My 2015 Intentions

Happy New Year!  Time is still flying past me at a crazy speed, and in this first week back at work after the break I've had meetings or classes to teach every night of the week, so I'm late getting to this blog post that I meant to write first thing in the new year.

Which is both fitting and a little ironic in light of my Intention Setting for this year!  I decided that what I needed to focus on the most moving into this new year is

To live with attention to the little things that make my life the daily experience I want to live.  This means that I will make sure I'm comfortable, things smell nice, I'm eating well, getting enough sleep, living according to my values, and doing the little things (like reading and hobbies and exercise) that make up the texture of a life well lived.

In other words, I'm choosing to pay more attention to the background rather than the highlights.  I'm not setting any lofty goals or planning any big accomplishments or "once in a lifetime" peak experiences.  Those are fine and good every now and then, but the problem I encounter is that they add stress and can throw life out of balance.  I don't thrive on adventure and change, I thrive on routine and domestic chores.  And I want to thrive, not just "do well". 

This doesn't mean I'm quitting my job and becoming a homebody ... I love my work and it would crush some part of my soul to leave the work I do.  But even at work I want to focus more on the background feel of things and less on the big events. 

May we all live well, with the time that we have.

Christmas just keeps running over Thanksgiving

It's hard to keep Christmas at bay right now.  We've put away all of our Halloween decorations, and the little box of Thanksgiving decorations is always a disappointment to open compared to the multiple bins I have for Halloween and Christmas.  The kids are already working on Christmas songs for their music lessons, I've ordered my cards, made my plans, and we had an ornament making party for the Giving Tree project at church yesterday.



I'm torn on this issue - on the one hand the Christmas Machine is just such a monster that it does need to be contained (and a simple Thanksgiving focused on gratitude for what we have is such a lovely thing it shouldn't get sacrificed to the beast) and then on the other hand the To Do list for December gets overwhelming and getting a jump on it makes it all much more manageable.

So I've done a few Christmas things.  But now,  to focus back on Thanksgiving and just tuck those things away!

Back to the Turkeys!

Why are we Overwhelmed? (A book post)

My latest read, related to Maxed Out which I recently read and posted about, has been another book on that same theme of parents trying to juggle work and love and play called Overwhelmed. 

Although the topic is very much the same, the authors' approaches differed.  While Alcorn is a blogger and coming from the tech business world, Schulte is a journalist.  Those different backgrounds show in the work.  Alcorn's style is much more personal memoir, but Schulte only uses a few personal examples and many more interviews.

Overwhelmed starts off with the author's encounter with a time-use researcher, and then follows her to a conference on leisure and time.  She concludes that it is about the balance in life between Work, Love, and Play and that forms the structure for the rest of the book with solid sections devoted to each of those three spheres. 

The book deals with both men and women, mothers and fathers, although there is more focus on women and parents.  But this is about what is going on with all of us - everyone who is caught up in the culture of overwhelm and busyness. 

This is a well-researched, thought-provoking, and ultimately useful book.  Now I'm mulling over the balance for myself: Work, Love, and Play.  Can I elevate play to equality with those other two?  Woah!  Now that feels like a challenge.

Is There an App for Life?

While I don't think there is an App that can live my life for me, I have found an app that is either A) Ruining my Life or B) Making Me Win at Life.

The argument for A) Ruining My Life:

• I'm constantly aware of how far behind on my chores and To Do's I am, and feel a sense of panic if the OverDue section gets too large
• I can't ever relax quite as well since I know I have a Lot to Do!
• It adds to my phone addiction to also have my To Do List and Life Management Tools on the phone

The argument for B) Making Me Win at Life

• If I've put the chore or the task in my app, I won't ever get too far behind on doing it - so those nagging nasty chores that are easy to ignore actually get done
• My house is cleaner, my work is more organized
• I can sleep better at night without having a mental To Do List - once it's in the phone I don't have to keep trying to remember it

It's a fine line between productivity and work-obsessed, a fine line between organized and fussy.  This app, for me, is right in that zone between those things - but so far it tips just to the good side of things. How do you manage your life's To Do's?

Shifting from Summer to Fall

It is clearly turning to Autumn here, although we are still having a warmer and dryer than normal September here in the PNW.  But the trees are turning, the geese are flying overhead, and the school buses are once again driving down our rural road.  It's Fall.

