Daily Diary

In my quest for the best method of hauling gear for our cross country trip, I began investigating the wonderful world of Pop-Up Campers simply because I was shocked at the high price of cargo trailers- you know, the kind that are open with a gate all the way around that you haul a piece of furniture or an ATV in. Back to the camper. Decent storage space, plus AC and heat, (which would rather negate the need for all the hot water bottles, knit caps and long underwear at night :-), and a kitchen set up that stays set up. The possibilities left me drooling. What convenience! I LOVE sleeping in a tent. But there are definite drawbacks when sleeping in a tent with 6 other people 10 years and younger. Plus setting up tents in the rain is stressful to say the least. Anyway, I've found a trailer for the price that I wanted- a 2002 model- and I found someone who is interested in buying it from me at the end of the summer! Of course, by then I may never want to part with it. Nonetheless, it would be at worst a 3 month investment where I would recoop my money at the end of the term. Sounds good. I'm going to check it out on Saturday since the owner is out of town until then. Saturday morning I have an event at the church, Saturday night we are going out for dinner with friends, Saturday afternoon I will be negotiating the price on a beeyewtifull camper. Which means no laundry is going to get done. Since Curtis is moving to Manhatten, maybe he'll let me store the camper in his garage until I leave for my trip. Mmmm.

By the way, does anyone want to buy our dining room furniture? Solid oak, built around 1917, 6 chairs, 4 leaves (though the table was built to only hold two leaves, so the other two are extras), the table is oval shaped, seats 8 nicely, and in beautiful condition. $500 takes it away. I'll even throw in a kid- namely Oliver. We had to replace our table with something that would actually accomodate our family. So we gave the kitchen table and chairs to my sister, moved the dining set to the garage until it sells, and purchased a beech table and ten chairs for the dining room. With the toddler chairs added, we can fit 12 at the table, though 10 is most comfortable. And where the kitchen table stood, I now have two wing chairs and a lamp table. Much more open, and very nice to sit in a wing chair while chatting with the person doing the dishes.

Daily Diary

Saturday afternoon we got a front row parking spot at Publix. Charles jumped from Suburban to ground stretched up, breathed in deeply and said, " Whenever we come here, I stand in the parking lot, and breathe in the goodness of Publix." The passerbys were highly amused.

This morning right after breakfast I turned on the tv in the music room and ordered Oliver to watch it. After a little while, Oliver came out of the room. "Oliver, I want you to stay in that room and rot your brain in front of the tube until there is no more distructive creativity in it." He thought about that for a moment and said,"I know, but my brain is starting to hurt."

Daily Diary

Jon has gone to Six Flags with the youth group for the entire day and will arrive home at 8pm- just in time for our dinner party for 10, 12 including us. The kids and I are spending the day cleaning, organizing, shopping, etc.

I'm also ironing out my final itinerary for the summer. I'll be gone for 8 weeks, but it is rather difficult to pack all I intend to do in that short amount of time. One thing I'm on the hunt for is the most economical and convenient method of hauling our gear. I have several options- a cargo carrier on top of the car and on on the hitch; a small utility style trailer; a small U-Haul trailer; or the last thing I'm ruminating upon is a Pop-Up. I could get a used one for about $2000 or less, and then sell it at the end of the summer. Does anyone out there own a Pop-Up that they would love to loan/sell me? It would take care of a place for hauling the gear, and then set up would be less than 10 minutes. When compared to only tent camping which has a set up time of about 1 1/2 hours (that includes inflating air mattresses, laying out sleeping bags, setting up playpen, etc), 10 minutes is rather appealing. And it's no problem to set up if there is rain coming down. Also rather appealing.

I seem to spend too much time cleaning out and organizing. Where did we get all this stuff!!?? It's crazy.

Daily Diary

Friday is here. Bummer. I need it to be Wednesday. Last night I had Cocktail Club-I must confess that I'm not a cocktail gal, and so I either have water or a glass of wine. Yesterday's drink was Mai Tai- orange juice with turpentine floating at the top. However, the company is good. We had a clothing swap, so everyone brought bags of clothes and other stuff that they don't want. I nearly bailed at the last minute having so much to do at home, but I did finally leave the school room at 8:30pm and head over.

