The balance of it all

Our mountain has been feeling quite Springy this week. It has been sunny for awhile now but the sun actually felt warm on my back yesterday! We are all ready for a change. Feeling pretty blessed to live in a place that has four seasons. Right when you are feeling "over it", in comes the new to refresh us. 

The kids had spring fever this week and so when it came to school, it was a lot of reminding to keep to the task at hand. We kept it short with a good morning time together, math, piano, and one day of Latin. I really would like to do more Latin but you really can only do so much before you are stressed and life just doesn't work so well when stressed. 

Which brings me to my cleaning projects! 

Our cabin is twice as big as it was last year, but still smaller than most homes. We have no closets, not enough bookshelves or dressers, a tiny sink, no dishwasher. I could go on but you get the idea; it's a bit tight here and we don't have all the conveniences that we had been used to. Waa. Waa. Waa. :) Not really. 

I have been really content. I have been really humbled, too. 

I have run the gambit on how I feel about my home at it's current state, "I love our little cabin in the woods!", "What the heck were we thinking to buy this tiny space?", "No, all it needs is to be cleaned and freshened up.", "Let's try minimalism in this home.", "Minimalism as a home schooling family of 6 just doesn't work for me.", etc. 

So, here we are with one closet now, winter is wrapping up, our bodies want to be moving and out and about. I wrapped the kids' school day up on Wednesday and headed upstairs. To the boys' room. They were outside or reading and had no idea what I was up to. So I began. Two bags of garbage, one pile for garage sale, and one pile to put in the shed. By this time they were all up there wondering what was going on and decided excitedly to join me. We rearranged their beds, swept everything, made a hammock for their stuffed animals, and rehung Z's apartment pictures. He loves having his own space filled with pictures of family and friends, posters, shelves, and other random tidbits 10 year old's enjoy. 

They had no complaints about what we threw away or put in the pile to sell which was so nice and confirmed my thoughts of, "Most of this stuff is useless to them!"  

Z even said to me, "Mom, I don't always like to clean but when I do I like to clean it all." Sounded like a meme to me! 

So the boys' room is feeling great and no money was involved. Just a freshening up of what was already there. Now have you, we do still need a dresser and maybe one more shelf and I would love to paint it this summer. But that is miniscule compared to what we have done on this house so far and what still needs to be done to the rest of the house.

I moved to the small school area we have and got that organized and cleaned up. 

I moved on further to the front entryway. Now when you walk into our house, you aren't bombarded with an array of things to trip you up. 

Then I looked around at the rest of the house, which had quietly exploded when I wasn't watching! Yikes! 

I slumped. I hunched over and sighed deeply. Then I picked myself up and remembered that I can't do it all. I can't keep up the laundry, the schooling, the dinners, the relationships, the schedules, all of it, at the same time. But that's okay.

There are weeks like this when a lot of cleaning is on the list. Or seasons where we eat simply, and get a great amount of school and reading in. There are other times when we are out and about in our community playing and connecting with our people. 

And in life it balances out. We have a fairly clean house. We eat decently. We do school consistently four days and randomly throw another day in there for good measure. We hang out with friends and family regularly. 

It's a blessed life. It's a busy life. A get to life. And I am grateful. 

I write this to remind myself of the balance and the effort. It's not always balanced, but I try. The effort really does count. 

Poetry

Not all that long ago I was terrified of poetry. I didn't know how to interpret it and didn't want to take the time to truly chew on what I was reading. I'm known as a very black and white personality. Tell me how it is. Don't beat around the bush. Don't try to hint. Just tell me already! Symbolism? Alliteration? Couplets? Nope. 

Well, after reading blogs post, listening to podcasts, and just deciding to jump in, here I am a few months later, enjoying poetry!! 

I don't understand it all. I don't know all the rules. But I am having fun with it and that, to me, is one of the most important reasons to do something. 

I started with Robert Frost. I mean who doesn't love and appreciate his famous, The Road Not Taken?  I picked up this picture book from our local library and read it a few times with my kiddos. I LOVE this book!  Then I borrowed another book on his life with some of his poems spread throughout. Then I got yet another book that the kids and I read through about Mr. Frost and it's been no looking back since! 

We have a few printed sheets of small poems to memorize that have been fun. Edward Lear is hilarious and Ogden Nash, too! My daughter and I enjoy Christina Rossetti. 

I found A Child's Anthology of Poetry at a thrift store a few weeks back and we have gobbled up so many great poems in our morning time. A fave has been Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou. It seems fitting too, as we (and when I say we I mean, "I", because why would my kids have a fear of poetry? That's just silly. :)) have found that when you don't fear something, you can take it full on and you can discover that the thing you really feared was just a misunderstanding, an unknowing, and that thing just might turn into something you love. 

My husband challenged the whole family tonight to write a poem about Winter turning to Spring. It didn't have to rhyme or be anything but your thoughts on paper. This is what we came up with:

The light of days 
begins to grow,
thoughts of summer's
warm glow. 
The snow of Christmas
flows down the road,
melted flakes fill the
river banks. 
Our thoughts turn to 
flowers, apples and bikes. 
Campfires and floats will soon replace 
the snowball and sledding
we've long embraced. 
Spring is near and in our hearts,
it's always welcome and held dear. 
                               - Micheal 


 The Great Thawing Time    

The Bible says there is a time for everything. 
Right now I find myself slipping from Winter to Spring. 

