Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Are You a Weekend Minimalist?

Are You a Weekend Minimalist?



I needed this today.



It's been a busy weekend and with paying the church bills (Mom always took HOURS.  I hope with my putting as much as possible on the computer I can cut it down to just a couple), and changing school around (it will be better once we are done (and I'll be posting on it soon) but the transition is time consuming.) I just haven't had time to work on simplifying or a bunch of other things I need/want to do (answer comments on here, practice my piano, make high protein snack bars, etc.)



Right now I am focusing on just surviving, but I hope to get back to the simplifying soon. 

4 comments:

  1. Psst. Betty. You're taking on a bunch of new responsibilities, PLUS more or less inventing a curriculum from whole cloth, PLUS doing household management, PLUS grieving. You're a busy bee!

    No one expects you to drop everything and answer blog comments. :) If stealing a few minutes to play the piano would be soothing, though? Go play that piano! Seriously, self-care is *hugely* important. I promise you the world will keep on spinning while you take a little break. :) -- David

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  2. Thank you. Your comment made me cry (in a good way:-)

    I never thought about if the piano soothed me or not before. I love to listen to it, require my children to learn it (if you can understand enough theory to play the piano, you can learn any instrument you want in the future), and have always wanted to play. I understand all the theory behind music. I just need to practice enough to get that theory from my head to my hands. I find it very difficult to set aside the time, though.

    But I guess it does, well, not exactly soothe me. But centers me? Makes me focus? Don't now how to describe it. Anyway, I feel better after playing.

    My inventing the curriculum is, well, different. In some ways its easier than trying to make someone else's ideas work for me. The language arts is going good. I see the weaknesses that need addressing much better this way than when they were just following along a text book, and yet its much faster. I'm letting each pick which history and science resource they want to use (from a per-selected list, since I just couldn't make up my mind). So far, my 9th grader has picked an online, high school program for science and a series of books I used with her older siblings for history (they were written for younger children, but I learned a lot when we used them and think she will too. Kind of pull stuff together. They aren't textbooks, but story books written with the homeschooler in mind.) My next three are reading biographies and using the online program for their history and science (lower grade), plus I am going back to requiring a nature journal. The 11th grader hasn't picked yet. Too busy learning to program animation. He will pick this week, or else :-D (actually, I'm not convinced all the programming he does doesn't count as science of a sort anyway. But he does need more). My 12th grader is a history buff. I couldn't stop him studying history if I wanted too. He's OK with science too, though not as enthusiastic.

    It's been a hard weekend. I'm missing Mom more right now. Just to talk things over with. She was my second best friend (after Hubby).

    Anyway, thank you. You have helped me:-)

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  3. Happy to help! That's what friends are for. :)

    Also, re: your duties as treasurer: my dad's wedding was yesterday. He used to be the treasurer at his synagogue, so the rabbi took a moment to talk about the role: "Sometimes, the treasurer has to say no. A lot of times, When people's enthusiasm carries them away, it's the treasurer's job to be the adult in the room. It can be a lonely position, but I've never known him to be /wrong/ when he said no."

    Good words to live by, I think! :) -- David

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  4. Thank you:-)
    We are a pretty poor church so its even harder, but no has to be said sometimes. At the moment just figuring out how mom did things, how dad did them the two months he had control, and what all needs to paid or ignored right now is confusing. But I'm getting the hang of it. Mom wrote EVERYTHING down, which does make it easier. She preferred pencil and paper for everything and I prefer the computer, so there is some transferring going on, but it's getting there.

    ReplyDelete

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