A Week in the Life of Eclectic Homeschoolers: Week 4 in 2025

Over the summer, many things have gone missing, and we have yet to find them. They are all somewhere in my home, but no where to be found. A library book, Xbox 360 game, a few water bottles, and one of Elsie's new dress shoes, just to name a few of the things that went missing. I don't think of myself as a slob, pack rat, or messy. In fact I maybe pride myself too much in being more of a minimalist. The less stuff the better!  But it has become apparent that I have let my love of cleanliness and organization go ignored for, well, at least a year. If we have so many random things that don't have a home, I am going to lose things. I of course stay on top of surface cleaning and will deep clean/declutter here and there, but I have definitely not given my home the attention it deserves. So, I made a list of every room, and every thing that either needed a good cleaning or decluttering, or sometimes both, haha! I am making myself go slowly. Only a few things at a time. It is killing me. But, if I dive into declutter and organizing, which I LOVE to do, it will quickly replace school, meal prep, spending time with children, and caring about literally anything else in the world. No joke. 

It is honestly refreshing. I was able to do the living room over the weekend and finished up on Monday because it is the one room I clean and go through most consistently. I spend most of my time there, so makes sense. I am expecting this project to take 2-3 months because I am determined to not let it take over my life. I am so excited to have my house feel organized again. It helps me feel a sense of control over the temporal things I have stewardship over. 

Moving on to the glimpse into our daily life:

Monday- I started the day by making a batch of sourdough bread. I have been trying to get back into the habit of making bread. It tastes better and I feel better. I finally bought some Pullman bread pans with lids, so the bread is shaped more like a square like storebought bread. It also it a bit more...dense? It still has a fluffy texture like regular homemade bread, but it holds together better for sandwiches. Don't really know how to describe it in one word, but yeah. It has been fabulous. I don't know why it took me so long to buy some. 

During individual work time, Asa making up his own song singing 4x multiplication facts...over and over again. I remember my younger siblings learning multiplication fact songs from a CD, so it made me chuckle to listen to him sing his own song, especially since I don't think he realized he was doing it, haha. 

As usual, HIGASFY was a success. We did a fun activity where we had to draw a picture and leave on thing out, and then pass it to the person on our left and have them finish it for us. We had a lot of fun with this one.

I also finished going through the living room and found the Xbox game! Now I am trying to stay on top of keeping the living room clean while moving on to decluttering my bedroom. The work never ends!

Tuesday- I am no longer following the reading curriculum for Ean. I noticed he is doing better with the words he has to repeatedly recognize from verses in scripture study, so we are going to be rereading the same story every day for a week to see if that starts to help him recognize words and retain what he learns, as well as keep working of sight word flash cards. 

I also had to halt Ira's math lessons. His last test revealed he is still struggling with division with numbers over 2 digits, and he can't grasp word problems. So today we went back and read the lessons that taught addition word problems, and then practiced several problems that he already did a long time ago. Already I am starting to see improvement. 

During Ira's therapy the boys tried their hand at Lego Hobbit on our ancient Xbox 360. I really am not a fan of video games. I think for most people, they are highly addictive and for people that it is their only hobby, it can create a feeling of having a purposeless life. But Asa is really into them without us having any games. He loves reading up on them and learning all he can about them. So we finally decided to buy a few Lego games. It is fun to watch the boys work together and bonding over beating particularly tough levels. They also create a space for them to work through problems without always asking me to tell them what to do. They definitely don't play very often, 1-2 times a week. And I have decided that as long as they have real life skills and interests, it is a fun family activity for them to do sometimes. 

I started on cleaning my bedroom. Sheesh, has it been neglected. I had to do a lot of being honest with myself over pieces of clothing and shoes that were literally trash. I use to love clothes shopping, so I would need to get rid of things I never wore. Now I have to make myself throw away well beloved but disgusting items of clothing and write down in a list what they were so I can replace it as quickly as possible. It sucks. Someday I might like to clothes shop again. But since I try to get everything from the thrift store, shopping with 5 kids just doesn't give me the time and luxury to go over everything, and then try stuff on. So I just make do with the things I bought 3 years ago. 😅 You can imagine how nice my clothes look. 

