Big Retirement SALE!

Yes...you read that right. I am retiring from scrapbook designing. Life is very full right now with 5 kids, homeschooling, and managing 2 sets of apartments along with designing. FULL! Something has to go. Since I can't quit the apartments, and selling your kids on eBay is frowned upon, it has to be the scrapbook designing. I am kinda sad about that because I really enjoy it, but I have been praying about it and contemplating it and I know it is the right thing to do. I plan to channel what little creative time and energy I have back into my own scrapbook pages, my worship art, and some other misc. projects.

So, now is your chance to grab my designs before they are GONE!

You can get a great deal, too!

EVERYTHING in my store is

50%off

until the end of the month (August 31st) when I officially step down as a designer at Scrap Outside the Box.

This little page above was created using my most recent scrapbook kit called Anna's Paint Splatters (created back in April - does that tell you why I need to retire?) I don't think I ever posted it here.

Meanwhile, back at the farm....I have been taking some time to re-evaluate where we are going with homeschooling and life in general. Although we don't break for summer and "school" year-round, this time of year makes me pause. Seeing all the school supplies in the stores, schoolbuses on the roads and fresh new excitement about school makes me think about how we are doing and how we measure up in comparison.

My oldest is 13. I only have 5 more years of official educating time. For some reason, this fact has suddenly hit me hard and caused me to feel the pressure of my limited time to prepare her for life away from our fold. Will she be ready. Is there something important that I have overlooked teaching her? This is not a bad thing. I think it is good to regularly step back and take inventory of where you are and are heading.

Then there's my Anna who is 10 years old. She avoids schoolwork like the plague. Actually she avoids ANY work she can. It is easy for me to distracted and not realize that she is not keeping up. These two are enough to keep me busy, but this year my Patrick is kindergarten age and I will be "officially" teaching him. He is a sponge and has been learning tons without any real effort from me. And if I am going to take special time with Patrick I will HAVE to take special time with my 3 year old, Abi. Anything Patrick does, she feels the need to do, too. Although I feel like I am always educating all five of my kids all the time, I am officially going from homeschooling two to homeschooling FOUR. Double!

So life around here has got to stay organized. I will go CRAZY if it doesn't. I am not naturally organized. I REALLY am not! It is hard work for me to be so. I keep thinking about the verse.

"God is not a God of confusion and disorder, but of peace and order. " 1 Cor.
14:33

As difficult as it is to keep order around here, I need to do it to keep peace in our lives. Chaos is not from God and it must be fought. So I am also re-evaluating our schedule, routines, and chores. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed thinking about how to fit everything in that needs to get done, but I know we will make it work.

I have not been so good about keeping the little ol' blog up to date so I thought I shoul do a nice update. Sorry if I got a bit long winded.