Whirlwind. Fast-moving. Lazy. Overwhelmed. Underwhelmed (?). Anticipation. Anxiety. Extreme joy. Smiles (til-your-face-hurts). Impatience. To-do lists, too long. Speechlessness. Stick-my-foot-in-my-mouth. Exhaustion. Hyped up.
What a year it's been so far. More than 1/2 way through but feels a bit like it should be December already {I'd even take some snow}. Last year I told some that that was going to be my "CM year". Apparently I was wrong.
This has been my CM year. I want next year to be my CM year as well. Last year at CMI I was really convinced I needed to get CM out to the rest of the world. Of course I am only one person, but there are many of us 'only one person' people out there. CM groups are getting more and more prevalent.
I want every year to be my CM year. But it's not just in an educator's sense. And it isn't just about homeschooling. It's about living. There's always {always} more to learn. Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. Indeed.
I started the year with college classes for my Master's in education degree {that will finish December 18, 2015}. And pretty much no ambition to do homeschool! A bullet journal was started to keep me focused. Feedly was found to try to stay up with bloggers I appreciate. More focused reading of articles/posts on the internet resulted in Reading List on the Net compilations {admittedly attempting to follow Brandy's example}. I also agreed to read Les Miserables; and help lead an online discussion of said book. An attempt was made to also follow other book discussions {CM's volume 2; Daughter of Time; Idylls of the King; CM's volume 5}; I failed on only one.
Thankfully not much happened in February. That means school as well. Fortunately Fox was more driven than I or Lee. But this month found me frantic to add more books to my already way too long reading pile.
March- our family was baptized and became members of our church. The Akron little CM book discussion group started...for two meetings, I think. {Summer dooms many an endeavor.} This is possibly the month that I attempted a lot of gluten free recipes; many are no-gos. I read 1 book completely.
A nephew was born! Fox started a real get-a-pay-check job! My homeschool library really started; I even got stickers for labeling for ease of sorting. Our church started a missionary outreach group. I started making raw cat food. We planted a few pretty plants in the front area of the house to make it more beautiful {it was previously black bark- ick}. I'm sure there was more for April but this is where my bullet journal started to get neglected.
Can I just skip ahead to July? May was my uneventful 37th birthday, right after a quiet Mother's Day. Both of which seem to have caused some anxiety in the family. The uneventfulness of it all. Personally, I rather like uneventful. Or at least low-key. Our church held a revival with Adrian Burden coming to light a fire in us all. My sister graduated with her four-year degree from Miami University {yay!}. And then...there I was at the LER Spring Awakening. Absolutely. Amazing. The thing is the thing. This is what was really solidified for me at the retreat. By the way, if you ever have the opportunity to go to one of LER's retreats, take the opportunity. Seriously. We were able to reenact a day of their TBG community. Again, the thing is the thing.
That's when the CM bug really took a bite out of me.
June found us at CMI 2015 where the kids {I use that term loosely; they are adult sized now} met their friends finally. I shall call said friends the Ferrets. There was almost too much to take in {again- just like it was last year} and I got to meet many more people that I've 'known' for quite awhile online, and quite a few new people, too. That is so neat. The conference rekindled the fire I'd found last year to get out into the world with CM.
July found me in a small little Indiana town surrounded by farms, with a group of the best people on the planet! The AO Advisory and Auxiliary {with the exception of one each} and a little group of forum moderators, and many AO users were there. It is truly the first time in my life that I have felt "At Home" with people that others would think of as strangers to me. My kids and husband joke and say I have imaginary friends. I've known some of them for many years- all online. Not only that, we have the same goals, the same interests, the same little personality quirks. Granted not every person had all these- we are all individuals after all. But it was truly wonderful. I got to meet Karen Glass {from Poland- author of Consider This and Mind to Mind- she signed my book!}, Anne White {from Canada, author of Minds More Awake}, Amy Tuttle {from Peru}, Phyllis Hunsucker {from Ukraine}, Megan Hoyt {author of Hildegard's Gift}, Karen McArthur, Laura, Jeanne {from Australia}, and Katie ...and...and really there were so many more great and wonderful ladies {and a few husbands even!} that I was so blessed to meet. Oh my goodness- Donna-Jean, Leslie, and Lani. Sigh. All wonderful ladies that I sincerely want to meet with again. I find myself remembering who else I met and wanting to put them down here- but I'm afraid I would miss too many so I will stop with the name dropping. Cindy Rollins was there!
