Time flies...

We have had an amazing and interesting few weeks. I have had to stop and remind myself more than once that to all of life there is a process and flowing with it while asking for direction is far easier than resisting it all.

Of course we are still working through rewriting the parts of gr6 that were lost... I feel terrible for our customers and I can't even count the sleepless/late night/3am mornings that I have dedicated to trying to piece it together and then deciding to just rewrite many of the parts - the silver lining is that when I just decided to rewrite, the parts that were lost came together smoothly and more beautifully than they did the first time. It is amazing what the Spirit will do to get our attention. It also led us to add some things to the DVDs that go with the books that I hope will further diversity and understanding among all faiths, especially the ones that are being covered in gr6. So that has been a big load, but blessing in my early mornings. I seem to be able to do 3am with no trouble - I think a lot of it has to do with our commitment to getting back to a good diet/exercise and proper water routine.

Other happenings that will have things being hairy in the next bit... about 4 years ago I met a woman, Vicki, who had a vision for a Waldorf school - but not an AWSNA based one because this school would encompass many things that would not pass AWSNA requirements. She's a divorced woman with grown children and she has a foster daughter with severe autism. In Idaho the state pays people to care for these children/adults when their families can't or won't. There are many programs here for that type of care. She saw a school that would work with these children, all kids on the autism spectrum and also meet the needs of families that want Waldorf inspired schooling for their children. While I am a homeschooler through and through, I loved the idea of the project and told her then (4yrs ago) that I would be happy to help if I could. Well LOTS has happened since then! After Erik and I got married I lost track of her for a while only to have her find me about 3 months ago. She was working with a group of 5 mothers who wanted a school like she was describing but they didn't know where to start. They were mostly mainstream moms who sent their children to public school and didn't think much of it until they started going through spiritual changes in their own lives and realized that they wanted something more for their children. When Vicki and I met up again in June, she told me these moms wanted to start in September! She needed curriculum, teachers, a place to have the school... um... TEACHERS... she asked me to teach and I just told her that wouldn't work for me, I am too committed to homeschooling and writing to leave it, I love what I do too much! She understood and then we discussed other ways that I could help. The school as a whole has adopted our curriculum guides as their base! What an honor for both Erik and I, and we have agreed to help them get moving. Over the last month I have slowly been easing them into a different way of thinking - two of the moms are state cert. school teachers so I worried I would have my work cut out for me. Yesterday I spent all day training them on basics in their temporary school house (a cute little house that a parent donated rent free until the school funding comes through for a campus.) I was so impressed at the commitment of these women. I was worried beyond belief when I pulled up to the school yesterday - worried that they were just not going to be ready... they too were worried - they were all insecure about teaching as some hadn't taught more than Sunday school and over all about the curriculum and how to bring it to their children. By the end of the day... even though we hadn't gotten through half of what I wanted to, we all felt ready for them to start their journey tomorrow! Yes... TOMORROW! I have been hired as a consultant to the school as they get started which means that Erik takes the reigns here at home while I am working. I will be working M-Th from 8:30 to 12:30. It will be busier than ever as we are still working on many projects here - we will always be working on new projects... we love what we do!! I am so very thankful to have Erik... we are on the same page and he is excited at the opportunity to take more of a teaching role with the children. More about how we'll actually do it all in the next post.

More about us... this has been a crazy few weeks in more ways than one... in the midst of the data loss, we decided to move a few rooms around - a task that we thought would take 3 days took 10... but we are happy with how the house looks, in fact I think we both realized again how much we love our house and while we don't love the way the politics swings in this state or the lack of whole foods options, we decided to stick it out a while longer. Our dreams of San Diego aren't going anywhere for now and we are happy to go for frequent visits. We got such a great deal on our condo in July that we thought we'd try that again (only with wifi next time!) - plus we really want to get to where our stock all comes from here rather than the printer... I want our customers to feel our personal touch in all that we do and I don't always feel like we can pass that along when we are drop shipping some things and stocking others. I feel an IKEA trip coming on... lol... I sat yesterday and dreamt a bit about how I want to expand our space to accommodate all we want to carry. I want a fully stocked Merc. store with other products as well to offer our curriculum customers at lower prices. We are committed to keeping it all affordable for folks. I'll post pics of our re-arranging after I find out who stole the batteries out of the camera.

On a more melancholy note... the boys have been struggling a bit... they are in such interesting places with their age and they have been struggling with how they feel about their father. They really feel like he doesn't listen to their needs or desires and have even asked Erik and I to find out how much longer they are required to go on their visitations. It is hard. I try to maintain a good relationship with their father and it isn't always easy - the same things that initiated our divorce are in the face of the boys right now. Of course their stages of development have a lot to do with it... Jacob being 9yrs and wanting to argue with everything and Harry being nearly 12 and wanting to judge all around him - it makes for interesting times when they see injustice or feel like they are being played. Prayers for them would be great.

Well that is an update. I am working to get us all ready to get started tomorrow on school/work so the next post will be about our crazy but do-able schedule.

You are awesome if you've lasted through this whole post!!