Karen is talking about plans. Karen and I, we like to plan. I enjoy planning so much I could easily spend all my time making the plans and never get around to carrying them out. Actually, that was a little battle I had to fight with myself in the early days of this home education adventure, and the "do-er" just barely managed to squeak out a victory—but the "planner" makes a vicious sally now and then and has to be thrust firmly back in her place.

I like planning so much I could give it up for Lent. That’d be a sacrifice with a real sting, let me tell you.

The perpetual joke on me, of course, is that the surefirest way to bring about a major family upheaval is for me to make some nice, neat, printed-out-on-grids plans. I am still laughing over the September I made a bee-yoo-tiful color-coded schedule for our days, a gorgeously detailed plan including everything from piano practice to nature walks, and so proud of this masterpiece was I that I brought it to our mothers’ meeting to show off—and the very next day I sprained my ankle quite badly at the park, and I spent the next six weeks mostly on the couch with my leg propped up. Ha. I believe my pretty schedule made a very fine coaster for my iced tea.

Undeterred, I am still writing out plans. This summer, I plan to:

• figure out how to navigate the beach with five fair-skinned children, one of whom won’t be able to hear me since his hearing aids aren’t going within five miles of the water, and another of whom thinks sand is for eating.

• finish our read-aloud of Swallows and Amazons, finally—this has been one of Jane’s favorite books for years, and I don’t know why it is taking me so long to read it to the other girls. It’s so deliciously good, but we’ve been reading it for months.

• have the girls continue to practice their burgeoning cookie-making skills

• learn the names of the trees in our neighborhood

• try to catch up to Jane in Latin

• see a bit of California

• make more plans for fall.