House of Cards

(Hanging my head in shame) It's been so long since my last real update on here! Oh dear! I had thought the summer would slow down our schedule a bit, but it didn't ever slow down. And now the school year has really accelerated life.

Here is a recap of the Big Things:

In mid-August returned from a rejuvenating family vacation across the USA. We traveled through a whopping seventeen states in 12 days. Posts and pictures will be coming soon, if I'm lucky to get them posted.

The first week of August was a bit of a doozy, just trying to take one day at a time. In addition to running a Pack Night and prepping for our big trip, I had two double-booked days of party entertaining. (Have you ever raced between job sites dressed as a fairy? Those darn wings get in the way so much! They don't fit very well in the drivers seat. Erg!)  The gigs were successful, and Matthew was able to shadow me to his first corporate party. We did balloon twisting and walk-around magic together. He's getting better at balloons and is feeling more comfortable interacting with clients, so it's great to watch him grow in this new skill.

I also ran my first-ever Pack night for the scout troop in our area. I'm the Scoutmaster, so I get the *fun* job of planning and executing the monthly Pack Nights and any advancement ceremonies. I think the Lord is really trying to coax me into learning better organization skills. My previous church calling was in a presidency. I love working in a presidency because there is a team working together (and most importantly, a SECRETARY to keep track of all the details!). My current calling is a  one-man show. I'm terrible at this without a secretary to keep things organized. I'm learning and growing though. Bright days are ahead as I get better at this.

Our Destination Imagination team is going full steam ahead for the new school year. We have a great team called, "The Hooptyloops". It's full of seven little bright minds who are already impressing me with their creative ideas. We have a jump start on this year's challenge and are already making steady progress towards research and solutions. They come to my house each week for a 90-minute meeting. This year I'm much more organized as a coach and we've managed to recruit families who are happy to volunteer and share the burden of running a team. I'm immensely thankful for the wonderful women who are helping run the show! It really isn't possible without their help.

I'm also teaching art classes twice a week for home school families. Earlier this summer, I had been thinking about what marketable skills I might have. I had wanted to get a side job other than party entertainment, since the entertainment business is often Feast-or-Famine. I wanted a more reliable monthly income that I could use towards paying off our van loan sooner, save up for Christmas shopping, and put towards some of my self-reliance wishlist items. So. I had the idea of teaching children how to paint with acrylics. The response has been great, and I have 17 students divided into 2 classes.

For now we've been meeting under a pavilion at the local library, but we are moving the classes to my dining room starting today. This should be interesting. I'm a bit nervous about paints in my house in the inexperienced hands of elementary students, but I'll lay out plenty of rules, plenty of tarps and hope for the best. I love these classes- the air is filled with strains of classical guitar music while paintbrushes steadily stroke the canvas. The kids seem to be enjoying the class, and this week we will begin our work on a rendition of Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' masterpiece. This should be fun!

I'm thankful for this opportunity to teach art classes. It not only serves as a bit of extra income, but it also serves as the Art class for Sarah and Matthew. They love to paint and it's something that I seldom wanted to do since it requires so much setup and cleanup. But when I'm teaching an entire class, I don't mind the extra work, isn't that silly?

Matthew is delighted to be on a competitive math team this semester. He really really loves mathematics. When he was in second grade he taught  himself how to multiply and divide and figure out square roots. He'd do math in his head and drive public school teachers crazy because he couldn't 'show his work' on paper but he always had the right answers. I am so thankful he gets to participate in this math league this year. Our friend, Gail B., coaches the elementary team and offered to drive him to the weekly meetings. It wasn't an option without her generosity, since the meetings are so far away and I wouldn't be back in time to pick up Daniel from public school. So we feel very blessed with her kindness.

I don't know if I've mentioned it on this blog yet or not, but we are home schooling Sarah and Matthew this year. Daniel was blessed with a fantastic, loving teacher in public school, so he is attending the local elementary. We are very busy every day juggling everyone's different schedules, but so far everything is okay. It's pretty crazy at times, but we are managing to focus on what's truly important (most of the time): strong family relationships, following Christ's example, and serving others. With that in place, I feel like we can handle just about anything else.

I do feel like I have built a house of cards, ready to fall at the slightest disturbance though. There are too many commitments on my plate: Providing home school lessons, teaching art lessons, coaching DI, various cub scout duties, hosting book club (I'm dropping out after this month), doing my party entertainment business, and expanding into educational shows. That doesn't even consider the house work, caring for the animals (goats, poultry flock, rabbits, cats, dog), cooking meals, keeping our daredevil of a toddler alive/safe/fed, and caring for the outdoor part of our property.

I don't feel like I'm drowning, but I do realize it's a fragile existence. I am trying so hard to simplify things,  but good things keep coming up (like organizing group field trips for home school friends, or serving friends in need, or volunteering at the public school, or hosting friends for family activities, or sewing Christmas presents early, or a million other good things).

I keep reminding myself of this inspirational counsel regarding time management, and find myself struggling to prioritize the Good things from the Better things. We'll see what makes the cut.