Things aren’t going so well over here. Not gonna lie. Feeling a bit stressed, a bit discouraged, if you will. Wondering why I home school? And what would be wrong with driving them to the rural public school and enrolling them all immediately?
Thoughts? Someone might need to talk me down here. I might be loading them up tomorrow, vaccination records in hand.
I am baking my own bread at this very moment. Yes. Be impressed. There is flour on my shirt and it looks my kitchen exploded, but the bread needs to rise and now would be a good time to blog. Because organization is my strong suit.
The bread is rising for the second time. Bread. It’s so kneady.
Oh, darn. No one can deny that was uber punny.
I am making this gal’s recipe for bread and making one loaf of cinnamon swirl bread, of which I plan to make French toast out of tonight. I am certain I will hear complaints from the members of this household, as per their usual dinnertime custom, but here I am, kneading and rising dough nonetheless, all in hopes that someday, someone, will rise and call me blessed.
I am a Grumpy Grumperton today, am I not?
Let’s move on. On Saturday, Sweet Pea had her first basketball game. It was enjoyable, to be sure. That girl is awesome on defense. She sticks to her man like white on rice. She does, however, forget to switch to offense. So, while she is on offense, she searches out her opponent and again, sticks to them like dots on dice. This is good for the other team, not-so-good for Sweet Pea and her chances of winning any future college sports scholarships. And can homeschoolers win college sports scholarships? Probably not. But here’s to hoping.
After the game, we came home and I got a hankering to try the homemade bread that was previously mentioned in the above Grumpy Grumperton section of the post you are currently reading. Saturday was the first time I made this bread. I made four loaves and they are almost gone, which is why I am making four more loaves today. And this seems excessive, our bread consumption, does it not? And one must wonder if I have time to make such things?
I don’t.
I also made homemade English muffins-about 2o of them. They are already gone. It’s obvious I am drowning my sorrows in carbohydrates.
Please take note: when I first started blogging in aught-nine, I had a healthy fear of active dry yeast.
Attention Readers: Look at me and my bad yeast-rising self! Holla!
I’m growing up before your very eyes! Aren’t you so proud?
The snow came today. We have been blessed with lovely spring time weather thus far. Foolishly, we laughed to ourselves and blissfully thought we were escaping our usual wintertime doom.
Alas.
It still came.
Those are my boys. Aren’t they cute? The answer is yes. I am fragile today, you know, so don’t argue with me. This was when we were trudging down the driveway to meet the bus for Handsome Dude. Because I had half a brain and outsourced the education of the boy.
Do you think it would be weird if I just threw all the other ones on the preschool bus and then ran back inside? To bake more bread?
So, we did school. Lovely as usual. And then we had to go pick up Handsome Dude from the bus stop. It is an odd sitch, but the bus driver picks him up at our mailbox, but I have to drive about a mile away for the afternoon drop off.
Bus drivers. So fickle.
So, in order to get the boy, I had to trudge through inches upon inches of snow and try to scrape all the windows. Meanwhile, wind is blowing and I am certain we are having blizzard like conditions. And I had to take a second and loathe all the locals who were complaining about the lack of snow.
What is wrong with people? What’s fun about getting snow smacked in your face and your jeans wet up to your knees and putting the rig in 4-wheel drive just so you can drive one mile to a bus stop? I wash my hands of it.
Well. I must now face the kitchen. My husband is coming home from work. He is certain to be hungry and I am feeding him French Toast (did I mention I am making my own bread?)and he does not really care for bread. I know. Wife of the year. And then he will spend hours upon hours plowing the blessed snow. I wash my hands of it.
I shall leave you a new segment I just made up this very second entitled:
Little Dude and his Inappropriate, albeit Cute Mouth
Little Dude: The “u” says “uh” like “*unit*.”
Except he said the real word for unit. You know I can’t type that stuff out.
Shameful.
Alright. That’s all.
