Corona-Quarantine and Graduation 2020

So… we’re still alive. I know it’s been a hot minute, but I have not been particularly motivated to write much lately – well, it’s been a while since I’ve felt ‘bloggish’, anyway. I have been writing – journals, a novel, other projects on pen and paper – but not so much blogging. Since I only started this blog as a sort-of-but-not-quite-scrapbook, and my kids are now halfway done with school – HALFWAY!! BECAUSE I HAVE A GRADUATE NOW!!! – Sorry – I was trying to hold that in, but I just had to say it – my kiddo graduated! I have so many feels about it, too. But more on that later…

Where to begin, where to begin… There’s been a lot going on, but at the same time, strangely not much? It’s been such a weird year, truly. I honestly thought that Hurricane Harvey was ‘the big thing’ for us, and that once we cleared everything stemming from that, life would resume as pretty much normal. That was super-califragi-optimistic, apparently.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, late’s back up. If you’ve read here before, then you’ll be familiar with the format I use when I catch up, which is pretty much to go back to the last time I posted and pick up from there. Just pretend that there are wavy-lines and flashback noises ‘Wayne’s World’ style here as we go back in time to when I last posted…

The date: September 2019 (I would Star Date it for you, but I don’t know the math… moving on)

At this exact moment, I have no clue what we were doing in September of last year. I’m going to have to go back and pull pictures and events, but I am pretty sure we got off to a solid start, school-wise. We did have our traditional ‘Not Back to School’ Party with our homeschool group, which signals the beginning of our school year with our local homeschool group. In ten years of homeschooling, we’ve only canceled it once, I think? I don’t remember now – I just know this was a ‘thing’ for our group that we didn’t miss. It was a promising start, with a nicely rounded group of kids from pretty much all 3 school levels (elementary/middle/high). Our group ran a middle school co-op and in the spring semester we had a literature-based high school co-op this year. Both kinda got derailed due to the pandemic, but I have kind of always used that as a scale for the group thriving, and it made me happy to see that we had such an active group this year.

I know we had some weekly events, and I took pics of the boys doing school-ish things here and there, but I can’t remember details. One of the major accomplishments we did this year was to finally get through driver’s ed. Before Harvey, I’d started LBB in driver’s ed, but then with the hurricane, that got pushed to the back burner. Once we got the house done and things settled (which took such a very long time), it had been so long since LBB had worked on it, and was also time to put PeaGreen in, so to make a long story short, they both started driver’s ed and finished the first part so they could get their driving learner’s permit around October-ish.

 

I know we had had a teen social with our homeschool group at some point through here, and also Halloween, which LBB declined to participate in this year. PeaGreen was a pretty good sport about it though, and went on an epic quest to acquire a KFC bucket to become Buckethead (it wasn’t that epic of a quest; he just went into a KFC and asked the dude behind the counter for one for his costume, but that’s not very exciting, so we say it the other way). We went to a friend’s house to hang out and the kids all went T’o’Ting. I remember hearing about teens going trick-or-treating when I was younger and how people were annoyed about it. I’m glad that seems to have dissipated in our area these days. Of all the shenanigans teens could be into, dressing up and asking for candy from their neighborhood seems pretty benign to me.

NASA/Johnson Space Center/Space Center Houston (I never know exactly what to call it; it seems like the name is always changing, and/or it’s been all one one of those at different times over the years) always hosts their homeschool day in the beginning of October. It’s changed quite a bit over the years; less ‘organized fun’ and more ‘peruse at your own pace’ these days, but that has worked out as the kids have gotten older and been more inclined to want to roam around with their friends than do classes. This was probably our last time to do this, so I wanted to enjoy the experience, and I think we did.

Our homeschool group also participated in the ShangriLa Botanical Gardens’ annual Scarecrow Festival this school year. Entries start sometime in late Sept/early Oct. The kids originally came up with a trio of witch-scarecrows, but I think we only ended up putting two of them up. They won one of the categories, but I don’t remember now which one, and I can’t find the posts for it without more in-depth research than I am willing to put into it right now…

I love that pic of PeaGreen and his friend-o. When my boys were little, they would play ‘Brick Factory’, which is a fancy way of saying ‘they like to smash up bricks by hitting them with hammers as hard as they can’. This was a total throwback to when that was a pretty regular thing and it made me smile.

Around November-ish, we went to Galveston for a Teen Social; lunch and running around on the strand, taking in some street art and beach-combing until after dark. It was a really fun day!

The Children

weird wall art

angry butterfly

Tortuga!

December is always busy with birthdays and holidays – this was the first year in a few that we were able to put up a real tree and have it ‘feel’ Christmas-y. It was a relief, and a joy, and a lot of other gross feelings. LBB’s birthday is in December; he turned 18 this year! He’s a real-live grown up person now, which came with its own paperwork challenges (like the DMV, registering to vote and all that jazz). He had a couple of friends over to celebrate and we had dinner and hung out for a bit. He’s not really into parties, so the low-key, no-pressure type celebration was perfect.

I’m getting some of this out of order; I didn’t do a very good job of record-keeping over the fall. I have quite a few pictures of events and the kids doing school work; we even started a literature-based co-op (that was eventually interrupted by coronavirus-quarantine), but I don’t really have dates on anything. PeaGreen started working around November-ish – his first job, which he was very excited about. Now that it’s June, he’s so much less-enthused about it, but is still at it, so I guess money > ‘work sucks’? He’s almost 17, so I guess that’s a good lesson to learn now, lol.

This post is already so long, and it would take forever to itemize all these pictures so I am just adding a gallery of assorted pics from the last few months.

Martin Dies Jr. State Park

car selfie!

cousins…

Say Anything

blackout poetry field trip

school day

mall teen social

school work

school work

so many kiddos

school day

therapy

Car selfie

eye doctor

Galveston Pleasure Pier

Galveston Teen Social

Yearly check-up

Bastard Cat

Winter Walkies

Smile and Be Cute for Mom

PG’s a Working Man now

LBB & PeaGreen – Fall 2019

Like most people, we went into almost total seclusion for a while to hopefully avoid contracting COVID-19/CoronaVirus – whatever it’s called these days. ‘The ‘Rona’, as it’s affectionately called most of the time (complete with accent) hasn’t really touched us much so far; something that I am profoundly grateful for. We were pretty well fully quarantined for around 9 weeks (mid-March through the middle of May), except for work and grocery-store runs. A couple of friends have been exposed, and one’s husband was hospitalized, but all have either not progressed into illness, didn’t spread to their families, or have made a decent recovery so far (something else I am grateful for). It’s such a strange time to live in, and I am sure there are people documenting this time for posterity, which will be interesting to read about in 20 or 30 years. In so many ways, we have been among the lucky few to have been relatively unaffected by the pandemic (so far, knock on wood). Aside from remaining mostly well-away from the effects of illness, we’ve also been fortunate to have seen few effects financially as well. Loverly Husband is an essential worker, and PeaGreen works in food service, (so also ‘essential’, I guess??), and we’ve mostly been avoiding people/the public up until the last couple of weeks when we’ve started venturing out on occasion.

We did ‘break’ quarantine to see my sister, because both LBB and my niece (affectionately called ‘Fred’ over the years here on my blog) both graduated this May. Fred was valedictorian of her school, and graduated with her associate’s degree, and was accepted to her top choice college – we’re so very proud of her accomplishments! We met up with them to take graduation pictures – something we’d planned on doing since they were in Kindergarten together.

So, much of what we’d had planned for the spring and summer has been either cancelled, rescheduled or postponed indefinitely. It’s been hard on the kids who are used to socializing in person quite a bit, but it has also forced them (and me) to find new ways to socialize, or re-prioritize that time by finding something new to do instead. Like catch up on reading, or re-watch Avatar: The Last Air Bender, or learn a new language… anything to pass the time, right?

We did host a mostly-family, small graduation party for these two (though I somehow only managed to get a single picture from it).

 

Fred & LBB – Kindergarten graduation – 2008

LBB & Fred – High School graduation – Class of 2020

Kindergarten

High School

LBB

Fred

We usually have 2 proms to go to; one through one of our local homeschooling groups, and one through a local independent organization that just hosts a homeschool prom. Both were originally scheduled for April/May, but were rescheduled due to coronavirus. Eventually, the homeschool group one got canceled altogether, but we were holding out hope that the other would go on as planned. Of course, Texas has been in the news recently for its total incompetence in dealing with pandemic protocols – essentially our government began pretending like there wasn’t a pandemic WAY too early in the game and ‘led the way’ (there really should be a sarcasm font) by opening Texas to commerce again. Though they ‘recommended’ wearing masks and maintaining social distance, within two weeks of that, VERY few people did; it was pretty much business as usual within a really short time. Now, of course, we’re having an ‘unexpected’ (again with the sarcasm) resurgence of coronavirus cases, and our county is under a mask order as of last week (June 24). <shock, shock!!> So, what that means for the prom that was supposed to happen on June 27th was also cancelled. Last minute, but totally not their fault. Kids are disappointed though. We ended up taking the kids to Galveston for a photo shoot in their prom finery.

