The Ol' Switcheroo

It is currently March 16th.  Four more days until Spring is officially here.

We have almost officially survived winter in Montana, once again.

It actually has been a very mild winter.  It began looking like Spring more than a month ago, but I didn't believe it was real.  I was fairly certain this was Montana playing a big joke on us, tricking all of our Spring flowers to start growing too early so It could drop it's temperature on their tender baby green growth and kill them all dead.

Spring without Spring flowers, Montana's cruel idea of a joke.

I was so sure that was going to be the outcome that I buried all of my premature baby crocuses and tulips under mounds of old leaves last month. This morning I saw all my baby plants have fought their way out of their unnecessary protective blanket, defiantly showing me they will not stand for this over guarded stance I have taken for them.

So be it.  They are ready now.

Speaking of protective blankets and guarded stances, we have decided to try a different approach to Kloe's Middle School experience.  Starting next Fall, we are going to give home school a try.

Academically, she is doing great in school this year; all A's and B's and nothing but praise from all of her teachers.  She is growing up, and is a very funny kid.  I truly enjoy being around her most of the time.  But I can also see the social pressure pushing in on her, trying to shape and mold some of her attitudes on life.  I just can't stand the idea of her specialness being shaped into this idea of Typical American Teenager.  Can. Not. Stand. It.

I don't know if it's just a difference of temperament between Derrin and Kloe that has allowed him to get through Middle School without the outward manifestation of The Social Pressure Molding.   Maybe Middle School is harder on girls?  Maybe it is easier for me to recognize in my daughter because I had that same thing trying to shape me once upon a time ago.

We have offered Derrin the option of home school next year as well, but he has already enrolled in High School and is pretty excited about his classes.  But the option remains open.

What do we hope to achieve with home school versus public school?

My biggest goal is to provide an environment where she will be able to grow into the best version of herself.

She is naturally drawn to singing, writing, and art.  I'm hoping that by encouraging growth in those areas, it will help her form an idea of self-identity that has nothing to do with trying to fit in and be like everyone else.


I've been doing a lot of self-reflection during this decision.  Am I asking more from my daughter than I ask of myself?  It isn't fair to expect her to do the work of being her best self if I am not also doing the work of being my best self.

Self-discipline is going to be the quality that keeps this thing afloat or sinks it.  The only way I can expect her to have self-discipline is if I also have it in my own life.

Next fall I won't be going back the seasonal job I've worked the last six years.  I'll be home with Kloe, helping with home school.  I'll have a separate goal list for myself.

I've been looking into different online home school programs.  One of the that looks promising combines 7th and 8th grade.

My ideal/dream week of home school would look like this:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday:  Get up at 7, get ready for the day.  Start school by 8.  Do the basic school stuff for about three-four hours. 

Other Ideas:

• Do something physically active, like play basketball (she mentioned that when we first discussed this with her), go on walks, see if she can do some things at my gym with me.
• Enroll her in an art class or have a voice coach once a week.
• Schedule definite times throughout the week to hang out with her friends, and plan on doing some traveling to make that happen.
• Spend more time with family... see if she can hang out with Aunt Renae, and Lyndsay.
• Have an actual mid-week service day that we can spend together.
• Derrick offered to spend more time teaching her how to play golf.
• She can also work in his office throughout the week to make some money.
• We can go on field trips together.
• Things I would love to share with her: Photography, painting, working with stained glass, making jewelery, and anything else we can dream up together.

Who knows how it will work out.  I've heard positive and negative experiences from different ones who have done it.  I'm hoping that by exploring ideas and defining the results we want, as well as acknowledging that we will have challenges, we'll have a better chance of aligning our hopes with what becomes reality.

Summer Plotting

May is almost here, which for me translates into my seasonal job going dormant until next October (?), with the exception of days where I will be covering for others who need vacation days.

SO, here are a few things I wanna do, some specifically during the month of May (since the kids will be in school still), and some for the rest of the summer:

1.  Paint the kids bathroom.  Preferably in teflon or rubber spray paint that can just be hosed down once a week (maybe have Derrick add a drain in the floor so no mop up will be required after the spray down?).  I wanna fix up this bathroom, but sometimes making the kids part of the house cuter feels self-defeating.  They bare much of the responsibility of keeping it clean, and it has become my habit to not look too closely at the results of the kid cleaning process.  If I paint this bathroom, I know I am going to feel more compelled to keep tabs on it, thereby increasing my own work load...  BUT, it needs some love.  And hopefully I will give it some in the month of May.

2.  I need to create and complete some photography projects!!!  I have so many people who've asked me to do family and personal portraits, and I need to get them rounded up and make them happen.  My goal is to be more proactive this whole summer with my photography, and have a lot of fun with it.  I have some awesome ideas for some portraits of my kiddies I wanna do sometime around the end of May when all of the yellow flowers are blooming up Blue Mountain way.

3.  RUN.  Must start doing this again.  I've been neglecting it for too long.

4.  Hang out with my homies!  I wanna do some art projects, especially in May when we still have some quiet momma time.  I want to go to their houses and have them come to mine, and have us all sitting around outside drinking ice tea and lemonade while the kids run around and play.

5.  Plan some camping trips with our friends and families.  Need to get that stuff down on the calender.

6.  Get together with my fellow momma-friends and plan out an awesome summer for all of us with water time, art projects, games, and pure awesomeness.  I want this summer to be all about good memories for all of us.

7.  Start planning out my yard and gardening stuff.  I was so disheartened by my inadvertent murder of all of my seedlings (hundreds of my young green children), that I have not even attempted seeds this year.  But I need to get some cold crop stuff in the ground.  I am thinking lots of kale this year, since I use a lot of it in my green drinks.  I am not even going to bother with tomatoes, as I never ever ever ever am successful with them.  I might attempt parsley and other spices (again for the green drinks)... and maybe some sweet potatoes (?) as I know I will eat those too.  I need to buy a ton of dirt to replace all of the dirt I took out of my flower garden and put into pots last year (pure laziness on my part).  Maybe I should actually enlist some help from my more green-thumbed friends this year for this particular endeavor.

I know there are a lot more things I want to do, but that is all I can think of at the moment:)

My Summer To-Do

Droopy Days

This summer has already been rushing by.  I should say "summer vacation", because in reality the first day of summer is June 21st, which is five days away from now.

So far we have had a whole three consecutive days of sun, and a whole lot of rain.  Everything is beautiful (the plants are loving it) but it's making people kind of droopy.

It's been kind of quiet up to now.  I've been filling in at my office job this week.  I'll be taking the kids to T. Falls on Sunday and leaving them with Stephy.  They are going to be taking swimming lessons with their little cousins there for the next couple of weeks.  I am working at the office again Monday (Going to see Brandi Carlile and Ray Lamontagne in concert- Derrick bought us tickets forever ago! Can't believe it's already here) and Tuesday (my friend Amy's gonna stay with me for a bit those days while her kiddo gets fixed up at the doctor) and then I should be mostly done there for the rest of the summer.  I'll drive down to T. Falls to be with the kiddies and Stephy.  We'll be staying there during the next couple of weeks, and then going back home on the weekends for various summer parties and 'hanging out with Derrick time'.  

The assembly is coming up in July, and I'm hoping for some camping in there with various buds of ours.  There is definitely gonna be a trip to Seattle sometime in August to see Aunt Tia and Uncle David.  All of this will be interspersed with meetings, service, playing at the water park with our friends, being Derrick's office sidekick, and keeping the house functioning. 

Hopefully most of these things will happen under a big sunny sky.