what we've been up to...

It feels like a lot has been going on around here lately, but perhaps once I write it down it won't sound that way to anyone else. Funny how that can be. Anyway, since I last posted:

*Annie got a new friend. Meet Sully:

He's an 8-year-old chinchilla. He is so stinkin' adorable I can hardly stand it. Seriously, this picture does not even come close to doing his cuteness justice. Oh my gosh, and is he soft. And funny. And busy. And poopy (but at least, it's of the easy to deal with hard little pellet variety...'cause I'm sure you were wondering).

*Gray got a new "diagnosis." Meet Asperger's syndrome. Yeah, there's really nothing new to meet here. Honestly, all this new information does is group together some of his other diagnoses (sensory integration disorder, selective mutism, social anxiety) and some of his awesome quirks and some of his exercise-in-patience quirks under one overall heading. Gray's still Gray. And always will be. Lucky for us! But having this information is allowing us to understand a bit better how he views the world.

*Schooooooool's out for summer. WOOHOO!!! Annie finished up completely on the 18th, Max on the 19th, and Gray on the 21st. And I sent Annie's and Gray's final reports for the school year. Phew. (Of course, I'm now in full swing planning for the next school year...)

On a somewhat shocking-to-me note, when Max stepped off the bus on his last day of school, it dawned on me that for the first time since August of 2002 when Annie started kindergarten, we are no longer parents of a kiddo in elementary school. How the hell did this happen...

*Annie got her SAT scores. I know she's disappointed in her math score, and I feel her pain...but at the same time I think she should just be happy with how well she did overall. She got 2190, a composite score which puts her in the 98th percentile. But I guess she can't stop seeing that if she'd just done slightly better on the math and got a composite score of 2200 instead, she'd have been in the 99th percentile. Oh perfectionism, you suck! I think her little perfectionistic side should just focus on the 800 she did get on the critical reading section. :) Anyway, more than anything, I think she's just damn glad it's over. And who can blame her, right?

*****
I am still in semi-online-avoidance mode. I hope to give myself one more week of solid, bury myself in school planning mode before I loosen up for summer. But I must admit my resistance is weakening...

elsewhere...

5 people + 1 small car + 14 hours round trip + 5-6-ish hours driving in crazy city traffic + 2 days of relentless rain + 1 day of gorgeous weather + 1 museum + 1 zoo + 1 bookstore -------> megatons of exhaustion + lots of fun
(Our largely unplanned trip to NYC, in a nutshell.)


Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Andrea (aka more rain).



American Museum of Natural History.



The Bronx Zoo.

reading notes, entry 1...and some really cool news...

I made an executive decision. It's my blog so I can do that. In fact, it's pretty much the only place I can, so why not take advantage of that power, huh? :P Yeah, anyway...it's no secret that I pretty much suck at anything remotely bordering the lands of book reviewing. And because I feel that way, it's really not a lot of fun. BUT! I do love books, and reading, and talking about books and reading. So what's a person to do? Well, I'm going to try a little experiment. I may find out that I hate it, in which case it too will go to the wayside where so many of my other experiments have gone. No biggie.

Reading notes. Yep, as in the kind of notes I write down in little notebooks while I'm reading when I'm not feeling too lazy. (Unfortunately, I feel too lazy a lot.) But I've decided to use my blog as my little notebook. Now let me warn you, these are *not* deep thoughts we're talking about here. More just my observations, reactions, quotes, ponderings and wonderings. Or the "how frickin' cool is that?!!" stuff I learn. That's what today's entry is (though I fully understand that I may be the only person to rate it as such).

A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer.

Okay, so I didn't even realize there were viruses in ocean. But hey, until less than twenty years ago, scientists thought marine viruses were fairly rare, so I don't feel so bad about my ignorance. Turns out viruses in the ocean are rather abundant (understatement alert).

Yep, a graduate student, Lita Proctor, decided to look more closely, and what she found astounded scientists. Her finding were replicated by other researchers, and scientists now generally agree that there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 viruses in the sea. (That number is one nonillion--I had to look it up.)