Letting go of Summer is bittersweet, as always.  I always find myself regretting that I didn't do more during Summer, and not because I am a slacker and don't take advantage of the season.  The problem is that Summer just seems like such a season of Vast Possibilities.  I expect that I will Camp, Hike, Garden, Read a Whole Stack of Books, Travel, Do Home Improvement ... all while Living Slow With My Feet Up.  Clearly summer (which realistically is only 2 1/2 months long) cannot live up to these contradictory expectations.

Then there is Fall.  Even when the weather is still nice, there gets to a smell in the air.  This smell is the smell of Better Get Busy.  In contrast to Summer which seems endless while you are in it, Autumn comes with a ticking clock and is clearly an end-between time.  It is a time of preparations.  Preparations for the coming Winter, of course.  If that home improvement project didn't get done during the summer, now there is a rush to finish it before the Winter comes.  And if you want to camp or hike this year, better do it Now before the snows in the mountains.

The sense of Time Slipping By, of Opportunity that must be Grasped Now, is actually more comfortable for me than the seemingly endless Forever of summer.  In this season, I am not tempted to put my feet up but am instead filled with crisp industry.  Now I know that the winter is coming, and that will be a time of enforced quiet and rest.  Before that happens I just need to get stuff done!

Plastic Free Challenge: Week 3

For the month of July I signed on to the Plastic Free July challenge.  The idea is to avoid all single-use plastic that just goes straight into the trash, and what you can't avoid keep for a "dilemma bag" and display.

Here are the results of the third week of the challenge, minus the plastic trash that was generated by my family eating at the local summer fair this week.  I just didn't much care to keep the dirty forks and cups in my purse for hours just to bring home and wash later for display.  I think we used three disposable forks and two straws and plastic lids and one snow cone cup on that day, and the rest was paper (which was collected for compost at the fair).

So my family of four made this much plastic trash this week:

1. The vacuum bag that we sealed one of our home-raised turkeys in last fall for freezing.  When we thawed out and ate the bird this week the bag became trash.
2. One bag that held cotton candy (from that day at the fair).
3. The plastic seal from a tub of salsa (I can get salsa in glass jars, but we really like this local salsa company that packages its fresh salsa in plastic tubs.  Local, fresh, and organic or packaged in glass?)
4. The end of the plastic wrap on a brick of cheddar cheese (the rest of the wrapper will probably appear in next weeks photo).
5. A package of mini-marshmallows that were used in a chemistry lab by my son, building molecules out of marshmallows and toothpicks.
6. The packaging from a new set of headphones I bought this week.
7. Two plastic lids from sodas.
8. Four plastic coffee straws that I didn't notice my kids sticking into their reusable cups at the coffee shop.  They really like to drink out of straws, so I've started saving and washing out straws, but these little coffee ones are too small to really wash out.
9. Four bags from pasta we cooked this week.

In the spirit of full confession, my trash this week also contained two styrofoam carry out containers and two of those weird foil/plastic/I don't know what this is bags that chips come in.

Overall, though, I do think we are reducing how much trash we put out, and it's definitely making us think about it more.  

Plastic Confessions, Week 2

Another week of the Plastic Free July Challenge, and here is what my family of four produced in the way of plastic trash (I am not logging the plastic that can be recycled in our area, or the plastic that I wash and reuse).

Top left: the plastic wrapping around a chicken we ate this week, the neck wrap on a bottle of teriyaki sauce, and a cup and two lids from two milkshakes that my husband bought this week.

Bottom left: the unnecessary inner plastic packaging from a bag of gluten free bread (I reuse bread bags to buy produce and bulk food in, but this can't be anything but trash), a package of apple slices that came with the kids meal at a local sub shop (why?! Apples do not need packaging!), the seal ring from a frozen juice container, and the plastic seals from a tub of cottage cheese and a tub of salsa.

Top Right: my son ordered a practice sword and it came in a plastic sleeve in the mail, and we opened a new level of Math U See and the DVD and books were plastic wrapped, the plastic lid from an olive oil bottle, and I let my daughter order her ice cream in a cone because I thought that would avoid plastic but no - they had a plastic drip guard on the cone!

Bottom Right: my son bought a bag of candy with his allowance this week, two more plastic lids from milk and sauce bottles, one bag of pasta, and the plastic "organically grown" sticker that wrapped around a cabbage.

