Mama Speak
I'm taking a little breather from the final sorting of the girl's stuff to share with you this week in homeschooling.
March has been a lovely month for the kids and I as we've settled into a steady late winter routine. In reality though we're experiencing an early spring but I haven't been out too much (the kids have) to take advantage of it. I just can't wrap my head around spring in March. I still have too many projects that I had planned to do indoors this month and once those wrap up I will embrace this next season. At which time we'll probably have a snowstorm!
Some of our learning has been outdoors: hikes and play dates at parks with homeschooling friends, a visit to the farm and backyard science.
Other activities have been indoors: a symphony orchestra concert, setting up marble works (like every other homeschooled kid this week who watched this amazing video), drawing lessons, making crystals using the kit Laurent got for his birthday and Celine sewing. Always Celine sewing.
It was a good week. Most days I really enjoy being home with my kiddos (honestly). But this week I especially felt that way. Enjoying these last days of winter (that are suspiciously warm) before the intense activities of yard clean up, gardening, bike riding, trampoline jumping and everything else that spring holds in store.
Over the past year as I've started to share more about our family's outdoor adventures I've gotten questions from people asking how we do this with our children.
I think the overall vague question of "how do you do this?" can actually be broken down into several questions. Two of them being, "how do you make the time?" And "how to you get multiple family members on board?"
As we have time to articulate our thoughts (we're actually quite busy having adventures and making time to write about having adventures is challenging) we plan to answer these questions fully. Here at FIMBY, our home blog, and ADVENTUREinPROGRESS, our adventure blog and eventually in a book devoted to that very topic, hiking with your family.
But before we ever publish a book with gear lists, menu plans and clothing guidelines we would like to help families get started by addressing a few of the basics, one of which is making the time.
Damien just published a fantastic post on this subject. Time is such an important topic to discuss because if you are wanting to be outdoors more with your family finding the time to do so will be one of the biggest obstacles to overcome.
Damien's post, One Day A Week, explains in some detail our family's experience with setting aside one day a week to be outdoors, all together, for the better part of the day (ie: morning till supper). I plan to follow up on his post with more practical tips from a homemaker's perspective. Let's just say actually getting out the door is the hardest part of the whole adventure. Never mind hiking up the actual mountain!
When I get around to writing that I'll be sure to give you a heads up. But to get you started you can read what Damien has to say about how to make family day a priority.
PS: With this recent "new look" you'll notice at the bottom of the FIMBY main page that you can read the titles of the last 10 posts written at AdventureinProgress.
You'll be starting to notice a few changes around here. Gone is the old FIMBY and in it's place is what you see. (Of course if you're stumbling upon this post sometime in the future, say spring 2011, you're probably looking at something altogether different yet again).
This was not quite what I had wanted to present when unveiling my new blog theme. That statement is not at all a reflection of disappointment with all the work Damien has put in behind the scenes. I was just hoping to have more creative energy and personal time to get the look and feel "just right" and then publish it with much fanfare (my own to be sure).
But you know, life just doesn't work that way. And when I started to consider how long it would take me to get this space exactly as I envision it I started to get discouraged (I still am discouraged), so instead I decided to leap and fix it up as I go. Always a difficult thing for me to do.
house in process but still beautiful in the light
This blog is like my home. It's tidy but it's not finished yet. It's not everything I hope and plan for it to be. It's a work in progress, just like me.
I really enjoy publishing on this blog the simple, beautiful and put-together parts of my life. When real life is messy, tiring and sometimes disappointing this space is pretty, clean and well crafted.
But really, my life is just one giant work in progress. Full of projects, big and small, that are on the go:
- renovating our dining room
- learning to make homemade toothpaste
- educating our children
- de-cluttering the girl's room
- simplifying our household possessions
- making plans for a summer of hiking, camping and backpacking
- finishing the guest/sewing room
- becoming a better photographer
- re-organizing our blogs
- growing in my faith
- loving my family and friends
- writing blogs and (someday) book(s)
Some of these are discreet projects that yield a finished product though most are on-going, slow but steady wins the race type of endeavors. That's why I love writing blog posts and making this space look pretty and clean. It's one thing in my life I can wrap up and package. Done.
taking a break from a hike in process
But right now it's not done. It's simply another work in progress which is growing my patience. Have I mentioned before I don't like the difficult life work of becoming more patient?
