Please Explain

Please explain to me why my 9 year old daughter can't sleep? Night time reeks around here - my daughter refuses to sleep and it has been about 2 months now that she won't sleep even though she is tired. It just makes school so much more fun for everyone involved...

Today

Today was supposed to be a field trip day, but I said no.

Today was supposed to be a catch-up day, but it wasn't.

Today was supposed to be a day where I didn't care if the house was clean, but I care.

Today was supposed to be a day where I was happy to teach, and it was.


Thanks to a loving HF who helped me tap into such a sweet little boy. Thanks for helping me make his Science lesson fun. Thanks for letting him let loose a rambunctious amount of giggles. And thanks most of all for letting me be the one to hear them.

Today I Just Might Kill Someone

While my brain had every intention of waking up on time today (remember priority #1?) my body had other plans. This past weekend was even more eventful than last, and while none of my family ended up in the hospital, I did get to spend some time with the authorities in my bathrobe at an awful time in the early morning (living in an apartment complex is never boring!) With the fact that this wildly crazy adventure occured on Thursday night and had lasting consequences through out the weekend I overslept this morning. It was okay though - I figured we could just jump right into the schedule and make up for lost time. When noon rolled around and I hadn't even begun lessons I knew I should just give up, but, I didn't. I persisted through and at 1 o'clock I began my 2 older children on math and attempted to teach my younger child that "A says a as in apple" - what should have been about an hour lasted almost 3. During those 3 hours not only did I build an alligator and administer 2 math tests I also dealt with:

Someone getting electrocuted and someone else getting shot in the eye. My house is also a immaculate mess.

I love my kids, but today I just might go berserk on somebody.

Please somebody answer my unanswerable question: "And I'm doing this because...?"

And now the real work begins...

After what can only be described as an incredibly adventurous weekend, I am looking forward to starting the actual school week. I have roughly 13 different lessons to plan for tomorrow. And I am exhausted! I learned that Red Bull does give you wings, at least I had wings yesterday: but that could also be due to the fact that over the course of the afternoon I drank a Red Bull and 2 Monster energy drinks. I made it through yesterday just fine - got done everything I needed to do. This includes spending all night at work helping out with Inventory (which could be a whole other post).

This morning, well, I wasn't so ready to greet the world, but greet the world I did! So now, after a long day at church and work I am looking at a good few hours of preparing for tomorrows stuff. In order to prepare for all the preparation I need to do I drank another Red Bull - and I am sorry to say that I am not feeling my wings - I don't even think I have little nubs of wings. As I sit here staring into the abyss of nothingness called television I am trying to find some sort of motivation (which may be another energy drink) and the answer to the unanswerable question:

and I'm doing this because...?

Preparation is the Key to Success

Being the type to overly prepare myself for any and all new adventures I spent the entire month of July staring at my computer screen. I logged on to the GCA website and watched every single training session they offer. I also took notes. Is it the educator in me? The nerd? Who knows - but never the less, this is what I did.

I prepped myself with mantras like, "I can do this!" and "I am capable!" and "It won't be crazy forever!"

I wrote down quips of advice from all the experts and other Learning Coaches who had been there and done that.

The greatest advice I received was from a mother of 6, from ID, who has spent the last several years homeschooling her youngest 3. Her advice was this: Make a list of priorities. She then went on to tell me (and some other people) that her list of priorities included:

1. Keeping her marriage good.
2. Making sure her children were taken care of.
3. Ensuring that meals were prepared.
4. Making sure that her home environment stay organized.
5. (I missed this one, as at the time I was listening to this advice my children were destroying their home environment.)

Since then I have been working on my list of priorities. So far it includes:

1. Wake up on time.
2. Remember that I chose this because I love my kids.
3. Remember that I am an educator. I went to school to be such and the fact that the only people I am educating are the ones I gave birth to should have no effect. It should increase my desire.
4. Make the sure the kids eat. Period.
5. Finally nail down the answer to the following question: "and I'm doing this because...?"

My house was clean Sunday

but today is Wednesday. And I'm doing this because...?

What the h-e-double hockey sticks am I thinking??

Yep - its me, again. This time I have decided to blog about my latest adventure: Homeschooling my 3 kids. I must be crazy or a glutton for punishment - take your pick. In order to maintain some sort of sanity I will randomly post pictures and blurbs about this new thing I am doing. 

I thought I would let you know how the first week of homeschool is shaping up:

Saturday August 14 7:45 pm: My youngest son fell off the table and gave himself a frenectomy (he cut that thing that connects your top lip to the gums).

Sunday August 15 2:45 am: I climbed into bed

Sunday August 15 7 am: I fell asleep

Sunday August 15 9 AM: I woke up and got ready for church. I went and taught a lesson in church. Not sure it made any sense, but the ladies liked it (or so they said)

Sunday August 15 12pm - 8pm: I was at work

Monday began school. What with an incredibly exciting weekend I could only hope that it was a preview to all the exciting things I could expect this school year. I was not to be disappointed. Our "Welcome To School" orientation lasted all of 45 minutes before the school's administration decided to cancel: this was due to the fact that the online conference system we used couldn't support all 6000 students/families logging in at the same time. That's okay - I went to the dentist instead.

Tuesday was even more exciting as I drove my children to a field trip - we went and visited the Cabbage Patch Land Hospital! It was cool, except I was super creeped out by the gigantic Cabbage Patch doll they had walking around. Well, that and a kid who wasn't old enough to drive delivered Mother Cabbage...

Today was okay. I spent most of it on the computer listening to teacher after teacher tell me "it wasn't going to be like this forever" and "it will get better." 

I believe them, I think. 

In the meantime, I am thinking to myself, "and I'm doing this because...?"