It is hard to find a point of comparison to make sense of such a large number. Viruses outnumber all other residents of the ocean by about fifteen to one. If you put all the viruses of the oceans on a scale, they would equal the weight of seventy-five million blue whales. And if you lined up all the viruses in the ocean end to end, they would stretch out past the nearest sixty galaxies.

My mind is officially boggled.

*******************
OMG OMG OMG!!! This has absolutely *nothing* to do with the above, but I just had to share because it's just so damn exciting!!! Ms. Annie got some incredible news today!!! She had entered the college's annual writing contest. I'm not sure how big the English department is, but the college itself has between 17,000 and 18,000 students, so it's not a tiny school. Anyway, there were five categories, and Annie entered a piece in three of them--poetry, short story, and literary essay. She came in first place in the literary essay category and second place in the short story category. The professor who called to let her know made it point to tell her that it's a rare event when someone places in more than one category. To say she is over-the-moon happy would not be an exaggeration. :D The only downside--she has to speak at the awards dinner, and she is definitely not looking forward to that. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't really put that big a dent in her current elation. Another little bit of awesomeness--the literary essay she wrote was on Sarah Water's Tipping the Velvet. (Read the damn book already, Debra Anne!)

LOL--you know, in a way this does sort of tie in to what I was saying above. Here I am, can't even write a book review worth squat to save my life...and the kiddo is here winning an award for a literary essay. Switched at birth perhaps?

Annie, I know this was evident from the screaming I did over the phone when you called to tell me, but sweetie, I am SO. DAMN. HAPPY. for you!!! Way to go, Sugar...you are so awesome in so many ways!!!

The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling...random thoughts (and believe me, they went far afield)...

The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling by Quinn Cummings.

I wasn't going to write an entire post on this book; I was going to just write a short blurb about it on my "September reads" post. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep it brief. I guess I just loved this book too much. Because well, it hit so close to home.

Most of the time I read about experiences, both in fiction and non-fiction, that are different from my own because, well, I'm nosy--I want to know about other people's lives and experiences. But every once in a while it's nice to read a book where you feel understood. Especially in an area that so many people seem to misunderstand. There are in the neighborhood of 2 million homeschooled kids in the U.S. now, and there are literally thousands of different reasons why various families have chosen that route. FACT: All homeschooling families are not the same! And yet stereotypes persist. But Quinn Cummings, oh my, how I can relate to her story. You know that feeling you occasionally get about a character in a book, the "I wish that person could be my friend" feeling? Well, I've got it bad with the author of this book!

Quinn Cummings is hilarious. No way I ever could have kept track of how many times I laughed out loud. Some of the time, it might have been the "oh, how I can relate" factor, but mostly it's just that she's pretty dang funny. Btw, though the title is probably pretty self-explanatory, this book is a memoir about their family's decision to bring their daughter home from public school and their adventures in their first homeschooling year. (She does include a brief history of homeschooling in the U.S., a bit about how different the regulations are from state to state, etc. as well, but mostly this is a personal story.)

Probably my favorite chapter (though I loved it all!) was the one titled "Tribes." It's about the most oft asked question any homeschooling parent will hear. If you're a homeschooling parent I don't even have to tell you what it is, do I? The "But what about socialization?" question. I seriously want to have copies made of this chapter and just hand them out every time someone asks that question! That question is asked by family, by friends, by mere acquaintances and by complete strangers who discover you're homeschooling. Often it's asked in a straight-forward manner, but other times it's "snuck" in there in comments such as "But all homeschooled kids turn out so weird!" Yes, that was actually said to me by my sister-in-law back when we were agonizing over our decision about pulling Annie out of public school. Of course, when I asked, she admitted that she didn't actually know any homeschooled kids. And she was the same woman who once asked me if we were coming home for Thanksgiving, that she thought it was "on a Thursday this year." You think I made that up--I didn't. Further vindication--she now homeschools one of her kids.

