A Sunday

Greetings, sorry to miss yesterday. Too grumpy to blog. Long day, yada yada. 

Better now, had fun day at home with the kiddos. Last night I finished the last eighteen inches of binding on Caroline's quilt. She is snuggled under it at present. 

This girl is going on nine months. Lately she's found herself standing without holding on to anything, just for a few seconds, but longer everyday. My goodness! She is also fond of taking everything out of the bottom of the pantry. 

I can't seem to get the pantry organization right, or maybe we just have too much junk. Hmmm. 

Quilt complete, I am returning to a neglected knitting project, and squeezed in a few rows during C's morning nap. Thanks for the help, Ollie. I wanted to start another sewing project but my machine really needs service, and finally we have a local place to take it, so that's on my list for the week. 

One other small project of the day was indulging the kids in their wish to bake something of their own creation. Sort of - I suggested we make a basic muffin batter, then I split it into two and let them each add what they wanted. That seemed to satisfy, and their little creations turned out pretty well. 

And that was our day, pretty much. These kiddos are good company. 

Lego Land

There were many things I could have/should have been doing today, but the honest truth is I spent most of my "free" time today playing Lego. And by free time I mean Caroline napping time, because she tries to eat Lego like it's her job. 

I think I drive Don crazy with the fine point I put on how the Lego gets organized, but it makes me feel like my world is in order when the pieces are all sorted nicely in their drawers. Not easily done (and not yet done) when working with the combined collections of Don's and my childhood Legos plus what our kids have accumulated in their own right. 

I'll let you know if I ever make it to the bottom of the pile. 

Local Fun

As much as I didn't really want to come out here, I am having fun figuring out what daily life on the Left Coast is like. Moving around the way we do makes for feeling like an odd blend of tourist and local each time we go somewhere new. Yes, I live here, but I'm not from here... And so what exactly is up with all the teeny little drive-thru espresso huts? I just had to find out. Which resulted in the consumption of this very yummy salted caramel latte while waiting to pick up William from school. I could make a habit out of this. 

New Look

Today's post is brought to you by yesterday's picture of a very smiley baby, who, like all my kids, has never had more than a passing, newborn interest in a pacifier. Yet when I unearthed this one in a forgotten purse, and handed it to her, it became an object of fascination all afternoon. She finds all sorts of other things to stuff in her mouth all day, so why not something that is supposed to be there? 

Forgive me the heavy post from last night; naturally I do feel better about the whole situation today, if still a bit unresolved. Amy had a good day and I think was a bit better rested. She loves recess (recesses, actually - they have several at this school), and loves making new friends. And she's super glad that William will be there tomorrow, too. As I've said on this blog many times before, I find the broad subject of education endlessly interesting to discuss - whether it is for my own kids or not. I am fascinated by homeschooling and very much would like to be part of that cool kid club, and I can see so much benefit in it for my kids and our family. However, I have to reconcile that with my own personality type, my desire for personal space in my day, the fact that my better half is gone half the time, and how to address the needs of each child without over-indulging them either. It's tricky, and for better or worse there are lots of options open to parents these days. When I was a kid I wasn't particularly crazy about school, but no one ever hinted that I had a choice, and I really didn't. It was simply what we all did. 

Which is another long way of saying, I love writing and thinking about school, and along with designing the perfect Lego storage system (another post, perhaps) it is something I like to keep simmering on the back burner of my brain - I just need to give the pot a stir once in awhile to keep it all from bubbling over. Thanks as always for listening. 

First Day

Sometimes I think I am really terrible when it comes to making decisions. Somethings I think I am open-minded to a fault, and so persistent when it comes to analyzing pros and cons that I simply don't know when to let a subject be. Sometimes I think I lack conviction, and am too easily swayed by the incidental comments or experiences of others, or by the more purposeful discussion with friends and family close to me. Sometimes I think I have a perpetual case of "the grass is greener". Sometimes I think I have too much time on my hands. Sometimes I think I don't have enough. 

Sometimes it helps to remember that "even a spotted pig looks black at night" and to shelve my thoughts for the night, to be revisited in the morning. 

All the time I have three amazing children, and all the time I want to make the best possible decisions I can on their behalf. 

Which is a long, and odd, way to begin a post about our first day of school. 

Amy and William happily went off to a new school today, William for the first time ever (two-day preschool, mornings only). I picked them both up happy, too. William takes the prize, I think, for best attitude and most detailed recounting of the day. He admitted to crying a bit after I left (his teacher had told me that, too), but was able to summarize his morning in an incredibly mature and circumspect way and decide that on the whole, it was a very good first day of school. Amy, old school-pro first-grader that she is, was predictably positive and had a fine day with lots to report as well. While they were both gone, Caroline napped and I had One. Solid. Hour. totally to myself in my own house. William and I played with the tools in his tool box after a special Happy Meal lunch this afternoon. He couldn't believe his renewed good fortune, to have the chance to hold court without Amy around to interrupt. 

