What Secret Room?

The brilliant decision has been made.  We need a secret room added to the house… secretly of course… for my hidden library.  Well, the only reason it will be called a library is because it will contain books.  Truthfully, it will be the room in which to set books.  All kinds of books, but mostly the books we use for homeschooling.  Right now there are piles in my bedroom…. American History (which needs to be put in a secret room…. right!?)…. National Parks…. The Story (the book our church is reading… and we bought a bag full… for children… for teens …. for adults)… Homeschool Readiness (this is my planner, binder, calendar, and various other books that need to be consolidated before we start school in two weeks) and Health Coaching books (my OTHER life… of helping people lose weight and live at optimal health) …. Other (which is just that…. dictionaries, daily devotionals, Bibles, books chewed by the wiener dog, journals, Nature books, fiction, etc.)

If my faded memory serves me correctly, it was the Fly Lady who first told me that clutter should not be in my bedroom.  It doesn’t promote rest.  It clouds my brain with confusion.  If I had a secret library, the books wouldn’t be in here.  My other clean-house-theory (term used loosely!) is to keep downstairs tidy as to promote the illusion of the tidiness of the people who live here to anyone who crosses the threshold of this house. Most of the time it works… as long as they don’t come up the stairs.  This leads me to be persuaded to add the secret library downstairs.  Downstairs is more tidy than upstairs.  But it would be a secret… not like anyone would see how tidy it actually would be.

I simply need to figure out where to put the bookcase/secret door that leads to the secret room addition to the house.  Yep, just the location, then I can go on Pinterest and find great pictures of secret libraries and their secret bookshelf doors……. so much to do, so much clutter in my mind because of the books piled everywhere….

Current Reads

Frequently I am asked what book I’m currently reading.  The question always makes me chuckle because I am NEVER reading only one book.  There’s simply too many good books out there to get hung up on one!  So, for those with inquiring minds, here’s the current book stack on my bedside nightstand:

Top to bottom, here are my current reviews by of the following books that I have partially read.

1.  The Busy Homeschool Mom’s Guide to Romance by Heidi St. John.  I’m on page 82 of 172.  This greatly captured my interest as I met Heidi at the Arizona homeschool convention and was impressed by her down-to-earthedness, if that’s a word.  Heidi talks about the importance of keeping your marriage strong in the midst of homeschooling.  So far my favorite line is, “There is no time for romance inside the vortex because in the vortex, Latin is more important than lingerie.” Which should not be true if you are keeping your marriage in the right spot of priorities, but homeschool moms blur the lines of priorities sometimes.  An informative and necessary topic for homeschool moms.

2.  The Sweetest Thing by Elizabeth Musser.  Yes, it’s a historical romance.  I simply can’t keep my hands off them.  My sister read it first then told my mother to read it and so on and so on.  I’m on page 105 of 397.  I love love love the quirky girl from Chicago who is transplanted to Atlanta.  It’s set in the heart of the depression and is beautifully written.

3.  Under God by Toby Mac and Michael Tait.  Yes, it’s true, Toby Mac wrote a book.  I suspect this is more of a token idea of Toby and Michael’s, with a handful of researchers who gathered the historical stories.  Anyway, this is the “story of men and women of faith who forged our nation.”  I’m not really on a certain page because I have skipped all over to read the stories of the signers of the Declaration of Independence since that is where we are in American History class right now.  Remember the story of bulletproof George?  It’s in there, plus many more.  I believe this is a must read for those who are under the illusion that our great country was founded on anything other than God.

4.  Mixed Signals by Liz Curtis Higgs.  Page 73 of 370.  This one should probably be moved to the pile of books on my bookshelf that didn’t hold my interest long enough to finish.  But I did start it and it’s a cute story about some people mixed up in radio life… but, not my fav by far.

5.  The Right Choice – Homeschooling by Chris Klicka.  Page 128 of 453.  I’m in a homeschool mentoring class right now, yes, after 10 years of homeschooling, I thought I would see how this is supposed to be done.  The first chapter of our manual listed MUST READS for homeschoolers.  Shamefully, I had only read one or two… and I’m a self-professed homeschool die-hard.  So, on our trip to Missouri, I wandered through a used book store (which I might add was COMPLETELY different in selection from our Arizona used book stores) and picked up this gem.  It’s hardcore, baby.  And I agree with almost all of it.  Funny thing was, I showed it to my flying companions, who are also on the AZ homeschool board, and none of them had read it either.  I’m in good (unschooled) company.  Anyway, it lays out the Biblical basis, and frankly the logical basis for homeschooling.  Don’t read it if you plan to keep your kids in public school.

6.  The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  Page 31 of 302.  This was a freebie at the Treasures for Teachers store in Tempe, so I took it.  I never saw the movie and didn’t know what it was about.  But I’m always up for a good read.  Sadly, I started reading it right before school started and now it is way down low on the pile. 

Ta-da.