this life

this is my contribution to the radical unschoolers' network blog carnival for august. topic: a day in the life of unschoolers.

i got up this morning and realized that with all the rain from yesterday, i would not need to do any watering in the gardening. normally, i get up and water and pick anything that needs picking. i said goodbye to scotty as he went off to work early and then i got to go straight to my morning vice...the computer! reading emails, answering emails, reading forums on RUN and IT, reading my favorite blogs. it's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it! i also downloaded some music and made a couple cds and put some on my mp3 player.

the other thing i do every morning is give the guinea pigs some fresh food, this is usually carrots or lettuce or whatever we happen to have. if i don't they will squeak at me while i'm trying to use the computer.

the kids slowly roll out of bed and pick out something to eat, usually they don't need a lot of help with breakfast. i had already cut up a watermelon and had it out so they could just get some if they wanted. i got off the computer so i could go make a tape for the car. the kids have made it real clear that they are tired of listening to kate nash, sia, and r.e.m. and i'd been wanting some dar williams and ani difranco for the car anyway. did i mention that my car doesn't have a cd player...that's why i have to make tapes. all the tapes that are usually in there are from the mid 80s and early 90s. once in awhile though i get around to making something new to put in there.

you've got to picture this tape making process because i don't have any and it's funny. my cd player with the tape player in it is super old and lately has been skipping all the time. so recording a cd onto a tape with it was just out of the question. so what did i do?? i borrowed samuel's cd player and took them both up to my room where it was quiet so that i could play the music on one and record it into the mic of the other. not recording studio quality but good enough to have something new in the car...and better than constant skipping. in case you didn't know this already, i have been known to go on for several paragraphs when talking about music so remember that for next time...you've been warned. so i informed the kids what i was doing so that i could have the quiet i needed for my project. they were awesome. the phone, not so much. my mom called, then my sister. my mom to tell me about her tests at the hospital and because i think she was feeling lonely and just needed to talk. my sister because she was bringing a project over and couldn't remember what i'd told her to bring.

while i was doing that, the kids were playing on the computer together, playing with guinea pigs and hanging out. my sister showed up just before lunch and we got to work on the project of building a wall piece for her son's bedroom. i painted a 2' x 2' craft board black and let it dry while we arranged and rearranged the 2 broken skateboards that we would attach to the board out on the front porch. the kids hung out inside with their cousins, shot each other with their new nerf guns and decided they wanted to walk to the comic book store. they stayed long enough to watch me attach the skateboards to the wood and then they left. but not before making sure they had enough to buy a bunch of the 25 cent comics in the back of the store and reassuring me that they did not need to eat lunch, they were not hungry. sadie stayed at home with us. i fixed quesadillas for the three of us, we ate at the picnic table on the porch and talked and laughed. it was nice, i never get to talk much with her one on one. sadie listened for awhile then went in and came back out with her guinea pig. then put him up and came back to listen some more to us talking. she got a little bored and played chuzzle on my phone for awhile

just when i was starting to wonder if the kids would ever come home, they rounded the corner. imagine 4 sweaty, thirsty pre-teen and teen youths rushing towards the house...one of which was shouting "water, water!!!" (that was silas...of course). they took their comic book treasures in to look at and share. while my sister and i were talking, i started falling asleep...seriously, i had to lay down. i said that it felt so good outside but i didn't have anywhere to lay down and i wished i had a hammock. that's when i remembered that i do!! i was suddenly awake with the excitement of hanging my hammock on the porch. my sister and her kids left to visit my mom and i found the hammock and hooks and got to putting it up. sadie helped hold it for me so i could figure out how high to put it. it didn't take long before it was all done and ready to test whether or not the hooks i used would hold my weight. they did. but by this time, i had lost all my sleepiness. so i got a book and some water and the phone and read for a little while.

meanwhile, samuel was reading his new comic books and silas was IMing with a friend who lives here in town and hatching a plan for her to come over to our house today. that didn't pan out though, it was just too late by the time they decided what to do. sadie watched the movie "cars." everyone tried out the hammock. by the way, this is a hammock i got years and years ago...maybe '92, not sure...on a trip with my boyfriend and his family and other friends down in mexico.

samuel took over the hammock while i went out to the garden to pick a watermelon from a vine that was not looking well and i was worried i would lose it as one had already went soft and yellow. it's a nice size for a shallow root system garden like SFG. i also harvested the rest of the corn and cut the stalks down. i have some new shoots from a recent corn planting coming in that are several inches now and i'm thinking it's plenty hot enough to do one more set as soon as i get up the roots of the old plants. i also found a huge cuke that i had somehow missed before. i usually get to them before they get that big, but it's not so big that i need to chuck it on the compost or anything. the kids had eggs and cukes for supper and i had three ears of corn and a whole cuke. we have yet to bother cooking any of the corn we've gotten from the garden. i love raw corn...but fresh raw corn that you just picked less than 15 minutes ago is phenomenal!! a little drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt...nothing better. and i ate the cuke like an apple. much juicier that way since none of the juices get left behind on the cutting board.

after eating, we put our new tent together out in the backyard. we recently missed out on an opportunity to camp because we had no tent, so we decided it was time to get a new one. we haven't had a tent since silas was a baby. the kids were excited and were so helpful putting it up. i told them maybe we would sleep in it tonight. we got it all put together and came inside to scratch our mosquito bites and rest. we had some nachos and watched a sitcom, then it was time for the kids to clean the guinea pig cage. when we got them, i helped with the cleaning for the first few weeks and then turned it over to them completely. they get it done, each with their own particular part they do. and then they are done before i know it.

while they are doing that, i'm on the computer for a rare second time today treat and i decide to go ahead and do this blog entry. scotty came home just a bit ago and he went to take a shower while i finish this up. he brought home cookies. yum. he might get lucky. oops, that's probably not supposed to be part of my day in the life story. ah well.

while writing this i'm listening to my projectplaylist music and enjoying chair dancing to a new discovery...lady gaga..."just dance." i keep hitting the repeat button. must get up...and...dance...cannot...stop....myself...the version on my list is faster than the one on her myspace...so i like it better.

now everyone is horse laughing in the other room while watching "family guy"...a show i would never have thought i would let my kids watch.

i know it seems like so much of this is about me and what i did. but that's how it gets sometimes as they get older. but they are always in and around my activities...sometimes helping, sometimes just watching. later there will probably be some reading to sadie if she wants, while the boys take turns getting in a little more computer time before they get tired and head to bed.

i didn't take any pictures today...not even when i was doing projects...gasp!! but i did take one a little while ago of samuel and sadie cuddling on the couch together. i may come back later and add it (while proofing this i remembered that i did take a picture of sadie in the hammock...so i'll have that to share later as well. okay, i did take more than i thought it did...funny how it's an extension of my arm sometimes so that i don't even remember using it) but right now...the real world calls...Share