Changes on the horizon

Well, the crappy economy has finally hit my work. Received a message from my boss saying our fall enrollment was the lowest it's been since our school opened 7 years ago and they're just trying to get by. Fortunately I always knew my position was a luxury - even though I was only there for about 3 hours a week.

For me, it was extra money - out to eat, special treats, extra classes, etc. For my boss - she's the primary breadwinner in her family. My heart goes out to her, her family and the other employees who might be affected more drastically than I. For several, it's their sole income.

This will affect our upcoming school year - I was contemplating subscribing to Discovery streamingPlus (or their science program), sending the kids to a couple of different classes at the zoo and/or the Homeschool Learning Center - but that, too, is a luxury.  I can handle the $5 classes at the art and history museum - and MM will still go to the art museum for his art classes and EB will continue to go to the medieval classes he takes at our taekwondo school.

So...time to be a little more frugal - thank goodness for libraries and free online educational tools.  I started investigating Khan Academy and think we'll be utilizing that this year. I also have started checking out Sophia.org, which is headed up by Bill Nye - yes, the Science Guy!

Scouts

MM is currently working as a Counselor In Training at the local Boy Scout camp. He had a great time the first week (he's only working 2 weeks - just became eligible) working with the equestrian program. He was hoping to work there again this past week. He comes home on Saturday. It's been strange not having him around, but his level of confidence soared in just the one week - I'm looking forward to seeing what he'll come back with after his second week. (Which had feels-like temps of over 100 every day!)

TCC went to his first overnight scout camp with Hubby last weekend and had a great time! This weekend, he's joining Hubby and EB for a weekend camping with the troop.  (EB is hoping for some swimming, fishing, canoing or kayaking, but given the level of the river, there might be nothing but sand...)

Personal Changes

I've been doing some personal growth lately. I've deactivated the dreaded FB account (complete with changing the password and deleting the apps...) - there were only a handful of people I actually wanted to see updates from. (Yes, my only follower, you're one of them!)  Eventually I'll go back, but I have no strong desire to do so right now.

I've been working on becoming more active again - kind of fell off the wagon for a while, but have gone back to taekwondo after a month off, started swimming and am walking most days while the boys are in their taekwondo classes. I'm eating much better than I had been (of course, vacation tends to blow any chance at quality diet - especially when your destination doesn't have much more than deep-fried foods...).

On a related note, TCC and I tested for our new taekwondo ranks before vacation. We thought we flubbed big-time - but he went back about 2 weeks later and I went back 4 weeks later - we both passed on the first go-round! He's hoping to make yellow belt before his birthday - which is definitely doable. My goal of getting my green belt before Christmas is well within sight, since it's my next rank!

I've been making foods ahead of time - breakfast foods and breads are in the freezer currently, along with a round of leftover spaghetti.  Next up I think will be some dinners - we've been going out too much because we've been unprepared and it's cutting into the budget!

I've been keeping up fairly well with the kitchen, which is astounding!  I've been working on getting the boys to get chores done too - I'd like to get us in to a routine on cleaning - if everyone pitches in on a room a day, the house should at least be decent and we should still have plenty of time for school when we start up again early next month.

Still working on calm parenting and calm living. Striving for a Zen-like approach - doesn't always happen, but it's surely a learning process. Living in the here and now - not in the past "what's done" and not in the future "what-ifs".

And, I cut my hair! It's been shoulder-length (give or take) for quite a while and I realized my swimming ability was suffering. (Crawl with hair in your mouth? Yuck!) Plus, it's so much easier to work with. My SIL, who is my normal stylist, wasn't available when I decided "it's got to go", so I went somewhere else. It's still a little too long, so I'm going to see my SIL tomorrow to get it fixed. But, I really, really like it!

Alright - time to think about bed.

Peace!

(P.S. I picked up an iPad 2 back a few months ago, mostly for schooling - I'll post about some apps later.)