Breakfast at Last!

We have been officially off our media fast for about a week now, but I have been slowly adding back in a little here and a little there. It seems like this has taught me some sense of moderation that I don't want to lose. But a lot has been happening in our lives. Hmm...a little synopsis is in order, I suppose.

I resigned my job. Yes, it has been wonderful. Sad sometimes too, but overall fantastic. After the last pictures I posted, my house improved dramatically in just a few hours. And even more so over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, I don't believe I took any pictures to show how wonderful it looked. Did I say looked? Sure did. That brings me to what else has been going on.

My kids have started a new business. It all fits in as part of our homeschool life. See, for a few years now my kids have wanted to start a lemonade stand, but with a job and new babies and just general busy-ness, I haven't been much help in facilitating the idea. So once I was a little more free, I started helping them plan for this. Now, being a homeschool family, we certainly wanted to do this with excellence. So...

We went to the library and checked out books about business, money, and entrepreneurship. We conducted market research. We worked out brand ideas, sketching logos and such, and planned color schemes and more. We made field trips to Sam's Club to scope out prices. We went to Goodwill and found coordinating collared shirts for all of us. We borrowed a canopy and table from friends (and we decided that we would conduct business rain or shine), with the plan to invest in those items with our business profits. We decided on a charity to receive 10% of our profits (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta). Weeks after the beginning of this whole process, we designed and passed out flyers to every house in the neighborhood. And we woke up on opening day to a downpour outside.

If only you could have seen my husband and me as we attempted to raise that borrowed canopy for the very first time in the pouring rain at 5:30 am. It was, well, comical! But I was so proud of my little entrepreneurs as they braved the rain and cold, and stood out under that canopy waiting for those mythical creatures otherwise known as customers. Two wonderfully faithful friends did stop in those next couple of hours, and we had prepared the children well for the possibility of little to no success on that first morning because we had not told anyone that we would still be there rain or shine. So there was no bitter disappointment. Just the understanding that driving by and seeing three little munchkins braving that weather to remain consistent and reliable would only help build trust among our customer base.

That was yesterday. Today, we had steady customers the whole time we were open. And the kids also learned the value of a soft open before the Grand Opening...we actually ran out of coffee! Right in the middle of a customer's cup! So we will be getting a few of the kinks worked out this week. Our Grand Opening is planned for next Monday. We are planning discounts and giveaways.

The kids already have visions of franchises in their little heads. :-) Have I mentioned before how much I love to teach my kids at home?

Lots more has been going on, but getting back to the condition of my house. Well, with all this coffee stand business, it has kinda slipped a little bit. Not like it was, mind you, but slipped none the less. Especially yesterday. I spent all day cleaning out the garage so that we can run the business out of it when the weather is especially cold and rainy. So, while mom was working downstairs, you can imagine what the preschool set were doing upstairs! And after getting up at 4am yesterday, I wasn't worth anything by the time I got my kids in bed at 8. I did the dishes and then fell asleep on the couch with hubby playing around on Facebook at the other side of the room. So, well, I guess now I'll put up with a little bit of chaos upstairs while we finish redoing the garage suitably for a coffee stand to run out of it! And we'll figure out how to fit all of this back into a workable schedule over the next few weeks.

Boy, have I missed blogging! I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

Media Fast

Our family is doing a media fast right now. The only computer time I am allowed is the time I take to check important emails and certain school work for the kids. But I thought I would briefly pop on here to let you know why I'm not updating my blog right now (for Sheila, LOL). I haven't forgotten you, though. There is tons of stuff I want to share with everyone as soon as our fast is over in a few weeks. Ok, break-fast over. Hahaha!

Full disclosure

In all this time of leading a "double life," I have found myself getting farther and farther behind on so many important things. My home has suffered terribly as I have tried to decide just what had to fall off my plate. In the beginning, I was letting all leisure time get slashed from the menu. After about a year of this, I finally understood the immense importance of having some down time for the whole family. So, little by little, the little things have fallen off my plate. And anything that happens little by little has the potential to become a very big thing. Still, I've managed to keep some things very organized and tidy......
.....but in the interest of full disclosure, I'm going to bare my soul. I'm going to show you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This is just a glimpse of our homeschool room. It used to be our dining room, but we never ate in there. So I started moving all the homeschool supplies from all over the house into our homeschool room. It's a little small for organizing everything a family needs to school across 5 different grade levels, but it's nice to have everything in one place. I have been reading up on organization ideas, and I've learned a lot from my friend Laura (she did all the organizing and planning for our new space in Praise Park).

