Park days

 

Did you homeschool at the park if there are no pictures to show for it?

One of my goals for the month of September is to spend 3 days a week doing lessons outside, so far so good!

Week one

 

One week down, 35 more to go…

We did a semi-soft start this year - whatever I wasn’t prepared for, we didn’t do. I highly recommend this method. As I get older, a lot of my homeschool panic has subsided - common sense takes over and you realise how things build on each other, that children don’t need to know everything about everything from the word “go” and it’s actually helpful to have some gaps lest we think we know all and stop pursuing our education. 

V was very disappointed that she missed participating in the country fair…AGAIN. The timing of summer camp and the fair is such that throwing together much of anything before the fair starts would be unwise, so we decided that we will be spending our afternoons working on things that she can put into the fair next year. She needs to learn how to use a sewing machine, and I need placemats and napkins. It’s a win-win! The plan is to work together on a set for the house and then once she’s had that practice she can make another set for her to keep for the fair. I guess we will also be outfitting a hope chest. 

As for mom, I’m just trying to stay sane with the 3 year old. As much outside time as we can muster, as much reading time as he lets us finish, as much play dough time as we let him have. It’s been hard knowing he’s the last and I’m trying to savor all of it, but I’m also afraid of time just slipping away. No one tells you how melancholy parenting can make you.

Until next time

Final preparations

 

So much has changed here in the past couple of weeks. Finishing out homeschool planning and prep has been very anxiety-ridden for me this year. I’m still debating whether or not we are going to start on Monday or put it off for another week.

Regardless of what I choose, I’ll be putting 3 kids onto the bus this coming Monday. It’s very bittersweet, if I’m being honest, but the truth is that the ones left at home need more of my time and beyond them, I need more of my time. Having finally pursued an ADHD diagnosis, I’m currently in the limbo of therapy and doctor visits and medication and the reality that all of this means new experiences and expectations for me. Instead of jumping from 1 homeschooler plus toddler to 3 homeschoolers plus toddler, we decided to keep things as easy as we can for me, take some stuff off my plate so that I can acclimate and adjust.

In the meantime I’m putting on a brave face and looking forward to slightly slower days - as slow as a four year old boy will allow, naturally. I’m very much hoping that V and I will be able to concentrate on much of what has been left off in the past couple of years - namely needlework, among other domestic sort of crafts. She’s been wanting to get into soap making and do more candle making and I’d like to help make that happen for her. 

At the advice of Chris, I’ve sat aside a few of M’s school books for her and I to use on weekends, and I’m hopeful that she’ll still want to read about birds and stars and fairy tales.

Anyone else’s plans not going as, uh, planned?

Are you ready for the new school year?

little moments

Just some of the little moments in life lately, cuddling with my nearly 5th grader, Mario Kart with the biggest boy, life skills, and a dragon protecting the books. We finally finished the 23/24 homeschool year and we are ready to go (officially) for the 24/25 year. Now it's a matter of collecting the books, but before all of that, we rest. 

 

Forgiveness

 

Today is forgiveness Sunday and the start of Great Lent. I was blessed to attend Liturgy followed by Forgiveness Vespers with 3 of the kiddos. It was the first time I had done forgiveness vespers, in the past I skipped almost all of the special Lent services but since the kids are getting older I want them to both see me participating more as well as participate themselves in the life of the church. 

It was especially sweet to see M sort of participating in the way only a 5 year old can. Throwing herself to the ground for full prostrations - as everyone else stood up, and then only forgiving certain people while refusing to ask for forgiveness: “I don’t need that”. 

Tomorrow is “Clean Monday” and the start of “Clean Week”, which we will try to keep by doing a bit of spring cleaning. The weather looks like it will cooperate by being cold and rainy so there will be no temptation to visit the park. 

I know this is a bit of a weird entry, but I wanted to check in now at the start of Lent because I’ll be mostly signed off from social media in favor of posting here. It’s nearly midnight now, and I’m exhausted, so goodnight! I shall “see” you all soon.

Regards,

 Allison

Grateful

I wish I had pictures of the kids playing out in the sun today. Last week the forecast was very grim - 40mph winds, rain, bitterly cold, but today was gorgeous and sunny and warm-ish. I kept kicking the kids outside to go play while I read and puttered around, getting ready. Dinner was a success, I managed to steal away to my beloved book a couple times, and in the end almost all the kiddos went off to a weekend with grandparents. 