 

 

the masked trio

the aquarium

fancy

So, with that, I think that’s pretty well caught-up. It occurs to me pretty regularly these days that this will be my last year homeschooling. One kiddo done and one to go!

Until next time, cheers!

 

Not Back to School 2019-2020

It’s the beginning of the school year, and things are finally – FINALLY – settling back into more normal, predictable routines. We’re almost exactly 2 years post-hurricane Harvey (aka the hurricane that wrecked our entire lives); in fact, I think Friday, August 30th will be 2 years, exactly.

For the most part, life is back to normal. We’re finally finished with 95% of the interior of the house; the only project left to complete is the master bathroom. It’s gutted, but we haven’t started on putting it back together yet (though that project should get underway next week). We have proper living and dining room furniture, and the office is set up with computers and everything. There’s still quite a bit of stuff still in storage, but we’re working on bringing all that in and going through it a little at a time.

We have no ‘decor’ yet; most of what was salvageable is still in storage, and what was ruined has yet to be replaced. Once we get things in proper order, I’ll post final and comparison pics from before the flood. We’ve worked really hard on the house, and I’m so pleased with how it’s turned out.

In other news, it’s LBB’s senior year this year. I am a little awestruck at how quickly ‘class of 2020’ has arrived. I started putting some info together on my computer’s hard drive a few years ago, and it’s just crazy how it just sorta popped up as a reality all of the sudden. I cannot believe that my sweet little baby is a senior already.

My niece, Fred, is also a senior this year. She used to spend every summer with us, and now she spends her summers tutoring and teaching. I’m just amazed at how fast the time has flown by.

School-wise, the last couple of years have been an anomaly for us. I put the boys in an online school for a while; after the hurricane, with the chaos and stress and non-homey-ness of our house, doing school the way we were used to just wasn’t working. Outsourcing that for a bit was a hard decision, but a good one. But this year, we’ll be dropping that for everything except chemistry and a couple of electives that the boys are taking; coding for LBB and music theory for PeaGreen.

The’re both in orchestra this fall, starting in September; cello and violin. We’re also participating in 2 homeschool groups this year; one of which offers a graduation group for seniors. I’m so glad that LBB will be graduating with other kids, and have the opportunity to do some of the traditional ‘senior’ stuff.

Overall, we’re off to a pretty good start, and I’m excited about what the year holds.
Warmly,
~h

Summer 2019 Update

Oh, boy… where to start.
So when I posted last, we’d finished most of the base work in the kitchen and were about to start installing cabinets. What I didn’t know then was that the cabinets we ordered (from Home Depot) were flimsy and cheap, and one of them was damaged in the crate (which we didn’t find out about until we unboxed). Then when Loverly Husband was dry-fitting them in place, we realized that there were many, many issues that would inevitably crop up because of their shoddy, cheap, flimsy construction. So we made the really tough decision to send them all back and have actual, real, hardy, SOLID WOOD cabinets made. That set us back twice the cost and several months, because it was custom work, plus we ended up adding another section of cabinets to the original plan… so though the main cabinets were in mid-March, the final cabinet installation didn’t happen until mid-May.

We were able to have the countertops, sink and appliances put in, and the flooring and door, window and floor trim done throughout the kitchen and living room in by mid-April, and the crown molding and final re-paint at the beginning of June. We still have one tiny section of granite to have cut from our slab for the soon-to-be coffee bar in the kitchen (not pictured), but that will have to wait a few weeks still, because the rest of the slab will be Loverly Husband’s desk top in the office.

Here’s the final before and after:

February 2017

 

June 2019

It’s not the same angle, but I think there’s a marked improvement. It’s hard to see in the top pic because it was taken at night, but we had to replace the glass in the lower right window, so we took the texture off the other one so they’d match. We’re still not sure if we’ll re-texture them all or leave them or what. For now, though, it’s fine.

At the end of January, we also had a carport/porch put on the front of the house (something we haven’t had since Hurricane Rita took ours off back in 2005), and a cover on the back porch (which Hurricane Ike took out in 2008). Stupid hurricanes.

We had most of the trees in the back yard taken out (to hopefully lessen the potential for damage in future hurricanes), but other than that and porches, we haven’t really started on the yard or outside of the house, which needs to be re-painted, and we’re planning on adding a wheelchair ramp so my dad can get into our house. He lives next door, and  the construction on his house was completed at the end of February, so he’s happy to be back in it. It’s so strange going in his house now. It was my childhood home, but it looks SO different now! We talk a lot about how different it would look if my mom were still alive to have a say in the decor. It’s been interesting to see how much my dad’s taste differs from hers.

In terms of actual school stuff, it’s been fairly boring. The boys are still a wee bit behind from Hurricane Harvey, but are on track to start the fall school year on time. I will have a Senior (and a Junior) this year, which I just can’t hardly even believe. Our journey through homeschooling is coming to a close (though we’re not quite there yet), and I find myself feeling all nostalgic as more and more of my friends who have younger kids are starting their journeys with kinders and elementary kiddos. I was so excited to get started, and I enjoyed spending time with my kiddos so much – I’m trying to savor every moment as we move towards graduation.

There are some big hurdles still ahead though. Graduation being one of them. Thankfully, there’s a homeschool group in our area that hosted their first graduation this past spring, and there are seasoned moms willing to help those of us who are new and clueless. I’m excited to work with them, and for LBB to have the chance to participate in ‘senior year’ type activities with other kids his age.

Both of the boys are in driver’s ed, with plans to get their permits just as soon as I figure out the whole process. Honestly, it’s so complicated; I think they do it that way to discourage teenagers from driving. But soon, they’ll be legally permitted on the roads, though it will be a while before either can get their actual licenses.

In other news, therapy continues. Healing is a long and hard process, and in the interests of both transparency and privacy, I wanted to mention it without going into detail. Long story short: parents won’t always be aware of depression in their teens, because depression can be fairly easily hidden and/or mimic other, totally normal teen states. We’re on a learning curve right now, but  self-care in important; getting help is important (for parents and for kids).

I tend to try to go back and post things to catch up from when I last updated, so I’ll stick with that format.

In February, we took the kids to Houston to Dave & Busters just to get some family fun time away from the house. There’s always so much to do that it’s hard to get perspective sometimes. We needed a break and Loverly Husband nailed it with this semi-surprise outing.

Our homeschool group went to IFly in Houston for a field trip; my sister in law joined us, so I got shots of all the kids doing cool stuff! This was such a fun place. LBB opted out (and so did I, though several parents also flew), but PeaGreen and my niece and nephew tried it. They said it was cool, and fun, but too short – by the time they got the hang of it, their turn was over.

We also tried Bowling Club with another local homeschool group, and you can see from their overjoyed expressions… that didn’t last long. But points for trying, eh? This is something like our 8th summer to do KidsBowlFree, so even though they’re less than enthused, I’m still going to drag them out to play with me some this summer.

We also saw a performance of Frankenstein at Lutcher theater, which I enjoyed immensely. The boys less so, but I do my best to throw them at culture whenever I have the opportunity. It’s my duty as a parent. We sat center-front-balcony; my favorite spot in the theater, and we had the entire balcony to ourselves, which was most excellent.

In March, we toured our local TV News station, and the kids got green-screen reaction shots of themselves to create memes with. I don’t have those pictures, but I wanted to document that they actually posed for pictures without being told to. That’s a thing, trust me!

And April was homeschool prom season…there were two this year that PG went to (LBB opted to stay home), and I guess I only got pictures from one somehow. Luckily, through the power of the internets… I found one from the other prom as well. Yes, my weirdo kid took a ballon-Lila from Futurama as his date. Kids these days, yo.

April is also Camp NaNoWriMo. I taught a class for one of our local homeschool groups, but both of my kiddos opted out this time. I, however, accomplished my 10K wordcount, even though the story I was working on is far from done. I tried writing a fan-fiction just for fun, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought and since it’s not my own, I probably won’t ever finish it. But it was good practice. It was really fun to hear how excited the kids who participated were for their stories. Several of them completed their April Camp story, and we’re planning on seeing some of them again in November for NaNoWriMo’s real deal.

In the spring, we found out that the Symphony League of Beaumont was hosting a summer strings camp, and will be hosting music lessons in the fall. It’s been a while since the boys have played with any regularity, but they have two years of orchestra under their belts and I don’t want to let that go to waste, so I signed them up.

That meant daily practice to re-familiarize themselves with their instruments (LBB on cello and Peagreen on violin) for the four weeks of May. This was their first day even holding instruments after probably a year without. The cello has been in storage (inside, climate controlled, for those who might worry), but held up surprisingly well. It only needed minor adjustments to be fully back in tune and ready to play. We ended up buying PG a new violin. His first one was just a cheap-o started one, and got wrecked in the hurricane. He had a replacement, but it was also a beginner, so we upgraded since he’ll be playing with more regularity in the fall.

