Very Good

This past week, I worked hard to observe our new life, with its new routines and patterns; to chart its rhythym, its ebbs its flows... I wanted to see, much like the Benedictine Monks with their liturgy of the hours, how to work my life around the needs of my vocation of wife and mother. Most pressing on my mind and overwhelming my feelings- not the lack of sleep and endless going but has the need to figure out how to finish up this year's four weeks of homeschooling beginning again the last week of April. The end of the year assessment has arrived and a deadline looms. It is unnerving and scary to have a newborn and all that goes with her AND try to finish up all the end of the year things besides. At the beginning of the week, I had a belief that I could do this, but after this week and taking care of myself and carefully watching and shaping things with the little ones, I know I can do this.

Though it was hard for me to say no to the many other good things I could have done this week, I am glad that I stayed in and just watched and worked on this. I now know when I can put Alice down for her naps, when to play with or teach the kids, how to get meals accomplished, when to sit a bit and soak in some quiet, when to shhh and when to walk away... at least for now. And I know it was good for our whole family too, to regain some equilibrium and a sense of normalcy within this newness, to feel out how things have changed and yet how it has remained the same.

This coming week, we'll coninue to get regrounded. To slowly get our feet back into the classroom- setting things to rights, ordering books, going over curriculum... somehow between the naps and bottles, the cleaning, and kissing of owies.. I pray that all of this will bring glory to God.

I signed up for next year with Mother of Divine Grace. Both Cora and Henry are enrolled for the fall, Cora in second grade, Henry in Kindergarten. The Enrollment book arrived in a big packet yesterday. It's got 2010-2011 on the cover. It excites me. The Catholic Home Education Conference is coming up in another month. It will be my second conference. What a fast year this was as far as school went. And it has been VERY GOOD.