What do you do on Christmas break? For me and my house….we deep clean.

We took about 2 ½ weeks off our home school schedule for the holiday. It was originally supposed to be 2 weeks, but I also do home day care so I had some extra kids a couple days due to weather and before public school break ended. One of the perks of schooling at home is flexibility!

We had a great Christmas with the kids raking in several school related items as well….much appreciated!  

I always take the week between Christmas and New Year’s off from babysitting to regroup and clean up the chaos from the holiday (and let’s face it the entire year), and this year was no different. I spent the entire week washing walls and baseboards, shampooing carpet, organizing bedrooms, reorganizing furniture, and other general deep cleaning. 

I like to start my year off with a clean house, because Lord knows I cannot keep up with everything all year. My family is physically drained from my chaotic cleaning, and honestly I am too, but it emotionally helps me so much that it is so worth it. There is something about having all the cleaning done all at the same time that puts me at peace. Is that weird? Last night I sat down in the recliner, for the first time in pleasure all week. I looked around and let a pent up sigh of contentment deflate my stressed mind.

Not having a clean house stresses me out. I can barely keep up with the daily and weekly chores so the bigger jobs keep getting put on the back burner. It is a huge de-stressor to have all those back burner jobs done (well the ones that pertain to cleaning anyway). 

Along with refocusing all my attention around cleaning I also decided to take a break from social media, Facebook in particular. I have noticed lately that I am cruising facebook when I definitely should be doing other things, and it is wasting time that I don't have. The first few days I thought about checking it several times. I was curious at what I was missing. Other people's lives were happening and I was missing it....what!? It was actually in the back of my mind more than I think is healthy. I am glad I took a break and from now on I am going to try to limit my cruising time. My life and home have to be a bigger priority to making sure I am keeping up socially. So to those that read this blog who are also my facebook friends---I am sorry if I have not "liked" or commented on your status. If I didn't, chances are I didn't see it. If it is something you want me to know or see feel free to send me a message!

So now with some of that pent up stress released I am ready for us to throw ourselves back into school stuff.

Today is also our 1 year anniversary for Home Schooling! WooHoo!! I will have a separate post about his later….

I am spending the day planning our next couple weeks and getting some worksheets printed. I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to what 2017 has in store for us… Schooling As We Grow!

I challenge you to de-stress! Do what you need to do to let out your own sigh of contentment! 

Thanks for reading!