14 hours ago
Currently I am…
Watching… my kids swing at the park. The weather has been unseasonably warm, and they convinced me we needed a park day. I would be enjoying the weather if it weren’t for the increased threat of wildfires. Everyone in my state is pretty anxious about the summer months because of a general lack of snow this winter. Usually I hate having a cooler, rainier spring, but I would gladly take one this year. (Also, as I sit finishing this post later at the library, I hear the librarian discussing her hope that it will be like that one year when it started out dry and then closer to summer it started raining every other day. So I’m not the only one worried about it.)
Drinking… a Tazo iced chai latte.
Reading… still, a year later, Anna Karenina. The thing is, I’m actually loving it, but it’s so long. I’ve realized I’m in a season with only snatches of reading time, and when I do read I often want something light and quick-paced. It might not be the time in my life for doorstops. I am enjoying two other fiction books. The first is called Hearts Overboard by Becky Dean, and it’s a YA about a teenage girl that is stuck in her routine and her arch nemesis and sort-of friend convinces her to try something new every day. It’s cute. The other book is Wander Lost by Laura Martin, and it’s about twin boys whose mother will not allow them to play board games - ever. Then suddenly she disappears, and I think we might be able to guess where she went. It’s intriguing so far!
Planning for… the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence! We will take the last month of the school year to do a crash course in early American history (for my little girls especially), and we will probably continue the patriotic education over the summer with books, music, movies, and some instruction in flag etiquette. I may put together a post with resources I plan on using soon, but I’d love recommendations if you are similarly planning much ado about America’s birthday!
Working on… several Substack articles. Despite my lack of posting lately, I am brimming with ideas. I decided for the next few weeks I am going to take a couple hours each afternoon to head to the library and just work until I get all my half-written posts finished. In the queue are:
How To Grocery Shop Once A Month
Should I Join A Homeschool Co-op?
Reading Goals For 2026 (is it too late in the year for this one?)
Books For Kids Who Love Horses
A Defense Of The Checklist
Wishing… people I love wouldn’t move away. I’m pretty good at long-distance friendships, but every friend that goes leaves a hole that no other friend is going to fill in exactly the same way. I’m thankful when my dear friends put the effort in to be good at long-distance friendship back.
Considering… digging the kids’ summer clothes out of storage, and if I do it will be the earliest I have ever switched the clothes. It has to be considered when the weather has been so warm! It’s forecasted to be 68 degrees tomorrow up in the mountains, and up to 91 degrees this weekend in town. Those kinds of temperatures are unheard of in March! The trees are even starting to bud and flower. I’m torn between wanting to lean into the sun while praying for precipitation. I read somewhere that early Christians would pray that God would not listen to the prayers of a traveler regarding the weather, because the local people know what is really needed. I think about that whenever I pray for rain.
Excited… that the end of the school year is in sight, distant though it sometimes feels! We are at the point in the homeschool year where I start considering powering through the last 20% of the book so we can drop a few subjects off our plates. We will see.
Enjoying… chocolate turtle cookies from King Soopers (or Kroger, if you are out east). If you see them, don’t think, just buy them.
Buying… new spring clothes. The trickiest season for dressing is spring, with its finicky weather and winter nipping at our heels with summer right around the corner. I was griping to my husband about my wardrobe - how everything felt wrong for the season and ill-fitting - and he told me to just take a set amount of money and go shopping! So I did, and it did indeed make me feel better about the weirdness of spring fashion. I got this dress, another dress, this jacket, that shirt, and this cardigan, and I don’t regret any of it.
Researching… reading lists for my kids. I have a range of book problems to solve - kids that read faster than I can screen books, picky readers, readers who need to stretch their skills slowly. I am drowning in book lists and reviews, and it’s a book lover’s dream, honestly! I have so much fun trying to find good books for all my kids’ reading wishes. I typically use Honey For A Child’s Heart, Honey For A Teen’s Heart, Living Heritage independent reading recommendations, Redeemed Reader lists, Reshelving Alexandria booklists, Read Aloud Revival booklists, and a smattering of bookish Instagram accounts for ideas.
