Brandon to have to keep finding the correct page thereby causing him to be more distracted and me annoyed. UGGGGGH! After our spelling lesson we packed it up and came in the house.

It is easy to stay focused when it is cold and snowy out. I mean who wants to go out in the cold, not me. But now the weather is nice and there is about a month and half of school left and I am determined to be done on time. You may say, “On time? You’re home schooling, on time is when you choose.” I know, but if I do not set a date for the end of school we will be in school all year long. That would make for a very unhappy household. So our projected last day is May 21st. So I need a plan to stay on target.
Years ago my pastor gave us ABCs to developing a disciplined life. I am about to put these in to practice. As I share them with you maybe you are having the same issue I am or another issue with discipline so hopefully they will help you as well.

A – Admit you have a problem. My problem is I would rather go play than home school right now.

B – Believe God can help you. I believe what it says in Psalm 121, “I will look to the hills, from where does my help come from. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

C – Confess your faults. I have not been wise with my time. I have been staying up much later than I ought and it has affected my desire to press through and get work done.

D - Decide in advance. I am going to bed at a reasonable time so I will be better prepared for my day. As I am ready to meet the demands of the day we can finish school at a good time and then spend some of the day “playing”. Also I will put things in place like field trips and the like for next year.

E – Enlist some support. Okay calling all you home school parents to pray for me that I say focused. Also if you happen to be my friend on Facebook and it is pass 11:00pm, shoot me a message to go to bed. On a more practical level I will ask Brian to hold me accountable.

Now that I have these in place the remainder of my year should go as planned. Okay when does doing anything with kids go as planned? Well maybe I will stay the course will little to no distractions. I cannot believe that my first year of home schooling is almost over. We will see if I survived by May 21st.

It is after 9:00pm and I need to start getting ready for bed, gotta put the plan in motion. Like usual I never want to close without praying….Father, thank You for getting us this far in our school year. Please help us to stay the course and to continue to press ahead. Give us strategies to make the remainder of our year an exciting and productive. We praise You because You are worthy of all praise, in Jesus’ name Am

Until next time happy home schooling.



Hugs and Kisses,
Cheryl

April has 3 Thurdays in it so I will be back on Thursday, April 29th! Hope to see you then!!

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