We're NOT Unschoolers! *SOB*

...er...

Okay, according to the "original" definition of "unschooling" at the Yahoo Board I used as My Homeschooling Bible/Resource when we started out on this journey 7 years (almost to the day!) ago, we're still (to my way of thinking) "unschoolers".  At that time, unschooling on the Board was defined as "child led learning".  Within certain parameters (mainly my OCD and my DH's insistence on Math, English, and Science as "regular" classes) most of what we do on a yearly basis is chosen by the Manlings.  Even books and other miscellany for The Core Three were approved and subjected to the test of the Manlings' time and tolerance.  In other words, I know my guys.  I know what makes them miserable, and I know when they are just giving me a line about how "boring" something is.  (Boring here being a subjective term referencing just how much they would rather be playing with their iPods and laptops and other paraphernalia.)  

My youngest two like to work together.  Manling #3 is content to work below his "grade level" if it means he doesn't have to work through his English by himself.  Manling #4 has benefited from this is a number of ways--he's far and away the best speller in the house, knows a good bit of grammar for a boy his age, and realized that all those letters in books spell out wonderful stories and vast amounts of knowledge that he is now able to mine for himself.  I won't even comment on the happiness in my heart at the way the two of them work together.  On a Perfect Day, the heavens open and angels sing over our dining room table!  *cheesygrin*  All the other days, we lock the doors and pretend we don't live here!

Manling #2 likes to do his own thing...which generally means trying to buck The Core Three and spend as much time as he can either outside on his rollerblades/bike or up in his room with his head buried in a book that (while educational) isn't going to help his plan to graduate from "high school" before he's 30.  He's beginning to realize now that goals are not there to limit him but rather to challenge and prod him on to the next step on his path.  He does have a pretty concrete plan of "where he wants to be".  We just have to help him get there.  

Manling #1...has discovered that when "classes" have a purpose, he's much better pleased to try to comply with a teacher's request.  He started VoTech last year and is maintaining a high A average, despite his apparent lack of interest in everything else.  My biggest problem at the moment has been his discovery of a social life and the amount of time it seems to be eating up in his schedule.  We are going to have another go-round about it post-camp again, I know it.  

In the midst of all this homeschooling bliss, something happened.  

The definition of  'unschooling' changed at The Board, and suddenly I am confronted with the proposition that our years ought to be "endless summer vacation with learning happening as you bump into it."  Or something to that effect.  

Taken back just a bit by this shift in the universe, I asked Manling #3 if he thought "endless summer vacation" would be beneficial.  He (being of the honest and no nonsense persuasion) blithely informed me that he'd prefer to just go back to public school then.  Seems endless summer vacation sounds about as boring as it is trite.  

Thing is, the Manlings have definite goals.  And while letting learning opportunities happen "organically" SOUNDS wonderful?  Sometimes when you know what you want, you need to chase after it....not just pray it turns in your direction.  In that sense, we still follow the original definition of "unschooling"...child led learning.  They are leading me in the direction they need to go to attain their goals.  

And honestly?  It's okay if we don't get the "endless summer vacation".  We prefer "autumn walks in the woods at twilight" anyway. 

Coffee

Ask anyone.  I have a Coffee Problem. 
It's tragic really.  I used to be a fairly normal girl.  I drank iced tea, water, occasionally the glass of apple juice.  Sometimes I'd have a beer if it was a social occasion. 

Now I live from cup of coffee to cup of coffee.  I tried to give it up for Lent this year.  That lasted all of a week...till the basement flooded and my Manlings very wisely handed me the largest hottest cup of coffee they could lay hands on before leading me down the steps to see The Flood.

I tell myself that if I really want to get serious about the weight loss thing, I should lay off the Java and start hitting the water.  But where's the fun in that???  I even switched to Almond Milk rather than regular milk in an attempt to convince myself that it's "not so bad" to have six cups before noon.

*sigh*  Not working.
So what coffee can't I live without if it's become the central part of my operating system? 

