Sunday, March 1, 2015

Weekly Intentions :: A Practice

Welcome March!

I cannot believe we're this far into the new year. Wow.

Last week went mostly as we had planned. Due to the predicted weather for my area (which didn't actually happen), a few of the things I had hopes of participating in were postponed--a book talk/signing and we missed our time at the library due to closures.

We spent the end of the week working on our Georgia History Lapbook and Timeline Study. We've been able to go into a lot of further study based on our interest levels and having time to do so. We made a tentative lists of state sites we want to visit over the course of this month and the next. My hope is that we can do at least half of our list.

I've been gathering necessary supplies and enlisting help from my community in bringing our garden plans to fruition. There's a good amount of work to be done--I'm disappointed that it's rainy today, was hoping to start today. We will do what we can on the porch (thankful for a large one in this case).

How did you do last week? Were you able to get through your promises to yourself and others? Did you have snow at all? My children would have loved to have some to play in.


Here are my intentions for this week:

Repotting house plants -- I have so many that have been 'holding on' that I need to get this done right away. My mother grows and regrows many of her plants. I always snag a few during each visit to her house. Most of them have been growing in water and need to be potted now that their roots have come in well.

Yard work & Garden Prep -- We have a ton of leaves in the backyard (way more than in the front as we've tried to keep them picked up over the fall and winter months). We secured a couple of rakes to assist this process. We already have a compost heap of sorts, but I'd like to sure it up a bit more and make it a bit more structured. We'll be using pallets for this project. My intention is to get this all started this week.  I've enlisted the expertise of my husband in building/constructing our raised beds. My goal is to get all needed supplies for the project this week and get him scheduled for it once he's free and back in town.

Visit with my elder-mentor-sister-friend -- Aljosie Knight Harding is my Uncle Vincent's beloved. She is such a special woman and I am blessed to have access to her. We made plans last month to get together and just spend the day. My children adore her, too, and have been wanting to visit her space. That's on the calendar this week. During that time we'll be viewing and experiencing two of the sites in our state (off the master list). We are all looking forward to it.

Book Purging -- I've been weeding out for a few weeks now. It's hard for me to give away books. However, we really do have a lot. As my children's reading interests grow and as we get and receive more, I have to find room. We've been rereading a lot of the books we've enjoyed over the years, picked out a few that were our favorites and we want to keep and are giving away the rest. They've been well read and well kept so I've explained to the children that someone else will enjoy them too. (But I think that's more for me than them. lol)

Reading Time -- As always, I'm enjoying learning and growing through reading. I have several books I'm working on and will continue to read on them this week.

Personal meditation and quiet time -- The rhythm that I've created for myself is really working well.  I've been using late evenings, after the children's bedtime, for this.  I get in about 15-20 minutes in the morning too, depending upon which day of the week it is.

Plan to gather with my sister-friends -- Each of us has such a full schedule these days with husbands, children, work, etc. Yet it's crucial that I get with each of them to enjoy the special time of sharing, encouraging, laughing and being. I'll be again pulling out my calendar and connecting with them to get dates on this month's calendar.

Exercise -- we haven't been as diligent about this for a couple of weeks and I can definitely feel it. Looking at the weather predictions, it looks like this could be a good week to start our daily neighborhood walk. If nothing else, we can do some basic calisthenics here on the porch.

Crafting -- I have three projects that I want to begin. One is another crocheted hat. Another is a sewing project. The last one is a painting project. I will wait and see how the week shapes up. Sewing can be intense and takes up a lot of the same place we currently use for our learning time here at the house. I'm sure we'll get to the painting project as it involves the children and we've gathered on the necessary supplies. I will update you on just what got started/finished and what will be pushed on to next week.

Group Learning Time w/Homeschool Community -- I'm beginning a gardening unit with our homeschooling community. I've been working on the details of this unit for the last month. We'll be learning about needs of plants (general & specific), soil prep, composing/vermiculture, plant identification, planting schedules for our region, and a host of other things based on the groups' interest and attention spans of our children. There will be a couple of project that will be worked on outside of our time together, but that's what's great about homeschooling--we can all make the time. Most all of the families in this community are planning to do some sort of gardening this year. It will be interesting to see just how things turn out. I am hopeful that we will again have a good time learning and growing together.

Group Learning Time w/the Children -- We are still going strong with our Georgia Unit (will plan some time to start sharing specifics about this in a stand-alone post). We are also doing daily learning with our story (our history); math; reading. We've been using several documentaries for doing history and science. Our local PBS has had several great programs about global warming/climate change, our affects on the earth and how it's changing the land, water and animals. We've had some rather lively conversations about this. My intention is to continue with this and get in a library day or two this week.

Personal/Professional Development -- I'm finishing up one of the online classes that I started at the beginning of the typical school year (back in Oct). I like that it's self-pace so that I don't feel rushed or stressed about it in the least.  I also am completing two classes that will benefit my massage practice--will be adding new techniques to the menu list this week. I am working on learning some new techniques that will benefit my photography clients, too. I got new equipment which will assist me in practicing and acquiring the skill level I desire to have.  And (yes, one more!) I am also watching a video series on better ways of communicating--it's such a good one, I'm taking my time to really get it so that I can incorporate this in everyday life. I will make time this week for each of these things.

Helping others -- This is something that we do often. This week I've decided to add it to the list as I have some intentional assisting that I'm planning to do. This way I'm factoring it into my overall schedule.

As you can see, I have a full week. I'm hopeful that I will keep my promises to myself, that I will pace myself and allow others to assist me as the needs arise.

How are you filling up your week? For what are you making time? For whom will you give yourself? I'm interested in hearing from you. Take a moment to comment below.

I'll meet you back here next week for our weekly practice of intention setting.

Be well.

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