If you thought it seemed like it had been a bit since I put up a new post, you would be correct. One of the changes I’ve made as I started thinking about pursuing a quiet simple life again is to not pressure myself to produce content all the time.

I realized a few weeks ago that we’ve lived in this house six years (this week). Caroline was four and a half when we moved in. She’s now pushing toward eleven. In the same amount of time moving forward that we’ve already lived here, she’ll be pushing seventeen. The past six years have been a blur and it struck me (hard) how little time we have left before she is an adult. It’s mind-blowing to this mom who was married nine years before finally being blessed with a child.

So I’ve purposed to worry less about being productive here and enjoy my family life more.

This past week we redecorated Caroline’s room. No pictures today because I’m going to do a post about it. We included a chalkboard wall which is very cool. Since she’s such an artist, I know she will enjoy it. (Updated: Decorating a Tween Girl’s Bedroom and Chalkboard Walls in a Kid’s Room and Chalk Allergy.)

We’re also in the midst of doing a bunch of other home updates – painting, carpeting, wood laminate, etc. Most of it is motivated by my significant (real) health problems with dust. David is doing most of the work even while he is up to his eyeballs in his own business work. We’re trying to push through and get these home things done so we don’t spend the entire summer on them or with them hanging over our heads. I’d love to be done with everything by the end of June, but we’ll see. We decided to do Caroline’s room first so her displacement would be over quickly and so that while the rest of the house is torn up at various times over the next several weeks she will have a peaceful and normal place to go. Upheaval is tough on both her and me. (Updated: Our Cozy Home Remodel)

As I shared last month, we are updating all of my products with the new logo. We got through about 100 of them and had to stop. Hopefully once David’s flood of work ends later this month we can get back to them. You can see the before and after on my copywork here if you scroll down a bit.

In Our Homeschool This Month

We’re still pretty much focusing on the same things as last month – math, cursive writing, read alouds, co-op, and therapy.

I’m also starting to go through this series of videos with Caroline about the elements. It’s a quick and easy way to introduce her to the periodic table and some chemistry. The plan is to do one a day and we’ll be through it by the end of the summer. I have no agenda with this other than to introduce the vocabulary to her and show her how cool chemistry is!

Places We’re Going and People We’re Seeing

The only places we’re going and people we’re seeing right now are related to Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and the like.

My Favorite Thing This Month

This month we celebrate It’s a Girl Day. That’s the day we celebrate having our ultrasound and discovering Peanut was a girl. We had prayed specifically for a girl all of those years and we celebrate that answer to prayer every May 11.

What’s Working for Us

Last year we had the opportunity to try out Gro-ables. Caroline really enjoyed them, especially the cucumbers. We had two huge cucumber vines on our upper deck last summer and she loved going out and getting a fresh cucumber virtually every day for weeks. (She eats them daily.) Our last frost day should pass this week so next weekend we will plant the cucumber plants for this year.

Miracle-Gro Gro-Ables Cucumber Seed Pod

Homeschool Questions and Thoughts I Have

I’ve been thinking about how to survive the rest of the homeschooling journey. I want to do more than survive, but I’m feeling very burned out right now. I’m weary, but I know I must press on. I’m sure not all of it has to do with homeschooling or parenting. Some of it is just life.

But I’m weary and I’m not going to lie. My introverted self is severely depleted by shopping and decision-making and errands and just being away from home too much the past few months. I love all the different things I do in my life, but I think I’ve hit one of those periods where I have just hit my max.

A Link to Share

I’ve expanded my series of Distraction Free Handwriting printables. Originally I started with print and cursive letter sets. I’ve added print and cursive words based on the 100 most common sight words. I offer all sets with the directional arrows or without depending on your child’s needs. It’s been so gratifying to hear from parents and teachers how these meet a need for them!

On My Blog In Case You Missed It

Just one post in the past month:

• Embracing The Journey Of Parenting A 2e Child

In the sidebar, you can see the most popular posts for that day. It’s interesting to see how it changes as things get shared on Facebook or pinned on Pinterest.

Happy May!