Needing Something

 I think I need a vacation from my vacation.   We started school on last week, and I honestly wonder if I missed God on this one.   Every day we’ve had a disruption of some sort, and with only one week of school under our belts, we are having what, for me, are too many nights of finishing school at 7, 8, and sometimes 9 at night due to the afternoon disruptions.  I intentionally started early so that we can finish early, as spring fever starts to kick in for me about mid-April.   However…

We spent the week before last at my sister’s house.   A packrat gone wild, she now has years and layers of any item you can imagine around her home.    To add to the equation, her current health state prevents her from giving the home a much-needed clearing.   I say ‘clearing’ because, oddly enough, the house was quite clean, but piled up to 7 feet high with the results from years of shopping sprees.   We spent a good bit of the week creating storage space, establishing what will hopefully become a fantastic yard sale, and removing the science experiments from the refrigerator.   We drove home over the weekend, took one day’s break, and then began school on Tuesday.   Therein lies my problem.   We’re still using a four-day school week, so today is a breather in which I will hopefully gain more energy toward the work before us.

Each year has such promise.   I am so excited about reintroducing music and poetry into the kids’ schedule.   My oldest finds the music distracting, so I’ve not been able to use music—any music—as much as I’d like in our school day.   Yet, I’m enjoying its power as an all new way to enhance our learning.    I’m thrilled when they want to share something with me from their readers.   I’m excited about their excitement over new books, over their planners, and over finishing their work early (minus the day’s interruptions).    I love the way everyone in the house, including my husband when he’s home, runs to participate in the science experiment.    You’d think with everything being at such a great place that I’d be ecstatic and moving around this place like a flash of lightening.   So I almost feel like a traitor to my own plans and God’s blessing in being a bit fatigued already.  

I also think, as someone who thrives on a routine, that I’m slow to do the non-routine items, and I have several on my plate.   All the afore-mentioned distractions are non-routine.  Another is to write syllabi for two new classes that I’ll teach this fall, this time with middle- and highschoolers as opposed to the normal adult learner.    Yet another is to submit an article to a newsletter that wants to feature our business, A Blessed Heritage.    I got the latter item completed before I started this entry, but I have got to pick it up.    Prayer?  Exercise?  Rest (physical and mental)?  A solid gameplan?  A shot in the arm (or kick in the pants, whichever is most effective)?   I need all of the above.   One thing I do plan to do is to get around to more of the "Open House" posts–they’ve been great for getting the creative homeschool juices flowing!   For those of you who will, thanks in advance for praying for me.