Still Life, by my 6-year-old.
Art Camp ended on Friday, and I’m still recovering from it.
Five straight days of driving up to our friend’s house, and then either driving right back to my place to retrieve a forgotten item, or just hanging around talking with other moms, keeping the toddlers occupied and happy, watching everybody knit beautiful, complicated scarfs and sweaters while constantly telling myself it’s okay that I’m not doing a craft. It’s okay. Really. I’m okay. I write. I do dishes. Laundry. Blog. Teach. Read. I do not need another hobby in my life at this time. It’s okay that I’m not knitting or crocheting or tatting doilies or making macrame or embroidering or sewing or quilting.
Really, it’s okay.
Right?
Anyway. While not knitting, and while watching my 4-year-old and another little boy spend the week searching fruitlessly for the cat (who remained INCREDIBLY hard for the little kids to find ALL WEEK LONG believe it or not) I spent a good week just chatting with other homeschooling moms and getting a few phone numbers for other groups (although our social calendar is getting way too full already). After the art class ended, we’d all stay and have lunch together, and then the kids would play for a while either in the yard or by the pool depending on the weather.
By the end of the week, we were all exhausted. By the end of each day, really, we were tired. And we’d get home and there’d still be laundry piling up and toys piling up and dinner to make and dishes to do, and baths to take, and exhausted tantrums to get through. And you get the picture. My kids are still quite little, after all.
What we needed, was a weekend in which we didn’t go anywhere or do anything. We were supposed to go to a barbeque at one of RegularDad’s dear old aunt and uncle’s house. But we begged off, and just stayed home.
You know what I did on Saturday? Errands. Just plain old errands. Lots of them. All by myself. It was really refreshing. And then on Sunday I went upstairs to the playroom and spend pretty much the entire day cleaning it and getting the toys organized. I even managed to box up some of the infant toys we don’t need anymore to take to Goodwill.
Today, though, I’m paying for that marathon cleaning session with a sore back and sore legs. I went up and down the stairs to the attic and basement a few too many times I guess. I keep telling myself it must have been a really good workout. I like to look for that silver lining, you know.
We’re gonna hopefully have a quieter week here. At least, that’s my plan. We’ll see how it all plays out. You know how it is when you have a plan, right?
Hey, I posted your questions on my blog. I think that’s the way it works but I thought I should let you know. From reading this post of yours, it sounds like you all are really getting moved into the community now. What a great feeling. Yay! Don’t you love homeschool? We have uber rich busy times like that and I find myself thinking, “whew, we need to slow down.” Then there will be a long lull and I’ll think, “Oh my, they should be in school because our life is way too boring and we are shut ins.” But I’m nuts so that is not a surprising thought cycle. K
Cool. I’ll post my answers tonight.
And yes, we are starting to really settle in socially here. We are suddenly inundated with stuff to do and people to hang out with. It’s really fun. But it does make getting school work done more difficult. Luckily, we homeschool, so we can flex our schedule accordingly. This week, we’ll get school work done. But that’s for the mornings. Our afternoons suddenly have been booked up for the rest of the week, hanging out with friends at parks and pools and such.
I’m still kicking myself for actually wasting precious time worrying about socialization. Really, there were so many other things I could have been worrying about instead. And I wasted it on socialization.
DUH!
I booked up last year in an effort remain socialized and I burned out so quickly or told myself, “we’ll just catch-up (school) tomorrow”. We’ll be a little more unsocialized this year!
I always wonder where they find the time to have so many hobbies; mine have all been shelved. Are we martyrs?