Six months of changes

Gentle Readers:

My last blog post was in January.  It seems like decades ago, even though it was just earlier this same year.  A lot has happened in the past six months, and I have finally found time to sit down and chronicle some of them.  I'll briefly touch on a few of those new events, just to "catch you up" on where I am now in my journey.

In the past six months, we've had a lot of financial changes.  A real roller coaster of "we're doing well...oh, wait, no we're not".  My husband's job has had a lot of changes and uncertainties as his division is being bought out by a much smaller company and he will no longer be working for a Fortune 500 company in a few months.  We believe the new, smaller company may end up being a good thing, but will not know for sure if that is the case until some later point.  My own earning capacity has ranged from very good to zilch in terms of home-based work.   I hope that over the next few months that will change, but again, it remains to be seen just how that will shake out.  At this point in time, we're in a holding pattern with no idea what the future holds, so we're just going to go with the flow in that regard.

We have pulled our son (7 years old) from expensive private school and I will be homeschooling him for second grade.  It was a combination of economic factors and educational priorities that led to the move.  We realized that we were paying $800+ a month for an education that was "adequate" at best.  We realized that I could teach him better, at his own pace, since I am at home all day anyway.  The homeschooling thing is a work in progress.  I attended a couple of homeschool conferences/shows this summer and was a bit chagrined to learn that secular homeschooling is practically non-existent in our area (West Tennessee).  Or perhaps the other secular homeschoolers are simply in hiding, as it appears that we would all probably be brought before some sort of witch trial tribunal should our "godlessness" be discovered. 

But I digress.

I have recently been in touch with a niece who I had not spoken to since about 1990.  I don't even really member why she and I "got into it" -- or if we even did or simply stopped speaking.  The funny thing is that, as different as we were as children, we are very similar as adults.  We both pursued higher education (no one else in our family did), became writers, taught at the college level, are pro choice, pro gay marriage, and are unshamedly flaming liberals.  As children, we both struggled with similar difficulties -- probably brought about by the same people -- so perhaps those struggles helped shape us into the cynical, literary adults we have become.  Who knows.  In any event, I am glad to be back in touch with her.  It's nice to have someone who I share DNA with who understands a lot of my weirdness. 

I have all but given up on the sourdough bread baking, the organic gardening and pretty much every other thing that I was joyfully excited about six months ago.  I don't know if the newness has worn off or if I just got burned out on "doing it all".  I have learned in the past month that I would be much better off as a member of the "Least Possible" Club.  Membership in this club appears to be for those who are committed to doing the least possible to get by.  Those of us in the "Max Out" Club have always looked down upon those who did the least amount possible as being slackers, lazy, etc.  We have condescendingly noted their ability to skate through life while we take up their slack.  But about a month ago, I gave up and joined them.  It was a Saturday - I remember it well.  Something just clicked and I switched sides.  I adopted a "who gives a fuck" manta and sat on my butt and watched TV for an entire day.  Housework went undone, dinner went uncooked.  Everyone thought I was ill -- or mad -- or just nuts.  But that was the day I just stopped caring about doing it all and being the one to "make it happen".

That being said...

I am now doing the "Least Possible" housework and cooking the "Least Possible" complicated recipes.  I have the "Least Possible" social interaction.  I keep my eyes on the "Least Possible" future goals and planning.  I'm just taking it a day at a time.  What will be, will be.

As we have begun to "let go" of the ambition and drive, we have also begun to let go of materiality.  We had a big yard sale a couple of months ago and sold a lot of things.  Probably not enough, but it was a start.  I see several more yard sales in the near future, each one divesting us of more of our useless shit that we've spent too much time and money accumulating. 

And that leads us to my new post.... Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.