Tag Archives: creativity

Embracing Simplicity in the Blogging World

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I’ve spent the better part of the last couple weeks searching high and low for the perfect theme for my blog. No, not a writing theme, an appearance. Yes, I was worried about what people would think of how my blog looks. I tried some really fancy looking backgrounds. Then I tried some themes with cool options. Then I tried ones that worked well on the mobile devices and tablets. I searched high and I searched low and settled of something pretty simple that I was happy with. Ah, but I showed my husband when he arrived and he said it was boring and people wanted to come to a blog that stood out as special.

So, I searched high and I searched low for that theme that was both interesting and special. I tried a whopping 67 themes over the course of the week and some were nice and some were horrible. Some had fancy doohickeys and some were too complicated to even figure out. I threw my hands up in the air a number of times and said, “Forget about it. My blog sucks.”

Then I sat down tonight and thought – I really like simplicity. So what if my blog isn’t fancy? People are supposed to be here to read – not be amazed at my creative skills. So here you have it, my perfectly simple blog…..

…….and I love it!

When it Feels Like we Haven’t Gotten Anywhere

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Officially, another school year is coming to an end. I’m getting ready to write my end of year reports to the department of education and am looking over what I wrote last year and what my goals were for the year. Liam accomplished above and beyond what I set out for him to do. Morgaine, well Morgaine, it seems hasn’t quite progressed as far academically as I imagined she might have.

What do I do in this case? Is it time to start panicking? Some might thing so. What if she never catches up? I choose to see things a bit differently. Perhaps, she was very busy learning other valuable lessons this year. Maybe it was more important for her to spend time nurturing her baby brother. She spent many a day immersed in colouring and using various art techniques. She explored our yard and grew things with her own two hands. She danced and sang. She was a free spirit. She was happy.

Sitting her down at a desk and forcing her to do thing that she isn’t ready to do, likely would have been disastrous. It would likely make her feel stupid. It would have made her hate learning. So we let things move along more organically. We remind people that she isn’t really reading yet. There are times when we want to say, “If you could just read…..” but we hold our tongue and read the menu, or the book, over and over again. We’ve caught her tried to read and progress has been made so we are gentle and we wait and we know that when her time comes she will learn to read and it will all be okay.