Happy Monday!! I’m not writing this on a Monday, so I can be enthusiastic about it. If I were writing this Monday when it’s being posted, I probably would be asleep on my keyboard instead of writing. My ten-year-old starts back to school this Monday and we are most certainly not used to getting up at 6:00a.m. We’ve been homeschooling for the last three years, so it is going to be an adjustment for us. My last week has been preparing for that and trying to get adjusted to the idea that my baby won’t be home with me all the time again.

We have been homeschooling since the pandemic started, and we loved it. It was not easy by any means, and there were many arguments over paying attention and listening, but overall we both enjoyed it. We kind of revisited the idea of going back to school each year before school started to see what they were feeling and what the safety guidelines were and they always decided they didn’t want to, but this year was different for whatever reason, so we enrolled. I am obviously nervous because they haven’t been in regular school since first grade and I’m sure that is a significantly different vibe than fifth grade.

They are smart and generally catch onto things pretty quickly, so I’m not so much worried about grades as I am just the adjustment to not being able to do what they want to do. And I don’t mean that in the sense of playing games or goofing off. Not that homeschool wasn’t structured, but you could get up to grab a snack if you were hungry, you could go to the bathroom when you needed to, or if you were overwhelmed you could take a break and have a little breather and then revisit the problem after a couple of minutes, and I know that’s just not how classrooms are generally set up. I understand that would be chaotic with a room full of students, but I can’t help but worry. Call me soft if you want, but I care about my child’s mental health and want them to be comfortable.

That’s just some of what’s been on my mind with them starting school again, but ultimately I think they will enjoy it and make lots of friends. Another thing that’s been on my mind this week is the book that I mentioned in the last post. It actually came out a day early on July 26th instead. I read the whole thing by the night of the 27th. It was beyond amazing and absolutely heartbreaking. I won’t get too much into it on this post because I am making a whole post about it that I will post on Wednesday (8/2). The whole series is easily the best thing I’ve read all year and I just cannot stop thinking about it.

I’m looping back around to something I said in another post. Reading amazing stories makes me want to continue writing my own because I want to be able to provoke that sort of emotion in other people. I’ve been playing around with the idea of releasing some sample chapters on here of some things I’ve written, just to get some feedback and see what people think. If anyone would be interested in that, let me know and I’ll try to do that at some point. I have so much written that I never let people read, so I need to stop being a chicken and just post it. I seriously have over thirty drafts just on here of posts I’ve written or at least started and never finished or posted.

See, this public journal is easier. It’s just a free-flow mess of what I’m thinking or what I’ve been doing, so I don’t think too hard about it, but “my art” needs to be perfect before I show anyone. However, that is an unreasonable standard because nothing and no one is perfect. Also, I’m a beginner, so, of course, it isn’t going to be the best yet. I have to post things to get feedback and practice to figure out what I can improve on and what I need to do differently. So I’m going to make that my goal, to post some original work this week or at least next week. I mean everything I post is original because it’s my thoughts on this or that, but I mean something like a poem, a short story, or a sample chapter of one of my books. I hope you guys don’t hate it, but if you do, let me know what I can do to make it better!

I don’t want to do this alone, so I want to encourage you to show off your art to someone, whether you draw, paint, write, crochet, scrapbook, make jewelry, make music, make videos, etc. It can be anything. Show it off because it’s amazing! I don’t have to see it to know that. If it’s something made from your heart that you put your time and effort into, then it deserves recognition. I hope you have the best week and get to eat your favorite meal sometime this week!

XXXX(All Kisses),
Summer