But really, you have only to look at my kids to answer that question (a.k.a. accusation). Anyone who knows Annie can testify to the fact that she gets along quite well in society. She's loved by young kids (heck, they argue over who gets to sit on her lap during story hour when she volunteers at the library), she has a variety of friends her own age, she has always gotten along just fine with the students in the college classes she takes despite the fact that they're older than she is, and she is in general quite adored by adults. Yes, her natural inclination is to be a bit on the shy side but there is no crime in that, and I ask anyone who knows her if they think she is not "properly socialized"? And then there is Gray, who was literally the *happiest* baby/toddler/preschooler I've ever known. (We used to take pictures of him every time he cried because it happened so rarely.) Kindergarten went okay, but after that things started going downhill in public school. To the point that by fourth grade, this once cheerful child had become sad beyond words. He developed selective mutism and social anxiety. He literally couldn't talk in situations outside his places of refuge (home or with his best friend). It boils down to the fact that he's different, he's quirky, he's creative as opposed to athletic, he's clumsy in part because he has sensory integration disorder, he marches to the beat of his own drummer. And well kids like this aren't always well-received. Bullying can start awfully young. So is this the socialization being so highly-touted in schools? A quote from the book that just struck home:

Homeschooling will certainly produce some socially awkward adults, but the odds are good they would have been just as quirky had they spent twelve years raising their hand for permission to go to the bathroom. In fact, quite a few kids are being homeschooled precisely because an offbeat personality tends to attract hostility... At home you can be eccentric and survive lunch.

And then to the argument, "how will these kids learn to deal with bullies and jerks?":

As luck would have it, there are bullies at the Scout meeting, in the mall, on the playground and even at family reunions. There are jerks everywhere you look. Children who homeschool do get to negotiate with socially toxic people. What they don't get to do is grimly endure an entire year sitting two feet away from a person who makes their lives miserable on a regular and predictable basis.

Gray's now been homeschooled for a year. Has he now become a social butterfly? Hell no. And I don't suspect he ever will be. But he is again able to speak to people, he can now give his own food order to a waitress, he can answer someone when they ask him what game he's playing or what the book is that he's drawing, etc.

But don't get me wrong. I don't say these things because I hate public schools. I most definitely do not! And that is another thing I love so much about Quinn Cummings. She's another homeschooling parent who does not condemn public schools. She seems to have that very same deep respect for public school teachers that I do. And believe me, I do. I don't think every single teacher is wonderful at their job...but find me a profession where that's true. But I do believe that vast majority of teachers are in their profession because they love teaching and they love kids. And the job they have to do is incredibly difficult, so multi-faceted, and so often under-appreciated. I could never do it--I know that. But here's the thing, kids are all different. Why do so many people seem to forget that?

Some people thrive in school; they become the best version of themselves they could possibly be. Other people wither in school; we've all seen that tragedy unfold. Most people land somewhere in the middle.

Annie and Gray were witherers. Max, on the other hand, appears to be a thriver. I find it odd just how many people have judged us, have acted as if we can't make up our minds about whether public schooling or homeschooling is the better choice because we have kids in both. All I can think is, "Do you really not see children as individuals? Do you really think children are one big homogenous entity?" My kids are so incredibly different from one another. So I don't find it surprising that different modes of education seem to be a better fit for each of them.

Another thing I really related to was Ms. Cummings' doubts. Both of us seem to question continually the paths being taken by our families. Nothing is ever set in stone. We both seem aware that we could be screwing up here. But we continue tweaking and learning and adjusting as we go. She, however, has infinitely more courage and daring than I. She visits a handful of homeschooling conventions whose belief systems vary greatly from her own. She goes because she wants to learn, because she wants to see what it is that makes some groups of homeschoolers so very passionate and assured that they are doing everything right. Now obviously, she doesn't come away with a new worldview or anything, but it seems as if she brings something away from every experience. And in case you missed it above, she tells all these stories with massive amounts of humor.

Okay, I suppose I should just shut up already. But first let me add one more thing. As I said, this is Ms. Cummings' story of her family's experiences. And she admits straight out how very lucky she is to be able to make some of the choices she gets to make. And while we don't quite have the money that they do, I think it's important to stress how very lucky our family is in this way as well. Many of the choices we get to make come because of our privilege.

*****
Projects progress:

Unofficial-for-me reading challenges--Memorable Memoirs Challenge and
50x50 (#42-Read 50 memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, etc.)

one week down...

