When I started this blog it was 2012, I had two kids in school, and I was plotting the next steps for what to do with my life as they grew up and I had more time free (“professional organizer” was on my short list, when I wasn’t helping out in the school library).

February 2013 I pulled my oldest, then in third grade, to start homeschooling “through the end of the year.”  (At some point, maybe, I’ll tell that story.  Maybe.)

April 2013 my surprise youngest was born and I was starting to think this homeschooling gig might actually be the best thing ever.

May 2013 my then-first-grade daughter finished out her year.  As we unloaded her backpack for the last time, I ran across a spiral notebook full of scribbles and drawings.  FULL.  “What’s this?” I asked with a laugh.  “Oh,” she said, “that’s what I do while I’m waiting.”

That was the moment I decided she wouldn’t go back.

The homeschooling stuff sort of crept into this blog unintentionally, just as it crept into our lives.  It was part of my life, and I wrote about it.  I toyed for awhile with starting a new blog, strictly for the homeschool part of my life; set one up and wrote a few posts….but really?

My goal in 2012 was to start simplifying my life.  Having two blogs going at once seems…..not so simple.

So I apologize to the people who started reading here for “simplifying” and are now getting “homeschooling.”  Just as I apologize to the homeschoolers who follow this blog and are frequently hit with posts about minimalism.  The two-blog idea sounds good on paper, but I’m sticking with one.  It might be a little messy, I guess, but so’s life.