I've started doing these "Shantel - month" posts, almost like a little wrapup of my month. When I was first blogging I would write about things that I liked or I was doing (Friday Five were some of my favorite posts), but the blog has evolved into a family journal. I love that about this blog. However, here are some thoughts, likes, and things from me this month.
I officially stepped down as the director of SPARK Cooperative for the next school year. I have been feeling the need to shift my energy and attention and even though SPARK has been fantastic for our family, I felt the need to pull away. (This is one of the balls that I kept dropping over the past couple of months and it feels good to let it go.)
Within days of stepping down from the leadership role at SPARK, I decided to move ahead with co-hosting a Mothers of Influence (MOI) group AND become the finance chair for the kids Thursday co-op. It felt a little like "wow, I can't allow myself any time to breathe - responsibility just draws itself into the vacuum." I can especially see how it would seem that way from the outside. However, I actually feel that these are responsibilities I wanted to take on and are the direction that I needed to go but the additional responsibility of SPARK was holding me back. Stepping down as coop director was more about making room for the things calling to me and less about having too much responsibility in general.
I have wanted to create a group of homeschooling mothers who gather regularly to lift and support each other for a long time. Part of that desire has been met through our homeschool retreat, but I wanted to extend it throughout the year. I've been attending a MOI group in Mapleton for a while now and it's such a beautiful group with beautiful women, but it's far from me and my kids. I have the desire for a close group of people who are a support to me and a community for my children. Ali Middleton has similar dreams and asked if I would co-host an MOI group with her. I think having someone to share the leadership responsibility is exactly the thing that I needed to agree to start a group like this.
We met for the first time this month at my house (we will swap houses every other month) and talked about "A Mother's Heart" from the Well Educated Heart Catch the Vision course. I think there are some kinks to be worked out in the group and I'm hoping that some of the initial bumps will work themselves out as we grow together as a group. (Also, I had a little bit of a rough week which colored my perspective of how well the meeting went. I felt a little blah about it afterwards, but I have high hopes for beautiful connections in the future!)
I am not known for taking great care of plants. Any greenery you see in my house is almost definitely fake. However, in February I was given both of these plants and have been doing such a good job taking care of them. I'm surprised at the amount of joy it is giving me. The fern-type plant was a gift from Ali after the Sue's passing. The bonzai tree (a notably difficult plant to care for) was a gift from my Grandma Zuriel Knowles. She wanted to give me something to say thank you for helping to plan her 90th birthday and felt like this was the right thing. My mom, knowing my bad track record with plants, tried to convince her to do something else but my grandma insisted this was the right thing. I laughed when I received it, but I have quickly grown to love this darling little bonzai and I'm grateful for my grandmother who gave it to me.
These women are such a support, inspiration, and boon to me. We went out to dinner for Bethany's birthday and at one point I just sat in the middle of the table with chatter all around me (and a ridiculously loud live band playing right next to us, ha) and was filled with gratitude to be surrounded by them. They are an answer to my prayers in so many ways, homeschooling and beyond. Such strong, faithful, brave, diligent, creative, kind women. I'm blessed to be a part of them.
These art pieces are two that spoke to me the last time David and I were walking through Deseret Book. They are just so beautiful.
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