She must be in the dungeon...

Illustration by N.C. Wyeth

First off, if this seems a little rushed, it's because it is. There are three things I want to blog about and I don't think I'll have time, but, considering the recent lack of inspiration, I wanted to at least get started. For the past two days, I've been toiling in the basement. Although disgusting and exhausting, it's also been a sweet experience filled with memories and reminders. Kids scurrying up the stairs with pilfered treasures, reminiscence, delirium, and laughter mark my time in the dungeon. Now, I've emerged with fresh insights and a weight off my shoulders. As a reminder for myself, because I may have to go at any moment, my next three blogs will be Chris's Keys, The Number Eight, and Painting Icebergs. I'm borrowing Hannah's idea to lay out the titles first. Hannah's been writing a book and I want to tell you all about that too, but I'll wait on the title for that one. For now, I have to go. The dryer is beeping, I need to call my grandma, I'm going to a friend's house, and I need to get the basement to some sort of stopping point. When I come back, I'm going to see if I can get Daniel to help me with "Chris's Keys", because he's so much funnier than me. And since this blog really has no substance, I just want to end by saying, if your basement is in need of some affection, go for it. There are treasures to be found, there are stories to be told.

 

full speed ahead...

Nothing motivates like fallish weather; must be ingrained from my childhood; you know, all that scurrying, shopping for school supplies, & whatnot. For us, it's kinda weird, because we never stop having school, but still, come fall, things do become a little more urgent-like. I think this year I might buy everyone some school supplies, just for fun. I always loved that about back-to-school. Anyway, we still have a couple more weeks before we switch gears to start the new school year (& we're still finishing up the last four weeks of last year), nevertheless, I'm getting excited. I'll be using the same program for Hannah & Em that I used for Snow & Daniel at this stage, so as I'm reading through the booklists for this year, everything is familiar to me and I love it. Not only that, but we've been doing a chronological study of history and we have now come full circle, back to where we started, and will go trough it all again, building on what we've learned. That means Hannah & Em already have a foundation for everything we'll be covering this year. I feel so blessed that this has been my life, to keep my kids home with me, to learn together at our own pace, to watch my kids grow into their own personalities without the extreme influence of peer pressure and outside agendas. I'm not always so vocal about homeschooling, because I'm always afraid I might offend someone, but this is my heart on the matter. Right now, Hannah is drinking her orange juice with a glow straw in a "galaxy of shoes" (in the shoe closet). Let's face it, you just can't do that in traditional school, and even if you could, mom wouldn't be invited. The End.