A fresh start

So here I am, starting a new blog. I've blogged before, but haven't been consistent, yet people kept telling me that they find my life (which I usually find rather ordinary) entertaining. Meaning that they like to laugh at me. Ok, usually WITH me, but sometimes At, too. I'm ok with that. When I was younger, I had a habit of taking myself too seriously, so something like this challenges me to get rid of the last vestiges of that.

This will probably generally be a homeschooling day in the life record, but this week, there's not a whole lot of homeschooling going on. I have four children, 13 and 10 year old boys and 12 and 6 year old girls.

Hopefully, my older two will get some studying in tomorrow, as they have a Biology test on Friday, but other than that, we're having an unschooling week. This means that my firstborn is reading constantly. Mostly sci-fi from his father's bookshelves. My 12 year old is working on a novella that heavily features horses and dragons. She has also been learning to sculpt dragons in plasticine and Sculpey. My 10 year old has been building with Legos. And the little one (6) has been following them around in turn, cuddling up with big brother with her own books, playing Legos with her other brother, and playing Play-Doh alongside her sister.

On Monday, we had houseguests -- my husband's best friend from home (he's from Denver) and his wife.

We've also had long, long appointments with a new dentist (good checkups, they're just S L O W -- not sure we're going back, but to stay in network with insurance, it's either this office or a bit of a drive).

We spent the morning looking for the littlest's Halloween costume. We found oldests' right away (he's into laziness and bought a lace drapery panel ... he's a ghost of some sort ... the ghost of Granny's curtains? I found two pairs of jeans at Goodwill for myself, and my 12 year old found some, too. At Burlington Coat Factory, my older daughter and I both scored long sweaters with big warm cowl necks. Then at Target, we finally found a sparkly Dorothy dress and cheap ruby slippers. Over the weekend, there was a lot of Rock Band played. The little one likes to sing. One of the top songs was Let's Dance, so I guess that we shouldn't have been surprised when she declared 'Now I can dance the blues!' There was an era where I knew where the bathrooms were in every store. I'm sorry that I don't know where they are anymore, since I don't have toddlers/preschoolers. I was laughing so hard, I could have used a bathroom.

Wednesday afternoons are always crazy with karate. My older three are training to be junior instructors. They help with the homeschool class in the early afternoon, then have a two hour break, and are back to assist with a beginner class, then their leadership development class, and finally their own in-level classes (which my husband takes with them).

Now, they're watching Babylon 5 (they're almost halfway through season 4 ... it's a rite of passage for our 10 year olds to get to watch). Laundry and dishes are in, and when the kids go to bed, we'll work on hanging the artwork we bought as part of our family room re-do. 3' x 4' Venetian scene for $99.99 ... it's an art school reproduction, but we like it. We got a semi-matching Mediterranean shore scene for over the fireplace, too. Once they're up, hopefully we can start settling on paint colors for later in the winter.