It seems to be about the same volume as last week, so we didn't manage to reduce this week.  Major culprits were the ice cream/milk shake stops that have been inspired by our hotter-than-usual weather this week.  Other factors I see as being pretty huge are the wrapping on meat and what you get as shipping packaging when you mail order something.

But it also seems like there is just so much plastic everywhere that it will be highly unlikely that my family can make itself truly Plastic Free.  But we can still use this as an aspiration, and do the best we can.

Plastic Confessions

This week, for No Plastic July, we didn't exactly manage to avoid all the plastic.  Here is one week's worth of plastic waste for my family of four, from left to right and top to bottom:

I had ordered something from Amazon and when it arrived it had those inflated plastic bag packing fill.

We had a weinie-roast for the 4th of July, and I had a choice between trying to get sausages from the meat counter without the plastic waste, or of getting the certified ethically raised and grass fed beef hotdogs.  In this case, my feelings about humanely raised meat won out over the plastic issue.

Packaging for some deli meat I had bought for packing the kids lunches to camp this week (I bought it before I signed up for the challenge).

The rest of the plastic there on the upper right was all packaging around the small batch of fireworks we did at home for the 4th.

Two packages of the kind of gluten-free pasta we like the best.

The little plastic seals wrapped around salad dressing and vitamin bottles, the plastic seal around a frozen juice concentrate, a plastic cap from a jug of juice, another from a creamer container, and the plastic film sealed over a tub of salsa.

Plastic cling wrap that was around a block of cheese I bought at the co-op.

Three clam shells that held strawberries and blueberries I bought to make my red-white-and-blue dessert for the 4th.  Unfortunately, we can't recycle clam shells and I hate to buy berries in them, but it was all I could find.

And, finally, the plastic straw, lid, and cup from a Starbucks stop during a 2+ hour drive to visit my family.  I forgot to pack reusable cups for the drive, and when my husband really wanted a coffee stop we had to go for it.  The kids and I did without since we didn't have our cups, but he had an iced coffee.

Let's see if I can do better next week!

Attempting the Plastic Free July Challenge

I'm accepting the challenge for this month, to refuse single use plastics as much as possible.

Here's the description of the challenge:

The Challenge

The challenge is quite simple. Attempt to refuse single-use plastic during July.
"Single-use" includes plastic shopping bags, plastic cups, straws, plastic packaging...basically anything that's intended only to be used once and then discarded. If refusing ALL single-use plastic sounds too daunting this time, try the TOP 4 challenge (straws, plastic bags, plastic bottles &coffee cup lids).

The rules

1. Attempt to refuse single-use plastic during July.
2. Remember it's not going to be easy! It is a challenge, not a competition so don't worry about being perfect.
3. Collect any unavoidable single-use plastic you buy. Keep in a dilemma bag and share it with us at the end of the challenge.
4. It's up to you regarding how long you participate. You might decide to go plastic-free for a day, a week, a month or longer! However long you choose will still make a contribution.

I'd love if others joined me in this!  You can sign up for the challenge at www.plasticfreejuly.org

Fridays

Balance.  When all the different parts of your life are spread out evenly, you have balance.  A well-balanced life is an ideal, but how to accomplish it?

This might seem completely obvious to others, but it is suddenly occurring to me that balance cannot be accomplished by trying to do Everything Excellently All The Time.  For the longest time, that has been my goal, and my preferred method for reaching it was to seek Efficiency.  The key was to figure out ways to get more done in less time.

This hasn't worked for me.  In fact, it's been pretty unhealthy for me.

What is the alternative?  One alternative way to approach life is to seek to do The right thing for this time, recognizing that being effective is different from being efficient.  What is the right thing to do on this day?  What is the right balance among the different calls on my time and energy?

As part of the effort to find the right balance in our life, I separated out the different parts of the kids' schooling and looked at the flow of my work week.  On my day off we are doing the vast bulk of their "serious" academic work.  On the days I do long office hours, they are doing a bare minimum and it's mostly stuff they can do independently.  We have one mixed sort of day - more than the minimum of work and often lessons to attend as well.  And then there is Friday.

I love the fun parts of homeschooling: the art, the nature study, the field trips.  But those things take a lot of time, energy, and frequently generate a mess.  What is the right time for these projects?  How can I make sure I give the kids that time, but also be realistic with myself?  My answer right now is to save it for Friday.

