Homeschooling?!?!?

The idea of homeschool was not something I ever even thought about until I quit work last year to move across the country for my husbands work and chose to stay home with my then 2 year old son.  Looking back it is so strange I even started toying with the idea considering what a hard time I had adjusting to being a stay at home mom after working full time for the last 6 years. Nonetheless, I was very intrigued by the idea. I still am, but I waiver back and forth even more know that I know I have an only child.

Having an only child often makes me reject the idea all together. What if he doesn't get enough time with other people? How will he do without built in friends/classmate from siblings? Will he be missing out on something by not having constant and strong relationships with other kids? Play dates are never a problem when kids are young, but know that friends of his are in preschool and kindergarten, it gets harder and harder to plan them. What about being home with just me all day long? What about my schooling? I always thought I would go back once my husband get a permanent job.

Having an only child also often makes to think I couldn't do anything but homeschooling. How could I ever send my only baby away for 7-8 hours a day, just to come home at 3:00 to do homework, help prepare dinner, then start bedtime routine? When will we get to spend time together? Maybe it is selfish, but why should a complete stranger get to spend all day with him and watch him learn and grow? Why can't I be there to experience that?

I still waiver back and forth. Because of where we live and the strange school cut off dates, D will be able to start kindergarten next year. That is only 10 month away! How will I ever decide? I had a hard enough time deciding whether to send him to preschool or not. We didn't. It just wasn't right for us, but sometimes I still worry I made the wrong choice.

So what am I going to do? I have no idea yet. For now I am starting homeschool. D was so ready to learn to read, so that is what we are doing. He loves being able to sound out words. He loves to get to read his stories to his dad. I love getting to see him get so excited about his accomplishments. I have to admit that I feel more confident in my ability to homeschool as I see him learn and grow.

I am sure whatever I decide to do, there will be people who disagree with my choice. I am sure I might even question my decision from time to time. I just plan on taking it day by day and pray that the Lord helps me make this decision when I absolutely must. I would love input from any of you who may be reading this. Thoughts? Feelings? Criticism? :)

Tradition of Love

I have a memory from when I was younger. My family went to a park. It was a favorite one of mine that we didn't go to often. I remember it because the playground was like a old western with a jail and a stagecoach to play on. I don't remember why, but I was sad about something. My mom, being the great mom she is, pulled me aside and talked to me. She taught me a secret that she and my dad shared.  It was a secret sign for 'I love you'. She told me that whenever my dad and her were in public or far away from one another and couldn't talk, they would tug on their ear.  This is how they shared they loved one another without words.

She shared this secret with me to make me feel loved. We practiced the rest of the day at the park, each of us trying to get the others attention and tugging our ear. I remember being on a train ride and her watching me and tugging her ear as the train went by. Although I have no idea why I was sad that day, I remember her love for me.

I was able to share this secret with my son recently. It is sweet to see him share the same tradition my mom and I did. Often, when we are at the grocery  or in the waiting room at the doctors, D will climb onto my lap or grab my leg and get my attention. When I look at him, he will tug his ear with a big smile on his face. I happily tug on my ear also.

A Clean House Is The Sign Of A Boring Person.

If that is true, I must be one of the most exciting people you could know.  I hate cleaning. I know most of you are thinking that everyone hates cleaning, but I do everything I can to avoid it. I have friends who "hate" cleaning, but love having a clean house more. I haven't quite gotten to that point. I usually let things go until I am going crazy and just have to get it all clean (or my husband will step in. I have the best husband.) I will clean till I drop. I want to scrub every nook and cranny of the house.  I will then keep up on keeping things clean for a while, but I eventually get lazy and the cycle begins again. I tend to be an all or nothing person when it comes to cleaning. I either try and do it all at once or do nothing.

This cycle of lazy to clean to lazy in my natural state, but I am tired of it. I want a change.  I know if I can just keep up on things I won't end up spending 45 minutes with a tooth brush trying to clean shower grout. I have found a new plan! I read it on a blog somewhere. I call it the 30 minute clean.

Monday through Friday is each assigned an area. Here is the break down for me:


Monday-Kitchen
Tuesday-Living Room
Wednesday-Bedrooms
Thursday-Bathroom
Friday-Dinning Room

The idea is that every day I spend 30 minutes cleaning the room assigned, and only 30 minutes.  This 30 minutes does not include cleaning up toys, doing dishes, and other daily stuff. I am talking the more deep cleaning. For example, yesterday I worked in the kitchen. After doing my daily stuff of doing dishes and wiping off the counter, I then set the timer for 30 minutes and went to work. I scrubbed my sink, degreased my stove top are and outside the microwave, scrubbed the dish drainer, and cleaned off 7 years worth of buildup off my teapot. It might have been a little longer than 30 minutes, but after that I just stopped. It was actually hard for me to stop. I noticed I needed to degrease my oven door and probably clean the inside of my oven. So why did I stop? Because I don't want to fall back into the cycle of cleaning burnout. The idea is that next Monday it will be fast to clean the sink and I can spend time on degreasing the over door.

My list of daily chores is not that long either. Here is a general list, but some days if might vary:

• Dishes (My husband does the evening dishes. Told you he was awesome!)
• Wipe down counters and stove top (Stove top is also done by my husband.)
• Pick up and put away 'stuff'
• Make bed
• Laundry (Only Mon-Thurs for me)
• Vacuum as needed

You'll notice I didn't assign anything to the weekend. I plan on enjoying them. Saturday night I try and get the house looking nice for Sunday, but the idea is if I keep up on things during the week then it should be a fast job.

On a funny note, I saw this floating around Pintrest. Hope it makes you smile.

How do you keep up on household chores?

My New Answer

I am sure all women at some time or another have been asked the "Are you having more?" question, regardless of how many kids they have. I know I have been asked some form of this question a lot. I have recently headed off the question by mentioning that Dallin will be an only child most likely. This usually end the conversation about more children unless the person feels comfortable enough to ask why. If they do ask, I don't have any problem explaining why. It is not something that upsets me or hurts me to talk about. But I think I now have a new answer.

After listening to General Conference today, my answer for "probably not" has changed. When I am asked "When you going to have more children?", I hope to reply, "We are ready to have more children when the Lord is ready to bless us with a baby." I know, if we live righteously, we will be able to have this blessing. I know it may not be in this life, but I can have the faith and patience to wait until the next.