Happy New Year 2022!

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This Christmas break and the beginning of the new calendar year 2022 have been rather emotional. Long story, but it’s the story of burnout, too. A lot of family details have pushed us together more than ever. I suppose it is part of the process as the children grow and we all change accordingly.

Relaxing by the fire

Relaxing by the fire

Burnout appeared among us back in October, but we kept it together through November and December. By the middle of December, when we took a break, I realized how much I needed to space out of my surroundings. So I escaped into books and on demand content I view online. Continue reading »


Goals, Productivity – Facebook Live Event

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We started a new year, you say? Huh! What do you know? 2021 has arrived. Just kidding. To wake up those who have been living under a rock, we kicked off the new year with a Facebook Live Event on goal setting, productivity, and motivation.

Woman sitting in front of bookshelves

Wishing you a happy new year

I presented five books which have impacted my level of productivity. You can find so many books to get in the groove. I just grabbed five titles from my shelf because they have helped me. Continue reading »


Planning for 2021

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I hope you had a happy Christmas. We did. It snowed the night before, so we had a white Christmas for a change. The children do not remember another white Christmas in their lifetime. Many of my friends in Tennessee said similar things.

Siblings playing in the snow

They were so happy to play in the snow on Christmas Day.

This year, 2020, cannot finish fast enough. But the artificial line between two years does not change the status quo. The political situation in the USA is still up in the air, no matter what the mainstream media tells you. COVID-19 seems to be growing – though many people think the statistics are inflated and erroneous (on purpose, to frighten and control the population). Last but not least, winter will send us some cold fronts for the next three months, for sure. This will lead to disruption in traffic, power outages, cancellations of different programs etc. Continue reading »


Thoughtful Thursday Week 52 – Happy New Year

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This is it, friends! 2015 becomes history tonight. We welcome a new year and with it new aspirations, goals, resolutions, plans and lots of homeschooling.

Happy New Year

I hope you have a wonderful celebration and stay up all night. Just kidding. Do whatever you like. I know some people have to work tonight and tomorrow morning. It’s the nature of their work. Others, like me, prefer to go to bed as usual and be happy I don’t have to make awkward conversation with strangers.

What did that Johnson and Johnson commercial say? Having a baby changes everything, right?  Continue reading »



Happy New Year 2014!

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Whether you homeschool or not, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day bring so much excitement. We all appreciate a new beginning, a clean slate, a fresh start.

Traditionally, we wish each other a Happy New Year. That’s nice, as long as we go beyond wishing and hoping.

Children wishing a happy new year 2014 in front of a white board

My children with their new board and easel.

Salman Khan of the Khan Academy inspired me with his 2012 commencement speech at Rice University. He encouraged the graduates to take a pro-active approach towards happiness and challenged them to increase the net happiness of the world.

How do you do that?

1. Be positive in a delusional kind of way, even when the situation looks hopeless. “Sometimes I force myself to smile. Good things happen in your body when you smile,” he says.

2. Appreciate the smallest things people do for you and tell them so. A waiter, a bank teller, a sibling, a friend, a store clerk – they all need a word of encouragement and a compliment. By saying one nice thing, you might not only turn a bad day into a good one for someone, you might turn a career around. The ripple effects of positive words cannot be measured.

3. Travel forwards and backwards in time. Let’s say that you were 70 today, but somehow you could magically go back in time to today and re-live your life. You can re-live all your successes, and fix all your regrets.

What kind of things would a 70-year-old person regret?

  • not spending more time with their children
  • not saying “I love you” more to their spouse
  • not telling their parents how much they appreciate them

There’s nothing on that list about bringing more work home from the office for the weekend or getting all the laundry done by a certain time each day.

Corollary: by homeschooling your children, you touch not only your children and grandchildren, but this world in ways you don’t even dream about.

On that note, let me wish you a Happy New Year and a successful homeschool in 2014.