February 2019 - The Inside of Life

10 Things I Hate about Homeschooling

February 23, 2019March 17, 2019 Melissa AtLee

Ok, maybe “hate” is too strong a verb. It’s more like “10 things I struggle with and would like to get better at”, but it’s not quite as catchy. The simple truth is, for all the amazing things that homeschooling brings to the table, it’s super hard. I have wanted to quit so many times that it’s become a bit of a (tiresome) joke for my husband. Some seasons I feel like it’s nothing but struggles. Struggling to get the kids going in the morning. To get them to start their school work. To focus on their schoolwork. To stop picking fights. To get their feet off the table and their fingers out of their noses. All the while, the dirty dishes are piling up, the fridge is empty and I don’t remember the last time I exercised.

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Family, Marriage

Love in Sadness

February 12, 2019March 17, 2019 Melissa AtLee

This is a very personal post. Last summer I miscarried our 5th child. Baby would have been born right about this time, so in memory of him or her, I’m sharing the following post, written a few days after our loss.

Over the weekend I suffered a miscarriage in the 12th week of my pregnancy. It was one of the saddest experiences of our lives. This baby came into our lives unexpectedly and left us unexpectedly. Finding out that I was pregnant was a huge shock, and it took me a while to accept the news. But now that the baby has left us, there is pain, grief and a hole in our hearts. We hope and we pray with that one day we will meet this sweet baby in Heaven. But in the meanwhile, we mourn our loss.

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Education, Kids, My favorite things, Uncategorized

My Favorite Things – a Podcast for Parents of Boys, a Homeschooling Documentary, Poldark and more

February 6, 2019April 29, 2019 Melissa AtLee

It’s been so cold that Niagara Falls has frozen over. How cool is that. Tara Walton/The Canadian Press/AP

This post contains affiliate links.

January in the northern hemisphere, especially if it gets arctic-level cold like it did last week, is the perfect month to hibernate – reading books, listening to podcasts, and bingeing on shows. In other words, January can be an introvert’s paradise. Count me in.

In no particular order, these have been my fave things this month:

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Family, Kids, Marriage, Self-care, Uncategorized

New in 2019: Resolutions

February 2, 2019May 22, 2019 Melissa AtLee

Happy New Year!
Photo by Roven Images on Unsplash

I have never been into making resolutions. It’s probably because I have such a poor track record of accomplishing big goals that the last thing I need is a visual reminder of all the goals I’m not “crushing”. Over the last year or two, however, I’ve felt the need to become more intentional about my life. Perhaps it’s because I recently joined the 40s club, and it’s given me an existential crisis – where am I, where have I been and where am I going? Or perhaps it’s because my kids are getting older and I’m no longer on survival mode. Therefore I have more time to reflect and make some longer term goals. Whatever the reason, making resolutions for this new year is making sense to me. You can tell I’m new at this, for it’s already the end of January and I’m still in goal setting mode. Oh well. Baby steps! So here they are – many of them are half-baked but I won’t let that stop me!

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