Um...maybe it's just the year of "not feeling it".

Oooh surprise, surprise. Sue isn't feeling it. Sue is also referring to herself in the third person. Guess what ELSE. Sue just ate 4 Amoroso rolls, then took Excedrin Tension Headache with coffee. 

I don't feel like homeschooling anymore.

Kids all talking to me at once is making me feel insane.

I can't make it through a day - much less a week - eating healthy.

I haven't started running again OR doing workouts yet.

My house is trashed. Like hair balls, actual TRASH squished into couch seats, donuts ON THE FLOOR, boxes of crayons dumped down the heating vents, you need a HAZMAT suit to go to the bathroom type trashed.

Just (ok, not just, 3 & 1/2 DAYS AGO) got back from vacation, husband just went back to work today, haven't grocery shopped yet, only have weird stuff (hence the rolls), but i don't want to go because it's so overwhelming that i tear up.

Sports, Church stuff, life in general with 5 kids. It's just wow some days. Where all you can think is how you need to up and move. Because somehow that would help? Life would just find us in Georgia. But at least the cute accents might make it easier to handle.

Toddler got a pen. Do i need to say more? Maybe she can open a semi-permanent Tattoo parlor for toddlers and make some money.

I was so excited for Fall, but now it's like 800 degrees and humid.

Because i was sick the week before vacation, there was one day of school accomplished. Then, a week off for Disney. Then, husband had off. I think it is common knowledge that if Daddy is home, school is a bust. Haven't started yet. Don't know if i'm gonna. Is there even a POINT when you are going to get one good day in? Because it's after 1pm now, we have to go to Walmart, and i'm not doing it when we get home. That leaves tomorrow. I don't DO school on coop days. NO. 

Still haven't fully unpacked.

Mail wasn't delivered yet that was on hold, so i can't pay bills.

And we are out of checks.

Between families, we have FIVE BIRTHDAY PARTIES this weekend. I cannot even put into words the way i feel about this.
Well, i could, but it would cause problems. Because i have GREAT words for it.

I have SO much to be thankful for, i know that. I KNOW IT. But today, it's overwhelming. The responsibility of being a wife and mom is daunting, and i'm not handing it well. It will pass, and i'm not going crazy, and i swear if anyone just stops by to check on me, i will throw eggs at you. Scratch that, jelly beans. We have no eggs. 

This is a wretched post, but i figured what the heck...i'm overwhelmed, maybe someone else is overwhelmed and would like to know they are not alone. My goals for today are now to grocery shop and get out of pajamas. Or maybe not, because we ARE going to Walmart, after all. 
~Sue

Sometimes, when you start being responsible, it scares your husband.

Today, my big brother showed up at my house. That's all fine and dandy, i WELCOME people stopping by with open arms. Stop laughing. Ok, no, i don't. It strikes fear into my SOUL. It does. Usually because my house is trashed and i'm in pajamas with no bra. It's the homeschool Mom uniform of choice. Anyway, my brother came running into the house...then, saw i was fine, i got an awesome big-brother hug, and he was on his way.

Why?

Well, kids, i had left my phone upstairs in my bedroom. See, we started school this week. It's not full fledged yet, it's baby steps. We have vacation coming up in 9ish days, so, because i am totally responsible, i don't want to get into anything crazy where they are learning something new and brilliant, then we are at Disney, and Rock and Roller Coaster SPINS all the smarts outta them. So relaxed workbook stuff it is, a few pages here and there. Just getting back into the swing of things.

You are getting that useless info, because on Monday i realized i will totally ignore my kids if my phone is around. I just will. I can't NOT text. I neeeed to. My friend needs to know RIGHT AWAY if i like Starbucks over Dunkin. That stuff can't wait for hours. It's super important. So, as i'm snapping at a 6yr old who wants to know what carrying means in math (i am absolutely making this part up, it's just an idea of how lame i am), i'm like, "I DON'T KNOW AND I DON'T CARE!". Because of the phone. I can't have it near me. It needs to be entire floors away.

I started this yesterday, and Mike was at training or something, but something where he couldn't text me either, so it didn't make a difference.

Today, it did.

My brother runs in. Sees i am alive, and that there is school crap everywhere, and then is on his merry way after telling me Mike was looking for me. So i go up and check my phone. Missed calls, texts, basic spazzing and pandemonium have occurred. All because for the first day in a loooong time, i didn't send about 500 stupid, silly, whiny, whatever texts to my husband! My wonderful husband, with HIS crazy job, and what HE does, is worried about me. It's laughable (but VERY sweet!) to say the least. I called him up, explained what was going on, and it was so cute. It just was. He was very worried. To the point where he felt sick over it, texted and called family and just panicked in general. All because his delightful, normally irresponsible, school hating wife wasn't texting.

