Hello (and Goodbye Again)

So.

Back again!

Has it really been two weeks already?

So weird.

Our first week of school went great.

Our second week ... well, first we decided almost last-minute to travel up north to visit my folks for Labor Day weekend. The day after we got back, we went to a funeral. The next two days were spent recovering from travel and balancing the need to grieve with the practical necessities of everyday life.

In other words, last week was a complete wash as far as school is concerned.

But you know, that's the awesome thing about homeschooling. If we're a week behind ... that's ok, we'll make it up some other time. If we decide we want to spend longer on a particular subject than the curriculum calls for, we can do that. If something is really boring and not particularly essential right now, we can skip it, either figure out a different way to learn or wait until our minds are better fit for it. There's so much freedom in homeschooling, while at the same time allowing us to tailor our kids' education to their learning styles, their needs, and their interests.

As great and freeing as all this is, though, it is still a tremendous amount of work, especially for me. Sometimes I think it would be easier just to follow a lesson plan exactly and not adapt or work within it ... but that would defeat half the purpose of homeschooling, so not an option, really. The main reason we didn't do school at all last week was not because the girls didn't want to, but because I was too mentally and emotionally exhausted to prepare and teach properly.

I am having to cut back, at least for this fall and winter and probably for the entire school year, on all non-essentials in my life. I'm finishing up Grace's quilt (yes, I know, I was supposed to finish that during the Olympics, but I hadn't planned on the evenings being SO HOT for those two weeks and making it impossible to even think about sitting with a quilt in one's lap while one ties it) and another that is so close to being done and ready to send to a friend. I'm making Joy's birthday dress that I promised her. And then I'm packing up my sewing for the year. All of it. I'm cutting back on the fun-but-time-consuming-and-complex meals and desserts I like to experiment with, and sticking with making food that's easy and simple. I'm backing off some of my other hobbies, too, which leads me to ...

I'm going to have to cut back on blogging to only one day a week. Mondays, most likely, because then I have the weekend to write a post. I will still comment on others' blogs when I can, but that's also going to become less regular.

School, writing, feeding my family, keeping the house in livable condition (note I did not say sparklingly clean!) - I've got to shift my focus there and not keep letting myself get distracted by all the shiny fun extra things I want to try. Because then all that happens is I get stressed with not being able to do everything, and so I do nothing.

I want, in all aspects of life, to be the best Louise I can be. And I can't do that if I keep dividing myself.

So, you'll be seeing a lot less of me on here, but never fear, I'll still be on Twitter and will try to update my FB page regularly, and hopefully this fall I'll be able to start making announcements about publishing the short stories I've been working on all summer.

Have a great week, everyone - see you next Monday!