Slow Down & Find What Feels Good - January 10-18, 2015

Life

It seems to be a thing on social media to pick a word for each new year.  I've never done this before, but at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, a word kept coming to me: SLOW.  Slow down.  Don't take on so much.  Do less and dig in to what you are doing.

I have been participating in a 21 Day Meditation Challenge (I am hoping that I am in the habit of meditating after yoga and will keep finding time for that even after tomorrow!) and a 30 Day Yoga Challenge.  Adriene, who runs the youtube channel Yoga with Adriene, has a saying, "Find What Feels Good" and I am taking that into not only yoga, but other areas of my life.

Credit: adrienelouse on Instagram

What Feels Good

Preparing nourishing food for my family feels good.

I made kimchi.
Some of the homeschool moms in our group got me started on fermenting vegetables and now I can no longer eat store-bought pickles--homemade fermented pickles are SO much better!  I've made sauerkraut many times, but kimchi is our favorite.  I have been discussing growing and juicing wheatgrass (something I used to do but got away from because of mold issues) with my boss, who is Chinese and very knowledgeable about Chinese medicine, and she said wheatgrass was cooling and good for summer.  She told me I needed warm or hot things for winter--so it seemed like a great time to make kimchi!

Sunday dinners and game nights with my parents and grandmother feel good.

Jason and my dad made homemade pizzas for the family on January 11.  Jason made the dough and my dad made this awesome no-cook pizza sauce.  We played Headbandz and Apples to Apples.
This past Sunday, January 18, Jason made spinach lasagna with his homemade pasta noodles and we brought it over my Grandma's to share with her and my parents joined us there.

Spending time with Jason and the girls in fun places feels good.

We spent a few hours Saturday at Liberty Science Center.
We saw an IMAX film on the dangers of warming in the Arctic and we explored the Touch Tunnel.

Homeschool

We were going to work on a World Religion project, we had started this a while ago and never finished it, but I realized that the girls were not as interested in it as I was and it didn't feel good or right to force them to do this, so we scrapped it.  For now.  Or for ever.  Who knows.  I am okay with that.  

Math

s   l   o   w

Piper's been struggling with Greatest Common Factors and Least Common Multiples, so we have been taking it s  l  o  w and going over this together.  We've done this before.  Sometimes we need to slow down and focus on a concept a little longer than our curriculum does.  And that's ok.

Allie has been working with Rational Equations in her Algebra and she has been doing well with it.  

Writing Strands

Since we aren't doing the World Religion study, I dug out the Writing Strands.  I really enjoy this program because it allows my girls' creativity to flow, but I find that just like with a  lot of things, I like to take breaks from this program and do different styles of writing and then come back to it.  The lesson this week was all about organizing writing and it was a great exercise.  We talked a lot about organizing writing in a logical manner, which was something the girls had never really thought much about before and I saw it all click and connect and it was pretty darn cool.

Vocab

The Word Up journals feel good.  They are working well.  The girls enjoy them.

Chemistry

letting Jason take the lead

Jason and the girls do Chemistry on the weekend.  He's much, much more interested in it than I am and his passion translates to the girls.  It feels SO GOOD to let this go.  I feel blessed to have a husband who is good at things that I am not good at and passionate about things that I don't really even understand or care to understand better.

Credit: adrienelouise instagram

Film Study

My original intent with this was to expose the girls to classic movies that are often referred to in conversation.  I do love The Art of Watching Films but the further we get into it, I am finding that it is a little too advanced for the girls, so I am reading it, selecting classic films and discussing topics a little bit more simply with the girls.  This feels better than having them frustrated with a book geared toward college-age students.

Allie had to read William Goldman's The Princess Bride for e-cubed, so naturally it felt like a good time to watch the movie.  We discussed satire and how satire is different from parody.  After watching the film, the girls were able to give examples as to why it was a satire and why satire was a better term for it than parody.

We also watched Almost Famous.  I know, I know, it's rated R and there is a lot of drug use and sex and they use the f-word A LOT.  I am sure some people will judge us for allowing our 13 and 15 year olds to watch it.  Allie really wanted to watch this movie and Jason and I felt watching it together was appropriate.  There are a lot of topics in the movie that provided material on WHAT NOT TO DO.  We were able to discuss drug use--the guy standing on the roof screaming, "I am the golden god!"  and saying these might be his last words, do you see how much drugs can screw you up?  How willing this guy is to die?  What a fool he makes of himself?  Did you hold your breath when he jumped because he could have died?--and of course the sex and how the girls allowed themselves to be used but fooled themselves into believing that they were not being used and how hurt they were when they realized that they were being used.  

