A typical day OR ATYPICAL day

Our atypical homeschooling day


I awoke a little before 7 only to hear Bob grumbling about something. A few minutes later he was actually talking to me, the incoherent zombie, telling me that Jerry got sick but he took him and out and cleaned it up. He was late for work. Jerry jumped on the bed, snuggled in with me, and I passed out.

Awoke at 9. My heart raced when I saw the time. I was so tired. I rolled over and rubbed my doggie's tummy. All of a sudden it was 9:20. Wow, how did that happen?

Jumped out of bed, woke Thomas, started a pot of coffee and took Jerry potty. Got the dog his medicine, saw Thomas was preparing a bowl of cereal, so I took a cup of coffee to the garage aka smoking lounge and had a morning cigarette. And then another. Thomas called out stating he was still hungry and could he have another bowl of cereal. Sure. Lit a third cigarette.

It was going to be one of those days. At this point I was still exhausted and in zombie mode.

Went to the kitchen and Thomas had finished breakfast. I told him to start on his seatwork. He worked in: Nonfiction reading, Write!Write!Write!, Logic and Wordly Wise while I did the previous night's dishes. (Note to self: Spare myself morning misery and do the dishes when they are used!)

Did a quick spelling test using Sequential Spelling.

Got out Lial's for math. Working on Order of Operations again today. Made Thomas do 15 problems in the book after I worked through five on the white board with him.

Remember that I thawed cinnamon rolls for breakfast and got them out of the fridge to rise again. Hopefully they'd be done in time for lunch, which would be a nice surprise for my hunk of man.

Still haven't showered or dressed.

Thomas needs a break after the difficult seat work, so I go outside for another cigarette and let him run wild. His father had downloaded a Beavis and Butthead game the previous night, so Thomas tries it out. I hear squeals of laughter, uncontrollable giggles. Not wanting to face that, I light another cigarette and get another cup of coffee.

Go back into the house, call Thomas away from the computer. Am met with many whines. Throw the rolls into the oven as they've doubled in size. We discuss the history we listened to yesterday and kinda/sorta pick up our mess. We look at our Spanish books, but don't do a lesson because Bob will be home any minute.

Buzzer rings, rolls are out and frosted just as Bob walks in. Bob and Thomas discuss Beavis and Butthead. I just can't take it. I think it's grounds for divorce. Go out into the garage, again, with another cup of coffee.

The secret must never be revealed that I actually think Beavis and Butthead are funny. There, I said it. I laugh inwardly, but frown outwardly and put it down all the time. I will not share in their B&B joy.

Bob comes out to join me in the garage. Then he's off to work. Thomas and I read a section in our science book. We then snuggle in bed ready for SOTW CD. We've been listening to a CD every day. Fast history! Today we gasped as we heard people's bodies, who had died of plague, were put into catapults and thrown into a city. Was too tired to hear the name of the city. We were horrified, but in high listen mode. So high that all of a sudden I heard Thomas say, "Mom, it's over."

Huh? Did I fall asleep? Thomas: Yes, mom, you fell asleep AGAIN.

Jump up, assign him his reading for the day and I hit the shower. By this time I'm not pleasant to be around. Feeling much better I get dressed and put on a happy face. It's 3:00 in the afternoon by now and I'm finally awake and ready to start my day.

Oh wait, it's 3:00! We scramble fast, jump in the car, drive to the public school to pick up Thomas's friend to take her to ceramics class. Driving to the public school is just SO much fun--NOT. All the soccer moms drive by me in their SUVs with their perfect hair, perfect clothes, just looking down on me. lol So I drive a sedan and not an SUV, so what! So I threw on a t-shirt that has a small hole in it. So what?

Take the kids to ceramics, stay with them because the teacher isn't there yet. I desperately want to sit down and do a project with the kids. It just looks like such fun! I told teh teacher that once and she invited me to come to the adult class which is on Wednesday mornings. Sorry, I have other classes at that time was my answer. I wonder if she'd let me buy a piece to take home and paint and have her fire. Will have to ask. I pay her for Thomas's last two projects, $27-ouch, and am on my merry way.

