Actually.

I've actually given a little thought to school off and on today.  We usually start the day after my daughter's birthday which is Monday, but this year, we've got the oldest going off to college and it's consuming a lot of our thoughts, at least mine.  I've also been thinking a lot about my mom, since she fell and hurt her back and also feeling sorry for myself since my back still hurts after 2 1/2 weeks of antibiotics.  I may have to go back to the very expensive specialist and I don't want to do that.  :-(
But, in between the busy crazy times, my husband and I both have been thinking about school for our 2 remaining high schoolers.

We're going to do chemistry this year, geometry, writing and MS Office.  Then the girl will also be working on a foreign language.  She wants to switch that from French to sign language, which does count, so I guess we will.   The boy needs to work on his writing literacy.  He has dysgraphia so he's in an entirely different place than she was at this age.  He will also have to continue typing but I'm going to have to get something different from Mavis Beacon because MB wants him to be fast before he can move past the home row and he's not fast.  The girl already types well enough that I think she can stop doing MB every day.  I've started looking for a chemistry curriculum.  I downloaded a free middle school curriculum from someplace but it doesn't look very in-depth so I've been looking for supplements for it, with really no luck so far.  Anyone have suggestions?

So that's it.  I've thought a little bit about school and with as crazy as it's been around here lately, that's an accomplishment.  :-)

Interviews.

I asked the kids one interview question today.  What are you going to do now that school is out?

Boy said "Play heroscape." and he is doing this quite loudly behind me as I type this.

Girl said "Nothing."

So there are their exciting summer plans.  LoL.

The First Day of Summer.

Okay, we realize that it isn't officially the first day of summer but for us, it is.  Woo hoo!  No school today.  No whining about school today.  We need to sit down and make a summer fun and a summer work schedule.  Must do both.   Mom wants to lose some weight this summer and so we need an exercise plan.  We also need to get the house in order and do the rest of the spring cleaning.  We also don't want to neglect doing some fun and interesting things and getting together with our homeschool group.  It might be helpful to combine some fun and exercise by doing those with the homeschool group when we can.  I wonder if they'd want to come over and work on our house?  Probably not.  Painting my bedroom would go quicker with 20 of us though.  Could we call that "art"?

Scary moments.

Today when my daughter and I came home from the guitar lesson and the grocery, we couldn't find my youngest son anywhere.  We searched the house, went outside and yelled very loudly and got no response.  I called my husband to ask if he'd picked him up.  He hadn't.  What seems in retrospect like 15-20 panicky minutes went by with us yelling and searching.  I was just about to call 911 and report a missing child when he came walking around the end of the house.  We've got one of those houses with no windows on either end and he was at the far end, away from the driveway, playing in the dirt, with his noise cancelling headphones on, listening to Ranger's Apprentice.  He sure did give us a scare though.  He's been told not to have the headphones on outside, out of sight of the house.  In his opinion, since he could see the house right there next to him, he did nothing wrong.  We may need to say that he needs to be able to be seen from the house, not see the house, if you know what I mean.  He did apologize later for scaring me.

The last day of school.

The kids have been working mostly on math this week.  They've had to go back and correct any of the lessons where they scored less than 80.  I gave them a break on writing, mostly because the girl is sick and she begged and begged not to have to do writing.  I really think they are doing more than the public school kids would do on their last day or so.  For last days of school when I was a kid, I remember field days, sitting around, watching TV, movie day and stacking chairs and tables.  We went out and cleaned out the gutters yesterday.  Do you think that counts for anything?  Probably not.  We did it in addition to school, not instead of school, anyway.

While we finish up here today, enjoy these pictures of my mom's garden.    My daughter took all of these Wednesday.

Summer planning.

This is the last week of school.  Three more days.  The summer looms ahead of us.  12 weeks.  In my opinion, we have 3 priorities to accomplish this summer.

1.  Finish the refinance plans we have been working on procrastinating about for over a year.  (Don't ask.)
2.  Exercise/fitness.
3.  Have fun and promote family bonding.

