So, this is the part where I ask each of the kids what exactly they want to learn about.  Because they’re kids.  They change their minds.  And Mama hasn’t exactly managed to get too deeply into the things they asked about in the summer time.  So… MULLIGAN!

Have you ever read Jen Hatmaker’s “Worst End of School Mom Ever” blog post?  In there she says “We were awesome back in October; don’t you forget that.”  This pretty much sums up how I feel.  I had it in August.  Or at least I DESPERATELY WANTED to have it.  That counts for SOMEthing, right?

So, I don’t have it, but I want to have it.  I want to get back up on that horse and engage with my kids.  It’s been a long, hard year with so much change that I should be a coin machine.  I have come a tremendous way with my PTSD and my family may have recovered from the whiplash of dealing with a completely new Mama.  I fumbled with my footing but Mama is back on the horse, making the tough decisions about That Which Must Go for the sake of family harmony and the goals and needs of small people instead of big people.  I don’t mean that the big people get nothin.  I just mean that needs are met, self-care is implemented, and the really big and delusional dreams get put on hold because there isn’t enough left without taking from the little people.

And the little people need us more than we need delusions of grandeur.

So… back in the saddle.  This is what the “classroom” dry erase board looked like on Sunday:

The left side is what BigGuy (top, in red) and Girly (bottom, in purple) want to learn about.  Notice that Girly wants to learn about robotics and spaceships.  BigGuy is on a serious poetry tangent.  This should be interesting.

As of end of day Tuesday, I’m pretty sure all of that got done.  Today, we got mildly derailed by NOT going to co-op because Mama and icy roads simply don’t mix.  So we were off-kilter.  There was a lot of mandala coloring (fine arts–check!), some playing outside in the snow (physical development and health–check!), a serious amount of reading (language arts–check!).  BigGuy also managed to do his flute practice (more fine arts), Rosetta Stone (which falls under nothing), and programming (I think this is math because it’s not quite biological and physical sciences).  Overall, a rather productive day.