So, We Decided To...

First things first:  there are some basic rules in life.  They include "do not drink caffeine at 10pm unless you want to be up at 1:40 in the morning."  I did not want to be up at 1:40 in the morning, but since I did want to finish some work due tomorrow morning (wait, THIS morning), and I was falling asleep at my computer with an hour left of work to do, 10 pm caffeine it was.

Which leaves me left in these in between days hours that suck up time into the wasteland of pointlessness.  Use my valuable time to finish the pile of dishes that didn't fit into the dishwasher's first round.  Hell, no.  Not at 1 am.  Finish thank you cards, clean up the boys' toys, pack for the overseas trip around the corner?  No, no and no.  Let hours be sucked into the wasteland of internet pointlessness.  Yes!

Now that first things are covered, let's move on to my important announcement:

We decided to...

be those really crazy people who homeschool!  (Yes, people who use the word hell sacrilegiously are still allowed to homeschool.  Actually, I only just used the word hell because I spent the last hour reading Jen Hatmaker's absolutely hilarious blog posts like this one, and her irreverent use of speech seeped into my brain and is being spit back out as I type.)

I should rephrase that last statement:
We decided to attempt - for one year - to be those really crazy people who homeschool.

Why, you might ask?  Why did I decide to go partly insane and have both children at my side throughout the day without end?  Many, many reasons, but they require my trial year to be over before I go putting them out there just to be thrown back in my face when if I decide to call it quits after year one.  (We are three weeks into summer and I've already almost quit half a dozen times! not kidding.)

One thing I will say is that we are not, not, not homeschooling because we are afraid of something in the school systems.  Shoot, that's not true.  The school around the block from us cancelled kindergarten's playing of tag at recess because it was too sexual, so yes, I guess I was afraid of my son in that scenario.  What I mean is that we are not afraid of "culture."  I'm not afraid my son will be taught that some families have two mommies.  Some families do have two mommies.  At some point he does need to know this and know how to respond respectfully! I am not afraid he will be taught the world evolved.  I don't believe this conflicts with the existence of God and it doesn't scare me to have my son be forced to think. I could go on, but I probably shouldn't have gotten started on a rant here...

Aren't I worried my kids will have serious social problems?  Exactly what I was thinking!!  In fact, when the option came up I emailed my very first concern to a well respected home schooling mom.  "what if they can't navigate the world socially?!" I asked.  She basically told me - at least, what I took from it - is that there are more important things to worry about in life than how socially cool my kids become.  True, true.
Beyond that, there are plenty of people who went through public schools that have social problems, potentially myself included.  And sometimes those social problems developed in school years are much, much worse than not being quick witted enough in a social setting.  Plus the fact that there are so many homeschooling social opportunities around us I'm afraid we won't even have time to SCHOOL (which is the point of course), that no, I am not worried.

And why did I not tell you this in person? If you are a good enough friend that I should have told you this in person, you will just have to accept my cyber apology that 1.5 months into our decision I have yet to figure out how to keep homeschooling from being a conversation stopper.  I mean, my husband mentioned it to a co-worker who said "you're not going to let your wife do that, are you?!", to which my husband graciously responded that it was our decision that we made together (If he was awake at 2am now like I am I would make out with him all over again just on account of being so supportive of me with that one line!)  As you can see, it is not always received as the most normal of options.  I would much rather hide behind my computer screen so that when I see you again you can pretend I am still normal and I can pretend you aren't thinking "huh???"

I will also say, I happen to have quite the list of amazing mommas with amazing kids - both young and grown - who have done this homeschooling so well that they have dispelled the "huh???"  from my original thinking.

So...that's that.

I'm off to make another attempt to sleep with caffeine still in my blood.

p.s. one more thing - if you are a mom who would rather do anything than homeschool and know it is in no way for you, I highly recommend "Going Public."   It is an excellent book about how your kids can thrive in the public schools.  I do believe we both can make totally different decisions and still both be right.  I support you!

Camping Out

aka, how to have fun while spending none.
aka, our first summer weekend.

Since this week marked the last day of kindergarten (sob, sob), we were ready for some summer fun!

Goodbye kindergarten!

What started as plans for a spontaneous weekend away squeezed between two weeks of visitors turned sharply when money was tallied and housework to-be-done was assessed.  And when we realized possible rain made real camping too risky, not to mention an insane amount of work, we opted for:

backyard camping!

Yes, the building you are seeing is our neighbor's garage.  We decided to camp out in our own backyard.  Our very teeny tiny backyard, I should add.  In a city.  Where it's illegal to have a firepit.  Yep, that's where we camped.

Our tent is what, 5 feet from the back of our house?

We cooked dinner, smores, and breakfast on our outdoor grill.  We don't even own an outdoor table that seats more than two, but look what can be done with a little creativity and logs we've yet to take care of.  And if you look closely, you will see that while Daddy was setting up the tent, Nolan decided to paint his face and clothes with chalk.

Faux cookout

(By the way, the deep looking woods are not our backyard.  It ends right behind the boys, who are not too many feet away from the tent.)

Despite how pathetic this all sounds, the boys climbed into the tent after a very, very fun evening and declared this to be "the best!"  Who knew backyard camping held so much potential?  Plus camping with a nearby dishwasher, bathroom, and washing machine...the benefits are endless!

As an added bonus, we have a stocked pond within walking distance of our house, so we even added two trips to the pond on either end of our campout, to round out the camping experience:

N makes a catch!

Here's to more summer adventures!  My favorite season has officially arrived!