Unexpected Visitors

We had a fun, unexpected change to our weekend. My sister rang on Friday night looking to crash on our floor with two international students she was hosting. It was fun. My trio enjoyed showing off, we got to learn a little about other ways of life, and I got to catch up on what has been happening in my family.

It would be good if 2010 had more of these fun surprises.

Beauty

I've succumbed to the word craze of picking a word to describe where the next year is heading to. In reality it seems that the word has brought itself to my notice as a good mascot for what I want to achieve this year.

"Beauty" sums up so much of what I want to work on this year. Fostering beauty in relationships - being gentler with the kids and Tony, and myself. Not stressing over the small stuff. Last year I wasn't always gentle in what I said, this year I want to work on it.

I want our home to have an atmosphere of beauty to it. Much is already in place and yet it would be good to keep a better routine of order and peace.

Yes I have personal beauty goals as well. At the start of the year I started sewing with my girl, and it was fun. She's rapidly becoming a young lady and I would like to be a better role model of feminine, modest beauty than I currently am.

Beyond it all I want to see the beauty of laughter, and joy in our home, and overflowing it.

So my word for this year, my mascot is looking to find beauty.

My Daybook

FOR TODAY
Outside my window,

Sunshine, beans flowering in the garden, stillness and morning quiet.

I am listening to...

The fish tank bubbling and the computer fan, the birds on the roof, morning noises before everyone emerges to start the day.

I am thankful for...

I'm thankful for holidays, grace, time to rest and restore the balance again.
From the learning rooms...

I still have planning to do for when we start back, thinking about how to achieve that and the endless frustration of not having a simple system to translate what we want to achieve into achievable chunks in a planner on my desk. Something easy to prepare, detailed enough to keep me in touch with what we need to focus on, and streamline enough that its just in one place. Unfortunately I just don't write in small enough lines to do that on a double page spread, and over two pages it just gets overwhelming... the quarterly juggling act in its reality.

From the kitchen...

Not much, over the holidays everyone is pitching in and doing dinner in turns.

I am wearing...

Long soft summer skirts and floppy white tops.

I am reading...

Stowaway be Karen Hesse, I love being able to get ahead of the pre-reading over summer and throw a few books the kids way that get them feeling excited to read.


I am praying for...

Refreshment and joy in our family, its been a long time since we have playes and laughed and embraced life together.

On of my favorite things...

Long restful walks in the bush, reading by the beach, simple easy meals, Christmas cake and coffee.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

This week we are hoping to go raspberry picking, enjoy the beach, and alow the kids and
Tony to spoil me for my birthday.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...


The spot where we crashed and watched the kids swim after a walk on Monday.

In the tradition of the Simple Womans Daybook

Breathing Green...

This has got to be the most refreshing way I know of to recharge my batteries...
This is why I love living here so much!

Welcoming the New Year

Its been a relaxed and enjoyable start to the year. Usually we rise early on New Years day and watch the sunrise. This year we did something different. We let the kids stay up last night for the first time that we have ever seen the new year in at midnight as a family. And yes we need some really good New Year's traditions to make it more meaningful than "hey we stayed up really late". This morning hubby cooked Eggs Benedict for breakfast, and the sun has come out calling us to the beach later on. So far this year is clean, bright, full of promise.



I need the freshness, the clean start, the hope of a year without all the stress of the last one. I long to be free from the frustrations of the year, to find again the joy of just being alive. Our pray this year is to rediscover the joy of living life with God. OK it is much the same as last years goal, last year it seemed like we knew that was the goal, and yet we seemed to go from issue to issue. So while I fear it is a little like asking God for patience I am hopeful that this year we are a little more practiced.

Embracing Summer

It's been a long year, lots of change, lots of growth, lots of good. Its also been a year or many ups and downs.

Challenges to our faith from the politics of our local church. Politics that dropped the Word in favor of many words. That put individual agendas on top of God's agenda, but politics that forced us to dig deeper into God, learning growing and trusting.

Challenges at my husbands workplace with difficult co-workers, and seeing a world or options in the wider organization. Alongside it good busyness developing an out-door recreation program for PE, us teaching ballroom dancing, finishing off the second year of a creation based, hands on, web based learning science curriculum for his students all this and teaching a full courseload.


