Wherever you go, there you are

Been thinking lately. Often I get all interested in and excited about some pursuit and yet it's difficult to pull together the materials or the money or the... whatever. I see that I can't do it the way I wanted to, so the impulse sits for a while. Very, very, very often it occurs to me that I can accomplish the goal with what I have on hand.

Impulse: buy stamps and cardmaking supplies to make homemade cards.
Goal: enjoy making a small card-as-gift, save money, expose the kids to a new craft.
Be here now: get out what I have -- it is enough -- and make simple cards.

Impulse: create a grand chore scheme for the kids.
Goal: gain their help with the household upkeep, and teach the kids to handle responsibility.
Be here now: give the kids appropriate help-me-now tasks, and today I might do up an after-school list of what I tell each boy every day (!).

Impulse: afterschool the kids in a relaxed yet Classical/tridium way, including history, Latin, and plenty more.
Goal: give them a foundation to better understand and think about the world and their own lives
(Hahahaha! The oldest is in school all day! The youngest is in school for the first time! They come home ready to decompress!)
Be here now: decompress with them; enjoy a snack, play some games. Send them outside to play. Offer plenty of fun, good books to the oldest. Be intentional about exploring what interests us. Maybe once a week read a chapter of The Story of the World (we're still on the ancient world). At some point, maybe buy Lingua Angelica and play the CD in the car.

Impulse: find some great faith instruction resources for the kids.
Goal: help them know and understand our faith and develop their relationship(s) with God.
Be here now: use the catechism in our church's Book of Common Prayer. Go ahead and set up a prayer/faith shelf, and practice my Godly Play presentations with the kids.

I'm off to make that after-school To Do list.