Boys. Brothers.

My youngest son asked that he be awakened early this morning.  He usually gets up on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons but lately our TV connection hasn't been all that good.  He said that he wanted to get up anyway so he could see his older brother.  With the oldest working 50+ hours this week, time with him has been rare.  For the last hour or so, my boys have been having a conversation which has ranged from the kitchen to the living room, to their shared bedroom, both of them talking, talking, talking, sometimes at the exact same time and this conversation is punctuated with all kinds of boy noises, sound effects and loud booms, fake fighting and laughing.  The big boy has been picking up the smaller one to see if he's heavier than the books he had to lift at work last night, which is funny.   I love it.  I find it funny that I wanted a girl when I found out the youngest boy was on the way.  I already had tiny girl clothes.  I had a 22 month old girl who wouldn't mind sharing a room and a 5 year old boy who would mind sharing, but I got a boy and I am really glad that I did.  It's been good for everybody.

I just realized.

That today it's been 2 years since my Dad passed away.  Tomorrow would have been his 82nd birthday.   I still miss him every day..  I noticed a week or so ago that I was thinking of him and smiling not tearing up, so I'm progressing.  I definitely don't cry every day anymore, only once in a while.  I've done some thinking about grief over the past 2 years, how everyone grieves differently.  I had a moment at the funeral of my aunt, with a friend of hers who was talking about her grandson's death.  She said that she had not visited the grave.  I told her that I hadn't visited Dad's grave either, other than the funeral and once to look at the tombstone and make sure everything was spelled correctly.  That's it.  She said that she felt guilty for not visiting the grave, but she just couldn't.  I said that everyone grieves in their own way and that she was doing nothing wrong and she hugged me for the longest time.  She said "I thought I was the only one in the world."  We all have our strange little quirks and I'm glad that our shared quirkiness helped her feel better.  I walk on the sidewalk past my Dad's grave all the time, but don't visit it.  I still haven't looked at the clock in the church sanctuary that has a plaque dedicating it to my Dad.  I've never read that plaque.  Not even once.  I wanted generic, not personally meaningful songs sung at the funeral because I felt like personally meaningful songs would have made it even more difficult and it was difficult enough.  I realize that my way of grieving is odd to some people but it's mine.  Some people bottle things up.  Some people need to vent.  Some people need to visit graves on a regular basis and some don't.  We all just need to be respectful of these differences. 

Work, school and life lessons.

It's Friday and I wonder at how fast the weeks just zoom by.  I am not feeling great today due to a bruised tailbone and an aching neck, but I am working.  I pretty much never take a day off, but I would sure like to today.   It is surprising what physical demands a job like mine places on the body.   It's a strain, sitting and typing all day.  One of these days, I'm going to have to do something else.  Maybe soon. I'd kind of like to get a standing desk, but I'm not sure what I'd do about the foot pedal.  I use a foot pedal to play, rewind and fast forward the recorded dictations that I type.

The youngest kid got up this morning at 6:00 a.m., did all of his school work and then fell back to sleep on the couch.  Now he's got the afternoon off to do as he pleases.  The girl got up at noon, as usual (beauty sleep!) and is doing her school work now.  She's got a guitar lesson this afternoon.   Time management is one of the things they are learning, I suppose.  Her Dad took extra time with her this week on math and she's back up to speed and doing fine.

I learned a lesson on envy yesterday.  There's this woman I've met online whose life I have kind of envied.  They are wealthy.  They have traveled and adopted kids from overseas and were starting a nonprofit to help others. She seemed to me to have it all together.  Then yesterday she went public with something that gave me quite a shock and reminded me that no one's life is perfect and made me very thankful for the life that I have.

Perspective.     

School Today.

I got up and got my work done pretty quickly today.  The kids, as usual, did not follow my example and started their work right about the time I was finishing mine.  The girl was having quite a few problems with today's algebra lesson.   I try to stay out of all discussions which involve math, so she was asking her younger brother for help on every problem.  He's kind of a math wiz and although he doesn't really like math, he's good at it.   She probably got a good grade, but Dad will need to go over this a few times with her so that she gets it.  The kids started imagining the future when they are in college and he has to help her with math and she has to help him with writing, which will probably be the case.  Really, I don't think everyone should have to do higher math for every career path and I really don't think everyone needs to learn to do a research paper.  I mean, yes, it's good brain exercise, but what good does it do you later on in a career?

Addendum:   What I was trying so inelegantly to say the other night was this.  The training for career paths could be more specific.  There are careers for which writing a research paper would be an excellent exercise and good practice for life and some where higher math is definitely a must.   Sorry, sometimes I just write things and don't realize until later that I have not expressed my point well.  My oldest son wants to be a graphic artist.  He wants to avoid math.  Therefore, he's looking at getting a career diploma instead of a degree.  Should he?  I don't know.  He feels like general studies in college would just be high school all over again and he only wants to study art.  Should he have to study things that won't affect his career path? 

Play.

Great post over on Parent At the Helm about play.  Here's the link.   Play is absolutely necessary for kids and most kids aren't getting enough play time.

Great Article

There's a great article over at the Parent at The Helm blog about the health benefits of homeschooling, including more sleep, healthier food, more exercise, less stress, etc.  Here's the link.

Speed reading?

I read on someone's blog that they were teaching their kids to speed read.  I took a speed reading class in college and did very well with it.  I don't know if it helped me get through college because I have no idea how I would have done without it, but I think I was doing okay prior to it, if you know what I mean.  Now, I feel like I read books too fast.  I would like to be able to savor them more. I think.  Maybe I'd like to be able to turn this skill on and off or dial it up and down?  I think if I had it to do over, I wouldn't take the speed reading course.  :-P