I honestly stuck my foot in my mouth on many occasions but you know what? It was okay. There was much sticking of feet in mouths.
I got home for about a week and we were off on a 16 day 'vacation' in August. It was a cross-country trip. In a car. We drove straight through on our way from Ohio to Oregon. With 3 drivers we thought it would take 40 hours or so. I think it took about 45 hours. Talk about lack of sleep! While on our vacation we went through, whether just driving through or to stop and visit, 16 states! 16 states! Who does that?! On the way home we did stop at hotels for the night. I don't think we could have made it if we didn't. We were all fairly exhausted by the time we got home.
And that is where we are now. Life has to get back to 'normal' but it's Monday already and I'm just not feeling it. Woke up on time and even went for a short run, but the day is getting away from me already.
Somewhere in the past months I pushed for a local CM book discussion group. So far we've had 3 meetings, with another next week. Also, there is a semi-local co-op starting that I'll be teaching at {handicrafts- yeah, I'm a little nervous}.
I am still feeling all of these: Whirlwind. Fast-moving. Lazy. Overwhelmed. Underwhelmed (?). Anticipation. Anxiety. Extreme joy. Smiles (til-your-face-hurts). Impatience. To-do lists, too long. Speechlessness. Stick-my-foot-in-my-mouth. Exhaustion. Hyped up.
What a year it's been so far. More than 1/2 way through but feels a bit like it should be December already {I'd even take some snow}. Last year I told some that that was going to be my "CM year". Apparently I was wrong.
This has been my CM year. I want next year to be my CM year as well. Last year at CMI I was really convinced I needed to get CM out to the rest of the world. Of course I am only one person, but there are many of us 'only one person' people out there. CM groups are getting more and more prevalent.
I want every year to be my CM year. But it's not just in an educator's sense. And it isn't just about homeschooling. It's about living. There's always {always} more to learn. Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. Indeed.
I started the year with college classes for my Master's in education degree {that will finish December 18, 2015}. And pretty much no ambition to do homeschool! A bullet journal was started to keep me focused. Feedly was found to try to stay up with bloggers I appreciate. More focused reading of articles/posts on the internet resulted in Reading List on the Net compilations {admittedly attempting to follow Brandy's example}. I also agreed to read Les Miserables; and help lead an online discussion of said book. An attempt was made to also follow other book discussions {CM's volume 2; Daughter of Time; Idylls of the King; CM's volume 5}; I failed on only one.
Thankfully not much happened in February. That means school as well. Fortunately Fox was more driven than I or Lee. But this month found me frantic to add more books to my already way too long reading pile.
March- our family was baptized and became members of our church. The Akron little CM book discussion group started...for two meetings, I think. {Summer dooms many an endeavor.} This is possibly the month that I attempted a lot of gluten free recipes; many are no-gos. I read 1 book completely.
A nephew was born! Fox started a real get-a-pay-check job! My homeschool library really started; I even got stickers for labeling for ease of sorting. Our church started a missionary outreach group. I started making raw cat food. We planted a few pretty plants in the front area of the house to make it more beautiful {it was previously black bark- ick}. I'm sure there was more for April but this is where my bullet journal started to get neglected.