On Friday we don't have any of the bookwork scheduled, and instead we either take a field trip, or do a messy art project, or take a day hike or long bicycle trail ride.




So far, this is lovely.  It feels like it the right balance, and the kids know that they have Friday to look forward to as they work hard on their other goals all week long.  I am still able to do the shopping and prep that I need to do for work around the field trips, so that feels effective.

I can't do art every day.  That would be a mess and run me ragged!  But once a week - that I can do.

Effective, balanced, just enough.

Lessons Learned in May

What did I learn last month?  Once again, I'm using this space to reflect back on the previous month for lessons learned, challenges faced, and ideas gleaned.

1.  The process of re-entry into home life (from the road), into normal homeschooling routines (from the roadtrip style learning), and into church work (from sabbatical) has been exhausting, but not nearly as stressful as it could have been.  I have actually found myself keeping some of the let-it-go/let-it-be calm that I found during my sabbatical.  I want to commit myself to remembering what this feels like, and striving to be accepting of life as it is.

2.  The concept of "Scruffy Hospitality" floated through my feedly this month, just as I was also pondering whether I could embrace my home as it is.  My husband told me at one point this month that if there was a home-dysmorphic disorder (like body dysmorphic disorder) then that would describe the way I always see the house as much worse than he thinks it really is.  Now, I don't know which of us is actually seeing it realistically, but maybe that's not the point.  Maybe the real point is that it hasn't done me much good to be always unhappy about the cleanliness of my home.  I gave up on trying to have a magazine perfect personal appearance, and it was a good thing for me.  I'm going to try and give up the idea of a picture-ready home at all times, as well.

3.  My kids keep surprising me with how independent they are growing.  My parenting role is changing rapidly, and I find it bittersweet.  Mostly sweet.

4.  I've tried to "give up processed foods" in my grocery shopping, and this month has been a learning curve on that.  The first week or so the kids felt like they were starving.  Now, although I miss the ease of breakfast cereal and I'm spending more time cooking than before, we are all pretty happy.  But what counts as "processed"?  Dried fruit and roasted nuts have been one of our arguments.  Yes, they are processed, but I think we will keep them in our diet.  Giving this effort a label or strict rules will probably not work.  The effort to make our diet healthy, environmentally sustainable, ethical and fair, tasty, and affordable will continue.

Another good month in the life!

Lessons Learned in April

Each month I'm taking some time to reflect back on the last month and what I learned from it.  This month I:

• Realized that my efforts to accept myself and be OK just Being Me were no match for my Anxious Self.  Anxiety before my big road trip and before my big credentialing interview was almost more than I (or my nearest and dearest) could deal with.
• BUT ... I also learned that I could survive the anxiety and that all was well in the end.
• Found myself newly re-inspired to live an environmentally conscious lifestyle, and to take a moral stance on climate change.
• Took on a big adventure with the kids and found it not only survivable but actually fun.  I think more travel adventures are in our future now.
• Also learned tons of facts about America in the course of our trip - too much to list it all here.

It was a good month!

Weekly Book Post: Notes from a Blue Bike

I was sitting on the beach in Indiana Dunes State Park, watching my kids play in the sand, when I finished Notes From a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World by Tsh Oxenreider.

It was both a perfect and a frustrating vacation read: perfect because as the author talked about traveling with her kids as part of her intentional life I could nod along and say, "yes, it's a wonderful bonding experience"; and frustrating because discussions of food choices and budgeting made me want to make intentional changes in our life in those areas, and we can't really do that in the midst of a road trip.

This memoir, by the author/editor of the community blog The Art of Simple, encourages us all to choose how our families will live, rather than be swept along by our culture.  Oxenreider was inspired by her experience living in Turkey with her young children to seriously reflect on how we live in the U.S., and decide to carve a countercultural path for her family.  The book is divided into sections based on the major life-issues the author has had to grapple with: food, work, education, travel.  Their choices are very different from mine (for instance, they can't even keep a pet because it would interfere with traveling - I find traveling nerve-wracking and am torn over the carbon-footprint of air travel and I have 20 chickens and 6 goats, etc. back at my home place), but it makes me wonder about what my major areas of intentional living are.