1.  New England Coffee's Blueberry Cobbler.  I'm sure for some of you coffee purists that sounds just awful, but my boss got me hooked at work in a rather underhanded fashion (she refused to make anything else for two weeks).  Now she and I are both devotees.
2.  Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla--I have to confess I only drink this if I go to the store to get it.  I love it fresh made (and not by me).  LOL
3.  Sheetz Vanilla Nut--Discovered on a roadtrip with a friend of mine (Rachel!) to see another friend (Meg!).  Have been unable to function properly without at least a cup or two a week since.  It's good stuff, guys.  If you need a quick fix?  This is the way to go.
4.  For plain ole coffee, I have to admit that I'm a Folgers girl.  There's not much to tell when it comes down to the bare nuts and bolts of my coffee problem.  I'm a redneck/cowgirl at heart, and if I've got no fancy fixins' I'm just fine with it hot and black. 

Just make sure you keep it comin'!

The Weekly Canning

This week's canning will be relatively simple (I hope).  After spending the weekend putting the roof on the deck, I'm pooped.

Things to can this week:
1.  Strawberry jam--that's right, I managed to save a nice chunk of our strawberry crop from the robins.  So I will be canning jam this week!  YUM.  Am going to try the Pomona Pectin that one of the girls on the Home Canning Board recommended.  Cuts out the sugar and supposed to be dummyproof.
**Canned 7 jars of jam--kept one in the fridge "chus fer so".  YUM.  And the Pectin worked like a dream!  And fast.  
2.  Vegetable Broth--if I have time.  We're starting to run short so it's gotta be done sometime.
3.  Beans--only if I have fifteen spare minutes and have nothing better to do.  Don't see that happening.

**highlighted in red means Not Done. Crossed out means Done.

The List of Lists (Part I)

LISTS!
For those of you who don't know me well, I LOVE lists.  There's just something about the orderliness of a well-made and checked off list that makes the OCD in my heart and soul sing with delight.

So, in order to take full advantage of this, I'm going to make my blog a series of lists.  Daily lists, project lists, general to-do lists, canning lists, storage lists.  You name it, I'm gonna make a list of it (if possible).  YAY!  I luff it!

What lists will I do this week?  Hmmm...let's see...
I should have some weekly lists:


1.  The Weekly Canning
2.  Cleaning This Week
3.  Counting My Blessings
4.  Tales from the Zoo
5.  Household Projects
6.  Steal a Moment for Myself (Books)
7.  A Look Back (and Ahead)

Mmmm...yes, I like this.  If all else fails, I can cut and paste while in the midst of five other things, right?  LOL

Some miscellaneous posts for this week:
1.  Reasons Why I Hate PA
2.  Coffee
3.  Tales of Parsley

Yes, I think I can manage this.  It will also be something fun for me to help keep track of stuff too.  ("Tales of Parsley" will be about the care, cultivation, and drying/freezing of parsley.  Something I need to remember anyway.)

Alright, that said, I'm going to go get some chores done and get back to this later.

Things I'd LIKE to do with this Blog

When I started this blog, it was supposed to be my "adult blog".  The blog where I kept all the notes about homeschooling and homesteading and just being me.

*sigh*

I have not been as proactive in that move as I would have hoped I could be.  In all fairness, it's been a rough year so far.  We've been up to our ears in Life--Eagle Scout and Webelos Crossover ceremonies, homeschooling, basement tide pools, and trying to figure out why this whole mess isn't working anymore.

While I can't stop Life from happening, I do know partially why it's not working so well now:  a mother was meant to be home with her kids and her husband, taking care of her home and making four bare walls into a place of comfort and shelter.  I'm so tired of being a "working mom."  

After a long long overdue chat with my husband, I have managed to make him see that all of the things he's constantly complaining about at home are things that I SHOULD be taking care of in that time between finishing up school with the boys in the afternoon and when he gets up in the evening.  Housework and meal planning and school prep for the next day.  Hours and hours of things that don't get done because I'm Not Here.  

I've also finally convinced him that we are never going to "keep up with the Joneses" and thankgod for that!  I don't WANT to feel like I need to have everything that everyone else has.  I want to just have what we have and work with that.  I don't need to have all the new fancy gadgets or expensive clothes and stuff that the rest of America flaunts (like we are entitled to it).  I'm tired of trying to keep track of the stuff that clutters our house as it is.  I've been slowly trying to weed through everything and regain some control over what we do have and need.

So from here on out, I'm going to try and use my Blog to that advantage:  to chronicle my quest to find my quiet center at Home...and my transition out of The Job. 

*sigh*

Did you hear that scream?  My boss.   She's not going to like this....

 

August to December...where do the months go?

I need to make a full confession:  we have not done much at all in the last six months. 

