the susie solution

Today was an historic day.  Every fall since 1993, I have filed a form with the school district to conform with our state’s homeschooling requirements.  It is called a Declaration of Intent to Provide Home-Based Instruction.  Since our youngest, Jillian, is now a senior, this year’s form is the very last I will ever have to file.  I’m not sure whether to frame it or save it till next spring and burn it at her graduation!

Although the State’s purpose in requiring this Declaration of Intent is a mere matter of record-keeping so that homeschooled students are not confused with public schoolers on “self-directed field trips”who need a visit from the truancy officer, I see another value to having to do it.  No matter what kind of schedule you follow or which philosophy you apply to your homeschooling, being required to file this form means that at least once a year you are forced to give some thought to what you are doing.  No one should be homeschooling without being very intentional about it.

What if we were to file such a Declaration of Intent for other areas of our lives?  Too much of our lives are lived unintentionally – overcome by events, distracted, drifting with whatever current happens to take us.  Yesterday, September 1, has always marked the official end of summer to me.  Oh, we may have a pleasant “Indian summer” this month – we often do – but SUMMER starts Memorial Day weekend and ends September 1.  I got to take a wonderful two week trip to Texas in June, but as a family, this summer we did ….. nothing.  We didn’t make it to the beach, to a zoo, to a mountain, to a lake, anywhere.  Not even once.  Now, I have to give the weather it’s fair share of blame; we had a pretty poor showing of summer weather until August.  But even so, what killed our summer wasn’t the weather.  And it wasn’t that we didn’t WANT to do those things.  They all sounded good!  But rather than declaring our intent, setting dates, making plans, and then making them happen, we just drifted along waiting for those things to just somehow….. occur.  As if some Saturday morning we’d wake up and find ourselves on our way to the beach.  “Wow!  This is cool!  Didn’t know we’d be doing this today!”

My project boxes and craft drawers have been packed full of many unfinished “guilts to do”.   I bought the materials, maybe even got started on the project in a burst of inspiration, but then somehow let it get lost in the sea of circumstances.  Again, I was waiting for things to more or less make themselves happen.  I’ve thought of writing a blog for years.  Or maybe I should say I’ve thought for years about writing a blog, though both may end up true.  But it went no further than thought.

I can’t go back and be more intentional about the first 51 years of my life, but I can work on whatever time I have left.  I (obviously) started this blog at last!  Over the last few weeks I’ve done a “fish or cut bait” on those projects in boxes and craft drawers, forcing myself to realistically assess whether or not I’m ever going to – or even want to – do them.  Of those that I’m keeing, those that I could finish with just a few minutes, I have been making myself just DO and have done with.   I’ve set a sequence for working on the others, and I’m going to impose some deadlines for doing them, or out they’ll go, too!  For months, I’ve been sorting out my wardrobe and culling items – all those things I keep telling myself I’ll wear (but never do) and those things I keep trying to talk myself into liking simply because I spent money on it or someone gave it to me.  I’m getting rid of things that don’t fit properly, or that I use to like but no longer fit my style.  I’m working harder on stopping tasks to call a friend when I think about it, rather than thinking “I’ll do it when I’m done” – because most often, by the time I finish a chore I’ll have forgotten about making the call, but if I make the call, I’m less likely to forget the chore that needs finishing!  I can’t redo this summer, but maybe when next summer rolls around, I’ll make sure we do more than think about fun things to do.

I’m not sure which office to take it to, but I’m filing a Declaration of Intentionality!