I played Sleeping Queens: To the Rescue and Chutes and Ladders with Ean while Asa and Ira were at piano lessons. Can I just say that Chutes and Ladders is the worst game to play unless you are a young kid. Right when you think that the endless spinning of the spinner is finally drawing to the end as someone inches toward the 100 space, they land on a slide...over and over again. It just never ends! All luck, no strategy, mindless 10-15 spent and it makes me want to fall asleep. I have heard parents say the same thing about Uno. Give me Uno any day!

Wednesday- We had a pretty ordinary day today. I felt distracted and had a hard time committing to tasks. When I look back through the day, I really only did the bare minimum, which is fine. Days like today exist and I always do better when I just embrace them. 

Some of the boys are currently really into coloring after they are finished with their morning routine, which I find interesting since they aren't really into coloring. But, I decided to encourage it by reading from the read aloud books first, instead of starting with scripture study.

We took a trip to Barnes and Noble because Ira finished Prisoner of Azkaban, so he has been patiently waiting to go get Goblet of Fire. Then we stopped by our local thrift store so I could look for a few things on my to-find list to complete different needs around the house. I needed to replace the glass in a picture frame, so found a cheap ugly frame to buy so I could take the glass out. I was hoping to find two 5x7 frames, but no luck. I also was looking for a small arm chair to put in a new empty spot in the living room, but no luck there either. That's okay. That is the best and worst part about thrifting. When you finally find what you need, it is exhilarating. But, you kind of have to go frequently enough to find things, and I almost never go anywhere that I can't get my grocery shopping done at, haha.

I didn't do any decluttering. *sigh* I thought a couple times about getting started on something small, but then I would talk myself out of it. I probably won't do anything tomorrow either, so hopefully I will feel good enough to get some cleaning done on Friday.

Thursday- Errand day! I was so pleased with the kids today because they were mostly obedient and pleasant to be around in public. I can't remember the last time I could say something like that about them. Love them at home, struggle with them around other people. I definitely think that reflects more on me than them, but still, it is so nice to like being with them out of my house, too. 

Stopped by a different thrift store to look for picture frames and a chair, and came away with some winter clothes for Elsie instead. 😅 Now she is set for next season...except for the stinking dress shoe that I still can't find and it is driving me crazy!!!!

I felt energetic enough to go through my shirts and pants. I even found clothes to thrift instead of chuck. So maybe I still have too many clothes, and I have no reason to look as trashy as I often do, haha. Just have one drawer to go through, which is mostly socks, and then I am done with my clothes! Yay! Getting closer to being done with the second room on my list. I am dreading going through Matthew's clothes. He has more than me, but the same percentage should be chucked. 

Friday- It was a short day for us. I started another batch of sourdough bread and then jumped into school. I had two phone calls in the morning and several text messages to send. They were all about an event I am technically over at my church, and there have been come complaints about the date that was chosen. It has been an exhausting experience for me and has led me to be very distracted and emotional. I don't enjoy event planning, and every time I have to, I am filled with self doubt and it destroys me on the inside. Unfortunately, until the event is over, I will probably be feeling drained and constantly trying to find ways to distract myself. 

I allowed the boys to play a Lego video game for a little. It was cool to watch them work together and take turns since we only have two controllers.

While they played, I finished going through the things in my room. That is now two rooms down. I am moving on the what we call the "book room", which is going to probably take the longest amount of time. A lot of books are in there obviously, but I also get to go through the filing cabinet and the craft closet. 😬 I will be making a lot of hard decisions for sure, haha. 

All in all, we had a good week. I saw a lot of growth and learning, and also spotted a few places that need work. Got some much needed decluttering done, and ordered so many things to replace gross clothing for Matthew and I. I still am terrible at taking pictures. I will continue to try to do better. I feel like a lot was accomplished.