Anchor:  a person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay: Hope was his only anchor.

When we work to become the author of own family life, we take on the authority to provide our spouse and children and ourselves stability.  An effective way to do this is through the use of rhythm.  If you have small children, it takes time to build a family rhythm that encompasses the year.  If you are homeschooling older children and also have younger children not yet ready for formal learning, the cycle of the year through the seasons and through your religious year becomes the number one tool you have for family unity, for family identity, for stability.

I wrote about my homeschool planning method of marking seasonal and liturgical ideas down for each month in past posts, which has led to the creation of this series.  Now we are extending our mood of celebration into August!  I wrote about  August last year  as well. It is interesting to see how the same month can feel the same in so many ways, and yet so different.

This is the month that I associate with heat, rain showers, lakes, blackberries, anticipation, and the quality of  humility.  It is a month where fall peaks around the corner in some ways and we know school and more regular rhythm is indeed on its way!

As far as our religious monthly anchor points, this is, indeed, the month of the Theotokos.  The Dormition of St. Mary, or Marymas in the Anglican tradition, will be upon us on August 15th.  This is the major feast and anchor point for us this month.  For those of you who like  By Dawn and Candlelight , here is a post from 2006 regarding what they did for this feast!  There are several other religious feast days for us this month, and  also several birthdays in our family, which is very exciting as well.

The other major anchor point may be more familiar to many of you:  back to school!  Here in the Deep South, the summer heat begins in May with school getting out.  It is still hot in August, but there is something in the air.  The children seem to be ready to get back to more rhythm.  The anticipation of school hangs in the air.  I have our planning done, but now am in the midst of more “doing”:   making up menus, making props for stories for some of my children, and just getting things ready in general.  I am contemplating what the first day of school will look like, and what our activities outside the home might be (no, I still don’t have that figured out, even at this later date!)

Please tell me what you are up to in this month of August!

Many blessings and love,

Carrie