Barking Toddlers, Part Time Public School, and Being the Weird Parent

Otherwise the Busy Life I'm Leading While Trying to Market The Cowboy's Sexy Songbird and Having No Idea What I'm Doing

 

Gibson and Blueberry have a quiet moment together

My life lately, has turned into a boat ride- on a cargo ship, chugging through the cold bitter waters of the Atlantic Ocean, being whipped back and forth from wave to foamy wave. The salt water splashes over the crews' head, filling their mouths and eyes with the salty and gut turning seawater---

and I'm desperately holding onto the side rail, my stomach churning and losing my lunch over the side.

That's where I'm at lately. Mentally. Not physically.

Physically- I'm a landlocked lass, dreading the impeding doom of yet another winter -(has anyone ever asked Mother Nature why we can't change the seasons a bit- perhaps only have winter every other year? That would be great. Currently I'm on a campaign to convince Hero Hottie that we should move to New Zealand. Anyone ever been?)

Mentally- I feel tossed around like a salad- look at me being pun-ny. I think it's the contradictions I'm living right now. I'm grateful to pay for braces for Abu, but staying up at night stressing about paying the heating bill this winter because I used my saved heating money to have a torture device installed in her mouth.

Which BTW- an expander needs turning by a little 'key'- sounds innocent enough until you're in the middle of turning this key and you realize you're stretching and tearing apart the flesh of your child. Then I start to feel a bit sick to the stomach.  But we are on the last day of turning that damn key- yay Abu- and it has definitely started to reshape her jaw. Which had to be done- not just for looks, but she couldn't eat before we started the orthodontic work.

I have released my first fiction work, The Cowboy's Sexy Songbird, but now I'm stressing because I don't know how to sell it. So far I have heard good reviews and that warms my heart. No writer likes to release a piece of work and have people hate it.

Baby Blueberry will be a toddler next week. How did she turn two already? And she's busy barking at people. Everywhere. In the store. Down the street. Out the front window. And it's a good bark too, sounds just like a puppy. Many people have been startled by her barking, because they weren't expecting a curly head, blue-eyed toddler to be the source. It's just one more thing Gibson has taught her. The art of communication. 

Abu and Bean are going to public school part-time. For fun classes. Electives. At home we're focusing on math and writing. I will say right now, I'm not fond of the current methods of teaching math. Not at all. And in the future I will write about it in my blog.

We are also covering science, which have consisted mostly of field trips so far and it's only the second week.
Last year I stressed over how to home school Bean. I borrowed books from the school district, which we stopped using after the third week. I bought workbooks, which we finished but yawn. And finally towards the end of last year, because Bean was bored- I pulled out my college science books and had some success.
This year it's all college books or books from the library. I'm skipping textbooks, workbooks, and the stress of having to do something a certain way because there's an expectation of the ways things should be done.
So far, second week in, math is done -old school- science has been enjoyed and topics have been discussed for writing.  I feel more success already than the entire six months last school year combined.

I know the crazy ways I look at running my life don't make money. Trust me, you have a money question ask my brother or sister-in-law, not me. And my main goal right now is to make money- I suddenly had this overwhelming fear occur that I didn't want to be the old lady eating cat food forty or fifty years from now, so I thought I better shift gears now, while I have time to make money.
   But writing my own script has worked for me. So we're writing our own script for their education too.
   Abu wants to be an engineer. We're going to focus on math, and taking apart garage sale appliances, building things, and art.
   Bean wants to do something that isn't in an office. Which I have known since she was seven and couldn't sit still. I want her to learn determination.
   Blueberry wants to be a musician. I know, she's only almost two. But you should see her with music. It is what makes her soul sing.

  And hence, why I'm the weird parent. At least according to Bean's friends, after I made them pick their supper from the garden when they came over for a sleep-over. And it was one of the best salads they had ever ate.

   I may just have to accept that my life is messy right now. And it's okay. Because it's not a total disaster.
   But if it does get messier, than I'll just dream about New Zealand.
  Or start barking at people. Works for Blueberry.