The first week of school has officially been put to rest. To be honest, I'm amazed at how smoothly things went for Gray and I during his first ever week of homeschooling. He's a bit more exhausting than Annie ever was for a variety of reasons. Okay, more than a bit. But at least I am now confident that we can really make this work.

A few shots from his first week:

and a second first day of school...

So today was the start of new school year for Max. I can't even quite explain how heartbreaking it was sending him off on that bus this morning. I mean, he's my baby! And yes, he's 8-years-old and starting 4th grade so it's not like this is the first time sending him off. But somehow, having him the only one heading off to public school this year just made it hurt all the more. And it didn't help that he really didn't want to go. At all. See for yourself:

These were the absolute best I could do. Thing is, he doesn't want to be homeschooled, so feeling guilty about that is useless. He's not one of those kiddos who absolutely loves school...but he doesn't hate it nearly as much as he sometimes pretends to. I really think the low spirits this morning had more to do with the end of summer than with an absolute dreading of school. There was no fighting, no tantrums, nothing like I became accustomed to with Gray. It was just plain old sadness.

The good news though--he came home happy and even admitted that it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. (Though he wasn't thrilled to get both math and reading homework on the first night. :P )

And it was not only Gray's first day of school, but it was his first day of homeschooling ever. Obvious from these first-day-of-school photos, he was not nearly as upset as his little brother:

To be perfectly honest, as happy and excited as I was to be starting this journey with him, I was also more than a bit apprehensive. Gray can be...well, how shall I put this...obstinate...and argumentative...and horrendously pessimistic. But I needn't have worried, as we had absolutely the best day imaginable! He was upbeat and hard-working and fun to be around. (Having one's beagle and one's blanket surely doesn't hurt.)

I'm not silly enough to think every day will go this well, but it was wonderful to get off on the right foot!

*****
And in other news...Gray got his stitches removed today. One would think this would be good news, but I'm sorry to say Gray came out of there feeling worse about his leg than he has in days. :( His doc told him that it was nowhere near healed yet and that he was going to have to remain on alert taking great care not to have anything hit that spot or it would burst right open as if it had never been stitched to start with. He glued it and put on some steri-strips, hoping that will get him another four or five days worth of healing in. I understand that he wanted to make sure that Gray was careful, but oh my. The poor kid is practically back to being as upset about it as he was when he first got home from the hospital.

*****
Also managed to turn this lovely goodness from our garden (with the addition of an onion, some cilantro, and limes)

...into two pints of canned salsa plus a nice size bowl to eat fresh.

So all in all, a busy productive day. And overall, a pretty good one.

happy day ramblings

I'm not even sure where to start--there's just so many things making me smile this morning. Woke up this morning to find that our state senate finally put the marriage equality bill up for a vote. And it passed!!! I'm still sort of in a state of happy shock. If you don't live in New York, or if you just don't care much about the issue, you probably don't realize just how long the past couple weeks have seemed. As I said to Chris, it's been path of two steps forward, one step back. But those forward steps finally made it the finish line. I often wonder if it does a damn thing to write to one's legislators, and yet I keep writing anyway. Today I'd like to believe it really can make a difference, that the letters I wrote to our state senator helped contribute in their own very small way to his crucial changed vote. I'd like to believe that all us "little people" can put our voices together and change things. Today is one of those days where that belief seems justified.

And this was the news that started off my first unofficial day of summer! A few days early! Annie took her history final yesterday and handed in the last of her assignments, thus allowing me to put the final touches on her fourth quarterly report. I spent about 20 hours in the last three days on homeschool paperwork alone--Annie's final quarterly report, Annie's and Gray's letters of intent for next year, and the vast bulk of both Annie's and Gray's IHIPs (essentially the plans for what you intend to do for each and every required subject). Yes, New York has some of the biggest pain in the butt homeschool regulations in the country, but without question, I make things waaaaaay harder on myself than I need to. But I use the IHIP preparation as a chance to truly get myself organized. It gives me the outline of all the plans and preparations I need to conquer. And obsessive little me *must* be organized when it comes to homeschooling. Anyway, while delivery of the quarterly report and LOIs will have to wait until Monday (after which time I will get the cover form to fill out to go with their IHIPs so I can then deliver them as well), I still feel incredibly relieved to have the hard part of the paperwork done with. And ahead of time at that! :D

