When the Time is Right

Has it really been more than a month since I last posted? I guess it has. This photo is more than a month old, too, but that bag of clothes that needs to be sent to the charity shop is still sitting there. The thing that no one tells you about slow living is that the time still goes by awfully quickly. There have been a lot of things that didn't get done within the time frame I thought they would, because living slow means we do things, well, slowly. And that has proved to be a good thing for us.

Someday I'll Be a Waiting Expert, But Not Today

I am in a life lull, and I am not enjoying it. I am trying to. I got permission from the landlord to rip up the laundry room carpet, which is growing mold, and replace it with some fresh vinyl tile, and that is a bright spot. I have hated that carpet since day one, but I think you know how serious it is when somone refers to ripping up moldy carpet as "a bright spot." I am feeling restless.

I want a job, not to replace the one I already have, which I hope to continue to do for as long as my family needs me to do it, but rather a job that I can do in addition to the current one. This needs to be a job that pays money, because the current one does not. I know mothers get paid in love or something like that, but love doesn't buy plane tickets, and we need some.

Where the Time Goes

It's November already, and I'm tempted to say, "Where does the time go?" But I know where it went. It went to ten days of the most annoying cold, during which I lost my voice and couldn't get my children's attention without excessive gesticulation. (This is completely exhausting, in case you were wondering, as if the exhaustion that comes with a cold isn't enough already.) It went to Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating. It went to writing a chapter for a book. It went to the never-ending tasks of laundry and dishes and feeding my children.

A Method to (Some of) the Madness

Before I was a mother, I was a nanny. I worked with a lot of amazing kids from babies to teens, and I got a lot of experience. I sometimes joke that I should write thank you notes to all those kids and their parents for the practice I got prior to becoming a parent; it surely has helped me along the way. One thing that emerged from my years of being with children is an understanding of how to make things work for everyone, both caregiver and children. I use some of those insights in my own home now, and there are two things that work out really well for me which are a direct result of observations I made while I was a childcare professional.

The Homeschool Sweet Spot

I promise this isn't going to become a homeschool blog, but I am just so enamored of our current situation that I can't help wanting to talk about it. This is by far the best year we've had as a home educating family, and I am enjoying my days with my children immensely. I see that they, too, are enjoying each other's company and our life as a whole, and I don't think it's really any mystery as to why. We've figured out how to make this thing work, both at home and away from home. It's like everything finally fell into place.

Thoughts on Productivity

A good number of my summer mornings looked like this photo. And by mornings, I mean until it was noon, or nearly. Kids to my left or in their room, or maybe even downstairs, if I was lucky. Coffee on the nightstand to my right, cat on my lap. It was sublime. It didn't happen every day by any stretch of my overactive imagination, but it happened often enough. From time to time, I'd feel a bit guilty about the level of relaxation I was reaching and think I should get up and do something productive, but then I stopped myself. Because I know how life goes, and I know that rest is productive, too.

S is for Saturday, Sweetness, & Sanity

One of the things that has been most challenging for me as a home educating parent is making sure my own needs get met. In the beginning, it was hard to figure out what was a true need and what was just my preference, but now I'm getting a better grasp on it. And for me, as an introvert and someone who scored pretty high on the highly sensitive person test, one of my true needs is time alone, without a lot of distractions. While this may sound a bit melodramatic, when I do not get time to myself for a long stretch, I start to experience the kind of deep exhaustion that makes it feel as if it's hard to draw a full breath. (See? A bit melodramatic. I know.)