Oh yes! I almost forgot. We’re still doing school from home, in between all the moving, dog drama, and my own teaching schedule. We are officially 75% through our school year. Academically we are on track…check. Emotionally, we are…well, mostly on track, although the derailing there has more to do with current events than school. We have found a rhythm. I have stopped feeling like I am auditioning for Shriekfest every morning, which probably explains why things are going more smoothly. I have cancelled science experiments when they stress me out or I can’t find unfiltered charcoal, and I don’t feel guilty about it. We still have plenty of time to catch the science lab on fire with Bunsen burners next year. Ransom has made great strides in accepting help and not being so hard on himself. Most noticeably, he is relaxed and calm, as opposed to the tight-fisted, stressed out goblin we had last year. Mem is rockin’ it. I can tell she really misses having more people to boss around though. Cora Jo is still quiet, profound, and progressing. Sometimes, when she explains things, I just try not to drool on myself. She has an uncanny awareness about her I can’t really explain. Jedediah is well, as close to Batman as he is going to get, but I think that is largely because his gymnastics coaches encourage him to flip over stuff and walk up walls. He can tell you what letter any word starts with, too, but be warned, once you start that game, it is very hard to get him to stop.
I am so thankful for this year at home with them. I expected this year to be a disaster, but I wasn’t prepared for how much it would challenge and change me. I came in praying that we wouldn’t kill each other, and that it would be a time we all remembered as a sweet time together as a family.
I think we’ve succeeded. More than anything, I see more clearly now why we had a peace about this crazy experiment, because we get to spend our last few months stateside with family in Arizona, something that would have been considerably harder had we been in a traditional setting.
For now, we are planning to take a good look at the DOD schools in Okinawa, but we haven’t ruled out another year if we feel a peace about it. For now, we have just seven more weeks left in our experiment, and summer vacation never looked so good!