May also saw us start doing more stuff with our local group as well; the months of March and April were just so filled with work on the house that we didn’t really have a lot of time for other stuff.

We did blackout poetry at the mall one day, and the beach another day (though the boys opted out of going at the last minute). We had a big family dinner at my dad’s, and I started another run-through of The Artist’s Way. I also took a day-trip with some of my friends to Galveston, and we saw some fabulous street art along the way.

The beginning of June saw the kids at string camp…

 

… which brings us pretty much up to date!

There are probably a hundred car-selfies that I could share, usually to or from therapy or a grocery run (because curbside grocery service at HEB is my most favoritest thing ever),  but I’ll leave those to Instagram. Other than that, I’ll leave you with the sign we have in our kitchen window:

**reminder to take your meds**

Until next time!
~h

January 2019 Update

So way back in September, I’d planned on doing a big ‘One year after Harvey’ post. I started it, then life happened and it sat in my drafts folder until now. Well, technically, it’s still there; this is an entirely new post. I say ‘life happened’, but that’s not entirely true; lots of things happened, and I honestly just wasn’t feeling up to writing about and sharing details of the extreme stress going on in my life at the time. Additionally, though we had technically started back to school in the Spring semester last year, it wasn’t until the fall, when I enrolled the kids in an online school, that we really settled into a good, daily, school routine. Though we have been back in our house since October of 2017, we are still mid-construction. Having such a disrupted environment is extremely difficult, and we’re muddling through as best we can.

 

My previous update was nearly a year ago, after PG’s 15th birthday and Camp NaNoWriMo. I’m happy to report that July 2018 was my first NoNoWriMo event win; the minimum word count for Camp is 10K, and I wrote my story at 25K and some change. The actual story I wrote is still not complete; it’s an autobiographical story, and was as much therapy writing as challenge. It may never see the light of day, but it was still the most writing that I’d put into any single project. I went on to participate in the actual 50K NaNoWriMo in November of 2018, and won! I am continuing to write that story, with plans to complete it ready for editing in April.

 

 

House-wise, we’re almost done with our kitchen. We gutted it in October and completed electrical, insulation and sheetrock work on all the walls and ceiling in December. Our new cabinets are in, and we’re planning to start installation within the next week or so. Loverly Husband’s work schedule dictates a lot of our home-repair schedule.

kitchen – gutted

kitchen – with new electrical, ceiling, lighting, and sheetrock

In August, I decided to put the kids in an online school. Without storage space and work space, trying to teach myself became more of a challenge than I was up for. Having a third-party doing the bulk of the teaching let me step in where I was needed instead of having to be on-call 100% of the time. As the boys were entering their sophomore and Junior years, it also gave the kids more of a sense of ownership of their education, because they were able to choose some of their classes. PG took an interest in Business Management and Economics, while LBB chose Electrical Technology I as his elective.

In addition to their classes at home, we’ve maintained an active presence in our local homeschool group, of which we have been a part since 2004. There is also a new, inclusive, opt-in homeschooling group that we’ve jumped into with both feet as well. Having two groups to socialize and learn with has been fun, and kept us very busy.

With Triangle Homeschoolers:

 

Not Back to School FroYo Party – August 2018

Teen Social Brunch at IHOP (during the IHOB scandal)

Stark Art Museum – Orange, TX

Start Art Museum Art Class – Orange TX

LBB – Start Art Museum Class

Beaumont Police Museum Tour

Triangle Homeschoolers Christmas Party 2018

With LIFE:

Teen Council – Leadership
PG ran for and was elected TC President for the Fall semester, and recently re-elected for the Spring semester as well. LBB was elected as one of the Communications officers for the fall semester, but opted out for the Spring.

LIFE Teen Council – Fall Semester 2018

The Teen Council organized and hosted a Fall ‘Welcome back to school’ dance for the entire group. The kids had a really great time, and made a lot of new friends.

The fall semester also saw the creation of several teen-oriented classes, including Life Skills with a focus on career planning, and a Speech class to familiarize the students with public speaking. The Life Skills class was great. It was taught by a couple, which is so rare, and was a nice change of pace. At the end of the run of classes, they asked the kids to dress as if they were going to a job interview, and to bring their resume. Afterwards, they gave the students some constructive feedback. The Public Speaking course was also taught by a homeschooling dad, and they’ll be offering their final speeches in a couple of weeks.

One of the things I love about being part of an open, larger group is the availability to organize more rigorous classes. LIFE was able to introduce a beginning American Sign Language course, and so we’re all taking it. The kids often break into little practice groups during class.

The Teen Council also hosted a Winter Semi-Formal (that turned into a casual dance).

 

Other things we did during the fall 2018 Semester:

Fantastic Beasts – The Crimes of Grindlewald

sneak photography while the kids visit with a long-lost friend

the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall when it came to Kountze, TX

Halloween 2018 – PG is a Ginger Bread Man, and LBB is SansUndertale

Labyrinth at Flashback Theater in Baytown

In general life terms, we’ve had an eventful fall. PeaGreen bought himself a guitar and has been working on teaching himself to play. He’s learning by ear, and has gotten some chords down and is beginning to play recognizable tunes.

PG’s new guitar – fall2018

Our holidays were pretty low-key. Thanksgiving was full of tasty food and a littler of puppies. The kids spent most of the day outside underneath 7 mixed-breed pups that were absolutely adorable.

Christmas was much the same, only with a few less pups (who’ve since moved off to homes of their own).

With so many changes over the past couple of years, we decided that it would be a good idea to start the kids in therapy. They’ve been going since September, and we feel like it’s helping.

at therapy in the waiting room

Lunch with LBB and Loverly Husband – Sept 2018

Nov 2018

Dec 2018

Dec 2018

Dec 2018

And last, but not least, this little gem popped up in my Facebook memories a few months ago, so I snagged a picture of the boys that day to compare. What a difference six years makes!

top: 2012; bottom 2018

 

I can’t promise that I’ll be updating with regularity, but I’ll get around to it eventually.
Warmly,
~h

10 Months Post Harvey: Early Summer 2018

Well, spring has well and truly faded into summer. Even though the official start of Summer isn’t until July, in Texas, we all know that summer actually starts in late May. At a certain point, everything gets all melty, and that’s how you know that it’s actual summer, and that there will be no relief for the unbearable heat anytime within the next several months. When you live in Texas, you just have to learn to accept this as fact and move on. It means no more hikes; no more outside anything, really, unless you count the walk between the air conditioned ‘indoors’ to the air conditioned car or any time spent at the pool.

When last I posted, we found our intrepid heroes wrapping up homeschool co-op for the year, going to prom, and (as seems to be, forever) working on repairing our house post-Hurricane Harvey. That was back in April, so I have a couple of months to cover before you’re back up to speed, dear reader.

As ever, we’ve been busy, though not really with a lot of schoolwork of late. We took some time off because I was out of town, and there were a couple of weeks when Loverly Husband was also off work, so house-work became to priority. Although it doesn’t look it, we’ve gotten quite a lot accomplished; most of it is just behind the scenes. We’re about to start on the kitchen, completion of which will put us on the downhill slope towards being totally repaired. All that will be left post-kitchen is the master bedroom, bath and the office. Then we’ll tackle some outside projects, but that’s so not the focus right now. We did remove a wall; our house was built in the 1960’s, when open floor plans weren’t a thing. Our living room was an odd rectangle, but with a door on every wall, making furniture placement frustrating and entertaining impossible. We took the wall between the living room and kitchen out, making the whole center of the house one big room. I’m excited to see it finished. We have finished with texturing and painting, but still have the ceiling fan and vent covers to put back on, and trim work. We’re planning to do the living room and kitchen trim all at once. In any case, it’s definitely coming along.

LBB helping with electrical

we took out a wall!

“helping’

School-wise, I found that trying to pretend like things were ‘normal’ when we really still aren’t solidly living a normal life in our house was not working. Despite trying to keep up and on a regular schedule, it was really hard to keep the kids on task and myself organized to help them. I have long been an advocate of ‘trying something new’ when whatever you’re currently doing isn’t working out, so I decided to enroll the boys in an online school. We’re using Acellus for the time being. I don’t know if this is permanent yet or not, but it’s going well for now, and lends a little more freedom to me and organization to them, plus they both have said that they like it (for now) and I am very grateful for that. Because our school year for 2017-2018 was so very interrupted, our schedule has been sketchy. In the Spring, we took a few weeks off to accommodate travel, illness, Loverly Husband’s vacation time and other productivity issues, but have been solidly in-session for the last couple of weeks now, and I feel like they’re making good progress.

That said, let’s recap! My last post was in April, so picking up where I left off…
Our homeschool group hosted an outdoor survival class at a local park. One of our families has an older daughter who lives in CA and works as a ranger-type for Girl Scouts or CampFire, I don’t remember which. She’s all about teaching though, and volunteered to take our students for a hike with an outdoor lesson. We had a great turnout, and the kids enjoyed having someone closer to their own age doing the teaching.