This year I am trying to be a bit more present, content, and forgiving during the holidays. Even Chris noticed I wasn’t my usual crazy, insufferable self (ha!)

I think tomorrow I will start to bring out some winter decor and sprinkle some Christmas books around. Do you decorate for Christmas before or after thanksgiving? 

Regards!

Allison

Mid-November Days

Marigolds at an end. Next stop: the dye pot 

Visiting the ducks earlier this autumn

Lego worlds for days

Geography

Apple pie

Embroidery while she educated me on different horse breeds

Starting math

Tomorrow is W's 11th birthday.  I remember sharing little bits about him after he was born in past (failed) blogs, and it's weird to think that over a decade later I'm still around sharing about this sweet, sensitive boy of mine. He and A were out of school today so he was able to enjoy his favorite meal for lunch and a dinner out to a local restaurant for hot wings.  Turning 11 also brought him a new board game (What Do You Meme? Family), a new book (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), and a skateboard because, why not? The board was a total shot in the dark by me and it was very well received.  I don't know who was more surprised - him for receiving it or me that he was so excited about it! 

In a fit of early holiday prep I started to do a bit of de-cluttering and reorganization. Not in any place that could be appreciated by visitors, no, I started in the depths of my little craft cabinet in the dining room.  I pulled out two big knitting baskets and immediately set to work trimming the fat and organizing unfinished projects.  I have at least 1 sweater that needs just a few inches on it before it can be worn, as well as a hat that is more than halfway to completion and a shawl that is a good bit done, but I stopped on a row of straight knitting so I have to go back and try to figure out what the pattern was in the row before to figure out where to begin again.  Four large skeins of chenille yarn departed from my stash and on to appreciative homes. Once I finished with that I managed to make some room on the dining room shelf for my current reads. I tend to scatter books everywhere and as a result I don't finish anything I've started so I needed a central place for 4-5 books on which I want to concentrate.  Currently it's "How the Irish Saved Civilisation" - Thomas Cahill , "My Antonia" - Willa Cather, "Stress-Free Parenting in 12 Steps" - Christiane Kutnik, "The Practice of the Presence of God" - Brother Lawrence, and "On Social Justice" - St. Basil the Great. 

My goal was to finish these and just concentrate on a few select books for the Nativity Fast, but I'm not sure if that will work out.  For starters, my devotional has been stuck in the USPS system since the 8th, apparently sitting in my local post office waiting on the acceptance scan. I should probably pray about it. 

Until next time!

Hello again

 Better late than never, I guess!

After a brief and fruitless switch to Wordpress I’ve come back here to dust off this old blog and see what we can see. Looking at some of the OLD posts (I’ve since unpublished, mostly photos of my kids when they were younger) has been a blast from the past. So much has changed! Some for the better, some not so much. 

The kids have grown! W is nearly 11 and doing well in school, V (almost 10) is enjoying her 4th year of homeschool and all the sleeping in that it affords. We shipped A off to school last year for kindergarten, something I never thought I’d ever consider but she loved it and is now my big 7 yo 1st grader. Now it’s M in Kindy at home with little brother Bear causing a ruckus everywhere he goes. 

All the older moms tell you about how quickly time flies and on the surface I get it. I understand that the days are long but the years are short, however there’s nothing like going through pictures from just a couple years ago to see how far my kids have come from toddler-hood. As W likes to remind me, he’ll be driving in 5 years. At least that’s what he thinks.

Well, it’s late and I’m tired so I’ll be off for now, but back in a couple days to share some of what I’ve been working on recently. Until next time!

- Allie

In the Garden 6/21/22

 

It's only mid-June but already starting to feel like those late summer days - hot, sticky, never-ending. When I haven't been trying to plant all of our starts I've been inside trying to figure out how to feed everyone without turning on the oven or stove. This is the first time in a long time we've committed to a garden of significant size, the last time being maybe 2015? I honestly can't remember! We sectioned off a large spot for a container garden to the side of our house and I uncovered the old garden (it's been covered with landscape fabric and cardboard for years), cleaned up its borders, weeded it to the best of my abilities, and planted it with squash.  I'm really excited at the prospect of a pumpkin patch!

The newly planted apple trees are doing OK.  One set seems to be thriving, the other set appears to be recovering from shock so we'll need to wait and see what happens there.  The raspberries are taking off and I decided to re-use the landscape fabric to start expanding for future raspberry plantings.  