Can I just skip ahead to July? May was my uneventful 37th birthday, right after a quiet Mother's Day. Both of which seem to have caused some anxiety in the family. The uneventfulness of it all. Personally, I rather like uneventful. Or at least low-key. Our church held a revival with Adrian Burden coming to light a fire in us all. My sister graduated with her four-year degree from Miami University {yay!}. And then...there I was at the LER Spring Awakening. Absolutely. Amazing. The thing is the thing. This is what was really solidified for me at the retreat. By the way, if you ever have the opportunity to go to one of LER's retreats, take the opportunity. Seriously. We were able to reenact a day of their TBG community. Again, the thing is the thing.
That's when the CM bug really took a bite out of me.
June found us at CMI 2015 where the kids {I use that term loosely; they are adult sized now} met their friends finally. I shall call said friends the Ferrets. There was almost too much to take in {again- just like it was last year} and I got to meet many more people that I've 'known' for quite awhile online, and quite a few new people, too. That is so neat. The conference rekindled the fire I'd found last year to get out into the world with CM.
July found me in a small little Indiana town surrounded by farms, with a group of the best people on the planet! The AO Advisory and Auxiliary {with the exception of one each} and a little group of forum moderators, and many AO users were there. It is truly the first time in my life that I have felt "At Home" with people that others would think of as strangers to me. My kids and husband joke and say I have imaginary friends. I've known some of them for many years- all online. Not only that, we have the same goals, the same interests, the same little personality quirks. Granted not every person had all these- we are all individuals after all. But it was truly wonderful. I got to meet Karen Glass {from Poland- author of Consider This and Mind to Mind- she signed my book!}, Anne White {from Canada, author of Minds More Awake}, Amy Tuttle {from Peru}, Phyllis Hunsucker {from Ukraine}, Megan Hoyt {author of Hildegard's Gift}, Karen McArthur, Laura, Jeanne {from Australia}, and Katie ...and...and really there were so many more great and wonderful ladies {and a few husbands even!} that I was so blessed to meet. Oh my goodness- Donna-Jean, Leslie, and Lani. Sigh. All wonderful ladies that I sincerely want to meet with again. I find myself remembering who else I met and wanting to put them down here- but I'm afraid I would miss too many so I will stop with the name dropping. Cindy Rollins was there!
I honestly stuck my foot in my mouth on many occasions but you know what? It was okay. There was much sticking of feet in mouths.
I got home for about a week and we were off on a 16 day 'vacation' in August. It was a cross-country trip. In a car. We drove straight through on our way from Ohio to Oregon. With 3 drivers we thought it would take 40 hours or so. I think it took about 45 hours. Talk about lack of sleep! While on our vacation we went through, whether just driving through or to stop and visit, 16 states! 16 states! Who does that?! On the way home we did stop at hotels for the night. I don't think we could have made it if we didn't. We were all fairly exhausted by the time we got home.
And that is where we are now. Life has to get back to 'normal' but it's Monday already and I'm just not feeling it. Woke up on time and even went for a short run, but the day is getting away from me already.
Somewhere in the past months I pushed for a local CM book discussion group. So far we've had 3 meetings, with another next week. Also, there is a semi-local co-op starting that I'll be teaching at {handicrafts- yeah, I'm a little nervous}.
I am still feeling all of these: Whirlwind. Fast-moving. Lazy. Overwhelmed. Underwhelmed (?). Anticipation. Anxiety. Extreme joy. Smiles (til-your-face-hurts). Impatience. To-do lists, too long. Speechlessness. Stick-my-foot-in-my-mouth. Exhaustion. Hyped up.
Thanks for sharing your year! I am living vicariously through you with all of your CM adventures! I appreciate your determination and perseverance in devoting yourself to her teachings and to the modern women who are doing the same! You are an inspiration along with all of them!
ReplyDeleteBlessings always,
Lisa
Thanks, Lisa! Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. I know you are pursuing this as well even if not in the same capacity as I (focusing on education).
DeleteYou- my dear friend- are an inspiration!!