The Spice of Life

Whoa, wait!  It's September already?!?  August has come and gone and I've failed to blog.  Failed to write.  Failed to read.  Just...failed.

Don't get me wrong.  I've been reading.  "Back to school" is back to school for many of us homeschoolers as well so I've been doing lots of reading.  Curriculum guides and catalogs.  Articles about homeschool.  Blogs about homeschool.  Posts about homeschool.  I've got homeschool coming out of my ears.  I've scheduled junk, then rescheduled junk, then gone back and rescheduled the originally rescheduled junk.  I've read Tigger (a board book inspired by A.A. Milne) 556 times.  I've read Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, lots of Beatrix Potter, and a few Lego comic books.  I have listened to my children read me Curious George, Dick and Jane, and whatever else captures their fancies.

Then there are all these mouths to feed.  Puddle has made the leap from boob to food at long last (he will be one at the end of the month), so I'm of course pureeing organic fruits and veggies in my Magic Bullet and visiting a local farm to procure fresh, organic goat's milk to supplement as we wean.  *giggle*  *snort*  Just kidding.  I mean, I did a couple of times.  Puree the food, that is.  That goat thing was just a pipe dream I entertained shortly before I bought a can of Similac.  But I did just feed him a jar of organic (*pats self on back*) pears, raspberries and asparagus which he ate, taking a moment between each bite to make a face and do a little shiver-shake, as if to say "there is something distinctly off with these pears."  So that's just the baby.  There are four other people, myself not included, that expect to be fed as well.  More reading.  About meal planning for large families and crock pot meals and freezer meals and freezer crock pot meals.

So between all of this reading and planning and planning to read and then actually executing the plans I've read for (and PopSugar and BuzzFeed; I ain't gonna lie), there has been precious little time for "me" stuff.  You know, those silly little things like exercise and hair cuts.  And, most importantly, reading books designed for people above the age of 13.

But I had a moment today while feeding Puddle his fruity asparagus whilst Toot screamed as if his cheese pizza was...well, pureed pears, raspberries and asparagus.  Variety might be the spice of life, but not all combinations are winners.  You don't want curry in your pumpkin pie and you probably don't really need asparagus in your pears either (yes, I realize I'm the one who actually bought the stuff).  While trying to create the perfect mix of homeschooling genius, I may be throwing in a little too much of this and too much of that.  The kids don't have to do every activity, attend every event no matter how enriching, and if they go a day without reviewing their French, we're probably going to be okay.  So for the millionth time and probably not the last, I'm taking a big deep breath, a big step back, and recommitting myself to a few basic non-negotiables.  1) I get to run, 2) I get to read, and 3) My Precious is mine,  minions!  Get your grubby little jelly-covered hands off of it!!  Just kidding, of course.  I love every single one of my four munchkins, sticky fingers and all.  But, no, seriously, hands off.  Mummy has some reading to do.