Sunday Afternoon Tea - Changes in the New Year

I hope you are having a blessed Christmas season.  I think for most Americans, the season runs from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.  Some churches celebrate Advent and then the 12 Days of Christmas.  Either way, it is the only time of the year when the name of Jesus is lifted up so almost everyone can hear it.  

This time of year can bring much rejoicing and much sorrow.  Doesn't it seem like it acts like a magnifying glass on circumstances?  If it has been a year of lack or sorrow, we feel it more at Christmas.  If it was a year that brought joy and abundance, we feel it and should be very thankful. 

Most of us have known both and what I have learned over the years is when one has a thankful attitude toward what God provides and an attitude of trust for what He has allowed.. the Christmas season will always be one that helps keep our mind as well as our soul directed toward Him.

It has been a long time now since we have had a child centered Christmas season.  I am thankful that our son and his family moved back to the area so it is easier for them to spend Christmas Eve with us and Christmas Day with our daughter-in-law's family.  My family always opened gifts on Christmas Eve (which my husband thinks is akin to heresy), so celebrating on Christmas Eve comes naturally.

While I do miss the season of life when we attended Christmas Eve services, that could not happen now that we fall asleep much earlier than midnight.  Everything changes as one flows through the seasons of life.

Which kinda' brings me to the announcement regarding blog changes after this weekend.  I will publish a Christmas Day Sunday Afternoon Tea post next week but after that, there will be no scheduled weekend blog posts.

Instead, I will be popping in now and then with what I have been pondering or to respond to any big news events. I may write once a week or it may be a couple of weeks before I have anything to say.  I always have said that I will stop blogging when I no longer have anything to say.  I am not quite there, yet.  ;)

It is quite amazing that this blog, which I originally started to keep up with a small group of family and friends, has been going for over sixteen years.  We were still homeschooling high school and Christopher did not drive, yet.  I was as much chauffeur as I was a facilitator of learning (which is what we really are by the high school years).

My daughter had three preschoolers and would have two more children.  All have been (or they are currently) homeschooled.  I am amazed at what they learn through Classical Connections.  My oldest grandchild was married this year at the same age I was married... albeit long ago.

My son, whose ADHD symptoms were the reason we pulled him out of school, is now married to a lovely fellow homeschool alum and has three children.  They homeschool their first grader and pre-schooler.  My son is a Computer Architect with an IBM subsidiary.  I think quite often of the first grade teacher who told me he was a trouble maker and would never amount to much.  

My first child had a learning style that fit in well with the public schools.  Even then I kept an eye on her curriculum, for what is being taught today in the open was creeping in through back educational doors when she was in elementary school. It helped that we lived in Holland, Michigan for much of her elementary years for it was at the time quite conservative.

I went into homeschooling thinking it would be temporary but a couple things happened that kept us homeschoolers throughout his pre-college education.  First, we saw a huge improvement in him as far as personality and education.  All without him being on any drugs.

Second, I came to love homeschooling.  How could I not as a book and history nerd?  We used the Sonlight Curriculum for many years since it went along with the Charlotte Mason method of education I preferred.  It also allowed us to go through the books at our own speed.

Most of this was accomplished while writing three (and then two) times a week for this blog.  I know some blog friends who have been a part of Coffee Tea Books & Me for many years have noticed a change... although I have tried not to show my declining health.

But when I have been too tired to write thank you notes to dear friends for birthday gifts, much less to do the research needed for Saturday posts, I knew a few months ago that I was going to have to make some changes.  Instead of shutting down the blog, I decided I could still write as long as it was not on specific days.  I can write on good days, not so much when I am experiencing overwhelming fatigue.

It is nothing new, thank God.  I'm feeling the effects of over twenty years having two auto immune diseases: Juvenile Diabetes and Hashimoto's Disease.  Not to mention adding sixteen years since I first started blogging.  ;)

So, I will still be here!  God willing and the creek don't rise.  At the moment, it is freezing over.

Image:  The breakfront decorated for Christmas a few years ago.