Short story long, he was proud of me trying to be a grown up. Confused, but proud. So contrary to popular belief, i am alive and well, 4 kids have gotten school in every day this week (holy crap it's only Wednesday?? ARE YOU SERIOUS??), and now that school is done for the day, i can become a 15 year old with my phone yet again.

THE END.

~Sue

Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Homeschooling Smarty Pants Mama

OK, so first, a confession: I have never actually read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  I'm just good at faking cultural/literary references.  For this very useful skill I would like to thank my mom and my dad for completely sheltering me as I grew up in rural Pennsylvania (which I like to call HEAVEN!!!! every chance I get) while at the same time letting me read pretty much anything that was in our house.  Which was a lot.  And of an odd variety.  However, I never got to Dr. Jekyll.  Probably because I was too busy trying to finish the unabridged version of War and Peace before I graduated from middle school.  Or maybe it was Anna Karenina.  Yep, I'm bragging.  Or sounding pathetic.  Whichever.

Anyway.  I took issue w/ my wonderful friend Michelle's recent lament and thought what could be more fun than stirring up some strife, smackdown, trash talk reasoned debate on the blog.  :)  It should be very clear to our blog readers that ONE of us here on the blog does not like summer.  I am frequently mocked and maligned for this point of view, but I will say it again: summer is hot, chaotic, busy, you sweat a lot, and you wear less clothing.  None of this is good by itself and put together it is just torture.  This does not mean that settling down and looking forward to fall is the mature thing to do, however!!  No!!!  It should also be very clear that I have no more claim to maturity than the other 2 crazy moms who are part of this . . . oh wait, that doesn't sound quite right . . . hmmmmm . .  . umm, never mind.

Let me get back to my point.  Yes, I have one. 

This seems to be the time of year when my homeschooling friends in particular are falling into two categories.  (Note that I am carefully not saying which is Dr. Jekyll and which is Mr. Hyde.)  There are the people who are pining after summer even before it's left.  They are saying things like "But I don't WANNA be a grown up and start up school w/ my kids!"  "Summer is so much fun, I just want to punch fall in the throat!"  And my favourite, "I need more ice cream and homemade hot fudge sauce!"  They are checking Target for stretchy pants and tossing their jeans into the back of the closet.  I'm not calling anybody out here.  If the stretchy pants fit, than you know who you are.

Then there is the opposite camp.  These people are cleaning and organizing and selling old curriculum and holding yard sales of outgrown clothing and homemade aprons their children have hand knitted while memorizing the book of Revelation and planning and planning and TALKING about planning their school year.  Every school planner/school curriculum/kid chore system on the market place is discussed and the many ways to use them.  They wonder aloud if they are doing enough or committing the cardinal sin of overscheduling.  Perhaps they dust off their copy of Confessions of an Organized Housewife and peruse it as a refresher.  Or perhaps they give it to a friend.  (Note that I am carefully not admitting to owning this book and am definitely not outing any possible friend who might or might not have been on the receiving end of my generousity.)  They are probably excusing this behaviour by calling themselves geeks.  Or smart.  Once again, not calling anybody out here!  Just, look down next to your computer and see if there is a homemade school planner there.  Then take step #1 and admit you have a problem.

I freely admit that I drank the Planning Potion.  For 3 weeks or more in August, I was determined to finally get my school planning done RIGHT.  I bought a homeschool planner, started studying the directions, and came to find out that I was supposed to spend a day praying about my homeschool year before I continued on w/ my school planning.  OK, great!, I can do that.  The day after I decided to do that I lost the planner.  (Well, actually my husband lost it, just to keep the debate around my house lively.)  Prayer did NOT help at that point.  So then I rushed around (most of the rushing looked like me sitting on the couch and staring into space w/ a concentrated frown on my face) and tried to make my own planner.  I couldn't even figure out how to get past Monday, 10AM.  I had 1) Devotional w/ kids, 2) Math with .  . .?  I mean, there are FOUR kids running around my house.  I'm not even sure if all of them eat breakfast every day.

