Homeschool Academy, dancing, and more! {Life update}

This blog is feeling pretty empty now! The weird thing is that I feel like I'm writing stuff for this blog all the time, but you guys don't realize it. The back end of this blog has probably close to 50 unpublished drafts of posts. Some of those are terrible, and will never see the light of day, but some might... We'll see.

I think it's time for a little life update! I'm blogging (semi-regularly) on The Daily Ramble about my day to day life, so for a more complete idea of what I'm up to, go over there.

I've been pretty busy this summer. I'm teaching Latin still, plus some friends and I teamed up for Homeschool Academy, where we teach a bunch of cool classes. I'm co-teaching Geology, plus I'm teaching Irish dancing each week. It's a ton of fun, and it's super relaxed and laid back, which is nice.

I'm not doing any ballet this summer, but I am doing Irish, and we have some more performances coming up! We're dancing and the Whidbey Island Highland Games in a few weeks, and then at Birch Bay State Park a few weeks after that.

College searching continues. This weekend we're going to the east side of the state to visit Gonzaga University and WSU. I don't have any interest in WSU, but my sister wants to visit, and I love college campuses, so it should be fun. Plus, I've never been to either Pullman or Spokane, so it'll be fun to see more of the state.

I just finalized my class schedule for the fall. I'm taking Intermediate Algebra (unfortunately I didn't get into Precalc I), German I, and Introduction to World Religions. I think it should be a fun load, albeit a challenging one.

In the winter, I'll be taking Precalc, German II, and Western Civ III (assuming all goes according to plan.

That's my life right now! Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

Prep for the Lit Analysis class I taught for the Homeschool Acadmey.

Aslan and I.

Bad pic, but I got a WTNV shirt!

Awesome necklace I bought at the steampunk festival yesterday!

Beautiful sunset over the dogpark

On Being an Artist

What makes you an artist?

This is a question I think about a lot. For a long time, I had this idea I could not be an artist cause I don't really like traditional drawing or painting, or sculpting, or any of the things that I usually think of as art. I am a perfectionist, and that makes it really hard for me sometimes to do things like draw. It is never good enough, and the process is so stressful that I just quit. I just can't get past that wall.

But there are many forms of art that aren't just drawing or painting. While I don't usually think of myself as an artist, there are several ways in which I think I could define myself that way.

I am a writer. That is a huge part of who I am. Art is a way of expressing your emotions in a tangible form. Each type of art does it in a slightly different way, but the purpose, in the end, remains the same. Writing, be it poetry or prose, is something you create from nothing. You are a creator, and that makes a writer an artist.

I am a dancer. If you don't think dancers are artists, go watch this video and then come back. Dancing lives on the line between creativity and structure. It allows you to create something new and express whatever it is you want to express, but it gives you sets of boundaries to work within, if you choose to follow the traditional rules. I'm not a great dancer, but I love doing it. Dance, for me, it amazing, because there are specific rules and constraints. Unlike drawing, where anything goes, when I dance, there is one particular thing I'm trying to do, even if I'm not doing it very well yet. And I also know that if I keep working at it, eventually I will get the results I want.

Here is one simple design.

And in a way, I am a visual artist. I love color and the manipulation of it. I love putting colors together and I love creating dynamics with different shades and combinations. The way I often do this is by using coloring books. Yes, coloring books like little kids do. But not ones that you would give to a little kid. The coloring books I work out of are full of complex and often abstract designs that give the person coloring a lot of power.

A design with a lot of white space.

One of my favorites.

Artistry is a mindset. Am I an artist? I've always wanted to say yes, but I felt like an impostor saying that. But what the heck, maybe it's time to gain some self confidence and say yes, I am an artist. Art is something different to everybody. To me, it's a way of expressing yourself. It's something that takes persistence and effort to master, if mastery is even possible. It's a way of thinking.

In what way are you an artist?

Summer Update: School, Dance, and Books

*This post may contain affiliate links, and if you make a purchase after clicking them, I will receive compensation.*

It's been a long time since I posted here, and lots has been happening. I've been working hard to try to finish up Algebra II and Medieval History. I've been doing art classes once a week (pictures to come eventually), Irish dance (soft shoe and hard shoe) once a week, and, starting this week, ballet two to three times a week! There have also been lots of parties and spontaneous get togethers in the nice weather, plus many birthdays to celebrate.

Sunset over Bellingham Bay, on a spontaneous evening excursion to the park with some friends.