The book reads like an extended blog post from the author's blog.  If you are a fan of the blog, you might enjoy this extended version and the big picture frame it gives to Oxenreider's journey.  If you are looking for something more in-depth or with practical how-to's, you will need to look elsewhere.  Oxenreider doesn't try to give directions to others for their intentional lives - she acknowledges that everyone's choices will be different.  Instead, this is a personal tale told with the hopes of inspiring others.  I was inspired - you might be too!

Things I Learned in March

I'm a few days late with this, but here is my look back at the last month to see what I learned from it.

1.  I stopped ordering from Amazon this month, after deciding I could no longer support their employment practices, and I learned that I could do without it except for hard-to-find used books, which is going back to the original Amazon business model.  All the other odds and ends I had gotten into the habit of ordering through them can be found in local shops, ordered from different online businesses, or we can simply do without them.

2. This lenten season my husband and I gave up alcohol for Lent, and learned just how much alcohol is part of the normal social life. I had expected to find it difficult to not enjoy a glass of wine or a cocktail in the evening with my husband, but I had not thought about the times when drinking is part of social interactions with others. Whether it is beer at soccer games, wine at a professional gathering, or drinks with a nice dinner at a restaurant, we just hadn't noticed how much alcohol moves the social scene.  I have a whole new sympathy for those struggling with alcoholism or who simply do not drink, when it seems to be so saturated in our culture.

3.  Reading the book Six Degrees has been horrifying and galvanizing, and I've been reminded yet again that I need to dedicate myself to a low-carbon lifestyle and advocating for a collective shift to a low-carbon society.

4.  My mother and I studied the Psalms this month in our Mother-Daughter Bible Study, and learned that we were both disappointed by the psalms and disturbed by how much "my enemy" language they contain.  I still struggle to pull the religion of universal love out of the religion of tribal loyalties and judgment.




5.  I learned that the kale I planted in August was able to overwinter and is perfectly lovely to eat in March.  I also relearned just how much I love my land and my garden and life here once we are past the winter.  The sun really does come back and spring returns and I can happily live here without ever leaving the gates of my own property.




6.  I had heard it was possible, but this month I verified that I can sprout leeks from the cut off bottoms of other leeks.  I kept the bottoms from some grocery store leeks, started them in my kitchen window, and then planted them in the kitchen garden after they were a few inches tall.  Now how well they fare will be the April learning. :)

Weekly Book Post: Hands Free Mama

I've just read Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters by Rachel Macy Stafford.  There is also a blog of that name.  I absolutely recommend the book to folks like me, that is to say to moms who are prone to taking on too much and trying to be too "perfect".

But first, I had a few immediate reactions to some aspects of the book that might trouble some readers:

1. The author is very clear that she believes in God and is comfortable using language such as "God-given talents", or "what God wants from me".  I know many readers who are put off by any mention of religious language in a book like this, but I would note here that Stafford's mentions of God are always personal and do not play into her advice to others.
2. This is also pretty clearly a story of privilege.  Obviously, only some moms have the option of putting everything else to the side to focus on their kids.  If the phone and the To Do List are for work, you probably shouldn't just forget about them or you'll soon be looking for a new job.  But, once again, I don't see Stafford trying to say her way is the only good way.  She is telling a personal story, with tips and exercises for you to use to reflect on your own personal story, but the implication isn't that we all need to live exactly as she does.
3. And, lastly, this book is all about the Mamas, and doesn't talk too much about what Dad is doing in this picture (let alone any other possible family constellation).  As many have noted, there is a very fine line between reassuring moms that they are important as moms and leaving moms holding the bag all alone for everything that needs to be done and every sacrifice for family and children.  Some good thoughts on that issue here (long, but good) at Raising Faith.

With all that out there, now I'll say that I really, really liked this book.  I would - almost - add it to my "life-changing" shelf, but the verdict is still out on whether or not it does change my life.  But it's safe to say that it was the right book for me at the right time with the right message, and that I was deeply moved by it.

Rachel Macy Stafford starts off by describing herself during her "distracted days" as being that woman who was praised for her ability to "do it all" and took great pride in her busyness.  Then she had a moment of epiphany, or as she describes it a breakdown, and was brought to a screeching halt by the realization that she was missing something - she was missing profound connections with other human beings, she was missing the beauty of sunsets, she was missing chances to love.

As she says in the book, she was "managing life instead of living it".

