Thursday, September 11, 2014

A little bit dying

I was juuuuuuust about to straight copy + paste Grace's post but then I decided to be an ounce more original.

Plus, I already kinda did that "life is so crazy wah wah" post like, last week. But guys, it's still so crazy. Partly because I've been making it crazy, partly because it just is. Our days just feel insane. Please, some veteran homeschooler tell me this is normal? We are just three weeks in and I've already given a good amount of thought to enrolling Johnny in preschool and enrolling everyone in school and our clean laundry pile (which is very, very expansive) has been transferred from our bed to the papasan chair in our bedroom over and over and over since the before weekend. I have only brushed my hair once this week and my fridge is filled with gross, wet bags of unused greens and there are fruit flies in my kitchen and the acv traps aren't working and everyone keeps peeing their beds and it's so hot outside which makes it so hot inside which makes me very much want to buy air conditioner. I can hardly keep up with anything but no matter how crazy the day/night/day is I still have to teach them things the next day.

It's really cramping my style.

But I also really want to be homeschooling and I really believe it will all be worth it. So, I'm going to keep pushing through.

This is all normal, right? Things are going to start to straighten out, right? Someone bestow some e-back patting on me because I am seriously in need of a lap to curl up in and someone to tell me it's the way it always is.

On the super worth it side of things... first day of school pics.


+


xoxoSOSx____xoxoxsosxo____O :**********(xoxososwahwahcry
(BUT SERIOUSLY THO)


46 comments:

  1. Well... I don't know how much help I'll be, because I've only got one at the moment. And currently I'm homeschooling her in things like: don't try to crawl down the stairs, outlets are not for fingers, and cords don't belong to you. And the only real word she says with any consistency is "Uh-oh." But there must be something in the water, because I'm going crazy too. Or it might be the 12 hour shifts my husband is on, leaving me home alone allllll day. So complain away. Solidarity is here. (At least you have super cute kids to look at, though) :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "One at the moment" is the hardest part!!! With 12 hr shifts. You're doing food, girl. Hang in there (with me;)

      Delete
  2. Ha! I've been ABOUT to send you a "Blythe I'm going crazy" e-mail for the past two weeks. It's my stupid "Before I Had a Seven Year Old" series. It really is. As soon as I started it my parenting went to the sh***er.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AW! I think want that email. But if you never get around it it, I'll remember you're busy going crazy. You and me, friend. xo

      Delete
  3. It's normal. I can't say it gets any easier really. But one day their little faces light up with some new found knowledge and you see that love of learning and how far they have come. And, much like parenting in general, it makes it all worth it. :)
    It helps me to keep some of their older work for comparison purposes. Whenever I am having a day where I feel like a total failure and we haven't made any progress, I can pull out the old work and compare it to the new work and see how far they have actually come.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I both like and dislike this;) Today I'm giving us a catch up day. I think maybe some catching up will help with overall productivity. Maybe not... But you're right. All the tough things are generally worth it!

      Delete
  4. I thought the other day: "I'm drowning in dry air." Then I sobbed when My daughter informed me seventeen times that the baby was CRYING. Love you! Sending prayers your way!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah I think those photos of mini you+Kirby are your perfect answer. Momma love coming your way from Oh-hi-yah.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh yes. I'm in the trenches with you. I only have three kids though. The first week of homeschool being back in session, I was THIS close to locking myself in my closet until my children were grown and out of the house. Haha! Things are finally falling into place (let the clouds part and angels sing!) and I no longer feel like I'm going to cry-it-out every night into my pillow. :) It's still stressful but totally worth it. My oldest son started out in public school and when we pulled him out to be homeschooled due to a reaaaaaaly bad school system, he is actually thriving. So, hang in there. One day, maybe we'll all hire nannies to get a break. Hahahaha! Yeah right. :) Have a good weekend and brush your hair. It'll make you feel a little better. lol.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds crazy. Sounds like you are nailing it! Id get some help on the housecleaning. Doing it all is impossible & you deserve it!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. DING!!! Yes. I actually found something this week to start coming once a week. I am both excited to see how much it helps and to finally recognize how much I need it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is totally crazy, but hang in there! If you can, do consider buying an air conditioning unit for where you do school, or maybe just hold off on school until the weather is cooler!

    Get your kids to put away their own clothes. Don't bother folding, (unless they want to!) You don't have time for that and the kids will be cute whether their clothes are wrinkly or not. (And chances are they don't stay folded in the drawers anyway.)