It was an entirely lovely and successful day. 

But something is off in my heart. Amy already doesn't want to go back - I think she wanted the thrill of the first-day newness of school without crashing back into the day-after-day school routine that thoroughly exhausted us all last year. 

Did I mention that we have been out of school for an entire 13 weeks? That's three months, 1/4 of a year, exactly, having left an early-ending school district and joined a late-starting one. Thirteen weeks seems to have been sufficiently long enough for me to have forgotten all the things I hated about the school routine. 

There's plenty to like: the routine, for sure. The early bedtime. The time to spend with the younger children. The diversity of experience. And, since this is a Christian school - a good helping of Bible instruction thrown in for good measure. I sure didn't mind those few minutes all to myself this morning, either. 

But the dislike column? Rearing it's ugly head again and making me RETHINK, AGAIN the whole school/homeschool dilemma. Bullets on the dislike column include: 

-Reports of other unruly, snarky children that my angel children must keep company with

-Homework. In first freakin' grade. 

-Even in a three-grade blend, it still sounds like Amy is ahead of things and yet

-The workload, and length of day is tiring for a six year old, no matter how smart she may be

-Detailed instructions from the school as to exactly what a lunchbox may contain

-Germs. 

-Playing chauffeur (and stuffing Caroline in the carseat) up to three times a day for drop offs and two different pick up times. And getting Caroline out of the car and back in again at each of those. 

-Packing a lunch, setting an alarm, rushing through bedtime, and generally feeling STRESSED OUT for five days a week. 

-Feeling once again beholden to the school calendar and knowing that we are basically trapped on this weirdo coast for the duration of the school year, because a trip back east would invariably mean missing days of this expensive school that I somehow though would be a good idea to pay for. 

Ahhhh!!! Perhaps it's better I just go to bed and revisit this all after we've all given it a fair shake of more than one day. I'm venting here to avoid venting to Amy and further confusing her own emotions on the subject. Incidentally, none of this applies to William - I really feel that six hours of preschool a week will benefit him, and us, tremendously, regardless of what I decide to do with Amy. My angst is for the full-time student. 

So, that's my story. Now, can I stick to it? What is a mother to do? I was quite convinced for months that homeschooling would be the right fit for us here, then I let a summer of chaos and moving and traveling and visiting and crawling baby and arguing siblings drive me to the proclamation "Off you go! School for all!!" 

We will give this a fair shake, and if nothing else I'll spend a few weeks going through my lovely books already purchased

and see if I can't wrap my head around what homeschooling would mean for us, whether it begins in a month or a year. That's really all I need, enough mental space to wrap my head around the subject at hand. That mental space was really lacking in the last few months. 

Anyway, thank you SO much for listening to this long rambling diatribe from a crazy mom who can't make up her mind about school. See ya tomorrow!

Long Weekend Quilt

Oh happy times! I rather unintentionally found myself in the middle of a new quilt last week and am so very pleased (as I always am) to have made the time for some sewing. 

Here's my little sewing area in the downstairs guest bedroom/playroom. I love the wall color, and it happens to match the fabric in this project. With birthday money many months ago I bought a Moda jelly roll and had plans for a large, elaborately pieced quilt for Caroline, but impulsively decided to just slap them all together into a little crib-sized number, and by doing so could finish the project entirely with materials on hand. Always a win. 

I pieced the strips horizontally on the front and vertically on the back, so it is double sided. The batting is a thick cotton, and I'm hoping this will fool Caroline into thinking she is sleeping under the heavy quilt on our bed, as she seems to be so fond of doing. 

You might notice that the binding is not quite finished - I took these pictures while I had daylight (and a model) yesterday, and planned on finishing the binding last night, but my model had other ideas, so I will wrap up this post up tonight and try again to finish the hand-sewing. It is a thrill to complete a project! 

One More Moment of Summer

The temperature topped out around 78 degrees in our sunny backyard this afternoon, and the house was stuffy enough to turn on the air conditioning for the first time since we moved here. I have no complaints about the weather here so far, but it has been a far cry from steamy South Carolina. This morning, as we were trying to decide what to do with our day, I could think only of how much I longed for a trip to the sunny Atlantic beach. And that, as Don said, would have been a long drive. 

We ended up spending a low-key day at home. By the time we went out to start the grill for dinner we were all a little warm and cranky, and some sprinkler time was just what was needed, for the kids and the lawn. We spent so many afternoons like this in summers and places past. It was so nice to have a moment of summer out here, too.