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Yep, I was gone all weekend. It's my once-a-year scrapbook weekend with my BFF and compatriots. We snipped and clipped and stuck and clucked until our fingers were little sticky stubs. It was a blast. Probably one of my better ones. Handyman came home way early on Thursday and his job was cancelled on Friday, so I got to leave after lunch on Friday and not return until Sunday night! He was great about sending me, even though we didn't get to watch the playoff game together. Bummer for us. Colts are always bad after a bye week. Sure would like to see those Pats get their bums kicked. Great news! The garden catalogs have arrived and I'm loving it. This year we are expanding. We really have to because the manure piles have overflowed the plot from last summer. We want a strawberry bed, a sunflower bed, the regular garden bed--maybe some corn again. And each child wants a plot to do of her very own, which I think is a great idea! I gotta get my tomato seeds going earlier this year. I crave the smell of tomato plants. I don't care if they ever get planted in the ground (okay I do care), I just love to smell those little devils as they grow. I kneel down and sniff and know that there is a God and he does love me and summer will probably come to this forsaken state. My parents have fled the state, but the forget something(s) important--namely two large co-dependent dogs. Oops. Poor Handyman. I was gone all weekend and he had three kids, three cats and four dogs in the house--two of whom need to be touching you in some fashion most of the time. Did I mention that we don't have dog fence and so our dogs go out on leashes after dark. Four dogs is a little cumbersome at 11 pm. Then there's that rooster, back in the kitchen shower. There was some heavy spiritual happenings here today as #1 decided to rededicate her life to Christ! How cool is that?! She just felt a touch from the Lord and took care of business on her own. She came into the kitchen and asked me to turn off the radio for a moment, knowing that that was a supreme request since Rush had already started. Fortunately, I did not hesitate in this moment of maternal devotion because then she told me that she was so happy and what she had done. How touching it was and I am very thankful. I am trying not to define myself as a homeschooler anymore. Although homeschooling can consume your life so easily, I do not want it to be the majority of who I am anymore. I love homeschooling or at least the parts that don't involve workbooks. I love that my kids love us and want to be here and I love those ah-ha moments. But we are so much more than that. Just as most adults don't want to define themselves by their jobs--We are Christians. We are conservatives. We are hobby-farmers. We like to cook and read and knit and laugh. We ride horses and have chickens and we are teaching our children at home. It's not who I am. Just something we have chosen to do. I have long hair and love sarcasm (when it doesn't hurt) and I'm climbing out of a bunch of debt and I am completely in love with my husband. I train horses, a little. I train dogs more. I could probably train cats if I wanted and I'm pretty sure I can train children. I love movies and my children don't need to leave me all day to learn enough to compete in the world. I scrapbook and pretend I'm still young enough to sing (I need more cowbell.) Homeschooling isn't who I am. It's something I believe in, something I do and would fight for but I don't want my kids to remember me as their teacher. I don't want to build memories of sitting at a table with workbooks. I just want it to be a natural part of parenting (the full-body impact part). It's got to be different than the crazy, contorted institutional version, or why do it? Sorry to ramble. I'll be back on with daily entries this week poking fun at frozen horse doots, chickens in the kitchen and dog bumper cars in the hallway. Gotta go, the dog needs covered up again!
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