Well I feel badly for posting what I did earlier. Thankfully the day got better as time went on and people stopped pooping (well, most of them anyway). The children and I actually had a lovely evening together, and now they are tucked warm and safe in their beds. I certainly have no right to complain about anything.

This afternoon Eli said to me that he was happy. Sometimes he'll come up to me and tell me that. I said "oh, I'm glad you're happy!" and he held up his hand- "no, my hand is happy."

How can they be so infuriating and so adorable? Most of the time he's adorable even when he's infuriating. Most of the time.

I was reading something earlier by another mom who sent her oldest off to Kindergarten today. Her heart was so clearly broken and she posted a ton of pictures of the first few minutes when she was able to stay in class, and said how she (the mom) cried all the way home after dropping her daughter off.

I remember wondering how I would ever do that, when Audri was very young. I wondered how any parent could send their child off, but knew when the time came I would do it, since that's just what you do. Thankfully I discovered homeschooling and immediately knew in my heart that homeschooling was the right thing to do. It took awhile for Chad to get on board, but by the time she was old enough to start school he was a believer since she had been reading for a year already by the time she was to enter kindergarten. Now he is a huge supporter. He sees how beneficial it is, and how much she is learning even with our relaxed style.

Anyway, where I was going with that was how sad I feel when I watch other families go through the process of starting their children in school outside of the home. It is clearly unnatural. If they're blubbering and sobbing on the way home from dropping their child off (or if their child is as they watch their mom or dad walk away)... what drives that? I have never understood it, even as a child. Schooling outside of the home is relatively new in the span of history. I'm thankful that homeschooling is no longer some fringe, hippie freak thing to do. It is not an issue for homeschooled teens to be accepted into college, and from what I've heard Ivy League schools even give pause to homeschoolers. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

I didn't mean for this to turn into a praise of homeschooling. We've tried 'regular school' twice since making our initial decision to homeschool, even this past year. It never lasted longer than a month or two, for this is our path. And the school experience was always just as disappointing as I had expected. The bottom line is that I just can't bear to have my children gone all day, it is the most unnatural thing in the world to me. I truly don't believe it's good for them either. I know it wasn't good for me, or just about anyone I know. Even with piles of poop and screaming toddlers and teething babies and snarky olders, I want to be with them, and I know this is where they belong.

Posted by crazybusy

Amen & amen. :) And we all have our days like that (your previous post).

You know, I haven't been to any beaches much further south of us than LaPush in Forks. What about Long Beach? Or Ocean Shores? I've heard good things about those beaches, but have never been myself. Those don't look like they'd be TOO far out of your way, but neither have I driven on those roads- I don't know what the roads are like.

Sounds fun though! Let me know where you end up going & if you enjoyed it!

Love, Alyssa