Slicing Up My Life

It's 23 years since I started homeschooling and as the years went by and we became less and less 'homeschoolers' and more 'unschoolers', I found it more and more difficult to split our lives up into Subjects. I had to stop and think hard when it came to review time, because our lives had ceased to be a matter of Maths and History and Science and English: we just lived, and all those things became a part of our life in a seamless kind of way.

I've been reading blogs lately and finding that increasingly people seem to have several blogs, each covering a different area of their lives, so I just looked back at my blog since I started and realised that it is a total jumble of poetry, craft work, ideas, thoughts, feelings, gardening, life happenings. I started to wonder if I too should have several blogs, but then looked at what it says at the top of my page underneath the name: A mishmash of some of the poems, pictures, ponderings and everyday happenings that make up my life. And you know what? That is how my life is - a jumble, a mishmash, just like my unschooling, and I don't think I can untangle the parts.

When I am gardening or doing housework, my mind often wanders to politics or poetry or an idea for a new book cover. Which blog do I write that in? When something significant happens in my life, I often write poetry about it. When I find some interesting leaf while working the land, it is likely to find its way into a book. When I'm making a book, I'll be listening to the radio and find out something interesting to talk to family about or hear about some event someone may want to go to. When I'm cooking I'll think about what I need to plant in my garden. When I'm playing on the computer, I'm chatting to friends and family.

So it seems I can split neither my blogs, nor my life, into pieces. As in my days of homeschooling, I admire and sometimes envy those who can, but it's not my style. Oh well, hardly anyone reads my blogs anyway, no one is clamouring for me to be more organised, so it's not really an issue!

It's just one of those 'shoulds' that hide in bushes and leap out to bite you on the leg every so often - and I am reminded once again that the only genuine 'should' is that one 'should' not do things just because someone, even yourself, says you 'should'!

Miss Smith, my Standard 1 teacher told me my mother had very bad taste, that one 'should' never wear blue and green together (I was wearing a skirt made in my mother's family tartan). Well, I won't listen to 'shoulds' and these days I still wear blue and green in the same garment! Nyah nyah!