I thought you all might like to see a few photos from the past week while I hammer out my mind's dribblings today. The kids finished up their swimming lessons yesterday, much to my relief (I just didn't like being at the lake before noon, I'm definitely an afternoon-at-the-lake kind of girl). I may post at some point about swim lessons and what they did and didn't do for us this year, but for right now it's adequate just to say that J passed Level 1 (much to our surprise, as it required him putting his head completely under water!) and is on to Level 2 next year. And Zoo Boy....well, um....J passed!
Feels good to be back to "real" blogging again! I have LISTS of topics I want to talk about. The first of which is what I want to dedicate the month of August to -- making space. Space in our learning environment for playing and exploring; space in our schedule for those things that are priorities for us; space in my head for making conscious choices amongst the myriad of options.
The first of those goals is fairly straight-forward, and just requires some down and dirty cleaning and clearing of those things that are clogging up our physical space. It's time to finally clear out that room full of junk that we call, laughingly, the Family Room, and turn it into usable space. Create a safe place to hang all that expensive OT equipment we bought two years ago and then stuffed, still in their never-opened boxes, into a corner of that room. This year is going to be heavy on the OT for Zoo Boy, and I need a place for that to happen (other than in our every day lives, where it already occurs). I'm also still in need of a massive tag sale or some serious ebaying time to rid ourselves of a mountain of unwanted and unused toys, including enough Geotrax to stretch from here to Altoona....And meanwhile, our bedroom still looks like, well, our bedroom. I'd really prefer it looked like someone else's bedroom -- you know, one where you can actually see the floor and open the closet door.
Making space in our schedules (or rather, weekly rhythms) is a little tougher. I'm not so good at the whole priority-setting and sticking-with-it thing. I tend to like, at least in theory, a bit of a go-with-the-flow feel to my day. But more often than not, if things start flowing without an actual direction to it, I panic, or worse, feel hurried, which to me is somewhat like feeling miserable. As much as I like to be busy, I really DO desire a more slow-and-steady pace to life, and truly believe that less is more. My favorite days are always those that don't involve a lot of running here and there, that have more of a sense of serenity to them (although I suspect a day of serenity for me might be too chaotic for some folks -- but I'm entirely sure that a day of chaos for me is just unbearable for everyone!). I want that in my life, for my kids -- that sense of not being hurried. Which leads right into my next goal:
Creating the space I need to make conscious choices that support an integrated rhythm for our entire family. I think the first step I need to make is to establish a time, if not every day at least often enough to be helpful, that I can spend in meditation. I have so many ideas for the coming year whirling around inside my head -- curriculum pieces, and co-ops, and play dates, and museum classes, and aquarium memberships, and art materials, and grocery lists, and a perpetual feeling that I really need a nap....
Ok, so it's going to be a process. Nobody said this was going to be easy. But as of today, it's time to get my butt in gear on some of this stuff. I've got exactly one month to get ready for the coming year, including planning out the details of our first block, which begins for us on Tues, Sept 9. (The 10 days prior to that I will be working at herding trials and clinics, so I need to be ready to roll by Aug 29.)
My first step towards my goals, my plans for this first of 29 days? To breathe. Who'd like to join me?
No comments:
Post a Comment