Order in the Home (and School) and Macro-Goals

 Something I've really wanted to improve or emphasize this year is reading--I want my kids to not just see reading as an assignment that THEY are supposed to do, but as something grownups do too (for FUN!). One successful aspect of this has been to have books that will interest them put in their path, so they have the option of picking them up (or not) and being drawn in by the merit of the book. Another aspect, obviously, is for me to actually...read.

In addition to this, our house simply does not have storage space. Like, at all. Anything we have has to be able to live a decorative life off-season, because we have nowhere to put bins or boxes or chainsaws or tools or anything. (Thankfully, books are generally decorative!)

I was greatly frustrated last year (when the library and other resources suddenly became unavailable) at the utter chaos of our books. I mean, my shelves LOOK ok, but it is actually chaos. I used to have a detailed computer catalog (searchable by binding color, title, author, genre, and with my own rating system), but since kids and the many, many, many gifted books we've received (and the library sales we've gone to!) I don't know WHAT all I have--so one of my goals for this year is to go through every book--Every. Single. Book.--and decide if it deserves a space in our home library. The books that remain will be catalogued, and the books that don't will find new homes. I've dabbled in several apps for organizing my books, but I always come back to my own simple spreadsheet that I can tailor to my preferences.

Will I get through all our books in one year? Probably not. Will I read more than I did last year? Definitely. And this brings me to my theory of macro-goals.

I am a firm believer of taking a step back and looking for a big goal that excites me (a macro goal). I'm sure you all have your methods of baby steps to achieve plans, but for now, I want to focus on the Big Picture. I'm less worried about getting overwhelmed (I kind of live there...); I find it much more likely that complacency (and laziness) will keep me from a rewarding--if challenging--and fruitful life. I know that as keeper of order in our home and steward of the tools for our homeschool I need to manage this area better, not to mention, after the initial push, it will help me to be less overwhelmed because I'll know what we have and where it is.

So, back to the books. 

While I am a huge fan of real paper books, there are some books I'm just not as excited about physically owning. I fully expect my kids to read Machiavelli's Prince and Golding's Lord of the Flies but they are easily accessible on Kindle or other platforms--I don't think they need to take up valuable real estate in my home. This is an excellent chance to show the kids the practice of discernment as I read. They see me read the book, we discuss the picture on the cover, and then they see me pitch the book into the bathtub. 

"Why are you getting rid of it, mommy?" 

And thus a discussion on worldview/relative value/seasons of life/being a good steward of our possessions/etc. can ensue. And they realize that we don't turn our brains off to content of what we read/see/interact with, but rather we sift it and gauge it's truth and value by Scripture. We don't have to block out or hide opposing worldviews or opinions, but we should recognize them for what they are, and our kids need to know that ideas have consequences, and books are a primary means of transmission of ideas. Thus, the sorting.

I started in the living room, and so far this year I've read: 

The Rescuers, by Margery Sharp
Sleeping Murder, by Agatha Christie
Manliness, by Harvey Mansfield 
Ladies' Bane, by Agatha Christie
The Secret of Chimneys, by Agatha Christie
The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli
Animal Farm, by Orson Wells
Saint Augustine Confessions, translated by Henry Chadwick

I have a few others from this first stack I'm just about to get to. Some have been keepers, and some are moving on. (And oh, my goodness, I forgot how spot-on Animal Farm is about politics and social manipulation!) 

So for now, my guest bathtub is slowly filling up with books that we are bidding farewell and my macro-goal of organizing all.the.books. is slowly becoming reality; and my kids are seeing me join them in their independent reading time--not to mention, I've been able to get back into one of my favorite past-times--reading!