How do you find a missing train? Follow the tracks.

This past weekend I did a lot of re-reading some of my earlier posts in preparation for a post about being tired on one of my other projects, Bleepingmotherhood.com.  I realized it is getting close to a year since my last post, and with some ideas for some new posts in mind, I thought I would give a bit of an update.

Mini-ion #1 is approaching seven years old.  Isn’t that so old?  There’s something about that age that makes me feel like it will be the start of a huge separation.  Meanwhile I’m trying to hold on tighter.

Mini-ion #2 is four and a half.  When I look at her, I still think of her as a two year old.  An overachieving two year old, but still no where close to four, let alone the next number that’s quickly approaching.  And to think when I started this blog, she was just over one years old, and many times I was typing with her on my lap.

I’m about to start my last session of the Montessori-inspired playgroup I started in 2013.  An amazing experience and have connected with the women that really are my community.  Plus, the mini-ions had a lot of fun.  While on one hand I’ll appreciate the reduction in responsibilities, I’ll miss the enjoyment of being around these children and their caregivers.

photo courtesy of Larry Beach

With Dear Husband and the help of my church community, we did build a nature based playground in the back of the church.  It is open to our whole community.  It features an outdoor play kitchen, what was once a woodland angel garden (but now more of a digging pit), a rock area with construction vehicles, a bean tent, a recycled tire climber and a small garden area.  The fence posts are engraved in memory and in celebration of people near and far.  It is a joyful place for the children to learn and play.

My family is on the homeschooling path.  Rather, I find us a bit more of un-schoolers than homeschoolers.  I’m following their lead on what they want to learn and am frequently impressed by what they pick up.  A big part of their learning involves hands on interactions.  This leads us to take advantage of trips to visit as many science museums as we can along the path.  We’re taking big advantage of the ASTC passport program as a member benefit of our local science museum, Liberty Science Center.  As my mini-ions grow, I expect I’ll be writing more about our adventures visiting them, with reviews/thoughts about our experiences there.  Stay tuned – we’ve visited a few that I’d like to talk about and we already have more planned.

I still continue to write and help administer the mom humor site, Bleepingmotherhood.com and we published our first book, Bleeping Motherhood’s Would You Rather, in 2016!  I’m having an amazing amount of fun there with friend Audrey.

I also am continuing to work on the amazing initiative of getting children playing outside, ForestSchoolForAll.com.  I was even part of an online show that spoke about nature based learning, you can see it here. I co-lead a Forest Explorers group and I love how much my mini-ions get out of it.  Even if Mini-ion #1 did probably break his nose during it.

I’ve missed my crumbs connections and community.  While I had been feeling a bit tapped out on content, this idea of talking about our travels excites me again, and gives me hope for more time to write and keep up.