Snow heaps melting,
Days warming,
Happy face on me. 

Days are getting longer, 
Nature is calling out. 
After the last of the melt off
All will be asprout. 

So long nights of roaring fire!
Lazy days of reading!
Hello days of mud and mire! 
Filled days of seeding. 
                         - Rebecca

Spring  

The Spring is coming. The flowers are blooming, petal by petal. All the trees
are blooming, too. And people are having fun in new Spring air. 
                                                                                          - Grace

Flower Bloom 

The flower blooms, the flower is opening into the sunshine. It's a beautiful sight if you see it in late Winter. It's fun to watch it grow and open. It is opening itself to the sun, a flower on the hillside with a big blue sky, some people come and steal it's seeds. They also salt them, then they spit the seeds and the flower is sad that he will not be able to make more. He is a sunflower. 
                                                                                       - Zade

Sun is bright.
Winter cold. 
Wild trees and woods. 
And even seeds.  
                 - August

Raging fire,
cold snow. 
Where did all the heat go?
                         - August


I never want to let fear stop me. I never want to stop growing because I'm allowing something to get the best of me. I want to press on and continue to learn and have fun doing it! I want my kids to see their Mama and Daddy learning right alongside them! For them to know that education doesn't stop after "school hours" or graduation, but that you can enjoy the ride for your whole life! 

I am thrilled to have jumped into poetry. 
Shakespeare is next on my list. 
And Homer. 

What fears are you conquering right now?




 


 

Heaviness

It was a good day. A great day. A hard day. 

I should probably just do a brain dump in my journal but this is where I sit. 

I feel a calling out. An expansion of the view I currently have. I need to invest in people. To encourage and love and listen to and just be there for. So many hurting that are just trying to live, to figure out what to make of this here world and the others that inhabit it. 

Sweet souls experiencing the not so sweet. 
Hard workers not getting the support they should receive. 
Little boys learning how to make good choices. 

I was able to be apart of all that today. It's humbling. I don't have all the wise words I long for and I think my people need. But I do have a listening ear and a heart of compassion for them and sometimes that is enough. I am hoping that is enough. It's sometimes all I have to give. 

I also lift them up to my Father, knowing He has all the wisdom. Lord, would you please shed a little light on me and give me some, just a wee bit, of what You have? 

Give me the words for my hurting daughter. 
Give me the time and thoughtfulness for my friends. 
Give me the understanding to help my son make good choices.

I am comforted knowing that all we go through can be turned into good. I know from experience that the hard, the frustrating, the confusing can be learned from. We will see growth and new life come from these circumstances. We will hope. 

 

An attempt to write more

The last two years have given me ample time to read, read and read some more. Not having internet gave me a lot of free time and seeing as I'm not really into movies, reading seemed to take front stage. It was a lovely season of quiet, even though getting other things done like paying bills, communicating with others, etc, turned out to be a challenge.  Glad that's over! 

The last couple of years I have had a word come to mind as the New Year approached. It's been a good thing to dwell on that particular word and see how it helps me along. This year, I didn't get a specific word, rather a few resolutions. So traditional, I know. 

I want to drink more water. 
I want to work on having better posture. 
I want to write more. 

Priorities, people! We can't do it all. I know I can't, nor do I want to. Who wants the whole world on their shoulders. Not me! Let's leave that to the One who can truly handle it. 

But we can make the next best choice. Do the next best thing. And often times it seems like it's right there on the tip of your tongue, or welling up from your heart, or something that you can't stop thinking about. That's the thing you should pursue.  I hope we have all sorts of things we are growing in, but like I said before, some take front and center. Reading has been that for me the last few years as I have wanted to learn about more topics and found how joyful reading can be!

But this year, I want to write. I want to stretch myself in my writing as I have stretched myself in reading. Now I read a lot of light, fluffy books. Just look at my  pinterest page and you will see for yourself. But I try to have some books in there that are making me think, even if it's still *just a novel. ;) 

Writing, like reading, can be challenging, fun, a way to grow and learn, an expression of yourself. It can help get those thoughts out and organized which is why I feel the need to do it. I am a sometimes journaler. When I am pregnant or have just had a baby. When we have moved. When I have new ideas or just want to write down what we have done in school lately. But I am not consistent. I hope to be more consistent this year, and hopefully it will become a habit. 

So, here I am starting a new blog because apparently when you don't write on a blog for awhile it can get shut down? Not sure how that works, but I can't seem to get into the other blog. That's OK, I have new ideas that don't always revolve around photography, so it's a nice fresh start. 

My goals for writing:
Write more. 
Keep to my own voice.
Vocabulary.
Grammar.
Writing style.
Writing letters to loved ones.
Reading about writing. 
Just write. When I make mistakes, I can grow from them. If I don't write, I won't be making mistakes, but I won't be writing either. 


Here we go! 

Here's to more writing!