So she decided to go Hands Free, and for the rest of the book she tells stories about that journey and its challenges and rewards, and gives little prompts for reflection and challenges for others to try and put this practice in effect in their own lives.

(One big practical idea she mentioned was creating a "life list", or a sort of mission statement for your own life calling, and then using that as a guideline for what to say "yes" to and what to say "no" to, in order to not get overcommitted.  I am a huge "list person", so this idea appeals to me and I'm working on my list right now.)  

The book will not appeal to everyone (see list of problems above), but if you are either a similar or a sympathetic soul to the harried do-it-all supermom of suburbia, I would put this book into your hands.

"There will never be a finish line.  But there is something far better.  Every single time I let go of distraction to grasp what really matters, I am embracing life.  And life will embrace me back."

--Rachel Macy Stafford

Doing Lent as a Unitarian Universalist

The three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) all have times of fasting and self-denial (Rosh Hashanah, Lent, Ramadan), and self-denial also features in Buddhism and Hinduism in different ways.  (If you want to think more about all that, try this.)

But I'm not any of those religions - I'm a Unitarian Universalist.  And UUism doesn't have a tradition of intentional self-denial or a time to intentionally re-focus your life.  Why we don't probably makes perfect sense if you look at the evolution of our traditions (part of the whole point was that both Unitarians and Universalists held up the idea that people were good, as opposed to the Calvinist ideas that are decidedly more pessimistic about human nature), but understanding why this is so doesn't change the fact that I feel drawn to some sort of fasting as a spiritual practice.  And, strictly because I come from a Christian family, if feels most authentic for me to adopt a modified practice of Lent (in other words, it would feel like cultural misappropriation to me to try and adopt a Jewish or Islamic practice, when those traditions are further from my understanding and are not present in my family).

So I will be observing Lent, starting tomorrow on the traditional Ash Wednesday.  The point of this, for me, is to practice self-denial, self-restraint, and self-control, or as Simple Mom beautifully wrote, "Say No, to Yourself". It's all about a pause to make sure that I am living the life I choose to live, in accord with the deepest callings of my heart, and not just living a life of unthinking drives.  Matt Kinsi had a nice perspective on Lent and UU's when he called this the triumph of ego over id.

I have done Lent in the past, and given up sugar, which at the time was a real addiction for me.  I wasn't sure I could do without it, and I was a cranky bear at first.  But it was liberating to realize that I did not need sugar, and that I actually felt much healthier and had a clearer mind without it.  I have a healthier relationship to sugar to this day, finding that I can partake in moderation but also can go without.

This year my husband and I will be giving up wine, and actually all forms of alcohol (with an exception for St. Patrick's day).  We will confirm to ourselves that we do not need to have a glass of wine in the evening to unwind.  We will spend this time practicing more intentionality in how we relax and how we unwind.  I'm glad we're doing it together, too, and this might be a great time to be more intentional in how we relate to one another as partners as well.

We will be donating the money we would have spent on alcohol to a clean water charity (World Water Day is in March too, and that seems like a nice coincidence).  Turning Wine into Water.

Self-denial.  Self-control.  Reflection.  Renewal.

It's all perfectly timed for this season, isn't it?

Ten Things I Learned in February

I'm writing this for the link-up over at Chatting at the Sky, which you might want to go check out.  I'm intrigued by this idea of a monthly post that reflects back over lessons learned during the previous month - so let's give this a whirl!

1.  Change is really hard for me.  I'm a creature of habit and routines, as much as I also have to be adaptable and flexible in my schedule, and big lifestyle changes can just put me into a tailspin.  This isn't really a new learning, but rather a lesson that keeps coming back to slap me in the face all over again.

2.  I Love my job.  Being away from it for an extended period of time doesn't actually feel restful - it feels stressful!  I filled February with a week of angsty self-pity, a week of crazy de-cluttering and cleaning my house, and then by the last week of the month, and the 3rd for me on sabbatical, I sort of hit a stride of just living in a more relaxed way.  It's still a work in progress, though.

3.  The vagaries of February weather can either drive you crazy or you can find a way to go with the flow.  Really, it's remarkable how much the weather affects our lives, and must be constantly taken into account.  I'm also keeping an eye on the temperature and trying to guess the last frost date, because I have a rose to prune and seeds to plant.

