January 2017: A Summary

I don't really "do" resolutions, so I didn't have any lofty goals or plans as I enter 2017. The New Year was uneventful.  It was a Sunday and we went to Mass.  A week later, Elijah turned 10.  My first and oldest child officially entered the double digits.  I cannot believe I have been a parent for 10 years.

I made a cake, took him shopping, and he had a friend over to play.  It was very low-key.

Elijah's birthday is also the Feast of Epiphany.  So with that, we usher Christmas out of our house and pack it lovingly back into boxes.

What I'm Doing:
During the month of January, I embarked on a little project on my instagram account.  I posted pictures of ordinary moments of my day specifically pertaining to motherhood and housekeeping, and accompanied them with uplifting quotes about the high and holy calling of both.  I've been trying to really appreciate and enjoy these hard days of motherhood, and not just "get through it."

How I'm Moving:
I joined a fitness challenge this month!  At the beginning of the month I had been feeling pretty awful.  I had been feeling awful for a long time.  So awful that I went to a doctor.  She suggested that I start exercising regularly.  I was hesitant that this would make any difference to my health, but I eagerly jumped into a fitness challenge.  Even though I'm not an athletic person, and even though it's not really my thing.

Every week a list of workouts were e-mailed to me, and I did them dutifully.  I cultivated a new habit of waking up and exercising almost every morning.  There were also weekly nutrition challenges - drinking water, eating high protein breakfasts, eating an avocado daily, avoiding processed sugar.

On the "rest" days, I found other ways to stay active - going for walks, or doing cardio on youtube.

I pushed myself and I've been so pleased with the changes.  I have more energy.  I sleep better at night.  I am not nearly as depressed or anxious.  I feel physically stronger and mentally sharper.  I don't think I lost any weight, and my body doesn't look any different from what I can tell, but I don't feel awful anymore, and that means a whole lot.

I look forward to continuing with another fitness challenge in February.

What I'm Reading:
I joined an online book club.  For the month of January, we read Raising Chaste Catholic Men by Leila Miller.  The book club is actually Leila Miller's book club, so I had the unique opportunity of discussing the book with the author every week!  It was a great experience!

I have so many books I want to read that I get a little overwhelmed and excited.  I get distracted and can't focus on one book at a time, because there are so many great ones and I am so eager to read them all.  This book club forced me to focus on one book, and since we had a scheduled weekly discussion, I felt very motivated to keep up according to the schedule so I could participate.

I also really enjoyed the book itself.  I feel much more prepared to face the impending teenage years with my boys that are headed my way..

In addition to that book, I also read:

1. The Man in the High Castle (meh)

2. Libertarians on the Prairie (interesting!)

And with the kids, I read:

3. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling

4. The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate (audio book in the car)

Our current audio book in the car (we always have an audio book going in the car) is The Fellowship of the Ring.  I am all about Tolkien right now.  This is my second time reading LOTR and I'm getting so much more out of it than the first time (when I was 14.)

What I'm Knitting
I decided to pick up my long lost hobby of knitting.  Somehow, I lost my favorite hat so I decided to knit a replacement.  I found a pattern, purchased the yarn, and had a great and relaxing time knitting away night after night.  About a week later, my hat was complete and I joyously began to weave in all my ends.  As I snipped off the tail after weaving a thread in, I accidentally cut the hat itself!  Oh no!  All my stitches began to unravel before my eyes and soon I had a big, gaping hole that was beyond repair.  The hat was ruined.

Initially, I felt very discouraged and a little angry.  I mean, here I was finally picking up my knitting needles again, only to end up with a lot of yarn in the trash.  In hindsight, the hat had come out a little too big anyway.  So I can take a deep breath, start again, and make a few adjustments to render it smaller.  But still, it was disappointing.

What I'm Teaching:
As for homeschooling, we have been on our formal break from academic work for the whole month, simply tossing our curriculum aside in favor of unschooling.  This month I resolved to just let the kids be.  To let them go through a little bit of a deschooling process and purely observe them.  This involved a lot of letting go, of not trying to control the situation like I am so prone to do, and of trusting my children instead.  Now that this month is over and we've all had a big, deep breath of fresh air and freedom, I feel like we can carefully begin to reassess what went wrong in our previous approach and method, and how we can positively move forward in the future.

I still feel very much "lost" as to what IS the right approach for our family.

In the meantime, I've been trying to give the kids experiences.  I want them to see and hear and touch and feel different things in the hopes that something will ignite their curiosity, so they want to dig deeper into something.  We've been frequenting the roller skating rink, the bowling alley, the nature center, the swimming pool, the library, the children's museum, the science dome.  You name it.  We're all over the place.

Isabelle is starting swim lessons in February, I am trying to get Anja into piano lessons, and Elijah has an introduction to archery class coming up.

Toward the end of the month, we attended our local March for Life at the state capital building.  We have gone every year for the last 4 years, and this year was the first time I saw such a large crowd of counter-protesters.  They were very loud.  But if you were at the march, it was easy to see which side was a demonstration of love and which side was fueled by anger and hate. The counter-protest was relatively small, but they were loud and crude (something they are proud of.)  Despite that, the speaker's referenced the counter-protesters with genuine love, expressing gratitude that they were there (because all are welcome!), not once stooping to their level, but only inviting them to listen and join the conversation. At one point the large pro-life crowd shouted a very loud, "We love you!" in unison across the way. They responded with vitriol. One side was peaceful and prayerful, open and inviting; the other made a lot of gross noise with a megaphone.

And at the very end of the month, our baby turned 2.  It was another low-key birthday.  My husband had just started working at a new job and was very busy, so he was hardly around the whole weekend.

She (and her baby doll) helped me make her birthday cake, and the next day we took it to our church potluck.  When she went to blow the two candles out, she leaned forward a little too far and her chin touched the flame.  She was a little upset about that, but a big slice of birthday cake cheered her right up.

The next day, I took her swimming at the pool.  She loves to play in water.

And that... was January 2017.