Well, it happened. I have once again found myself at home, in my house, with my children. All of them. Sure, we did the Nevada COVID thing, but I was constantly preoccupied with graduate school (finished) or the distance version of my teaching job (over), so it was easy to busy myself with not home things.
And now I’m home. With the home things.
Harrison graduated early in January and is doing that waiting-for-mission-stuff-without-enough-to-do-with-myself-in-the-meantime-so-I’ll-make-maps-for-dungeons-and-dragons thing. It’s awesome. He and his buddies run a Lacrosse camp for elementary age kids, but that’s only six hours a week, and his own team practices are maybe another six hours. I don’t do math, but I think there’s way more available time in his life for…something.
We started homeschooling our kids in December and I openly love it. Rex is doing an online high school program called Acellus (he’s in 9th) and Harry tutors him where needed and helps him with test question comprehension.We’ve been so relieved to find out that Rex’s poor academic record from the past four years wasn’t a proper sample of his ability. Yes, he has ASD, but in the right environment he can totally work on grade level with solid A’s and B’s. Phew for him.
That leaves the two girls. Ten and thirteen. Georgia and June. And I…I am their teacher. Never have I ever been so grateful for an extended education.
Enter piano lessons. Thus far, piano has been a casualty of mommy working full time. We’ve tried, but with a 30+ minute commute each way to school, plus after school junk, it seemed to be the one thing we couldn’t make happen. But now I’m home, and I have realized that I am entirely suited to piano teaching.
Then I met Georgia.
I know she’s only been playing for a week, and I know she’s only ten, but the moment we begin, I turn into a retro German school marm and find myself yelling, “No! Count out loud! Just count! Can’t you count?! Eins-zwei-drei…” It got so heated this morning that I had to leave the house and send her a formal apology. And I know we should be further along with all the homeschool things, but it’s so easy to get caught up in a youtube explanation of rocks. Fascinating stuff, we lose total track of the schedule. Then it’s time for tap dancing and cookies…so…yeah.
I don’t know if I’m going to write again, and I don’t care if anyone ever reads it, but I do know that I need something right now to fill my temporary personal void. This has always been my safe place. Here’s hoping.