I haven’t been able to find time to even think about this blog lately. I’m so busy with everything. I just finished up an event at Mommy Chats the beginning of November and then started another.
I also am still pretty much floundering at home with housework and homeschooling. Tyren keeps me constantly busy and has been driving me absolutely bonkers. He literally will cling to my legs when I get up to try to do anything at all…throw something away, do some housework, go pee, whatever…he becomes a sobbing mess. I have taken to wearing him in a backpack sometimes, to help me to get anything done. But he’s now 30lbs and even the backpack wears after awhile! Forget the sling for housework, it just makes me far too sore. It’s great for when we are out and about town…I can’t survive stores without it! But my frame backpack is my lifesaver at home. When I remember it. I often simply forget I have it. I just end up resenting the little monkey, and getting more and more stressed out by all the things I simply cannot do these days. My house is always a wreck and people, who shall remain nameless, are always criticizing me for my lack of housekeeping skills…which only adds to my stress and resentment. ARGH! I haven’t gotten the nerve to ask them to BACK OFF yet, but I tell ya, someday soon I am probably going to just EXPLODE and they will hear it all! I know they mean well…but how in the world does snide remarks and constant critiques help? They just don’t get it.
And my poor Maeven. I’ve been doing all I can to make up for the lack of time I have with her. I can’t even usually do anything with her during Tyren’s naps because Tyren will usually wake up when I try to put him down so I end up holding him the entire naptime, working on the computer so I’m getting at least SOMETHING done. (Mommy Chats work…which, incidentally, is bringing me in a nice little profit these days, so it’s way more than a hobby…this is a BUSINESS…wish I could get that into SOME PEOPLE’s heads…because all I get from them is a dismissal of my work as just unimportant silly fun stuff I do, when there’s SO much more to it! *sigh*). So to try to make stuff up to her I make sure we have activities for her to do…well they are things I want for her anyway…science class weekly at The Discovery Center (it’s a class specifically for homeschoolers, with an ongoing theme, with a teacher I absolutely ADORE)…art class weekly (She’s been going there since she was 3! It’s handsdown the best thing I’ve ever invested in for her! She’s SUCH and artist and it really helps her bloom!)…weekly Nana time, where my mom is helping with the homeschooling by teaching her things like baking and sewing and eventually knitting and crocheting and such (for now, they are holiday baking)…weekly Bompa woodworking time, where my dad takes her and works with her on woodworking projects (really an awesome thing for her, I’m very pleased that he’s doing it! They are working on making her her own woodworking bench, so cool!) …and then we have playdates weekly with our friends…standing time on Fridays to go to our friend’s house that lives on a communal lot of a famous local sculptor and the grounds are just gorgeous and very child-friendly…so she’s developing her friendships with the little girls we meet there weekly and getting to roam and explore such a wonderful area…
I also try to take her places like Oakhurst, to go explore nature (have only been once, but we’re going to try to go again today…every week I try to take her) and try (key word–try) to read to her more (this is super hard with Tyren, he just makes everything more complicated)…and I REALLY REALLY want to start doing projects with Maeven, but every time we try to do something Tyren makes it impossible and so they’ve been scratched a lot. We also occasionally do some baking…something I really want to do weekly.
I’m really trying hard to do more for Maeven. I feel good that even though things are not working out with me doing one-on-one with her lately (not for lack of trying! And I will NOT give up!) she still has had a lot of great things going on regardless. Today we are going to try to make it to Oakhurst and dive into the world of letterboxing. There are 3 hidden in Oakhurst and we just love going to that town anyway. We made a kit for her to take with us to San Francisco last week, but never got a chance to search for any of the boxes we had clues to.
Oh did I mention Marine World/San Fran? Woops! Last week was Homeschool Day at Marine World Africa USA (now 6 Flags too). So they were only open to homeschoolers (tickets had to be purchased in advance) and price was greatly discounted. It was AWESOME! The lines were so short, the group was all homeschoolers like us…really really wonderful! Then the next day we went to San Francisco and did all the touristy stuff and explored with my brother (Maeven’s favorite uncle) who lives in SF. Really great time had by all! It was Adam, Maeven, Tyren and I and my parents, and my brother. Adam’s family was supposed to come too but had work things come up at the last minute, unfortunately. Maybe next year.
Anyway we all had a really wonderful time on our trip and the length was just perfect. We left late on Thursday, came back early evening on Sunday. Only about 3-4 hour drive too. Perfect.
Well I hear crying in the other room…better go supervise.
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