Afterwards, we spent some time with family. Spring is crawfish season in the South, and we’re nothing if not slaves to tradition. Unfortunately, my sister and I are allergic to shellfish, including crawfish, so our crawfish boils look a bit different than most people’s. The potatoes and corn and Zummo’s all go into the seasoned water first, then into a cooler once cooked, then the mudbugs go in all alone. My kids are, however, not allergic, and ate their fill. As per the usual, any time we get the kids together, we try to make them all stand still for 5 seconds to get a photo of them. This time, we even got my dad in the mix.

 

 

 

We’ve also logged a couple of teen socials with our homeschool group… the kids are a little older now, so I don’t always get pictures of them, but I do usually get a shot with our little mom’s group. We’ve hit the pool, a couple of local coffee shops with regularity, and our local froyo bar, OrangeLeaf, is another popular spot. We also hit up a burger joint for lunch one day instead of just coffee. They have an area that could generously be called an ‘arcade’, where many shenanigans were enjoyed.

 

We visited the Houston Health Museum in May, complete with Lab time for the kids. We’ve done this before, and it’s always fun. This time, the main exhibit was a series of kinetic sound machines/experiments/tech called BioRhythm… really interesting stuff. There was also a really weird film that was a trio of really bizarre looking people who had musical instruments borg-ed into their flesh. There were 3 separate videos that started off individually but eventually synced to make a ‘band’ of sorts… or st least a cohesive rhythmic noise. It was weird, but probably the thing that’s stuck with me the longest. True art, I’d say… something that someone creates that you just can’t forget about, and really creepy, which I totally dig. It was called BioMen, and was created by Chaja Hertog from the Netherlands. I think the videos are even on YouTube now.

It’s not been all work and no play; Loverly Husband and I slipped away to Houston with some friends for a weekend away. We went to the Death By Natural Causes exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science without the kids, and had dinner at an amazing steakhouse called Fogo de Chao, then stayed at a downtown Houston hotel for the evening. It was a lovely little mini-break!

 

In other news, our homeschool group organized a Marshmallow gun challenge using PVC pipes. We set up an obstacle course for them, then sent them off to play battle games while we watched. It’s gotten so hot out that I’m amazed they had as much energy as they did.

A couple of our lovely homeschool friends contributed to a local art show, which we absolutely couldn’t miss. The theme was floral related, and the art work was amazing. There’s a tendency to say that our town is ‘boring’, but there is so much to do and see, especially within the art community lately, if you just look for it. It’s always been that way, but more so in the last few years. The city launched a beautification project recently that invites local artists to paint traffic control boxes around town. I have several friends who’ve painted boxes, and a couple more in the works. The city has also opened up some park benches to get the same treatment, and we’re talking about having our homeschool group do one as a group project.

Our Mom’s Night out events are always fun; we’ve been joining a local mothering group for their Hoops & Wine nights lately. It’s been a lot of fun, with a little bonus exercise tossed in for good measure as well. It’s really nice to get to chat with some of the moms in our homeschool group without kids; we have a pretty diverse group of moms in our group, and I always really enjoy spending time with them in a grown-up environment.

For my BFF’s birthday, she wanted to take a road trip, so we did! It was really spur of the moment, and such a great time. I’m not usually a spontaneous person, but I’ve been giving being more laid back a try, and it was really relaxing. We drove through Texas to Colorado, and stayed in Air B’nBs, so we spent 3 nights and 4 days really inexpensively. Last time we made this drive, it was nighttime, and we missed a lot of the scenery across west Texas. This time, it was still light, and we passed Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. I have seen this online before, but thought it was in Arizona or something; I had no idea it was in Texas! We stopped and got pictures. It was wet and muddy, and there was a ton of trash, but it was still pretty cool.

 

PeaGreen shares his birthday day with his BFF, TabasocBoi, so they had a joint pool party to celebrate. PeaGreen is officially 15 now, and TB is 16. They donned Birthday Dictator hats for the duration, and bossed everyone around. They seem to have enjoyed themselves, but this demonstration reminds me that it’s maybe a good thing that my kid doesn’t have any real power (because he might be a terrible person {wink}).

Somewhere in February, back when RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 was still on, my friend Michelle found out that Trixie Mattel was going to be coming to Houston, and tickets were pretty cheap, so we snagged a quad pack. Fast forward to the end of June, and Trixie had won All Stars 3, and was still coming to Houston, but now with a crown. We took a weekend trip, and had a great time, complete with breakfast crepes al fresco at CoCo’s in Midtown.

4th of July has always been a ton of fun for us, since PeaGreen’s birthday is the 5th. Since we’re still not finished with our house, we spent the evening with friends. Once it got dark, the kids took to the streets with Roman Candles and Harry Potter spells, or at least we tried to convince them to use HP spells… they were less enthusiastic about it, but did a couple just to make the moms happy (and we love them for that).

Loverly Husband was on call the week of PG’s actual birthday (and we like to make the celebration last…), so we took PG out for a birthday Dinner at a local Italian eatery. PG is all into pasta these days… making, cooking and eating, and requested that we each get a different pasta dish and share. LBB opted out, but we still ended up with 3 different pasta dishes and more than enough food to bring home.

‘ice cream for breakfast while we have the car serviced’ selfies.

This past weekend, we finally broke ground on the kitchen; we are moving our refrigerator to a recessed closet off to the side so that we have access to our back door again. Our kitchen was TINY, and when we bought our kitchen table set a few years ago, we realized too late that the table was a bit bigger than we’d thought. The configuration of the kitchen meant that the only place to put the refrigerator was in front of the back door, so we blocked it off and the fridge has been there ever since. When we took the wall out between the living room and kitchen post-Harvey, it opened up more possibilities, so we’re taking advantage of that now (and I’ll have a back porch accessible through the kitchen again – yay!). We have the closet framed and sheetrocked; next up is to built in the cabinet overhead, then we can start on pulling the ceiling tiles so we can insulate and do the new lighting, then sheetrock. It’s just the beginning stages of a massive project – probably THE main project since we’ve been doing recovery work, but we’re finally on it and I am so glad!

before

after(ish)

 

We also saw our friends perform in their summer workshop play with Orange Community Players in Heroes & Villains Too! The Quest for Shmeep.

In other news, July is Camp NaNoWrimo, and I am at 15.8K of 25K words, so I am pleased with myself. I’ve never been this close to hitting a target word-count within the time frame, so I am feeling confident that I will win (for the first time!). If you’re a writer-type, Camp (10K word count) is a good way to get your feet wet in prep for November, which is the big project: 50K words. I have no idea what I am going to write about in November, but I hope it works out as well as this month is going.

That’s pretty much everything for the last couple of months! Just trying to keep up so that I don’t fall completely off the face of the earth between posts.

How’s things with you?
Warmly,
~h

8 Months Post Harvey: Spring

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been trying to write something at least once a month, but that didn’t happen in February (or March…or most of April). February is almost a week shorter than the rest of the months, which was my excuse for not posting then. I got nuthin’ for March, and it’s still technically April, so….  I have also been lax about posting because I haven’t been as enthusiastic about writing. Things are pretty much the same as they’ve been for the past few months: working on the house; having school in a construction zone; getting out of the house to go to co-op, music lessons, field trips – whatever – as much as possible… the usual. We’re in a weird sort of limbo with our space being… I don’t even know the words to use. It’s not exactly ‘in transition’; that implies a cute little DIY project that we chose to embark on. This was a completely different sort of thing; one that was forced on us that we’ve been in ‘reaction’ mode to ever since. We’re coming up on eight months post-hurricane Harvey, and though we have definitely made some progress, we’re far from being done, and the daily wear-and-tear on the soul gets overwhelming.

Since I last updated, we actually have made quite a bit of progress on the house. We’re a little over 1/3 finished with repairs, which feels good to say. We have some trim to finish in the hallway, but both of the kids’ rooms are done, and the hall bath is finished except for decor. We briefly had two functioning bathrooms again, but the toilet in our master went wonky right after we finished that hallway bath, so we’re back down to one for our family (which isn’t dire, but is annoying). I have learned that I deeply enjoy not sharing with the kids and am eager to have my own bathroom back again soon (hopefully).

LBB’s room; painted & with flooring!

the hall bath – done!

PG putting together his desk

wall separating the living room and kitchen

sheetrock gone!

hello, open floorplan!

The kids both have desks in their room, which means computers and schoolwork now have a permanent place to live. They’ve also been able to pull most of their personal things from storage. There wasn’t a lot left that was salvageable, but they’re super glad to have back what they do. I can’t say enough about how much of a relief it is to finally have their spaces done, at least. We also had AC people come in and install central air conditioning and heating. That’s a super-nice thing that we have been planning to do for a while; with the forced remodel, since we’re taking out the ceilings in most of the house anyway, this was the ideal time to get that done. Since we have started on the center part of the house (including taking out a wall between the living room and kitchen), my desk and Loverly Husband’s have been relocated to our (already cramped) bedroom. It’s… cozy.  Not having a permanent work-space is really hard, y’all, but we’re getting there! The kids have been a big help, being super tall and all.

