Monday 5 January 2009 - Mostly Gloomy With Occasional Bouts of Humor
I’ve written several posts over the last week; a couple have even made it to the keyboard. Some were fairly interesting. Of course, none actually were finished, let alone posted, because I am slothful like that. So in leiu of all the posts I haven’t made, I offer you the next best thing… okay, maybe the next-to-next-to-next best thing… anyway… I hereby offer you A Little Update Email I Sent to Some IRL Friends. Because we were all sending little update emails to each other because we have been too busy to actually get together and drink coffee at a little round table while we catch up on each other’s lives. (And really, email almost works better for that anyway, because when we sit at a little round table we all talk at the same time.)
Sorry, chasing rabbits. Anyway. So you understand that the following is not really a blogpost; it is an unpolished, only slightly adapted, made-for-email update. Slightly formatted to fit your screen, of course.
It's been sort of gloomy-to-rotten around here lately, although we did have a nice Christmas and Hubz made really cool furniture for the kids again. We had a nice NY Eve w/a family from Cheez’ school which has a kid for each of ours and then some. And on Fri Cheez & I went to see Benjamin Button, a rare trip to the theater for me and a rare "date" for the two of us. (Interesting concept, pretty good movie but way too much casual s*x.)
Other than that, the tanking economy has cast sort of a gloom-and-doom atmosphere around here, as Hubz has no work and keeps saying things like, "We might have to move, you know." Which is not really what I want to hear, considering that I waited 17 years for a big-enough house and had planned to be here pretty much forever. The kids don’t like it either and have asked if I could please ask him to stop saying that around them, and Fuzz keeps trying to give us money.
Add to that all the usual issues that arise when two people who don't agree on much of anything try to run a household and raise kids together. Throw in some always-frustrating organizational endeavors and a heaping big accrual of library fines, all wrapped up in good old post-Christmas crash... I'm sure you get the picture. Gloomy-to-rotten, with occasional bouts of Rage. (No really; it’s a card game I put in somebody’s stocking, and we’ve played it a few times, and it’s fun. Though not quite as fun as the occasional bouts of Bananagrams.)
So I need to work harder at finding a part-time job. My mom & dad have offered to pay for some classes if I want to go back to school to refreshen my 22-year-old heretofore-unused college degree & increase my marketability (although I'm not optimistic about the marketability part). The offer is open if Hubz wants to take a class as well. This just came up today, so we are thinking about it. In the meantime I made a call (yay for me; I have a phobia about making phone calls) to my alma mater’s Alumni Services/Career Development and told them I was a local alum looking to enter the job market after 20-plus years and could they help me and they said oh absolutely and set me up with an appt for Fri. Hopefully this will help me to figure some things out. This sort of beats sitting around waiting for a job to drop into my lap, which has been my strategy for the last 6 months. It's a step anyway. A BIG step, for me. I have been Just A Little Woman At Home for 22 years and now I am going to walk into an office called “Career Development” and talk about things like resumes and refresher courses? Odd concept, that. Hard to wrap my brain around the idea of being anything besides a Homeschool Mom.
So we’ll see what comes of it. As I said, I'm not as optimistic about my prospects as my mother is, especially in this economy. College degree or not, I would probably be fortunate to get a 3rd-shift job stocking shelves at MalWart. At this point, I'd do it. (Oh, and guess what? If I homeschool and take a class and work, or maybe even if I just do two of those, Hubz will cook and clean. It’s not like he has much else to do at the moment.)
Don’t worry about us, btw; we have some accounts-receivable and some savings and won't starve. Freeze to death maybe :-). (Gas bill for house & shop was $350 last month!) Hubz is getting very inspired by our reading the Little House series at night and has proposed that the kids & I have a weekly "old-fashioned day" in which we turn the heat down to 60 and bundle up & do all our schoolwork by the downstairs fireplace. Gosh, maybe I'll get a big iron kettle and cook bean soup in the fireplace too so as to maximize our resources. And after schoolwork is finished, Fuzz and I can sit and quilt while Hubz & Spaz go out and shoot us a duck for dinner. Oh wait; we don't quilt and they don't hunt. Hmmm. So it'll be Xbox and blogging and Aldi chicken instead. Close enough.
Anyway, God is good all the time, even if the economy isn’t. Life is an adventure and blah blah.
In other news, the kids did math today. Good old math, the same yesterday and today and forever, the bastion of stability and simplicity; just open the book and do what it says. Perhaps tomorrow we'll go all out and add spelling.
OK, after you're finished commenting on this post, go back to the post about my cute little Woolian and add a comment there, too. It looks so lonely without any comments, and she's such a cutie that she deserves a few, no?
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This is a sidebar. It is full of all sorts of fascinating stuff... bloggy stuff, family stuff, homeschooly stuff... It's almost (but not quite) as interesting as the blog. So read it.
About This Blog
My posts may be funny or thoughtful or boring;
they might have you laughing or thinking or snoring.
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"Hubz" (48): Self-employed entrepreneur who works from his shop next to our house. Has I-don't-know-HOW-many businesses simmering on one burner or another. Tho' a talented woodworker, he currently works mostly with plastics, designing & building displays. Enjoys building creative furniture for the kids when time & energy allow. Hobby consists of taking kids on dates; eats & sleeps in his spare time.
The "Miz" (44): Oh, like you need a description of me. Read the blog!
And the kidz...
"Biz" (Son 22):
Recent college grad, living with friends. Deciding whether to teach English abroad in the fall or buy a house. Enjoys reading, writing, computer & video games, music, hanging with friends, travelling. Occasionally stops by the house for a good meal. :-).
*Homeschooled thru 6th grade, plus 8th grade.*
"Cheez" (Daughter 18+):
Recent high-school grad, working full-time this summer. Hopes to eventually write and travel, perhaps at the same time. Enjoys reading, writing, superfluous vocabulary, and the piano. Definitely her own person.
*Homeschooled thru 8th grade.*
"Spaz" (Son 13++):
Highly sociable, sensitive, makes friends with anyone. Struggles with ADH issues, but charming & loved by many! Plays rocket football in the fall and watches pro & college ball all winter. Loves to read, learn, make up his own arrangements on piano, tease his sister, make interesting things out of Legos, and :P play video/computer games.
*Has always home-schooled.*
"Fuzz" (Daughter 10++):
Artistic, musical, highly creative. Sweet, sensitive, very "on top of things", routine-oriented, stubborn. Great policeman & back-seat driver! Loves piano, reading, drawing, making stuff, creative playing, and anything "Little House". Asks great questions & makes great observations.
*Has always home-schooled.*
Cheez, Fuzz, Spaz, & Huz (2006)
What Type of Homeschooler Are You?
Well, here's MY description:
Over 16 years of homeschooling, I've evolved to a less formal, Charlotte Mason-ish eclectic approach with a more-or-less classical bent. (Isn't that clear as mud?) My goal is to �light the fires� of learning and creativity in my kids. I emphasize history & literature because we enjoy them, and I incorporate informal language arts into much of what we do.
Er, yeah. That's how it's SUPPOSED to go. The reality of it is...
After 16 years of homeschooling, I have yet to really figure out how to do it. So we muddle along, overemphasizing history and almost sort of neglecting science, and I spend way too much time making plans that we don't stick to anyway. We read a lot, and we like words, and we don't manage our time very well, and sometimes I yell.
And here's how quizilla sees it:
Mr. Potato Head:
"You have your ideal of how things should look, but you're flexible enough to allow for change. You are not bothered by changing methods, mid-course if necessary. You use an eclectic combination of curriculum sources."
Um, yeah, that works, for the most part.
Take this quiz!
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