Jason and I had some fun yesterday morning figuring out more movies to watch with the girls.  

Italian

This might be my favorite thing.  We are using Rosetta Stone and I am doing it along with the girls.  I have not taken a class of any kind in years and it's just fun for me.  After dinner, I get in my jammies and get in bed with my laptop and do a few lessons.  I really like the way it is all laid out and I have been keeping ahead of the girls so I can help them where necessary.  I also realize how driven I am in terms of getting things right.  

art

Art is just feeling really, really GOOD right now and so we are doing a lot of it.  Drawing in our sketchbooks, art journaling, learning about new artists, being inspired by new artists...

Allie and Piper have a dog-walking business.  Half the money they make goes in the bank, the other half they keep and some is used to buy bedding and food and things for their gerbils, hamsters, fish and hermit crabs.  Allie saved some money to buy a big set of Prismacolor colored pencils and spent a lot of time this week using them.  On the left is her finished James Rizzi-inspired picture that she finished coloring this week; on the right is the picture she drew of me for Mother's Day last year, but she took her pencils and colored it in.

Pinterest

Possibly the thing that feels best is giving my girls time to do things they love and are passionate about.  Allie is passionate about creating things for her room that she finds on Pinterest.

I am trying not to force things right now.  I am trying to back off from what doesn't feel right or what doesn't feel good.  I am trying to make space for the stuff that feels good.

Allie had netting over her bed, but it was cheap and got holes in it from her tossing and turning in her sleep.
She saw this idea on Pinterest and created it out of some white curtains and pages from a book I found in the discard pile at the library.

Pottery

Piper is really enjoying this class.
I am LOVING the center that it is offered at.
The teachers and the head of education introduced themselves to all of the parents the first day.
We get weekly emails with photos of the kids in the studio and a description of what they did/learned.
It is the most well-run art program we have been part of--and we have been part of several art programs!

December 2014

 I am starting with the real life stuff, because I think if there is anything this season reminds us it is that the real life stuff, the church and family and friends is what is most important.

Church

I have written a bit about my spiritual journey on this blog.  I am not someone who has just consistently gone to church without thinking much about my faith.  My faith is a part of me, a part of my life, but it also something that I give a lot of thought to.  I was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school, but when we got married The Unitarian Church was where we felt comfortable.  Our girls were both baptized in the Roman Catholic church, because by that time I was back to feeling the traditions were important for children.  But, and I will say it, although I have always hedged around it on here before, my husband, who was not raised Catholic was not comfortable joining the Catholic church when it was not responsibly addressing the pedophilia accusations that were prevalent in the news at the time.  So, we raised our girls in a Presbyterian church, in recent years there have been a lot of changes in that church, our pastor left, the congregation became divided, things got pretty ugly and after a lot of thought and prayer we just were not comfortable there any more.  I spent a lot of time after that questioning organized religion (and I still do) and learning more about the Gnostic gospels.  I do think faith is about questioning and soul searching and not just accepting.

I find Pope Francis with his open heart and his open mind and his courage to speak out on certain issues INCREDIBLY INSPIRING.  I really like Pope Francis.  And so, we decided to attend different Catholic Churches in our area during Advent.  Jason jokes that it is the Theresa Tour of Churches.  The top church is in a neighboring town and I just think it's beautiful and always wanted to go inside.  The middle church is the church where I was baptized.  The bottom church is the church I was raised in, I attended the Catholic school that was connected to this church (the school closed when I was in high school).  I loved going back to that church.  I ran into an old friend almost immediately.  It was very healing for me to be back there, as there were some things that happened there that as an adult I know never should ever have happened to kids--or really, to anyone.  But, going there, I realized that this is the church that I compare all other churches to.  There is a warmth, a level of commitment and involvement that I felt right when I walked in.  

Hanukkah

We are not Jewish, but we were inspired by our immigrant study to sample different ethnic Jewish foods and we decided to do this on the first night of Hanukkah.  The knish, the borscht and the matzo ball soup (which I just realized I don't have a picture of in the collage) were all hits.  The gefilte fish and the halva were not.  But we had fun sampling everything and can now at least say we did.  