It helps that they’re both over 6′ tall.

Early in February, we didn’t do much other than the usual school/co-op/music routine, with a couple of teen socials and other usual shenanigans thrown in for good measure.

Music Class at co-op

Teen Social

Moms at the teen social

LBB and our puppers, Max & Honey

Our group held a Valentine’s Day party, which was fun. We had a really good day, only to have it ruined by news of the Florida school shooting. I can’t imagine how those parents must feel, or how the teachers and students will find a new ‘normal’ after something like that. Not for the first time, it made me incredibly grateful to have circumstances that allow us to homeschool. The party was fun, though only one of my hooligans decided to attend. The little kids made string art crafts; my surly teenager mostly got reprimanded for instigating semi-dangerous tricks (like jumping off picnic tables) for the littles to imitate. There was food and cake and a card-exchange – the usual.

card exchange

just (some of) the moms!

The Houston Aquarium held their homeschool day sometime back in late February, I think. We’ve been before, but it’s been a while; I got lost driving around downtown Houston. You’d think that in an age where GPS is available literally everywhere, getting lost would be a thing of the past, but it was overcast that day and my GPS kept blanking out. We made it barely in time to get registered, but we made it. The kids had classes in the morning and afternoon, and while they were in class, the parents got to do all the rides and stuff!

In other news, we had dinner with my grandmother, who came down from Longview. We haven’t had a family picture in a while, so that was nice.

The children (minus one of ours, and plus a friend)

In March, a couple of the moms in our homeschool group and I took off for a weekend trip to New Orleans. I’d never been as an adult, so getting to do #allthegrownupthings was super fun!. We got there just in time for our walking ghost tour to begin, had a late dinner, then walked down Bourbon Street, stopped at a couple of pubs along the way, and went for coffee and beignets at 3Am at Cafe Du Monde. We spent the next day shopping and sight-seeing, then came home. It was a perfect getaway!

Headed to NOLA

Walking Ghost Tour

Shopping!

When we got back from NOLA, my dad went into the hospital to have another stent placed, so we spent some time with him there. The kids both also had checkups; we’ll need to do glasses soon as well.

 

 

One of the moms in our homeschool group organized a tour of the Houston Port, which was super cool. It took about 2 hours, and we got to go on a cruise boat all around the port. It was like driving through a maze to find; the GPS was spotty and confusing, but once we got there, the dock and visitor’s area was really neat. There was an entire section with tiled mural art, as well as bathrooms, picnic tables and a great view.

It was also Pi Day; March 14th. The Houston Children’s Museum hosts a special event, including a Pi-throwing contest with shaving cream pies, so after our boat tour, we made our way there in time to get suited up. our kids were on Team Kickin’ Kiwi, I think it was. They were in green, against the Rockin’ Raspberries in pink. Our team was, sadly, not victorious, but we all got actual pie (donated by a local bakery) anyway. Nothing is so bad that pie can’t help!

We took the kids to the South Texas State Fair, as usual for spring in our area. We went on a Monday evening to avoid the crowds; without little kids, our main goal is to sample as many foods ‘on a stick’ and/or deep-fried as possible. I think we made a pretty good effort this year. I snapped this because I kept getting caught behind the boys; it’s unreal that my ‘babies’ are the size of full-grown, adult men now. That’s Loverly Husband in the center; I wouldn’t normally say that he’s ‘short’, but they make him appear so.

At the end of March, our homeschool group hosted a make-your-own puppet/write your own play Puppet Show. We had a great turn out, and the kids really had some… interesting scripts. Puppets came to life in sock form, with paper bags, wooden/plastic spoons and all kinds of fabrics, plastic bits and bobs, glitter and other craft supplies. They each had to create a backdrop from a roll of craft paper, and come up with their own script. It was an ambitious undertaking, but the kids rose to the challenge and had a great time!

Line ’em up!

The Teen Troupe

the Puppet Theater

My birthday is at the beginning of April, and this year, after trying for the past 3 years, I was able to go to a women’s retreat in North/Central Texas. A couple of my beautiful friends also had birthdays the same week, so we celebrated in high style (and by that, I mean in complete, unwashed camping glory for the entire weekend). We had SUCH a great time! There were structured events, as well as time to just good off; we meant to take a little walk and ended up on a 3 hour hike much, much farther than we planned or realized. We ended up snagging a ride from a couple of girls in a pickup truck to get back where we were supposed to be. It was a really fun weekend.

That same weekend was the Homeschool Prom. LBB elected to spend the weekend at home with his dad while PG stayed with friends so he could go. They had a pre-prom party, and then took off for a night of dancing and fun at a local hotel in the grand ballroom. They looked great, and all the smiles say that they had fun. The theme was old Hollywood glam, and yes, that’s my kiddo with the pipe. There’s a walking stick somewhere as well. He found one of my dad’s canes that was damaged in Harvey and spent the week or so before the prom sanding, repairing, staining and finishing it for a dignified, refined, gentleman-about-town look.

The ‘official’ at-the-Prom photo

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for a guided tour of the Hall of Ancient Egypt. We haven’t been since they opened this permanent exhibition, so I was completely stoked to get to go through with a curator. We also got to tour the Weiss Energy Hall (which is mostly just a fancy way to repackage fracking as a fun, alternative way to drill for oil since it covers all the pros and absolutely none of the dangers or controversy), and the Message in a Bottle exhibit, which was super fascinating.

 

Our co-op is still doing drama; they’ve taken a break from the play they’re working on to do some improv exercises. Last week, it was live-action puppets; one student was the ‘voice’ and the other stood behind the voice to create movement. Some height incompatibilities made it a super fun (and funny) thing to watch them work through. We also switched (temporarily) from our essay class to philosophy 101, which was a nice change of pace.

Philosophy 101

Our homeschool group hosts a Mom’s Night Out once a month or so, and lately, we’ve been joining a local resource group called Welcome Earthside for their Hoops & Wine MNO events. I can’t hula hoop well, but it’s fun anyway! We’ve had a couple of them so far, and it seems to be gaining popularity. If you can find something like that in your area, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

March Hoops & Wine

April Hoops & Wine

April H&W – we ended up in the parking lot!

We’ve also continued playing D&D; sometimes the same game we started way back a couple of years ago, and just recently, a one-off game to introduce a few newbies to the game. I’ve also been playing D&D with my local NaNoWriMo group (when I can go), and have started playing Vampire with some friends. PG also has a new game with some of his friends… I have always been fascinated by the concept of D&D and have enjoyed learning to play very much!

That pretty much brings you up to speed! Hope your spring is…. spring-y! (Sorry; that was lame. It’s been a long day.)

 

Warmly,
~h

Post Harvey: Back to School, Take II

Well, we’re trying this whole ‘back to school’ thing again. Post hurricane Harvey, it’s been difficult to get into a good routine. Not having the basics will do that; even now (towards the end of the month), we’re still working in notebooks without a desk or table, and lacking most of our ‘normal’ homeschooly things. But, as the infamous and fabulous Tim Gunn admonishes, we’re making it work.

The first week of January was a total scratch. Loverly Husband was off work, so our initial plans to ‘back to school’ the first week got thrown out (save co-op, which actually did start back up the first week) in favor of working on our house. We never get much schoolwork done when he’s home anyway, and with so much still left to do on the house, I imagine a lot of ‘in favor of working on the house’ options will be exercised until we get it back into working order.

Happily though, the beginning of week 2 put up back in business. I spent Sunday the 7th getting my computer set up (finally – my REAL computer!!), and printer – only to realize that the printer went kaput somewhere along the way. Realistically, printers aren’t once-in-a-lifetime purchases anymore; I know this. We bought our current printer, perhaps, 2 years ago, and these days that’s about all the life the average printer seems to have in it. So on the one hand, it was probably about time for it to die and be replaced. On the other hand, REALLY?! Are you KIDDING me? What’s one more matchstick on the ever-growing bonfire that is my life, I guess. In any case, we did start school the second week of January (even without a new printer, which arrived on Wednesday).

TH THINK High School Co-op – January 6, 2018 (resuming after Hurricane Harvey)

TH THINK High School Co-op Moms!

I also got to spend some time towards the end of the week with my oldest friends. We’ve literally known each other since the cradle – I’m the youngest, so we’ve been friends for over 40 years now. Though we’ve all kind of gone off on our own paths, it’s a lovely feeling to be able to reconnect and spend time together with people who’ve known you all your life!

My oldest friends – since we were babies!

Our homeschool group tries to plan regular Teen Social events, and Mom’s Night Out events each month. This time, they happened to coincide; we dropped the kids off at a local trampoline park for their kids’ night, and the moms in our group met for dinner. We had a great time!

