practice + creative

I know I said I'd stop apologizing, but let me just explain that schoolwork + procrastation + the fact that I'm so unused to blogging right now = going this long without writing. Okay, moving onward.

I think it will take me awhile to relearn blogging.  To remember how to pick out those little (or big) blog-worthy moments and photograph them, and then to find the time to post about them in a way that I'm proud of.  Not that I ever had that process down completely, but blogging has become something that's almost foreign to me, and that I'm incredibly out of practice at.  So I'll try to slowly ease myself back into the art of creating posts and accept that my first try isn't going to be a perfect one.  Today I'm determined to begin practicing, because really, it's the only way to go about achieving something.

My past couple of months have been...how to describe it?  A little overwhelming, maybe.  I am liking and, well, disliking high school simultaneously.  Liking the courses and teachers and the blissful feeling of being productive (that is, when I even am productive), and then not really liking the amount of work and lack of free time that it provides.  I'm still technically homeschooled, but I'm registered with a distance learning school now, so I am taking some online classes through the school, along with a French class through Skype and a Biology course through co-op.

I've also been introduced to something called deadlines - an amazing thing that this homeschooled girl had not had a ton of in the past.  I love that structure, and it's so, so good for the procrastinator in me.  While there have been some close calls and late nights, I'm wonderfully on track in most of my subjects right now.

One thing I have been hating about this whole school thing, though?  It's terrible for my creativity.  Maybe one day, I'll figure out a way to be productive with school and creatively inspired at the same time.  Recently, however, it's been an either/or thing, and most of the time I've been forced to go with the former.  What are some ways that y'all stay creative in the midst of school and crazy-busyness?  I'm trying, I really am...I've gotten to listening to Pandora while I do homework, have sticky-noted favorite quotes onto my desktop background, and joined Pinterest....even though I haven't exactly pinned anything yet.  Ahem.

And oh, daylight savings, I don't like you either.  True, getting dark early means that it feels like winter, and I love the feeling of seasons changing.  But it also means that I have approximately zero time to use my camera now, because once I'm finished with school things, all of the lovely light I'm used to in the evenings is gone.  I couldn't help but take out my camera yesterday morning, though, as everything looked so incredibly grey and monotonous that I had to take a few pictures.  The SOOCs you're seeing is a result of that.

Thanksgiving break has begun, though, meaning the annual trip to Chicago is happening today (ack - we were technically supposed to leave an hour ago).  That makes me incredibly happy--I love that seeing my relatives, and making dinner on Thursday, and visiting places in the city, and that we do it every single year.  It's all so full of tradition, and I like that.  A lot.  I think, of course, that much photographing will be in order.  And for the record, though I know the weather forecast says otherwise, I hope is snows. :-)

How has your autumn been, friends?  I've missed ya!

love,
hannah