Catching Up Again

Hey there!

Are you there?  Are you well? Missing you all. I think ya'll should start blogs as well! :)  I'll read it.

Well, we are here and well. I just haven't had the opportunity to stop in here much. Phew! Life is so full. So many details and priorities.  It does feel like juggling lots of little and big balls. One can't have every single ball in the air at ALL times.

So what "balls" do we have in the air these days?

Well, we've got these four kiddos for starters. Educating three of them is quite the juggling act for me. The boys are busy with their checklists that I write out for them everyday. Reading Roman history, memorizing math facts, writing assignments, Latin, grammar, handwriting, and so on. Nutmeg and I get some time together everyday to talk math and phonics. Inching along at a steady but slow pace. Every night after a long day, I must read through the boys' math lesson for the next day and go through anything else new for the next day. Today (Wednesday) will be our art lesson, so last night I read through that I made sure our supplies are in order.

In the midst of all this educating, you've got Energy-Man Mace. Mr. Basketball. Always, always shooting hoops. He's hilarious. We educate around him. Not the easiest but we do our best. Thankfully he goes down well for his afternoon naps. Phew.

Each week we are driving down to Madison for our homeschool group. Love it; wouldn't change that for the world. It is a big change and proves to add to the "busyness" but we are so happy to be doing it. We are rubbing shoulders with some super families.

Looking after our well-being is ball to be juggled as well. I try (often lamely) to get some sleep so that I can get up early to care for my spiritual and physical well-being. This morning I was able to get up early so I can write to you, read/pray, AND go out for a walk. Actually, I should probably get out there now. I find it tougher to get outside with the dark, cold weather setting in. Darkness makes me just want to sleep.

One major item to work around has been trips to the chiropractor. (PLEASE do not tell me if you are not a big fan of the chiropractor.) I've been struggling with neck pain for several months now. I was even getting to the point of it locking up on me. I finally couldn't handle it anymore when I started getting intense daily headaches. We have a friend who is a good chiropractor. He helped me when I was pregnant with Mace. So I went in several weeks ago and had an x-ray of my spine. Five of the seven vertebrae in my neck are not moving properly. A couple not at all. And the cushioning between the bone has deteriorated. I also have a curve in my upper back that should not be there. I am not surprised too much about the curve because I've had mid and upper back pain for years.

So anyhow, we are investing time and money to make my health a priority. It has been a doozy in our schedule. I have been driving to a town 30 minutes twice a week with the kids. It's been a challenge to keep it up.  The good thing is that we love the library in this town. It is excellent. It is also good to get out of the house and study someplace new. So we take our backpacks with and do some studying at the library for a while. Mace runs around like crazy, so I'm not able to do a lesson with the boys but they are able to work on their checklists independently.

On a happy note is the garden. I've been thinking of doing a big garden post. What a joyful success it has been this year!  I"ll get back here to write more about it. Anyhow, these last two weeks I've been busy putting the garden to sleep and prepping for next spring. I've been trying some new things. More on this later.

What else? Nutmeg has been in soccer. Enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Spending time with friends. Immersing ourselves in rich faith tradition.  Etc.

Alrighty, time to get out for that early morning walk! I think I"ll get to watch the sun rise this morning. Wahoo!! Then I'll get back and post a few pics here.

Have a good rest of your week!  Keep in touch. We love you!!!

Ruthie

(The kids and I went out for a brief nature walk this morning. It is unseasonably warm this week. Lovely! Unfortunately the camera battery died, so I couldn't capture all I would have liked to)

Our drive to the trail.

Double duty. Memorizing Shakespeare as we begin our walk. We've almost got this one. 

Besides basketball, balls, and books, this guy LOVES to jump. He jumps off everything. So here is he stopping at every rock to stand on it and and then JUMP. . .