Still Alive

 

I've been trying quilting lately. 

Hey all, 

We've been beginning school in (somewhat) earnest and I've been trying to establish a routine. The routine is going well, but life keeps throwing stuff at us I have to work around. 

Last week, Chris was gone all week on a trip so I was trying to establish our routine and run this place on my own (in true "hubby is gone" fashion, the well broke and flooded the yard the night before he left. My father in law saved the day by coming by to fix it, but it definitely kept up the pattern of some sort of minor catastrophe happening when he's out of the house for a bit). Part of managing was being out of the house as much as possible (occupied kids don't squabble nearly as much as bored ones), so I didn't have much physical or emotional energy left for writing. 

This week was back to "normal", but that routine is still falling into place ("No, honey, we don't do that on weekdays. No, it's not snack time yet. No, I'm not going to change my mind") so my energy and creativity are both in high demand at the moment elsewhere. I'm also trying to figure out my routine-- when do I do housework? Which housework should be priority? What does weekly lesson planning look like? What do I need to do to prepare daily? (That last one has been kicking my butt. We've been doing an emotional literacy program thing I bought ages ago (but never used) as "warm up" schoolwork. I'm learning the interesting way that I really need to have some sort of familiarity with the material before I try to teach it). 

Weirdly, I've been doing more handicrafts in the evenings - painting, sewing, etc. I'm guessing that it's because it uses a different part of my brain than writing and planning do, so it's using a different kind of energy. I can just shut my brain off for a bit in a way I can't do with writing. 

All this to say...I'm not giving up this space, at least not yet, but I'm not going to be routinely posting here either. At least until we get into some sort of habit with our day rather than goading along the masses like a sheepdog. Any post I do is probably going to be an unorganized jotting down like this one rather than the (slightly) more structured lists I used to do. 

Anyway, I haven't forgotten this space is here. It's just that other things are taking priority for the moment (and I promise to stop commenting on that fact in my next post).