Happy Monday! It’s a cloudy morning here and I’m thankful to have a break from the relentless sun we’ve had this summer. After a cold front moves through this afternoon, we’re supposed to have a lovely stretch of weather with highs only in the low 80s and low humidity. David should be able to finally start painting the decks. We bought all of the paint and supplies as soon as the stores re-opened in the spring, but the weather has been too hot, humid, and/or rainy to do any work on them at all.

I was thinking about these weekly posts that have developed into kind of a catch-all for all the things I’m working on. I was reflecting on the fact that I view homemaking as all encompassing so it makes sense for me to write about home, homeschooling, and home business all under homemaking. They are all a part of our entire family economy. Some people might see a post that says “homemaking” and think it should only be about cleaning. But homemaking is not housekeeping as I wrote in Embracing the Simplicity of Homemaking. All of creating a home is homemaking in my view. So that is why I share about all the things I’m doing around my home each week. I hope that encourages you to think about the value of all you do around your home each week.

Cleaning Out the Office Closet

My big accomplishment over the weekend was completely cleaning out the closet in my office. Even though we had moved David out to a new location in the house months ago, we hadn’t taken the time to clean out the closet. It was full of things that we only rarely use – computer bags, tripods, bins of wires and cables, David’s only very occasionally used art supplies, etc. All of it was removed and he cleaned everything – walls, shelves, etc. Now when you open the closet doors, it definitely looks like a girl closet. Lots of white and pink and green. LOL! I love it.

I also cleaned out all of the homeschool curriculum that was in the closet. I don’t buy much, but I have received quite a bit over the years to review. Some of it we end up using and some we don’t. Some is from clients when we receive final copies. So I have a few things to sell online. I have quite a few high school things set aside in a small pink fabric (LOL!) storage bin to keep until we need them in the next few years.

Homeschool Planning

On the homeschool planning front, I made good progress. We have a plan coming together which I will hopefully write about sometime soon. I am still reading aloud to Caroline. David is still working through our middle school chemistry plan with Caroline so we never really stopped. We’re just not all-in on everything right now like we will be in a few weeks.

Home Business

On the work front, I am writing a chapter about relaxed homeschooling for a comprehensive homeschooling book. It is due at the end of the month so I need to get that finished this week. When the book is available to purchase, I’ll let you know!

I also have a product review for Homeschool in the Woods that will be published this week so look for that.

We finally completed updating all of the Fun Fact Cards. So. Much. Work. but such an improvement with the new font and design.

If you have purchased any in the past, just log in to your account to get the new version. Use the “Your Account Details” drop down option under “The Shop” in the main site menu.

We’ve now moved on to completely redoing the related copywork. This is something I have wanted to do for a couple of years, but we could not work it in. I’m really happy with the changes we’re making. It will be an even better product for learners and it will greatly simplify things on my end as well by combining all of the options into one product.

We’ve completed the first five. We’re trying to get them all done as quickly as possible. If you’ve purchased copywork in the past, you can download the new versions as they become available.

So on to the goals for the week!

This Week’s Goals

I’m going to move forward one goal from last week. I spent so much time organizing and cleaning things out, that I didn’t get to actually completing my goal.

Goal 1 – (This is the one I’m moving forward.) Update my own binder with my own products. LOL! I need to update the printables I’m using myself from my shop. Every year life changes and I need to revisit these topics just as much as anyone else.

Goal 2 – Finish organizing our homeschool paperwork from preschool through grade seven. I started working on this a couple of weeks ago and then set it aside because I was tired of working on it. I have been keeping things in acid-free sleeves in three ring binders which I wrote about in Organizing Homeschool Paper in Binders. This worked very well during elementary school. I still highly recommend it. Now that we’re moving on to eighth grade, I’m starting to keep records differently in order to prepare for needing to keep “official” records for high school. So I am pulling apart the binders, further weeding what I’m keeping, and putting the sleeves and other materials into bankers boxes. I’m so close to done. Another hour and this project will be completed.

Goal 3 – Plan for a long fall and winter. I’ve already started writing a post about this to share my thinking. This is uppermost in my mind (hence, the autumn picture of the woman gathering for her family). It will be August at the end of the week. Whatever you think about what is or isn’t happening in our country, you still have to live with the reality of whatever unfolds. So that is on my to do list.

What do you have planned this week? I am sorry I have not responded when women have shared their goals in recent weeks. I always enjoy reading them, but haven’t been very good about following up with comments. I apologize for that. Please don’t let that keep you from sharing!

Artwork: “Gathering Firewood” by Helen Allingham