Homeschooling. ‘Twill be the death of me, mark my words. I ain’t gonna lie, folks. I feel like my brain is going to explode if I have to cram one more thing into it.
Oh! But it is a blessing. The homeschooling. A joy, really.
The worst is seeing all the cute back to school pictures with all the happy children in their happy desks with their happy parents kissing them goodbye. And I know that there are pros and cons to all aspects of the education world, but,oh my lands, when Handsome Dude is on his third fit solely from the trickery of the letter “y”, I COVET the peoples who outsource the education. Oh, yes. Covet.
CCCCCOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEETTTTTTT.
So. I am tired. And basically throwing a huge homeschool fit. But I’ll get over it. I have no choice. I just need to get a better schedule. Tuesday went horrifically long and today was a bit better. We ended at three and loaded up to hit the library.
My kids are total homeschool kids. You should hear the cheers and whoops and hollers I get when I announce an impending trip to the library.
At the library, Handsome Dude announced he had to use the BAFROOM all by himself.
Well, son. By all means!
He came back and was walking funny . . . a little “saddle-sore” if you will. He then announced loudly for all the world (which was just us homeschoolers and the librarian) to hear:
“Mom! I not wipe! I need to wipe the poop! I’ll be back!”
Awesome.
After we impressed the librarian with our manners and cleanliness, we headed to the grocery store to buy a few odds and ends. I decided to buy Jo-Jo’s for a snack and then take the kids to the park. Because I am the world’s best mom, didn’t you know? And my kids have NEVER heard of a Jo-Jo! Outrageous.
Do you know what a Jo-Jo is? Hmmm? HMMMM?
We went to the park. Little Dude fell on his head, as per his usual custom. They posed for a picture.
And then we went home.
I sent Daisy Mae on a little harvest trip to the garden.
Zucchini. Nailed it.
I set to work on shredding this beast, which was no easy feat. I decided to make a chocolate zucchini cake. What a brilliant plan to take something as healthful as zucchini and shove it into a delicious cake!
Genius.
The girls, relentless with their studies, decided to do science on their own accord-the crazies that they are. And when they asked for help, I, the good homeschooling marm that I am, told them bluntly:
“Sorry. Mom is done with school for the day.”
So. They were on their own.
Are they doing an experiment? I cannot be certain.
I had a zucchini to deal with.
I am fairly certain I have anywhere from 10-40 more of those zucchinis out there in my garden to deal with. Makes me want to run and hide.
In other farm and garden news, there was a deer in our garden!
Can you see it? Can you see it?
The poor thing was terrified and slammed all around in the garden before finally finding his/her way out.
David’s not here. He’s making me popcorn. Otherwise I would be able to fill you in on the gender of the deer. Because I am certain you care.
Also in our garden: coyote poop.
So, great. Another thing to worry about. Coyotes. Every morn, I wake up and make sure Peter the Cat made it through the night.
Alright. I am tired something fierce.
I need to get sleep so I can have the energy to ruin Handsome Dude’s life with the letter “y.”
PS-The deer was a girl.
You can rest easy now.
Please enlighten me on Jo-Jo’s….I have no clue what they are.
I’d be happy to take zucchini off your hands. 🙂
Oh yes! JoJos are so yummy in their super naughty fried potato way.
I’m outsourcing my kids education to a private school but then I go to work teaching other people’s kids to pay for that outsourcing. The irony is not lost on me and I consider homeschooling again. But my DD is not quite as sweet as your girls and she gives me fits much as your boys. Every little thing is some issue. She just can’t cope. Amazingly, when someone else teaches her she manages just fine. Go figure.
Ha. I covet you homeschool moms who get to teach such small numbers of children. Outsourcing education may be the way of the masses, but that causes masses of children to be in outsourced classrooms (30 this year – 31 in my partner teacher’s room)! It’s exhausting as well. Day 3 was supposed to end 50 min. early. It is not going to this week. I don’t know why they won’t let us have our normal schedule in week 1 of school. It’s super exhausting. I must stop now before I delve into full-blown whining. Thanks for posting this. I feel like someone understands me!! 🙂
Isn’t it sad that chocolate zucchini cake uses so little zucchini? If I’m going to go to the trouble of making a cake I want it to use serious zucchini. For to use it up. And it never does. It just never does.
Only Jo Jo’s I know of are the Jo Jo cookies at Trader Joe’s which are wonderful. The best handwriting I know of is the sadly no longer in print Palmer method. If you can get your hands on a used copy, snag it.
I can correctly identify a deer since we have herds of them walking, sometimes running, thru our yard. Herds? Flocks? Whatever, I do know a girl from a boy : )
I don’t know what Jo-Jos are. I live in the country too.
