too much

I feel like I write a lot about this on here, or at least I think a lot about writing about it: the “too-muchness” of digital media.  At times I can check Instagram daily and not feel saturated by the too-muchness of it, and at others even a weekly check-in leaves me feeling like I ate several bags of M&M’s or tried to drink from a fire hose.  And it's so addicting!  Is it possible to find a balance between inspiration and overload? And if it is, how?  I’m not quite there yet and would love to learn.  Blogging doesn't leave me feeling overloaded, though, so I'm trying to channel my creative energy here.  It seems slower and more accessible for me, not only to read others’ words, but to post my own.

Focus is a struggle, too, when there's a screen around.  One of the things that helps me to keep my attention where it is most needed is to keep all devices off and stowed during the day.  I check my phone’s messages at natural break times, like after lunch.  If I reach for my phone to use it as a timer or set an alarm, I wind up checking several little things and getting sidetracked (and the kids get into mischief); so I have invested in a little analog alarm clock for my bedside, an analog watch, and a wonderful timer for the school room.  They have really helped me to stay on task and to keep my most reluctant student on task, too.  I still struggle with keeping all screens off and put away during the day, but at least I think twice if they're not right in front of me!

The past few weeks have been busy ones! 

We traveled to my hometown at the beginning of May to attend my sister's wedding, which was lovely and exhausting and wonderful.  While visiting my mom and dad, we visited the art museum and one of my favorite parks there.  Since the blooms appeared there about a week before they appear here, it was as if we stepped forward in time.  May apples and dogwoods and irises, oh my!  What a lovely season for a wedding!  (My oldest son found a little green friend in my mom's peonies.  It perched on his hand for some time before he put it back.)

As the weather permits, we have been participating in a Nature Club, which meets at a nearby state park.  I'm more excited about the discoveries we've made than the kids are!  I've taken the opportunity to invest in a wildflower guide for our area.  It's arranged by season, which I find far more helpful than the ones we have that are arranged by color.  I can't ever find flowers when they're listed by color (user error, rather than guide problem, I'm sure!), but I've had lots of success with this one (And now I see it has gone way, way up in price!).

I've been steadily making progress on my sister's veil, although it wasn't finished in time.  If she doesn't want it in white, we've talked about dying it with a plant dye.  And if she doesn't have a need for it, I'll save it for a baptism.  Or for one of my girls.  It has been such a fun challenge, a thing to knit for knitting's sake, that it no longer matters what happens to the end product!  I'm just delighted and flattered to have been asked to make something special for the wedding, whether or not it was used. 

I've reached the body of another knitting project.  I'm hoping I'll like the fit after investing so much time in it.  The pattern, Arwen, is well written, and I love the detail of the structure.  It's my "knitting-while-schooling-project," because of all the stockinette in the round.  I can't wait to finish these two projects up so I can start some new ones!