The yarrow is doing well but the lavender is on the way out as it barely survived winter. I have a few cuttings I'm rooting to see if I can replace the parent plants, but I don't know how successful it will be.  Like so much with gardening, we just have to wait and see. 

What are you growing this year?

A Word for 2022

Weeks before Christmas I saw someone on Instagram paraphrasing something said by Elisabeth Elliott that amounted to "you don't have a big house because God doesn't want you in a bigger house yet". I'm paraphrasing a paraphrase here, but it made me really think about our current surroundings and yes, our comparatively tiny house. Although the quick line initially smelled a bit prosperity gospel to me, it gave me pause over my own surroundings because for years I've either poked fun at, complained about, or flat out disparaged our house. 

It's a small mid-century ranch home built in the late 50s with questionable design choices, and a tight 1200 sqft with 7 of us living here so it's easy to become frustrated when you legitimately need to change things about your home but you can't. Like when you finally have enough money set aside to put on a desperately needed addition and a global pandemic hits, followed by shortages and inflation that at least treble the cost of the work. That's when seeing the sentiment "you don't have a big house because God doesn't want you in a bigger house yet" really hit me. How can I expect to be granted the opportunity for more in my life, if I'm not taking care of what I have now. Much like how I'm always on my kids to appreciate what they have or they will lose it, why haven't I appreciated our home more? 

Moreover, I realized I'm a terrible at taking care of things given to me in general. Frankly, I half-ass housework and it's not like I have a booming business, or beautiful artwork, or a hand knit/sewn wardrobe to show for it; I'm just lazy. Similarly, I half-assed home school for a couple years partly with legitimate excuses (Covid/virtual schooling difficulties in a small house packed with kids) and partly without. 

All of this was on my mind when I chose my word for 2022.  In years past it's been a fairly passive word; simplicity, intentionality, joy. The most active word I've had recently was in 2020 and that was hospitality. This year I decided on a active word, something to help me make real strides as a wife, mother and woman. My word for 2022 is Stewardship. I am moving forward into this new year with appreciation and care and momentum. I am working toward a rule of life in our home so that I can better care for it and the inhabitants therein. I will be practicing stewardship of self not only through diet and exercise but also in scheduling (and adhering to!) time for creativity and learning new things.  I will be a better steward of time this year, and hopefully a better steward of our finances. I must better guard our home and prayer life and I'm looking forward to saying no to the world. Finally, I will endeavor to steward my relationships better; those with my husband and children as well as my friends. It will be interesting to see where I am a month from now, 6 months from now, a year from now if I really work on taking care of things I've neglected in the past. I'm excited for that. 

What's your word for 2022? 

August

Oh these long hot days. 

We've been camping, schooling, gardening, scouting, swimming, and just generally summering it up here in our neck of the woods and frankly, I'm so happy to see August and get this summer in the books. I am tired! 

In July V and I started her second grade year and already I'm changing things up. Last year we were briefly able to experience Waldorf Essential's first grade, but that went south really fast when I learned my eldest (who was in public school virtually) wasn't actually DOING school.  Instead I had to pull him into our dining room and babysit him with his computer at full volume.  V and I just went back to a loose Charlotte Mason style for the time being and when we started up again in July, that is what I had planned on continuing to do but she was not connecting with it at all.  Instead, she keeps asking if we can "do the fairy tales again".  So I scrapped my plans and now I'm in the middle of writing out my own blocks, somewhat based on Waldorf Essentials and the typical 2nd grade material. 

Lots of saints, some Brambly Hedge and Wind in the Willows, a bit of home Geography and a huge history block at her request. I'll write it up and share here in a week or two, once I get the wrinkles ironed out. 

And while I wrestle with everything for my big girl the little girls have been clamoring to "do school" and then immediately taking off for outside as soon as I set them up with crayons and paper.  It's fine, that's where they need to be, outside.  Speaking of which, I decided to track our hours outdoors this year, only to fall behind, again! We have been out so much in recent months that I have no idea how many hours we have logged, or haven't logged as the case may be.

I wish I had more of an update for this page, but honestly, not much has been going on.  The kids are getting bigger and I've not been up to much beyond living my days. Perhaps I just need to be more comfortable with sharing the mundane? 

Til next time,

Allison