Finally, enough was enough.  I mean, three weeks of this?  My sanity was at stake.  One of my sisters said I should stop waiting until I got my plan perfected (clearly she was not aware of how close I was), and just get started.  So, since I use a very easy, scripted (that means a book tells me what to say) writing program, I started doing that with at least 2 kids each day.  No, I wasn't Susan Wise Bauer yet, but I was on the road.  Back in the game.  Finding my groove.  Yee haw!

Then I stole a bright pink binder from my daughter (just in case my husband helped me organize again).  And I wrote down all of the subjects that each of my kids needed to do.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but I would always forget SOMETHING.  Until 11 that night, at which point I would say something like "Rats, I forgot to make the kids do math today!"  Although I would often choose to say that silently in my own head, since I don't like to "debate" with my husband all *that* frequently.  And then I would lie awake all night worrying about how I was failing my kids and myself and that Susan Wise Bauer would kick me off the Well-Trained Mind forum.  (wait, is this tmi?  and is it more or less pathetic than the Tolstoy brag?) 

I divided the subjects for my 2 oldest with a fancy slanted line because my goal is to do skill subjects like math and language arts in the morning and content subjects like history and science in the afternoon.  (Sounds intellectual, doesn't it? I copied it from somebody else.  Yes, she's on the Well-Trained Mind forum.)  I put this fancy paper with my super crafty color-coded writing into the front of my binder, along with a pocket for my color-coded pens.  If you look carefully, you will see that I had to list things for my 4yo like puzzles and games because when faced w/ a little-person-demand to watch tv I would say something brilliant like "ummmmmm, uhhhhh, No. You can, ummmmm . . ." and then I would forget that I was in the middle of a conversation and wander off in a fog and he would take a screwdriver and conduct an experiment to validate his hypothesis on the structure and stress analysis of drywall and then I would wander back in to find him standing next to some new holes in my living room wall and I would get all mad and scold and threaten and then be all "YES you can go watch Little Einsteins.  Just be quiet!!  And no more holes in the drywall!!!"

Not impressed by my homeschooling genius yet?  Well, I use Sonlight Curriculum for my history and literature, and my next breakaway from my planning paralysis was when I discovered they have simple blank schedule pages in the back of their Instructor's Guide for me to copy.  So I copied a bunch and put them in my binder, along with a yellow sticky note that reminds me of the extra books I want to read with my kids while they bicker eat lunch.  I'm a bit of a book-a-holic, and I was forgetting to read all of these great books I have sitting on my shelf just waiting for lunchtime! 

So now, each week I fill out what I have to accomplish.  Not necessarily page numbers or specific books to read, but just the general, make sure you do math every day kind of stuff.  Although I have started making little notes to myself about page numbers where we stopped, or the book we just finished.

Simple.  Not super-planned.  But I love it.

I'm getting school done.  Spending time with 4 of my favourite people in the world and seeing them once again as People and not Subjects Who Will Not Fit Into My Plan(ner).  I'm not any more mature or organized than I was when it was still technically summer.  But I feel like I've found the happy medium between Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Homeschooling Smarty Pants Mama.  I need to think of a different literary reference.

I know!! I've become Anna Karenin.  Can I break free from the torment of loving my homeschooling, clutter-filled life?  Can I reconcile with the strict expectations of an organized home?  Will I throw myself in front of the train or not?

It might look like it is just a very cluttered desk.  But it's a train.  Trust me.  Stay tuned.

~Stephanie



Top Ten Reasons Why I'm Glad Summer's Ending

Sunset in the Florida Keys while on a 14 yr. anniversary date with my hubby

As the sun sets on summer <sigh> I now must make my list about why it is so lovely that it is all coming to an end....<ahem>

Top Ten Reasons Why I'm Glad Summer's Ending

10. It won't be so hot. 

(Nevermind... we live in NJ & it could be hot until November...)

9.The kids can't wait to start school. 

Um... no, they can wait...

8.There are so many yummy Fall foods to look forward to. 

Oh wait... then, I will gain some more 

unnecessary pregnancy pounds...

<sigh> So, it's settled.  I can not go on with this list.

I'm really sad that summer is ending. 

Really.

Top Ten Reason Why I'm Sad Summer's Ending

10. I really do love the summer even if it is hot. 

9. My house is cleanest in the summer, so it only goes downhill from here.

8. I have to spend less time reading "fun" books like 

"The Hunger Games" and spend more time reading... curriculum.

7. I have to start nesting again, because the baby needs a bedroom.

6. I have SO much work to do with my business, home, school, and church.

5. My schedule is about to intensify. 

4. I'm at the point in the pregnancy where I'm remembering how little sleep I have left before I embark on the journey of endless sleeplessness for an undetermined amount of time. 

