It’s the first Monday in August. That means the next time it’s a new month it will be September! That’s a wonderful thought for this Autumn lover to contemplate.
How are you doing? I mean that sincerely. I’m not just making conversation. How are you doing?
Our family has been locked down now for five months. David gets out regularly because he can wear a mask and comply with the state guidelines. I know from trying an allergen-filtering mask a number of years ago (due to my EoE) that I cannot wear a mask and Caroline refuses to do so (sensory issues). So Caroline and I have each been to the dentist and chiropractor once in that time (where we were not required to wear masks). We’ve been nowhere else and haven’t seen anyone in person. Due to additional circumstances before the lockdown, we haven’t seen my parents in almost a year. The church we had been trying to attend is going to finally have a significantly changed service next week, but I doubt we will go any time soon. We didn’t sign up for homeschool co-op because I’m sure it will get cancelled and I’m not going to lose our payment.
I’ve written about being blessed with a small life before, but this is taking it to an entirely different level. At the same time, I’ve been pondering if God might be using this entire situation to completely shake up the Body of Christ (the ekklesia) in the months and years ahead. To completely disrupt the dead institutional churches, full of people who do not know Christ, and bring about a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit. That’s another post.
Caroline and I are finally reading through The Little House books together. I’ve tried them a few times with her over the years and she never took to them. I finally told her that we were reading them and she’s enjoying them. I had honestly forgotten how funny they are. But they have also been helpful to read right now because the challenges the Ingalls family deals with are far more difficult than what we’re dealing with right now. I think they offer us both some much needed perspective. At least we’re not covered with grasshoppers and walking on them in our bare feet.
If you’ve ever done a home remodel, you’ll understand what I’m about to say. A few years ago we did a big update of our home (Our Cozy Home Remodel). There were a few mornings in the midst of the months this went on that I came down to breakfast and just wanted to put my head down and cry. I was so tired of the upheaval. That’s kind of how I’m feeling about life right now.
Most days I’m fine with everything. I keep busy and try not to think about it. But sometimes I just want to put my head down and cry at the never-ending-ness of so many things. I don’t think I realized how much I had bottled up inside until last week when I was reading to Caroline the chapter in which Jack dies in By the Shores of Silver Lake. That part of the story has always gotten to me, but I could hardly read those four or five pages aloud for crying.
So when I ask how are you doing, it’s because I realized that as well as I’m doing, I’m still struggling. If you are struggling, I don’t want you to feel alone. And the only way people will not feel alone is for some of us to admit that we’re struggling a bit even as we soldier on for our families and ourselves.
This weekend I decided I was so desperate to finish something that I pulled together a pile of short books that I had been wanting to read and started reading through them. My life has been so full of ongoing, seemingly never-ending big projects the past several months that I was starting to feel desperate to know I had accomplished something tangible. Even if it was just looking at a little pile of short books and saying, “I read those.” So I finished a book I was reading (Mother’s Hour: Encouragement from Home for The Christian Housewife) and read two more short books this weekend (Wait and The Candle in the Window). I’m almost done with another short book which I’ll finish today (Jesus is Family – His Life Together). I updated My Reading Tickler List and added a section for the Read Alouds I do with Caroline. But I did something. I finished something. I needed it so much.
So we have our good days and occasional hard moments. How are you doing?
I’m hopeful two of the really big projects we’ve been working on behind the scenes will be done this week. Seriously.
Coming up this week I have a new high school economics curriculum review to share with you so look for that.
So on to the goals for the week. I’m moving some of my goals forward again from last week. I did finish Goal 2 of organizing our homeschool paperwork from preschool through grade seven. It felt good to get that done and put away. I did not get the other two done so I’m going to try again this week.
Goal 1 – (This is the one I’m moving forward – again.) Update my own binder with my own products. LOL! I need to update the printables I’m using myself from All Products for Women and revisit A Quiet Simple Life Series. Every year life changes and I need to revisit these topics just as much as anyone else.
Goal 2 – Plan for a long fall and winter. I’ve already started writing a post about this to share my thinking.
So, how are you doing? What do you have planned this week?
Artwork: “The Shepherdess” by Daniel Ridgway Knight
A Quiet Simple Life Means Learning From Failure
I’m so sorry to hear you are struggling! I know you aren’t the only one.
I am frustrated with the seemingly never-ending barrage of terribleness and I’m just finished. It feels like when I think, “It won’t get worse” (of course, I know it CAN), someone says “Hold my beer!” and dives right into the worseness pool of muck. LOL . I keep telling myself that if I can just make it through Tuesday November 3, then things can go back to (more) normal. We shall see if that’s the “Orange man bad” normal or the new socialism normal, but at least there might be a short respite? Maybe?
