I entered into this year of homeschooling, knowing that I wanted to enjoy every ounce that I could. (I've got a second grader and a first grader and a rascally three year old and one more kiddo on the way, come this winter.) I want to enjoy my life and my children and grow and learn and explore and thrive along with them. I knew this would mean that I would need a plan. I consider myself a writer and an artist, so making plans is new to me. But, these days, if I'm going to have any time to create, then I have to make plans so I don't squander all my energy on all the other harder, more mundane things in life, that are necessary, but don't exactly fill me up. This semester, I knew that I would need to be thoughtful about the whole process. I also knew that it would mean I would fl[...]

The week is new again. There's clothes strewn all over our bedroom floor, clean ones at least, because we were too tired to unpack from our "vacation." Brent and I took the kids to family camp for a week and so we camped in an RV. A really nice one, so there was no suffering involved. Running water. Soft covers. Comfy beds. Three square meals a day. I'm a wimp, I admit it. This is my kind of camping. Then we stayed an extra week, because we had meetings every morning out at the camp and Brent and I were the emcee's. We figured there was no way we could emcee the event and arrive there punctually with three kids and my pregnant self,  so when Brent offered to sign us up for another week of lodging and meals, I thought that sounded pretty nice. But, now we're back. We're bac[...]