Sunday, April 29, 2012

I quit!

I am a terrible procrastinator.  Awful.  I will put things off until the last possible second every time.  I don't know why...it's just who I am.  Company coming tonight?  I'm probably still in my comfy pants with the house (and me!) looking a hot mess 30 minutes prior.  But dang!  I can whip us into shape FAST!

I'm also a quitter.  I'm not sure when this became a habit, as I used to be a person to see things through to the end no matter what.  After I had Bones (I was all of 16), I was the most stubborn, determined, hard-headed girl you'd ever meet.  I was still in the marching band, I was still a cheerleader, I worked 2 jobs, was in several clubs in school, and still pulled a 3.8 GPA.  I could have quit cheerleading or the band.  Maybe worked just one job, and left some of the school clubs.  But I refused to be a quitter.  Unfortunately looking back, I see I wasn't there for Bones much.  I thought I was doing right by him...but really all I had were sporadic moments here and there.  Thank goodness my parents and siblings stepped to the plate for him, and thank goodness I can make up for lost time now.

Anyway, I went off to college (Bones came along and started preschool) and got another 2.5 jobs.  I was working as often as I could between Wal-Mart, a telemarketing job, and my student-work position I got on campus.  No matter how hard I tried I couldn't make ends meet.  There was always more month than money and the more I worked the further I fell behind in school.  I finally stopped going altogether.  I knew if I failed out I'd lose my campus apartment, but I had no choice.  I became a quitter.

The Hubs offered me a way out (long story for another day) and I jumped at it.  Next thing I knew I was married, living in Florida, and a full time mom of a 2 year old I barely knew.  I decided to try being a good little housewife, but I was no good so I gave up.  I tried cooking, but was no good so I gave up.  I went back to school to be a medical assistant, passed out cold during the phlebotomy class couldn't hack it and gave up.  Got a pretty good job on base and worked there 6 months before being put on bed rest when pregnant with KK.  I had every intention of going back after she was born, but didn't.  I decided to go back to school to be a teacher, but hated it and gave up.  We moved to Texas and I started babysitting, but hated not being able to focus on my own kids and quit.  Went back to school to be a paralegal, quit.  Back to school for accounting, quit.  (Why yes, Sallie Mae and the US Department of Education have me shackled in loans until LONG after I die.  Wish I had known better...)  I've started and quit working out more times than I can count.

When I started homeschooling the kids, The Hubs was terrified I'd give up.  Don't tell him I said this--but I was pretty sure I wouldn't last either.  For the first few weeks, it was bliss.  We all loved it and everything went smooth.  Then we started hitting rough patches.  They seemed like HUGE deals then--enough to threaten to send Bones back to public school.  Funny though, looking back I can't remember what they were.  I started praying,"Lord give me patience!".  God's kind of funny though...He doesn't seem to just hand things over easily.  You ask for patience and He'll teach it to you.  ;)

I'm still a quitter though.

I quit the morning fights to get ready for school.  I quit trying to conform my children to other people's standards and expectations.  I quit trying to make sure my kids don't become weird or geeks.  I quit trying to control every aspect of their lives.  I quit fretting over them being salt and light in a place of darkness.  I quit trying to explain myself to the world.  I quit trying to shove our oddly shaped family into the perfectly square hole.  

We're nearing 3 years in this journey now and I'm not going to lie to y'all and say every day is just peachy.  It's not.  I still have days where I want nothing more than to throw in the towel. Days where sending them to someone else to learn would be great.  But, no matter how much of a quitter you are, you just don't quit on family.  :)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Convention

First of all, have y'all seen the Homeschooling Ryan Gosling meme thing going around?  HILARIOUS! For real y'all, I have a teensy crush on Ryan Gosling.  Well, more like his character in The Notebook (Noah Webster).  I LOVE The Notebook.  My "story" with The Hubs is quite similar to the movie, but that's a story for another time.  I don't "get" why Gosling attached to this homeschool thing, but it makes it 10x better.  :)






Anyhoo.  So we went to the Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati this past weekend. 

The Hubs was adamant that we were leaving at noon. I insisted that the house be CLEAN because I was not returning to a mess.  After all was said and done, we wound up leaving around 5pm. Then we hit the inevitable traffic.  It was brutal.  This guy driving next to us started honking and waving.  When he got our attention he pointed at our bumper stickers and gave us a big smile and a thumbs up.  I have a few Jesus/homeschool/etc stickers on my van window, and I usually get negative attention for them.  It was so nice to get a positive reaction.

