Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Not Back to School

I have no computer. Sigh. My desktop and laptop were in the shop and I picked them up yesterday. Unfortunately, the laptop was not actually repaired, (Good thing we paid $75 bucks to have it fixed...) and I'm not smart enough to hook our desktop up, and my husband is still out of town. (This is week six of six straight on the road. Yes, we are excited to see him on days other than Saturday and Sunday.)

So blogging from the iPhone is fun, yes?

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the neighborhood. I just made waffle batter for our not-back-to-school breakfast. We've been going at the homeschool thing strong for almost 3 weeks now, and today was my first "Why did I think this was a good idea" day. Abby decided she needed 2 1/2 hours for spelling and vocabulary, then had to finish everything else in the van on the way to her first violin lesson of the new school year.

I'm still pretty convinced we're doing the right thing in keeping the girls home. But that doesn't mean I won't still wonder about it tomorrow morning around, say, 8:25 am.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

I'll just crawl under my rock now

So I have to know.

Have you ever had one of those days where you're feeling all put together and cute because you're wearing the cute new shirt you snagged when you were supposed to be back-to-school shopping, and then you're feeling proud of yourself because not only did you teach a bunch of violin lessons, but you practiced with two kids and then worked on grammar, vocabulary, math and spelling with them, and THEN you were ambitious/motivated/crazy enough to go to the post office, the copy store and the district office where you filled out your homeschooling affidavit,(gulp),only to come home and find the size sticker for that snazzy new shirt is still stuck on your shirt right over your right boob?

Me neither. That would be incredibly embarrassing.

(It was the left boob. And it might explain the looks of pity and the "You must have your hands full!" comments I got everywhere I went today.)

Sunday, August 14, 2011

And now, for some poetry

Scriptures read.
Prayers said.
Baby fed. (And fed, and fed)
Exhausted.
To bed.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Excuses, excuses

Yes, I am still alive.

Barely.

As for my unexplained absence from the computer, I have some good excuses.

Wanna hear them? (Of course you do. I know you do. Why else do you come to my blog?)

Remember how we decided to homeschool? And how I worried that I was going to go a little crazy? Yeah. So here's the thing. I'm still convinced it's the right decision for our family, but I also think it's going to end up the kind of full-blown crazy that only my family can pull off.

We're homeschooling using k12. The great thing about it is that all your curriculum for the whole year is shipped to you free at the beginning of the school year. Some of the instruction is done online, but all the reading books, science experiments, and even a blow-up globe ended up on our porch on Monday afternoon courtesy of the UPS guy. My husband took one look at all the stuff strewn everywhere and quipped, "Are you sure they didn't send you everything for K through 12?"

I had great dreams of getting everything perfectly organized, catalogued, and ready for a grand and ceremonious start. The girls thought Monday's delivery was Christmas and wanted all the boxes opened at once. Abby begged to start homeschooling atleast 572 times before Monday was over. it was as good a time as any to introduce her to the word "perseverate."
This is what my floor looked like Monday afternoon. And this is after we unpacked two full boxes. Do me a favor and ignore the pile of laundry on the floor. I seem to have forgotten how much laundry is involved in a household of six, and Mt Idon'twannafoldlaundry had once again grown to epic proportions.

So now, two days later, we've worked on English literature, Math, Science, and Art. Still to come is grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and history. (Sheesh!) I'm still trying to figure out how the puzzle pieces all fit, and how we're going to do all of that plus the hours of practicing and lessons. Like I said, I had grand intentions of getting completely organized, and was going to type and display lists and schedules and lists of schedules, but since this is the first time in a week I've had a chance to sit down at the computer, naturally I'm blogging about it instead.

So why besides the pile of curriculum in my front room have I not been able to accomplish anything, you ask? Let me show you one little picture.
Yes, this would be my darling Ian, who at the time of this picture had just discovered the wonders of watermelon, taco meat, and fresh guacamole eaten off a spoon.

He looks very sweet. Looks are deceiving.

Remember how he was the easy baby? The baby that slept? Well, now it's all about Ian's revenge.

This little boy seems to have forgotten what it means to sleep, or at least sleep consistently. Where I used to be able to set a stopwatch by his naptimes, now we could have a two and a half hour nap, or a five minute nap. Who knows. And once he finally decides to wind down and sleep at night, I could be required to put him back to sleep 1-4 times or more before I finally give up and go to bed myself.

He's crawling everywhere, but his favorite is cruising along the furniture and walls at alarming speed. Today he reached the dubious milestone of learning to unroll entire rolls of toilet paper. Sigh.

And with all those milestones comes the sheer delight of separation anxiet and we have a wicked case in full swing. With three others, I thought I had seen my share of it, but this one might be the worst. Or maybe I've blocked out all the others, which is a distinct possibility. What I didn't remember is constantly having a weepy, sad, whining baby pulling himself up on your leg, or having that same clingy cling monster scream and try desperately to climb out of the shopping cart and into your arms in the grocery store just because a stranger dared to say "Hi" to him.

So I'm tired. Much too tired. Like probably more tired than when he was a newborn tired. And I know it will pass, and I have high hopes that he'll eventually sleep and that I won't have to nurse him back to sleep every 45 minutes all night long. (Last night I was half asleep and telling Ian "There's no more milk, baby, it's all gone." If only you could reason with an 8 month old...)

So tell me it will get better. Tell me I won't always feel this overwhelmed about homeschooling. Tell me I will sleep again someday. Tell me you're bringing me chocolate and Diet Coke. Tell me my husband might someday stop traveling. Tell me you understand. Tell me a joke. Tell me anything! (I might be a bit starved for adult interaction, can ya tell?)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Let the Wild Rumpus Start

My girls are home!

And if you're thinking to yourself, "Wait. Since when does Stacy have 3 daughters?" I don't, really. She's the girls' best friend, K, and she may as well be mine. Let's just say that everyone is have a very joyous reunion. I don't know if I've heard this much giggling and squealing, since, well, ever.

My baby is crawling!


And I forgot how adorable crawling babies are, and how much trouble they can get in in no time flat. I turned my back the other day and found him in the bathroom with a tipped over garbage can eating a dirty diaper. Shudder. Guess this means I'm going to have to vacuum way more often. And re-teach the girls about the importance of closed bathroom doors.

And I have the cold from you know where. It has been hanging around off and on for the better part of two weeks, and yesterday I started sounding like an asthmatic dying from emphysema and ended up needing to break out this:


And my husband is who knows where. Phoenix? Vegas? Somewhere hot. But that's not really news, and I don't have a picture to go with it, (mostly because I can't, for the life of me, remember where he is,) so never mind.
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