3. Though I am passionate about home educating my children and my children generally like homeschool, the thought of school beginning is still not a fun thought right after we've returned from a fantastic, relaxing vacation.

2. I will be gaining more weight over the next few weeks from delicious Fall foods that I love, and the pounds might take a while to come off.

1. The baby- though we might have atleast narrowed it down- still remains nameless until my husband and I can come to an agreement.

Really, when I think about it,

I'm just lamenting that I have to be a grown-up after returning from such a relaxing, worry-free vacation. 

I like being a grown-up... sometimes...maybe... 

Just not when the summer is ending...:)

My hubby and littlest guy fishing on vacation.

~Michelle

I Don't Read Grown-Up Books Anymore

I didn't know it, but my days as a grown-up book reader became numbered when my first child was born.  I remember when she was a few weeks old, getting out The Rhyme Bible and starting her off right.  I was so proud of myself.  After a few days, however, the kid-book thing was getting old.  Breast-feeding seemed like enough work, so I happily passed off the reading-out-loud duties to my husband.  :)

He had been read out-loud to for most of his childhood.  (Well, in between boarding school stints.)  So when he heard news stories on liberal media places like NPR about the importance of reading out loud to your child, he didn't have to think very hard to internalize them.  He happily churned through a kazillion-trillion repetitions of Jamberry and Good Night Moon while I hid in our bedroom and scarfed down some questionable material by Janet Evanovich.  Sigh.  Those were good days.

Then I became a homeschooling mom.  And I fell in love w/ a literature-based curriculum (Sonlight).  I confess now that I originally did this because I thought I would get to read the books to myself and the kids would read the books to themselves, and there would just be a lot of sitting around quietly reading.

Hah.

Anway, what eventually happened is that I learned to love to read out loud to my kids.  (True Confessions moment: it took me a couple of years to get to this place.  Before that, I would find myself pausing in the middle of a sentence I was reading out loud to skim ahead furiously in silence.  I think my oldest might be surprised to go back and read some of the books I read to her back then and realize there aren't actually long pauses built into the book.)  I also discovered this is really, really good for their brains EVEN AFTER THEY KNOW HOW TO READ.  I put that in all caps because I always missed that part of the liberal media news stories before.  So maybe you didn't know that either.

There is a special sweet joy that comes from reading a book to the under-five set when they know it really well.  You can pause and they will fill in the pause.  You can mess up the words and they will correct you.  My favourite game is to put their name in the story, and they shout NOOOOO!!!!  And tell me the right name.  :)

There are a lot of good pictures books out there.  There's also a lot of JUNK!  Oh my.  Nothing brings out my Inner Critic like a poorly written picture book.  I mean, yes, nice pictures are nice, but it's still a book!!  It needs good words!! 

I was recently challenged by a friend to come up w/ lists of books that are on my re-read list.  Well, that list is huge, just because I'm a mom, and can't say no to everything I wish I didn't have to read out loud.  :)  But I thought I'd start out by talking about picture books that I read (and re-read) to my 4yo, w/o crying and whining (on my part).  Since my oldest is 12, I have been reading these books for many years.

• Just to start the list out w/ something unusual, I will mention a book I randomly selected in a used book store just because I had store credit that had to be used and they had precious few children's books: Puff Puff Chugga Chugga by Christopher Wormell.  Oh yes, I also had a little boy and was operating under the assumption that only books about trains would get him interested in reading. (Not the worst assumption, by the way, although the jury is still out on how well it paid off.)  This book is adorable.  Lots of opportunities to play with sounds, a little color recognition, a really big sneeze, and the little train goes home to bed at the end.  When you have little kids, you ALWAYS want somebody going to bed at the end.
• Anything by Virginia Lee Burton, while a bit of a chore to read (IMHO), pays off big-time w/ my boys, and frankly, I think boys need a bit more effort to capture their imaginations, so I don't mind.  OK, well, sometimes I do mind.  Sometimes I LONG for the day when they can read Katy and the Big Snow to themselves and I no longer have to say chug, chug, chug and move my fingers along the roads that Katy plows.  There you have it.  My single flaw.  hah.
• Anything that involves Harry the Dirty Dog.  Harry sometimes becomes a purple dog w/ yellow spots.  Sometimes Tristan the Dog grabs watering can of frogs and sits it next to the Lady Next Door.  But yes, these books are also cute as written.  ;) 
• Anything that involves Frances.  Bedtime for Frances???  LOVE!!!!!!  Bread and Jam for Frances?  I have seriously done this to one of my kids.  I didn't serve him bread and jam for every meal; I served him what we call porridge (thanks to my husband) but what I grew up calling oatmeal.  He lasted a bit longer than Frances did, but he cracked.  Oh yeah, he cracked .  .  .
• Does anybody NOT have Where the Wild Things Are on their list? Well, probably not, and I don't want to be weird, so I guess I better include it. But I do love the subtle humor!
• Horton Hatches An Egg - I'm going to be bold and come right out and admit that I'm not the biggest Dr. Suess fan.  In fact, some of his books are downright tedious.  (I know, you've lost all respect for me now.)  But this book never gets old!  I think about my husband's faithfulness in fatherhood when I read it.  I wonder if I'm a good enough mother when I read it and I'm inspired not to give up, no matter how many times I have told the kids to put their head on their pillow, close their eyes AND STOP TALKING!  I get teary every time I read the line "Because Horton was faithful, 100%." In short, I turn into a complete sap, but you already know it: I'm not normal.

