Here is my current plan. Lord willing I’ll get through it.
Does anyone else find little boxes to check-off motivating?
Category Archives: Events
Setting it in Stone
(Posted simultaneously at Family News.)
I am officially limiting myself.
I “flipped a coin” (it wasn’t a literal coin, I was driving) and– as I’ve noticed in the past– found while it was in the air what it was I really wanted.
- Storytelling is on-hold. Maybe for a decade. Lord willing, I will eventually return.
- Piano is on-hold. I am tired of not moving forward as efficiently as I could in any instrument. I will be enjoying the beautiful Rainsong Jay picked out for me just after Elisha was born.
Jay and I have always known we wanted to homeschool our children, and Natasha is definitely ready and willing to learn new skills. So this conscious limiting is directly tied to the research and preparations I have begun in order to lay the groundwork for her schooling.
It is not so much the schooling that I see as the challenge, but maintaining a smoothly-running household at the same time. I have come across some very nice resources.
Wouldn’t This be Cool?
I got this idea reading the paper this morning, called a couple friends to verify it sounded cool to more than me, then cast my line. Still waiting to see if anyone will bite.
The e-mail I sent (edited, of course):
Dear Ms. Teacher,
In the paper today you mentioned you were the co-op coordinator for the High School Career Fair this year.
I wanted to suggest the possibility of a “homemaker” booth/presentation (whatever your format is) next year; I know a number of people who could work with me to create a professional and informative setting.
Presenting home-by-choice as a valid option alongside more lucrative careers could have the positive effect of raising appreciation for those parents who choose to focus on their families, rather than entering the workforce.
High school may be a little early for students to show much open interest (we may never know if we don’t try), but it’s not too early to normalize home as a priority.
I hope you’ll consider discussing this with me.
Sincerely, etc.
I haven’t sat down to make any lists of stuff, the idea hasn’t been accepted yet, after all. But I’ve been doing “this” long enough that I could get it together as soon as was necessary.
Wouldn’t that just be the coolest: Having mothering alongside dozens of other “normal” and “real” jobs?
And it begins… almost.
I really wonder if it will be a whole month before I post again.
If I’m going to make 50,000 in 30 days it seems most reasonable to spend any computer time I have actually typing on my story. But maybe I’ll come over her for a break.
What I don’t see myself doing is IMing. I’ve gotten into a few message boards (and out of more than I’m in) but I don’t see myself going for the IM thing. Maybe it’s just b/c I’ve never done it. Don’t think I’m starting yet. I rather prefer the Blog/message board MO about answering things on my terms, my own timing.
I feel an imminent right to be “selfish” with my time. It’s a form of self-defense. I just have to remind myself to expect that from others too, and sometimes I’m even leery of accepting offers, feeling the unspoken obligation to listen to someone else’s random-dream-turned-novel explanation (when I’d rather be writing).
Sooo… “keeping short accounts” is something I’d like to manage if possible
this month.
I do expect I’ll go to the weekly meetings with my laptop– I’m intrigued at the idea of writing as a group activity, and am curious to see the reality.
NaNoWriMo
I just heard of this this summer, and how could I not sign-up?
Short for National Novel Writing Month, it is in its 7th year. Hey, who couldn’t love the power of deadline, right? My screen name there is Iliamna (a deep Alaskan body of water and an Alaskan volcano– don’t try to read too much into that, I just like the sound of the name). I don’t know if that link is usable or not, but it was worth a try. Takes me there, anyway.
The two main rules (from my perspective/that I’m supposed to follow) are:
- Don’t work on something you’ve already started– you’ll care to much to work fast and make word-count (50,000 to “win”).
- You can’t start until November 1st.
The first I readily identify with and can understand. It’s the second that’s harder for me (though, currently I am still resisting– it’s been good for my in-progress novel, recieving as it does the focus of my noveling interest).
I love starts. I love diving into the middle of some action or tension or dialogue or meeting and swimming to the surface from there. My Shadow Swan effort (currently at 13,427 words) I have “started” at least four times. This has resulted in 23 pages that still will connect with the right interim, since I enter the story from a different place each time. I can pretend they’re all chapter-starts, I guess.
So far they work for me.
I also opened a new blog, to sort of track my “progress” and have something to look at next year (if I find I want to do it again). I also chose to make it sort-of invisible (no links there) so that the only people that read it will be folks I’m asking specific advice, and similarly-enough engaged in this insanity to overlook things like spelling and plausibility.
Anyway, wish me luck. In less than a month my free-time will be wholly taken-up (I believe) with actually writing on a project.
Baby Steps
When you (or, at least I) take a good hard look at yourself and your “spiritual life” (for lack of a better term) you will inevitably find somewhere you fall short.
The catch-22 of course is that if you don’t (have this disappointing epiphany), there’s another type of trouble brewing, and I hope you don’t find out too painfully.
I won’t bother making a list of my shortcomings here (NOYB, and having more people know them won’t help me anyway), but I do want to set up an “Ebenezer” for what I am beginning as a result.
Jay and I have started the Navigator’s Topical Memory System. It’s given me more focus for what I teach the girls, and it gives Jay and me some structure (a plan) for our own memorizing.
It was a “random” find during an alone outing at the Christian book store. Once I saw it (a little package with the plan and a fat book of perforated cards) the appropriateness of the project really grew on me.
Jay and I have been talking about our respective shortcomings and what we should do about them (only our own– we’re not picking at each other). We knew what we aught to do, of course; the trouble, as it always is, was doing it.
