Habits

 

For exactly 17 months I had no internet in my home. At first I was livid, astonished! Then I learned to actually enjoy it. I even had thoughts of never getting internet even when it became available. Ha! 

We have had internet for a few months now. It has sucked me right in with all it's charm and interesting sites.

I have a love/hate relationship with it. Maybe you can relate.

You see, I desire to be a woman who is a life long learner. I want to read the great books! I want to draw! Paint! Read poetry! Know things! UNDERSTAND things!

I have lost some of that vision. I remember a few years ago envisioning who I was going to be down the road. A strong, learned, grace filled woman. A woman who speaks softly. (If you're going to dream, go big!)  I want to have the strength to be that woman. I want to create habits in my life that help me become her and not have habits that distract and lead me in other directions.

I have been going to bed frustrated lately because I know I didn't use my time wisely. I got distracted. I was lazy. Justified my ways.

When I wake I pray for a good day. A day of greatness. A day filled with more of Jesus and less of me. More truth, goodness and beauty. Less of the meaningless, unimportant and quite honestly, ugly.

Today has been wonderful. I created beauty out of chaos by decorating for a women's brunch. I came home to light a candle, brew some coffee, and read. I have thought good thoughts. Repented of the bad.

I have vision again. I pray for the strength, balance and grace that will be needed to succeed. To be the woman I want to be. I pray for good habits. To say no to what I know will not produce life. To say yes, I can do hard things.

     "Every habit has its beginning. The beginning is the idea 

which comes with a stir and

 takes possession of us. "

Charlotte Mason

I am "stirred" to take hold of my choices and start making better habits. 

Lord, help me.

Nature study while roadtripping

One of the things we made sure to squeeze into our car for our big road trip was our nature journals and all that we need for nature study. Our small backpack was full!

Nature study and journaling with it is newish for us so as much as I want the kids to do it, I am really just making it more and more of a habit for myself at this point. The kids are doing nature study weekly but not researching what they come across by themselves right now. When we do it together I do the research and let them know what it was that we saw, but more often than not at this point they are observing and drawing only. Most things they know the names of but we will definitely be incorporating more poems, latin names, thoughts, facts, labeling, etc. as we continue this beautiful journal.

I was so excited to take a road trip with our whole family! The last time (two and a half years ago) we drove to my parent's place it was the kids, my Mom and I. We had a great time but it was really nice having Micheal with us this go round.

One of the things I was really looking forward to was seeing such different landscapes, animals, insects, plants. We live in a pine forest on a mountain. We drove through deserts, hills, flat lands, huge mountain ranges, and prairies.

Our first stop was Arches National Park just north of Moab, Utah. Huge red rocks! The softest sand you have ever felt! Rock formations. So different than our back yard. It was lovely! I took pictures and we will draw in our journals from those pictures.

Next we stopped in at Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado. This place is seriously cool! We had more time so we were able to get our journals out. 

There were lots of desert plants like this Yucca.

Oklahoma is where we mostly got in our nature journaling. I was trying to do as much as possible, not only to learn what is there but to work on my drawing skills! 

Lots of great things in this beauty filled world to observe, think on, draw, and learn about. Now we are back in the mountains and Spring is here. Trees and plants blooming all around us. Insects out and blowing into our hair! We have started watercolor lessons, too. Our journals are getting better and better!