Our homeschool group’s Mom’s Night Out (while the teens and ‘tweens were having a teen social at the trampoline park)

Car selfie on the way to orchestra practice!

Back to school – Week 2 of 2018 and back to the grind (even though our house is still not finished – life goes on)

D&D – ongoing for almost 2 years now!

I’m honestly torn between taking it easy right now and cracking the whip. On one hand, we’ve missed quite a bit of school this past year. Between my mom dying right at the beginning of the year, her funeral and grieving her loss, we missed several weeks (which we’d mostly made up by the end of the summer), and then hurricane Harvey’s shenanigans, which has put us *months* behind… I just am not sure what the best thing to do is. We’re kind of taking it down the middle; neither light nor intense – just ‘normal’, I suppose.

Oddly enough, I pulled several resources that focus on a unity-study/literature-based approach (which has always been my favorite way to homeschool), and it seems to be working well and covering all the based (with additional math, science and history). We’d gotten away from a CM-style method as the kids got older because I was working more and needed them to be more independently capable. This requires more reading, which we enjoy doing together, so it’s been a lot of gathering on Mom’s bed to read, which is a nice throwback to several years ago.

 

Week 3 threw another wrench in our plans. I swear… lately it seems like every time I start to get a handle on things, something goes catastrophically wrong. Loverly Husband was unexpectedly off again, so not much got accomplished other than music practice & co-op. Truthfully, it wasn’t unexpected on his part; only mine. I had not gotten the updated version of his work schedule, so my planning had not taken that into consideration. It worked out though (as it also always seems to).  The weather was crazy cold – freezing temperatures most of the week, and our second snowfall in one year – unbelievable for Texas! I also ended up getting sick, so it all kinda worked out for the best since most of my week was spent in a feverish sleep. We (and by ‘we’, I mean my Loverly Husband) were able to make progress on the house; the tile in the hall bathroom got grouted and he finished the flooring in the hall and kids’ rooms.

Toward the end of the week, we met with Home Depot to do our kitchen consultation… it was a great experience, but I had no idea that we would be looking at a months-long process. Le sigh. Nothing with our house has happened quickly or easily, and that is so wearing and stressful.

Actual snow! There was more than this, but I was sick and didn’t get pictures.

sneaky selfie at Home Depot

Week 4 was a little more ‘back to normal. We resumed school and co-op (which we cancelled the week before due to my illness and the weather). Our homeschool group’s big park day met mid-week. We had quite a few new people, which is always good. It will be interesting to see how many of them stick around. We always have interest on park days, but that doesn’t always translate to growth in the group. But hopefully some of the newbies will stick around. After park day, we had lunch with some friends, then went to the craft store. I picked up a presentation white board on clearance since I don’t have access to my chalkboards at home. It’s hard to homeschool when you’re used to having things that you suddenly don’t have anymore. It’s a learning experience for me, for sure. I realize how spoiled I am (and grateful) as a homeschooling parent.

Lunch after Park Day

Co-op was great; we had 2 new students join, and the moms worked on art projects! We’re all kind of doing the ‘Wreck This Journal’ thing, and we played with the paint pouring technique on small canvases while the kids were working on their lessons.

paint pouring at co-op (moms having fun!!)

Kids working hard at co-op

Solitary workers… working together! LOL

Wreck This Journal

running errands – my kids are weird

That brings us to this week… we’re definitely back to the grind; staying home most of the week and playing catch-up. All in all, now that we’re in the last few days, it seems like this month has flown by. But the whole month feels like it was just dragging by every day. Weird how time can pass both slowly and quickly at the same time!

Today is January 29th; the one year anniversary of my mom’s death. It’s been a really long, hard year. This was one of our first, and our last family portraits. I miss her.

How’s your 2018 going?
Warmly,
~h

Eight Years of Homeschooling

Facebook has this feature whereby it will suggest that you share a ‘memory’; a post or status update that you’d shared previously. Occasionally that’s a knife to the heart if they suggest something you’d rather not relive, but sometimes, the suggested posts are a reminder or evoke a sense of wonder at how far you’ve come.

That was the case this morning, when I got this suggestion:

It’s particularly relevant at this point in my life, because I remember scurrying around to get everything set up so we could start homeschooling. My kids’ last day at school was spent rushing to get their desks set up, doing the final once-over to make sure we were ready with curriculum… and trying to make their last day at school special in some way. That mirrors what’s going on in our life right now, as we’re still mid-transition in the recovery process from hurricane Harvey’s flooding. Our house is getting there, but still not finished, which means that our schooling spaces are not anywhere near as polished as they were when we began this journey. Just because our house (life?!) is in chaos doesn’t mean that school can be on indefinite hold though. So I spent most of last week doing the same thing I did in the beginning – scurrying around trying to make sure I had everything we needed handy. I’m still missing a 3-hole punch. Go figure.

I actually had to take some of my own advice as far as what was strictly ‘needed’ (and I maintain that this is sound advice): a good printer, an electric pencil sharpener, a heavy-duty stapler, and a really nice coffee pot. (That last one started out as an indulgence for Mom, but has slowly warped into a necessary part of everyone’s day).  We’ve moved away from some of the recommended items, so I feel like it’s time to update that list a bit (or at least edit).

Where once I recommended a laser printer (and cheap toner), we’ve since gone back to an inkjet. I’ll be honest: it’s mainly because of the cost of ink/toner. It seems like they flip-flop every few years as to which one is less costly. As I mentioned previously, I print quite a lot, so whatever we have needs to be the most cost effective option. We just bought our second Canon Pixma MX922 with this refill ink from Blake Printing Supply from Amazon and I’m pretty happy with their product. The only advantage of a laser over inkjet is that laser toner doesn’t get ruined with water; inkjet ink runs. That’s not really a problem in most instances, but I craft/art journal and sometimes tea or coffee-stain pages I’ve printed. I can print first, then stain with laser printing; with the inkjet, I have to stain the paper first, then run it through the printer (which can create issues if there is coffee or tea dust on the pages, but I haven’t run into this problem). I also bought a cheap stapler since my Swingline bad boy is in storage – I cannot wait to have my office set up again so I can have my ‘real’ things back (at least; the things that didn’t get ruined in the flood).

The electric pencil sharpener though, I stand by. I recommended the Westcott iPoint Kleenearth Evolution Recycled Electric Pencil Sharpener in 2012 (after a year of use) and I was still using that same pencil sharpener in August 2017 when it got ruined by the flood. I replaced it with the Xacto Vortex 1730 (because that’s the only corded one that was in stock when I went to Office Depot). It remains to be seen if it will hold up as well as the iPoint, but so far, I’m pretty happy with it. It sharpens faster and doesn’t get as bogged down as the iPoint, so we’ll see how it holds up.

Planner-wise, I am using a bullet-style journal/planner this year. For a little while, at least. I’ve been printing and a ‘Bossy Book’ of my own design for years, but since I lost access to my computer after Harvey, and didn’t have access until well into January, I wasn’t able to plan or print my book for this year. I may still print one later, but for now I am enjoying having ‘something different’. I am still planning out the week, and using our ‘Work This Week’ page that I print for myself and the kids each week.

This is a light week (obviously), but you get the idea.

I am leaving a lot of flexibility in the kids’ school schedule right now, because we have so much going on at the house; they need to be able to work or go help with something. I figure that some school is better than none right now, and there’s always time to make it up over the course of the rest of the year. Despite 2017’s many wrenches, we’re not as far off schedule as I’d initially feared; we should be back on-target before the 2018-2019 school year begins, even with a light schedule right now.

Otherwise, favorite schooling things come and go, but those are pretty much my go-to minimums. You can safely add a good, sturdy 3-hole punch to this list, as well. We’re slowly replacing other things we’ve loved and lost. It’s slow-going, but we’re getting there.

