Doing Something Wright

Sometimes you agree to do something completely unusual and later you find yourself thinking that agreeing to do that thing seemed like a good idea at the time you agreed to do it. And you wonder if you should have agreed to do it. But you know you'll never regret it!   A few months ago my family and I participated in our first mini Great International Scavenger Hunt, GISH for short. It was a weekend that knocked me out of my comfort zone AND out of the funk COVID-19 and the goings-on in the world had thrown me into. I wrote about that experience here . So when the opportunity to participate in the week-long version of the hunt presented itself, I jumped right in. Not only did I jump right in, but I convinced friends and family member to join me and we formed our own team.    Over the past few weeks I've found myself explaining what GISH is, the good GISH does and why I need really strange things for GISH over and over.    What is GISH? More than an event, G...

The summer before my oldest daughter's freshman year of high school, she decided she wanted to homeschool. Since I was working outside the home at the time and she was the oldest of 4, her dad and I made her jump through some pretty impressive hoops to convince us she was serious. (Think research into how homeschooling would help her with her future career choice and a powerpoint presentation about why she wanted to homeschool.) She jumped through our hoops like a champ and our homeschool journey began. That first year was rough on me emotionally...I was certain that my child would end up homeless, careerless and destitute on the side of the road and it would be all my fault because I failed her as her teacher.  A bit dramatic, I know! After one year of homeschooling my oldest, her younger sisters decided that big sister had a sweet gig and they wanted in, so now I was homeschooling 3 girls who all learned very differently while juggling a preschooler and a part-time jo...

Today I did things... Last night I couldn’t sleep...so much running through my mind. I was tired of feeling like everything is on hold. In my mind I sorted though shelves and drawers full of things we no longer need. Today I boxed those things up and stacked them in storage until we can bring them somewhere to donate. Now I’m staring at empty shelves full of possibilities. Every fiber of my being wants to fill those shelves with more things. That's what they're for, right?!?! But I have decided to be strategic about how I fill my shelves. Rather than adding clutter, I want to place things on them that matter. I want to organize them in a way that makes my life richer and not more chaotic. I realize my calendar is like that these days...empty blocks of life full of possibilities! We are under a "Stay at home, stay healthy" mandate from the governor of our state. This has upended my life...I'm not accustomed to all these empty spaces on my calendar. ...