South Dakota, You're Alright With Me

I learned from my mistakes last year and broke out my fall decorations on time this week.  The autumn season is always more brief than I expect, and I want to enjoy it fully this year: including fall decor, fall candles, pumpkin muffins in the oven, and moody mystery books galore!

Summer eased out rather uncomfortably around here.  We started school, but I wasn't as excited about it as I sometimes am.  I think the dreary weather for a large part of our summer made it feel as if we didn't get a proper summer break, and this school year, which I've known will be a particularly difficult one, has been looming.  I have all five kids homeschooling this year, and even though I feel exponentially more capable as a homeschool mom as the years go by, the challenges that come with more kids in school and older grades always seem to (nearly) cancel out my homeschool-mom gains. This year I can at least give myself the credit of seeing the challenges coming.  

(The traditional first-day-of-school donut.)

Our homeschool days have been easier in some ways than I thought, because I have really got my homeschool systems down after perfecting my strategies over the last couple years.  But it's also been harder in some ways.  I shifted my mindset a few years back about homeschooling as the parent, treating it in my mind as more of a job that could take as long as 8 hours a day if necessary, and that helped transform our homeschool in alot of ways.  However, this is the first year that it actually has been taking nearly 8 hours out of my day, and those extra demands are taking a little getting used to (for me).  I also know this is most likely a temporary thing - our days will run smoother eventually, expectations will even out, skills will catch up, and I'll likely have more time on my hands again at some point.  But right now my days feel packed.

We took a vacation a couple weeks ago, and I'm quite happy to report that it was uneventful!  I think this may have been the smoothest trip we've had in quite some time, and a problem-free getaway was much needed. We drove up to South Dakota, we saw Mount Rushmore (including the evening lighting ceremony, which was wonderful), made a day trip to the Badlands with a stop at the infamous Wall Drug, saw a gunfight reenactment in Deadwood, took a tour of Jewel Cave.  We stopped at Bear Country ( a drive-through zoo with more bears than I could count), and drove to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum (though the inside exhibits were unfortunately closed).  My kids gained a grand total of six badges for various National Park Junior Ranger programs, which was quite an accomplishment.  

Last time we went to South Dakota it rained the entire week, quite literally.  We were tent camping, I was pregnant and soggy and miserable, and we cut our vacation short because we just couldn't take it anymore.  After that experience, we were both a little nervous about this trip, but South Dakota was a winner this time! Overall, it was a nice quiet trip, with no car problems, no hotel issues, and no freaky weather events.  Just what the doctor ordered!

Before we headed home we drove to Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and we also read about Custer and Crazy Horse before visiting Little Bighorn.  It was a sobering way to end our vacation, seeing all the markers on the hill where Custer's regiment was completely wiped out.  We read about the battle, and just seeing the sloping of the hills in person, I could really picture every stage of the battle as the cavalry advanced, and then retreated, finally forming a barricade behind dead horses on a ridge, before they were ultimately cut down.  It was chilling, but it peaked my interest to read more about the Wild West, and I listened to "The Summer Of 1876" by Chris Wimmer on the way home.  It was interesting to listen about different historical events as we were driving past the very locations where they happened.

The wide open, empty spaces of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana got into my blood in a way.  I live in a rural area already, but it's become very much more crowded than the places we visited, and I've been scheming and planning a fall hike somewhere more remote to get that taste of wilderness again.

I usually like to ease back into life when we get back from vacation, but I was forced to hit the ground running last week.  We packed two field trips (one pre-planned, one spontaneous), plus a birthday outing for one of my kids with grandma, into that whirlwind of a week. We topped it off last weekend by visiting our local botanic gardens for a fall plant sale.  We didn't end up buying any plants, but we did enjoy the gardens before coming home to watch a football game.  

Then I drank some tea and and sat down to write this post before scrounging up some dinner.  I've been missing writing on my blog, and I'm very much hoping I can carve out more time for writing despite this extra-busy season.  Sharing on social media has always been draining to me, but writing on my blog tends to give me energy.  It helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and somehow that gives me a little boost to get on with what needs to be done.  That's worth something! I'm looking forward to making it more of a routine again as we head into my favorite season.