In the midst of chaos.....I find???

Things have been quite chaotic around here.  Let me fill you in on the past month.

1.  I stopped working the first week in September to stay home with the kids and homeschool.

2.  A week and a half later we got our curriculum and "school" books from Sonlight.  We were so excited with the three huge boxes that came.  We opened them up, felt and smelled the new books, and promptly put them on the shelf for us to keep nice and neat. More on this later.

3.  My husband's work exploded with customers and he begged me to help him get everyone scheduled and straight.  I worked day and night for two weeks getting everyone scheduled and him organized.

4.  I have been to the grocery store, Costco, and Sams Club so many times I can not even count and it has only been a month!  Remember that we were moving?  Because of this I didn't want to move all our food storage so we "ate it down".  Now I want to stock back up.

5.  The kids and I have been on three official homeschool field trips and they have been wonderful.  But I have not been able to blog about that.

6.  Remember when I said I stopped working?  Well that cut our household income by over half.  So I have been working on making things for craft shows and to sell at our local pharmacy (think small town pharmacy with a big gift shop attached to it).  I consign my work up there and they sell it and take 1/3 and I get the other 2/3s.  Unfortunately I only get paid quarterly so what I put in there now I won't get paid until January.  But it is a nice little check.  In the meantime I have been working on making things for craft shows around here and have already been in 3 since September.  Some good, some bad.  But that is a way of life.

7.  Homeschooling and having the kids home have been wonderful.  I have enjoyed getting to know them better as people and learners.  I have learned a lot about myself too and I am loving the real me.

8.  There is no ideal or perfect homeschool curriculum and even after 19 years of teaching in public and private schools was I feel only marginally prepared to teach my own children.  They are great sports and do whatever I ask.  I think, honestly, I am being too hard on myself and need to relax a bit.

So in the midst of chaos, I am finding that I still love my family.  I love them even more now than ever before.  I love being home with them.  I love homeschooling (even though I feel like I don't know what I am doing).  I love that my husband goes out every single day and works harder than he has ever worked before because he loves us that much.  In the midst of chaos, I find that my house won't be any cleaner than when I was working full time, we eat so much food being home all day long, and yes, my kids can make some incredible piles of laundry!

In the midst of all this chaos, I find that I am the happiest I have ever been!