Young Adulthood


Auntie Anxiety and her two am homeschool doubts

Auntie Anxiety and her two am homeschool doubts

Let's call her Aunty Anxiety. And I've come to see that her intentions are good, even if I have to squint real hard to see it.

The point of processing

The point of processing

Two big things are happening in life right now, the kids are leaving childhood and I'm actively preparing to launch a second career. And my writing has been a tool to process both of those changes, to chart the landscape at the unknown edges of my map.

A late summer rain

A late summer rain

They'll choose, and are choosing, their own path as adults. But we chose their childhoods, in the same way every parent does.

Wrapping things up

Wrapping things up

On these late summer days, as blackening red drupes weigh down the chokecherry boughs and the pears hang like pendants on the neighbor's tree, everything ripening and suspended, it feels like a holding year. Waiting for next thing to start, but knowing we won't get there till we finish this first.

As we finish homeschooling 3 kids through high school

As we finish homeschooling 3 kids through high school

I don't have the same sparkly idealism. (It's fun! It's easy!) What I have instead is years of experience that have confirmed what was once just theory - it's possible to do something different with education and to build the kind of relationships I envisioned for family life.

Vacations on our way to an empty-ish nest

Vacations on our way to an empty-ish nest

Our children are practically adults now and will be choosing for themselves what to do with their leisure time and how to fund that leisure. Whatever they choose, we don't feel a responsibility anymore to keep the gang together and create summer vacation memories.

A portfolio application to university

A portfolio application to university

The portfolio (not to be confused with the artistic portfolio) explained and showcased all the elements of Celine's high school education - projects, courses, hobbies and personal pursuits, and employment-related learning.