Blooming

In two weeks we'll take another break from homeschooling, this time so that the boys can go to summer camp(s).  In a perfect world they'd do all of their summer camps in August so we could stay on our 'three months on, one month off' homeschooling schedule, but over the years I've had to loosen up about that, so that the boys can do the camps they want to do (this year: Primo is going to one week of sleep-away Boy Scout camp, while Radish gets a week of Wayfinders role-playing day camp).  Later in the month they'll do two weeks at a local town Youth Department day camp, not our own town but a 'better' one nearby.  We'll start back to lesson in August, which means we'll have *four* months is a row 'on', before we take a break in December.

We've had some good days of homeschooling lately, and I've been trying to remind myself to slow down and pay attention, really appreciate what it feels like when things are going 'right'.  All too often I *expect* 'right' and ignore it when it happens, then pay a lot of attention to the times that everything seems to go 'wrong'-- anxiously fretting about whether we should be homeschooling at all.  On a good day of homeschooling, the big boys are cheerful and willing to do their work, they don't break down in frustration over how 'hard' the math is (or writing, or whatever they're least in the mood for that day).  They make connections between the different things they are learning that day, and between what they've learned in the past and the current work.  On a good day I am cheerful and clever, thinking of ways to help them through their work before they get frustrated.  On a good day Snorzy is able to amuse himself for a while during the big boys' lessons, using his toys and books without whining and without asking for too much extra attention, until it's time for his morning nap.

Snorzy is getting old enough that I'm starting to think it's time for him to have some 'lessons' each day, too.  When Primo was a baby I never had to think about it, I just naturally supported his learning by interacting with him over toys and books all day.  By the time Radish came along, I had to be more deliberate about it.  When he was a little guy, I scheduled some time into his day for 'working' on various skills (I was influenced by the books I read back then about Montessori and her methods).  Now Snorzy is a big boy of 15 months old and he seems a little at loose ends throughout his waking hours, and I'm so distracted by the older boys and my own activities that I can easily let a day pass without so much as reading him a book.  Luckily, I have plenty of ideas and resources for making his world richer in experiences, I just have to put myself on some kind of schedule like I did with baby Radish.  For today, we're going to do a modified version of the 'Age 1, Week 15' activity from June R. Oberlander's Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready.  The activity specifies making a simple play house out of a cardboard box, but lacking a big box I'm going to use a pop-up play tent that we've had since Primo was 4.  I'll have to keep myself alert to find a good time, after he gets up from his nap.

In other news, look how different my frenemy rose looks, since I let weeks pass between the last time I wrote on the blog, and now:



Here's the whole, bloomin' garden:



And here's a view of the backyard, which is looking better than it has in years:



My goal is to plan and plant the whole place, so that we have one little square of lawn in the middle of all deliberate plants and features.  Every year I talk Sweet Hubby into giving up a little more lawn, in favor of other things.  A few years ago it was the rose, lilac, and peach that you see in the left (back) of this photo.  This year it was the hostas below those three.  Next year I want to take my frenemy rose out of the garden patch and put it in that blank spot near the fence, rooted in our former compost pile.  Then I'll train it over an arched trellis, and put a metal bench in front of it.  I've always wanted a small water feature back there somewhere too, but I'm re-thinking that now.  Water attracts mosquitoes, and they're so bad this year, I'm worried that it's because our local bat population has suffered from white-nose-syndrome related dwindling in their numbers.  I'm worried about the bats.  And theoretically the bees too, but I'm not feeling their loss yet, the way I feel (itchy) without the bats.

Change the Conversation

"If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation."  I've been somewhat obsessively watching Mad Men lately, catching up on this series after Sweet Hubby and I took a loooong break from watching (we don't get the channel and have to wait for it to come along on Netflix).  I find myself lying awake at night, unable to sleep, thinking about what's going on with the characters and what could happen next.  I can't blame Mad Men for my insomnia, I'd be awake anyway-- I just think it's funny that after I go through the catalog of my own worries, I turn to those of the fictional characters I'm most involved with at the moment.  Today I was trying to express to a friend what I find so interesting and escapist about this series-- and I realized (aside from the costumes) it's the relationship of the women in the show to motherhood- or rather their complete lack of interest in their children.  Even the stay-at-home trophy wives in the show (with one exception) have very little to do with their kids, more interested in their clothes, husbands and affairs.  It's not that there are no women on the show, or no mothers, or even no children-- there just aren't mothers who build their lives around their children, even while they are new mothers and the children are adorable babies.

