Apologies!

Dear Blog,

I promise, I have not abandoned you. I look at you daily and feel like I have nothing to write, because we haven't been doing anything super exciting. Except that we actually have. I just have been writing those "doings" on my other blog, Sweet Honey Iced Tea. No, dear blog, I'm not cheating on you. 

Also, it's December. It's the busy season. So I've been sidetracked. 

And there was NaNoWriMo. 

And I feel like we're not doing anything blog-worthy school-wise. Tuna's been using Time 4 Learning during this busy season. I'll be blogging about that in a few weeks, by the way. 

Here are a few photos of what we've been doing, sweet blog. I will return to you full force soon. As soon as I can. 

There were some sick days that called for piles of blankets, pillows, puppies, and movies. 

We saw St. Nick at the Rothenburg Christmas Market.

And we ate roasted chestnuts which were delicious. 

We've made Christmas crafts. Starlight Mint Tray. 

I made gluten-free sugar "Lofthouse" Christmas cookies. Recipe on Sweet Honey Iced Tea blog. 

We made bath fizzies. 

...and a Santa tulle wreath. 

We "put up" our live tree and decorated it. 

Tuna rode a kiddie ride. 

We're visiting all the Christmas markets we can during this, our last Christmas in Germany. 

Tuna's digging up dinos. 

on my dining room table. 

We went to a gingerbread house party. 

And tonight we're going to the post's tree lighting ceremony. In the blowing snow. 

There you have it. Our life for the last couple weeks. Two more weeks of busy then I should slow down a bit. 

Be well, dear blog. I will come back to you soon. 

Love,

Michelle

Nine Things About Me

I usually talk about Tuna on this blog, but this was fun to compile for a Facebook game going around, and I thought I'd share it here so you could all know a little bit about Tuna's mom. ;)


1. When I was five years old, maybe a bit younger, I was excited to try my new skates in front of my house. The old man who lived next door, Mr. Costa, told me I was going to fall and get hurt if I skated. That's exactly what happened. Two bloody (scarred, now) knees. I thought for years he caused my fall.

2. I can't eat meat if there's any sign there was even once a bone attached to it, and if I see anything vein-like, I'm done. No skin. No fat. That pretty much limits my meat consumption. I think I could be a vegetarian except whenever I try I miss meat. Weird.

3. I hate confrontation to the point that I will avoid it at almost all costs. But if confrontation is what you provoke out of me, you will awaken a beast and I just might take you by surprise.

4. During seasons of insomnia (just about every summer), I use movies to lull myself to sleep. I'll use the same movie for several nights in a row. One of the movies that is best at getting me to sleep is The Exorcist. Remember that if #3 applies to you. 

5. Like He Who Must Not Be Named, I feel like I leave little horcruxes behind at all of our duty stations. Only, I don't kill people (see number 3), but rather I find little places I love dearly, or people I hate to leave behind, so I feel like I leave a part of me with them. I am spread across the globe.

6. I was raised on a small farm. When I was about ten years old, one of our old, crotchety ducks named Dickie flew full force into my left temple. That was the first time I actually "saw stars" and understood.

7. I think my house is haunted. I do not think every one of my houses is haunted, but this one is different. I do believe in spooks. I do believe in spooks. I do, I do, I do believe in spooks.

8. I remember in smells and sounds. A song will come on the radio and I'll think to myself, "ninth grade" or "that time we went roller skating" ...or I'll smell something and think "grandpa" or "my mother's perfume" -- and when we PCSed to Fort Benning, around the Alabama mark, I started smelling the salty air of the ocean coming from the coasts. Yes, that far away. I can also smell snow coming.

9. I don't want all the best things in life. I want all the simplest things. A small house. A tiny car. A simple existance. I'm not out to keep up with the Joneses. 

Added Responsbility

Baby Tuna with (wow, he looks so young) Daddy at The Royal Gorge in Colorado

You're familiar, I'm sure, with the expression looking through rose-colored glasses. It means seeing things optimistically to a fault. Well, I think I'm guilty of looking at Tuna through baby-size glasses. Or something like that. 

She's my baby. 

But she's also a tween. Almost a middle schooler. We're halfway through with fifth grade already. 

The other day, we got together with some friends we haven't seen in nearly a year. We've known them since Tuna and her friend were in first grade together. I watched that boy lose his first teeth, and knew his brother before he was born. We made plans to get together for dinner a few nights ago. When the boy opened the door, gone was the young boy I knew, and standing in his place was a tall, awkwardly handsome in that pre-tween way young man. I couldn't help but remark, "Wow, you've gotten so tall!"