    Institutional schools are crazy too, and they don't have babies and toldlers in the classroom and chores to do. They get to focus on just the school.

    I have no suggestions for the peeing in the bed. I feel your pain. We have had way too much of that here too. Some days are just full of bodily fluids and you will cry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes to all of this. Little hands shove dem clothes into drawers or onto shelves. Folding is for fancy people on Tide commercials. Don't let the calendar or the clock tell you what to do, either. Too hot for school? No school. You got night owls instead of morning glories? Do school after dinner when daddy is home. You are the boss of dat place. Boss it around!

      Delete
    2. But seriously the GD FRUITFLIES! And how did we run out of milk? Life, man...

      Delete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Relax about the school stuff and take care of the essentials. Best homeschooling book ever, "A Thomas Jefferson Education" by Oliver DeMille. Your child's first education is playing and learning core values. Your kids are still young. I think you've got it covered just being a great person.

      Delete
  11. Ahhh! After reading Grace's post and then yours, I feel like something in the weather (how old do I sound?) makes us all feel this way at the same time. AND, I'm not even really homeschooling yet. But feeling like I'm stuck under a mountain of things to do (plus a weight on top of the mountain that I feel I need to do), but all I really want to do is scream/cry. Which I do :) Yes, please tell me that this all goes away at some point...or please give me the clue to getting through. And I still want more kids - have I lost it?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh hey best friend who's living my life at this very moment...

    ReplyDelete
  13. And...you wanna throw in a dog! But...I think JB would love pre/school. Just a couple hours a day or three days a week.

    ReplyDelete
  14. PS. My granddaughters are beautiful. 💔

    ReplyDelete
  15. PSS. You didn't mention the water heater!!! Love you kiddo. Deep breathing.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Most of my 8 children DID go to preschool although they were all homeschooled. I just found that 3 - 4 year olds can't keep busy & quiet alone (go figure). The preschoolers enjoyed their 3 hours away twice a week and the older children had a quieter atmosphere to concentrate, especially if I could get the baby to nap during that time. It's a fact of life for homeschooling moms though: there's 8 of them and one of me = balancing act. It will get better because you will have more of those moments where they help each other like that gorgeous photo you got of your daughter holding the baby.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I read this last night and couldn't comment bc blogger + iPhones are not a good match. But this morning at my little mom-rosary group everyone was feeling like this....some of us even cried. So we said a rosary for all of us moms (prayed for you!) who feel like we're dying (a little bit). I have no advice to offer...except for on the subject of fruit fries. We had a major fruit fly issue a few weeks ago and our ACV traps weren't working very well. The flies would hover around them so we finally got the vacuum out and sucked those damn things right up. We did it about 3x and they were finally gone for good! xoxoxoxo!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Best advice ever!!! (And thank you for the prayers!!)

      Delete
  18. Kudos to you for homeschooling from the get-go! I wish I had. I am inching along with my first year of homeschooling and I think we will finally be working on all subjects next week:) AND I send one to high school, one to preschool, and the homeschoolers to the co-op 2 days a week. It is so great to have you some "big girls"! I love having 3 girls first! I guess all that to say enjoy the crazy the best you can because my high schooler is very busy and I miss her already.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I don't know if I am a veteran homeschooler, but I do know every mother experiences this complete land of waste and want multiple times during their careers of mothering. My simple advice is to pull back and start very small usually with math. Maybe even math with one child. Then, when you have your footing add another child or even add another subject to your first child's work. Slow. We are not in a hurry as we have many years to teach them. Nothing can strike down my day like not being prepared in the food department. So, I would almost suggest that before you start school I would get a meal plan and then start school. Slow. Slow. Slow. My mother always tells me that God calls calmly and the devil makes us feel urgent, fast paced, hurried. Spiritually, my mother also reminds me that when we look into the mirror each day ask ourselves, "Who do I see?" If you are looking at the face of St. Maximillian Kolbe, Fr. Emil Kapaun, Fr. Edmund Campion, Bl. Teresa then you are doing quite well actually. We must remember THEY should be our goals. Am I worn and tattered? Yes, my friend, you are doing quite well. Motherhood=the True Imitation of Christ. God bless You.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Living in California, I always thought school should start in October and finish June 30, because September is always the hottest, most miserable month of the year. If I homeschooled I would totally adopt that schedule. Since things are so hot and crazy right now, maybe you can institute "heat days" as the So Cal alternative to snow days and cancel school for the next week or so and hang out on the coast. Or take daily all-day field trips to places with air conditioning. As far as the state of your house, I don't homeschool but I am very organizationally challenged and the book Large Family Logistics was helpful. Now I have systems in place for laundry, cleaning, etc. Scheduling is key for me to get anything done at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So true!! I bet the weather is getting me down more than anything. I've been eyeing that book for a while now. I'm gonna get it today. Thanks for the reminder!!:)

