We will be starting school in 8 days. At day 21, I put a note on the chalkboard that said '21 Days Till School Starts!' The kids and a few cousins were faithful to add to the sign with their little 'yahoos!' and 'Oh yeah!' and other things. Everyday I have changed the number. Today it says 8 days. Yikes.

I am feeling ready. I am ready for the change. School is the season of changes. Fall is coming. Here in the NW it feels like fall already. The days highs last for about 2 hours at the most and the mornings and evenings are getting colder. The sun is up later and down earlier. All things I love. I love living here.

Fall is my favorite season. I am looking forward to decorating my porch in all its fall splendor. My girls are already talking about how they'd like the porch to look. A few more weeks, girls, and we'll decorate it.

I am definitely a fall junkie. I planted corn just for the stalks to put up on my porch and fence, and pumpkins for their fall look. Sure the corn tastes good but the stalks look great all bunched up! Pathetic, I know.

Along with all of this change of seasons comes the change in schedules around here. We are finalizing everyone's activity schedules and I have our daily schoolwork schedule in place. Everyone's books are organized, the last of the curriculum is bought and we are ready for day 1.

Even with all of my ducts in order, I am still feeling that old anxiety creep in. I am homeschooling four kids this year - all four of our blessings. Our oldest will be in 4th grade and so I am feeling like I need to get more 'serious' about her studies. Consistency is key here.

Then there is our son Noah. This will be his first year completely home with no outside help. Remember he is my son with autism. I am nervous about how he will do. I was praying about that some this morning when my dear sister pointed out what Noah did in Sunday School last week. He pointed at a word - a big word - on his bible cover and asked his auntie "Auntie what word is this?" He knows the word Bible, but the Bible he had also said "Adventure" on it. He wanted to know what word it was. I have seen him do this a lot lately. I wasn't making the connection so much between this and his eagerness to learn to read. My sister made that connection for me and it really encouraged me. It was a good reminder that yes, home is where he belongs and the boy will learn! I have been so caught up in my worry that I haven't seen the progress going on right in front of me. It has been a good reflection to step back and observe my children. Something I hope to do more of these 8 days before starting our school year out.

With all of these changes I hope to make a few updates to my blog as well. Check out on the left the Jane Austen quiz on which character you are. If you have yet to see "Becoming Jane" you must! Wow it was great and I can't wait to add it to my movie shelf.

I've also added a frugal blogger button. If you know me I love to be frugal. I have gone through phases of downright tightwad-frugal when we were laid off, to being just stay in my budget frugal when there is money. So, in celebration of my new button on my sidebar, I will share a frugal tip!

Frugal Tip Tuesday: Burning Wood for heat

Okay I'm sure there are some environmentalists out there who will get after me on this, but hey, I live in wood country and we all burn wood here! If you don't, well then your not a local! (okay at least your not a lifetime local!). Here is my list for why wood is a great frugal buy.

1. Wood is cheap. You can get it for free from folks off of freecycle and craigs list, who don't know that they are handing out free gold.

2. Wood is great exercise. I don't want to count how many cords of wood I have stacked and loads I have hauled into my house over the years. Plus have you seen my husbands forearms and chest?! Yeah that stud didn't get that way just turning on the furnace!

3. Wood will keep you warm when the power goes out. Not only that, it'll give you some light too! We had a huge windstorm last December and had no power for 8 days. Yeah, that will make anyone thankful for a wood burning stove! My family stayed warm!

4. Wood smells good. Seriously, there is nothing that brings up more urges to cuddle up with a good book and sit in front of the fire than the smell of cut, seasoned wood.

5. Wood is so Washington! Being the native of Washington that I am, it should be a requirement that all Washingtonians own at least one cord of wood and use it at all times.

Feel free to share your frugal tips with me! Gotta love that stuff. Oh here's a great new blog I discovered on frugality: www.frugalhacks.com Great stuff!

I'm still working on my pictures problem. Hopefully I'll have conquered it this week and you'll see some pics up soon.

Happy school planning!

Janelle

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