Happy New Year, Folks! I hope you find that this year will be full of fun learning ideas for you and your family.

My husband had the last two and a half weeks off in December. We didn’t do anything special, as in terms of going anywhere that is. We stayed home and simply enjoyed each other as a family. We didn’t do any formal learning, unless you consider video game critiques and movie evaluations learning. Okay, we didn’t watch movies and play video games the whole time, we also played in snow, talked with each other, cleaned, oh and we got sinus/cold gunk.

First week of January 2012 and we are slowly getting back into our routines. We stayed up late each night and slept in each morning (unless we had an appointment). I’m finding it a bit hard since it seems the MS related fatigue and weak legs have made an appearance as of late. I’ll overcome it soon (hopefully) and things will be almost normal around here, for our standards anyway. Oh, and in case your wondering, no, I have not made any resolutions – I stopped doing that years ago. I am getting a bit anxious to completely delve into our learning though. My mother bought the kids art supplies; pastels, paper, crayons, watercolors, markers, and so the kids have been using them. I’m glad they are all creative and they all love drawing, coloring, and creating.

Since my last post (back in August) I have been doing well. The organization – well, we’ll just leave it at an epic fail. What I tried lasted a few short weeks: I got bored. On the health front, I had yet another MS exacerbation (which is partly to blame for my absence here).

We are plugging along at our homeschooling and enjoying it.

Hopefully, one of these days I’ll get back into the routine of blogging about our homeschool adventures.

I have overlooked making a few new goals concerning home educating my kids while I fight MS. I’ve been so busy not accepting my diagnosis and kicking it’s rear end that I forgot to plan for things when MS does show it’s ugly head. One thing I have done for this year is investing in curriculum that is all planned out for me. I actually like it, the kids like it and it has relieved some stress on my part. What I struggle with is the organization of it all. So far the kids keep their lessons in milk carton crates. It works. We are still tying to figure out the timing of it all. My two eldest children are basically doing all their lessons individually and I just oversee and make sure they get their stuff done. My middle child is between the independent learning and me guiding him. The two younger ones need a lot of one on one. I know we’ll all find a groove that will work, soon.

Declutter. Ooooh, there’s that word again. Really though, I need to get rid of a lot of things concerning our learning aids. When things are tidy and organized I do better, however getting me to be organized is like trying to lead a stubborn burro. I’ve got to be pushed and pulled to go. I can do this! (With the kids help).

For those off days when MS is being ugly I usually have my older children read out-loud to my younger ones or we’ll watch educational channels. There have been a few days where the fatigue hits me like large boulder that came tumbling down from the top of a mountain and just flattens me out. Those type days are the days I am extremely grateful that I have raised my children to be self learners.

Goals: Organize, declutter, and enjoy my children.

How I’ll organize and declutter? I’m not sure yet, but I have a crazy awesome husband who is a total organize freak. He’ll help me. Now, if only I can just find a personal chef and a maid.

After about a month of no home school because we were out playing in the Colorado Rockies and doing gold panning demos at different events, we are now getting back into our daily learning routines. I have been struggling with getting myself motivated this week. My children are doing wonderfully and event start their lessons without me, but I have been struggling with managing their learning while I myself have been having a hard time with my MS. This whole MS stuff can be quite frustrating at times, but still I push on. I am grateful that my children are so understanding when I’m having a rough day.

This morning a link came through my Facebook news feed, called “Homeschooling with a Chronic Illness: 10 Tips to Help You Succeed”. Needless to say I was a bit hesitant to click on it because I don’t need any tips – I’ve got this chronic illness under control. (Yeah, right) After about a half-n-hour I clicked and read. Okay, so it was helpful and even though many of the tips I know and follow it actually gave me the oomph and the encouragement that I desperately needed this morning.

The first tip was to pray. Ugh! I’ll be honest in that anything “Christianity” related has been a huge turn-off for me. I still love Yeshua and His Word, but the man-made Christianity stuff really bugs me. Anyway, back to prayer. After reading that first tip I wanted to close the page because like “most” Christian based articles the rest of it will be filled with out of context Bible verses. I don’t like that kind of fluff. I decided to keep reading. I skim through the tips and make a mental checklist;  be honest with your children, know limitations, don’t overextend, back-up plans, homeschool schedule, goals – GOALS? Uh oh, my goals lately have been trying to figure out how to do all this while kicking MS arse. I need to work on goals, go over the old ones, revamp and put to action. I continue reading the tips; take care of yourself, ask for help, and sending them to public school is not an option. Wait! Ask for help? That is one thing I have always have had a hard time doing. I have been learning how to ask more and more, but it is still hard. I’m tough, I’m a fighter… damn pride! MS is humbling. I used to think I understood being humble until I had a bunch of MS flare-ups and finally given an official diagnosis. Really, when you are out with friends and you have to ask one of them to help cut your steak for you because no strength in fingers… it’s humbling.

Overall the article got me to thinking about how to go about a new game plan for the rest of the home educating year. I can do this! Oh, and hey, I just may blog about it.

Three days in a row I have come here to write a post, but each time I end up staring at the screen with no words to type. However, after staring at the blank compose box for about fifteen minutes I got up to use the necessary room. What is it about restrooms to give you ideas? Is the porcelain throne so full of wisdom that when we sit upon it, it somehow give us a fresh look on things as we make “a deposit”? I know, I know, too much information, but admit it… it’s true. I think most of us can relate in some way or another.

What has been keeping me from blogging lately?
Well, life really. I would think that with all the life happening that I would have plenty of blogging fodder. I have had fodder, but I lack the time to gather it together and get the fire going. Actually, homeschooling hasn’t been on the forefront of my thinking as of late due to life. I think (I think a lot) that now I know and understand what is going on with me physically I can start getting back into my groove and get into a homeschooling way of thought again.

During my time away from this little spot on the web I have lost forty-five pounds (WOOT!), I’ve been through physical and speech therapies, I’ve had more MRI’s, CT scans and bunches of blood work. I have been seriously thinking and learning of new ways to get through the day by day routines. All of what I have been through has been a huge learning process not only for me, but for my family. My family is awesome, by the way. Oh, and get this, for those of you who know I am a spontaneous person who dislikes schedules… I have been learning how to use a day planner. Zoinks! I don’t makes schedules still, but I use the planner to help me remember appointments, do tasks and just get my funky life a bit more organized. So far so good.

How about the homeschooling?
That folks is about to get more exciting as I ordered a butt load of learning tools (curriculum) today. (I had to keep with the restroom theme!) Writing and planning all our lessons have become hard due to my issues and so I needed something that did it all for me. So, I broke down and purchased a history and living book based curriculum with lesson plans and all that done for me. I’m actually excited about it. My kids will be happy too since they’ll have more to do. They were getting bored of the online lessons, but I am thankful that that was just for a season.

Until my next bright idea, I leave you with two quotes I found today.

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think – rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.” ~Bill Beattie

“Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.” ~Ezra Pound