      Delete
  22. Veteran homeschooling mom here (kids are 18, 16, and 11), it'll be ok. Living life even in the messiness is homeschooling at it's best in the early years. I agree with those who suggest getting out of the house when it's hot (I live in Florida, so I know what I'm talking about). No "school" at all is really fine in the early years. My third child did attend preschool for 2 years because that was around the time my bigger kids really needed to "do some school" (they were in 5th and 3rd grade at the time).

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Let's try this again :)
    For the fruit flies - try this:
    http://revolutionfromhome.com/2012/04/how-to-make-an-effective-fruit-fly-trap-in-less-than-5-minutes/
    It works (ask me how I know). Just be sure to change out the beer/dead fruit flies every couple days.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Not sure where the first comment went, but... Ditto to the fruit flies, piles of laundry, and general craziness. As far as homeschooling, our philosophy has taken a turn towards unschooling in the last year and a half. The kids are happier and mommy is less frazzled. And you know what? Kenzie learned her multiplication tables, reads and writes at a 3rd grade level (I'm sure), and Jackson picked up counting to 100 on his own, knows his alphabet and their sounds, and can do simple addition. All this without me "schooling" them and spending hundred in curriculum. They play and watch Netlfix most days, and, occasionally, we learn something the "tradional" way if they ask me. What they learn through osmosis at this age is amazing. Don't stress. If it's too much, pare it down. Or take a day off. Or a week.. Or two. Whatever it takes. Maybe when they are a bit older, we will add some trad curriculum back to the mix, but for now, this is working and we are all happier. Hang in there!

    ReplyDelete
  26. A lurker here, love your blog. Everyone feels this way sometimes. My 5 kids are similar in age...9,7,5,2 and 8 months. When I start to feel overwhelmed with ALL THE THINGS, it's usually because I've mindlessly started doing all the chores, instead of thoughtfully delegating. I don't know why I keep forgetting, but the older kids really CAN do effective help. And they seem to do it even better when there's a system in place. So every morning we tackle a once-a-week chore, like cleaning a bathroom. Each able-bodied kid gets a task, from wiping down the sink to shaking out the map to taking out the trash. 10 minutes later, BOOM, it's all done. We do it after breakfast when we're at our perkiest and then move on to start school. Then after dinner, the two olders take turns either folding a load of laundry or sweeping around the kitchen table. With this system in place, the bulk of the house is getting cleaned with minimal attention from me. I've also stopped trying to do school when the baby is awake. So we only school during her morning nap, and then wrap it up during her afternoon nap. And I still manage to enforce a half-hour alone time for myself in there too.
    FRUIT FLIES: get a little bowl, put some apple cider vinegar in it. Mix in a few drops of dish soap. Leave it out and watch those suckers die. The vinegar attracts them, and the dish soap breaks the surface tension of the water, so that they get sucked in. Doing this always solves our fruit fly problem.
    BIG HUGS and know you're not alone!! - Lauren (I hate to be "unknown", but I can't seem to get my google profile to display properly)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lauren!! I receive your hugs and your wisdom!! Thank you for these reminders- love the idea of us all tackling a chore together. The nap time tip is amazing, too. I just might adopt that.

      Delete
  27. 7 kids in, and sometimes this is just life. Then you have a few good days and people say, "wow! Howido you do it?!" And you smile and think, "yesh, Ive GOT this!" and WHAM! Back to square one, on your knees, begging for help. Everyone had grest advice, and there are some tricks to making things generally easier (like getting rid of 80% of all of our crap!) but sometimes, we just have to hold on tight, ride the storm out, and try not to drown the other people around us.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Very interesting blog. Alot of blogs I see these days don't really provide anything that I'm interested in, but I'm most definately interested in this one.
    temple run 2 , download temple run 2 , temple run 2 game , temple run 2 download , temple run 2 app

    ReplyDelete