Glory be to God for CLUTTER

It's interesting to home school for many reasons.  One of the reasons, at first glance, is not one that any of us would call interesting....it is that CLUTTER that forms all day long when one is home schooling many children.  Yesterday, when I was admittedly about to SCREAM as I picked up one more dirty sock from the floor and put it in the wash....I looked around my dining room and God presented me with a gift.  LOOK at all the wonderful things your kids are interested in.  LOOK at the books, pens, papers, shoes, socks, games, clothes they wear.  Each child is very unique and the clutter can actually show you how amazing they can be.  So, here is what I found........

THIS LOVELY CHILD

uses my schoolroom highlighters....(his preference is pink and purple)....to color in the white swoosh and calf lines of his Nike basketball socks.  I do admire his creative, out of the box thinking here....but these markers can be found EVERYWHERE...today they are on the dining room table...and somewhere a boring sock has been transformed!

Ah, here is the "rockin" guitar of eldest child resting in the den chair awaiting the next burst of musical genius.I am assured by all my kids and the kids in the neighborhood that this is the most awesome guitar ever.  So why not leave it out of the case and in a chair for all to see?  It speaks to me of Eldest Child's passion for music.

Ah, the game closet!  Yes, every home has one I know!  This particular group of items almost looked like a deliberate work of modern art as it balanced precariously on top of the swimming basket from last summer.  But what does it say?  Well, it says, my kids all play catch together and my oldest son teaches my youngest son to hit and throw.  And that Risk and Battleship game tell me that my kids can use deductive reasoning and know their seven continents...and their fifty great states.......plus they can SPELL as that Scrabble game and Banana grams can attest.  

 These back packs on the dining room floor tell me we have some really great home school co op resources where I live!  

This is Dancing Child's hat that he cannot live without.  He fell in love with it during one of our many plays and the wonderful costume lady let him keep it. It reminds me of the seventies (I keep humming Feeling Groovy)  and Let's hear it for personal style!  It is on the buffet because we made him take it off for dinner.

Oh, and here it is the next day on his laundry pile.  We find this hat in many places....it just makes him

FEEL GROOVY

This is an eclectic conglomerate of interests all in one pile!  Creative child is memorizing his lines for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at a wonderful high school theater...he is Capulet.  It reminds me how I love to watch him act....the muse is definitely with him on stage!  The Tolkien reminds me happily that he has completed an assignment on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that blessedly completes his first semester English Lit....(angel chorus is heard).  The headphones are a tribute to his composition skills...he writes amazing scores for the plays I direct and loves writing electronic music.

This massive extension chord tossed willy nilly on the dining room floor?  Uh.....oh yes, it reminds me that we have electricity in our house and one must be thankful for electricity, no?  YES

This book reminds me of my son's INCREDIBLE Lit teacher at co op!  I couldn't live without her!  Yay Judy!

The blanket is here because our house is trying to fight off the 2 degree weather outside and losing a bit.  It was wrapped around eldest child as he read on the couch.  He always has a few books going....I love this stack.  Which one is the dead give away that he has just purchased his very first car?  

So, there you have it!  Glory be to God for clutter, as it shows us we are alive and kicking and must be thankful for all that we have!  I still pick up the socks and don't exactly scream .... just whimper a bit.  But the sock is artistically colored that fascinating highlighter pink!  

Amen.