Not Another Homeschool Blog

Time flies so fast when you don't know which end is up.  All is well, and the good news is that I have all kinds of projects I am working on, from homeschooling to theatre. I am also trying to recover from the car accident I had in early fall.  It has created problems that are still just showing up.  Sigh.  But I am present, and sane, and reasonably well. Until next time. Oh, I have been writing myself mood picker-upers.  Here's one.

I have been trying really hard to be regular about making youtube videos regarding homeschooling.  When you are not actively homeschooling it is hard to stay engaged though. My goal is to help other homeschoolers with their journey, and I have received some good feedback to that end, so I am grateful for that. With that said, here are some of my latest videos. School bringing back paddling? I was hoping more than one parent would give their opinion on this school in Georgia that has started paddling children.  Parents get to say no, but then the child is subject to suspension. I wrote another one called The Truth about Homeschooling because I was having frustration in a couple of areas.  1. Youtube is kinda infuriating and I don't know if it will serve my purpose to get out information to help others. 2. The people who are on youtube and are popular and are making homeschool videos are people a bit over positive about it... I wanted to be more real.

I understand: That I have outlived most of my family that I grew up with (as there was a lot of illness in our family). Therefore, I understand the gift that my life is. That I know more than I did when I was a 30-year-old idiot, but in 20 years I might be shaking my head at my 50-year-old self. That as individuals, most people have redeeming qualities, but the mob mentality is strong, so you gotta watch out for that shit. That it is OK to swear. That I am loved, and not just by my immediate family, but by people who I hardly know. It surprises me when I run into someone who has "met" me through social media, and they praise me.  That's mind-blowing. That after years of finding a new purpose (after graduating my kids from homeschooling), that it turns out that nothing is more important to me than education. That I am open to spending the rest of my life teaching and learning. That it is OK to cry. (whether happy or sad). That happiness is a choice.  Su...

It took a while from the time I started learning about homeschooling to when we actually did it. This video shows our awkward journey.

I don't know if I ever told the full story about why we homeschooled our children. It was so many years, ago, but the journey to homeschooling will always stay with me.  Some people homeschool for religious reasons. Some homeschool for academic reasons. Some feel that homeschooling protects their child. Why did you decide to homeschool? So why did you decide to homeschool your children?

Hubby and I just spent a desperately needed week on vacation in Puerto Rico. The resort we went to last time, The Ritz Carlton was still under construction post-storm. We stayed at the next door resort, at the Marriot instead.  What can I say?  The room was good. The view was magnificent, the bed was hard, and the food was not the best. at all. Of course, all that was to be expected. We chose to stay in Puerto Rico because we knew that our vacation money was best spent in the land our administration has forgotten... and so we did. That was our decision.  And so, we grinned, bared through any discomforts, spent a ton on meals left unfinished, enjoyed the beach and each other. As is customary, we did venture off the resorts. We spent a day in Old San Juan, which while interesting, was difficult. The plan was to get a taxi to the old fort and tour that and the museum. The traffic there was bad, and the driver insisted he would drop us off close enough. Put us where we ...

3 months to go. This is going to be me!

They poured the driveway yesterday.  I honestly thought I was going to be complaining throughout the entire building process.  I know I did last time.  So either this process is way easier, or I am more mature, or both. The best of it:  The process has been transparent They have kept on schedule Communication has been timely and clear The worst of it: We were told we would be picking out our specific type of countertop, but it was more like, going to the granite yard and saying yes to what was there... there wasn't really anything to pick from, and they were all low on the type of granite the builder and I agreed upon.  If I changed it, it would cause an avalanche of problems...   And that is the only problem we have had... except, I am getting a bad feeling about them trying to move our closing date.  I hope not. We shall see.  As of right now, we have 3 weeks and 1 day to go. We have been living with my In-laws f...

