Week 13: Slow Burn

Every day this week I had the thought, "Wow, I do NOT feel like teaching the kids today." I did, but not with the vim and vigor that I have possessed at other times. Slumped in my desk chair I thought about the long list of things that I have not yet done this Christmas season (like bought any presents--well, now I have, God bless Amazon, but at that point I hadn't), hadn't decorated the tree, hadn't put up the advent calendar and it was two weeks in, hadn't made the Christmas card, hadn't bought outfits for the kids for recital...you get the idea. Feast of St. Nicholas blew by without so much as a blink from us. I thought, "what is wrong with me?" and the answer came quickly, "You're burning out..." oh. Burn out is NOT good. It inevitably takes longer to recover from burn out than you have time for, and you find yourself back at the routine again with a half-full tank.

In talking with Candace she suggested canceling our co-op the 19th and just having the party in the afternoon, which we had already planned. I felt myself breathe a big sigh of relief and decide right then that I was going to start our break on Tuesday afternoon after holding our little French class that I teach every week to our kids and four other students.

So week 13 was a foot-dragging experience, but we made it through. Matty has had a ton of reading this week, as we decided to combine weeks 13-14 of history and Molly is working on a lap book about Koalas for a report on Monday. It will be a good place to break and get ready for the holidays.

As a family, we have been reading Tabitha's Travels (a family story for Advent), which is the third book in a series by Arnold Ytreeide (figure out how to pronounce that!) I give it a thumbs-up, but I have to admit that I prefer the first two books. The kids are enjoying the story and want me to read ahead every night, but I don't unless I know I won't be able to read the next night. With horrified looks, they whine and complain, "You can't stop THERE!" Needles to say I love leaving them in suspense.

The other read-aloud that the children and I have been enjoying during our school days is In the Days of Queen Victoria, which is the assigned reading from Tapestry of Grace. We complemented that book this week with the movie The Young Victoria which was a beautiful telling of the story of the relationship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. As soon as it ended Molly gave a big sigh and said, "Can we watch it again?" Somebody likes romance...could she be a girl?