There will be other things we'll do but these are the main things.  I also want to do some volunteer work and work on my book some more and take a little time to stop and smell the roses. When one of the kids asks me to play something or do something with them, I'm going to try most of the time to say yes.

At this point.

I'm getting used to the twice daily insulin injections for the dog.  I forgot him today until 2 hours after I was supposed to give it but I guess better late than never.  Today he's got to go get his blood sugar checked at the vet. 

We're all getting used (I guess) to oldest son being a working man.   He seems to be doing okay with it.    He does not want to do this for the rest of his life and I think that's actually a good thing.  I don't want him to either.

This is the last week of school.  We took fewer breaks than the public schools so we are finishing up way earlier than they are and way earlier than we usually do.  It's nice.  The kids are happy about it, that's for sure.

I wish I got the summers off from work, but I don't wish that enough to get a job in the school system ...

Last night we had the 4H needleworking class.  My mother in law taught the kids how to make crochet mats out of grocery bags for the homeless.  It went really well and now my daughter has a big old project to work on.  The goal is to get it done by the county fair the third week of July.  

An actual homeschooling update.

Today, the 2 younger kids, my homeschool students, slept in. I won't tell you how late they slept because it's embarrassing.  I was very, very intent on getting my work done today, concentrating hard and I pretty much just let them sleep.  Every time I'd get up to go to the bathroom or something, I'd nudge them on my way back, but they slept on anyway.   Finally they got up and shortly thereafter I had to take the girl to her guitar lesson.  Then we had to take overdue books to the library, get gas and get groceries.  Consequently, it's 9:00 p.m. and they are just now finished with school.  Still, better than a few weeks ago before I instituted the deadline (you know, the one we ignored today?).  Next week is the last week of school, so they may be inspired to just get it done.  I know I would. When they get done, I  need to work on the record books.  This is something I have really been slacking on.  Then, we all need to throw ourselves into housecleaning and home improvement tasks.  Sometimes I would like to just get a small condo and have a building manager and a housekeeper do that, because it sure does seem to want to take up all of our free time.  :-P

First Jobs.

My son came home happy and excited from his first day of the job.  He went through orientation and safety training.  He's actually going to be doing 2 different things, switching back and forth so that might make it easier or less boring.   He actually starts the job tomorrow.  I remember from my hospital job a couple of years ago that the training part bears no resemblance to the actual job part and day 3, when I actually started the job itself, was when I realized that I hated it.  :-)  But, he's not me (thank goodness) and maybe he'll like it, but not so much that he'll give up college for it, if you know what I mean.  

My first job was in a restaurant.  I worked as a cook and then as a dishwasher, about 15-20 hours a week, after school and on weekends.  I made less than minimum wage because they paid us all as if we were waitresses, and assuming we'd get tips, which you didn't if you were washing the dishes, so I made very, very little money.  Still, the money I did make was nice to have.  I wonder sometimes how those past prices and those past wages, compare really to now.  The prices are higher but so are the wages.  Sometimes I'll be debating on buying something and I'll calculate how long my husband and I would have to work to pay for it, which is probably kind of weird.

The younger 2 kids procrastinated about school today, but then finished 1 minute and 3 minutes after the deadline, so I didn't ground them.

This/That

We've got lots of stuff going on.  We're finishing up the crazy busy week and next week doesn't look too awfully busy for some of us.  For my oldest son, he's starting a job in a  factory tomorrow.  His first job ever.  Right now he's packing up his lunch and making sure he's got everything he needs to take with him.  I'm not ready for him being gone all the time, but he needs to buy a car.  My fear is that he'll just get stuck in a rut in this factory job and end up never going to college.  Moms worry, you know?  He insists that he won't, but it's not a part time, not a temporary job, they are hiring him with the expectation that he'll stay for a good long while and I'm afraid he'll bow to the pressure and just stay.  As a people pleaser myself, I battle with trying to make everyone else happy and often making myself miserable in the process. With kids, it's hard letting them go and letting them their own decisions.  Actually, I'm not sure if this is his decision or if he's just bowing down to some intense pressure from other family members.   :-(  Can you tell I'm not thrilled?  Still, I'm being supportive and as helpful as I can.  I bought a bunch of gluten free dairy free lunch options for him, new pants and socks for work and I'll be loaning him my car 5 days a week for a while.   