Welp. I made the suggestion to stay with the in-laws because 1. there was a rare vacancy. 2. They needed some things fixed in their home and we could pay for those things if we stayed for them instead of renting an executive hotel suite. There is a lot more space here for four people than there would be in a small hotel suite. But. I am at a disadvantage. Truly. Maybe I am crazy, but hubby does things to call attention to conversations when we disagree... so I just shut down and don't argue because I know they will chime in.  oh, he's gonna pay for that later. Also, they are friendlier when he is here, but when he travels, I don't feel super welcome. He travels a lot. Soo.... 3 weeks down, 4 weeks to go.  Ugh.  At the same time, I really love them.  I guess it wouldn't be much different were I staying with my own parents.

I did it.  (WE) did it.  ... mostly me. .. and my bestie. We got packed up and moved out of my house and got it spanking clean in time for closing.  It was hard.  I worked hard... My body is angry... and I am a bit disgruntled and happy all at the same time. Who am I disgruntled at? My family kinda got on my nerves as I did all the packing (yes I did) and all of the planning, only to get criticized when we did not have enough storage or a big enough dumpster.  More help would have meant another set of eyes to help measure stuff and more things packed in advance to help make decisions better.  It would have meant that the movers would have done more work on moving day(s) and there would have been left work for the grumbling family members.  I will say that when the time came they got down to it though. PODS.  The jury is out on this company. But, I was given a 3 hour delivery time, and it turned into a six hour delivery time because th...

I hate packing, but I actually love it. I like the challenge of getting as much stuff into a single box, which is important if you are about to store your items in a limited space. Basically, I mix soft goods with hard goods and breakables. So for example, a box with 4 vases is packed with a sheet set and pillowcases.  My 4 pencil lamps are packed with throw pillows. Dishes are packed with washcloths and towels... Stuff like that.  As I got to the fine crystal last night, I had to choose between t-shirts and the mail drawer.  I ended up packing my mail up with my crystal.. everything is nice and cushy!. Because we are using limited storage, I am also keeping the box size as uniform as possible to make sure the items are packed tightly. You can see the boxes piling up above. I have a few more days of hard work to move out of this house and into my in-laws (pray for me) until our house is ready. My life really does change fast and often, doesn't it?

Looks like we will be staying with in-laws until our new home is ready. In the meanwhile, we need to get all packed up and into storage.  We will be using PODs systems. Of course, I have several large projects at the same exact time, so it seems to me like I am getting nothing at all done. I actually have a middle school opening a show on the same day my moving containers show up (I am costuming 30 kids in Charlotte's Webb.)

Fingers crossed for an offer completed on the current house. Progress on the new house. I just remembered that my current house was framed on the 4th of July and we moved in on the 31st, and surprisingly, there has been no real structural issues in this house.  I don't expect the new house to go up quite that fast, we still have 3 months to go, but I still have a feeling the builder is going to offer us an earlier closing... of course, we will need to have the current house sold first.

I wasn't really worried about the state of the house. It was in the beginning stages and I knew that anything that blew down could be put back up. What I was worried about was the projectiles that a house in progress could cause on the rest of the neighborhood. The good news is that only a couple pieces of wood blew away and did not ruin anyone else's house that I know of. The bad news is that the construction workers probably needed a fresh toilet. eww.  At home, we in the NE suburbs of ATL lost trees in the neighborhood.  My yard is a mess. A shutter is kinda in a precarious position and we lost power for an hour. Most of our friends and family lost power for 24 hours. Some lost power for two whole days... one person is still out. 

As my old house gets closer to ready to sell, I am becoming nostalgic as it is a particularly beautiful home.  So why am I moving?  It doesn't work well for us as a family. My "old" two story foyer at Christmastime It doesn't work for a 4 car family. We have to constantly shuffle around cars every morning and evening. You could say that it only temporary as my children will fly the coop before long, but whenever my grown family will come home to visit or whenever we have visitors, we will have the same annoying problem. Photo of "old" great room Another reason it doesn't work is it doesn't flow to fit the way we live. We walk in, kick off our shoes, put down our bags and go about our business... the foyer door and kitchen door become littered with, shoes, and bags, and mail and stuff like that, and with 4 adults in the house, it gets a bit overwhelming to stay on top of.  With a proper mud room and foyer closet, the new house will hopefu...