Here we have our new "workboxes" from Sue Patrick's Workbox System. They are ready to be loaded up for the beginning of our school year. If you've never heard of this system and you are homeschooling or have toddlers, you should check it out.
You can google "workbox system" and get lots of pictures of how other mom's have put this system to use in their homes.

This is our supply cabinet. It holds some of our school supplies like craft foam pieces, stampers, file folder games, ribbon, beads, whatever. The whole idea for organizing this cabinet came from what I learned from Laura. I have no real organizing sense whatsoever on my own. I owe her soooo much!



This is where the everday supplies go. It's right next to the workboxes so it's easier for me to reload them each night. It holds our pens, pencils, crayons, markers, glue, scissors, whatever.

It has made a big difference just having these all together. I used to try to keep separate boxes of these items for each child. It seemed like such a good idea to me, but it never worked out. Everything just kept disappearing. Now the kids know exactly where something goes instead of having to figure out whose box it belongs in.

The bottom of the cabinet holds all their coloring books and artwork that they want to keep. It's pretty much a mess in there right now.


Here is where a lot of our curriculum supplies are located, along with the science supplies and math manipulatives. This shelf stands about two feet high, so it's great for the kids to be able to reach the things they need.






And here is a bookshelf where I try to keep interesting books to read. We have bought the supplies to create our rain gutter bookshelves, but we haven't been able to come to an agreement about where they should go.

So none of this looks too bad, right? Well, that's because I'm showing you the closeups. Now, here's the part where I open myself up to vulnerability. I'm not looking for disapproval here, or even pity. This is just straight up honesty about where I have been. But by the end of today, it will be soooo much different. Maybe I'll pop back on here and post some pics of that as well. Okay, here goes...There. I've done it. You know it all now. I'm so glad that the Lord led me to understand that I had to choose my home and family over my other ministries. In this season of my life, my sacrifices should be for my husband and for the little ones God has entrusted to my care. There will be plenty of time to throw myself into other important endeavors later on, Lord willing.

Tomorrow will bring big changes to my life. For nearly three years, I have held a part time job working for my church. I have loved this job, working with so many beautiful children. In the beginning, I was responsible for coordinating both volunteers and paid workers for the nursery through Kindergarten age children. But about a year ago, it changed dramatically when the church leadership asked me to help them embark upon a new mission.

Our children's pastor and I had both dreamed of having a worship service for the three year olds through kindergartners. So, that is just what we created along with the help of a few dedicated friends. Praise Park. A fun-filled, bright and cheerful place for the children to grow and learn about what it means to reach beyond themselves and worship their Creator! How awesome it is to be a part of Praise Park. To listen as 35-40 preschoolers recite God's Word that they have hidden in their hearts. To watch them dance and sing that God is alive, and jump and shout F-A-I-T-H. To hold a little boy with autism while his mama worships in the worship center.

It has been wonderful, and challenging, and often even frustrating. But for a very long time now, I have felt like I've been stretched too thin. I've found myself having trouble even getting out of bed, just so tired and overwhelmed. My homeschooling efforts last year were certainly less than joyful, and my performance at every single task I was undertaking was less and less acceptable. I spent time reading books on leadership and organization, trying to learn to make myself more capable.

But finally, I picked up a book I had read a few years back:
A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George. It was a great book for me to read the first time around, but it was even more precious to me this time. As soon as I read it, I knew where I had gone wrong. As a wife and mother, my first ministry is to my family. But I had been giving so much of myself to Praise Park that my family was left eating the crumbs that fell off my plate.

So I told my husband that I felt we needed to choose between Praise Park and homeschooling. I just couldn't keep trying to do both and expect our home to be what God wanted it to be. He and I both came to our decision with sadness, but once we had landed upon it...and put in our six weeks notice...there was a sense of relief. Especially when a replacement for us was found, and it was a couple who would be so perfect for the job. (Way more perfect than us, I'm sad to say).

So, after tomorrow, I will once again be "just" a homeschooling mom, teaching and learning and loving and growing. It's my first ministry, and I am so eager to give my children and my husband my most creative and energetic efforts. But pray for me, please. This year I will be taking on 6th, 4th, and 2nd grades, along with Kindergarten and preschool...an exciting, though a bit daunting, prospect!