OK, my real love is chapter books, and I'm much more excited to talk about some new ones I just discovered, but that will have to be another post.  Meanwhile, yes, I'm still reading Jamberry and enjoying it.


~Stephanie

Homeschooling Almost Got Me Arrested

Today I'm either going to confirm to all of you that at least one of us is indeed crazy for real, or give you a timely warning about the dangers of homeschooling.  Because last night I narrowly escaped being arrested, and I blame it all on homeschooling.

No, this wasn't something noble, like a protest march for the rights of homeschoolers everywhere.  I live in NJ where we have it pretty good.  And I'm not sure we care about the rights of homeschoolers everywhere.  No, this all started out a few weeks ago with a simple little traffic ticket.  And that DEFINITELY happened because I homeschool.

You see, April and May have been beyond hectic.  There's the normal push to get in those last important lessons before summer break.  There's the call of the outdoors, and children resisting that last push.  There's end of the year standardized testing.  There's planning for next school year (and co-op sessions).  There are spring sports.  (Oh man!!!! Are there spring sports!)  There are concerts and recitals and practices for concerts and recitals.  And all of this adds up to hours in my car.  With children who are not always happy to be with me in the car.

So on one of these hectic days, I was driving through a congested little town, with some major squabbling and fussing going on in the back seats, and just as I reached a pedestrian crosswalk, I noticed traffic in the lane next to the curb screeching to a halt and a tiny little old man (possibly with a cane) stepping off the curb.  I don't want to sound disrespectful about this gentleman, who might possibly take exception to the words I have used to describe him if he ever stumbles onto this blog and reads about himself, however, he was not big, which is important because I couldn't see him over the vehicles that were next to me, and in fact, I didn't see him until I was partway across the crosswalk.  Which led me to make a split-second decision, w/ a quick glance in my rear-view mirror, where I saw a big white car that appeared to be very close to me, and I decided that slamming on my brakes and stopping short might very well lead to getting rear-ended.  And really, that gentleman was not going to be reaching my lane any time in the next 60 seconds.  So I went through the crosswalk with a police car right behind me.

Yep, he pulled me over and gave me a ticket that would give me a lot of points on my license.  And told me that I should contest the ticket and the judge would change the fine to something that would not give me any points.  (Ahhhh, the joys of a penal system that makes so much sense.)  I did check w/ my girlfriend experts before I followed this advice, and called the number on the ticket to tell them I was going to contest it, and here is where my distracted, homeschooling brain once again failed me.  The lady on the other end of the line said "OK, we'll call you."  Or she might have said "OK, I'll call you."  I'm not 100% sure which it was, but I am QUITE clear about the message that I would be called.  This was such a relief to me!!  I did not have to even think about this any more until I received a call.  Hooray!  Back to the homeschool race.

And on Monday, when standardized testing was complete, many recitals and practices and sports practices/games behind me, I took a deep breath, and thought, hmmmm, nobody ever called about that ticket.  I should probably call and see what's going on.  However, I didn't, and Tuesday evening, my husband brought in the mail, which contained a legal notice.  I thought, whew, they scheduled the court date.  But those of you who actually know how the legal system works (as opposed to me, who is clearly winging it and not in a good way) know that this was not that.  Oh no.  This was a notice that an arrest warrant had been sworn out for me (FOR ME!!!!) for failing to show at my court date.  Because the court date had been put automatically on the ticket and I should NOT have been waiting for a different one.