The boys had their last day of school on Wednesday! And for Gray that meant his last day of elementary school. And quite possibly his last day of public school period. Despite the fact that I've been trying to squeeze in odd moments here and there for the past few months working on plans and preparations for Gray, it's only now really hitting me that this is real! That Gray is going to be staying home for school next year! But for now, I am going to cherish the lazy moments of summer. Not that I have a clue how to truly be lazy. :P But I will enjoy every morning that I don't have to awake by the call of an alarm clock, every afternoon that I don't have to play prison guard making sure the boys do their homework, and every evening when I don't have to listen to arguments about bedtimes. Sounds pretty darn heavenly.

The boys' first day of summer vacation also signaled the start of our summer reading goals.

Pretty hard to see what this is, I suppose. But a new sheet like this adorns our pantry closet door each "season"...it's where we each keep track of our books read. For all the other seasons, we each have the same goal for number of books to read. But during the summer, we each set our own. Annie, of course, always aims far higher than the rest of us--this summer she's shooting for 50. And in the two days since we've started this, she's already cranked out her first two reads. Show off. Gray and I both set our goals at 20, while Max and Rich have theirs at 15. On my first day of summer, I plan to relax, relax, relax, and finish up at least one book to get my list started.



Our garden is finally giving us some nibblies. Not much so far, of course.

Annie's first itty bitty strawberry. Her strawberry plants actually put out quite a few strawberries this year. However...we will not be eating many from her little patch. No, the bunnies beat us to them. :P Yes, we even have her strawberry patch fenced, but I swear, 90 percent of the berries decided to grow right along the fence where the little rascals could just grab them anyway. Good thing they're so stinkin' cute.

Rich and I have been eating radishes from the garden (the kids don't like them). And let me tell you, they've really got a bite this year. And this one(?) Rich is holding here--we'd never seen one like this before. :)

And very soon we'll be eating fresh jalapenos, too! We've got lots and lots of babies growing now. :D

I suppose I really should just shut up now. I apologize for the excessive rambling, but so few days as of late have started off with me feeling this unburdened. Yep, I've got shitloads of stuff to get done in the next couple months, but for today, this one day, I'm going to ignore it all. Yep, today marks my latest fresh start. I don't even care that it's about the third time already this year that I've declared a fresh start. Every fresh start feels mighty good...

summer goals (aka "I obviously hate myself")

The other night I was trying to slog my way through yet another chapter of our world history textbook. Don't get me wrong--I actually enjoy reading about world history. Textbook style reading may not be my favorite, but it's okay. Anyway, after trying (and failing) all manner of tactics to get myself to focus, I just had to give up and take a break. Said break consisted on writing up a list of summer goals...because, come on, writing a nice, juicy list is always a good way to break the tedium, don't you think?

Thing is, I saw my list laying there today and picked it up to read it again. All I could think was, "You are a freakin' masochist!" For the last couple months I've been living for the start of summer (which by my definition starts either June 30th or July 1st, depending on when I get Annie's final quarterly report written and delivered). The very thought of summer has been keeping me going, keeping me sane. (Though said sanity might be disputed by others in this house.) Summer--a time to relax, to breathe a little easier, to have some real honest-to-goodness downtime.

Ummmm...so what's with the list, Debra Anne?!!

Here's what I hope to accomplish:

Homeschooling:
*Write both Annie's and Gray's IHIPs.
*Get all of Annie's first quarter plans and preparation done.
*Get all of Gray's first quarter plans and preparation done.

---Note: This category alone could seriously take up my entire summer. Despite the fact that I only have to prepare two classes for Annie for the fall, because she's taking the rest at MCC.

House (the bigger projects):
*Finish decluttering the entire house. This is well underway, and yet there is still much to do.
*Paint the living room/hallway.
*Paint the kitchen.
*Paint the shed.
*Reroof the shed.

