A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

That's Belle in line with friends to listen to a devotional by President Dallin H. Oaks at BYU-Provo I hate to whine too much. I count my blessings every single day. I do! It has been a rough few weeks, though. For me. Nothing huge has happened. But I feel defeated anyway. And I don't think I should pretend otherwise. I'm old enough and experienced enough to know that seasons like this will pass.  I will feel light shining through me again, and I will see more clearly the good that I am doing. Acknowledging the hard will, perhaps, make the joy all the sweeter. Our habits and routines keep us grounded. Morning Meeting continues to be our daily anchor.  We're reading, discussing, singing, and memorizing our way through scripture. High School Studies have been simpler lately because between post-surgical healing and a cold, I haven't been up to putting notes up on the white board for history/geography.  We've focused instead on reading and narrating.  We finished...

As I've written before, it's probably hormones, and I'm trying to put them in their place, but they're bossy little things, and I'm struggling. I feel like a failure every day. I'm disappointed in our homeschool. I cry over things as simple as getting dinner on the table. But I've been doing interstitial journaling in my planner to prove to myself that I'm not failing as a home educator and human being, so I do have proof that we're getting things done. We received an "Everything is for Sale" Monopoly expansion pack that has inspired frequent game play in our home. Morning Meeting is thriving as we review The Family Proclamation using the songs from this blog that we found and fell in love with 10 years ago.   (It's hard to believe Marilyn's kids and my kids were so small and are now so big.  We've never met in person, but her joie de vivre keeps me avidly interested in her blog.) We're also enjoying our daily readings fr...

We got the tree up . . . barely . . . and not without emotional mishaps . . .but we did it! I've been slowing sinking into a depression. I don't know why or how. I've been doing all of the things to overcome it. But it came, and it made everything so hard. I'm not sure why it's better today. I'm just thankful it's better today. (Though I am looking for reasons so that I can do my best to prevent being taken over like this again.) We've been doing what school we can. We've been doing what Christmas we can. And I'm doing my level best to accept that I've been doing my level best . . . even though it all looks like such a frail and puny effort to my tired mind. Ladybug has begun helping take care of Lola's hair! Morning Meeting We're still doing those 5 days a week.  We're right on track in The Jesus Storybook Bible , and we will finish Saints vol 1 right at the end of the year.  We've had a good run studying The Doctrine and Co...

Our basement right now I have been only half-present with my family for the past couple of weeks.   As Baymax said, "All Mom does is sew, give us food, and sleep!" And he was absolutely right. But the skirts are finished. I still have accessories to make, but Nature Angel can help with those, and they are such a small project compared to 14 tiered skirts. Did I have offers to help? Yes. But I was designing each skirt as I went.  I was using sheets, cut up men's XXL shirts, and bed skirts--all from the thrift store--to make skirts individually without a pattern. It would have taken me as long to put kits/instructions together as it did for me to sew them.  I even talked it over with our director to make sure I wasn't being stupid, and she agreed that it made sense for me to just get the job done. And they're so cute!!!! Hopefully I'll post pictures next week after our dress rehearsal. Nature Angel sewed 3 new skirts for our opener. I didn't have to sew them...