I am currently reading The Prince for History, and just finished Are You My Mother? and Maggot Moon, both of which I have written reviews for which will come out soon. If I have time, I'll try to review Fun Home as well, since it kind of comes before Are You My Mother?

It's been hot around here, in the high 70's to mid 80's all this week. It's supposed to get close to 90 soon, which is quite hot for NW Washington!

As usual, I'm staying busy this week with dance (I have 1.5 hrs of ballet and 2 hrs of Irish on Monday, plus ballet on Friday, and maybe on Thursday), volunteering at the library, a family soccer picnic tonight, a World Cup party tomorrow, and art class, golf, and probably other things I forgot. I'll be reading, doing school, and editing as well.

I'll try to get back to blogging more again soon, but probably not until August, when things really calm down a bit for us. We are camping in Bend, OR for a week in about 10 days, so I won't be blogging then either.

I'll get a few book reviews up this week, but other then that, I probably won't be on here until the beginning of August.

Busy, Busy, Busy {Life Update}

Today, I don't actually have time to write up a fancy post, so this is all that is going up. Life has been insane lately, and it's not slowing down. On Friday, we had our first choir performance, which went fine. On Saturday, I also danced with the Scottish Highland Dancers at the holiday festival at the port, and I took part in an Irish dance as part of that.

The Irish dance we did was one that a friend and I put together ourselves, the night before. It went really well, considering, but I do wish we could have practiced it a few more times. Today, I have another choir performance, and then a Christmas party, which should be a lot of fun, and, hopefully, somewhat relaxing.

Last Tuesday, our World Lit group got together to read the play, A Doll's House outloud together. It was a lot of fun. We each took a character to play. It took us over three hours, but we made it. I'll post a book review (and more about our reading) soon. My upcoming week is just as busy, with something (or multiple things) happening every day. According to Google Calender, the first free day I have is Dec. 17th. That's one of just three empty days between now and Christmas, though I'm sure they'll fill up quickly.

Anyways,  I don't need to just tell you how busy I am. This is just an update on what I'm up to, and now you at least know a little bit of it. School has been a little hard to fit in lately, but I'm planning on doing a comprehensive Homeschool Friday post this coming Friday. I'll talk a little about what's been going on and how things are going.

I've had a lot to do and think about lately, so this is all I have time to write at the moment. I'll be back tomorrow!

Life Update {Illness, Dancing, Singing, and Writing}

Hey guys! It is way past time for me to write one of these. The last month was INSANE, and I know that the one coming up won't be much better.

I have been really sick this last week, and in fact had to stay home while my family went to Thanksgiving with relatives. As a result, I did no school, and am quite behind there, and not a lot of writing. In fact, I was pretty sure that this was going to be the year I didn't win NaNoWriMo, but I managed to pull through in the end, which was a bit of a miracle.

Since I know that there are some of you in the Bellingham area who read this (and some family and friends who may be interested in coming), I thought I would post the dates and times of some of my performances for choir and dance over the next week or so.

On Saturday, December 7th, our Scottish Dance group will be performing at the Port Festival at from noon to 1pm. There will also be an Irish Dance or two from those of us who do both types of dance.

On Tuesday, December 10th, our Homeschool Choir will be performing as part of the Whatcom Homeschool Association Annual Christmas program, which begins at 7pm, and includes many performers. This will be at Kulshan Middle School and is open to the public.

There will probably be more choir performances, but they have not been finalized as of right now.

I have a lot of practice for all these, and overall I am swamped. I am really glad that NaNo is over, because if I am this overwhelmed with out writing 2k each day, I would be going crazy trying to fit that in too!

In the past week, I also saw Catching Fire (review coming soon) and Ender's Game (read review here). I also watched 5 episodes of Lost on Thanksgiving, and I am finally up to the beginning of Season Five. It's only taken two years. Oh well. At the current rate, it'll take almost another year to finish.

Also, this might sound a little crazy, but I want to try to put up a blog post every day for the rest of December. I really want to see if I can manage it. It will be a mix of holiday stuff, book and movie reviews (I have a ton stacked up waiting to be finished), some school stuff (I haven't done a HF post in weeks!), some other fun things I don't want to talk about yet, and some general chatty life update posts for the days I don't have anything else.

It should be fun, and crazy, and I might not make it, but I also might. I really just want to see if I can manage to do it. On that note, I have some ideas of ways things may be changing a little around here in the new year, but I'm going to wait a little while to talk more about that.

I hope you are all had a good Thanksgiving, and are enjoying the coming holiday season!