Planning for next year

Yes, I'm officially nuts. Planning for next year's school schedule now instead of procrastinating. Usually I buy a bunch of stuff in Mar at the convention and do the panic run in Aug, "what the heck are we going to do? " Not this year. Saved me $500 at least in books doing things the easy way. Unit studies seem to be working for us. Kid really enjoy them. Got Language Art, History,and Science down. Need a few others to tie this up into a neat little package. Looking now for a Health curriculum or unit study. Friend of mine loaned me her Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy book for science. We really loved it. Hands on, not to much reading. Hoping to find a Health series like that.

In the mean time I'm also learning how to use Homeschool Tracker Plus. Spent the money for it, never used it. Now, I"m using it. Need to use it because the oldest is starting high school next year. Transcriptions are going to drive me looney or loonier...depends on who you talk to. The program is not user friendly; me I can use pretty much or figure out how to use most programs. Sadly I need to watch the tutorial several times to see how to use different aspects of the program. How has time for that? Not me.

Also in my day to day things, I've been throwing out and donating crap we don't need. Streamlining the house. I've applied to several part-time positions. If I start a job, I want my life to be 110% easier to maintain. Yet my pain is my husband is a serious packrat. I mean serious as in hard core. Here's a good example of my pain: He has a box of rocks and twigs that was a Christmas present back in the early 70's (I can mentally picture the 70's clothing in this flashback) when he was a small kid. Under strict orders to not every toss them away. I kid you not. So far I've tossed a few items from the basement that he hasn't missed or when I cleaned out the parking area of the garage. I can now park my van in it without hitting something when the doors open. Still need to get rid of the broken lawn mower he promised to fix 5 yrs ago. Wait a sec....trash day is Tue next week. hmmmmmm.........