Or, rather, doing it ALL. It’s very easy to say: I need to pray more, read the bible more, wait quietly (HA!) on God more, etc. The difficulty is the same as that of trying to start every self-improvement project on January first:
This year I will eat five fruits and veggies daily, make one new dish a week, exercise aerobically for 45-min at least 3 days a week, pick up and put away everything I’m using before I move on to the next project, wash the evening’s dishes before sitting down to relax after dinner, read to the children at least an hour a day, implement Flylady/SHE/organizing strategy of choice. Oh, and brush the dog/cat/squirrel at least once a week to cut back on the amount of hair culled in my daily vacuuming sessions.
Believe me, if I could do all that, I would be sooo happy…
But I can’t, so I work on having dinner ready when Jay get’s home, and making my house a no-yell zone.
Those two things go a long way toward making home a peaceful place.
And starting with scripture memory is a natural and appropriate step toward more consistent and scriptural living. One problem with growing up knowing “everything” you’re supposed to be doing, but not necessarily how to do it all, is that you know how far you have to go, rather than celebrating how far you’ve come.
I have cleared my kitchen counter for nearly a week now. I feel so together.
I have reminded myself that the old has gone the new has come, more times now than I remember. It is an encouraging thought promise.
Poems and Grandma
She died yesterday.
It is interesting to me that I found her poem right before my brother called to say the end was really near, and he was coming to bring me back to the hospital (playing musical cars has been one of the challenges of this time).
Here’s what we’re printing in the program, as a description of her. You must read by the punctuation, not the line breaks, to sound the best.
One Year to Live
Mary Davis Reed
If I had but one year to live;
One year to help; one year to give;
One year to love; one year to bless;
One year of better things to stress;
One year to sing; one year to smile;
To brighten earth a little while;
I think that I would live each day
In just the very self-same way
That I do now. For from afar
The call may come to cross the bar
At any time, and I must be
Prepared to meet eternity.
So if I have a year to live,
Or just one day in which to give
A pleasant smile, a helping hand,
A mind that tries to understand
A fellow-creature when in need,
‘Tis one with me, –I take no heed;
But try to live each day He sends
To serve my gracious Master’s ends. Continue reading
Bedtime
MoonlightI’d like to see Rabbits under the moon
Dancing in winter, dancing in June
Dancing around while twilight lingers
and blinky-eyed stars
look down through their fingers.
I’d like to see rabbits under the moon
but I always,
always
have to go to bed too soon.
~~
I can’t remember who wrote it, but it’s one of the girls’ favorites. They both say it with me as eagerly as they sing “Row row boat.”
I think little kids have a greatly under-utilized capacity to memorize. We do bible verses too, but for now we’re moving a little slowly, for two reasons.
At first it was because we never remembered at the right time to look-up new verses. We were limited to verses that we’d memorized ourselves that didn’t sound too archaic (other than as a performing seal, I see limited value in teaching a 2- and 3-year-old the KJV version of, The Lord’s Prayer, for example). We want re-learn them in a more modern translation so they may be understood sooner with less explanation.
(Is anyone going to jump me for that one?)
Anyway, the verses they currently “know” (like they know the poem) are Genesis 1:1 (Natasha’s current favorite), Proverbs 3:5-6 (both girls recite v. 6 on their own, with great satisfaction, though, if you didn’t know what Melody was saying it wouldn’t make sense), and Eph 4:32.
The second challenge is that, like all children, they like best what is familiar. The girls aren’t very interested in most new verses when we introduce them. For example, earlier this week, when I tried to introduce Luke 6:31, both girls tried to talk over me with the verses they already knew.
After a couple nights they sometimes say it with me, but they haven’t “owned” it yet. Plenty of time, of course. Only, the last couple nights Elisha has needed me at bedtime, so I’ve not been able to do stuff with the girls.
We’ve talked about using the iPod to record a bunch of verses and night-time songs so we can leave it playing for the girls after we (grown-ups) move on to our evening activities (usually writing, for me). I wonder how interested the girls will be it that stuff when it doesn’t come with a lap.
Current favorite songs are Bluebird (bluebird on my window), Swing low sweet chariot, Row row boat, and “Hushabye” (All the pretty little horses).
Jay’s back at work. Real life resumes.
Everybody’s sleeping at the same time, for the second day in a row.
I still haven’t noticed any particular pattern, other than just now, this everybody being asleep at once. I could get used to this. I like having an hour or two to myself to write and think out of my fingers.
I need to get back to my novel (and music practicing) too. I’m at about 7500 words –13 pages– and still feel the whole process is unreal. I wonder a lot if this subject can make it to 50,000 words, but since it’s mostly for recreation, I suppose I can just write until I’m out of story and then see where I am….
A Time to Cherish
(Initially posted at Family News)
As long as I’ve had my own child in my arms I’ve been hearing some version of the line from adults my parents’ age (thankfully never from my parents):
“Enjoy it while it lasts, sweetie, it’ll be over before you know it.”Laying aside the fact that I was none of these people’s “sweetie,” the line always bugged me. I had several ready (rude?) responses:
- If they stopped, well, wouldn’t that be worse?”
- “Every stage has things you’re glad to get away from too.”
But mostly, I think with my girls the comment didn’t bother me as much as it annoyed me (someone telling me how to feel). I expected to have more kids. I would see this stage again up-close, and for now I was just living my version of “normal.” How many people want (or need) to be told how to be normal?
I have a friend I spoke with over the phone once when we both should have been starting dinner. We talked about being at home, and how glad we were to be our babies’ primary caregiver and the neat things we experience instead of missing. And alternated with that commiserations on the monotony of those days. I loved her summary:
“Every day is so different, and every day is exactly the same.” Continue reading