Garden/Kitchen:
*Can enough tomatoes to last us until next summer.
*Make and can enough tomato/garlic/basil sauce to last us until next summer.
*Make and can enough salsa to last us until next summer.
*Make and can enough jam to last us until next summer. (Will need to buy berries for this, because we won't grow nearly enough.)
*Chop and freeze enough green peppers to last us until next summer. (Though if our pepper plants don't spring back to life, this may not happen. Or I'll just buy them from the farmers market and do this anyway.)
*Chop and freeze enough jalapenos to last us until next summer.
*Freeze enough blueberries to last us until next summer. (Will have to buy these as well. Our blueberry bushes died, and we eat far too many anyway.)
*Make and can enough applesauce to last us until next fall. (It makes me so ridiculously sad to say that we will have to buy our apples this year because our tree just isn't going to give us its normal plentiful bounty.)
*Make and can enough apple butter to last us until next fall. (Again, buying the apples.)
*Can enough pears to last us until next fall.

Scrapbooking:
*Catch up, then keep up with Project Life album.
*Finish last summer's stay-cation album from Chris's visit.
*Make time every week to record whatever stories are most inspiring me.

Crafting:
*I-can't-talk-about-it-here Project #1.
*I-can't-talk-about-it-here Project #2.
*I-can't-talk-about-it-here Project #3.
*I-can't-talk-about-it-here Project #4.
*Christmas gift for sister-in-law.
*Christmas gift for other sister-in-law.
*Farmers market bag for us.
*Placemat for Bacon.

Reading:
*Finish at least 6 books I've started and set aside. (Reasons for the "setting aside" vary. Some were non-fiction books that Annie and I used for school but only read certain chapters of. Some are books that I started but then got overwhelmed by life and had to set aside. Many are simply short story books that I haven't finished yet. Some books I can pick up where I left off, others will have to be started over. Anyway, according to my Library Thing, I have close to 40 of these books, so even finishing 6 of them isn't much of a dent.)
*Read at least 8 books from this arbitrary "I really want to finally read" pile: Parasite Rex, Peeps, The Amber Spyglass, The Rape of Nanking, Paper Towns, The Time Traveler's Wife, Never Let Me Go, The Love We Share Without Knowing, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Eaarth, Garbage Land, Freakonomics, Half the Sky, Singled Out, Woman: An Intimate Biography, Garden Spells, Essex County, The 10PM Question, Animal Vegetable Miracle, The Waiting Place, Saplings, Shine, The Search for Wondla, The Wind-Up Girl
*Read at least 6 books totally on a whim.

"Summer" lasts approximately 10 1/2 weeks. I think if I clone myself *and* give up sleep for the entire time, I may just have a shot. Or maybe not.

pardon me while I ramble aimlessly...

Okay, to those of you thinking, "And how is that different from any other post you write?" I say, "Well yes, you've got a very good point there." :P

I'm sort of in a weird "mood" these days. It's not that I'm in a funk, not even a little one. Seriously, I'm not really in any way unhappy at all. But then again, I'm not feeling happy either. Just sort of blah.

On my mind this morning:

*Rich's Mom is having her hip replacement surgery today, so she is very much on my mind. While surgery is always a serious business, I am so looking forward to her being able to live without so much pain anymore!

*The weather is just plain yucky. I guess it seems especially so because last week we had a few beautiful sunny days with highs in the 60s and 70s right in a row. But the spring showers are back--it's been raining fairly steadily since Friday evening. And it's not a warm spring rain--it's a cold, miserable one. The high yesterday was in the mid-40s and it was windy enough for the wind chill to be in the low 30s. Today it's supposed to be slightly warmer (highs in the upper 40s) and slightly less rainy (off and on, instead of just on). The rain is forecasted to stay throughout the week, but temps are to start rising again, so it's not all bad news.

*Soccer season started. This is one of those mixed bags. I love watching the kids play, but to be honest I don't like having our weeknights so totally booked. (Max plays Mondays and Wednesdays/Annie plays Tuesdays and Thursdays.) Really not looking forward to sitting there in the cold miserable rain tonight!

