Out of Ideas

It's a sad, sad day when a wanna-be blogger realizes she has nothing to say. I mean nothing. No interesting life events. No funny stories. No cute kid quotes. NUH-THING. I'm out of blogging ideas. I feel exactly like Elaine at Looking For George was feeling the other day ("...Meh.").

I guess I'm in one of my little House Frau Funks again. I could tell you about my plans to organize our school books and materials today, since homeschool starts next Monday, but... Who cares? That's boring. My life is boring. I'm boring.

However, it's all I've got so...

Guess what guys? Today, I'm hoping to accomplish getting our school materials organized. When Darrell was building the addition (new kitchen, dining room, and mud room), he put a closet in the dining room for me (since that's where we do most of our school stuff) that is full of shelves. You slide back the door and it's like... VOILA... a mini-library in there, complete with shelves labeled by subject. It's awesome. Every anal homeschool mom's dream. But toward the end of last April, as the hope of Summer Break approached, things started getting tossed in there willy-nilly. So now there are English materials crammed onto the Math shelf. Science books laying next to, and even on top of, Handwriting workbooks. It's obscene- a regular Sodom and Gomorrah of books. We can't have that.

If I'm up for any more excitement after that's finished, I really need to get my bathroom clean. It's covered in drywall dust, because we're remodeling in there. Next, I'll be making snacks for a parents' planning meeting we have to go to tonight for our homeschool group.

So that's it. That's my day. Can you stand it? I can't.

Other, equally non-exciting news:

In addition to remodeling my bathroom, we are also finally (read that word with a giddy, high-pitched voice to get the full effect, please) finishing the fifth bedroom, which has been on my list of "Top Five Things to Make Darrell Finish" for about two years now. This is kind of a bittersweet project for me. I'm so glad to be getting it done finally (go for a dramatic tone of frustration this time), BUT... This room was going to be Tucker and Sam's bedroom. Since we haven't got our referral yet and it appears, at least for now, that an adoption may not happen in our near future, we are letting Mike have the room. It just made more sense to let the two oldest boys have their own rooms, especially since Alex is staying put for the time being (the two girls share a room, Evan and Tucker are together, and Mike and Alex have been sharing the other).

Mike wanted to paint his walls a really dark, dark color... as in black. We said En-to-the-Oh on that one, and compromised with a sorta dark, steely blue/gray color. It doesn't look too bad. The room is so small, that going as dark as he wanted would make it look like a cave. Plus- and this is the biggie- it would be ugly. He bought a cheap hammock in Mexico last year that he wants to hang in there and use as his bed. A hammock that is already frayed and no one has ever even been in it yet. I give it two weeks, tops, before he falls right through the stupid thing onto the hard floor in the middle of the night. I did not just laugh out loud. ...No, I didn't. ...Okay, yeah. Maybe I did. Just a little.

Anyway... I'm glad it's almost done, but it breaks my heart looking in that room at those gray walls and envisioning how it was supposed to look with Sam's little crib, covered with his handmade quilt with the cute little jungle animals, and Tuck's bunkbed in there.

Alex should be coming back home today after being away for almost two weeks working in Arkansas with his uncle. Mike and Evan are quite disappointed he has to return. They've mentioned several times how nice it is around here with him gone. Ah... The loving bond between brothers. It gets ya right here, doesn't it? College classes start on Monday the 18th, so he has to come back. I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it here, but Alex is not going away to school now. He decided to pass on the football scholarship to the school that was four hours away and stay here to go to a local community college for the first two years. That way, he can work while going to school and save a little money. He got a couple small scholarships he can use at this school too, so that's good. His heart just wasn't in football- at least not enough to go four hours away where he doesn't know anyone. Fine with us. We're glad he'll be closer to home anyway.

Evan starts school tomorrow. After being homeschooled their whole lives, that first day of high school is extra daunting. He's nervous, but excited. Mike starts school on Thursday, since tomorrow is just for freshman orientation. I think it's good that they give the freshman a day to get used to the school without the upper grades there. I won't have to worry about my baby getting his head slammed in a locker by some horrible, mean senior until Thursday. That's nice.

As I said, the little ones start school on the 18th, so my summer break is effectively over. I've got 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders this year. Do you detect the jubilant eagerness in my voice? No??? Could it be because it's not there? I've been burned out on homeschooling for a couple years now. I still believe it's best for our family and it's what I should be doing, it's just not what I really want to be doing. I keep hoping I'll get a fresh burst of inspiration and really feel dedicated to it again, but so far... It's not happening. When we lived in Kansas City, I used to attend the big homeschool conference up there each year. Since we've been down here, I've gone to only a couple. It always seems like such an effort to get up there for it, or it's on an inconvenient weekend, but I think not going is part of my problem. Going to those conferences- seeing all the new school materials, and hearing the great speakers, always seemed to give me a second wind, or reignite my passion, or something. Now, I'm just running on fumes. I'm out of fresh ideas when it comes to school. I'm out of fresh ideas when it comes to blogging. I'm just altogether out of it. Period.