Anyway, we've only got 10 days of school left and the other 2 kids are counting down, ready to take a break.  I'll be glad not to have them next to me whining about math all the time.  With school out, they'll be up and about during the day, not at our shared computer table.  Although, when those 2 are all grown up and starting jobs of their own, I sure will miss their old math whining days.  We've only got 4 years of homeschooling to go. Again, can you tell I'm not thrilled?   I'll miss it.

I need to plan some fun stuff for this summer. 

Pretty good.

Max and I had a pretty good night's sleep.  Okay, I really don't know if he did, since he sleeps on the bedroom floor but he only went out once at 5:00 a.m.  I took him to the vet yesterday and his blood sugar was still over 400 and she upped his insulin dose a little.  Maybe it's doing the trick, because he has not seemed as crazy-thirsty.  That's good.

On the homeschooling front, the kids realized yesterday that we only have about 14 days left to do.  They are very excited.  Also, both of them missed the 4:00 deadline yesterday and got grounded.  Youngest asked if there was anything he could do to get ungrounded, so I decided on 5 chores.  Then my daughter thought this was a good idea so we got a lot of little cleaning tasks done last night.  It was great from my point of view, I'm embarrassed to say.  I had had a doctor's appointment yesterday regarding possible damage to my vocal cords from singing in the cantata (all clear!) and then had to take Max to the vet so I was working later last night.  It was nice to have my chores done by someone else.

This freed me up, after work and dinner, to go outside and do some weed whacking.  Then I got roped into playing stick ball with the kids.  My youngest son is going through "The Big Book Of Fun Stuff" that he got for Easter and getting us to do all kinds of interesting things like playing stick ball with real sticks (of which he has a huge collection).  Last night, he told me a bunch of riddles that are in the book.  He's really  having fun with it.  I recommended this series of books to a friend of mine's son and then her son told her that it had some marginally bad words in it, nothing serious, but some, what we would call, rude words.  Still, they are not popping up in my son's conversations and he needs to learn this stuff outside of public middle schools, so I'm not personally upset about small things like that.

The anticipated/dreaded free day.

If you all have been reading my blog for long, you know that I don't have to work at my medical transcription job on Thursdays and it is the only day of the week that I don't have to get up and do anything in particular.  That makes me happy, yet, it also means that most housework and home improvement tasks get put on Thursday.  Sometimes my list is quite long.  Right now, it's pretty much overwhelming and includes spring cleaning, gardening, home improvement projects and reorganizing.  I'm trying not to get overwhelmed by it and just go at it as hard as I can today.  So far, I'm doing pretty good.  I've done some organizing and decluttering and a bit of gardening.  Right now I'm cooling off and trying to think of what to do next.   I wish that the pool was warm enough to help with the cooling off process, but it seems like it's going to be June before we can get in it.  It's a beautiful day though and I enjoy being able to get outside.

Yesterday, my daughter and I had a conversation that seems less like a homeschooling kid and mom and more like a schooled kid and mom.  She asked me to get her some books at the library on Abraham Lincoln, because she has to do a biography for her writing class.  It's funny to me because I didn't know about the biography paper and I didn't have to assign this biography paper since she is working through her own writing book and occasionally, if I ask nicely, will let me read the assignments.  This homeschooling a self-directed teenager is kind of weird.  The boys need more support, urging, nagging and checking, so even though I have graduated one kid, I'm not used to this.  Although in fairness to my older son, he did teach himself (and still does) things he is interested in, guitar, theology, Python programming, gimp, photoshop, etc.  So I guess I am used to it, just not for something as traditional as writing class.   :-P

A funny twist on walking the dog.

