Sunday

Today was such a long day. My husband was back from his long trip to California and I just wanted to be home with him. My work day usually goes by so quickly but not so this day.
Shannon and I spent part of the day making a list of wants and needs for the building project. Our list really wasn’t that long. Either we are not very needy or we have no idea what we want. I think some of the things will depend on the final house plan too. I am also having a hard time thinking about the house because the land is so beautiful. I can plant and have chickens, proper outdoor rabbit hutches, flowers, herbs and a garden. It is hard for me to think about the inside when I am excited about the outside. And it will all have to wait until after the house is built. Maybe next winter I can give in to thinking about these things.
Yesterday we went out to the property after work to take some measurements. The kids ran and played. We found an old Pepsi bottle that I plan to clean up and keep in our home. Sparkles found a beautiful shed antler. It was a lovely moment to watch the kids and dream about living there.
Afterwards, we drove through Switzer and wandered through the area where we will make our home. We picked up pizza for the kids and street tacos for us. Sparkles ate her first slice of pizza since her ulcerative colitis diagnosis. She didn’t feel sick at all and for her that was a victory over her illness and fears. Saturday was a good day.

Monday

Today we did a bit of schooling and house cleaning. I did some research on EDR and joined an experimental group. I did OMAD for a while and my IBS symptoms were much better. I’m only partially following the protocol now. My mom’s last visit just derailed me and dropped me into stress-out land. I have had some moderate success with OMAD but I think EDR is a more logical approach for glycogen depletion detection and metabolic management. OMAD= one meal a day. EDR= eat, delete, repeat. I’ll use the rest of March to get my supplies and plan in order and start in April.

Today was mostly a normal day; ortho appointments, piano practice, plumbing class, some math and reading. Middle Boy is just about finished with his school year. He just has some math to do and books to read. Sparkles has only math. Littlest is still working through The Good and the Beautiful language arts and some science modules. I have been working on getting books and supplies ready for our May 6th start back to school.

Tonight we watched a movie about the guy that wrote I Can Only Imagine. The movie was on Netflix (I think?). It was really good and I had a hard time keeping the tears inside. Movies about parental relationships are hard for me to watch. I’m glad that I watched the film but an emotional rawness has set in. And it’s not about my own parents so much as the spiritual pulling that I’ve been ignoring.

Tuesday

Today we worked on cleaning out the school room. The kids cleaned out all of their books and drawers and we ruthlessly tossed everything that wasn’t needed. Some of it I felt sentimental about but reminded myself the memories are more important than the papers. It is time for a more grown up school room and schooling methods. Littlest is my only elementary kiddo and his experiences are so different from the older three. I thought I would just copy what I had done in the years before with him. But that isn’t going to happen. So a good clean out is in order.

I finished reading about Hermes Trismegistus and the origins of esoteric alchemy also known as the Hermetic Tradition. The practice isn’t really about turning literal lead into literal gold. The essence of the practice of alchemy is the transformation of the self. A method of gnosis or enlightenment to raise the consciousness of the universal whole. Consciousness, like life, needs to perpetuate itself. This reminded me of something I read in a Kabbalah book about the  sparks of primordial light that are trapped within all matter and it is our purpose to liberate this divine light back into the universe. Everything in the universe contains this diving light that needs to be cultivated and liberated through the process of alchemy/gnosis…or therapy. Especially methods used by C. G. Jung. He wrote quite a bit about alchemy and how it correlates into archetypal imagery in the human psyche in Mysterium Coniunstionis.   So there you go, the Hermetic Tradition in a nutshell, currently distilled into modern therapeutic practices. Which makes me wonder if the therapist or the patient is the alchemist. Both, I suppose. My next book is about Neoplatonism. The only thing I happen to know about them is that they believed the stars were gods.

Wednesday

Today we got the date for the land purchase! Yay!! One step out of a million closer to a house on a hill. We’re calling it Story Hill these days.

I spent most of the day working on lesson planning. I am hoping the time I take now to plan the year will decrease my planning time for the rest of the year. This is my working theory. I’m also using a digital planner so it should be so much easier to shuffle assignments around and keep deadlines in mind. I put in all of their camp dates today and it only took me about five minutes to make the changes in the planner and make adjustments for quarterly dates.

Shannon and the kids walked down to the creek today. They found one lone Canadian Goose for company.

Thursday

Oldest’s buddy from his Homeschool Adventure class came home with him today. We celebrated surviving our first year of high school. While they were in class I went to the store and purchased pizza, chips, cokes (not the store brand–the boys felt spoiled!) and a cake. I even had the cake lettered at the bakery for the celebration. When she asked what color I said “just not pink” and went to do the rest of the shopping. When I came back for the cake the lettering was hot pink. I found it amusing and so did Oldest. He told me that it all eats the same anyway. The boys spent the day playing video games, listening to music, eating and playing outside. He had an awesome official last day of ninth grade.

I spent the day looking at house plans and Iesson planning and turned in all the paperwork to wrap up the school year for Oldest. I heard a really awesome song on Pandora while browsing through house plans online by Avi Kaplan called Change on the Rise. I am a sucker for a smooth baritone voice. I had enough credits on Amazon to get a couple of songs so I got that one and Come with Me Now by the Kongos.

The weather was beautiful. I spent a little time outside on the swings with Littlest. He told me jokes about being “the king of swing”. Some of the jokes I got but most went on over my head. He likes to say the same jokes (or phrases) several times in a row. I’m not sure if that is an Aspie thing or just him. We watched Sparkles round the neighborhood a few times and discussed why the cows were making such a ruckus in the next field over.

Well, that was Thursday.

Friday

More lesson planning…at least the planning is almost over. Just some math and science left to get into the system. My next project will be to get all the first quarter paperwork prepped for Oldest’s high school program and the re-enrollment forms in the mail. After all of this is done I’ll be able to concentrate on cleaning out each room in the house. I signed up today for a spot to sell my used curriculum in Louisville. I have seven years worth of books to go through and get ready to sell. I’ll work on getting those books and things ready first and then start clearing and packing the house. We talked about getting a storage unit so we can start clearing out the house and getting it ready to put on the market…ugh…so much to do.

Saturday

I worked for most of the day. Shannon and the kids went to the movies to see Captain Marvel this afternoon. I have the whole afternoon to myself. Maybe I’ll spend some time relaxing in the tub after I wrap up this post.

Homeschool Adventure Group
King of Swing
last day of 9th
at the creek
at Story Hill
Boots