I was uplifting and encouraging today, was I not? You’re so very welcome. To end things on a more positive note, I will share with you the verse I have been thinking of often.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5,6
Happy Tuesday!
Glad I’m not the only grumpy mom…
taylor, have you lost weight? my your hair looks good today…and that bread, so handsome! there, do you feel better? =o)
You know, I thought the same thing! Have you been losing weight? Cause this post really makes your butt look tiny. 😉
You crack me up lovie
Ps I miss you
That is my favorite scripture! I don’t make bread anymore because there is only me and my hubby to eat it but boy, did I enjoy it when my kids were around to help me munch it all up! It will taste so good! All of you need those carbohydrates to keep your little bodies warm.
Holla! for husbands who willingly plow snow!
I used to make my own bread back in aught-eight. And I realized that my love of fresh homemade bread was such that my muffin top was suffering.
So I stopped.
Dang. Can’t you grease the palms of that bus driver to just go a wee bit farther and save you the trouble of getting in the car? Especially if you need to plug it in or whatever it is you have to do to that thing.
Go ahead and put them in school. you have my permission.
Proverbs 3:5 is my life verse. My husband chose it for me several years ago because I would freak out and think I had to control everything. It brings me great relief when I recite it and remember I can trust on God! Whew! At least someone is in control!
On a homeschool note, teachers get breaks, you know. Give them something quiet to do independently, so you can “grade papers” or “plan” or catch up on “professional reading.” Trust me, we all do it for sanity purposes. You will feel better for it. I’m sure there is a movie they could watch that you can tie in somewhere too! 8)
Also, homeschoolers can get college sports scholarships. Hello! Tim Tebow! Where you been, girl?! Oh, you live in Ruralville plowing snow. Maybe that’s why! I kid. I jest. You have skinny jeans and hip boots, so you must know about Tebowing. If you don’t, quick google him and learn some pop culture real fast.
I hope your grumpiness is cured by popcorn, M & Ms, and the soda pop (can’t recall which one) you and hubster will consume while kids are in bed. Ahhhh…bed time…the light at the end of the tunnel!
That was one of my verses this weekend…I hope your day got better and you have a blessed week with less snow….Your post made me so happy we moved to FL 7yrs ago, I do not miss snow.
Blessings Kelsie
I’m sorry you’re having a day. Days? Hope everything setles down or perks up depending on which way you need life to be. Hugs!!
As a teacher in the public school system, I can assure you that there’s no such thing as a break for we are always planning, grading, copying, and planning some more.
I say ship them all off and spend your days lazying about the house eating bon bons.
Just kidding, I think.
Seriously, though, I think I totally missed something somewhere for I had no idea that you were shipping one of the Dudes off to school. When did this happen, and may I inquire why?
BTW, I’ve always thought you looked great. You’re a lovely, bread-baking lady!
Handsome Dude has been going to preschool two days a week since September in a rural town about 15 minutes away. The preschool is located at their elementary school. The plan is to homeschool him as well starting in kindergarten next year. Little Dude might go to the preschool next year, too, and then be kept home the following year for homeschool.
🙂
Sorry… I’m laughing a little bit inside thinking about you homeschooling Handsome Dude. It can be done, but most likely NOT AT ALL like the girls. 🙂 May God grant you the peace and wisdom you’ll need to make your schooling decisions.
I was also going to tell you about Tim Tebow. Homeschool and sports can go together very well.
Oh how I wish I would bake bread. I did make cinnamon rolls the other night, but that hardly counts. No yeast, and the recipe makes eight. They didn’t last long.
It’s funny, if we had that snow around here, school would be cancelled!
Taylor, you and your family are a source of joy for me to read about, and it makes my day when you have posted a new entry on your blog. You are such a good wife , mother, daughter, friend, and servant of Jesus. AND you have a sense of humor that has me laughing like crazy! So tonight I am feeling bad you have felt a little off today, and I pray you have a beautiful day tomorrow! Get a good nights sleep, and I bet tomorrow you will be a home schooling wonder!!!