Then, Tuna stood beside him without saying a word. 

She's taller than her friend. 

Taller than the boy I, not three seconds earlier, recognized as having matured, grown, changed. 

My baby. She's a big kid. She's nearly to my chin now. She's changing, growing, maturing. 

And somehow, I didn't see it coming. 

In an instant, my view of Tuna changed. My brain readjusted, somewhat unwillingly, and I began to view things differently. I knew it was time to start giving her more responsibility to work on her own in several aspects of her life, including her education. So here are some changes we're going to slowly make over the next several months:

• Tuna will read her math chapter in Life of Fred and complete the Your Turn to Play on her own, bringing any difficulty to me for help. 
• I'll start giving her long-term assignments to keep track of: memorization, reports, silent reading, to name a few. 
• And I'll begin researching online classes that would interest her, that she can take from home, learning from other teachers. 

It's weird, seeing her as getting big. Even in this photo above, I see my Baby. I know that others see her differently. She will always be my Baby. I will hold her hand crossing parking lots as long as she will tolerate it. I will always read aloud to her. I will always have time for a cuddle. But, for her own sake, it's time for me to see her as growing and changing. I'll be better able to meet her needs if I do. 

I wonder: Have any of you had a similar issue, seeing your baby as a baby and not quite so mature as others seem to see? 

I'm in a bad mood!

I woke up in a bad mood! I'm just irritated today, with no real cause. It happens to the best of us. So, what does a homeschool mom do when she finds herself grumpy? 

I don't want to take it out on Tuna. She's done nothing remotely wrong. So, I don't know what other homeschool moms do (we just don't talk about the bad stuff enough, you know? and when we do, it's laughingly. we should talk about this stuff), but here's what I did:

1. I sat at my desk, drinking overly-sweetened coffee, and puttered around on Pinterest (here is my Pinterest page, by the way. I think it's pretty great.) while Tuna played her bells upstairs. Until I asked her not to. Because the ting!ting!ting! was grating on my nerves. 
2. So, I asked her if she wanted breakfast. She asked what she could have, and I told her anything at all that she wanted in the kitchen. 
3. She wanted to bake cookies. I don't want to bake cookies, I thought to myself. But, wait. She's old enough to handle a cookie mix on her own!
4. I gave her simple instructions: use the microwave to soften your butter, don't forget the timer) and went back to Pinterest. I needed some time, some time alone, to feel better.
5. She set about the task of baking cookies and called me over when her whisk was full of cookie dough (why a whisk? she thought it's the tool she needed, as she's never done this before). I helped her mash up her cookie dough, and she took over from there. 
6. Ten minutes later, she presented me with gingerbread cookies, which I devoured happily. 
7. Next, she watched a movie while I still needed some alone-ish time. She was all of fifteen feet away from me, but the different engagements helped. Again, it's not Tuna, it's me. But I find when I'm cranky that working quietly alone helps. 

And that's where we are now. I'm writing, she's watching a movie. I'm hoping this mood blows over soon. I'm deep breathing, about to go soak in a tub for a while, and I'm sure I'll feel better. 

The bottom line is this: Every mom has bad days. Heck, I remember my teachers having bad days. Out came the board games, the rolling television, the indoor recess, the other teachers monitoring us while our teacher stepped out. It happens. And life goes on. And no one's education is compromised. 

So if you're cranky, go soak in a bubble bath! Pop in Home Alone for the fifteenth time this month and just unwind. There's always tomorrow. 

And for the love of sanity, share your bad days with your fellow homeschoolers, so they don't all feel isolated, alone, and bad for being cranky sometimes. 

Our Learning Room

Sometimes we have one. Sometimes we don't. Right now, we have a lovely learning room with gorgeous windows and lighting. It's so comfy in there. We both enjoy it. Here's a peak at what it looks like (after we're done with it for the day):

Bay did this chalk pastel last year. 

Our school room doubles as a guest bedroom. It also makes a great place to snuggle up and read. 

We always have an audience. 

One Mom. Two Kids. One Public School. One Home. One Foot in Each World.

I often feel like I have a foot in two worlds: the world of being a public school parent, and the world of being a homeschooling parent. They are so very different. They have different languages, different cultures, different ideals. I often feel like we don't quite fit in one world or the other, because while we're fully committed to both of our children getting the best of what they need, we're not fully committed to one method of education over the other. My homeschool peers don't want to hear about my public school mom life, and my public school peers don't know the first thing about my homeschool mom life. It's a strange place to be. 