We finally got to the convention center and found parking, and headed in. Last year I learned a lot about how to prepare for the convention. This year I got many compliments on my VERY organized, detailed, highlighted, and tabbed binder. It was great...until I set foot on the convention floor.  OH my!

Hello.  My name is Anna and I am a curriculum junkie.

I had to see EVERYTHING.  I was like a little kid.  We decided to start at one end and work our way over.  We got to maybe the 2nd row of booths before it was time to head to a workshop we had promised to Bones.  Bones loves superheroes (like any almost-8 year old boy does) and any oddities people may have.  He's seen the show Stan Lee's Superhuman, and one of his favorites on there was the Human Calculator.  When he heard that Scott Flansburg was going to be speaking, he was SO excited.  The Hubs volunteered to run the calculator (to try and race Scott), and the kids loved it.  he was so entertaining!!!  I learned a lot of neat tricks, and Bones has been using some new tricks to get through math faster.

After that it was time to get to our hotel.  We were all bushed.  When we were waiting to leave the parking garage The Hubs and I had a major miscommunication over the parking ticket and I lost it.  Oh it was ugly, y'all.  I wound up yelling and in tears, and then with egg all over my face.  Not my best moment at ALL.  We ate and got to our hotel and passed out.

We woke up LATE the next morning and I had missed 2 of the workshops I wanted to do.  I was bummed.  (Lesson learned: Save $$$ to stay in the hotel connected to the Convention Center next year.)  Got to have IHOP for breakfast.  It's a once-a-year-treat...  We enjoyed it.  Took almost an hour to find a new place to park.  Wandered the Convention hall for awhile longer.  Went and listened to the Mally family speak about "Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends".  Even I learned quite a bit from that workshop!  We figured out our game plan for next year's curriculum, purchased the math curriculum for both kids, and KK got her violin she's been begging for nonstop since she was about 2 1/2.



All in all, the convention was great.  I didn't make it all the way through the booths until late Saturday afternoon, and when we made it to the end I got a prize! :)  The Hubs bought me another bumper sticker and a t-shirt.  The bumper sticker has a picture of a school bus and says "Home School Bus", and the t-shirt is pink with a picture of a ninja on it and says "Homeschool mom by day. Ninja by night".  So cute!  :D

If there is a convention near where you live, you definitely ought to go.  It is SO worth it.  :)

Blessings!!!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Planning

I assume I'm supposed to be preparing for the next homeschool year.  That seems to be what all the other homeschool moms are doing right now.  Truth be told though, I'm ready for a break.  We've gone through several curriculum this year and still haven't found a perfect fit.  KK will be ready for real schooling next year.  I'm just getting into the groove of being able to school, keep my house clean, and fit in a workout.  We want to school year round, but have no idea where to begin.  We barely touched our science or history books this year (the plan is to knock them out over the summer).  That's not to say we didn't do any at all...we learned about random things throughout the year, but it certainly didn't go along with the curriculum.  We finally found a math program that sort of works, but Bones isn't entirely thrilled with it.  I'm more confident, but sort of still feel like a fish out of water.  Just SO much stressing right now...all unnecessary I'm sure, but there nonetheless. 

This coming week, The Hubs is off work and we're taking our Spring Break.  It's also the homeschool convention and I'm excited to go.  We went last year and The hubs was exhausted from a TDY and we wound up spending more time sleeping/swimming at the hotel than we did actually at the convention--though we did get to meet Michelle Duggar, which I LOVED!  :) 

But this year I'm planning our trip carefully.  I'm hoping to con The Hubs bring the hubs into some of the workshops as well.  I think we'd both benefit.  Hopefully the kiddos will cooperate too.  :)

OH!  Remember I told y'all that The Hubs is finishing up his last class for his degree?  Well his class is Public Speech.  He has to give a couple persuasive speeches, and he's decided to do one on the benefits of homeschooling!  SUCH a far cry from his stance on the issue 3 years ago, haha!!!

Where are you on planning for next year?  Done?  Have everything bought?  Have everything planned?  Or are you playing like me?  I think I may just keep my head in the sand for a few weeks more.  :)