One Step Forward….

…Two Steps Back.  That has been my week.

BEFORE…. please stand by for AFTER.

The walls in our entry, living room, dining room and stairwell have been brown for 9.5 years. I realized I didn’t like the color the DAY we painted it on the blinkin’ walls. A re-do was definitely overdue times 10, so a misty mountain light turquoise color was chosen and has been applied to the x-brown walls…. in two layers, unfortunately. The only area not complete is the stairwell. It’s my nemesis at the moment. I am highly distracted by EVERY other thing possible so I don’t have to conquer the stairwell til I’m ready… like washing windows, shopping for new lamp shades, painting baskets, searching for treasures around the house to move to their new place in the misty mountain terrain.

Monday: Figured out we need DOUBLE the paint amount…bummer. Back to Lowe’s.

Tuesday: Sanded three layers of paint from my darling DIY end tables in an attempt to make them look rustic… and I hate it. Starting over. Need more paint… again. Back to Lowe’s.

Wednesday: Shopping for a bench, couch and ottoman…. came home with three velvet pillows, two turquoise and one orange.

Thursday: In trying to re-hang the curtains, 3 of 8 wall screws with supports were pulled from their resting places, leaving large holes…. filled the holes. Need larger supports and bigger screws. Back to Lowe’s.

Friday: Shopping for a bench, couch and ottoman… came home with two gorgeous lampshades.

Saturday: Climbed up the ladder to clean the dining room hanging light. All cleaned… then I screwed the gigantic light bulb back in and the glass bulb separated from the metal screwing part…. back to Lowe’s.

Some day, hopefully in November, I will share the after pictures of the misty mountain oasis in the Sonoran Desert. The real story would be the daily pictures of me wearing painting clothes and not swearing. Sheesh.

August Schmaugust!

I’m not real thrilled that it is August. This is the month that school is supposed to start at LAKE Academy… our homeschool.  I am at the lake currently (Lake Tahoe) and I am slightly getting inspired to start thinking about getting ready to begin maybe planning some of our curriculum, being that we are studying a few national parks this year that are also in California with huge redwood trees like the ones I am staring at out the window.  I am the most unready of all 11 of my previous Augusts.  And I am almost okay with that.  Almost.

Guilt tried to consume me last night in the 27 seconds between my head hitting the pillow and when I was actually asleep.  But it was only 27 seconds of guilt and I had the presence of mind to ask God to rid my brain of said guilt.  He did… with sleep.  Today, in the wake of realizing that it is August THIRD, I did break out the coil-bound notebook that does have 2 1/3 pages of notes.  Those two-and-one-third pages are ALL I have planned so far for 10 months of study with my three pupils…. and it’s in outline form, so I do have a bit of work to do.  Only 137 1/3 blank pages awaiting my attention. One thing I have learned in my 11 years of homeschool planning, is that IF I plan all ten months before we start, we will NOT finish what I have purposefully painstakingly planned.  If I plan a few months or units at a time, I am FAR more inspired to be creative in small chunks throughout the year, knowing that we WILL finish what is planned.

Our upcoming school-year will consist of the study of seven national parks on the western side of the United States.  We plan to do between four and six weeks of study at home and then CAMP for a week at each of the parks.  THAT is my kind of homeschooling.  We are schooling with another family who is also close to normal, so it will all be just fine. Yes, it will be two wild-n-crazy homeschool moms camping with eight children ranging in age from 7 to 17.  Awesome!  She is a science geek and I am a history nerd, so most subjects will be covered with some art thrown in for good measure.  Geology.  Astronomy.  History.  Conservation.  Botany.  Dendrochronology.  Eco systems. Nature Journaling.  Art.  Oh yeah.  This is the type of homeschooling that I have only dreamed of for 11 years.  Please stay tuned to see if it’s all I think it’s cracked up to be.

A Crazy Lady

A close friend of mine has six kids.  I have thought many times about how crazy I would be if I had six kids.  Then I realized that one of hers is away at college…. so there are only five at home.  (See, my math skills from kindergarten are still functioning!)  Five kids still seems like a lot in my mind.  That’s a lot of mouths to feed.  She also homeschools… and that is a lot of kids to school.  Then it dawned on me that I have four kids.  That is only one less than five kids.  I’m so close to being crazy in my own mind… it’s a little scary. 

That was just one of my brilliant realizations as I was away from my four kids at a scrapbooking retreat this past weekend.  See how relaxed and focused I can be if uninterrupted? 

God has been showing up in all the details again… yes, again.  Remember a few years back when I had the word/topic of “honor” brought before my blinkin’ eyes six times before I realized the God moment???  Well, praise be to Baby Jesus and the angels who watch over us, this time it only took THREE times for me to catch on to “Praying for my Children.”  Our pastor spoke on intentional prayer last weekend… especially about parents praying.  Then my Dad showed up on my doorstep with another book in hand called The Blessing of Obedience, an amazing autobiography of a man and wife who prayed and heard from the living God.  THEN… I had already caught onto the subject, but simply to confirm my new direction of focus, I spotted only one workbook of interest at a second-hand store this weekend…. The Power of a Praying Parent.  And I bought it for $1.49. 

The six childrened-friend was also away with me and I mentioned this pattern of focussed prayer for my children.  She acknowledged that it may be what is needed NOW in my life to fend off what might have happened had I not listened in church, read my dad’s book and found the used workbook … all on prayer for my kids.

Amen.  That’s it.  Amen.