I sit here, drooped and drooling on my keyboard, snapping my head up occasionally to click out a couple sentences. When did it become so hard to stay awake? Is this what middle age is?
I went on a manic school planning frenzy this month. I was dreading it because last year was so very hard, therefore I put off ordering books till it was almost late. Maybe the start of this school year has been so much better because I had very low expectations, but I think just possibly I may have stumbled on a successful, less stressful strategy for our homeschool. After 9 years. I was so happy with the way the first two week went that I'm working on a post explaining what I did, if for nothing else than my own amusement!
We have a high schooler, which both terrifies and excites me. Only ONE more year is required of reporting his curriculum and lesson plans for dual enrollment!! Aidan is studying for his driver's permit, which he's obviously not in any hurry to get. He really wanted to try football this year, so he did through the local public school. He attended football camp and had practice most of August, which involved a whole lot of my chauffeuring. It was an uphill battle. It's never been easy for Aidan to make friends or fit in groups and high school guys are brutal to the new kid. And actually playing football was new for him so he was the odd man out, which was a constant source of frustration for him. We consulted with Coach, and Aidan decided after the second game that it wasn't the right place for him. He turned in his gear the second week of school. We were told that we should've made him stick it out and finish what he started. And maybe we should have. The part of me that really really wanted Aidan to be great at it and to be part of a team listened to all the should-have could-have's. Parenting is hard, but we do our best to make what we hope are the right decisions and move on. Aidan is at peace with the decision which is what matters. He is taking algebra and Spanish 1 at the high school, and really enjoys both classes. Especially algebra, which has not ceased to amaze me. I think he feels a kinship with his teacher.
Gavin is in 7th grade and in middle school football. He's still taking the special ed reading class he's been taking for the past three years at the local school. My two oldest are as different as night and day...Gavin loves football and loves socializing. We joke that he's "Eli Junior." The boys were talking about their day and Aidan was upset about something, and Gavin said to me, "I'm trying to bring him in! I had him move up and stand by me in the lunch line!" and I said, "You can't do that! That's budging in line and people get mad at you for that!" And Gavin nonchalantly said, "Nah, they don't mind. I had three or four of my guys in front and behind me." So he apparently has a posse? Whether he moves on to high school football remains to be seen, but his passion still lies in motors/mechanics/vehicles and we plan to take advantage of whatever shop/mechanics class the school has to offer when he gets there. Both boys are at the school for 7th and 8th periods and can now ride the bus home after, which has taken a load off my plate.
My reading took a hit this month. This is the most illustrative fact as to how much school planning and food preservation were monopolizing my thoughts and time. I finished only one book, The Book of Lost Friends. It was an okay book, but felt cut short and left loose ends. Creatively, I started another embroidery kit (aka therapy). As much as I love summer, I am looking forward to the change in seasons so I can stop the manic prepping.
Liam turned 10 this month! He requested a "dirt and worms" cake and McDonald's for his birthday meal. You know, everything about this year is making me feel very old!
I did a little bit of canning in my "free" time....hahahaha. My Mom has done loads of canning most her life--literally loads--and generously shares the bounty, which helps us out immensely. But I was feeling the irony this year in all the work of planting and harvesting food, a significant amount we end up not using. Instead of trying to find homes for all our excess garden produce I decided to fill some shelves and save us a little money this winter. I canned garlic dill pickle spears, spicy pickled beans, and salsa. I have given away piles of zucchini, but plan to have a zucchini bread baking binge one of these weekends or afternoons and fill the freezer. The boys love it for breakfast and they can polish off two loaves a day. (*Homeschool hack: having plenty of pre-prepared meal items stored away so we can focus on school and educational trips and projects.) In other garden updates, I harvested onions and garlic in July, and it was not a great year for either. Our onions are tiny. We'll most likely be buying onions by the new year. Our watermelon has remained miniature, barely bigger than softballs, as well as the cabbage, which has tiny, golf ball-sized heads. Our butternut squash (a winter staple around here) was floating and I pray it doesn't rot. I think some it may have crossed with the watermelon, resulting in the strangest looking squash I've ever seen!
The month wrapped up with a flood worse than we experienced in 2016. After the drought we had all summer, we received somewhere around 9-10 inches of rain over the course of two days. It completely covered most of our garden and touched the back foundation of the garage, passed the fire pit. Our neighbor's sidewalk was transformed into a waterfall and the ball diamond behind our house was under water. We fared so much better than many others, with roads washed out all over the county. The spa a couple blocks from us had nine feet of water in their basement. We even had people's garden decor washing up in our yard. We lost a few cardboard boxes and shelves.
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