The Torah Home Education Conference was wonderful.   Fantastic speakers, lots of very nice people to get to know in attendance.  The shalosh seudos on Shabbos was also really nice.  There’s lots more work involved in arranging all of the conference related activities than anyone can imagine, but it’s very special for me to see my vision and goals for the conference being actualized.  I wanted to do a recap for you but I am so, so, so tired.  As in weary deep in my bones. So for now I’ll just say that as much work as it’s been, and as much head space as it’s taken up, every bit of it has been worth it.  Maybe I’ll have a chance a little later on to share more details.  (I would love for someone else who attended to share their perspective and give an overview!)

I was thinking that after the conference, I’d take a breather and have a mellow week.  But I forgot to take into account that all of the conference planning took place in addition to my very busy regular schedule, not instead of it.  So I don’t really have the extra time that I was envisioning!

I haven’t been posting much recently so here’s a little of what I’ve been busy with the last few days, in addition to the conference.  I enjoyed having a good friend I haven’t seen for 11 years come in for the conference and come for Friday night dinner with her family of 11.  That was amazingly wonderful to see her in person again; both of us have had five kids since seeing one another and it was great to see all of the kids who have grown up so much in all these years!  Then for Shabbos lunch we had a couple of men who were in town for the conference.  Later Saturday afternoon we went to the shalosh seudos that I organized for conference attendees and I stayed with the kids until after Shabbos, so we got home after 10 pm.  We got an early start on Sunday morning, had a super full day with the conference, and then on Sunday  evening following the conference I got to enjoy the company of a homeschooling mom who was here for the conference (also a blog reader :)) who spent the night here.  What an easy and enjoyable guest!

Ds11 also had a friend sleep over, the son of my friend who was visiting who he met Friday night. And in the morning on Monday, dd15 invited a friend who came from out of state with her family for the conference to spend the week with us.  The same dd has another friend who also came for the conference who spent most of today with us and will be with us some more days this week and next.  They’re both lovely girls and I’m glad dd has a chance to spend time with them.

Right after coming home from picking up dd’s friend, I had a phone interview for a Baltimore paper.  I was so tired that I really just wanted to go to sleep, but instead I spent 1 hour and 20 minutes having to rephrase and clarify the questions I was asked before then answering them. I don’t mind doing that for someone really interested but as nice as this freelance writer was, she didn’t seem to have much interest in the topic – it was just the assignment her paper gave her.  She didn’t know anything about homeschooling and it was challenging to spend so much time correcting misconceptions while trying to answer questions, knowing that any little piece of what I said could be quoted and taken out of context.  I would have rathered taken a nap.  🙂

Last night (Monday) my husband called from work but I was out until 10:30 pm (working on the next home project). When he finally got me on the phone this morning, he said, “What was that you said about slowing down after the conference???”  😆

So while I do hope to take a little more time for sleep this week, I’ll be back to posting more regularly again here.

Avivah