*The boys have the day off of school today. Normally I treasure these days--like unexpected little gifts. But today, *sigh*, I'm worn out just thinking about it. Because Annie has a dentist appointment. And it's probably going to be a long one--if all is as they hope, she'll be getting her back braces off and they'll be making the molds for her retainer. Sitting in the waiting room with the boys for a couple of hours is *not* something I'm looking forward to.

*It's that time of year where school is absolutely drowning me. Though honestly, I'm not sure if it ever doesn't feel like that. ;) But with just a month and a half left, we've still got a lot to squeeze in. A lot. But this is Annie's last week of her college classes, with all three finals next week. So after that we'll have loads of time to concentrate on her finishing up her world history and her lit.

*Seems like forever since I've got to read for fun. Doesn't even seem like I'm getting that many books read for school, but I guess that's because I don't count how much time I spend reading textbooks. :/ But anyway, in actuality, it hasn't been forever--because last week one night, I blew off all my work for the night and just sat and read A Monster Calls. OMG. Best book I've read all year. Still can't think about it without just tearing right up. I've said it before, and I'll said it again--Patrick Ness is pure genius. And you know, even those who didn't find The Chaos Walking trilogy to be as freakin' awesome and moving and honest and human and perfect as I did--well, I think they would love this book.

*I am so ridiculously bummed about our big apple tree, I seriously want to cry. Every year since we've been here the tree turns into a see of white with tinges of pink. And then come fall, we have bazillions of apples. This year, however, I don't know what's going on--there's just a few patches here and there of blossoms. :( So much for my dreams of canning 40-ish jars of applesauce from the tree this year. Oh, I'll still can, but it won't be quite so satisfying to have to go to an orchard to buy the apples as it would have been just picking them from our tree.

*We got the results from Annie's year-end testing (a homeschool requirement thing here in NY). It's so stupid of me--every year, I worry about it. Luckily, Annie doesn't. :) Still 99th percentile, as high as one can get. Next year, I guess my worries will double as Gray will need to take them, too.

*And speaking of Gray and homeschooling, I spent many hours last week working on school prep for him for next year. Probably not the best use of my time, as I should be focusing on finishing up this year for Annie. But seriously, as interesting as it is, sometimes I just need a break from world history. (Thus the reason why I am sitting here blogging instead of finishing up today's lecture/discussion notes. :P ) Anyway, I am getting both more excited and more nervous about beginning the journey of homeschooling with Gray next year. But I assume that's only natural. :)

*Still making slow, but sort of steady progress around the house. Actually hope to *finally* complete one whole room of its decluttering this week. The library. And in addition to the many, many books that I added to Paperbackswap (many of which have already found new homes) and the several that we've given to various friends and family, we've boxed up about 15 good-sized boxes for the library sale. And I really think we've made massive strides in curbing the accumulation aspect, too. Not that we don't acquire books any more, but it's at a muuuuuuuuuch slower pace.

*We're beginning to get the garden ready. I got about half of it weeded last week in prep for another infusion of our lovely compost. If the weather ever gives us a break, hopefully we'll have it ready and be able to plant our radishes and lettuce and onions and kohlrabi this weekend. And then it won't be long after that until we can plant all our tomato and pepper seedlings. We probably won't plant much more than that this year. We'd considered adding another garden so we could still have beans and cucumbers (we've expanded our tomatoes into their previous territory :P ) and a few other things, but since we hope to move next year, we sort of decided that we probably shouldn't.

*On the crafty front, I haven't been accomplishing much. Been concentrating on making baby caps for the project my Mom's church is doing. It's one of those win-win things---babies who need them get hats and I get to use up loads of baby yarn I have leftover from other projects.

Holy crap...I really need to shut up and get back to work, don't I? For everyone's sake. :P But first let me wish everyone a week full of simple joys and heartfelt smiles!!!!

getting the hang of this?

Yep, still on track with the whole "focus" thing. Of course, it has only been three days so far...so I've no business getting all cocky about it. :P How long is it they say it takes for a new behavior to become habit? Four weeks? Six weeks? Something like that, I think.

