In the past few months, we’ve had a lot of big changes I’m really excited about. My partner, Kea, is pregnant and due in early October. We’re very excited about our new little one, and all the changes they’ll bring. We already have three kids, so while there’s obviously going to be some adjustment, mostly we’re focusing on just paring the unnecessary out of our lives at the moment.
No more homeschooling for us
We also decided to transition from homeschooling to enrolling the kids full-time in school this fall. I love my children, but homeschooling wasn’t ever a dream of mine, giving them a great education was my dream. We found an excellent program that will allow them to have an amazing environment and quality education while giving me more time and freedom to do what I love: make content that helps inspire and transform others.
I realized in the past year that being the sole one to carry the burden of my kids’ education was bringing more stress than joy and results into our lives, and my children were falling behind as a result of my anxiety about being “the one in charge” of it all. I’m thrilled to be able to be the mom who is wildly supportive of their teachers, and who is able to provide amazing teachable moments at home.
In order to get Autumn prepped so she isn’t behind, I enrolled her in Reading Eggs, which is an online reading program that’s made to help you improve comprehension and basic skills. It’s designed for K-3, so Logan is also doing their program, but more to help him gain a solid foundation than anything. In the three weeks since Autumn’s started it, we’ve seen an extreme improvement in her reading confidence and skills, even though most of what she’s doing has been review over concepts we’ve taught her. For that alone I would have paid for the membership, but we’re also having her go through their 10-week summer program with the goal that she’ll go through the program and make even bigger leaps before she starts school. I highly recommend them for struggling readers!
Whole house declutter challenge
The past few weeks, we’ve also been doing a massive house declutter challenge, to support our new lifestyle goals and changes. Having a new baby has Kea ready to declutter as she gets into nesting mode and I am excited to be passing on our homeschooling materials to places where they’ll be used and loved! In addition to not homeschooling, I want to be spending more time creating content for the VIP member’s area, and writing more on the blog, so I will need to spend less time managing things. Naturally, the less things there are to manage, the time I have to spend on the management, which was a big reason for the declutter.
In order to make the decluttering fun, and not drudgery, I made an oh-so-pretty and fancy chart on our white board, where I outlined some of our rewards to motivate everyone.
So far we’ve reached 700 items and a little extra, and I expect we’ll hit 1,000 before too long. We’ve done a major declutter in many areas, but have a few more big zones to hit, like the area under the kitchen sink, our “miscellaneous drawer” – and I’m still working in my craft area to turn fabric into usable items, instead of just “potential projects” that sit on the shelf forever, taunting me with their potential.
This whole house declutter has been really hard, as I went through some areas of the house I’d previously “organized” without really decluttering. It brought up some difficult emotional processes, but I was able to turn those into some amazing new content for the Organize Your Life Club VIP member’s area. I’ll also be posting a printable version if you want to do your own challenge in the Organize Your Life free member’s area on June 4th.
New VIP Member Content June 4, 2021!
Each month members get an update with new content, June’s new content is all about decluttering, and instead of the usual one module, I decided to drop two modules! Decluttering is such a big topic that it really deserved the extra attention, don’t you think?
1. Unclutter your Focus
…for those of us who really need a refresher on how not to get in our own way by focusing on too many goals, ideas, and strategies!
2. Decluttering… when it isn’t easy!
It’s all fun and games when it’s easy to get rid of things, but what about when you’re completely overwhelmed, and everything seems hard? From decluttering when you’re dealing with chronic health issues, mental health issues, and how to declutter when you have tiny humans… this module is going to be jam-packed with lots of great stuff.