Thank you! 🙂
TWENTY English muffins???!!!!! I am impressed!
As you should be . . . 😉 ha!
Wow. I want to be Becky’s friend. Holla, Becky!
So, some schools, I would say, OK. But at that local school, your sweet girls would get beat up. regularly. there is a reason they have a “reputation”. You know this, yes? Teach them to bake bread. it counts for school. if you walked the mile in the snow (uphill both ways?) you could eat all four loaves on your own – no guilt.
Remember, soup in crock pot on bread baking day.
yes. Bossy Big Sister. I come by it naturally.
OMG. Both of you need some help. You already do too much. It’s the perfectly natural (albeit difficult) after-holiday winter blues. You rock with your determination to battle yeast and no, there is nothing wrong with sending the kids to rural school. If we don’t respond to new information and situations then we are like robots or President Bush: “Stay the Course” even when everthing points to making a new plan. Put them in, see how it goes. 1. It’s not an irreversible decision and 2. What’s the worst that could happen? not much. And you two could get a lot of things taken care of and feel relieved and more in control. It’s going to be alllllllllright. Who knows, with your children in school, other parents may enroll their kids, the teachers and curriculum and entire atmosphere of the school could improve. It can all be good.
Ok, I’m gonna be a bit presumptuous and say something similar to what Aunt Datenutloaf said, but without being a family member:
If this is just a day, or a couple of days, then that’s one thing. But if this feeling is more than that, then I think you should seriously consider reevaluating the home-schooling, even if its just short term. Another blogger I read, just discussed this yesterday, and I think you might find her post interesting. Like you, she’s obviously a lovely and devoted mom. But after many years, she realized that homeschooling was taking too much from her, and she had nothing left.
I’m sure I sound like a lunatic because I don’t actually know you. But I really think it’s important that we moms don’t get ‘locked into’ certain decisions that suited us and our lives at one time, but may no longer do so. It won’t mean you’re a bad mom.
Bless you and forgive me for being pushy.
Here’s the link to that blog post:
http://missalamode.blogspot.com/2012/01/year-of-simplicity-decisions-school.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FekfrD+%28a+la+mode%29
Not pushy at all, thanks for sharing . . . that was a great post! I am not against putting them in school, but I have heard some negative things (kind of like what Diana mentioned above) about our nearest public school, so that is where my struggle is. We are definitely praying about it and trying to figure out what God’s plan is.
We have decided I do too much, and we have been trying to be more structured with the kids and chores and David is going to assist more in the evenings-not that he was against helping before, but I was trying to do it all and amaze him.
I’m not really amazing anyone, currently. I am mostly going insane . . . 😉
Thanks for sharing!
So, Teller. The other day I was watching a female guest named Taylor on TLC’s What Not To Wear show. I was listening extra hard because I remembered you said your husband and family call you “Teller.” I suspected that “Teller” came from a certain accent group. Sure enough, Stacy London called Taylor “Teller”!
I agree that it is an accent group because my father in law, who calls me “Teller” is from Pennsylvania and I had a teacher years ago from the east coast who called me “Teller.”
It’s really strange, is it not? 🙂
I have an overwhelming urge to bake some bread. Which is sad, as I’m far lazier than you and won’t actually ever do that!
I have homeschooled my daughters for the past 12 years and had many days feeling just the way you do now. But, now, the oldest is in college a year early, getting straight A’s and is captain of the rugby team. I would suffer through all those days again to be where we are at now. We have successfully overcome most of the homeschool sterotypes and the relationship I have with my girls is priceless! Hilariously enough, my oldest daughter’s Bible study leaders told my husband and I that we should write a parenting book – HAH!!! I was like…you have no idea!! I am not ready to admit some of the difficult days we have had and how poorly I handled them – LOL!!
