Doldrums

I haven't wanted to post anything for a couple weeks, because our home-schooling is, well, weird. I need to learn how to walk my talk. Or at least believe what I tell others.

I'm un-schooling Joey.  Maybe de-schooling is a better word for it. He's playing xbox again right now.  It feels like we are slacking off. But I really do believe that Joey needs this right now. Truly I do. So why do I cave and feel like a truant loser?

We shopped all day for Aubrey's birthday party. (I left a bag at the dollar tree store.  Crap.)

Hubby's home to watch the presidential debates.  Gotta Go.  

Escaping the "artist's way"

I'm sitting at my local coffee shop taking a break from home life to write. My husband magnanimously offered that I go, without having me to ask for it. He loves me. He loves me.

His only request was that I was home in time to help him put the children to bed. Sigh. (HeeHee.)

Never mind, this decaf americana more than makes up for it. Not hearing my loving and excited children singing early Christmas carols with made up choruses in the kitchen while my head pounds more than makes up for having to go back and tuck them in.

In fact, what joy. I get to come here, after being with Joey for most of the day, have piece and quiet and listen to the fountain splash water next to me and write - which I love to do - and then I get the pleasure of tucking in my lovies. But not have to Put Them To Bed. (HeeHee.)

I am meeting Ginger tomorrow to go over our Artist's Way chapter and do our check-in. I haven't been doing the morning pages (sigh) and I haven't done any of the tasks. This time. I have done them (quite a few of them) before when I read the book, but I feel this is cheating to not do them again. After all, I am in a different place this time. I'm a different person. Evolved to a new space. So I shall go over them again and do at least one. Oh. Also, I haven't done the artist's date. Unless I count this. I am alone. I'm writing. I don't think that is supposed to count. I'm supposed to be filling up the well, not depleting it by creating. Hmm.

I do understand this. And agree with it. But maybe not in this sense. Not in the sense of me escaping my house (and the noise that goes with it ... and the laundry that needs to be folded) and writing to purge and get my feelings and emotions out. Though I haven't actually done that. I think that this should be counted as an emergency artist date. :) I like that. So I'm counting it.

And now, to book.

Eugene Celebration Parade

Our Spiralscouts circle  walked in the parade yesterday.  These photos are of us getting ready. We all dressed up to represent an element.  In the actual parade, we waved, sang and did spiral dances.  I also carried Joey a lot because the running to catch up when we lagged behind the entry in front of us, and the running he did with the other children made him to tired to walk. Hmpf. You can see Fire and Earth easily represented.  Joey is a sea snake for Water and those in white are Spirit and Air.

Gardens

On September 11th, Joey and I bicycled to "Grassroots Garden" and volunteered some time there.  Grassroots grows most all the produce for "Food for Lane County," an organization that helps hungry people in our community get food.  Joey picked an ear of corn, wheel-barrowed the lot of them to be weighed, and helped shuck them and then dumped the husks in a compost pile. 

He didn't get too involved in the day, however, because he had a dreadful bike accident on the way and scraped up his knee ferociously.  He was also extremely fearful of the 'bees' that were at the garden and piteously asked to go home every ten minutes.  We didn't though, because I wanted him to honor commitments.  Or at least honor mine.  :)  I committed to being there, so I needed him to stay there. The volunteers all stayed for a yummy freshly harvested lunch and then we biked home -- the trooper.

***

The next day, Joey and I went on a field trip with some other home-schoolers.  The Oregon Gardens in Silverton, Oregon was our second 'garden' adventure that week.  Joey didn't enjoy some of the stations, well, actually he just refused to do many of the stations and just played around in the gardens.  He looked for frogs and put his hands in all the water features despite the posted signs and my grumbling about it. He rested, he played with worms, and ran around a bunch.

Here he is blowing soap bubbles through a piece of wood.

Catch Up

First, let me apologize for not writing in my blog for a long while.  I've started this home-school adventure and, to be honest, I'm swimming a bit here.  We don't have a regular schedule (though we don't need to, per se) and often when I suggest doing something (like geography or writing in his journal or blog), he refuses.  ???  So then I'm stymied.  I don't believe in pushing him to something in a punitive way and I don't want to get into any power struggles with him.  That just brings us both down to a level I don't care to function at.

So let me show you what we have been doing this month so far.

On September 4th, Our whole family went to Cleavox Lake at Honeyman State Park on the coast and met up with some friends.  This was an annual "Not Back to School Day" in honor of the thrill and excitement traditionally schooled kids feel when going back to school in the Fall. So a "Not" Back to School tradition was started for the home-schooled kids.  

It was a beautiful place on a beautiful day.  My husband was actually there (we don't often get invited to be family oriented things on his days off, so this was a neat treat.)  And we took Aubrey with us, too; she went back to public school the next day.

My mother-in-law, Anna, asked Joey what he learned that day.  He said, "I didn't learn anything.  I just went to the coast."

I disagree.  He learned lots.  He ran in the sun and dug tunnels that flowed water into a big hole.  He didn't bother his sister but once.  He played with a friend for over an hour with only one altercation.

When I asked him to come out of the water, (so I could talk to him about it) he walked in deeper and stood with his head bowed, just taking a moment and then he was fine and the boys were playing together soon after that.

He played without his sister almost the entire time.  They walked up an entire huge sad dune and ran down it, got fantastically dripping wet and Joey got to walk to the van in a dry sweatshirt and huge quilt wrapped around him.  He had a laugh at that.

***Then I was sick for a few days and we did nothing more than a few math games and puzzles.  And we read together a lot.  In bed.  Under the covers.***

This post is a tad long so I'll continue it in the next one.  Please read on!

Grandparents Day

I got my dad and step-mom to visit today (FINALLY!  -- I haven't seen them for almost two years and they only live 45 minutes away!) ...

And the kids watched a Harry Potter movie the whole time.  !!!

Pretty sad if you think about it.  

Happy Grandparents Day, Dad and Alice!