Okay, I lie.  We've done a lot of hiking and leaf-watching as the seasons changed.  We spent an inordinate amount of time out-of-doors just enjoying the weather and each other's company.  We have spent long lazy hours just reading and playing computer games and discussing music and life.  We've contemplated the snuggle to happiness ratio of petting small rabbits (and big Hueys).  There have been days when we didn't bother getting out of our pajamas, 'cause we would have gotten right back into them within hours.  There were days when we only got out of our pajamas to go to VoTech or work or an appointment of some sort...and then came home to return to our previous pajama-clad state. 

In order to precipitate this state of things, I worked mornings again for Sept-Dec.  By the time I came home, I wanted nothing more than to nap and veg.  Very little actual bookwork got done--with the exception of what I left the Manlings to be done in the mornings.  I didn't check most of it.  We didn't even really have Family Reading Time or Devotions.  I did make the added effort to finish "Pilgrim's Progress" (which the Manlings all loved) by the beginning of December.  It was started in August. 

After berating myself endlessly for several weeks about things we hadn't done, I stopped.  Why?

Because I have a camera full of pictures of my sons outside, hiking in the most beautiful fall foliage, and (better still) a heart full of memories of the talks we had during those long tramps.  DH was usually sleeping for work, and we would head out when I came home from work.  Squirrels were chased up trees, deer were spooked (accidentally) from thickets as the two younger Manlings stalked each other through the brush, and we tried to be amateur ornithologists while attempting to identify birdcalls.  I practiced using the different settings in the new digital camera as we looked at flowers and dying weeds and spotted trapped logs on dam-breasts and eyed Scotch pines at Middle Creek.  

So why didn't we rush right back into schoolwork when the long lazy days of fall had ended?

I suspect we really needed a break.  It's been a hectic year, with planning the Eagle Scout project and camp and new leadership at Scouts and just all of the general chaos of the year.  Scott is now an Eagle, and I've still got the ceremony to plan.  Luke crosses over to Boy Scouts in eight weeks, and I need to get that finalized this week.  We even got burned out on reading our Bibles 'cause we did SO MUCH of it this spring. 

So we stopped. 

And it was good.  I plan to spend this week finishing up some odds and ends for the New Year, and we go back to a real schedule the first week of January.  I will be nights again, which works better and is easier on my peace of mind.  I am actually looking forward to schoolwork with the boys again.  And they are BORED with TV and the video games...which is perhaps the best part of all.  

I am looking forward to just being with the boys and not worrying about all the headaches at work.  My focus was getting far too split, and that needs to stop.  I guess this is what some SAHM moms mean when they say, even though it's tempting to get a PT job, they would rather concentrate on their Real Job.  Heaven knows, I understand that.  I've spent far too much time the last six months worrying about what is happening at work.  I'm done doing that.  We're going to finish taking care of our debt, and then I hope to quit.  OR at the very least cut back some until the boys are all grown.  

I also got updated internets now.  We are getting high speed wireless on Monday, so online time will be more productive.  Less time spent waiting for pages to load...more time using what I found.  I like this! 

Time To Get it Together

After a year of working at work AND at home, I'm beat.

We've gotten to the point at work where I'm about as caught up as we're ever gonna be.  Consequently I am now looking forward to having some Real Time to start cleaning up and re-organizing my home.  I've gotten very tired of "knowing" I have something and not being able to find it.  And let me tell you...after almost four years of just trying to keep up, I can't find much of anything!! 

The last couple of weeks of canning/freezing have also been spent taking inventory of what's downstairs in the storage room.  At this point, I can say with some conviction that we will simply NEVER run out of corn...and I'm completely out of Pumpkin Bread.  (Although I made batches and batches of the stuff 3 weeks ago!)  LOL

So some of the items we still need to prepare for the rest of the upcoming winter season are:

• pumpkin bread, pie, muffins, and cheesecake
• tomatoes/zucchini canned together (using up the last of the zucchini and the stray tomatoes)
• homemade ketchsup
• canned ham/broth
• canned turkey/broth
• canned Huey-Rabbit if my DH has anything to say about it!  *EEK*

I'm too exhausted at the moment to go into all the other stuff I need to worry about...but I am going to spend most of this weekend getting my "attack list" together.  Then we'll start Deep Cleaning the house.  First up?  My closet.  Ack.

I also need to get some more quality online time too.  I've got tons of stuff I want to get printed off and organize in my Emergency Prep Binder.