Anyway. Yesterday's focus was school. Pretty darn boring to talk about. But then what in my life isn't? :) So, yep...I kept my focus: did a little grading (vocabulary test and essay on religion in science fiction lit), updated grade book and time logs, added new vocabulary list to Spelling City, typed up this week's vocabulary list to give Annie, previewed "Pulp Fiction, Bradbury, & the American Myth" lecture for our lit class, typed up next essay assignment for lit course, read a couple chapters of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (a book I should be done with by now, but am only about a quarter of the way through--really enjoying it though!), previewed "The Early Christian Church" lecture for our world history class, typed comprehension questions and writing assignment for lecture, and finished reading Life in a Medieval City by Joseph and Frances Gies (and this allowed my to put a check on my 50x50 list--#41 Read 50 non-fiction books, each one about a different country).

And yep, I did squeeze in that little bit of crocheting I'd allowed myself. In fact, I managed to whip up a baby cap while previewing the lectures. (My Mom's church is making these caps for a charity project, and I figured that would be an excellent use of all my baby yarn scraps.)

And as for today, the focus is again school. And cleaning. Oh joy.

and off we go...

Blogging. I'm blogging again. :) Yesterday, I woke up excited about posting something. And as I was going through the morning routine, I even came up with an idea about what I was going to post about. My favorite pasta primavera recipe. As I was planning on whipping up a huge batch, I figured I could even include pictures and everything. Well, you know that whole best-laid plans thing...

I had the pasta cooking, and realized I needed to finish washing up the dishes in the sink so I'd be able to drain and cool the pasta. Reaching into the sudsy water, I grabbed a hold of a glass, having no idea it had broken in the sink. Yep, sliced my index finger but good, right down near where it joins my hand. Stupid sucker would not stop bleeding. And while I did have the presence of mind to turn off the stove, that pasta was stuck sitting there in the pot of hot water. So, yeah, by the time I'd finally got my finger patched up nearly half an hour later (did I mention that it did not want to stop bleeding?), that pasta was not looking so great. And I really didn't think that showing off my bloated rotini was really the way I wanted to kick things off...you know, despite the fact that that is the reality of my life. :P

So here we are, another new day. A fresh chance to babble away. And strongly on my mind these days--homeschooling. Most immediately because I just finished Annie's second quarterly report for the year. Which yes, I admit, every time I finish one I sort of have this overwhelming feeling that a true celebration is in order. :D

But there's also the fact that Annie started a new semester of classes at the community college this week...and I'm sort of jealous. Okay, so I don't really want to take her German class. (I'd be pretty darn lost seeing how I haven't taken German 101.) However, I really wouldn't mind taking Intermediate Algebra course with her. I've never been a huge math geek, but I have to admit that I always really loved algebra. But most of all, I really want to take her Evolution class (taught by none other than Rich--and normally she wouldn't take a class taught by her dad, but since he's the only one who teaches it, there wasn't any choice).

I mean, come on, the textbook is by Carl Zimmer! Other required reading--Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation by Michael Keller and The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. Yes, I've read the graphic novel and I'm in the process of slowly reading the Dawkins book, but come on, doesn't this class just sound awesome?!! (Or has Rich just finally managed to warp my brain with his science geekery? :P )

But even more than these two things, there's the fact that a couple weeks ago, we finally made the decision about homeschooling Gray next school year. And its a GO! I'm so overwhelmingly excited about this, I can't even express it!!! Honestly, at this point, I think it's the best gift we could give this kiddo. But you know, much of my excitement is purely selfish. I'm going to get to spend all this wonderful time with this incredible, unique, funny, creative person!!!

The rational portion of brain keeps trying to remind me about some of the realities of this situation. There have been times when I thought all the work I had to do in homeschooling Annie would just kill me, and now I'm taking on homeschooling for two. And Gray is so very emotional and so very sensitive, and to be honest, it's sometimes very challenging. Probably more so because I'm so much like him. And despite the fact that Max does not want to be homeschooled (he wants nothing more than get old enough to get to middle school so he can play on every sports team possible--where did he come from anyway?!! :P ), I can see the potential for occasional trouble looming when he has to get on the bus and his brother doesn't. But you know, all the reminders in the world just can't dampen my excitement right now. And that's okay--there's plenty enough time for reality later, right?

Hmmmm...it appears that I have not lost my knack for babbling one iota, have I?