As I'm driving home I remember there is one computer tower and two monitors in the trunk of my car. They've been there for at least a month. I curse them every time I go to get groceries. I pull my car over, and grab my cell. I do NOT drive and talk on the cell at the same time. I do chew bubblegum and walk and rub my belly at the same time, though. I call Bob.

"Hi, you big hunk of a sexy man, you, my stud muffin, my sweetheart, my manly man."

Bob: "(Sighing) Okay, what do you want now?"

Well, guess a little afternoon delight is out of the question.

I ask him to accompany me to the Waste Management place to unload the beasts. He does, I pick him up, and we pay $37 to get rid of the two monitors and tall base. I think we cheated, though, because when we paid the bill we didn't tell them about the keyboard. We put the keyboard in the pile, too.

Done. I now have a trunk that is almost completely free! Except for the big, huge bag of concrete that Bob put back there. At least I'll be able to get the groceries in now.

Drop bob back off at work, and drive home. My dog was anxious to greet me. I took him outside and played a bit. He's feeling really good today and only got sick once. He's happy and energetic, so we have a fun play. Went back into the house and had to scramble. It was time to go get the rugrat. My keys, where in the Q@#$ did I put my keys? A five-minute search in the house finally ended up with finding my keys in the bottom of my purse, where I always put them. Ahem.

Go get rugrat. Stop at the store for more hamburger for dog and cereal for us. And french bread as we're having spaghetti for supper.

Drive home, start boiling five pounds of hamburger on the stove. (I don't fry burger.) Start supper. Thomas is playing the Beavis and Butthead game, Bob is napping on the couch, Jerry is at my feet begging for hamburger.

Call the crew to "slop". I usually say slop's on. I shouldn't do that, it's not very appealing. But the boys both hate spaghetti, so I wanted to use a word they'd appreciate. This is one of the few ways I can get a vegetable into my child -- the very child who wants to be a vegetarian. And I'm not saying spaghetti sauce is a vegetable -- with all teh sugar and other stuff, it's pretty far from it. But at least it is a good copout in my mind.

We eat supper and then it hits. I'm tired.

Put the food away, leave the dishes, and I lie down on the loveseat for just a minute. An hour later I hear Bob and Thomas laughing about beavis and Butthead. GRRRR A whole hour went by. This is my second nap of the day. Yuck.

Check for emails, take the dog out, search teh TV. Nothing is on. Sweep the kitchen floor, look at the dishes and say...I'll do them tomorrow.

Come down to read blogs and boards and Bob and I have a music war. We take turns playing our favorite songs at youtube. We call Thomas over because this is a music lesson. Good rock versus bad rock. We tell him to memorize the songs and the artists as there will be a test. First up is Frankie with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Thomas is scared watching the video. He doesn't like the way the look. I explain that in the late 70s early 80s all guys had really bad hair. lol Bob plays Juice Newton's Just Call me Angel. I break out in song, singing along, totally ruining their experience. (I can't sing.) I play Kenny Rogers' The Gambler. Boos from both the boys. Bob plays Pat Benitar. A few of them. Once again, I sing along. I play my all-time favorite, Hotel California. I sing along. I sing loudly. I turned around to look for Thomas -- he had left the building. Gone. Couldn't handle my singing. Bob played some Led. I made Bob leave by playing the theme song from Brokeback Mountain. When that was done, Bob came back and played sever of Heart's songs. Then Joan Jett. Once again, I sang along.

I'm scary.

That was the extent of our night, other than explaining why our picks were better than the others. I was quite surprised that Thomas liked his father's music better than mine because he always takes my side. I was getting ready to play some Willie Nelson--guess I would have lulled him to sleep with that.

Get the boys to bed, take my sleeping pill, take the dog out one last time, get online again, print some math worksheets while waiting for the pill to kick in. It's 12:35.

12:35. Means I'll get to bed before 1 tonight, but it will be a groggy, sleepy incoherent morning tomorrow yet again.



And that is a typical day in our homeschool. Nah, it's not typical. We didn't hit on all our subjects and we didn't do any fun projects. But there was some learning going on. Perhaps tomorrow I'll print out the lyrics for Hotel California and we can figure out what in the heck it means. Bob and I thought it was a drug song, but beings as though I've never been in the drug scene/culture, I wouldn't know. I love the song nonetheless.

And now it's to zombie land.