A funny thing happened...

September 7, 2006

during these renovations. I was able to slowly let go of summer and shift into planning & transition mode. During the last week of renos I was so busy that some of our usual summer activities ceased. Not to mention the weather cooled slightly. And so although I'm not usually ready to let go of summer in early September I find myself more comfortable with the idea this year. A couple things have helped this along.

Firstly, renos threw our routine out of whack. I was anxious to get back into a sane schedule and since the season of fresh beginnings is upon us it makes sense to change from a summer to fall routine.
The weather has been both warm and cool - classic fall. No days really hot enough to go the beach, very pleasant gardening temps though.
We visited the library last week for the first time in months. During summer I forgo the library and head to the beach instead. However, last week I was desperate for educational videos/DVDs for the kids to watch while I was working in the basement. While finding some at the library I remembered that we are studying monarchs right now. So we loaded up on monarch books. On the way out of the children's area I saw one of my favorite mag's HEM - ah this got the good old homeschooling juices flowing. My mind, stimulated by fresh homeschool ideas, thought of how we can make monarchs into a unit study. So much to learn about: science - the actual monarch life cycle etc, art - all the monarch crafts that now adorn our house, geography - monarch migrate to Mexico etc....
The start of new schedules. Both Celine and I start dance class next week. I've been getting arts & culture schedules in the mailbox advertising exciting programs for the 06/07 season.

So now I'm in reflective planning mode. Sitting down thinking about what I want to accomplish with the kids in the coming months, figuring out how to schedule the interests they have. Considering behavioral and heart issues in my kid's lives (& my life) that need to be worked on. Isn't this the way it goes (at least for me): I see a behavior or attitude in my children that is sinful/unacceptable/destructive etc... and it almost always comes back to reveal an issue in my own heart that I need to deal with. This has been a bit of a soul searching time for me, seeing my children's behaviors as a reflection of my own heart.

This is a good time as I am gaining a fresh perspective and have anticipation about the coming season.