Loving… a little quiet time for myself, but not too much. Right now our routine is for my husband to take the kids to Awana each week, and I take the evening to read the history text that I’m teaching for our co-op. It’s not a curriculum I picked, but I think it’s worked pretty well in a co-op setting. I love when the house is quiet, and I can put things back in order, then sit down with my dinner and this massive textbook to prepare for my class. I usually finish in about an hour, and then I read my own book or watch some silly show until everyone comes bursting back through the door. I enjoy the quiet, but nothing is right again until everyone is back home.
On St. Patrick’s Day, the car was running as I sat and painted my nails a pink-red. I honked the horn once, and the last kid came running out the front door and hopped over a bag of books as the minivan door slid shut.
We took part of the morning off from homeschooling to do something that I used to do all the time when my kids were little - go to the library, grab a coffee, and stop at the park on the way home. I remember when these simple little outings were a lifeline in my day, when my kids needed so much help to get anything done, and before I really figured out what I was doing with homeschooling.
We didn’t go because I was at the end of my homeschool rope. Not at all. We went today because it was sunny, and my oldest is in high school, and I owed my kids a sugar-filled slush from Sonic as a reward for finishing their checklists last week. And also because sometimes I get the urge to recreate a good memory.
Even though those little days were so hard at the time, I find myself looking back at them with fondness and trying to relive them every now and then. I was barely scraping by, but it was precious, and magical, and I miss it.
On the way home, as my oldest worked on his algebra, and my kids worked on various subjects in the back seat, I played an old episode of a favorite podcast. That got my mind spinning on all the podcasts I had loved and that had helped me keep perspective back when I had five kids all under eight years old. So I thought I would share some old favorites here.
Sometimes I think the early days of podcasts are better than more recent episodes, as if all the best tips and advice were shared up front. It’s not that the recent episodes are no good, but the older episodes have a depth and level of effort that comes from the hosts being new at something. Older episodes are sometimes a bit better.
So if you take my recommendations here, I hope you’ll click that little “more episodes” button and scroll back to the beginning. Pick an episode and see what you think.
The Read Aloud Revival Podcast
The hopping, happy music at the beginning of this podcast conjures up all sorts of sunny afternoons driving down the winding road to our library. We used to all listen to this podcast together, and my kids were delighted by the clips at the end of every episode of kids sharing their favorite books. I got so many great book suggestions from the early episodes of this podcast, and it helped me understand the importance of reading aloud in developing vocabulary and language in kids.
Helpful episodes that I’ve listened to multiple times:
and a whole bunch of others!
Your Morning Basket Podcast
If you’ve ever heard of a morning basket in the context of homeschooling, it probably originally started with this podcast, now re-named “Homeschool Better Together”. I first started implementing enrichment subjects because of this podcast. The idea of having a basket of resources that we could loop through made things like music appreciation and memory work so much less intimidating.
Episodes that stand out in my memory:
The Smiling Homeschooler Podcast
I started listening to this podcast after hearing Todd speak at a homeschool conference when my oldest was only in first grade. It became my go-to for when I felt overwhelmed or like I was doing homeschooling all wrong. Todd has a way of reminding you what really matters - academics are important, but so is having a good homeschool experience for myself and my kids. This podcast helps me keep things in perspective.
P.S. I just have to note here that Todd Wilson is also an excellent story-teller. Our family loves his Christmas story collection, and you might enjoy this free short story about a homeschooling mom!
Episodes that helped me keep things in perspective:
In writing this post I went back and listened to a few of these episodes, and my premise holds up - there are good things in the archives of your favorite homeschool podcast. I hope this post gives you something new to listen to, or reminds you of old favorites that you may need to hear again! And if you are new to homeschooling, check out all the episodes I linked above for some evergreen encouragement.
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