Memorial Day Weekend, 2004. We have officially decided to end our formal school year, though we had planned to continue all Summer. Things are crazy around here with schedule changes, financial issues and a million and one activities and responsibilities...I was giving myself a fit, trying to decide whether or not to try to continue. Finally, I looked at it from a different viewpoint-instead of looking at what we didn't accomplish, I looked at what we did. I realized, as I summed our year up for online friends, that we did WAY more then planned in most subjects, making up for the few chapters of History and Math sitting on the shelf, undone. My children spent the entire year absorbed in one library book after another-and not much light reading either :)-and hardly any time at all in front off the TV. We broke off a friendship with a TV obsessed family this year, and I have appreciated our "American Idol free" Spring evenings. My children don't even ask to turn it on anymore, opting for crafts, emailing friends, using Paintshop and, reading, instead. No arguments from me!
My children meet new people this year, made many new friends, many people unlike any they have ever met. They met people with stories and experiences that many only read about, opened their minds and heart to new tastes, new sounds, new customs, new ideas. They welcomed new ideas for imagination, new thoughts from Ancient Thinkers, they learned new hobbies and skills, developed talents and found different ways to think and learn.
We grew as a family this year, as "friends" disappointed us and family proved unstable. We went through many changes, many trials, many lessons, as children, as parents, as people....I found time to read, found time to meditate and follow paths forgotten, found time to garden, found time to read to my children and dance with them next to our backyard Moon Garden, found time to welcome each season, time to make a new friend, time to connect with an old one.
Math is not complete, we have a few chapters left to do. My children are smarter, taller, braver and stronger then they were this time last year. Our family is stronger. My brain is wiser, my heart has only opened more, my mind led the way.....I think ending the year on that note is fine.....
It's 76 degree out, sunny and mild.....School is out!
Sami

Wow...it's been a month since I got my site up and running...a little bit longer, actually...and I had planned to have it completely updated by May 5th, but...well, that's not going to happen!
Lots is going on here at the homestead, mostly the fact that my husband has lost his job. We found out two Fridays back, that his company was not merging, as promised for months, but liquidating....we sort of found that out when we heard through the grapevine that the company's owner had landed a job elsewhere....not fun.
Fortunately, my dh was offered another position at his parttime job just days before this happened, so a quick phone call saved us...Unfortunately, we were so far behind on our bills due to the problems already existing in the make up of the company, we are in dire straights now. We are literally taking food from neighbors and family, and rolling pennies for gas money....It doesn't help that the company is witholding the last three weeks (and for some five) of paychecks....it doesn't help at all.
We will survive.
My biggest challenge at the moment is changing our entire schedules around. He will be working 2pm-12, four days a week....after years of working 6am to 4pm...it is a huge adjustment with lessons, sleep schedules, and meal planning....who wants to cook dinner at 11 am???? It will take some major adjusting, major planning, and lots of patience...everything needs to be changed!
This schedule will offer me some of my life back, however-giving me childfree-husband free hours each night betweem 9:30 and 12! Hopefully I will have the site updated in the next few days, and brimming with new info and insites, the articles are complete, I just need to get them onto the pages and onto the server...
Send me some positive energy, K???
Sami