I spent most of the last week trying really hard not to whine about not feeling well, because there is little more annoying than listening to a grown-ass adult complain because she has the sniffles. But I didn't feeeeeeeel goooooooood and that was HARD. Because of the sniffling. And the feeling yucky. And wah wah wah. The truth is that I always get sick after I travel, and that was WEEKS AGO, now, and instead of getting full-blown, plague-level sick right away, I was just kind of stuck in this Victorian-fainting-couch level of feeling unwell for weeks, not getting better, but not really...
I had a nice chat with one of Monkey's virtual teachers this year (uh, she is not virtual, she's a real person---a real teacher---but she works with the Virtual School, I mean) wherein I said something in passing about how this is our third year of homeschooling, and she uttered the dreaded phrase: "Oh, I just DON'T KNOW HOW PEOPLE DO IT. I could NEVER homeschool my kids!" I have an arsenal of standard responses to such statements: that I didn't think I could until I did, that one of my kids is still in public school, that we utilize a lot of resources like Virtual School, and---my personal...
Today is the first day of Monkey's last year of middle school, such as it is. ("Such as it is" because homeschooling does not include the typical hallmarks of those hallowed middle years such as gum on the underside of your desk, stolen lunch money, and being knocked into the lockers every so often.) This is a sacred and serious occasion, which we are marking by... ummmm... well, I should probably wake him up and then figure that out. I am TOTALLY on top of things, as you can see. His online classes "open" today, and then our new homeschooling co-op starts next week, and everything feels...
I keep thinking I'll post something coherent when a full-fledged story presents itself, and then I look over the past 9+ years of writing and realize that this whole notion of actually having a cohesive narrative has never stopped me BEFORE. Why now? Possibly because I am lazy, or possibly because there's some gelato in the freezer and it's not going to eat itself. I don't know. But because I'm a trooper, I shall soldier forward as best I can with disjointed bits and pieces of things. I'm a giver. Summer mathin'. I may have mentioned the whole math thing...? Hey, kids, let's do an entire...
I didn't mean to wander off and forget to post for so long. This is the part where I should apologize and tell you how completely fantastical and over-full my life is, I guess, except that: 1) I believe that YOUR life is probably interesting enough that me not posting matters to you pretty much not at all, or at least it shouldn't, and 2) I have absolutely no idea what I've been doing, and I'm sure it wasn't that exciting or I would remember. The second one is kind of a lie, actually. SOME of what I've been doing is having flashbacks to high school math, because OH GOD ALL THE MATHS. Did I...
Some days I have a ton of work to do, deadlines coming out of my ears, and also there is laundry to be done and the kitchen is a mess and the dog needs a bath and my children are needy in various ways, and because I am a professional and also a master of life balance I look around and say, "Screw it. Let's go pick strawberries." So we do. I love taking Monkey to the strawberry farm. For one thing, I feel like it's often hard for us to get quality one-on-one time; between other (louder, arguably more pressing) demands on my time and the fact that I am not particularly interested in discussing...
Back before it became clear that we were all supposed to spend this week pondering the fragility of life and/or the enigma that is the human brain (with its capacity for both great evil and kindness), I wrote some other stuff. I'll grant you that it doesn't seem quite so important right now, but it's what I've got. (Other things I've got: a sick kid, an almost-birthday-kid whose only request is a flourless chocolate cake, no groceries or ingredients for said cake unless I get off my ass and out of my pajamas, seven OMGSOITCHY fire ant bites, and several real-life pseudo-crises I wasn't...
Ah, glorious springtime! The birds are chirping! The lizards are leaping! The pollen is... pollening. Yes. Like any other red-blooded American family, this time of year means that we are committed to cleaning and repairing various facets of our dwelling, because everyone knows that warmer weather + tax return = copious swearing from someone on a ladder. That's just how it works. I feel like every time we set out to do "a little project" it turns into our own special brand of "there's a hole in the bucket." (Why yes, I've noted this before, because it's been happening for years.) This has a...
I keep waiting for something BIG and EXCITING to happen, possibly because I'm still in the pinch-me-I'm-dreaming phase of delicious normality. The reality is that life has been mundane and I am not complaining. I am just... perplexed. Surely one of us is about to come down with Ebola, or the next time we run out of milk and I drive to the store, my car will burst into flames. I mean, that's... just sort of how my life goes, no? Well---hang on, I have to knock on some wood, throw some salt over my shoulder, and perform a rather complicated ritual with the tchotchkes on my desk---right now,...
