Super Monday

I seem to recall that we had quite a few Mondays that were over-the-top fun.  Busy, but in a good way.  Children diving into work and play that is so important to them.  Mama getting a moment or two to get a start on some of her own projects.  It's looking like our first Monday of the homeschooling year is starting off on the same foot.  Here's a peek at what's been going on in our house so far today...

...finishing up our practice ornithopter.  We purchased some kits for self-propelled flying machines from Birdkit.com.  We'll be making these with Birds of Prey Club next week and I wanted to get a feel for how tricky and complex some of the model-building would be.  And Nicholas has been begging for some time to help.  By help I mean taking over after the first step in the instructions.  He did an amazing job.

...drawing, cutting, labelling, and pasting our digestive system body parts onto the children's alien bodies that adorn our hallway.  Though this may be obvious to all of you, I discovered that adding the body parts would be a great introductory activity, rather than a wrap-up activity.  It is now obvious to me as well, and we'll try it next time as we start on our next system - the circulatory system.

...drawing on the sidewalk with the littlest of my loves.

...painting.  Oh, it's been so long since we painted!

...getting ready to make some homemade cheese tonight!  All equipment has now been through scalding water and has a date with me after the last child is in bed.

...read some poetry as we prepare for our next nature hike.  I've witnessed in the past that just being in nature is all that is needed to open the door to creative expression.  Excerpts from The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon will hopefully inspire some poetry or encourage us to feel nature with all our senses and to the tiniest detail.  Yes, we had a most agreeable lunch today.  I think I'll need to bring poetry to the table more often.

...preparing to get back to the sewing machine, with a lovely playcape (from Growing Up Sew Liberated) and birthday crown (from The Creative Family) for a special little boy turning three this weekend.  I'm sure the fort-building going on in the backyard now will continue for a while yet.  And there is nowhere to be tonight but here - how blissful is that!  Yes, I think I just might get some of it cut out right after I hit "Publish".

I'm starting to acknowledge that along with every up must come a down.  Every day cannot be a Super Monday.  Every Monday, in fact, cannot be a Super Monday.  With every burst of energy we send out into the world there must be a rest...a pause...to grow, learn, dream, and have the physical strength for the next burst.  Fighting to stay at the crest of a Super Monday wave is not ideal, nor is being in the trough or somewhere in the middle.  So I'll work to be mindful of this new realization.  Rather than fight the descent back down, I will embrace it and consider the days, and perhaps weeks, as a time of preparation.  For there will be another Super Monday sometime.