September Roundup: Home, Homeschool, and More

I’m here today for a September Roundup! For weeks this winter, I did weekly rundowns, but as life got more hectic this spring/summer/fall, I decided to bring it back to the blog, but on a monthly basis.

In this September Roundup, I wanted to share things we’ve been doing around the house, how homeschool is going so far, books we’re reading, and more.

September Roundup!

MAKING HOME

I’ve been in a slightly nesting period lately. Everything feels a little neglected around the house and I’ve been in the mood to clean and organize. I printed out an organizing checklist from Nesting with Grace and I’ve been slowly checking things off.

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So far, I’ve defrosted and organized the deep freezer, organized the pantry, and the kids’ bedrooms and closets. We had so many donations my car was stuffed to the gills! It felt so good to get rid of things.

Next on the list is my closet, the small storage room in the basement, books, and games. Hoping to get these done over the next few weekends.

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING

The beginning of our 14th homeschool year!!!!

Well school is back in session and admittedly, it’s been a bit of a challenge to get back to routine.

I have been homeschooling my kids for 14 years and still…STILL it takes me a bit to get back into the swing of things. This year was especially hard, which is weird because I’m so experienced. 😉 Well, in all my vim and vigor, I said yes to too much. It was clear after about five days that I wasn’t going to make it at the current speed we were going.

Here’s what I did to save my sanity: 

• phoned a friend. One friend literally talked me out of quitting everything, disabling our internet, and moving to a yurt.
  

• asked why? I signed up Vera for dance. Why? I have no idea. She wasn’t even that into it. It was my idea. Sophia danced for a few years and for one fleeting moment I wondered if she would be upset that she never danced. Unfortunately, that was the same moment I was on the dance troupe’s website. We quit dance and she couldn’t care less.
  

• dropped a class. Yes, you can do that! Remember in college when you had two weeks to drop a class before you had to pay the full tuition? It’s kinda like that with your high schoolers. I realized I had way too much on Jack’s plate.
  

• cut back on work hours for my son. I love that my older kids have jobs. Their jobs give them so many things that I cannot–certain skills, bigger responsibilities, more money. But he was just working too much and not getting schoolwork done. So we adjusted.

New Curriculum:

Besides the new, crazy schedule getting out of hand, I am really loving our new curriculum line-up. You can read all about that HERE!

I will have some reviews of some of these things coming out soon as well.

NOTEWORTHY

Mr. Hutchinson turned 40 in September! We had a nice little dinner party and it turned out so lovely. It was simple and sweet–the best kind of party.

If you’re new here, in this section I like to share podcasts or articles or other interesting things I’ve found lately. Since I haven’t shared any roundups lately, this section will include a bunch of podcasts and articles from the last weeks/months that I bookmarked to share:

Doug Wilson: Preparing for the Savage Gods

Doug Wilson: The Death Cult of Expressive Individualism

Carol Joy-Seid: Episode #62: Biblical Wisdom for the Transgender Moment — this is one of the most thoughtful conversations around this topic I’ve heard.

Allie Beth Stuckey on Gen-Z (it begins about halfway through the podcast).

ON MY HEART

Sometimes I feel like we’re living in the Hunger Games. I don’t want to be living in the Hunger Games. It was a freaky enough book series, I definitely don’t want to live it. Is there a button we can push to get off this crazy train!?!

I don’t think there is.

This fall, I started studying the book of Revelation with some friends. It’s a very simple study, very straightforward and we are basically dissecting the text, which I love! No extra fluff. You can find it HERE.

As we go through this study, and get to have a peek into what John got to see all those years ago on the island of Patmos, I am just so thankful for how mighty God is. If you’re feeling anxious or worried about our world, read Revelation 5. Peer at God on His throne, surrounded by a rainbow of glory and hear the songs of the elders around Him. Just reading through the chapter made my heart quicken, just knowing that He is IN CONTROL over all this.

He’s not surprised by what wickedness our sin has caused. He knew it, He knows what’s to come, and He’s using it all. We don’t need to know how. In fact, even if He told us, our brains couldn’t comprehend it anyway.

We are on the right team, sister. We know Who wins in the end.

ON MY NIGHTSTAND

We are reading some awesome books in our homeschool, but I will share those next monthly roundup when we’re finished. For me, here is what I’m reading and have finished recently:

• Becoming Elizabeth Elliot–I loved this book! It made me want to study her life further.
• All the Light We Cannot See--I think I’ve read this three or four times now. I needed a book I knew I would love.
• Good Neighbors— kind of a mystery/thriller. It’s weird and makes me thankful I don’t live in their neighborhood!
• Black Beauty— listened to this with my girls in the car…so lovely! We watched the movie when we finished.

BE THANKFUL

There is always something to be thankful for! Here is my quick list:

• a quick recovery from a head cold
• less hectic schedule and settling into the school routine
• the fall weather lately has been just incredible!
• fall in Minnesota is kind of amazing
• homeschooling, always.

How about you? Let me know in the comments how your September has been, getting back into the school routine…