It's a Beautiful Wreck

Still Here and Quiet

Written on May 9, 2011 by Kimberly in General

I am not sure where to start. I am absent from blogging. I could say it is work and the kids but that wouldn’t be the complete truth. Busy doesn’t even begin to describe the last week of my life. Or the things I have seen or experienced.

This past week thousands, and I mean thousands of people came to my blog to read about homeschooling. The emails were overwhelming and supportive. I promise that I will be writing more about homeschooling soon. I also will be asking some people to guest post for me on this subject. One of the things I will be addressing is single mother’s and homeschooling. I hope to finish my series on “Why I Homeschool?” as well.

Next Sunday I will be 37. Another year behind me, another year before me. I feel personal change coming about in so many areas.

My youngest is finally potty trained. Yes, she is four. Yes, I ended up forcing and bribing her. I am happy to report that these days we rarely have accidents and have not purchased any diapers since March. I can’t express to all of you how relieved I am to be passed this phase in my life. I am no longer the mother of a baby or even a toddler.

My home seems to be in a constant state of chaos. I see a summer full of getting organized, schooling kids, and revamping some things in our home. I want to paint and sew and reupholster furniture. There are not enough days in a week, or hours in the days so I am unsure if any of the things I want to do will get done. But we shall see.

Stories, I have stories and you will get to read them soon.

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Mommy Bloggers, you’ve forgotten who YOU are

Written on April 22, 2011 by Kimberly in General, On the Fence, This Post May Be About You, Writing

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I used to read a lot of blogs. Mostly blogs written by women about motherhood. I still have over 100 in my reader and a few I have bookmarked that I just love to go and read to see the eye candy on their site surrounding all the authors words but lately, I am reading less and less. Something has happened. Those great writers, who wrote about their lives, their kids, their shitty jobs, and their crazy are all starting to sound the same. Sometimes I can’t even tell who I am reading anymore because so many mommy bloggers sound just alike when scrolling through my reader.

Blogs have become business instead of personal, and frankly I don’t want to read business. The ads in your side bar, well I don’t click on them because I think they are an eye sore. I really don’t care about your sponsorships, your partnerships, and what popular mommy blogger you made out with at one of the conferences. You know why? Because you weren’t the only one feeling up her boobies and kissing her on the mouth down in the French Quarter. I’m just saying. And the whole selling of “imperfection” – that is not something that needed to be sold to readers, we got it without it being the topic of every damn blog post. None of us are perfect, and while it is great to relate to a mom just like myself, I don’t get the celebration of totally fucking up in our lives every single day. At this point it would be refreshing to read “Holy shit, I got this right!” At least give those coming up in the ranks of motherhood hope that the sum total of mothering isn’t constant screw ups and raising your kids to be warped zombie ninjas.

I’m sick of reading about “jealousy” and “coat tails” or who you boobie squished while you were shit faced on vodka. Frankly, it’s OLD. A few years ago it was funny, maybe a little interesting, even a little shocking but now this is as common as getting spam on Twitter. It’s not cool anymore. It’s actually boring.

Somewhere along the way many of you have forgotten who YOU are. You left your creative writing on a shelf. You took what made your blog fabulous, YOU, and made it into what everyone else was doing. Might I suggest going back to being unique instead of something cheap.

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Not a super mom

Written on April 20, 2011 by Kimberly in General

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I want to linger under the covers

While the kids argue over breakfast and toys and what they are going to wear today

Not a morning person, no matter how hard I try to be.

My calendar is full

Work

Play

Kids

And I think “I am no super mom”

I need a lazy day

to read

to sew

to watch movies

or to sleep.

My mind is hard to turn off these days

so much

so little time

I’m told I am patient,

I’m not

I’m told I am organized,

I’m not

I look around

at projects unfinished

to do lists undone

laundry to be put away

books scattered here and there.

Right now

exhausted

wishing for extra hours in my day

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Before 37: Home Grown

Written on April 19, 2011 by Kimberly in Children, General, Homeschooling Five, Kids, Parenting

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I am not going to tell you how many times I have attempted to garden. I believe I am cursed with a black thumb. My mother was an avid gardener, as was my Aunt Bonnie, my grandfather and my great-grandfather and I am not. I first tried my hand at it twelve years ago. I was completely clueless. I plowed up a patch in the back yard, not knowing the first thing about the red clay or sand that laid beneath the top layer of soil nor that when we would have torrential rain falls that my yard would look more like a wetland than suburban back yard. Needless to say that didn’t last.

Last year I tried container gardening. I did get some jalapeno peppers and some tomatoes but eventually everything died. I tried. I really tried but it did not turn out at all. And now I have four beautiful above beds in the backyard. To say I am nervous would be an understatement. I just hope this time I am not a failure at this. So me and the littles are attempting a bed of tomatoes of various varieties, a bed of squash, a bed of zucchini, and a few eggplants and green peppers in another. Wish us luck!

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Before 37: Spring Garden – We did it, you can too!

Written on April 18, 2011 by Kimberly in Children, General, Homeschooling Five, Kids

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At the beginning of the year I wrote this post. So far I have not done too well in knocking things off the list. Since getting a job and getting more involved in the homeschooling community here my free time has been limited. Time to sit and read leisurely or build that piece of furniture I wanted too has not been a priority but I have definitely fulfilled the hiking with Mr. K, cooking Thai food, and playing more games with the kids. I have worked for months on perfecting bread making but continue to fail miserably. Mr. K however does it quite well. Last Sunday though I was determined to get our above bed garden put in. I would like to say I did a good bit of the work, but I did more supervising than actually constructing. I did drive to Lowe’s three times for the supplies though.

Building an above bed garden though is not that hard and once everything was here it did not take long to build and prepare. We decided to put in four beds that are 4 feet by 4 feet. Our backyard is small and it has to be shared with five children and all their outdoor toys, like the trampoline that takes up half the yard.