Juggling…

One of my sweet friends reminded me recently that this life that we are living is always going to be a juggling act and that we are always going to be dropping the ball.  The trick is to choose which ball to drop and when and to make sure that we alternate which one gets dropped from time to time. 

I am sure that many of you also have a similar story: there’s my job as wife and then mom and teacher and small business woman.  I need to feed little people, and make sure I get some exercise in, and that the laundry is relatively under control, and pack book treats into boxes and envelopes and write.  Writing.  I miss that.  Writing has been the ball that has been dropped lately and it’s time to dust it off and pick it up and get in touch again.  I think I am a bit of a modern day old fashioned girl: not much for talking on the phone but I do love to write and exchange notes.  If we can’t sit down and have a proper conversation over a cup of tea, then the written word is one of the best ways to communicate.

Writing soothes me.  I think that’s why I am a journaller.  I write even when I hope that no one will ever read it.  And while this sunny little spot Under the Maple Tree isn’t a very large community, I thank you for joining in this conversation.  It encourages me to hear from you and to hear of your struggles and your victories.  Thanks for indulging me and letting me share my little part of the world with you.  I’ve missed this time.

I can’t wait to tell you a bit about what’s been going on here.  Most of it is mundane and everyday-ish, some is exciting and exhilarating.  Dropping the writing ball has allowed me to do a little better at a few other things.  I have become fairly consistent in exercising and eating better, which has lead to me adding a few new treats to the shelves of our store: the book Trim Healthy Mama and some of the specialty foods that they provide like healthy natural sweeteners. 

We have also done a bunch of the boring behind the scenes work that needs to be done, updating computer programmes and hardware to make Maple Tree run better.  I thought that changing my email address (to cori@mapletreepublications.ca) would be less cumbersome than it proved to be but now we have an address that won’t need to change again as it matches our website. 

We’ve tripled the number of books that are available on the webstore as we continue to work towards being Canada’s Charlotte Mason resource provider, www.mapletreepublications.ca.  Check out all the Simply Charlotte Mason books that we now stock in addition to publications by Maple Tree as well as Life of Fred math, Mystery of History, Story of the World, Jonathan Park, Learning Language Arts Through Literature and much more.

On the home front, the girls are in senior kindergarten to grade ten, if you want to talk schoolish.  I can’t wait to tell you about our experience reading through the whole Bible at the beginning of this school year.  Many of you have asked and so I will update you about that soon too. 

For now though I should leave you with a few more practical updates as I anticipate the excitement of a few more conferences coming up in the next several weeks.  It has been so refreshing to me to see many of you and to serve you at both the KWCHEA conference in Kitchener and the RVHEA conference in Ottawa.  Next weekend Maple Tree will be at OCHEC in Ancaster at Redeemer University.

If you are at any of these upcoming conferences, please come by and say hello.  And, of course, I will happily pack up an order to bring to you at the conference if you have something that you need and want to make sure it’s available when we meet up.

Here’s where Maple Tree is setting up shop in the next little bit:

May 1-2 OCHEC Convention in Ancaster.

https://www.ochec.org/?q=convention
*I will be speaking on “Enjoying Math?”*  (Really, it will be  fun one!)

May 30^th KATCH Conference in Peterbourough.  http://www.katchpeterborough.org/Conference.html

*I will be doing a three part series on Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education: Education is an Atmostphere, a Discipline and a Life.*  I am really excited to be able to share these ones.  Don’t miss out!

June 6^th Used Book and Curriculum Fair and Small Business Expo in Barrie. https://www.facebook.com/events/768354386584075/

June 12^th TEACH New and Used Curriculum Fair in Brantford.

http://groupspaces.com/TeachHomeEducators/item/911069

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon in person and to hearing from you Under the Maple Tree as I get back to adding the writing ball into this jumbled up mess that I juggle.

Peace and blessings,

Cori

www.mapletreepublications.ca