Thursday Thinking

I was thinking about my weekly review for this week, some ideas on housecleaning and its role in a homeschooling life, about habits, and a few other things, but I can't get the thoughts to come out in order. So in the meantime I decided to simply do a photo-journal which sort of combines the three..... a housecleaning journal, or else an archaeological foray into what has happened here during the week, however you want to think about it.

First of all, yesterday was an errand day in town. We had to take Clare to the oral surgeon, get Aidan's anti-rejection medicine, and shop, so we were gone most of the day. Things don't usually get QUITE this bad when I'm maintaining, but driving in the car up our winding mountain road usually makes me feel strange and disoriented for the rest of the day. I was actually looking forward to attacking the house today, but I am not done yet, even though it took most of the morning. The younger folk were helping, so when I say I did it I don't mean every bit of it was the work of my hands!

I was trying to take before and after pictures as I went, but didn't altogether succeed.. You'll have to fill in the gaps.

SO -- this is LIFE around here.

First, the kitchen counter -- a BEFORE picture -- it got worse before it got better, because I was making breakfast as I cleaned.



Here's an AFTER picture, but of a different counter -- but the main one is pretty clean now too.


For a direct compare and contrast, here is a BEFORE

And here is the same AFTER:




Here's a BEFORE of the foyer (sorry, very blurry)



Here's an AFTER:

Meanwhile, we caught Squirrel #7:


And I made whole wheat waffles and made sure everyone got some:


Fireplace -- BEFORE

And AFTER:


Moving upstairs, an AFTER of my computer area (no BEFORE, but there were paper scraps and little cards everywhere since Aidan has set up a work station next to mine -- you can still see some bits and pieces on the floor):


I packed up all the floor puzzle pieces Aidan has done all week -- US, Fire Engine, Alphabet, Dinosaurs -- and put them away (here's the completed US map from earlier in the week)


Here's a couple of MIDDLES:

The bookshelves -- we gathered books from all over the house and brought them to the shelf but we still have to shelf them.


Ditto with the toys: we brought them all over to one place and dumped them and still have to restore them to order.


Now take a look at it the other way around for a moment. All the books, toys, puzzles and cards everywhere..... are the archaeological evidence of the LEARNING around here, the play, the fun, the material of memories. This is what I was thinking while I was cleaning it up, and part of the reason I took all the pictures. Sure, I love a nice clean house (and I noticed that once I dug in and started rearranging and sorting, the house took on a new energy and the kids are all now playing more creatively than they were before). But I can't regret too much the habit my house has of becoming messy, because it's the way the outdoors has of becoming messy because life is going on there in abundance .... which has to do with the part of it I'm still thinking through....