It's little wonder I find this fascinating after a day that starts with waking to the sound of Snorzy's voice in the other room, followed by homeschooling and getting the big guys to their activities all while chasing a very active toddler, through dinnertime and shuffling everyone off to bed-- there isn't a moment of my day that doesn't have to do with my children.  And I love it, in fact I love it too much-- I can't seem to wrap my head around doing anything else with my time even though I know I'll probably be mad at myself ten or twenty years from now if I don't go back to school or find a creative outlet or a career now while I'm young(ish).


I haven't been keeping up with this blog because I haven't been keeping up with my self-imposed craft challenge-- as we started our new school year and spring turned warm and wonderful, I just couldn't get excited about making things.  The temptation is to start a new blog, the way I used to start a new journal periodically as I felt I was moving into a new phase of my life (starting college, starting a career, starting a family).  I've learned though, that what works best for me is to just turn the page and start fresh from where I am, unapologetically.  When Primo was small I bought a colorful composition book at the grocery store and started a hybrid journal/scrapbook, over the years I've continued through five of these books (every time I'm afraid I'll run out of colors and have to repeat, I'll find a new one in the stationary aisle), which veer wildly in content as I go through phases of interests-- from fashion and makeup to garden plans and children's parties, preschool play time activites, literature, career planning, homeschooling and travel.  I never worry what it's 'about' or whether it fits-- it's just a brain dump, a window into what's going on in my cranium.  Never anything very serious, I'm not out to impress anyone with my sophistication!


(the pink one on the left is the original-- started ~November 2002)

And so, this blog.  We'll see if I pick up my craft challenge again, maybe when it gets cool or something causes me to get inspired again around making things.  I'll never stop writing about homeschooling-- that is, unless I stop homeschooling.  Right now stopping is not in the cards, although theoretically I've always said that I'm only committed to homeschooling one year at a time.  So, what else will I write about?  Stay tuned and see.  For today, here is a look at my Fair Acre (um, actually just a fraction of an acre in the middle of a small city)...it seems Mr. Groundhog has moved on, so I'm cautiously planting some baby vegetables this weekend, and hoping he doesn't come back to munch them!


baby kale


my enemies-- I planted two tiny rhododendrons side by side the first spring we lived in the house, and ten years later I've threatened to tear them out nine times


and right next to my enemies, my oldest plant friend-- a Jackmanii Clematis that I planted that same first spring, ten years ago, as a little start ordered from the Kelly Nurseries catalog.  The other two varieties that I planted never grew.  Every time I think he's done and not coming back, up he pops again!


some happy hostas, my new best friends of the plant world.  I love how lush and lettuce-y they are in the spring, and how happy to grow and thrive without any fussing from me.


and, a frenemy-- the wild rose climbing rose in the middle of this shot was a tiny bush donated by a friend years ago.  I didn't realize it was a climber, or I wouldn't have put it in my precious sunny patch.  He choked out a prettier rose that grew next to him until last fall, and his tendrils catch me as I try to weed and plant in the patch.  The roses are tiny and cute and plentiful, but I think it's going to be moving day for this guy, one day soon.  For now, I have his longest branches trained up along the fence-- hope they stay that way until I figure out where to put him!

Growing

Whipping up a grocery bag holder took me less than an hour.  I like the result, it's pretty and useful, but more importantly I can see in this craft a number of ways that I've grown as a crafter since beginning my challenge this year.  Unlike last year, I can now:

1. Read a mention of an object, with no picture to go on, and imagine that I could make it
2. Troll Pinterest and find a number of tutorials to make that object
3. Skim the tutorials just to find the average dimensions of fabric needed, and the general techniques used
4. Compare the techniques and materials used by different crafters in their tutorials and determine which best suit my vision, skills and taste
5. Come up with my own ideal measurements, and also realize that with anything other than tailored clothes, these measurements can be fudged a little to suit what I have on hand
6. Sew the object, start to finish, using my own common sense and what I remember from the tutorials, without having to go back and reference anything

Ways that I'm still trying to grow: 

• as a businesswoman, I want to be better at choosing what to sell for my possible, future 'home baking business'.  I'm kicking myself that I bought a bottle of anise just before deciding I don't want to make biscotti after all-- what a waste!  And I've spent years baking dozens of recipes each year, and somehow I still can't decide what would be easy & popular enough to make a good home business.
• as a homeschooling mom, I want to be better at finding 'teachable moments' and opportunities to learn together aside from our formal lessons.  I don't mean through online videos or websites, either-- we all spend plenty of time staring at screens.  This weekend Radish and I plan to plant some seeds in the garden, there's a start anyway.  Gardening is a hard sell to Primo, though, I'll have to think of something else to do with him.