In all my years of homeschooling the only times I've thought of quitting is in December and January. I learned a long time ago that it was a lost cause to try and even school in December. The hype and craziness of the season affects the kids and even if I taught them something they wouldn't remember it the next day. Then with the shopping, baking, decorating, planning, ect... school would be hit or miss on any given week. But then when January comes along and we come off of the high of the holidays, I find it quite difficult to function.
I am not a natural born organizer. I have to work really hard to accomplish the organizing I do get done. After Christmas my house looks like it has been run over by a freight train. This year is no different. I have a Mt Everest of laundry to do, I haven't done any in 2 weeks and people (like the husband) are complaining of no clean socks or underwear. I have boxes still floating around and I need to find new homes for all of the things we were blessed with this Christmas. Then I need to pack up the decorations and I just put the boxes in the attic last Friday.
Something else that is weighing on me, is that it is tax season coming up. Not typically a big deal for me, but my husband started his own business a year and a half ago, and we are doing our own books and taxes. So that means I have to get all of that stuff organized and ready to work on our taxes. I try to keep up on it, but I do admit that the taxes and receipts and stuff from last year are still in a box labeled ready to file (actually it is a mental label as I never found the marker to write it on the box)I do thank God for the nifty computerized turbo tax.
Then the last thing that weighs heavy on me is testing. I have to test my kids once a year and it is typically in April. I know that is still 3 full months away, but I still have this panicky feeling and want to stuff all the things that I didn't accomplish this fall into their little brains and hope they pass with flying colors. and then I wonder why I want to lock myself in my bathroom. To top that off, I am actually the testing coordinator for my county and people call me frequently from January to June to ask about ordering tests, testing times and when to expect the scores in.  Which is really ok by me that is something I've worked into a routine that works fairly well, so it is secondary to my other areas of stress.
I do typically get it pulled together and come out on the other side of winter more or less unscathed. But sitting at the bottom today it feels quite overwhelming. So my goal for today is to spend some time alone with God and come up with a reasonable list of goals for the month of January. I say reasonable because at times I think myself as a superwoman and find myself defeated before I start. Perhaps I will get through this year unscathed too. So off I go to throw something in my crockpot and to lock myself in my room. I may even decide to go check out the new Panera Bread that just opened up in my area.