Monday, June 25, 2012

June can be as hard as February

February is often a difficult month for homeschooling because the weather here in Kansas can be VERY cold and being trapped indoors for days on end with children who are young and active can be trying.
However, June has its own difficulties.  First, I'm from northern California and after all these years I'm still not used to the heat & humidity combo aka the Heat Index.  Let's just say that the explanation is available here and it's a very unpleasant experience.  But I do have air conditioning and that makes it bearable.
The really hard part of June comes after the homeschool conference when I'm shelving the new books and packing away the ones from the year we just finished.  I look at each book I'm packing away and think to myself about all the unfinished work in that book.  It has the potential to be an unbearably depressing moment, but I remind myself that we're not finished and since I put each year in God's hands then I know we've covered what's really important.  I also take a few minutes to pray that this coming year God will show us what we lack and where we need to go so that our short-term goals will mesh with our longer, eternal ones.  Then, I put the books away and the old year away with them.
Unless I have PMS, then I just dissolve into a puddle of tears.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Over my head

I am an optimist.  That's just the way God made me, and I often consider it a gift.
Not tonight.
The problem with being an optimist is the belief that you really can do that huge job in a minuscule amount of time.  I frequently bite off more than I can chew.  "Frequently" is actually an improvement for me, because it used to be "perpetually,"  but I'm not even close to my goal of "rarely."
Anyway, I've been doing many of the small but important things that need to be done for our blessedly short camping trip tomorrow, but I have most of the big things still to do.  I MUST do them ALL tomorrow, and I will have to do them with the the help of a three-year-old.  All week this hasn't bothered me at all because I've been thinking about all the time I'm going to have on Wednesday while the two older boys are at robotics.  Leaving me to complete my rather long checklist with no one because Katie could watch Gabe.  Except that Katie's not here.  Did I forget that Katie was going to be gone, or did I just block it out?
I may have to get those older boys up early.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

The Transit of Venus

So, last night we watched the Transit of Venus in a live feed on Clint's iPad(photo here).  It was really cool, and the website we watched had live feeds from all over the world.  This was just before and during dinner.  Since last night was a dessert night, we began discussing our sweet options as we finished dinner, and Katie said, "I think we should have a Milky Way for dessert."  So we did, six of these, actually.