Today, on our walk, we decided to let Freckles set the pace.  When she trotted, we trotted, when she walked, we walked and when she stopped we stopped.  Some of the kids really got into it and when she'd scratch her ear, they'd scratch their ear.  When she had to visit the little doggies room, we turned our heads and took a time out.  It was funny, to all freeze when she'd stop and she couldn't figure it out, so she'd give us a funny look and then go on.

There's a good post about the hidden costs of homeschooling over on The Common Room.  I'm too lazy myself to do a good post about homeschooling.  Youngest son missed the deadline today by about 20 minutes and therefore is grounded this evening from all screens.  I'm hopeful that he'll get it tomorrow.  He did get it done tonight before 5 so he didn't have to do an extra chore.  We took a walk again today and I've finally started my post-Easter resolutions and am trying to drink water and exercise.  The water is in lieu of southern sweet tea which is really sweet and sweetened with sugar.  I'm still going to drink some tea, but I'm going to cut calories by alternating with water.

Mama finally.

put her foot down today about the work being put off all week and said that if they weren't done with today's work by 4:00 o'clock, that I'd ground them from screen time and then every hour after that, they'd be assigned a chore.  So at 5:00, they'd get a chore added to their list and then at 6:00 and so on.  They were done by 4:00 and then they were both relieved that they were done.  Silly kids.

I have no idea where

my son gets his motivational issues from.  Really.  None.  But today he's doing work that he should have been working on all week and has spent some time calculating how many math problems he has to do per hour, rather than just doing the math problems and getting it overwith.

As they say, the nut does not fall far from the tree.

From my Email Box this morning.

I get some interesting email each morning.  Here are some of today's highlights.

I got this email from Family Education which included this printable.
Spring Staycation Printable

I also got my daily Hunger Site reminder to click.
The Hunger Site

And my Animal Rescue Site reminder to click.
The Animal Rescue Site

I got a notice that I sold one of these shirts on my cafepress store,
Cafepress Gigi shirt

My daily notification from Cozi to take my pills.  :-)
 Cozi

My daily book section from Daily Lit.
 Daily Lit

I got multiple work status updates for my job with pleas to please type more and faster, but I'll spare you those.:-), also multiple travel advertisements and bunches of  notices of sales. 

 I also get some google alerts about homeschooling and gluten free living which provided some interesting links.
Penelope Trunk Homeschooling Frustration
Heart of the Matter, What I like best about homeschooling.
Gluten causes more than just stomach problems.

It's no wonder it takes me so long to get done with my workday.  It takes me a while to get my email!  :-)

Friday.

Youngest son set his alarm at 6:00 a.m. so he could get up and finish school today.  When I got up at 9:00 a.m., he was almost finished, working on handwriting while listening to an audiobook.  I kind of wish I'd gotten up early and did the same, but I really enjoy my sleep so I didn't.  One advantage of my writing my own schedule and working at home is that I get to sleep until I wake up.  Now the girl and I will be working most of the day and youngest can gloat that he's done.

Organization.

This is the kids white board school chart.  They decided that they wanted to be able to move things around from day to day and so they used this magnetic white board, magnets and wrote their assignments on card stock.  It's been working really well.

You wouldn't think

that this time of year would be prime out-of-doors time but it is.  The sun is shining.  The temperature is in the high 50s and the kids have been outside every day..   The sunshine, exercise and fresh air is good for them.  I probably need to join them.  I could seriously use a boost of mood and a change of attitude that a nice walk in the sun might provide.  I'm almost done with work, thank goodness. 

Impromptu History Lesson

Last night and today my youngest son has been watching This is America Charlie Brown which we have on DVD.  It's pretty interesting and informative.  I enjoy Snoopy as a wild west cowboy with a mustache. :-)    We also have The Story of Us on DVD but someone has borrowed that.  After we watched the part about the transcontinental railroad today, we took a few minutes to look at the Amtrak website and daydreamed about taking a cross country trip by rail.  That is something I'd like to experience some day.

Now screen time is over so the kids have gone outside to enjoy the sunshine.  It's really  a beautiful day for January.