"I got busy" can be a cop-out, but it's the truth here. Along with homeschooling both of my girls, I was asked to help start a co-op, I started reviewing homeschool products again, became a contributor at another homeschooling blog, took on coaching spring and fall volleyball, and am the director of a ministry at our church. Olivia and I went to Haiti on a missions trip and did crazy amounts of fundraisers, which took crazy amounts of time. See, busy!
The co-op we started ran for two years with me putting WAY more time and effort into than anyone else. Year one I taught two out of three classes, and did all the administrative and marketing work. Year two saw me only teaching one class out of three, but still doing all the administrative and marketing work. We had a family who seemed determined to cause strife and drama and it took a huge toll on the relationships we'd worked so hard to build. Heading into our third year, the drama just got worse. Then one of our most dependable families moved out of the area, another enrolled their student in a private school, and then we just didn't have enough parents who were willing to teach. Co-op ended, and we now just do a once a month fun thing (bowling, apple picking, etc.) with one or two other families. While pulling the plug on co-op was hard considering all the time and effort I had invested, it took a huge burden off of my mind and my time.
Reviewing products has been a blessing, but it's also taken a lot of time and interrupted our school flow. In some ways it was helpful, getting to see and use new curriculum without having to buy it. In some way it was a hindrance, having to work in extra things that just didn't go with what we were doing or how we like to learn. I decided early this year that I wanted to step down after my contract runs out in the fall. I'm anxiously waiting for the last review to post and be done.
Being a contributing writer for another blog sounded fun. Then I realized I was putting all my best work out there on their site, and not getting anything out of it other than another deadline and thing to do each month. I decided that was something that needed to be cut out.
I've coached Lindsey's team every year that she's been in recreation league volleyball. This past year we came away undefeated through the season and took the tournament championship as well! This year though, with Olivia playing varsity volleyball elsewhere, I didn't want to be obligated to be at one place while she played elsewhere. I decided to step down from coaching so I could just be the parent and enjoy these last two years of Olivia's high school career. As fate would have it, Lindsey's coach works every other weekend and can't be at every game, so she does the practices during the week and coaches the games when she's not working. When she is working I fill in and still get to coach Lindsey.
I'm still the director of the one ministry at church. I'm covering both Sunday morning services and teaching Wednesday nights and those things all take time. This is an area I know I'm called to, so this will be a long term thing...and will benefit from my purging other areas.
Momma passed away in March at the age of 90. Although we knew it was coming, it was still very hard on my brother and I. Just a few weeks later, Kiriki died unexpectedly. She'd lost a foot, both kidneys and her eyesight to diabetes and was in a nursing home at the age of 43. Sadly she'd told everyone there that she had no family (although I visited her often and took her things she needed). We weren't notified of her death until the funeral home director recognized her name from being in Momma's obituary and gave my brother a call.
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