4.  My relationship with my husband needs to be a higher priority for me, and for him.  I need to have more time with him, as adults, no kids, and it needs to be more fun than just the weekly business meeting of "what's on the calendar, who's going to do what, what issues have come up that need a decision".  It makes me super cranky when he spends all his recreational time off without me, but I am going to have to be very proactive and clear about that if I'm going to get couple time anywhere on our calendar.

5.  I learned how to take a screen shot of something I was working on, to be able to post it as a jpeg to a blog post.  It's not rocket science, but I'd never done it before.

6.  My children seem to need more sleep than they used to, and to have more trouble falling asleep at night.  I see a shift toward needing to sleep later in the morning, unless I want cranky bears.  Everything I read about youth sleep patterns tells me this is normal, however, so I just feel blessed that we have the kind of flexible life that lets me let them sleep.

7.  I found the right way for me to read poetry and integrated that into my morning routine this month.

8.  I learned some distressing things about Amazon's employment practices, and decided to try and wean myself off of purchasing everything through them.

9.  A friend pointed out to me that as a homeschooler I could get an institutional library card, letting me have 50 more books out at a time - and that has been a lifesaver!  I also realized that I need to always take a book cart on wheels with me, as a couple weeks I had so many books I hurt myself carrying them all.  The library is my favorite resource and we are reading up a storm around here!

10.  Reading Hands Free Mama, I discovered the inspiring and practical idea of a life list, and have been working on crafting my own life list.  I hope that having a sense of clear purpose will help me decide what is important and what can be a lower priority in my life.

Taking a "Sun" Day

Some kids get Snow Days, but that doesn't make much sense for a homeschooling family - we're home snug anyway so we might as well get some learning done. :)

But ... a SUN day hasn't come around in a while in our neck of the woods.  And we couldn't possibly waste it sitting inside, no matter what fabulous books and studies we are currently engaged in.




I canceled normal school and we headed out!




Nature guides in hand, we saw a northern harrier and a great blue heron up close and personal, spotted what we think was an egret off in the distance, heard the loud geese and watched the ducks dive.  We also found a mass of garter snakes enjoying the sun as much as we were!




Plenty of time to catch back up on the book stuff tomorrow. :)

Time Management is Life Management

How you spend your time is how you spend your life.  It seems obvious on the face of it, because we only have this one wild and precious life to live, but somehow I think most people manage to hurry through life without stopping to think about that.

How you live your life day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute --- that is your life.  




This is really hitting me in the face right now because we've had a geological scale shift in our lives (a temporary one but still huge), as I have gone on a 3 month Sabbatical from work and so I'm home full-time this month.  Suddenly, I don't have the schedule and the weekly due dates of my job, and instead I have a list of projects and studies that I've been wanting the time to do, but they are all Big And Have No Deadlines.  Last week I finished up the last few loose ends from work, and then just ... sort of floundered.

I'm not comfortable not being Busy.  It feels weird.

This week I'm settling in to it and recognizing it as a chance to look at how I and my family are spending our lives.  Is this the routine, the space, the schedule, the practice, or the organization that helps us live the life we want to live?  What is truly important and what is just a bad habit of busyness? Why does it feel guilt-inducing to spend a rainy afternoon listening to music and reading, curled up under an afghan?  No matter how much I put on my To Do list, if I finish it I just look around for more work to do, instead of claiming my time as my own.

Am I scared to live my life for myself?  Am I afraid that I won't be a "useful little engine" and get a brief word of praise from Sir Topham Hat?  Or is it that in our society we seem to take pride in being "terribly busy"?  Others will disapprove if I'm not running just as crazed and tired as they are, but is that a reason to stay in the rat race?

This seems to be Step One of my sabbatical:

1.  Spend time with myself.  Get to know myself without the rushing.

After that, we'll see where Step Two takes me.


Linky Love, to a few posts that have resonated with me this week and been part of my thinking process here:

Paradigm Shift: Curriculum is Not Something You Buy by Simple Homeschool

Overscheduling, Outliers, and the Olympics by The Happiest Home

Secrets of Adulthood: Schedule Time to be Unscheduled by The Happiness Project

Treat Yourself to These Luxuries of Simplicity by Home Your Way

taking a little break in our homeschool

In order to make holiday gifts and do some crafting!







Yet another reason I am grateful for a flexible schedule, and the ability to change our lifestyle as the seasons change.