Day Twenty-Eight: Enneagram

I am not one to get sucked into those Facebook quizzes aimed at assigning personality traits. You know the ones: "Which literary character are you?" "Which state should you really live in?" But tonight, while scrolling through a group I follow, I saw that someone was talking about enneagram personality tests and how accurate they seemed to be. In need of a first for today, I decided to investigate for myself and to take the quiz to see what came up. I took the test on the Eclectic Energies website and found out I am most likely a 5 with a strong 6 wing, which, I admit, did seem pretty accurate.

An enneagram with brief explainations

Day Twenty-Seven: Health Webinar

I have attended a few webinars in the past but always because I had to. Tonight, I participated in one simply because I wanted to. Aviva Romm, M.D. is an herbalist/midwife/doctor that I follow online whose specialty and passion is women's health. I have been burned by many medical professionals in the past and have become very skeptical in my dealings with them. But, Dr. Romm seems to take a very natural, holistic approach to treatments and is an outspoken advocate who encourages and empowers her patients and followers to take their health into their own hands whenever possible. I wish there were more doctors like her. I would almost certainly seek out her practice if I lived in New York, but since I don't, I'm thankful that she has made herself and her many resources available online. Tonight's webinar was entitled "Women's Root Cause Medicine," and she talked about the five root causes of almost all illness, most of which we have the power to control to at least some degree. But, even those things which we don't have absolute control over, like genetics, don't point to the end of the world for our health. It was a wonderful webinar and gave me greater cause to appreciate Dr. Romm.

Day Twenty-Six: A Whole New CC Experience

Classical Conversations is certainly nothing new to our family. We've been participating in the homeschool support group for years. But this year, we're proving that new experiences can lurk even within those things which seem to be old hat. First of all, this year, we are not participating in the morning (Foundations) classes but are only showing up for the afternoon class (Essentials), which I am tutoring. Tutoring Essentials is not new for me either, but it has been a number of years since I've done it. This is, however, my first time to tutor the class and have any of my boys in class as students. Both Weston and Max are in the class this year, which is very neat. It is also my first time to tutor on such a large campus, which actually has two Essentials classes. Consequently, there is an element of needing to coordinate with the other tutor on certain things, which is definitely not a problem, just different from how I've done this in the past. Finally, since I was out of town last week, I had to start today, on the second week of class, which was definitely a different experience for me. I'm thankful to have found this CC campus, and I'm glad that I can find some firsts even among a tried and true activity.

Celebrating my first day of CC on a brand new campus

Day Twenty-Five: Physical Therapy

Today, I became a patient of physical therapy for the first time. This will be my new home away from home for the next few months, leading up to and following my knee surgery. The equipment looks fun and exciting to the casual observer but is actually used to torture patients back into shape. In seriousness, though, I'm glad to have the chance to strengthen my muscles before and after surgery, so that I can have the best chance at getting back to the active lifestyle I love.

photo from Orthopedic Associates website

Torture Chamber 
Physical Therapy Room

Day Twenty-Four: Mobile Birthday Party

We loaded up our crew today and headed to Haskell for the day, for a little birthday party for my Granny. I'm thankful we live close enough to be able to do something like that!

It was my first time to make a birthday cake for Granny
and my first time to make the Brown Sugar Pound Cake from our family cookbook.

Happy birthday to my sweet Granny!

Day Twenty-Three: Cross Country Meet

I have attended all kinds of sporting events in my forty years, but today was the first time I ever attended a cross country meet. Cross country is a new sport for Ruth this school year, and even though she actually had her first meet last weekend, I was out of town and had to miss it. It was a beautiful day, and Ruth's team did well. I'm very proud of the hard work Ruth has been putting in, and I enjoyed watching her run.

We had to drop Ruth off very early, but we were treated to a beautiful sunrise.

Early mornings mean lots of coffee
(Another first for the day was breakfast at The Porch.)

And, they're off!

Finishing strong!

Day Twenty-Two: Gabriela and Sofia's

Mexican food is certainly nothing new to me. In fact, it may be one of the most consistent things in my life. But, that doesn't mean there isn't room for a Mexican food first. Tonight, we tried a new-to-us local Mexican food restaurant (Gabriela and Sofia's Tex-Mex), and I ordered something I don't normally order. Everything was delicious!

Table side guacamole in a piggy molcajete