This also reminds me that I promised the girls we would make latkes--which we have done for Hanukkah in the past.

Family Time

We had my parents over for dinner one Sunday.  We all enjoyed drawing Santa with the tutorial on Art for Kids Hub and then we played Risk. The girls want to make game nights with Mama and Poppy more of a regular occurrence!

Family/Science

The only science we really did this month (we spent a lot of time crafting and shopping and celebrating) was to take my parents to Liberty Science Center.  We have a membership there and anyone in the family over age 65 is considered another one of my children, so my parents got in for free.  My parents AND the girls want to make visits to Liberty Science Center a more regular occurrence!

Piper exploring sound with Poppy <3

Volunteering

The girls have been volunteering at the library since September.  They assist me with my weekly children's programs.  They came to the library one Saturday and helped kids make ornaments for a special Christmas Craft Workshop.  Also, Allie planned a craft (making pom poms) for one of my weekly programs and she facilitated the entire thing and did a great job--the kids love her and were upset to hear that she will be skiing this winter and unable to volunteer again until spring!

Partying

We have hosted a few parties this season, as well!

Our bi-monthly Writing Circle met for a Christmas party.  We started by--you guessed it!--drawing an elf with the Art for Kids Hub tutorial.  We might be a bit obsessed with Art for Kids Hub as we look for opportunities to watch the tutorials with friends and draw with friends because it is just so darn fun to see what each person's unique take is on the drawings!

One of the other girls in the Writing Circle organized a Secret Santa gift exchange.  It was a blast!  I was so touched that ALL OF THE GIRLS made a BIG THING out of the gifts they received.  Giving is more fun than receiving, but part of that is in the reaction of the person you gave the gift to and when they are just kind of ho hum or don't say anything it all, it's a let down.  I have always told my girls to show their appreciation and to make the giver feel good and it was so refreshing that the other girls in our group were told the same thing!

We also made Christmas ornaments with friends, which was a lot of fun!

Crafting

Allie is our family crafter.  She goes in spurts, but will sometimes spend DAYS in the art studio creating.  She also LOVES animals.  She asked if we could string popcorn and cranberries and hang them in our trees for the animals.  We put on some Christmas music and we chatted and made these chains.  It was really fun.  The animals seemed to love them, as they were gone in days.  So, we did it again and again, they were gone quickly.  I've put bags of cranberries in the freezer and ee are going to try to remember to do this when we get a lot of snow.

Everyone in our family pretty much just buys for kids now, but everyone buys for the girls.  So, each year the girls make gifts to give to everyone who is so generous to them.  We have a lot of fun listening to Christmas music and spending several afternoons chatting and creating together.

Schooling

Lest you think there was no schooling going on, I can assure you there was.  We usually take off a large part of December and this year we did take a break from Math and Science, but we continued with our Language Arts and History because...well, because I have a lot planned in both those areas and if the girls want the summer off again, we needed to keep going.  Despite all my hard work on those binders last summer and how excited I was about them, we have pretty much abandoned them in favor of more project based learning.  The girls really dug into these projects and personalized them and I feel the lessons they learned this way were very valuable.

Our history study focused on the values of the 1920s versus today, the girls both compared and contrasted the values.  They taught me something!  I always romanticize history and feel it was more simple "back then".  But the girls pointed out how people were not accepted, how there were so many more rules, they may have had less material things, but they had a hard time sometimes getting the basic necessities of life.  The girls do not feel that times were more simple at any period in history.  I think that is interesting.

We also learned about Orphan Trains.  Allie read Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline in a day--she said it was one of the best books she has ever read.  She not only did the project I had asked--just to write a simple newspaper or magazine style report on orphan trains; Allie also wrote a book review that I think would make anyone want to read this novel (which, I admit, I asked her to read because I loved it as well).  There are some dark topics in the book and I didn't feel it was appropriate for Piper, so she read one of Andrea Warren's true accounts of a child who rode on an orphan train.

I was also very, very pleased to find the movie Orphan Train on YouTube.  The movie came out in 1979, I was 7 and so into anything historical (I wanted TO BE Laura Ingalls) that my mom allowed me to watch this movie and I still remember it.  I cried my eyes out.  Hysterical for those poor, unloved, neglected children.  I was so happy to find the movie on YouTube because it is so therapeutic to cry it is SUCH a great movie.  The girls sometimes make fun of my movie and documentary choices, but they admitted that they loved this movie.

