Monday Memory: Our First Year

August 20, 2007

It seems only appropriate on our first week back to the books that my Monday Memory should feature our first year of homeschooling. I hardly took any pictures then (I think our camera had issues), but here is one of Jesse, grade 2, decorating Australia. This was a peanut-butter cookie shaped like Australia, with candies to designate the cities, etc. Boy, was that unit study fun! Our first year was certainly a learning experience. My memory is filled with a mixture of joy, stress, loneliness, exhaustion, and pure content. We had just moved to a new city and bought our first house (joy), just started homeschooling (stress and joy), and I was pregnant (joy) and had Jesse and a toddler (exhaustion and joy). I had absolutely no friends here (loneliness), but we got together with our college friends (who lived 2 hours away) once or twice each month (joy). I was still experiencing euphoria that we lived in Tennessee (and not in Iowa). And so even though I was tired and stressed, I was very content--especially when Duncan came home on December 31st. There's nothing like the feeling of contentment that comes with homeschooling while a baby naps on your shoulder...