Not Another Homeschool Blog

View from my foyer... yes, we have 2 trees. Newsflash.  I'm not a big fan of Christmas.   Hubby thinks it is because my mom died 17 years ago on Christmas morning, but it is not. It is not even because I have lost 4 of 8 siblings at a young age.  Nope.  I was over Christmas in the way it is celebrated sometime around the age 10. I got over the way I found out about Santa... though it was cruel.  There was not enough money to go around, so everyone but the youngest two got a rude awakening... sure I was a little old to be believing, but I had a child's heart.  But that wasn't even the worst part.  The worst part was getting waken up at 3am every year to open gifts for one hour, and then it was over. Christmas was something we waited for all month or even much of the year, and it was over in 1 hour while still in a sleepy stupor. Can you say anti-climactic? So long before my first sibling died when I was 19... long before my mother passed away ...

I have a relative- very glamorous young lady, with two adorable kids, and not too shabby hubby either. Beautiful family.  I am constantly in awe of her and her parenting prowess.  Even when the kids are driving her nuts, she holds it together and comes out looking like a supermom-fairy.  I am fascinated by the little joys she is finding with her small children, posting genuinely funny and insightful things they say and such.  And then there's the elf.  Their elf has a distinctive name, given by their oldest very clever child (no it's not just bias... he's amazing), and they manage to keep up the ruse quite effectively.  I am impressed.  Impressed and so glad my kids are all grown up.  The last thing I want to do is hide the elf. Next to her, I would look like a rank amateur. I was so glad when I woke up this morning to the following post entitled Dear Perfect Elf on the Shelf people, an open letter.  I thought, "Oh Thank God", I'm not the ...

It is tech week.  That means my daughter is in a play, and she has been in dress rehearsals all week, followed by numerous showings from Thursday through Saturday.  Normally during tech week, I fill up my car with gas, and prepare myself to fill it for a second time.  That is followed by buying tons of fast food as she will be "living" at the theatre that week, and also helping out with the productions costumes.  In the past, this also meant that my son was living in the tech room of the theatre, and so they were involved in the same activity. This tech week it is something else entirely, as it has nothing to do with me.  Yes, she is living at the theatre, but I am not driving her anywhere.  I am not buying fast food. I am not working on costumes... at the single most crushing aspect that I am having a hard time to swallow- I am only going to see the show once!  Normally, even if there are 5 or 6 shows in 3 days, I see every single show and make it a...

I am happy to be posting this week's carnival of homeschooling, but since this past week was thanksgiving weekend, alot of our regulars were off giving thanks and didn't submit posts.  But never fear, there's still plenty to share.  We've found a couple of new bloggers to add to our carnival, and I want to introduce you to some of my favorite homeschool vloggers, and encourage you to give that a try too.   I will start with a post of my own from last summer, as you can see, I posted the vlog on Youtube, and then embedded it into my homeschool blog.  Eeasy-Peasy.  You will find Homeschool Vlog Hop at Notes from a Homeschooled Mom , presented by me, Andrea .  As you can see from my post/vlog, I am pretty much done with hands-on homeschooling of my own children.  The next post is from another homeschooling family who have a lot of homeschooling years under their belt with some children graduated, and some in progress.   Read about how Janine ...

What is normally a four hour road trip to pick up my two kids from college and return home took 8 hours yesterday.  I've been home for well over 24 hours and I am still tired.  I don't relish the idea of returning them back to their dorms on Sunday.   But while they are home, I get to hug them, kiss them, style the girl's hair, and just enjoy their company, so it was definately worth the trip. 

Yes? No? It doesn't really matter.  They WILL learn... eventually. I've been trying to explain this to a nephew who is struggling with a slow learning curve.  I tell him that yes, he is behind, but the finish line WILL NOT MOVE.  He will get there.  And then, I bet he will soar. This blog here is a great example of such a journey.

I have been very, very distressed about the state of politics lately.  Feeling that it was fueled by a lot more than issues, conservatism, and liberalism, I began to feel jaded and cynical.  I still do.  In short, I'm disgusted. I had lunch with a good friend Saturday, and we went there.  We discussed politics.  He said something that helped me compartmentalize what I was feeling about the state of our nation and it's rulers. "Politics is like sports", he said.  "Everyone has a favorite team", he said.  "They don't care who's right or wrong, as long as their favorite team wins". Yes.  I think that is the crux of the problem.  There are also underlying issues that dictate which team people join, but I really think he hit the nail on the head. Do you see some truth in this? Do you think I'm full of crud? Just curious.