The Return

Again... I took a ridiculously long hiatus from blogging.

I know.

However, I am happy to be back!  I have loads to blog about.  I needed the time for "life", but I also wanted my blog to have a point.  I want to write posts that encompass everything from domestication to politics!

Catchup Time

When I started this blog I lived in North Carolina, then moved to beautiful Naples, FL.  At the beginning of the summer we relocated to Murfreesboro, TN.

I really, really enjoyed living in Naples.  I also am enjoying Tennessee.  Nashville always has a lot going on between music and food, you really can't get bored here.

We have have been getting out and exploring the area.  We even went to an African Festival!  I have not been to one of those since I lived in Jersey.

My daughter is now away at college, down in Miami.  So it's just the three us now.  Well, at least until Thanksgiving break anyway.

Oh, and I even changed my hair color!

Well, until next time!

I'm writing. Again.

Wow, I haven't posted anything since September?  I mean I was aware I wasn't blogging, but wow, September?  Really?

There has been loads of good things and not-so-great things that have transpired.

We're about to take a much deserved spring break and then wrap up the school "year" by May.  Currently Ari is studying for SAT's and Rodney is giving Algebra 1 the business.  The kids are finishing up other subjects and are ready to move on to something else (just after that well deserved break I just mentioned).

I am back to being a full time wife, mom and teacher.  It became painfully obvious the kids needed my full attention during the day when it comes to their schoolwork.  Also, I didn't realize to the extent of how much I do around here!  Taking 25 hours of productive time really screwed some things up.

The really, really exciting change is that I'm hoping  we can relocate back to Florida in the near future.  I have nothing against NC, it's just that I am a Florida girl at heart.  Hopefully we'll know sooner, than later when we can embark on yet another journey to a new community.

I have grown substantially with regards to divination and previously unknown gifts.  I'm not overly into labels, actually, I sort of despise being labeled in general.  I just know I can now "hear" spirits.  I receive relevant and sometimes startling real, messages in my dreams.  I use tarot cards and have discovered my talent of interpretation of the messages I receive.  I have basically allowed my intuition to flourish.  I trust it completely.  I trust my guides completely.  I have allowed this "otherness" to integrate within and around me so that there's now a completeness that I've never felt.  I know my mind.  I know my heart.  I know who I am.

I have definitely experienced some challenges over this non-blogging time period.  I have been actively and intentionally allowing myself to feel what I'm feeling and attempt to stay true to myself while going through whatever the challenge was at that time.  This is hard work because it is very easy to block out all of the hard earned progress of learning to handle challenges life can through your way when the crap really hits the fan.  Fear can be a b**ch!  I'm grateful I am "awake" and "present" enough to even feel, good or bad.  Although I'd be lying if I didn't say I want more of the good!

I promise not to wait so long between posts.  I enjoy blogging, but with any and everything, sometimes a girl just needs a break!

Progress?

Last week, with the holiday and all, I didn't want to have our regular "school" so I made a creative fiction writing workshop for the kiddos.  They loved it.  Ken and I got a kick out of what the kids wrote.  I knew my daughter had a gift when it comes to writing, but my son is a natural.  I love his simplistic, clean style of writing.  He delivers just the right wording to make his point.  I'm truly impressed.  I think my husband was taken aback with how dark my son could get in his writings.  You see, I didn't ask them to write typical age appropriate responses to prompts.  I chose things like, write from a villains point of view.  I had the them do plenty of background on who and what type of villain they would create.  Like I said, they ate it up.

This week wasn't so challenging because the kids were happy to get back on their normal "school" schedule. Unfortunately I'm not quite as together.  I started working a part time, work from home, job.  I have discovered that I much rather enjoy working as a stay at home wife, homeschooler and of course mom-in-chief.  Or as I also refer to myself, home manager.  My duties have been seriously put on the back burner because of the training for the part time gig.  I'm so over it at this point.  However, we've purchased a second car and I have to make good on the difference of the car note, so it is what it is at the moment.

I truly hope my hubby will reconsider moving a little further north of where we are now so we could save more on gas and maybe I could drop this whole part time job thing.  We'll see, I have my ways... wink, wink!

Back to Homeschool Update

We are in week 2 and all things considered, it's been going well.  I have successfully implemented the classical approach to our homeschool curriculum and I'm quite proud of myself.  I invested months in researching the best approach to learning for each of my two sweeties.  I was nervous and concerned at first that I may have made a mistake or something equally cataclysmic, but the kids have actually expressed to me that they love how we do things now.  My heart swelled at that.

Some changes did occur however.  Rodney isn't going to work on Latin, at least in our current format.  We'll come back to it next month.  Arianna is excelling in our current Latin program.  Neither of the kids have started using Rosetta Stone for Japanese (Ari) and Spanish (Rodney) yet.  Mostly because 300 dollars wasn't an option for foreign language software.  I had some pressing issues (aka bills) that topped the list.  I can happily report that the kids will still use Rosetta Stone, just not until next month.  I am sort of grateful we didn't start it yet.  I think they needed time to get the flow of handling their core courses first.  They're doing a lot more reading than they did last year.  So far no complaints from them, which I'm also grateful for. 

I just have one final thought I wanted to express, and that is my utter gratefulness to be in the position to homeschool my children.  My husband was and sometimes still is worried that the kids education will somehow be short changed because of our decision to opt of public school.  I have found that giving him updates and reminding the kids to keep him in the loop on what they're learning helps a lot with calming his worries.  As time moves on, he has seen the changes we were hoping to make within our children by homeschooling.  They actually want to learn new things and will study on their own to get answers.  Again, I'm grateful and I truly feel this is what is best for our family.