Anniversary and birthday posts tend to require some sort of re-cap, or ‘what have we learned’ type of reminiscing, so here’s my .02:

1.  invest in time spent with your kids – book learnin’ is great and all, and necessary to some degree (IMO), but when it comes to what counts, building your family up has to be a priority, otherwise, what’s the point? Among all of the families I know, whether it started out as their priority or not, a side effect of long-term homeschooling is the connection you build, and maintain, with your kids.
2. invest in your community – I say this from a position of being burned out and taking a step back from almost all commitments that are outside of my house. It has a lot to do with hurricane aftermath, but the burnout was strong before that, too. In every community, there are ‘doers’ and there are ‘takers’. I don’t mean that to be insulting to people who are introverts, or shy or have social anxiety; all I mean is that they take advantage of what’s offered, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The ‘doers’ tend to take the lead, plan things, organize things, make things happen. That’s a good thing; it’s very likely in their nature to do so and they enjoy it the vast majority of the time. But if your ‘doers’ are asking for help, and you tend to be a ‘taker’, then please, honestly evaluate your contributions and step up and take some of the burden off of them. If you want your homeschooling community to thrive, then you HAVE to contribute; you just have to. Otherwise, your doers will get burned out and stop doing all the things and you’ll have nothing to take from. If you’re in a position where you absolutely can’t help, then be a good taker – rsvp when asked to; show up on time; have your necessary supplies; be communicative. There’s nothing worse than organizing a thing and having every last person flake out at the last minute with absolutely no warning or communication. I cannot tell you how many times my kids and I have sat waiting on people who never showed up and didn’t let us know they weren’t coming. Don’t be that guy! That said, ‘doers’ tend to make the world go round, and I am fortunate to have several capable ‘doers’ and equally awesome ‘takers’ in my homeschool group. As I’ve stepped back, others have filled the gap, and it’s lovely to be part of a consistently thriving community.
3. Be flexible – Dude… life happens. Whatever plans you make, there’s a 50/50 chance that something will happen that will disrupt them. don’t get bent out of shape about it; just flex a little and go with the flow. To illustrate this point (perhaps unnecessarily, but absolutely accurately), the picture above has had not one but TWO major changes to the curriculum since I started working on this post on 1/14. And, thanks to Loverly Husband’s unexpected week off and my getting sick for that same week, the monthly schedule in my planner has also changed. C’est la vie!
4. Learn to say NO – it’s easy to over-extend yourself when you’re homeschooling. People think that just because you’re ‘home’ that equates to time they can impose upon. Side-note: They can’t, and it’s okay to tell them that. Additionally, without a regular ‘out of the house’ school schedule to follow, sometimes social engagements or extra-curriculars can start poaching on your school hours! I know ‘socialization’ is a big deal in the homeschool world, but for us (and most of the families in our group), it’s more an issue to having too many opportunities to socialize than too few. Being ready and willing to say no when you need to (or want to) is sanity-saving. This also applies to getting caught up in ‘my homeschooler is better than your homeschooler’ type of mommy conversations where everything seems to be a competition. Man… there ain’t enough time in the world, or any student accomplishment so grand that will satisfactorily shut these types up. Unless maybe your kid won a Nobel Prize or something, but even then, I bet they’d just change the topic to something their kid excels in. Just avoid them entirely by saying NO. Furthermore, it also applies to well-intentioned (at best) and nosey homeschool-doubters (at worst) who want to quiz your kids every time they see them. Put those people on the Nope Train with the One-Upers and enjoy your newly discovered peace and quiet.
5. Try to say YES more – Having said the thing about ‘no’, the opposite is true as well. When opportunity knocks, don’t be so schedule-bound that you can’t take advantage of it! Try new things – co-ops, classes, sports, field trips, travel… give your kids (and yourself) the gift of freedom; take advantage of any and everything that you can. Living life to the fullest is often just as great a teacher as 3 hours behind a desk. Don’t lock yourself into thinking that only ‘formal’ or semi-formal learning is the only way. Lots of kids learn best in a group environment, and group learning can be a fun and valuable addition to your regularly scheduled solitary or family-based book work.
6. If you’re just starting out, de-school for a bit before committing to anything. We jumped right from school-school to homeschool, and even though we did a ‘light’ version, I wish we’d taken time between the two. All in all, it wasn’t a bad transition for my kids though. Just in hindsight, I’d have done it differently. My kids were young though, so it may not have made much of a difference. For teens though, I’d definitely recommend de-schooling before jumping in. Join a group, meet some people, do some activities… it’s a culture shock for them; give them time to get their feet wet before making a bunch of expectations and requirements.
7. In the early years, take your time – there’s no rush. Our first year, we only did the basics; 2 R’s, really, plus other crafty stuff. I added in other foundation subjects like history and science in our second year, and still more in the third year and as we went on. There’s plenty of time when you’re homeschooling. Not all kids are bookworms or geniuses, and not all kids are going to be homeschool prodigies; there’s no need to rush them through everything so they can be the ‘best’. It’s totally okay if your kids are just normal kids. Mine are, and they’re still spectacular.
8. When you (the parent) get burned out, take a break. You will get burned out, trust me. Homeschooling is awesome, but it’s also hella demanding, and takes a lot of time on your part to be successful. When you need a break, it’s totally okay to enroll your kids in an online school, or hire a tutor or otherwise outsource their education for a few months (or years, even). There are some very reputable online schools that do it all… don’t be afraid of giving them a try if you need to be less responsible for a while (or at all). Better yet, plan your year with dedicated breaks so that you can rest as well. But if you plan on homeschooling for several years, know that burnout is real and try to stay ahead of it. It’s easier to take breaks as you need them than it is to power through and end up needing an unplanned  significant rest because you over did it!

Eight years, eight lessons learned; eight bits of homeschool-y advice… seems right, so I’ll end that there. Feel free to chime in with your lessons learned in the comments; I’d love to know what your important bits are!

Looking back, as a newbie homeschooling mom, I was way more eager than I was knowledgeable. I was pretty honest and up front about that in the beginning; my blog served as a place to archive our journey – mostly for my kids. I still keep things updated mostly so they’ll be able to look back and see the kinds of things we did; places we went, memories we created together. I used to scrapbook, but time and Hurricane Harvey took care of that, so I’m glad I transitioned to online documenting. Blog format is just because I enjoy writing. But that blind enthusiasm is what it takes sometimes – just an absolute willingness to jump in with both feet and make it happen. Most of the best things I’ve accomplished in my life have come about because of exactly that kind of determined passion for a thing. If you’re just starting out, don’t let a lack of knowing what you’re doing stop you. Connect with other homeschooling parents, read, research and work with your kids along the way; you’ll figure the rest out as you go.

We have done some truly awesome things over the years – maybe not so much in terms of individual events, but certainly in terms of the cumulative value. Field trips are totally my jam; there are long stretches of time where we literally went on a field trip of some sort every single week. Camping trips, behind the scenes access, travel, exotic animals (outside of a zoo)… it’s been a great time. That’s the kind of thing I hope my kids remember. Now that they’re older, we do less educationally aligned field tripping and more socialization with their friends (per their request), and the trips are more future-oriented than ‘discover the world’ in focus, but with no less enthusiasm. I am so grateful that we’ve had circumstances that allowed for, and intentionally worked to create and sustain, this kind of life for our kids and family. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has absolutely been worth it.

Both of my kids are in high school now; officially, there are only 3 more school years left in my journey. That’s absolutely crazy to write and read and think about… my oldest is 16 now, and will be starting his junior year of high school this fall. I don’t even understand how that’s possible, but it is, nonetheless true. Having a definite deadline makes me realize how much we have left to do, and how little time there is to accomplish it all. But whatever happens, I’ll very likely still be writing about it. So, here’s to another few years!

Mmmm… coffee ❤

Thanks for reading along!
Warmly,
~h

Post Harvey: End of the Year Update

Well, 2017 has pretty much been a trash fire. I am sincerely hoping that 2018 has better things in store! It’s been a while since I updated, but since this is primarily a homeschooling blog and we have been out of school over the past couple of months, there hasn’t really been much to report in that vein. That’s not to say we’ve been idle; in fact, I have been feeling rather ‘stuck’ on house progress lately, but looking back over my last post made me feel much better because I can see the progress we’ve managed to accomplish.

Rebuilding is slow going, but I suppose that’s to be expected when it’s all DIY. We’re fortunate, I realize, in that we actually are able to do most of the repair work ourselves. That cuts down on cost, but learning as you go isn’t exactly ideal. We’re going to contract out a couple of jobs, but most of it has been/is going to be a family effort, with the help of a couple of extended family members and friends here and there. So far, our biggest hold-ups have been waiting for supplies that we’ve ordered to come in or be delivered, and Loverly Husband’s work schedule. We waited for several weeks for the vanity and sink for the hallway bathroom to come in; apparently a plain, white, 2-drawer, open-top cabinet with 2 doors is a ‘specialty item’, as is the very plain white sink that goes into it. It did eventually (finally) arrive, and has now been installed. We were waiting on that so we could add the tile and finish the walls. We’ve added the main part of the tile; now we’re waiting on the deco tile to come in. Our flooring has been delivered though, so I feel like once the deco tile is in, we’ll make quite a bit of progress rather quickly. The kids have both painted their rooms; this week will be a second coat of paint, finishing the texture in the bathroom and doing the ceilings in the hall and bath, and painting the kids’ ceilings. Here are a few progress pics:

hallway painted

PeaGreen painting his room

the boys in the kitchen

LBB’s room & Max

looking across the living room

tile & flooring!

One downside to not updating weekly is that it’s hard to know what order to post things in to catch up. This week is Christmas, so that’s what’s mostly on my mind right now; documenting for the kids. Our homeschool group had its annual Christmas party earlier in December, and PeaGreen elected to wear footie pajamas instead of actual clothes, which was fun. We had a good time and met a few new people. Hopefully our group will continue to grow and prosper this year. Our teen group is still really strong, and there are a couple of kids who’ve aged up into the ‘tween’ group this past year as well, so we’ll have some fresh ideas and interests to fuel the group.

