By the end of December, I was seriously considering it. By the time I declared Christmas Vacation, my life was falling apart. F was destroying the house and getting into everything. And I'm not talking emptying the pots and pans; I'm talking about the possibility that she ate dirty kitty litter! My house was a mess. I was behind in everything. We all forgot how to speak nicely to one another and spent days yelling. IJ and S constantly fought. E was a brat. M and I were either arguing with each other or with Grandad.
I asked myself, "How can I possibly do it all? How can I possibly do some? How can I keep up with the needs of every single different personality in my home? How can I make whole wheat, no fat, low calorie sweet treats (does such a thing exist?) for my father-in-law? How can I help my husband get out the door every morning with a healthy lunch packed? How can I help IJ meet other kids his age and stop mourning his old home? How can I meet other moms and stop mourning my old home? How can I teach the two boys without constantly stopping to take care of the preschooler and toddler? How can I give E the same opportunities her older brothers got at age four? How can I keep F from poisoning herself or falling off something high? Why can't I keep up with the dishes, the laundry, the dusting, the picking up, etc, etc, etc??? And what the heck am I going to do in April when we have another baby?????"
It was enough for me to seriously consider giving up on homeschool. Even though I know homeschool is superior to public school in every sense.
I spent the time between Christmas and New Year purging and cleaning the things in my home. M spent his entire vacation fixing things up and helping streamline the house. And then I spent the time between New Year and last night cleaning and purging my daily routines, my tactics for handling school, and my attitude.
IJ holding his geoboard creation: Mew from Pokemon
And today I had a good day, with all academia done before lunch. Just the way I like it. What did I do differently? What caused this wonderful shift? I'll never tell. At least not until I try again tomorrow, just to make sure this isn't a fluke. After all, I am a scientist by training. I can't possibly assume causation based upon a single datum. There are so many factors at work here. I need replication. I might have to run a multivariate test or two to check the significance of my results...