That’s the problem with zucchini-it is always so overly abundant. Can you just chop, blanch, and freeze for the winter so anytime you feel the urge for chocolate cake you can make it healthy by throwing in some zucchini? How about making zucchini bread and freezing? Those recipes are easy to double and freeze well. Good luck. Sounds like a home ec class to me…or as they call it now Family and Consumer Science : )
It’s a brand new day!
What you need to do, Teller, is lower your standards with the homeschooling. Problem solved!
(only slightly kidding. maybe you can drop or shuffle some stuff so it’s not such a thing)
Zucchini cake is awesome, the zucchini makes the cake sooo moist 🙂 Have an extra slice and say it’s for me!
is jo jo, ho ho’s brother? (and PLEASE, if you google ho ho use ho ho ‘cakes’!)
impressive zucchini! would have preferred it to have been a cucumber…although i have never heard of putting cucumber in cake or bread!
i don’t know how in the world you let your kids out the door alone with all of those wild critters roaming around your homestead (i am referring to the scary critters, not bambi)…or are the critters more afraid of your kids =o)
Do you teach HD in a seperate area where no one will overhear if he makes a mistake? He may feel bad when he makes a mistake…..he may not have the self confidence the girls have.
Have the eye doctors tested his eyes with his glasses on to see if they are correcting his vision correctly? Boys are different in girls in how they think and learn….ask David what he thinks is going on in HD’s mind? David would have the male perspective or ask David’s brother.
It seems t me something isn’t connecting for him. 🙂 You are a trooper. All the things you do and fit into a day.
I do not know of a Jo Jo either……..enlighten the masses if you would.
A Jo Jo is pure heaven, especially at Christmas time when they come in peppermint. Yummy!! How did you know it was coyote poop?
I thought Jo Jo’s were those seasoned potato wedge type things from the deli section of the grocery store. I’ve not had one, but I do of people who have. So that’s something.
fried chicken and jo-jos were my mom’s failsafe if she was out of ideas for supper.
LOVED them!
LLLLLLOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEDDDDD them!
Now I gots to get me some.
I love the zucchini! I have made 53 loaves of zucchini bread this year – I give about half away and freeze the rest so we have zucchini goodness all year long. You can also grate it up and freeze it for use later. If you need a good recipe you let me know – I have perfected mine. P.S – What the heck is a JoJo?
Oh, Taylor, I don’t know how you do it! I’m exhausted from just reading your posts!
I, too, would like to know what a “Jo Jo” is, please. 🙂
I have no idea what Jo Jo’s are….inlighten us please. Girl you have so much going on with the “farm”, gardening, canning, animal feeding and corraling and cleaning the rental and caring for your own home….and on top of that you are homeschooling??? I fear your going to crack under all that pressure… Your blog is a joy to read…but it does just point out how lazy I acutally am!!
JoJo is me lil sister. That’s a big zucchini. Will a very large stern serious lecture from both the parents curb the tantrums with HD? Perhaps he’s just not ready? Don’t know, but admire you for all you do – it surely is a lot. Is it really time for long-sleeved plaid already?
Now I’m all worried about Peter. Does he have a little hidey hole, very small so he can escape from coyotes, cougars, other cats etc? You may lose him if not. Even between some big logs?
Yes, your kids are homeschoolers and you are doing a great job with them.
As for the zucchini, zucchini chocolate cake is a big fab around here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/
Great little site if you can access it in the US.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/
Great little site if you can access it in the US.
The zucchini! It is a mammoth! A behemoth! A megomaniamoth!
Now I’m just making stuff up. The sucker is huge, is what I’m saying.
And “y” is full of trickery. It seems like it should say what a “w” says, which letter is full of its own deceit and tomfoolery. It seems like it should say what a “d” says. At first. Then its name goes “yoo”…the English alphabet…it is enough to bring someone to tears, truly.
And I am sorry about coyote poop in your garden. Poop of any kind really. I am definitely a city girl. Although even in my city, I encounter enough poop on sidewalks and in parks to make me want to live in a bubble.
The zucchini! I still can’t believe it…
The other day I was pitching a fit about homeschooling and I almost made myself write sentences.
“I will not whine about school. I will not whine about school. I will not whine about school.”
When my husband went to Bible camp as a young tiger, he told me the camp director actually had a meeting with the younger boys at camp to give “wiping lessons.” Apparently your Dude isn’t the only dude that’s had that issue through the ages…
We love JoJos and started calling them that when we lived in Montana… In Maine people have no idea what the heck we are talking about, but we refuse to call them “potato wedges” that name, although descriptive does not fit the super treat that is the JoJo!
PS. I laughed out loud at your library adventures and since my family inquired I read it out loud to them… My future son in law said “Wait, it that the one with all the chickens?” That fact that he could tell that from a poop story baffles me!
I do NOT know what Jo-Jo is. I feel incomplete.
Oh, good. I was worried for the deer’s mental state not knowing what gender he or she was. All good now. You are an inspiration to all zucchini peelers.