Making Your Home Sing Monday

You might have noticed that I'm not jumping on the MYHSM bandwagon every week. Some weeks our rhythm is so terrific, I don't feel inclined to mess with anything and I just want to leave things as they are and enjoy the flow. This week isn't one of them, so part of my promise to myself was to get it back on track and join Making Your Home Sing Monday until we're there again.

Nan says that Making Your Home Sing can be an attitude or an action. Motivation, our attitude, baking, encouraging our husband or children (if we have either one), organization, cleaning, saving money....the opportunities are endless."

Her post this week is all about persevering..."if at first you don't succeed, try, try again". I guess we're on the same page. After three weeks of chaos - first the kids got sick, then I got sick, then Superman got sick, then everyone was excited because I had a birthday (um, yippee?). Let's not forget a bit of a stress over Superman's job, either. Truthfully, we lost all semblance of a rhythm. Yes, I kept up with the chores (barely), but the kids didn't keep up with schoolwork beyond the absolute minimums (math and spelling and some history reading). It wasn't their fault...I just was too darned tired and overwhelmed to enforce anything. I was thrilled each night that they were fed (all day!) and that I was keeping up with the laundry and the dishes. The beds got made each day--I think. Vacuuming wasn't happening as often as it should, nor was dusting...and let's not talk about the bathrooms, okay?

Look, it happens to us all. That is where we're all the same. Where we're different is how we respond to the breakdown of our routines. Do we throw up our hands and say, "Well, it doesn't matter now because I've let this go and that go, so I can't ever catch up, " or do we say, "Well, this is fine mess. Where shall I start?". Remember that line from the Cat in the Hat: "...And this mess is so big and so deep and so tall, We can not pick it up. There is no way at all!" That is how our house felt when I was looking around Saturday after Game Night - I'd spent the day at a Baby Shower and then we'd hosted Game Night - six adults and eight kids in the house (yes, including us). Truly...I was overwhelmed and mentally exhausted - it was 11:30 p.m. and I just went to bed - I left it all however it was.

But, just like the story, I wasn't going to leave it that way. The Cat in the Hat comes back and says, "I always pick up all my playthings and so...I will show you another good trick that I know!"

Like the Cat in the Hat, I always pick up all my playthings. It is a good trick that I know. So yesterday, I began. I took charge in the morning by making a terrific breakfast (French Toast made from the one-hour bread), I changed our sheets and got two loads of laundry done. I got the kitchen cleaned and our bedroom cleaned up. I vacuumed the leaves up off the carpet (don't ask) and scooped up all the various debris that a family leaves all over the place. Then I headed downstairs and sat at the computer for two hours doing the kids' syllabus for the week and I did it better than I have for a few weeks. I added links to movies and web pages that would reinforce the lessons, I wrote notes about each topic. I didn't just go through the motions. I took charge.

Can I just say, when I take charge, everything happens the way it is supposed to? Here we are, Monday afternoon and the kids are engaged in their school work. They weren't distracted by a morning appointment at the oral surgeon (poor Valiant). Because I am on task, they are on task. They started bickering and I nipped it in the bud. The chores have been done and order has been reestablished.

Oh, and the song they're singing? Are you ready? They're singing the Taxonomy Oratio to help Buttercup learn the taxonomy for all living things...Oh, and they're also singing the Classification Rap. (Hey, I'm nothing if not thorough!)

So, head over to Nan's to see what everyone else is doing to Make Their Home's Sing today. You'll find inspiration at every turn!