My friend Annie wrote a What worked in 2018 post, and I want to try one too, which is a little tricky because I spent more time writing e-mails and publishing patterns than I did blogging about homeschool. So I sifted through e-mails to see what happened; only as health difficulties and homeschool group politics took up most of my time, I don’t want to over-share. Some of it isn’t my story to share.
What didn’t work?
Eagle’s Wings Coop had to end.
My oven door shattered and we had to cook by other methods for a few months until the landlord got us a new one.
What worked?
Laughing with Dan.
My new tablet. Dave from church gave Dan a box of broken laptops. Dan experimented with a seating technique for the microchip to compensate for atmospheric grit (one of the laptops came from the sidewalk and was nick-named “Smoky Cat,” because of the tar and fur inside of it.) My Mom was delighted that Dan used sewing machine oil in the fix! I can listen to podcasts in the kitchen on the laptop, or audiobooks from the library, or look at charts I haven’t printed yet for knitting in another room. K can do the Lego WEDO projects for an introduction to programming because the tablet has Windows on it. Tech is so fun when it works.
Beast Academy Sometimes with K’s wonderful, unusual mind, we need to go colorful, creative and ‘hard,’ to get her to learn something ‘easy.’ We’ve hit math I didn’t see until college here, with 3 different ways of explaining it, and stories. The text book is a full color comic book printed on quality paper. With monsters. It’s just so K.
Asking wise friends for advice. Somehow in the last 15 years of homeschool I’ve made close friendships, and loose friendships, but the ties were enough to call in advice. It’s a wonderful thing to have a trusted friend (or trusted acquaintance) announce, “No. Just no. You aren’t doing that.” Or Pastor Steve’s rubric questions to clarify duties and spheres of responsibility. Katie shared stories from the working world, it’s not just homeschool volunteers!
Reading the book of Proverbs.
Listening for Nature. We had a neighborhood fox for a while. She was easy to hear; what we first thought was someone screaming was the fox’s call. The boys nicknamed her “Banshee”. We also saw wood ducks, hawks, a sumo-sized yet graceful raccoon.
Walks. I had a lot of dizzyness this year, and times I wasn’t supposed to exercise least I get a torsion. But there are lots of photos of walks and hikes as soon as I had the go ahead. I even got to canoe across a lake with Dan and see the autumn leaves. Since I got home from the hospital last Friday, I’ve been able to walk as far as I was before the surgery. Mom credits the PT I did this fall.
Physical Therapy. Nicole the physical therapist got my legs “talking,” to my spine despite the arthritis that we knew about (which kept me walking). How wonderful when pain is lowered and you can think again.
Asking nicely (and groveling occasionally) When it became apparent that I had two problems, not just one, and that I’d need a hysterectomy, I asked my doctor to let me have surgery on Christmas Eve so I’d most likely be home for Christmas, but definitely not trigger the entire deductible for 2019 all at once in January. Then I asked not to have big medication, promising to walk a lot (which the nurses vouched for me I’d do.) I got home on the 28th, there weren’t complications, but it was more complicated than we originally thought.
The nurses of 3rd Balfour, in Sturdy Memorial Hospital. They were funny, organized, kind and knowledgeable.
My surgeon. In the middle of the laparoscopic hysterectomy, she discovered that I had 4th stage endometriosis, and pivoted.
Praying for and with my kids. Having her mom in the hospital on Christmas Day was hard on K especially.
The members of our church. Telling them not to cook for us because of K’s and my Celiac Disease frustrated them so much! Cooking is a love language for Baptist People! So they’ve been dropping GF ingredients off, and giving my Mom money (since she’s been the major cook.)
Cousins. Flute concert, Delta Lake Bible Camp, Cousin’s Camp at Mom-mom and Dad-dad’s house, phone calls, and World of Tanks Platooning.
Orthodontia. K lost 8 teeth that would have been impacted otherwise.
Neighbors. Gary took us to see the salamanders and tree frogs in the vernal pool on Good Friday, and Dan and Lindsay shared their kids with ours.
Fellow Knitting Designers. I joined a private group to discuss business and hold each other accountable. I have to pay taxes for the first year ever now, because I made a profit! It was $12.03, but that means I can say I broke even.
Sunday School. We covered genocide and revenge from a harem with the teenagers (Esther) then re-arranged to do the New City Catechism with the whole church. Both were great!