My Bay (who made the decision, with her dad and I helping, to attend public high school) is a cheerleader. It's been a great experience for her. It keeps her crazy-busy, but she loves it. We all went to her first home game, homecoming week, to support her and watch her cheer. The football was the side show for us. Our eyes were on our daughter. 

This week also meant another milestone for us: Bay's first homecoming dance. Isn't she the most lovely freshman ever?

Bay and her date

I lead two lives when I have two children learning so very differently. I have to speak the language of homeschool: nature study, co-ops, lesson planners, and curriculum, and I have to speak the language of public school: Common Core, parent handbook, booster club, cheer squad, home game, concessions, seminar. 

And while this will remain primarily a homeschooling blog, I will have occasion to write about being a public school mom, too, from time to time. Tuna, thus far, wants to follow in her sister's footsteps and return to public school for high school. May this maiden voyage with Bay pave the way. 

Sometimes, ya gotta wiggle!

It rained yesterday, and it's raining today. The results:

She feels better now. It does no good to fight a child's natural urge to move. It's so much better for all involved if the child is allowed to act naturally and expel that energy. Now, she's calmly watching Minecraft videos. And she told me that was lots of fun. It certainly was a lot of fun to watch!

Trip to Vienna, Austria and a Q&A with Tuna

Mom: So, we were in the oldest zoo in the world, What did you think of Vienna's Zoo?

Tuna: I really wanted to watch the Pandas but they were sick. The cheetahs were neat. It didn't really look that old. I didn't know it was 250 years old. 

Mom: Yeah, it didn't really look that old. I was expecting old statues and monuments and an older feel about the zoo. It was really just a zoo like other.
Tuna: Yeah.
Mom: Still, zoos can be fun. What was your favorite animal at the Vienna Zoo?

Tuna: cheetah

Mom: Did you have any other favorites?

Tuna: hmmm...nope

Mom: Do you remember visiting the palace?

Tuna: (nods)

Mom: It was called Schonbrunn Palace. What did you like about it?

Tuna: The gold in the room. The rice paper walls were really cool. Oh, yes, the millions room. It was full of riches!

Mom: I really liked the rice paper walls, too. Do you remember hearing about Napoleon and Marie Antoinette?

Tuna: Napoleon, yes. I don't know who Marie Antoinette is. 

Marie Antoinette was beheaded.
Tuna: Why?

Mom: For treason. She's famous fo rsaying of the commoners in her time, "Let them eat cake." Doesn't it sound lovely to be told to eat cake? 

Tuna: Yeah, but...

Mom: Yeah, but... It meant that she didn't care about hte peasants that had no bread to eat. "Let them eat cake" was an insult. 

Tuna: Oh!

Mom: We saw lots of statues in Vienna. What was your favorite one?

Tuna: The Mozart statue!

Mom: The Lipizzaner Stallion show at the Spanish Riding School was not your favorite event from our trip, was it?
Tuna: Noooo
Mom: Thank you for being a good sport, though. 

Mom: We ate a delicious lunch at The Mozart Cafe at Hotel Sacher, then we got to eat some yummy cake. Did you know that the hotel where we ate designed that cake, and that they're famous for it?

Tuna: Yeah, I knew that. On the way to Vienna you were talking about the cake.

Mom: I was pretty excited to eat that cake. What did you think of it? 

Tuna: The cake that you got? Uh..it wasn't that great. It was too bitter. 

Mom: I got the Original Sacher-Torte. It was dark chocolate. What did you think of yours? The Truffle Torte? 

Tuna: Oh my god that was SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!

Mom: One of my favorite parts of our time in Vienna was seeing the cemetery where the famous composers were buried. What did you think about that?

Tuna: It was cool but I expected fancier graves for the composers. 

Mom: Which was your favorite grave marker?

Tuna: Mozart's. No wait. Beethoven. 

..

Mom: You went to your first classical concert in Vienna. What did you think about the concert?

Tuna: It was amazing.
Mom: What was amazing about it?

Tuna: The cello player was amazing. 

Mom: He was my favorite, too. Which part did you enjoy most: The Mozart part, or the Strauss part?
Tuna: Mozart

Mom: It sounds like you are a big Mozart fan. I am, too. 

Tuna: Si. 

Mom: You became an expert at riding the subway and street cars, didn't you? If you had to give some advice to someone riding public transportation for the first time, what would you tell them?

Tuna: Always make sure you are on the right train. Always hold your kids' hands!

Mom: What was your absolute favorite part of Vienna?

Tuna: the pool (giggles).
Mom: ....

What city are you most looking forward to visiting in the future?

Tuna: Paris!!!