A String of Random Thoughts

I feel like writing something but have no clear vision for what to write. I am just sitting here watching the Mavs game. I guess I will further elaborate on my family since I didn't manage to work it in to the last blog. Obviously, most anyone reading this knows everything about us, but I have a sneaking suspicion they can't get enough of us, so it never hurts to give a little more info.

We are, for lack of a better term, a "blended" family, although most people would never know. Clint and I met, long ago on the first day of Kindergarten. I wish I could say our eyes met across the room and the rest was history, but that wouldn't be truthful. We didn't really become friends until after high school and through those 4 or 5 years, we got together and spoke regularly. Then blah blah blah, we got married. It is really a long and convoluted story, the moral of which is that we are married and we have a daughter (the blended aspect of the blend), a son, and a new little "broster" coming in November.

Now, to what makes us "weird". Firstly, my husband is a chiropractor. We believe in minimally invasive, natural, and alternative health care (GASP). Secondly, we home school our children (DOUBLE GASP) I never really thought I would ever be either of these things. My grandfather is a pharmacist after-all, so the thought that someone could overcome sickness with anything less than a bottle of pills is unthinkable, no? I was also fairly certain I would never be one of those home school weirdos with the fanny pack and the denim skirt, subjecting my child to the social status of a pariah. Well, I AM a home school mom, but in that I have also come to realize that home schoolers, at least the ones I know, are amazingly fashionable and unbelievably social!

Chiropractic is a subject for another day, when I can commit an entire post to how passionately I believe in the practice! But, here I will talk a little about our decision to home school. I know a lot of teachers, I do not want to, for even a second, discount the amount of dedication and work they put in to educating the children of America. That being said, they can only do so much given the fact that the "system" is completely and utterly broken. My daughter, a very good student who LOVED school, dutifully went off to that institution every day and came home with a brain FULL of knowledge. Sadly, with all the good knowledge she collected, she collected as much, if not more, bad knowledge. Did I ever think my Kinder would come home talking about vicious cliques? Did I ever imagine that my 7 year old would come home and tell me that boys in her class were "attracted" to each other and wanted to touch each others privates or that girls were in "serious relationships"?? The answer to that is NO! That, along with the fact that her teacher told me that she would excuse herself to the bathroom almost daily to cry. the fact that school was nothing more than a place to practice the TAKS test, and that we would be moving for the 5th time in her 4 years of school lead me to the decision to bring her home!

Thankfully, God provided us the ability to do this and my daughter was not only open to the suggestion, but thrilled. I am a terrible home school Mom. I am not artsy, I don't plan super fun unit lessons, I am not filled with patience and understanding. This has honestly been one of the hardest undertakings of my life, and I have thought about throwing in the towel at least a dozen times. At the end of the day, it is absolutely worth every tear and doubt. She is excelling in her studies, despite my best efforts, and she has a special bond with her little brother. I know it will only get better with time as we learn how to be a more efficient home school family.

Well, there is a little bit of what makes us "weird", now you know.

That is all.

Heather