Seven Year Itch: Finding our Direction Again

I am still in the process of finalizing our school plans for next year, but I have to say I am experiencing a wave of excitement about homeschooling that has been missing over the past year or two.  I guess I would have to say I have been experiencing the "7 year itch" in our homeschool, feeling burned out, un-inspired and just plain tired.  I moved through the past year in a frantic deadline mode, just trying to make it through the next obligation or responsibility, and there have been a lot of them.  In January, I recommited to making life simpler, and named this the Year of Less.  With a completed family mission statement as my guide, I have tried to evaluate everything in my life - our home, the things we own, the commitments I already had, and current and future activities.  Organized Simplicity serves as the inspiration for simplifying the home as I am slowly moving through each room and reducing and finding a place for everything.  I have stuck to my promise and not commited to any new activity or project without careful consideration.  This coming weekend fulfills the last of my major responsibilities for the year outside of my duties as a catechist.  I feel as if a huge weight is being lifted.  Ultimately, the computer problems have been a blessing - it has greatly reduced my online time (I hate to surf the web on my laptop!) and apparently one of the casualties of the crash was my email inbox.  While I know there were things in there I will probably regret losing, my inbox is practically empty, so a clean start there as well!  I am now itching to get my hands back on all of my planning files, which thankfully were NOT lost, and as the new school year unfolds before us, I look forward to making it a year to remember.  I hope to have an outline of our studies up soon with our book selections and plan for the year - and look forward to hearing what others have planned for the school year.  Until all of the programs have been reinstalled on the computer, here is a peek at where we are headed.  We will be diving into an ocean of exploration - following the path of the great explorers in their journeys across the ocean with books such as The Brendan Voyage and Kon Tiki.  We will be diving deep to learn about the creatures living under that ocean pathway to new worlds, as well as other aspects of physical science that affect water travels.  We will soar over the ocean for another perspective, and when we finally land, we will explore that new world and its exciting beginnings .   Artists and composers have been selected to compliment our travels, as well as a selection of poetry and memory work.  If anyone has a favorite book to recommend that would go along with our studies, please share, and I would love to hear from anyone who is planning to follow a similar journey this year!

Clean Eating

Lent is certainly a season for less, a time for letting go, of cleaning heart, soul and body.  Clean Week ushers in a week of beautiful services, that our heart and soul may begin to prepare the way for the journey to Pascha.  Hearts are light, having been cleansed through the rite of forgiveness, as we let go of the hurt, resentment and anger we hold towards others, and humbly receive forgiveness.  Now the body must also be made light, since "the body which is burdened with meat is afflicted with diseases.  A moderate way of living makes the body healthier and stronger and cuts off the root of evil.  The stream of meat meals darkens the light of the spirit.  One can hardly have virtue if one enjoys meat meals and feasts." (St. Basil the Great.)   So, the kitchen is cleaned and the counters are cleared of clutter.  Sunday evening the girls and I made a trip to the grocery store, filling our cart with fruits, nuts, fresh vegetables and breads.  We will not cook this week.  We will eat simple foods, with simple preparation, that our hearts and minds may be on God, not on cooking or scrubbing of pots.  We will eat less, that we may pray more.  We will consume less that we may turn to God and recognize our dependence upon Him to provide for us.  We will let go of fleshly wants that we may embrace heavenly ones.  And we will give thanks for the bounty of less that is before us, realizing that even our less is so much more than many who live always with less.

Are you living in Zerrissenheit?

I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.... This is an end toward which we should strive - to be the still axis within the revolving wheel of relationships, obligations, and activities.  Solitude alone is not the answer to this; it is only a step toward it, a mechanical aid.... The problem is more how to still the soul in the midst of activities.  In fact, the problem is how to feed the soul.
For it is the spirit of woman that is going dry, not the mechanics that are wanting... With our garnered free time, we are more apt to drain our creative springs than to refill them.  With our pitchers, we attempt sometimes to water a field, not a garden.
Not knowing how to feed the spirit, we try to muffle its demands and distractions.  Instead of stilling the center, the axis of the wheel, we add more centrifugal activities to our lives- which tend to throw us off balance. 
[The] answer is not in the frequent pursuit of centrifugal activities which only lead in the end to fragmentation.  Woman's life today is tending more and more toward the state [described] so well in the German word "Zerrissenheit-torn-to-pieces-hood."  She cannot live perpetually in "Zerrissenheit."  She will be shattered into a thousand pieces.  On the contrary, she must consciously encourage those pursuits which oppose the centrifugal forces of today.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh  Gift from the Sea

Here, there and the road between

My last post set out some hefty goals and expectations for this year.  I have had several people say they look forward to seeing the "how".  Here I will share with you just a few of the thoughts and plans I have for truly making this the Year of Less.  First, I have to share some of my inspiration.  I suppose the ball got rolling with my decision last fall to read On Wealth and Poverty, followed up by St. Basil's On Social Justice.  Talk about convicting a person to simplify one's life!   Around that time, I also ran across one of the best organizational books I have ever read:  Organized Simplicity.  I can see God's hand in each area, as He guided me to the right book at the right time.  I have worked chore charts, I have made schedules and routines, I have planned ways to organize my household; but Organized Simplicity takes a great approach, first dealing with the issue of "stuff" and then giving very practical advice for how to evaluate your home and the things within.  With all of these ideas rolling around in my head, the Year of Less seemed like the right direction to head.

So, how am I really making this the Year of Less?

The big picture first:
I have taken out my calendar for the year and created a master list of all of the major commitments I already have for this year.  This includes church feasts I usually help coordinate, attending a cousin's wedding, making a wedding cake for a family friend, further training for Sunday School etc.  All of the big things that have a fixed date and will require my full attention.  I then evaluated those.  Was there anything I could eliminate?  I managed to cross a few off the list, which left me with the things I really had to do.  I have typed that list out and am handing it over to my husband.  He will hold me accountable in this area.  I have promised him I will not accept any new obligations beyond this list without having a conversation with him first.

I took a look at all of the possible travel dates we have for the year (travel for above mentioned cousin's wedding, our region's parish life conference, a hopeful trip for husband and I etc.).  We looked over dates and determined which ones we were committed to, and let the others go.

Finally, I have gone back and made a brief list of smaller goals for the year that fit within the overall goal.  Using A Mother's Rule of Life's five "P's", I have listed what I want to change or accomplish in the areas of prayer, person, partner, parent and provider.

Armed with these three lists, I can now look at my year more closely, and begin to consider the days.  I am currently experimenting with a daily planner page which promises to give me the guidance and structure I need along with the flexibility of real life.  As I work out the details, I hope to share more soon!