There were four or five loads of laundry piled high on the sofa- which Jon folded while I was gone. That was very nice. During the week, I'll wash, dry, and then lay the clothes out in piles so they don't wrinkle. But other than that, I don't generally have a chance to fold. I'll fold things as I have a moment- and the laundry room doesn't exist. I have a garage entry with a washer and dryer against the wall. This rather complicates the process. I did put most of the kids clothes back in storage- which means we have a finite amount of laundry now.

Our computer tech, Curtis, aka Jon's cousin, might be moving to Manhatten. He has to make a decision about it today. What will I do!? But then I'll be able to stay with him when I want to scope out the city. I have lots of time to hop on planes and take personal vacations.

In other news, Vivian has 2 teeth with two more about to poke through. She is hilarious, crawling around all day, getting into things, shaking her head and making her shoulders go up and down. A total ham and irresistible. But she's another impediment to a productive school day. I've been placing one of the toy bins in the doorway of the nursery to keep her from wandering down the hall and into the school room. She'll play for a little while and then go stand at the bin watching for someone to walk past. When she sees one of us, she hollers and then does her big grin with long blinks-a plea to be rescued. If that doesn't work, she starts to yell excitedly. If that doesn't work, she breaks down into the most anguished sobs, and I turn into a pile of goo, and of course must rescue her. She's got me well trained. I feel like we have city warfare in the upstairs hall. I need to run to the kitchen for something. Wait. Is the hall safe. I pause at the doorway, and listen carefully. I take a little tiny peek, she's not there! I run for it. Oh, no, I can hear her crawling to the nursery door. How will I get back to the school room?......crazy. I think that to solve this problem, she should go to work with Jon.

Off to get the sleepy heads out of bed.....

Daily Diary

It is Thursday- the laundry is piling up, the clutter is piling up, the weekend "to-do" list is piling up, and the environment is just not that inspiring. Well, I guess it inspires me to load up the car, go camping and forget a myriad of responsibilities.

What is it about humans between the ages of 10 months and 14 months. You put them in their highchair and offer them a snack- wheat bread or cheerios-something along those lines. The child spends 15 minutes playing with the food and then dumping it on the floor. Finally, you take baby out of the highchair, set her on the floor, and what does she do? She spends the next 30 minutes finding every food particle under her highchair and eating it after which she branches out and finds particles to eat everywhere else.

Why do I homeschool?

Being a person who likes efficiency, I homeschool so that I can quickly and efficiently go insane. All the subjects that I found a bit dry going through them for the first time as a school girl, I now go through again- each year, grade by grade. I'm not Catholic, but I do believe in purgatory, because that is where I currently live.

Every morning, as I stand in front of my sink, brushing my teeth, contemplating the day ahead, I pray for one major thing. "Lord, please give me the strength to not lose my temper with Caroline today." My prayer life is not good because about 1 1/2 hours into school work with Caroline, I'm sucking in great gulps of air in an effort not to go right over the edge. First, it is the look on her face which would cause one to think that she had just smelled a rotten egg- nope, it was just her math book. And then how many times is it possible to spell because, beecuz, and not sense that is wrong. Would shock therapy jolt a person out of that? In kindergarten it took the entire school year to convince her that eleventeen was not a number. She was finishing up a science book on the moon the other day, and paused in her reading to exclaim, " Mom, did you know that they put an American flag on the moon?" I responded, " well, of course, Caroline. Neil Armstrong put it up when he landed on the moon." She gave me a puzzled look and said," Who is Neil Armstrong?" I sighed, paused for a moment to find more appropriate thoughts amongst the storm of words that flooded my brain, and said, " Caroline, we just spent two days at the Kennedy Space Center. Do you mean to tell me that you still have no idea who Neil Armstrong is?" She thought about that for a few minutes. " No, mom. I didn't really pay attention that much. But the food was good."

It is at this point that I just start crying and blubbering myself into a hynotic stupor.

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