Christmas

I have always LOVED Christmas.  Even as an adult, I just loved preparing for Christmas -- I get my shopping done by Thanksgiving because nothing spoils my mood like crowds--but I loved baking and crafting and the parties and fun.  I could never understand when some people would say it was a day to "get through".  My grandmother explained that Christmas was hard for her because she thought of other Christmases and the people who were there and who are not there anymore.  

I have to say, I get it now.

I am struggling to find my Christmas spirit.  I think that might be why I keep buying despite the fact that I said we were going to simplify this year and give more to charity.  I am looking for that "thing" that will put me in the holiday spirit, even though I know that no "thing" can do that.

Christmas 1994 - Jason and I were dating, my mother-in-law gave him a 35mm camera.
She and I drank too much wine and had some amazing heart-to-hearts that I will
keep in my heart forever.

Christmas 2008--my Uncle always slept over our house, he loved being part of the girls getting their gifts and he LOVED the Wii!

We lost Jason's dad this year.  At times, he was the biggest kid of all ;-)

Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to the time with friends and family.  We have been inspired by our immigrant study to bake only and all ethnic Italian Christmas cookies--amaretti cookies, anisette cookies, struffoli, etc.  We have always kept with the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve and I am looking forward to the baccala and the scungilli salad (I look forward to that scungilli salad ALL YEAR!).  I am looking forward to spending time with my adorable 19 month old niece--babies just make the holiday so much more fun, don't they?  I do think I will feel that peace on Christmas Day that I only feel ON Christmas Day, as though nothing bad could possibly happen on THAT DAY.

But it's different.

Jason's DAD

My father-in-law passed away yesterday.

He wasn't my husband's biological father, but he was his Dad.

Dick taught Jason to fish and swim and play baseball.

He built Jason and his brother a fort and they made a sign: No Girls Allowed (except they spelled Girls wrong :)  I have photos of that in an album, I have to dig them out.

He built Jason and his brother and their friends a huge half pipe to skateboard on.

He told Jason not to "Burp, fart or curse" around girls.

He taught Jason to be a gentleman and to open doors for ladies.

When Jason and I had a fight, he would go to Dick and Dick would give him advice.

My mother-in-law would get mad at us and stop talking to us for months, but Dick always called even when she wasn't talking to us, even against her wishes.

Dick felt the whole "stop talking" thing was not how a family should act.
Family was family and if you loved someone you got over stuff and kept them close.

When I first started dating Jason, Jason's mom wouldn't talk to me.  I would offer to help in the kitchen and she would not say one word to me.  I would just do stuff and hope I was helping.  But Dick was always friendly and nice.  He knew I was uncomfortable and he would

make jokes and tell stories about how he danced with Cher and got bitten by a shark.

He used to make these wild concoctions when we were dating, like blue cheese and peanuts and I would try them because I didn't want to be rude.  

He later admitted it was all a test.

We still laughed about that together right up until a few weeks ago.  

He said I should have seen my face!

I was always REALLY allergic to their dogs (Springer spaniel mixes) and would have really bad allergy attacks when I was at their house.  One time my father-in-law got the idea that I needed to eat onions to help with my sinus issues, but he mixed the onions with raisins to taste better and put salt and pepper on it.
It was pretty good.  But then, I like raw onions.

He loved baseball.

He's responsible for my love of Jimmy Buffett.

My niece put a photo of Dick on Instagram and said: Rest in Paradise.  I thought that was appropriate.  I hope he does.

He loved babies.

And toes.

He used to laugh at my pinky toe when I was barefoot.  Sometimes he would ask to see it just because he thought it was so funny looking.

My girls remember that he taught them to play marbles.
My niece emailed me and said she remembered him teaching her to play marbles.
Pretty great legacy to leave behind:
The Man Who Taught Me to Play Marbles.
He never understood why kids didn't still play marbles because it was such a great game that you could play anywhere!

Dick LOVED kids.

All the neighborhood kids used to come over his house.  My brother in law was grown and it was not uncommon to go there and find a couple of 10 or 11 year olds chatting about baseball or whatever sport they played with my father-in-law on the porch.

He also loved Halloween and many Halloweens he took a picture of every trick-or-treater.  Going through those photos is a trip.  We just laugh.  No one can tell who most of the people are.

He believed strongly in home-made costumes.  One year, when Jason was little, he wrapped ivy all around Jason and said he was a plant.