I did not panic immediately.  I tried to call all of the numbers for the court that I could find.  Of course they were all recordings at that time of night.  Then I started to google information about arrest warrants.  I began to panic, but kept it to a minor panic since part of me realized that this was a $100 bail issue, and surely people writing those pages out in google-land were talking armed robbery.  Or drugs or something.  I sent a few messages out on the girlfriend network.  Full-blown panic set in when the girlfriend who is married to a former police officer said something along the lines of "GO. Smokin' hot husband says GO NOW to the police station and get it straightened out!!"  (No, she didn't say smokin' hot husband then, but she says it all the rest of the time, so that's why I added that.)  I appreciate that she didn't spell out "or you could spend a night in jail" but frankly, she didn't have to.  My imagination logical brain was working pretty actively by then.

Full-blown panic is not pretty.  I did make sure to shower before I left the house because if I was going to be arrested I at least wanted to smell clean and I had just done 3 miles on my elliptical.  I was quite sure that nobody shows up at a police station soaked with sweat to turn herself in.  I wondered if they would put hand cuffs on me when I had surrendered myself to the police voluntarily.  I contemplated if I should smile for my mug shot or not.  I briefly regretted watching so much Law & Order in days gone by, as it seemed to be fueling my over-active imagination.  My hands trembled a bit on the steering wheel as I drove to the police station.  Wanted Person coming off the lam to turn herself in.  (I've always wanted to be "on the lam" at least once in my life.  But it wasn't as much fun as it sounds.)

And I ended up waiting for 20 minutes or more in the police station lobby until a very nice police officer opened up the lobby window, proceeded to call me "Miss" enough times that I started to find him very attractive, and seemed pretty amused by my state of panic.  (For the record, I did not cry.)  He said several times that this was not a big deal.  I signed a couple of papers, he explained to me very clearly (Thank you, Lord! for somebody who talks to me like I am a very slow person, because I really am at this stage of the game.) when my new court date is, and I only realized later that I had signed my own bail agreement (For $0 - SURREAL!!!) In short, I was feeling pretty good until I turned to walk away and he said "Now keep those papers on you for the next few days because you still could get arrested until the system clears."  Wha . . . .?!?!

So.  There you have it.  How homeschooling is dangerous, almost got me arrested, AND proof that I am completely crazy and not that smart any more.

Although, now that I think about it, if I have a signed bail agreement, I guess I technically WAS arrested????

~Stephanie

Coffee, cleaning, teething, math...

So, this first post of mine might sum me up fairly well. My two middle daughters, almost 8 and 6 years old, told a friend that they don't do school, "we wait for the baby to cry and then sneak off, because then Mom will forget". That one might be true sometimes. The almost 8 year old asked me why i think it's ok to " sleep alllll the time". This, i can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, is not true. My almost 17 month old views NOT sleeping as a sport she would like to perfect, and most nights (days?!), i am just getting to sleep around 4:30am, and she will do a 3 hour stretch for me. Today, angels sang, as she slept 4 hours in a row! I woke up at 9:30, to the sounds of Just Dance and someone riding (ok, crashing) the baby's ride-on Mickey Mouse train into things.

But we did get school done, regardless of what the middle girls will tell people. My oldest are in 4th and 5th grade, and i will tell you i LOATHE the math. Throw almost anything else at me, i'm golden...math? No  dice. I start to sweat, and say ridiculous things ("i'm gonna find whoever invented math and punch them in the face!!!"....really? yup. I have said that.), and just generally whine until it's over. My 11 year old daughter and almost 10 year old son, sit there patiently waiting for me to calm down and stop throwing fits. Or they laugh. It's true.

On a daily basis i'm in the midst of cleaning, throwing things away when no one is looking, day-dreaming about public school (just kidding...ish), paying bills late (ok, VERY late), feeling like a zombie, worrying about not being a good Mommy or teacher, thinking about curriculum for the Fall, wondering if i am going too far if i buy myself a new broom off of Amazon.com, and trying to make a few more meals out of what we have in the fridge because i don't want to shop before the weekend.

Most days i feel like a hot mess...But i'd like to think i'm eccentric, quirky, and endearing - you know, like crazy women in movies always seem. Anyway, this is me. Coffee breath, laundry in the washer that i ran for the 5th time because i keep forgetting about it, and fingernails (and skin) painted by a 6 year old. Welcome to my life:)
~Sue