Extreme Makeover -HOMESCHOOL Edition!

Blessings!

Why, oh why, does the organizing of our homeschool room NEVER seem to end? Just when I think I've got everything where I want it...and we couldn't possibly need/want anything else, the little cogs begin rotating around in my mind and those little nagging 'ideas' scream to be FREE! You know what this means right?
 Yep,  there goes ALL the work I've done this week, the week before, the week before that........ etc. Well, to be honest here, it is mostly hubby. He moves the big stuff around so much, that when I say " Hubby, I've got an idea for the homeschool room", he cringes and says "The slave days are over woman!"  Poor guy! LOL I do thank our Lord for blessing me with such a loving and understanding husband. Well, I'm not really sure if he understands or not why I have to do this, but at least he just pretends he gets it LOL

We have moved around QUITE A BIT this year and for any lack of words: things have not gone as planned! We moved out of housing, rented a place that fell through, had to re-rent a new place with 48 hours as it was infested with mold unbeknowst to us, THEN we lost it in Hurricane Irene.....only to move into the house we are in now! This made our 4th move in 3 months and I am SOOO over it!) Needless to say, things are still in disarray. Having 3 children, 2 dogs, a cat, 10 fish, and a husband all to tend too (even from 8,000 miles away), be the heavenly homemaker and homeschooling Momma, the maid, the plumber, and the chef (not to mention 1,000 other job titles)....I really stretch myself thin sometimes and don't get enough time in the day to handle everything! I am confident that when my time comes to go to Heaven, my 1 question to God will be, " Why were there ONLY 24 hours in the day?" LOL. I think we will save the "Patience with Priorities" speech for another post. (OHH, GREAT TOPIC!)  as that one will be a heavy one I'm sure of it! lol.

So, over the last year of our homeschooling journeys, our move into 3 new homes, having 2 miscarriages in 6 months, THEN LOSING OUR HOME IN HURRICANE IRENE AUGUST 2011, and my OCD to clean and perfect everything, in HYPERDRIVE, (Oh how I hate that word......... 'PERFECT -cringe!"), our homeschool room has made many changes. Here are a few pictures of our transformation: (more will be added in due time, I am 110% sure of it LOL)

This is what we started out with:

As of: Feb/March 2011

When we made our 1st move, our two daughter's bedrooms were combined so we could use the 4th bedroom as our new homeschool room. WE REALLY WANTED A SPACE OF OUR OWN! However, now we have acquired even MORE items to add to our crazy mess with having 3 childrens at home full time! PLUS a bunch of FREE items that someone donated into the FREE BINS outside of Moore Expressions Homeschool Store...needless to say, this is what we ended up with:

As of: June/July 2011

After a little bit of rearranging and ALOT of work on hubby's part....we finally made some progress!

Now, of course....I was finally feeling a bit relieved and had confirmation to NEVER again use a room with WHITE carpet in it as a place to homeschool!
I also felt that we needed a bigger space for improvements as I couldn't put all of our stuff in it's proper place, because I lacked MUCH wall, cubby, closet, everything space! Not to mention the ONLY wall that has ANY electrical outlets is the one where my hubby's desk (the big/long brown credenza) is, and with 3 computers plus a laptop (all needed of corse, as we were using "Switched on Schoolhouse" for our older two kiddos at the time) Oh the power of extension cords (all pun intended)! But, at the end of the day....it was working out!

As of August 14, 2011 ...this is how our homeschool room sat awaiting our 1st day of homeschool. I am glad we made the changes, as it gaves us MUCH more space, which we desperately needed of course, now that all 3 kids are homeschooling this year. (we only homeschooled Bunny at first), With only a few more days left until we were to begin....things were FINALLY manageable =)

As of: August 14, 2011

The aftermath of Hurricane Irene.....left us with a HUGE mess and tons of hard work down the drain!  We salvaged what we could, with the help of many people from whom we have never even met alongside our friends. We lost 80% of our homeschool room not so much from the damage itself, but from water, flooding, and MOLD (amongst other household things, and EVERYTHING belonging to our daughters) to include furniture, computers, curriculum, toys, games, wall decor etc.

Once we were settled in at my mom's house (which is where we evacuated too), we had set up a little area in her diningroom where we could begin. Our 1st day of homeschool was to begin on September 5, 2011
and NO HURRICANE WAS STOPPING THIS FAMILY FROM STARTING ON TIME............except lack of curriculum!
 (We did have all of Bunny's work in a filebox with a lid that we were able to save)

 It was very important for us to stick with this date, not only was it our very 1st day as homeschoolers all together, but it was the day my grandfather passed away exactly 1 year to the date. We wanted to bring some joy to this special day, not remember the heartache, and give it a whole new meaning.

 So, this is what we had to work with.....

THAT'S IT!

Now, allow me to explain JUST HOW AWESOME GOD IS! When our friends and family had heard and seen the posts of pictures we had posted on Facebook, they had teamed up to help us. Word of mouth traveled FAST and within a matter of about 10 days, we had a new place to live, were blessed so abundantly by donations of children's clothes, toys, and homeschool items to get the ball rolling. Mind you, we had NOTHING for our 2 eldest children as they were all set up to use, "Switched on Schoolhouse" and we lost our computers)
 It wasn't too long into our amazing story of triumph, that we made a trip out to (YOU'VE GUESSED IT AGAIN) MOORE EXPRESSIONS HOMESCHOOL STORE to see if we could possible piece together some kind of curriculum for our 3rd and 6th grader.

 (OK, now the tears are falling.........CRY!!!!)

I walk into the store not quite sure what to expect. The emotions we overflowing and I am sure I wore them on my sleeve no matter how hard I tried to suppress them! As I walked around for awhile looking at curriculum books...many of which I had never seen before as we were not using books, just online education.....it wasn't too long from then, that Cherrie Moore (the owner & wonderful blessing she is), walked me through her little piece of Heaven, helped me choose items for our children because I must have looked ever so lost, then she did the most selfless act of generosity I had ever received for myself. She blessed my children so abundantly with EVERYTHING they needed at no charge to me! If I recall, the receipt was close to $400.00!!!!
My heart sank for many reasons; because there was hope again that the children would make it educationally. That God loved me....YES ME, enough to put his angels here to catch me when I fall. To show me just how strong a community REALLY is when one of our families are in need.
It was the most humbling experience, and for someone who struggled (still does) with humility.....it was an eye opener (to say the least) on the how the grace of God flows freely to those who acknowledge HIM!

Now, as we sit here homeschooling 5 months later....this is what we are blessed to share, teach and nurture our children's education with.

 

THROUGH THE LOVE THAT GOD SO WILLINGLY GIVE TO US.....ALL THINGS REALLY ARE POSSIBLE FOR HIM (OR HER) WHO BELIEVES!!!

BE ENCOURAGED!