Keeping Company :: Feburary 2017

Welcome to the link-up for February!

Starting the Discussion

My mind is preoccupied with preparations for CM West :: Conference in the Redwoods, starting later this week.  I haven't had much time for anything "extra" in my days -- for a few weeks it has felt like I'm only getting the bare minimum accomplished.  Thankfully, my "bare minimum" includes my weekly keeping habits.  I have found those to be so essential to my days that I cannot leave them out!  These busy times are when I'm especially grateful to have them there on my weekly checklist, staring at me and reminding me to engage and rest in leisure.  When I am busiest, most likely to give them up, is when I need them most.

I came across this quote from John Muir in one of our Term 3 biographies that struck me as exactly what I was seeing in my own life for the past couple weeks:

He's talking about the busy-ness of city life, but I think the same can apply to busy-ness in our everyday schedule, wherever we live and however good the project is we're working on.

So I have been working on my commonplace, my history keeping, and my nature journaling this past week.  In fact, on Saturday, when I "should have" been working on my woefully-unfinished talk, I spent an hour nature journaling a fungusy, licheny (totally words!) log:

That isn't to say my "post-conference checklist" isn't way, way longer than it should be.  I have been throwing tasks onto that list for months and at this point, it's positively unruly! Mid-February life will look quite a bit different than it does now.  But with the ebbs and tides it is nice to have some bits that stay constant. :)

From Last Month

Lovely thoughts shared in last month's collection to kick off our new year...

My Peace in the Puzzle has a wonderful idea for fitting in pre-reading AND personal devotions by combining the two.  For those of you who read my pre-reading post and are pondering how to "fit it in," consider whether her suggestion would help.  And we get a nice cozy peek into her commonplace book as well!

I am in awe over Melissa's chapter-by-chapter written narrations of Oliver Twist!  Head over to see her thoughts on the book as well as her children's.  She also treats us to an idea-packed passage from The Golden Days of Greece.

Carol's family are noticing garden spiders and eggplant in their nature journals this month.

It's beginning to look a lot like spring over on Instagram!

BIRDS!
accidentalstars - adventureadaycm - sproutnchic
freelylearned - aolander - mariasugiyopranoto
sarahjokim - theycallmemommy618 - h5manriquez

MORE NATURE JOURNALING INSPIRATION...
lylyfreshty - raisinglittleshoots - all.saints.academy- tribecham
5mindailydrawingchallenge - ruthjtd - teriannm13 - convincedofwonders
athena_amidstthereeds - viajoy.baboopri.2- hudson2975squids7 - windymorning_3

MAMAS COMMONPLACING...
jeffsjessie - amy_crossingthebrandywine - theycallmemommy618
thanks33 - magistramama - kaypelham
angelaboord - learninghowtolivecm - laurke2

AND SOME HISTORY AND ART KEEPING!
mariasugiyopranoto - littledrops5 - frannieruth19

A few more special shares I want to highlight:

Dawn has been writing about her pre-reading and planning, and I just love the little keeping checklist she's adding to her kids' daily task sheets (over on the right).  She uses a list for her own pre-reading as well.  And she and her kids share their personal keeping with each other at their weekly meetings together, just like we do!

https://instagram.com/ladydusk/

Mariah has a couple unique items to share this month, including her daughter's start to an Enquire Within notebook (a less-popular notebook kept in CM's schools)...

windymorning_3

...and the reading notes sheet she made for her children.  My kids keep these kinds of notes on the back of their weekly checklist, but I love how she formatted this and think it would be particularly helpful for kids that have a hard time focusing or kids that are just getting started with managing their own weekly keeping habits.

windymorning_3

And last but not least: how about some keeping not on paper, but in wood?  Lucy's son is starting a carved bird!  Sounds like 3-D nature journaling. :)

stoppingforbutterflies

And now it's your turn!

The Link-Up

Instructions:
:: For bloggers: Click on the "Add my link" button below, and it will prompt you to include the information for your post.  Once you submit it, your link will be added to the list, and others will be able to click over and read what you have shared.
:: For Instagrammers: Tag related photos with #KeepingCompanyCM.

Guidelines:
:: Remember to link to a specific post and not to your blog's homepage. 
:: Any posts about CM-style Keeping are welcome!  The prompt is optional.  Your post can be as simple as a photo of your commonplace book or your kids drawing.
:: Feel free to add more than one post.  The link-up will be open for a month, so you can come back and add more if you are so inclined.
:: You can grab the button over there on the sidebar if you'd like to add it to your post or site.

An InLinkz Link-up