The end of May for a homeschooling parent is kind of a nightmare. I still feel like we should be doing something educationally relevant to the topics the kids have been learning all year, but really I want to be done with all of it and just ensure they are getting their math finished then spending the rest of the day on hobbies. This week I let my chaotic side rule.
May is also the transitional period in the Northwest where there is little chance of snow, plants are blooming, grass is shooting up three inches a day, and we have a solid month before the burn ban starts. May is a project month.
I have three ongoing categories of projects in my life at the moment: Hobbies, Kids, and House.
John and I got two major house projects done this week. First we turned our greenhouse into a tool shed. This was two days of taking the old roof off and repurposing it for siding; putting the new roof on (repurposed from the defunct bus shelter at the end of our driveway); and cleaning up the inside space of wasps, hanging pegboard, and repurposing shelving from inside the house. John now has a space for his abundance of stuff which gets it out of the twelve places in the house it has been stashed. I am a much happier woman when I’m not accidentally running my toes into random bags of hammers.
Second house project was getting our fabric and craft spaces decluttered…to be fair this is an ongoing task. Minimalist Mom says to ask yourself “is this space asking too much of me?” And when I looked at our craft area I realized that when I see the bins of different supplies I suddenly start creating a to-do list in my head. I want to use the supplies and get a return on the money I spent on them—which is a terrible motivation to do a project.
There are so many things I love to do; I don’t want to feel guilty that I’m not doing the ones I don’t care for. So! Macrame supplies are leaving, as are some of my sewing and quilting accessories. This was a huge mental shift for me and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
As far as hobbies go, I finished my bowl. It took two more days, I don’t love it, but it’s done. Spent cost fallacy is weird when it comes to woodworking.
Writing has been slow for me this week. I only wrote 2000 words of creative work. My brain feels scattered and overworked which isn’t an ideal space to create from. I keep hoping that when I get some of the big looming projects on our life to-do list done that it will free up some emotional energy and I will get back to those 5000 words a day-days.
End of the school year means lots of wrapping up kid projects. Moss had his final violin concert this week, Linden graduated pre-school, Violet had a mommy and me art project, and we are ramping up for Girl Scout encampment this coming weekend. Where even are our sleeping bags?
Amongst all of the crazy I made sure to get in some friend time. Monday I had our first committee meeting for Broadway in the Basement 2027 which ended with a two hour gossip session. Tuesday was boardgames night at the dojo which devolved into a two hour gossip session. Wednesday I hung out at my friend Crystal’s shop and learned how to do resin work. And Friday was homeschool park hangout, which is essentially a five hour gossip session. I love my friends and the time I get to spend with them. They make my brain happy.
And that was my week. Not so much a hyper focus as a scatterbrained attempt at organizing my chaos, but that is a season that all neuro-spicy brains go through.
Happy writing this week, or not—whatever your brain needs.
Mamasquatch the Writer 
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