Spring vacation may not matter to some homeschoolers, but for us, it is the week off of evening extra-curricular activities. Since those activities keep me and my older kids out until 9 pm most nights, this will feel like a vacation whether or not we take a break from academics. Our daily life is so adventurous that we hardly wanted to take that precious week off and travel. Although I did consider it, looking up beach campgrounds, they were all sold out. Barring that adventure, we decided to stay home and plant stuff.
Attila insisted on helping us dig!
My husband was only too ready to jump on any plans that included staying home, including being willing to take a week off of work. (He does not like travel.)
So, this week we planted:
- 7 fruit trees
- 13 berry bushes
- 2 grape vines
- dug out 20 bushes
- planted 2 Hydrangeas
- 1 rose bush
- a packet of Zinnia seeds
- a mint patch
- a chives patch
- built a 4 x 8 foot raised garden bed
- planted a bunch of herbs and vegetables in above bed (of course after filling with dirt)
- moved a metal frame from the porch and dug it into the ground to serve as a trellis for the grapes.
- dug a fire pit and lined it with rock from around the house.
(You may be thinking at this point that we live on a farm…nope, we are suburbanites.)
It was a lot of work. We finished ahead of schedule, having all our projects complete by 4:30 pm Thursday.
Sometimes people think having a large family must be a lot of work. What they often forget is that a large family can also DO a lot of work. Working hard together we were able to quickly transform our yard into our vision.
Am I bragging? Well, why not? I am the one that taught these kids the value of hard work with my sweat and blood. I am the one who taught them to work together. I am the one who taught them to work efficiently. I earned this pride. And I am proud of my kids, for proving to me just how well I taught them all these lessons. (Of course, my husband helped with all this teaching and character development and also felt rightfully proud.) We all enjoyed a calm and quiet Friday and are looking forward to one of the rare Saturday’s where we don’t have to get up to be anywhere by 9 am.
As parents, we often forget to step back and enjoy our accomplishments and successes. This keeps us from experiencing joy. So yes, I am proud, and grateful, and happy that we were able to accomplish so much in just 4 days. I see the fruit of our labors and hope that soon we will be able to eat the fruit from the labor we performed this week.
Wherever you are in your parenting journey, take a step back. Look at something you or your kids accomplished this week and be grateful. Be proud. Don’t let all those moments of growth go unnoticed and uncelebrated. Look at them and think about them just as much as you look at and think about all the failures and shortcomings you want to fix. (Or perhaps more, if you can manage it.)
Do I get to count this week as school? Horticulture week or manual labor week? What do you think?
What did you do on spring break?