I’m looking forward to your review of the economics curriculum! Since we are in the midst of high school goodness, we’ve gotten through our government class requirement, but I haven’t attempted to address the economics requirement yet.
Thanks for all you do Sallie! I so appreciate your openness and the extraordinary work you have put into both your blog and the forum!
Hi Amanda,
I think “Hold my beer” should be the official motto of 2020. LOL! We’ve got three long months to November 3. So much will probably still develop between then and now.
Good to hear from you!
Sallie
We took a mini vacation a week or so ago because my husband was really struggling. Thankfully after the break he’s doing a lot better.
I’m trying to get all organized and desperately trying to make sure I have all of my research done for at least this semester’s worth of history. I think I’m pretty close to that, but it’s kind of scary just how much history there is for modern history. I’m kind of combining a US history class with a final year of the classical 4 year cycle into what is shaping up to be a 2 year history class. I thought it was going to be 1, but I’ve planned out my lessons through May and I’m only barely through Civil War.
Oh my, it’s a lot.
Goals for this week:
I looked back at my goals for last week, and I got the downstairs mopped, but didn’t get my bedroom vacuumed. That got subsumed by final prep for this week.
So, here’s try 2:
1. vacuum my bedroom
2. finish Iliad product.
That’s a lot all by itself.
Hi Ticia,
I’m glad you and your family were able to get a break. That’s good news!
Your history plans sound amazing. I’m still plugging away at my planning. I’m making progress, but a lot slower than I would have liked.
Good luck getting things done this week!
Sallie
A digital (hug) to you Sally;
As children of our Heavenly Father, we know that we are to have His strength through the hardest of times. The devil wants us to doubt ourselves. It’s victory when we can speak of our weaknesses and frustrations. He knows our words, worries, weariness even before we speak.
Goals this week,
1 = in His precious word
2 = a few new recipes, with meals for the work crew
3 = daily quick cleans
4 = American music/history, Hebrew, the book The Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Hi Birdie,
Thank you for the digital hug. 🙂
I need to add “The Madness of Crowds” to my reading list if if isn’t already on there.
Link for anyone who doesn’t know about the book: https://amzn.to/31eA9tU
I just bookmarked a YouTube video of Douglas Murray and Jordan Peterson I want to watch. I have only watched a few minutes, but I’m going to share the link here in case anyone is interested.
https://youtu.be/JK-l2tgMQRQ
Good to hear from you!
Sallie
Oh, I just realized you were talking about this book: “The Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” I was thinking of the new book. Yours looks really good, too.
https://amzn.to/30qrqWs
Yes, that is the one! I didn’t take more time to write the correct title and author. Thank you staightening that up 8-).
The crazyness of life with 4 cognitively disabled kiddos, plus 2 doing online college, and a 16 yro old who would rather build a go-cart from the ground up than do his history leaves me quaking in my shoes about the special ed programs to come this fall at our local school. It all seems like TOO much to try to figure out!
Goals for this week
find a kennel for 3 dogs for our 5 day vacation later this month
find a good source of garden produce (cheap) to replace the things that aren’t growing in mine this year
start rounding up sophomore year curriculum for my go-cart builder:)
Blessings to you
Hi Christine,
What state or general part of the country are you in (re: your garden)? We don’t have a full blown garden, but we do grow cucumbers on our deck because Caroline loves them. This has not been a great year and I’m not sure why.
Can you work some of school into the go-kart? Math? Science? Literature? Writing? Research?
Sallie
Sallie, we are across the lake in central Wisconsin:) Cucumbers here are not doing well either, and I had planned on LOTS of pickling!!! As for the go-cart, yes, he will get lots of varied credit for all the work/research/etc he has been doing on it, BUT I still wish he was getting his bookwork finished from last school year:( !!!
Things for me are very mixed: we’re in a place that is secure and precarious at the same time, and we’ve been making some very good family memories in the midst of all the terribleness. There is plenty that is keeping me busy here, so I’m way behind on processing it all.
My goals for this week are to get the trash bin hosed out, and to make some progress on the growing pile of mending.
Hi Peggy,
I think of you every time I hear of your area in the news. The leadership in your general area seems certifiably insane, passed only perhaps by the “leadership” in Seattle and Portland. I hope your family continues to be safe.
Any chance of getting out? I would say come back to Michigan, but good grief. Who knows what is going on here. Caroline asked me yesterday, “So what’s going on with Governor Whitmer?” (probably because I haven’t said anything about her in quite some time). I told her I’m ignoring Governor Whitmer so I don’t get mad. LOL!
Sallie