a real post...

Hello friends, I hope everyone is well and enjoying this new year!

(Early the other morning, the moon still up, peeking through the pines.)

So, the amazing mother artist woman Angela has been doing some great writing on her blog lately. She has had me in a quite contemplative mood. (Actually many of you have, lots of great new year/inspirational talk going on!) So, I was catching up on Angela's blog the other day and she was writing about being real. A friend of hers gave her an award for being real, and I saw that I was among those that she passed the award on to. I so appreciate that she thought of me, though was kind of surprised too. I guess I'm not sure that I have been sharing any great amounts of reality here lately. Or maybe I have... I don't have time to go back and read my own posts at the moment... And really I think there may still be some shyness going on here. Anyhow... yes, I have been fairly thoughtful lately. Though I guess I always am. What I am thinking about? Ha ha! Probably about 100 different things! See, now that gets me thinking about focus... I certainly need some! I still haven't even gotten to my point yet. But here it is... I just wanted to spend some time sharing some more real bits of our days, our life. But now it is getting late, I haven't said much of anything yet, I think we may have to settle for a rambling paragraph... (can you tell I am in a rambling mood?) here I go...

rambling bits of reality... We had a long day. We went to town, but didn't go until past noon because Chloe and I had lesson work to do in the morning. It went very well. I breathed a deep sigh of relief when it was over. Since last spring our lesson time has definitely been a bit more challenging, Chloe is not always the willing student, and I am not always the most patient teacher. It sure can frustrating! But we are both trying really hard and it is getting better. I would say mostly it's those darn times tables causing the problems. (Oh my, it's like I swore. I almost feel like I should delete it.) She always enjoys our main lesson work though. She is such an artist with her writing and her drawings. Soon I will finally post some pictures of what we did this past autumn. We have a lesson book made of watercolor paintings from our creation story block. And we spent an entire month making a farming story lesson book, that we will be continuing during a second block this spring. Hmm, well now this is almost turning into a homeschool post. There's not too much more to say about our day anyway. Enjoyed our drive to town as always, the girls sang most of the way, first Christmas songs, then farm songs. Last week Chessa sang all the way to my brother-in-law's house, 45 minutes! Of course once we got to the house she didn't say a word, not for several hours. She won't talk in front of other people. Interesting, yes? Oh, sweet little Chessa. She will make eye contact if she likes you though. And she is so very expressive, even without her voice.

Ok, there, I told you it would be rambling. And I shall return with more soon. Also on my mind is Suzy's One Small Change Project. I have seen some super neat posts from others taking part and am excited with thoughts of my own.

Well wishes to all!
Renee :)