Dick and Jason had some rough patches during Jason's teen years.  

Dick had some demons of his own.

After my mother-in-law passed away, Jason and Dick got closer.

Dick would call Jason and say, "Did you call me?"  

Knowing Jason had not, but wanting to talk.

And they would talk.

Jason called Dick more often, too.

They were able to talk in a way they had not been able to before.

Dick never said anything, but Jason realized that Dick did not have to be there for him.

The story Jason's mom told was that she and Jason and Jason's older brother met Dick at a party.  Jason was a cute, chubby, blonde three year old and Dick played ball with him and thought he was adorable.  He used to stop by my mother-in-law's little bungalow in Long Beach, California and ask to play with Jason.  My mother-in-law said Dick liked Jason first.  Then he asked her out.  They were together for over 25 years until my mother-in-law passed away, but she always said that Dick loved Jason first.

Dick was there for Jason.
He treated Jason like a son.
Jason thought of him as his father.
Love matters more than blood in a family.

Dick was Jason's

DAD.

The Journey

Lately I have been awful about using my camera.  It's just so much easier to use my phone and post to Instagram with a quick (or even longer) explanation of what is going on.  Share it to Facebook.  

Every year I make a photo book of photos from the year and this year, I'm realizing that some of the photos I take with my phone might be suitable, but I like the DSLR photos for the photo book better and I need to get better about remembering to use the camera.

This weekend, our family volunteered to help set-up our Town's Easter Egg Hunt and I brought along my Nikon!

When I took the photos off the camera, I found photos from Christmas...and these photos...from my kooky kids :-) 

My girls are growing up so fast!  

After visiting different high schools and talking to different people, Allie has made the decision to homeschool high school.  She wants to have time to volunteer at animal shelters and hospitals--in our area kids need to be 15 to volunteer with animals or in a hospital setting, I believe it has something to do with insurance.  She plans to continue with Princeton Learning Center one day a week and at some point take some community college classes on a dual enrollment basis.  My hope is that things will flow smoothly from taking one class at community college, to taking two, to getting an Associate's degree to transferring to a four-year college.

Some of Allie's friends were considering high school, but we found out that for various reasons, they will all still be home next year!

Piper's best friends - our homeschool neighbors - will be going to school next year.  Their parents situation has changed and both parents are working full time and are finding it hard to meet the needs of older students, so the homeschool neighbors will no longer be "homeschooled" next year.  Piper is concerned about this.  We have tried to remain friends with her friends from school, but for one reason or another--different schedules, interests, etc. - those friendships have drifted apart and Piper doesn't want that to happen with these girls, that have become like sisters to her.

The homeschool neighbor dad and girls have become more like family over the last few years.  It's not uncommon that on a weekend evening we call the dad and invite him and the girls for dinner and sit on the deck or in the living room and listen to music and chat until late into the evening.  We all enjoy this friendship immensely and hope it continues after the girls start school.

Piper has an EOS lip balm obsession!

Jason's company bought out the company Jason originally started in his industry with more than 20 years ago.  Jason is in the position of managing and training some of the guys who originally trained him.  It's been weird.

The project that he worked on daily for the last 7 years became something that only needed Jason's oversight twice a week and as more trees are planted in Manhattan, he is only needed to be there once a week.  It was recently decided that someone else will go there once a week and Jason will consult on the project when necessary because his skills are needed for the merger.  It was hard for him to leave the project he had lived and breathed for seven years, but the work that needs to be done in setting up the new branch and seeing it is successful has been taking a lot of his time and energy.

Yup, these Christmas photos were STILL on my camera in April!

It used to be that I took photos and was instantly putting them on the computer and blogging about them.  It's funny how life changes.  Ebbs and flows.  I want to be open to whatever is new on the horizon for us...I guess blogging occasionally now is where my life/energy/mind is these days.

As for me, I have been on a spiritual journey.  I joined a group that was reading the Bible in one year.  Since I was very young, my mom and my Nauna read me the stories of the Bible, having heard those stories since I was so young they are ingrained in me.  I've read the girls stories from a Children's Bible and I attended Catholic school and I felt that I had a good understanding of the Bible.  But I had never actually tried to read the ACTUAL Bible.  It was more difficult than I had expected and I found myself with more questions than I had ever thought I would.  Did the men of Soddom and Gomorrah REALLY tell Lot that they wanted to know the men who came to destroy their cities carnally?  Or did they say, We want to f--- them up!  Why was it ok for Lot to offer his virgin daughters to the MEN of two cities to do what they wanted with them?  So much of it I found myself struggling with.  Fortunately, I have a lot of people to speak with about this whose opinion and knowledge I trust.