What really helped me was to take the option of sending them back to school off of the table and only allow it only to be considered at certain times, the beginning of the school year, for example. Sounds like reverse psychology, right? I just didn’t want to make an emotional decision. I wanted it to be a decision based on what is best for the children and the family. I didn’t want to feel guilty or feel like a failure because they had successfully worn me down.
Early on, in my weak moments I would even tell them that I was considering sending them to school. Well, that was until the one time, in response to my “threat”, my youngest ran upstairs, put on a fancy dress, came down and announced she was ready to go – LOL!!! I then realized that not every day was going to be a cake walk for any of us and the same applies when you send you children to school.
It is impossible to be a perfect homeschooling mom. We are only made perfect through Christ!
Praying for you today!
Taylor, just buy the bread. Your sanity is too high a price to pay for home made bread. 🙂
mmmmmmmm . . .warm, homemade bread. You are a hybrid of Supergirl and Wonderwoman combined my dear. I’d add in a pinch of some type of supernanny because you do it all with 4 kids too!
Take some deep breaths and if you still feel like it, check out your options for school. There is no shame is re-evaluating decisions. Smart people always keep theirs ears and eyes open for easier, better, and cheaper ways to do things. . .hello pinterest! : ) Maybe you could just attend a PTO or something to meet some other parents or teachers from the school? Good luck and chin up!
I’m English and I have NO idea what an English muffin is!!!
You know what MY favourite verse of the Bible is? Philippians 3:16 – ‘only live up to what you’ve already attained’. There is SO much grace in that short sentence. So cut yourself some slack – b.r.e.a.t.h.e. – and praise God for your frailties, because when you’re weak HE is strong!
When I’m having a bad home schooling day (which is becoming more frequent, as I’m due to give birth in 6 or 7 weeks and according to my physio I’m falling apart) I usually just cancel school for the day. Because you know what? – a day’s disruption isn’t going to result in them leaving home unable to read, write or count when they’re 16!!! I also keep reminding myself that in Europe (Britain being the exception – as per usual) most countries don’t start educating their children formally until they reach the age of 7 or 8 – and their kids are ahead of ours in the league tables. There is an (American) study on this, if you can get hold of a copy … http://www.amazon.co.uk/Better-Late-Than-Early-Education/dp/0883490498
Chin up, Chick – you’re doing fine!
Taylor. Homeschooling is hard. It is. But you can do it. You can.
Obnoxious Unsolicited Bit of Advice #1: See if you can find a teenager somewhere (maybe a homeschooled one) who will come clean your house for $10 an hour. I had a wonderful girl who cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed the floors for almost three years. It was the best $15 a week I ever spent. It’s amazing how much not having to clean bathrooms can cheer a person.
You can do it! TEL-LER! TEL-LER! TEL-LER!
(cheering. duh)
I agree WHOLE-HEARTEDLY with Debs “Obnoxious Unsolicited Bit of Advice #1”!! I have an angle who comes every other week to pray for me WHILST CLEANING! It’s amazing and allows me to breath like a normal human. We’re not rich . . . not by a really, really extra long shot . . . but we make room in the budget for this. Role it into the school budget if you must. However, you may have to pay extra to get someone to come all the way out to Ruralville. Bummer. PRAY for someone . . . or for direction on what needs to give. (I’m sure you already are so don’t listen to me.) He knows our needs . . . to our weakness is no stranger! I sing that line of Christmas music to myself all year long.
By the way, congrats on the bread thing! I’m about to delegate that job to my 11 year old. Better times are coming! As they get older, things do get easier.
you’re doing a great job!
keep plugging away at what you have decided is important to you, which sounds like homeschooling them is important to you!
i’ve had some horrible days with the kids lately myself…i feel like a total pill and regret a lot of my words. and i only have 2 young ones…not 4 and homeschooling like you. i keep telling myself to hold firm to my convictions and priorities….and am constantly praying for strength!!! 🙂