Friday, December 29, 2006

Go to bed already

It's 2:30 am and I'm still up. In my perfect world, I'd stay up until 4 or so every night, sleep until noon or so, then start my day. Well, it obviously is impossible to live my perfect world on a day-to-day basis because I'm a mom -- a homeschooling mom. I wonder when Thomas is grown and leaves the house if I will indeed go to that schedule.

It was a slow day, I putzed around the house in the morning. I talked to a friend on the phone in the afternoon, and that was a very special treat. Then my stomach started hurting. I took a nap after super until 7:30. I realized it was Thursday and my dream of deep cleaning the kitchen on our break was not going to be realized unless I got off my butt and started to work. So I did. And I felt very ill while I was doing it but I plugged away.

One of the things I find most troublesome about homeschooling is that I don't have time to devote to my home that I would like. I am not a multi-tasker, I cannot do two things at once. I have to give undivided attention to the task at hand. And that makes it impossible for me to clean during school. I mean deep clean.

Thomas and his dad worked on the electrical wiring of his model train set tonight, so I had peace and quiet. I was able to get a lot done, but I still have a good solid day's worth of cleaning in the kitchen to do. Maybe two. I also want to get the Christmas stuff packed away. I also want to get the laundry caught up. I also want to... you name it, I want to do it.

What is it about the Christmas holiday that turns your house upside down? I haven't done laundry in a week. The house is a mess. Perhaps it is because my husband has the week off and is underfoot. Sometimes I miss the days that I worked outside the home. My house was always in good shape and clean then. Yes, I had a cleaning lady come once a week, but that wasn't why it was in good shape. It was because no one was there during the day to mess it up.

Even though we're on break this week, the learning has not stopped. Thomas has learned so much about electricity this week. He's learned terms of all the doodads: terminals, switches, amps, etc. -- stuff I know nothing about (nor do I care to know!). He has spent hours wiring that track. It's a long process, definitely longer than I thought it would be. His dad taught him how to solder today. What surprised me most is that the boys spent several hours together today and tonight working on it, and Bob got tired and curled up with a book. Thomas plugged away and continued to work. All by himself. I was very impressed by that because the train stuff is in the basement, and he hates to be in the basement alone, and secondly, because he usually doesn't like to work on projects by himself.

Tomorrow should be more of the same: me cleaning the kitchen and the boys working on the train.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's me! I am a total night owl, but baby by is a morning kid. I am not sure how that happened, but it means I regret it each time I stay up late to finish what I didn't get done during the day. Cool on the train set! I love natural learning!

Anonymous said...

Reagan is just like you...and thank God for homeschooling! She would never be able to function at 8am everyday! I used to be the same, but I have somehow reversed and become an early bird...enjoying the quiet of the dawn and turning in early.
I know what you mean about the house upside down. The problem with new things is having to organize and purge the old to make room!

momof3feistykids said...

Sarah is a night owl, too. I think public middle school (the bus stops near our house at 7 a.m.!) might be the death of her. Thank God for home schooling! *LOL* We have our share of Christmas chaos here, too. It's hard to keep everything in balance at the best of times, and holidays complicate things. I loved reading about the train set. Happy New Year!