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Thoughts

A not-so-bad fever and headache germ is making its rounds here.  So we are all home today.  My self-motivated montessori 2nd grader is at the table.  She insisted that I print her out a spelling list, a geometry work, math facts, and a writing work.  Seriously. 
The pre-schooler put on music and got herself a snack. 
Its days like this that make me envious of the time that our school gets with my kids.  They get their best hours.  And I get the late afternoon to bedtime hours--which we all know are often challenging and tired times.  And I really don't like envy.  Its a rather yucky and non-thoughtful feeling.

Hmmm.
Think about that.

City Sister Love

Its been just a quarter of a year that I have shared this space with my sister.  Yesterday, I talked with her, cell phone squeezed between ear and shoulder while I mucked a horse stall and fed out hay, we chatted about the ups and downs of our kids respective learning situations.  The gratefulness we have for our 'alternative' education choices and the challenges that still present.  The barn radio mumbled in the background and Daisy stood chewing her cud.  It was cold and the sun was setting.  I clicked on the lights to clean up the aisle.  And while we talked, I smiled at the sheer perfectness of that moment. 
With several years between us we shared little more than a bedroom as kids but now, sharing this space, whatever it is, its a little celebration of us.  Its a daily connection and a support. 
Ironically, I have a persistent resistence to technology and modern media.  Y'know, no TV, no Facebook account.  I resisted blogging for the longest time for numerous reasons that are hardly worth going into at this point.  Yet, truthfully, I do like to kick back to a Netflix movie now and then.  So, true luddite, I am not.  And I am thankful that I didn't stand on a luddite soap box as I now am able to catch a smile a day from this great connection with my City Sister.  Aw!  So now, y'all.  Go call your sisters!

"But I will miss you..."

...she says. And so begins the heartbreak of this Country Sister as I prepare to shuffle my two wonderful little girls off to school. The truth is that they both love their little Monterssori school, as do we. But it still doesn't change the fact that we, with the exception of dad (the consummate extrovert) are three home-lovin' home bodies and this time of year is really bittersweet (mostly bitter) for us. I mean, honestly, there isn't much not to love. With not a car or road in sight in our little slice of heaven, and surrounded by wild and domesticated animals, the possibilites are endless. Our days this summer have been full of unstructured, unorganized, unscheduled goodness. That is something that none of us can get enough of. It is the blank canvas that draws us out of bed in the morning--well that and 120 or so hungry critters--and it is the incredible creation that we stand back and reflect on as we tuck in at night. Sure there is plenty of girl drama and sibling chaos woven in. A splash of intensity. We are normal.

And so I a broke out the chalk board today and wrote out the days of the week (so we can each keep track of our responsibilites and bags to pack), and I orchestrated a family meeting around our new chores schedules and morning and night routines. And I felt the tapping finger on shoulder, the lurking question that haunts me regularly, the same question that my children don't even hold back asking, "Mama, why can't we just homeschool".

The stock answer for the question is that, its not that we can't...we just aren't right now. Because Montessori school is great, because it is an incredible, caring and intimate learning environment. And, well...that is where I get all hedgey...and say "I'll miss you too."

Bottom line, I will miss them when they go, miss our amazing days spent together. And for now I live vicariously through City Sister and all of our homeschooling friends and the different questions and struggles they face as they too break out the chalk boards and calendars.