At home, we did minimal decorating this year since we’re in the middle of construction, but we did find a lovely little tinsel tree that is quite festive. We were fortunate that our Christmas decor boxes weren’t damaged in the flood, so next year we should be back to normal. I’m really glad we didn’t lose all of the kids’ hand-made ornaments from school and other crafting! I’ll miss seeing them this season, but next year, we’re planning on getting a real tree again and things will be back to normal.

We actually had a snow day this year! The last one was in 2008, I think. It didn’t last long; only a few hours, but PeaGreen and I got to catch snowflakes on our tongues, so it totally counts! Our family ornament this year is a quad of gold and glitter elves. I haven’t done personal ornaments yet, but that will likely happen this week. Every year I do a themed ‘family’ ornament, and a personal ornament for each of us. One day, the plan is to gift the kids their ornaments for their own trees, along with a ‘story of our ornaments’ booklet that I’ve been keeping for them.

LBB’s fire

new wreath

Christmas prezzies!

Christmas prezzies!

snow day!!

PG’s party outfit & our tinsel tree

Party day!

2017 family ornaments

Backing up a bit, we spent Thanksgiving with Loverly Husband’s family as well. The matriarch of the family died in May of 2016, so it’s been a strange thing to figure out where to host holiday family stuff, but I think they figured it out. Loverly Husband’s uncle has a great place, and all of the kids love going there.

Like most hardcore fans, we saw Star Wars with my dad. It was good! I liked it, but I won’t bore you with a review. There are some glaring issues that I feel like they exploit ‘because it’s Star Wars’, but overall, I was pleased.

In other news, we finally got our dryer in (so no more laundromat trips – yay!!), and took a ton of car selfies, as usual.

Star Wars selfie with Gramps!

We are slowly getting back into the groove, homeschool wise. It’s been nice talking to the other moms more; now that the kids are older they don’t need to be entertained/supervised quite as much, and I am really enjoying getting to know them better. We had a homeschool group teen social at the coffee shop, and one of our moms, Michelle’s, birthday dinner out was really fun.

TH Moms of teens

teen social selfie

Michelle’s birthday!

Since we haven’t been having lessons, the kids have totally taken advantage of being free-range. PeaGreen and his friend Jack have been scavenging the neighborhood for lumber in the trash piles and found enough to build a decent-sized tree house at my dad’s. They’ve made quite a bit of progress since this picture; I think it has walls and a roof now. They’re pretty proud of it.

One thing I didn’t think about was that I normally create my new planner in November and have it printed in December so that I can spend our month off filling everything in and planning for the new year. Since the flood, I don’t have my computer (I’m using one a friend gave to us) so I don’t have access to some of the software and files I would normally use. So I decided to give a bullet journal/traveler’s notebook/midori style planner a try.  I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I am still undecided as to how I feel about it. Pros and cons for sure, and it’s working for now. I have a space created in it to plan school, but we haven’t started back yet so I don’t know how it’s going to work, but I am going to stick with it for a while longer and see how it works for me.

My planner is definitely one of my self-care tools, so not having it (and having to make adjustments) is a challenge. Fortunately, I have others as well! My friend (and self-care guru) Leia issued a ‘legs up the wall’ challenge for the holidays. Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose (Viparita Karani) is a restorative yoga staple, and doing it every day (or nearly so) has been a great way to stop and breathe and relax for a moment. New hair and Black Friday makeup purchases help, too.

holiday art

self care

new hair

 

… and to wrap this post up, here’s our Christmas card, complete with pictures from today (Christmas day, 2017) this year.

Happy Holidays!

Warmly,
~h

Post Harvey: More Home, Less School

So… remember this paragraph from my last post?:

“I say ‘ideal’ because we are still displaced from Harvey, and  keeping any kind of regular schedule is… difficult, at best. At this point, if we manage to get *any* schooling done, I am counting it as a success. We are eight weeks out, and I literally have no idea when our lives will return even to a glimpse of ‘normal’. But we’re working on establishing whatever good habits, school-wise, we can, and music practice is a big part of that.”

Little did I realize at the time I wrote those lines how much of a prophet I was. We are now eleven weeks out from Hurricane Harvey, and in just 3 weeks, I can’t even begin to tell you how far from ‘normal’ things feel right now. The last few weeks have been one of those times in your life where, for every good thing that happens, something equally bad happens. I don’t know how to feel – good? bad? meh? Mostly meh, I think.

We moved back into our house (such as it is) on October 29th. That was a very long day, filled with moving and cleaning and last minute sheetrock-hanging (in the bedrooms) and setting up of temporary bedding. When I say ‘such as it is’, I mean we have sheetrock in the bedrooms and one bathroom, and that’s pretty much it. No float and tape, no paint, no trim – just sheetrock. And there bare studs in the entire rest of the house – the only reason we put up the bedroom sheetrock was to give everyone a little bit of privacy. The first few days, we didn’t have internet, and since we had a cold snap we had to go buy heaters. We did get Mac the Wonder Dog back from the friends who’ve been keeping him while we were displaced right before Halloween, then the weather changed, and it was so hot and humid that we also had to go buy air conditioners. Texas, y’all.

pizza at home… with no walls.

Being back in our own space, however sparse and utilitarian it is at the moment, has a feel. I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s more relaxed (even though living in an unfinished space (no doors/no walls) is arguably more stressful) or something… it’s very hard to put into words. We’ve since established internet, we’ve hung doors to the bedrooms and sheetrock in the hallway and living room, and pulled the ceiling out of the hallway and hall bathroom and re-sheetrocked everything except the kitchen. We got doorknobs earlier this week, and that was a big celebratory moment. It’s slow-going, but we’re getting there.

doorknob shopping!

School, on the other hand, has had to go onto the back burner for now. We’ve put co-op on hold, and even music lessons and orchestra are on shelved for the moment. It’s exceedingly difficult to do lessons without computer access for the kids. I didn’t realize how much of their work was being done on the computer. What isn’t online is printer-based and not having my printer set up (or a space to put it in) makes that very difficult to accomplish. At this point, we are about 4 weeks behind schedule; we’ll be about 5 weeks at the end of this week. I’ve written before about there not truly being a ‘schedule’ that homeschooling needs to happen on, and been encouraged/supported by long-time homeschooling friends who’ve dealt with similar setbacks that have reminded me of this fact. But we started the year off-schedule due to my mom’s illness and death, and just as we were getting caught back up, Harvey hit. So even though there isn’t really a schedule, there is definitely a place where I feel like we ‘should be’ that we aren’t. That’s stressful no matter how you slice it. Especially with the kids both being in high school this year, there is only a limited time that we have to accomplish high school lessons; I don’t like starting out in such a  deficit.

That said, we do have a workable plan to catch up, if not exactly where we should be, then close to. We normally take all of December off from lessons; this year that won’t be in the cards. Using that time to play catch-up will get us close to where we should be. In the mean time, I am trying my hardest to be zen-mama and let the kids do their own thing while we get what work we can accomplished on the house. I’d like to say that we’ve been filling our time with other fun and/or educational-type activities, but the truth is that it’s a lot of ‘go-fer’-ing, grunt work and wait-and-see. I’ve spent more hours than I care to count wither online comparing, on the phone with or in the store shopping or waiting in line at Home Depot, and picking up tools and other materials from Ace Hardware. We had a door issue with Home Depot that took 3 weeks, 4 deliveries and one instance of getting shirty on the phone with customer service before we got it resolved. Like I said; we are making progress, it’s just SO. SLOW.

sheetrock in the living room! And the ever-dwindling pile of sheetrock in the living room waiting to go on the walls and ceiling.

hallway ceiling torn out (now insulated, sheetrocked and taped and mudded)

hallway bathroom mid-demo (now all sheetrocked and mudded). We have a vent fan in there now! Yay!!

In between the chaos of fixing our house, we’ve tried to do some fun stuff without feeling too guilty for taking time off construction duty. Halloween came and went; I was disappointed because that’s normally my favorite time of the year, but all of my Halloween stuff got ruined so I am going to have to wait until next season to start replacing things. It didn’t ‘feel’ like Halloween because I had no decor. Luckily my Christmas boxes survived in tact, so Christmas should be merry and bright. PeaGreen and his friend started a thing – they are now called Boris and Anatoly (with LBB stepping in as Dimitri on occasion). They all think it’s cleaver and fun and hilarious. I don’t get it. But whatevs.

Halloween 2017

We did make our annual trip out to the Texas Renaissance Festival last week. It was such a great day! I had a horrible time last year so I was really not looking forward to going this year, but it ended up being the perfect weather, and we had a small group of our homeschool friends with us, so it turned out to be just a really fun day.

TX Ren Fest 2017

We also took a full-day family break and brought the kids to see Thor Ragnarok. It was a little campy for my tastes, but still fun. Dinner afterwards was a riot; these two are pretty funny when they’re getting along (rare these days).

That’s pretty much it for now. The next few weeks will be full of more of the same, and hopefully we will get to a place where we can start back on lessons in full very soon.

Warmly,
~h