Early March Review - Finding Sanity & Joy

March 5, 2008

I have a lot I want to write and I'm struggling with how to condense it all. I think that's why I love photography so much - a picture says.... you know the rest.

For some inexplicable reason I want to summarize the last couple weeks of our life, I think perhaps because this is usually a difficult time of year for me but this year I'm doing well and I'm eager to share my happier state of mind.

We're currently taking a break before we start term 3 of our homeschool year. Essentially this means less mental & physical energy expended on my part towards the kid's education. Unfortunately, I can't turn that off completely since the kids refuse to stop reading, learning, crafting, exploring and asking many questions. Almost all of which requires some kind of input from me. But I am trying to reduce my school work load for the next couple weeks.

Social gathering & hospitality - we've done a lot of that lately and maybe it's helped keep me sane during these last months of winter. The trick has been in scheduling enough but not too much, I seem to be managing that balance right now. Impromptu hospitality is good too. A few days ago friends, in an emergency, stayed the night on very short notice and that was great fun and quite satisfying to give them a warm bed and good food.

In February my brother and his family stayed for a too-short 12 hour visit on their way moving from Burlington, ON to Halifax, NS. Their visit was cut short by a little fall by Stosh that might have needed stitches and considering the cost of such a procedure here they opted to leave early and receive free care 5 hours away in NB. Although the visit was short it broke up the routine of mundaneness of late February.

Of course we celebrated Laurent's birthday the end of February which was fun but I'm glad the planning is over. Wondering how many more years I need to plan and host kiddie birthday parties?? Maybe we can change direction in the coming years to a fun family activity.

The kids and I have done some out of the house activities lately and hosted craft dates with friends where we made apple dolls. A lame science fair afternoon was redeemed by an interesting architecture display in the same facility. A playdate with good friends at the Children's Museum in Augusta let the kids blow of steam and good adult conversation revived my sense of "I'm still an independent, interesting & intelligent person in spite of staying home 24/7 with my children".

The kids interests continue to drive our curriculum and I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with everything they are interested in (hence the break). Brienne started swimming lessons today and that is and has been our only out of the house lessons all year - yipee! I loath being a taxi driver.

Time outdoors - I haven't had enough of it but the time I have spent has been very restorative. It's all been time with the kids and either I've been able to be in the moment with them and truly have fun, like climbing a 14 foot high snow pile at Bates, or kind of zone out and breathe deeply while they are engaged in play. Although these were not the sun kissed days of June the February sun, icy air and crunch of snow were invigorating. I choose to cultivate contentment in those moments even though I long to be cultivating my garden.

Speaking of which, spring officially arrives this month and although planting is a couple months away I've started planning the garden. This activity has made me at moments down right giddy. A little giddiness is very good in early March. I'm very excited about the raised beds we are planning on building and about growing more of our own food. Every little bit takes us further along the path of urban homesteading and sustainability - whoppee!

These first weeks of March hold more of the same - hospitality, activities with kids, garden planning and time outdoors that hopefully doesn't involve too much shoveling. And then it will be Holy Week and then the end of March and then April. And then I'm through it, those dreaded days of February & March.