Getting a house ready for sale is a nightmare, and makes me really crazy.  So far I have replaced flooring.  Had painters do the deck, some minor facade repair, and interior painting.  Now I am looking at fixing the front porch, and it's a bit more money than I expected.  Ugh.  I don't want to sell a house with issues, but I also don't want to pay much more to sell the house... what to do, what to do? So far, I am just practicing being mean and difficult with the people who sell the services. In the meanwhile, we are building another house, thankfully far enough away to not be obsessive about always being there.  They are kinda nickel-and-diming us too. I mean after you've paid a sizeable non-refundable deposit. Why does a couple of minor changes mean you have to pay an additional non-refundable deposit?  Are my changes so egregious that no one in their right mind would want them if the sale fell through? It's not that it is a lot of m...

So it was time to replace the carpet in my house since I moved in 15 years ago and it was in terrible shape.  It did not go smoothly. First, I went to the local home improvement store warehouse and picked up samples, telling the carpet person that I would want it by the end of the month, they said: “no problem” and nothing else.  I brought the samples home and got opinions and made decisions. I went back a few days later, and once again told the guy my decision and my timeline and we arranged a measurement appointment. Now, I was apparently there on the last day of the sale, so I paid my deposit to lock it in.  In included “free” installation, and no additional stair installation, and moving of heavy furniture, so I was happy. The guy who measured was great and we had great conversations while he did it.  He measured 5 rooms and the upstairs hallway and the stairs. He saw what was in each room and what was not in each room.  His estimation for my ...

This crap happens.  See the letter that I just sent to my high school who took weeks to be able to report that my husband (and I) graduated. To Whom it may concern:   I am writing to request high school transcripts for myself and my husband. We need these transcripts because we discovered that Yonkers Public Schools records department reported that (xxxxxx xxxxxxx 19xx) had never graduated high school.  Upon calling the schools to investigate we also discovered that the records department also did not have my (xxxxxx xxxxxxx 19xx) graduation information.  In fact, it turned out that both of our high school records had the same wrong information. This is incredibly disconcerting to me because it makes me wonder what opportunities I may have missed over the years due to such an error. Unfortunately, when I relayed my concerns to Miss. Dodie who runs the Yonkers records department, I was met with defensiveness and anger. I did not deserve that. I do de...

My three-day migraines are an expected inconvenience.  They are hormonal and on schedule. It starts out with some light sensitivity and my back and neck start to tighten up. Eventually, I get a feeling of a spike being driven up my nose. I do my best to hydrate and take migraine medicine, but all that said, I typically survive day 1 intact. Day two I usually wake up wondering why I am still alive. the railway ties that have been driven up my nose feel like someone is still smacking them with a hammer. If I'm not busy, I spend the day in bed, hiding, but lately, it seems I still have things to do, so I take drugs and keep moving. Day 3 is marked with an aching head and mental confusion and a bit of eye twitching. I literally don't

As we were heading out to the restaurant for my son's 23rd birthday, his phone went dead. Since his phone is kinda old, we figured it was a fluke and went ahead and ate. (Side note, if you phone goes dead, call the phone company immediately).  After eating, we got on the phone and called to find out someone had just upgraded my son's phone, and "purchased" two more phones on my account that I would have to pay for. I caught it quick so it will be OK... but... Folks are not doing their jobs. That person either had a fake ID or knew my PIN, but probably not both.  Anytime I have to do anything on my account, I have to give my first born's blood type, but this person could waltz into Best Buy and get 3 phones in my name and go about their happy business.... that pisses me off. But OK... I spoke to pre-fraud and will speak to fraud in the morning.  They re-simmed my son's existing phone so his phone is usable... and the guy at the store had me change my pass...