Overcoming the challenges and frustrations of the ways we don't work well together as a homeschool and working towards a more positive home-school attitude. Along the way working through the issues that leave us feeling stressed and doubtful.

A string of financial hiccups - not the painful problem of job loss, but a year of niggles, and unexpected bills that have left us stretched and unsure.

Yesterday was the day to call summer school. Optimistically to say that for the next month or two we'll work on some school, rest, play , love laugh. Hubby has another 7 days before he is free to join us.

I'm looking forward to changing gears, tidying up the garden from the rain of the last two weeks of early summer, enjoying nature and focusing on God. Hopefully along the way we can see a complete change in how we school from the structure we have needed on the past to a freer, more encouraging focus of enjoying what we do. If so our early end to the school year will be well rewarded.

Independance revisited.

For now hubby is encouraging me to try and split up the kids and let them work separately from each other. Since I have been going back and forward over the advantages and disadvantages all term - ie for the last 6-8 weeks its nice to have the stress of decision over-ruled. To him the meed to let her be extended exceeds the need for togetherness in studies and discussion. But as he states we can build the discussion into our day elsewhere.

So for now I'm hoping to get plans for each child's afternoon studies posted this evening so that we have some order next week.

Clearing Stickies and finding order or just MIA

This has been an eventful week - On Saturday my husband gave the kids a challenge to clear all their stickies (corrections) and get on top of school. No small feat when some of those corrections had been avoided for months.

OK not something I wanted to admit to but its nice to be on top of them. To be free of the battles - well almost. Having cleared the stickies we found ourselves with the classic tired day. One child stressing over birthday gifts and the other just not rested.

At the end of the year everyone is feeling the tiredness and exhaustion. for me having had my plan overturned by well life its been an interesting term.

My starting attempts at being more teaching oriented were interesting. Enough togetherness to blow school out of the water. Three weeks of crawling through new programs for Latin, and maybe Greek, struggles to get quiet. Big struggles. Eventually we pulled it all apart and are currently back to independent learning.

I'm not really happy. Can I do a better job of marrying the two. I would like to think so, but at the moment I'm to exhausted to try. So for now we stay apart. I miss the fun but I'm to exhausted to try and sort it out.

What a difference a day makes.

Today was one of the first days in weeks where school got happy again. I have no idea why our learning times turned upside down. Was it looking at what others were doing and trying to do thier thing. Maybe, was it change that just didn't quite bring the kids along with it. Maybe. Just a bad run of not quite knowing what I was ding, maybe. It could have been as simple as having changed enough that my homeschool planner couldn't cope. That could be it in a nutshell.


Through the process I have learned that my esteem is inexplicably tied into the quality of our learning times. Whether its respect issues, joy, laughter or unity it has a huge effect. A good friend has suggested that I address this ... food for thought.

But it was good to have us working together, to have the freedom to learn and enjoy, and to not have the pressure to rush. Even with one child needing to work in thier own space, one heading down with chickenpox and only one settling down to work it was good to enjoy doing what we do. It's been a long time. Hopefully we are in a better place and can enjoy going forward.

Snowed under

Figuratively that is.

Over the last few weeks life has become incredibly complex and busy. Yesterday is the first time I managed in months to clear my desk and feel ready and awake for the new week. The kids dutifully took the bait of extra computer time to help out and finish off their school work for Friday.

Yes a clean slate for the week ahead.

The week has also been one of blessings, good friendships and the ability to sort out the misunderstandings off life, and yes there were misunderstandings.

Deep feelings that reminded me of all the stuff you work at forgiving and move on from , which just maybe hasn't been completely forgiven.

And stirring up the depths - the looming possibility of a church split ... the stuff you hope isn't real, that you really don't want to deal with. That you hope you can cope with as message after message is more about how we can do what we feel is right than about seeking truth.



Right now my clean slate isn't all that clean. Home church sounds so good. Not having to wade through controversy after every Sunday, not feeling like each week you are being forced to take a position that you don't agree with. Not being manipulated.

God is good, he is in control, and we can trust him. Just now I wish that I knew where the next few weeks were leading.