Chocolate Stashes: September 2013

If you know me at all, you know I’m being sarcastic. I hate Fall. I always have, and I imagine I always will. But I have an open mind and an open heart, so if that ever changes I’ll let you know and we can go get a Pumpkin Spice latte to celebrate. But not this Fall, because I won’t have time.

Last school year, Matt taught Bonnie, Will, and Luke at home while Rosemary went to a local private kindergarten. Matt got into the grove and did a great job teaching the kids. He had to make a decision about what to do this year because Rosemary is a first grader. It is hard for me to make a long story short, so I’ll just skip to the part where we decided to enroll all four children in the Georgia Cyber Academy. It is the same school Bonnie attended for her 2^nd and 3^rd grade years, but back then it was called the Georgia Virtual Academy. All curriculum is from K12.com, which we used already, and each child has a state-certified homeroom teacher and specialists in other subjects assigned to them. They started on September 12^th, and this is panning out to be a very, very busy program! The older three kids can do a lot on their own, but Matt still has to follow the basics of what they are doing in case they don’t understand something, and he has to give spelling tests and going over literature assignments with them. Rosemary is almost entirely one-on-one at this point. Matt stays busy for 10-12 hours a day jumping between kids answering questions, setting them up on computers, and keeping them on track. All the kids get breaks throughout the day, but he never does. It overwhelms and exhausts me just do hear about it. In addition to all that, the teachers are constantly calling for conferences and scheduling online classroom sessions. It is crazy.

While Matt is busy on the homefront, I’ve drummed up plenty of stuff to entertain myself for the next few months. First of all, I am going to school. I have started a BSN program at the University of West Georgia. Although it is marketed toward working adults, I have found the workload to be quite intense. I have three classes, and each class has weekly reading assignments, discussion posts, quizzes, and APA-style short papers due weekly. Yep, that was not a typo. APA writing in each class each week. I have to go to Carrollton six times this semester for one of my classes, and everything else is online. Classes and assignments due are all on Thursdays, so I am working Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights for the time being. I will go to bed when I get home on Wednesday mornings, and then I will be taking the kids to PSR in Rome in the evening. That is their religious education class. I have volunteered for this task because there is a Ladies Bible Study at the same time. Because of my work schedule, I have never been able to commit to it. Now I can, and it will give Matt a dedicated time to relax or get caught up on lesson plans.

Thursday is my dedicated schoolwork day. I will most likely to go the library at GHC to do my work because of the lack of computer availability here. That, and the fact that my presence breaks the mojo.

I love that my kids are homeschooled, but I understand the concern a lot of people have about the lack of social interaction. Matt will not do anything with a homeschool group because he would be the only dad. That is stacking awkward on top of uncomfortable. They actually call their parent meetings “Mom’s Meetings” on the website. I decided to step up in this area and join the homeschooling co-op in Rome. It will be my small contribution to the homeschooling effort. They meet on Friday mornings. As soon as we joined online, someone emailed me to ask me to teach a class. I understand and appreciate how a co-op works, but I politely explained that I was about to start back to school and just didn’t think I could handle the extra pressure right now, but I left a crack in the door by telling her she could get back with me if they could not find anyone else. So guess what? I am teaching a group of 7^th-12^th graders about Nutrition & Anatomy. Sigh. Lesson planning, here I come! Will someone please buy me this book?

Hopefully that leaves Friday nights and Saturdays as family time. We will be going to mass on Saturday nights to allow me to sleep late on Sundays so I’ll be rested for work.

Oh yeah, and I am training for a 5K. I am on week 4 of a Couch to 5K program. Every time I start running, I end up sore or injured and I quit. This program has been easy and fun and the app works over my music on my iPod to prompt me to start and stop while I’m jogging. The hardest part of exercising is finding time, so I have just had to consider it a priority. I am already feeling healthier.

One good thing I can say about this crazy schedule is that there is already light at the end of the tunnel. When I started nursing school the first time, the end seemed really far away. This time it’s not. If all goes as planned, I will graduate at the end of April next year. That is less than 9 months away. And this semester ends the first week in December. The homeschool co-op ends around the same time. I just have to stay focused and use my time wisely. Intellectual, physical, and spiritual growth. One day at a time. Hopefully these thirteen weeks will sail by, and when they do, we can meet at Chick-fil-A for peppermint chocolate chip milkshakes!