We have had a rough winter here – surgery on my daughter and tons of illnesses for everyone (it’s the first year in daycare for my daughter and my son is in kindergarten with a whole group of new-to-school children, so there’s new germs to pick up, and my children haven’t ever found a germ they didn’t want to bring home). It’s been so rough that we did virtually nothing for Yule other than the required gifts on Christmas morning, and we read some stories for Imbolc but nothing else.
I think it’s easy to get burnt out and overwhelmed. Especially when you’re planning things for children on top of planning things for yourself for holidays, and taking care of the day-to-day mundane stuff, like keeping everyone fed, and laundry, and going to work or school or whatever.
And while I’ve written lesson plans and curriculum outlines for other people’s children, I find myself struggling to figure out what to do with my own.
Some days I think I should get us back into the local SpiralScouts circle…and then I remember spending an entire meeting chasing my son through the nature center.
Other days I think we should start our own SpiralScouts hearth…and then I realize that means doing all the planning myself.
There’s another local group starting up a scouting type group. Their monthly gatherings are a little farther than I usually want to drive though, especially in snowy weather like we’ve had lately. And knowing the book they’re working with for activities, my children are on the young side of things for being involved.
There are days I figure that we ought to do something on the weekends to keep us from all going stir-crazy anyway, and if I’m going to do that, why not do something Pagan-like, with nature and holidays and crafts all rolled in. But there’s that planning thing again.
Not to mention the language delays they both have – though my daughter’s speech has taken off, my son’s lags far behind, so we also have to work with his communication device to add new words for anything Pagan we talk about, which just adds a layer of complication.
What do you do when you’re stuck?
Image via Flick user Daniel Bernasconi, used under a Creative Commons License
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