I am continuing to read the Bible and ask questions.  I tend to do this reading at night before bed and then sometimes I lay there trying to work something out in my brain.  Bible.org has been an awesome resource when I can't figure something out.

The girls and I have been watching documentaries on the History of the Bible and The Secrets of the Bible.  We've found more documentaries on Yotube than Netflix, but we've enjoyed some of the movies about books in the Bible on Netflix.  It was a nice thing to do during Lent.

As I've shared before, Jason was raised without any "formal religion" so he doesn't have that "ingrained" thing in him that says, "Well, of course Mary was a virgin and Jesus rose from the dead, I've been told that my whole life, just like that the sky is blue."  Jason attended Christian "Rock n Roll" church with a friend as a teen and felt good there and he attended church with the girls and I.  He made the decision to be baptized because he felt Jesus was a cool guy with a good message.  Over the years, he has decided to learn more about Jesus, as a man, and about Buddha and Mohammed and he likes them all, he feels they all had a great message, he's not sure anymore that he wants to pick just one of them.  Recently, he has started learning about the Tao and how human life mirrors nature.  He's been sharing some of that with me and it's all really cool.

I am trying to keep my mind and my heart open.

For All of You Who Hate to Travel

I am not a traveler.  I've said it before, I will say it again.  I am afraid of flying, my sleep and digestion get screwed up when I travel.  I like my bed, my life, my routine, my friends, my predictable, stable little life.  But.....I want my girls to know that a great big world exists filled with all kinds of people and places.  I want them to experience different cultures.  I want them to see rocky mountains and beautiful vistas and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is something greater than us out there that created all of this--this beauty is not happenstance, it was formed and created.

So, I keep telling myself how important it is that we travel a little as I pop xanax in anticipation of this flight--I didn't always fear flying, it's mostly after several planes crashed into the Atlantic in the last couple of years.

We found out this week that Jason's car needs some repairs.  it turned out not to be as expensive as I had feared, but it threw me for a loop...and seemed like a good reason to cancel the trip for a day or two.... ;-)

I lay awake at night worried there will be a hurricane while we are away....the last two years our state was pummeled pretty bad in hurricanes.

I am at a point where I am saying "when we get back".  And I hate that.  I hate putting stuff off.  "When we get back, I will plan a Girls Weekend with friends (for some reason going to a hotel at the Jersey shore for a weekend isn't the same as traveling further away)".  "When we get back Allie will start Algebra".  "When we get back we will go here or do this or do that".  "When we get back maybe we will start looking for a dog or make a decision about fostering dogs".  "When we get back....".

Oh and the whole grocery thing that last week.  I despise that.  Eat what is in the fridge or cupboard because no sense buying more or opening a new package when we will be away and it will go bad/get stale.

The truth is I am a homebody.  The truth is I am crazy enough to love grocery shopping and cooking big meals and making a home for my family.  The truth is I would rather paint furniture and make elaborate meals and spend a day laying in bed with a good book than traveling.  The truth is I like to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground.  The truth is I don't like being far away from home.  Home provides safety and stability that I need.

I worry that we would be at war with Syria when we fly.  Hijackers.  Chemical weapons at airports.

I worry that our government will shutdown...part of our plan is to visit a National Park.  I called the other day, hoping they would tell me not to worry, they won't close.  But no, they said, "We have been told to tell callers to keep an eye on the news and call a couple of days before they are due to arrive and we can give them more information then.  We will reach out to you if we know that we will be closed during your stay and we will refund the money for your stay here."

So, we are in limbo.  If the park closes, we will postpone the trip.  And I will continue to say, "when we get back..." until we actually take the trip and come back.

And I know I have it good.  I am lucky to be able to travel.  I am fortunate to have this opportunity.  I believe in positive energy and I am trying really hard to hang on to positive things.  But anxiety is a slippery slope...

I know we will have fun and make memories and hopefully take amazing photos that we can frame.  I keep telling myself that.  I look around my home for where I can hang pictures of this trip.  I imagine the photo books of this trip.  I imagine how funny my husband is on car rides.  I imagine my girls' awe and my husband's eyes shining when we see certain sites.  I look forward to the memories we will create.  I pray for our safety.  That's how a homebody gets through traveling.

