One of the first things people told me when I decided to teach my boys at home was ~ don't let the condition of your house get you down.  Now, everyone who knows me knows I am SuperMom, so why would anyone think that I couldn't keep my house spotless AND teach my boys at the same time?  Hahahahahahahaha.  Oh yes.  I had a LOT to learn about how my priorities were going to line up! 

This reality hit me fully this past month.  Let's see.  First, I didn't even THINK about putting the Christmas decorations away earlier than usual.  After all, it's family tradition to keep them up until the kids are back in school after New Year's Day.  Ooops!  The kids aren't "back in school" this year, are they?  When exactly was I going to get the decorations put away?  In between math and spelling?

Two weeks into the new year,  I came down with a lovely case of Norovirus.  I was unable to teach the boys for three days - which left them pretty much on their honor to get the basics done - math, grammar, spelling, reading.  After Day Three of watching my nearly non-functioning family from my sickbed (AKA: my watchpost on the family room sofa), another dose of reality thunked me upside the head:  The house is trashed and nobody knows how to untrash it without my direction.  I relunctantly dragged myself off the sofa (which by this time had molded itself comfortably around me), and discovered several areas of the house where Kryptonite had obviously been planted.  SuperMom has yet to recover from its crippling effects.

We managed to eek out two full days and then another full week of school lessons - HOWEVER - Laundry Mountain has not yet been 'conquered'.

Three days ago, Scott came down with the dreaded Norovirus.  After being up all night with him on Sunday night and then looking at him sleeping so peacefully on Monday morning, yet another reality hit me.  Who is going to teach Nick today?    I napped in between math and spelling pages.

Yesterday, I took the Christmas lights off the bushes in the front yard.  Thank the Good Lord they had green wires so they were not visible from the street. 

So, this is the current status report from our one house school room:  1.  Christmas lights are piled up in the foyer until I can get up into the attic to find the totes they live in until next Christmas.  2.  The living room sofa is stacked with Nick's school books - which Lucy (the dog) finds most comfortable, by the way.  3.  Don't EVEN venture into my kitchen.  Empty Gatorade and Pepto Bismol bottles line the countertop.  Sitting next to them are the tshirts the boys and I tye dyed with blueberry dye last week (the Phoenecians boiled snails - we felt the boiled blueberries would probably smell better).  4.  History books, spelling books, math drill worksheets, and a report about King Nebuchadnezzar lie in various states of disarray around the family room. 

The only semi-tidy spot in the whole room is my watchpost - where I think I will go now and take a nap.  Maybe I'll dream about the time when I was SuperMom, when my house was just a house.  Or maybe, I'll just take the advice everyone tried to give me in the beginning and just not let it get me down. 

From the House of Hooligans ~ Happy Last Day of January!