Holiday Prayer

Beyond the beliefs of any religion,
there is the truth of the human spirit.
Beyond the power of nations,
there is the power of the human heart.
Beyond the ordinary mind,
The power of wisdom, love, and
healing energy is at work in the universe.
When we can find peace within our hearts,
We contact these universal powers.
This is our only hope.

Tarthang Tulku

The sixth member of the family.

Well, now that things are beginning to settle down for us and the winter holidays are kicking in, Im in a space where I am really wanting to get back to the basics of what matters to us. The heart of the matter, as noted in previous posts. I have really learned a lot about myself during this time of transition and construction. I had to really challenge a lot about how I do things and really push myself to keep going. It sounds silly I know, but it was really challenging for me to follow through with this many projects, to wake up and work hard all day until I passed out that night, for months on end, with weekends being the worst of them all. I dont mind hard work, but this was crazy. I realized that I can accomplish a lot in a day, and that I can really pull things together when I need to. I also learned that I have a lot of character issues to work on. I need to really not procrastinate so much (big surprise there) I need to stand up for myself better and let my thoughts and opinions be known. I also confirmed that I have painted WAY too many houses and that this needs to be my last!!! LOL

I think the most important thing that I realized is how tied I am to my home. Ironic when you know how much I have moved in my life (over 40 times). I love my home, no matter where it is or what it looks like. I love being home and fixing home up. I have a truly symbiotic relationship with my home. I figured this out when my home being in true chaos sent my brain into true chaos. I couldnt sleep, we couldnt eat right, we basically had to just dig in and work our tails off to get it done before we could ever even hope to get back to a feeling of equilibrium. I was grumpy, frustrated, emotional, and dancing on the edge of a breakdown on a few occasions. I know this sounds dramatic, but it is true. Having my house THAT torn apart was really very hard on me. The worst part was that I couldnt quit, or take a break from it. If we took a break it was just prolonging the time of chaos. I obviously couldnt jump up and say nevermind either. LOL

This is all a good thing, because now, more than ever, I can see how our home can be a wonderful and positive energy for us. Now that I know how it can effect us, I can make that effect a positive one. I can create that space where we will live our lives, build our memories and dream of our futures. I can create that supportive environment that really does nourish us and helps us to be the best we can be. My housework isnt just about cleaning, it is about supporting my family, their hearts, their moods, their strength and their confidence. It's not just chores, it is love.

The heart of the matter when it comes to my home is that it is the sixth member of this family, and it is the container for our lives. It is a living energy and while it can really destroy our moods and perspective, it can also support us in our dreams and our emotions. It is up to me. That is my job as a homemaker. Not to clean so that people can come over, but to create and support that sixth member of the family so it can in turn, support us.

Zoo...Bosque...Poodles...

Last week was wild. We started our week off with our visit to find Australian animals that live at our local zoo, followed Wednesday by a visit to the bosque with our Roots & Shoots group and topped off with ME's Pink Poodles in Paris birthday party. It was quite the week!!!

Im looking forward to getting back to normal this week. We had our Science Coop planning meeting and winter party today. It went well and it sort of kicked off our holiday season. We wont have Science again until after the new year. The break is nice although we miss our friends.

This week we will be getting back into the swing of life. Hopefully easing back into lessons and getting our house ready for the holidays. Decorating for all the winter festivities. Im really looking forward to all of it!!!!!!

Australian Animals

Our little homeschool science coop wrapped up my unit on Australian Animals today with a trip to the zoo to discover all the wonderful Australian Natives we have living here. It was cold, really cold, but we had a great day. The kids did a wonderful job with drawing and writing in their Safari books and finding great animals. The cold winter-like days of December, January and February always seem to bring us such funny animal encounters when we go to the zoo. Today we had a snow leaopard literally get up on it's hind legs and wave his front paws at us as we waved to him, a kookaburra laughed hysterically along with the kids and one of the koalas was actually awake and the kids got to see him walking around and hop from one branch to another. It was a great day to visit the zoo.

I will admit I am also happy that my unit is now complete. We are a coop so each family does a unit and while it is a lot of fun, it is also a lot of work. I was lucky though and was able to use the framework for the African Animals unit I did last year and just revamped it with Australian animals instead. It is a fun unit which is really about the biomes of a particular continent. We learn about the biomes of that continent and then about the animals that call each one home. Australia was actually very interesting and has a very unique evolutionary history that explains why it has such wildly unique animals. I really enjoyed getting to learn so much more about it.

A day to exhale...

Well, today I was so incredibly unproductive that I can only say that it must have been a much needed exhale. Im bummed that I didnt accomplish much (anything), but boy it sort of felt good. :-)

GM and I had to work this morning at the museum. It was a nice and quiet morning, several families came in and GM was able to show them and hold two of his favorite snake friends. That is a successful morning as far as he is concerned. I was thrilled that we were able to take in some math and knock out quite a few lessons to get "caught-up". Math is really the only subject that I really feel is important to not mess with or jump around in. It is also my weakest subject, so this may all be due to some sort of lack of confidence on my part. Who knows? Either way, GM loves it and flew through lesson after lesson and we got excited to dig back into our regular lessons as soon as we can.

My husband has been working on replacing the mantle in our living room and our wonderful contractor is finishing the closets in our kid's rooms. So clearly we arent in a settled state quite yet, but this is like having tiny little projects going on compared to the previous few months.

I am excited to get to finish painting the kid's rooms and getting them settled into their new space. That is HUGE!! I have been feeling so guilty about how they have been having to live in chaos for so many weeks on end, and believe me, you can see it in their behavior. Unfortunately I just dont know how to make it better without just digging in and getting it done. Were almost there... really....

ME is having her birthday party next weekend and she is all excited about that! Pink Poodles in Paris is her theme. She went poodle crazy a couple months ago after getting one as a gift. She has officially gone "girly" on me and is all about pink, sparkles and puppy dogs. It is so funny.

Anyhow, I thought I would update as we continue our journey back to normal. :-)

My life has not been my own!

There just is no other way to describe it. My life has been nothing more than a long, long, long to-do list and the only way to regain control over it is to finish the list. I am having the hardest time with the whole thing. I feel like I set up my life to be really simple, uncomplicated and by all means not filled with to-do lists, yet here I am.

We have been under FULL construction for a few months now. It has really been very hard on all of us. Worth it? yes, it really will be; but WOW I didnt foresee the amount of chaos it would bring into our lives.

We are getting closer to normal everyday and especially lately. We have about 6 or 7 large in-house projects to complete and then the interior of the house will be settled. The yard and garage will take a bit longer. Im hoping by Christmas.

I really have missed getting to write in this way. I have barely seen my computer, much less gotten to sit and type on it. LOL

Anyway, we are getting closer and closer to normal and I am even hoping to get back to lessons on Monday. We really miss it and need it!!!!