1. Starting out a homeschool year without a plan. I have now learned you can't just wing it. I think we tried out four different curricula since June. Fail: inconsistent, lost the interest of the kids, homeschool room and supplies are disorganized, and through all this, we also lost control of bedtimes and daily routines. Learned: Have a plan!! Decide on the subjects we are going to study and stick to my guns. We usually leave one day a week for a free day just in case life gets in the way or we have to catch up or we have too many errands to run. It may take more work on my part, but I love making our own whole unit studies.
2. Gluten free spaetzle. Fail: This turned into a huge pot of glue. Learned: don't even bother. Stick to the real flour kind. Although, if anyone reading this does have a good, exact measurement gluten free recipe for spaetzle, I am willing to try it again. (Does this define insanity?)
3. Getting hooked on British Dramas. Fail: I can't go back to watching modern movies and tv because it just grates on my nerves. Learned: Well, you can read my previous post here, but I think one of the reasons I love these movies is the clothes. I know they probably will not come back in style any time soon (although, the shawl is now disguised as a pashmina), but they just looked so much more elegant and put together. Its a far cry from my sweats and jeans I drag out every day. Would my kids think I went off my rocker if made myself a Jane Austen wardrobe?
4. School. I signed my husband, sister and myself up in November to go back to school with to get nursing prerequisites out of the way. Fail: I somehow neglected in the frenzy to get in by the start date that I'm in the middle of an adoption, my husband is having surgery, I may be having surgery later in the year, and I homeschool 6 children. Oh, and I'm supposed to clean, change diapers, remember to take a shower every day, pay bills and cook meals. Learned: The crock pot is my best friend. Kids need to learn to cook, we need a schedule, and I withdrew in January two days after my sister withdrew because somehow everyone else figured this out I'm insane before I did.
5. You can't judge a book by its cover. After the British Drama movie addiction finally died down, I came up with the bright idea that I'm going to do a Jane Austen unit study. Never mind I have 5 boys and 2 girls (one of them an infant), we are DOING JANE AUSTEN. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I don't care if you you are a 13 year old boy and feel insecure around girls, or that you are an 11 year old boy and gets grossed out watching people kiss goodbye. Ya'll are doing Jane Austen. Fail: I'm still trying to read Persuasion and have made it to page 8 in one year. I decided I would try reading some fan-fiction because that might help with the comprehension issues I seem to have developed. Austenland was pretty good. Rated PG, fast read, and then I found out they are making a movie out of it to come out this year. YAY! According to Jane was terrible. It was a smutty, sex filled book and had nothing AT ALL to do with Jane Austen..except she sort of took on a schizophrenic type voice in the girl's head trying to give advice, that the girl never really took and kept subjecting herself to lousy men. Learned: Just because the girl on the front of the book looked safe enough, the book was not. I think they should start rating books like they do movies.
6. Declutter. Fail: it keeps coming through the door in the form of mailers, flyers, and junk we don't need (like happy meal toys). Learned: ....um........I cleaned up under my house (storage area), and I got rid of about 5 boxes of junk, but I still have 15 boxes of clothes. No one needs that many clothes. I probably don't need that coke can with my Highschool listed on it either..and yet it still takes up 6 inches of space under my house. Yet if I were to have a garage sale for all this stuff, no one would by it because it is junk. Its been used up, completely.
7. Letting people live with you. I really want to be helpful and have a good heart and help family out whenever we can. I really do. However, I have learned to draw the line with living people not in our immediate family. If I didn't give birth to you or adopt you, you can't live here. Sorry. Fail: Two families (even if they are related) are completely different in their dynamics, the way they eat, clean, dress, spend their time, their viewpoints and even their religious beliefs, even if they might be the same religion. Learned: What's that saying, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me? Yeah, it only took me three times to learn this concept. My friend suggested pitching a tent before living with family. I'm sticking to that!
8. Three year olds. Fail: trusting your three year old to push a counter height chair over to the fridge, getting out an 18 count box of eggs, jumping off the chair with the carton, (no eggs damaged yet), turning your back for a second to read the recipe, and in that moment, he holds the carton with one hand and opens it with the other and spills and cracks each and every one of those eggs. 2nd Fail: walking away to get a towel to clean it up. When I came back they had finger painted a four foot path in the eggs. Learned: let the kids get the towel while you guard the eggs. And maybe one or two are salvageable. And don't trust 3 year olds with eggs.
9. Being told I'm old. Fail: going into the doctor because you notice some changes going on with your body you don't understand. "Its all part of the aging process, dear." Smile, handshake, needle poke, and see you next year. Learned: I didn't think I'd get there this fast. My mind doesn't feel 38. My body might, but I'm not walking with a walker, or have grey hairs, or can complain about wrinkles yet. Is 38 really just a number? We don't have to match that number, right? *sigh* I'm just going to pretend I'm a spring chicken and stick with that. Just now I have a lot more knowledge...not all of it useful.
10. Cleaning a playroom or child's bedroom. Every now and then the OCD takes over and I turn into Mom-zilla in the playroom. I place 15 bins around me in a circle, scrape all the toys into a pile around me and start practicing like I'm pitching for the Bluejays baseball team (not that I'm a fan, Curtis gave me the name). I toss, sort, shove, cram, meticulously separate legos from blocks, and 3 hours later we are done. It is a pristine, happy playroom. Fail: 2 hours later, they dumped every one of the bins. Learned: why bother. Kick the toys in the room and shut the dang door. For the bedrooms: I want a family closet. This way, they just have a bed and an end table in the room. No clothes to shove under beds, rip out of dressers, wipe their nose on and leave in the middle of the floor. No hunting for stray socks, or elusive, whichever, and nothing to entertain them when they should be going to sleep. Toys stay in the playroom. (Riiiiiggghhhhtttt)
So, there's my fails. Supermom does not have it all together. In closing, I'm just going to let you listen to Jason Mraz's song. When it gets deep enough in here, at least this song motivates all of us to get busy and get things turned around.
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