Day in the Life 2013 ~2014

I think this may very well be my favorite post of this linkup.  I am always trying to do better with time and reading everyone's posts always inspires me to be better with my time.

6:30am - I have never in my entire life been an early bird, but last November my husband had emergency surgery and he is an early bird.  We got in a routine of having coffee together early in the morning and talking about our day and that has held ever since.  Jason is up at 4am, does yoga and plays guitar and gets all ready for work, then he wakes me up and we sit and have a cup together and talk about our plans for the day before he leaves for work.  In so many ways this just starts my day off right and now I wouldn't dream of missing it.

7am - I would love to say I always go for a run or do yoga and many days I do, but sometimes I get sucked into reading emails or blogs or pinterest and then my kids get up and I am trying to find time for yoga or a run all day.

8am-8:30am shower, get dressed, tidy up.
My girls are getting up around now, eating their breakfast and making their beds, too.

8:30am - 9am - we watch CNN Student News together while I have my second cup of coffee and the girls eat their breakfast.  We usually end up discussing some things and/or looking up things online to get more information.

9:00am - we review our Latin roots, maybe learn a new root; we may play a game like Division War or Geography Bee

9:15am - we go over our plans for the day.  I'll talk to the girls about what they are working on, what they think they should do next, where we can get more information, what materials they need, etc.  The two constants that I "assign" are math and Spanish, both of which we are using software for this year, the girls know that they have to get these done at some point during the day.  On days I work, I might assign a couple of pages in a Critical Thinking workbook; my girls LOVE Mind Benders and Mind Twisters and those kinds of things and usually do more pages then I ask them to do.

9:15am - noon - The girls are working on their own things, I might be helping one of them with something or doing a project around the house.  If my dinner plans allow, I might be getting the part of our meal I can prep ahead done or running errands (my girls are 11 & 13).  If I didn't run or practice yoga, I might try to get that in now.

noon - we eat lunch together and talk about our morning, what the girls accomplished, if they have anything left to do and how they will spend the afternoon.

Monday - I go to work at 1pm and the girls will go to my mom's to learn to cook family recipes (they are also going to be taking photos and typing up recipes for a family cookbook project on Shutterfly)!  Or sew.  Or learning to build and solder and things like that with my dad.

Allie sewed this wallet on her own two years ago.

Tuesday - I run two programs at the library and the girls have volunteered to assist me with those programs.  After that, I will work at the reference desk and they will work on some Critical Thinking workbooks.

Wednesday - we are free until 4:30, we plan to use that time to work on more of the projects the girls want to work on.  Allie is volunteering at a local no-kill animal shelter and Piper goes to choir at 4:30 and I have 2.5 hours with one of my best friends!!

Thursday - our one completely free day!!  Our homeschool group tends to do a lot of meetups and field trips on Thursdays and we plan to be part of the ones that interest us.  We also have a pass for a pottery studio that we may use on Thursdays.

Friday - we have co-op from 10-2pm and then usually an orthodontist appointment or we end up hanging out with friends.

Saturday - I work two Saturdays a month.  Both girls will be attending art classes on Saturday mornings.  We may also use the pottery passes on Saturday afternoons.

Piper drew this when she was 9.

Sunday - we guard this day for family and rest.


5pm - I get home from work at 5pm on Monday and Tuesday, we are normally home from field trips or hanging out with friends by 5pm on Thursday and Friday.  I will start dinner, the girls will tidy up and usually end up in the art studio.

5:45 - Jason is home from work, we have a beer.  The girls come in and show Jason whatever they worked on that day or what they are doing in the art studio.

6pm - we eat dinner together.

6:30pm - we sit around after dinner talking.

7:30pm - one of the girls does the dishes.  I often go for a walk or bike ride with Jason and/or one of the girls.

8pm - I start getting ready for bed.  We allow the girls an hour of television if they want.  Jason will sometimes play guitar.

8:30pm - I am in bed with a book, inevitably one or both girls comes in to talk to me about something on their mind and we may end up talking until 11pm!

9pm - Jason is in bed, the girls and I are either talking or reading.

10-10:30pm - lights out!

Our 2012 ~ 2013 Schedule

A Day in Our Life 2011