Marsia's Diary

That sounds like an exhausting job, carting all of those fence posts. You really must be getting so fit & strong. I love hearing about K's home-schooling & how it is helping her develop. What a lucky daughter you have, M. I'll be interested to hear more about individuation. Is it time to see someone about your stomach "bug"? xo
 
Same as everywhere, then... It's kind of rough at the moment!
I know we don't have it particularly bad compared with a lot of people, but it does stress me out how there is this perfect storm of crop failure and economic messes and I feel really bad for poor people. I have been meditating and doing yoga and that helps, and putting in my mini-orchard will help also. The fruit trees don't seem to be impacted by all the pests, so it will be nice to have them in the ground next spring. It does look like I'll get a massive crop of sweet potatoes. One plant has its sweet potatoes popping up through the soil, and the sweet potatoes are big and nice and it isn't even time to harvest them yet.
That doesn't sound nice at all. How long has it been going on now?
About 4 or 5 days, but it's getting better. It's very low grade now.
That sounds like an exhausting job, carting all of those fence posts. You really must be getting so fit & strong. I love hearing about K's home-schooling & how it is helping her develop. What a lucky daughter you have, M. I'll be interested to hear more about individuation. Is it time to see someone about your stomach "bug"? xo
Thanks Cate! I am glad I can rest from the fence post delivery day. That was really tiring. I think between yoga and gardening, I am getting strong. It feels really good! I am really heartened by how homeschooling is coming along. We both felt we were losing K to exhaustion and friends who were not that good of an influence, and now we have her back. It's wonderful! I am highlighting most of the individuation book, so it's going to be a little brain workout synopsizing the book, but good to do. My stomach is feeling a lot better and I am getting so I can garden for a few hours without getting tired, so I think it's passing. Yesterday I potted up a lot of plants and sprayed BT (organic pesticide) because there are caterpillars munching on everything. I put a cover over my newly planted beds to keep them out of the new sprouts, and it's working so far. It's much nicer weather, so I am going out and surveying the yard and admiring all the flowers and trees. Did I mention that I got some tea tree plants to see if we can make our own tea tree oil? I'll have to bring them in during winter, but I'm really excited about them.

I'm starting to feel better getting some of the estate and residency stuff done. Today we'll go out for coffee and study at the cafe for breakfast and swing by the market on the way home.
 
Getting strong sounds excellent. What kind of caterpillars are they? Do you know what kind of moth/butterfly they'd grow into?
 
Yes the prices going up everywhere is quite hard!
Good to hear you are keeping so many positives in place like the yoga and meditation and gardening.
Glad your stomach seems to be getting better now. Stomach bugs suck.
 
I think it's a good idea to make a weekend when you're home most of the time & especially with home-schooling as well. Going out for coffee & breakfast at a cafe & then the market sounds like a lovely idea. It's bucketing down here so an inside day for me. Enjoy your weekend, M xo
 
Getting strong sounds excellent. What kind of caterpillars are they? Do you know what kind of moth/butterfly they'd grow into?
Hi LaMa! They are cabbage moth caterpillars - little green ones that ate even the mint all the way back to just stems. Once I harvest the sweet potatoes, they shouldn't be such an infestation. They are all over the sweet potato leaves, and I noticed a monster sweet potato popping up just on the surface of the soil. It is 3x the size of normal ones, so time to harvest!
Yes the prices going up everywhere is quite hard!
Good to hear you are keeping so many positives in place like the yoga and meditation and gardening.
Glad your stomach seems to be getting better now. Stomach bugs suck.
Thanks, Liza. My stomach is still a little weird, but I can eat everything again. It is having the good side effect of me not wanting to snack and I am maintaining low weight. I am so happy to be doing nice exercise and mediation again!
I think it's a good idea to make a weekend when you're home most of the time & especially with home-schooling as well. Going out for coffee & breakfast at a cafe & then the market sounds like a lovely idea. It's bucketing down here so an inside day for me. Enjoy your weekend, M xo
Hi Cate! It was really nice going out, and we had a nice mellow weekend. We're finally going to be caught up on schoolwork from the horrid company visiting. (I have to get through 100% of the textbooks if we want our classes to count for honors classes, so we're aiming for that.). I hope the weather is nice for you while G is away. I hope to wake up early tomorrow and start peeking at diaries.

After getting 2 nice loads of wood chips from the arborist doing tree trimming on our street, a free chip drop service I signed up for some time ago also delivered, so now I have massive amounts of wood chips and will have lovely top soil in the spring. It's also good because I'll have all that exercise mixing in coffee chaff to the chips and then shoveling finished compost into the new orchard. Our fence posts and deer fencing arrived, so once I am done planting some small areas of fall crops, I can start on the orchard fence. Peas and curly kale and some carrots are up, and no sign of caterpillar infestation in those covered beds so far, so that's a relief.

I spent the last few days figuring out how to record homework, grades, and everything into a spreadsheet. I also decided to read one of the really heavy texts first and just teach from the stuff I highlight from that book. That went much better and faster and it didn't exhaust us. I will be caught up and organized by the end of the week. That is a massive bunch of worry off my back!

Yesterday after I gardened in the intermittent rain to the point of needing to flop on the couch in exhaustion (after showering off the mud and changing), K suddenly wanted to bike ride. So we went out and got rained on again, and had the nicest, coolest bike ride just before sunset. It's extra lovely here in the rain, and being cool while outside was just the best feeling. It was also fun riding through big puddles in the bike path and making massive splashes.

Ok, I think I'll turn in early so I can get up early and have time to visit diaries hopefully!
 
Hurrah for no caterpillars in your fresh plants! I do wonder sometimes how homeschooling gets checked. How can anyone prove you're lying if you were to just say you did everything and your kids got top grades? Is there regular independent testing? I have no doubt K is getting a good education in your care but I sometimes see social media posts from people who seem to use homeschooling as a tool for control and extreme sheltering and at least in some states there seems to be little to no oversight. My heart breaks when I think of those poor kids reaching adulthood, having to go out into the world abd finding out they know none of the important stuff.
 
Hi LaMa! We have a really good homeschool association and they make sure the texts you are using are up to at least grade level, and you can ask for advice on making the course college prep or honors level. There are good state tests you can sign up for to make sure your kid has actually absorbed what you have taught, but that's not mandatory testing. Sometimes people homeschool because their kid has a learning disability, so maybe their kid does not test well, and some people are unschoolers who maybe go too far and shun academics completely. They need to find a suitable unschooling-friendly accountability association, and may be asked to add in some more academic stuff if their association is good and on top of things (there is a mid-year review in our state). I have also heard of kids who get kicked out of public school and their parents put them in front of the tv and do not educate them at all and just say that they are teaching them. Some school districts turn a blind eye to this, I've heard. There are also a few different legal ways to homeschool, at least in this state. One is in conjunction with the school district. and this gives parents the least control, but I think that the kids who get kicked out of school should have to use this route to make sure they have support and accountability.

As far as proving that you are actually teaching, and teaching at grade level, you hand in attendance, course descriptions, textbook and reading book lists, grades, sample papers or projects from each subject, and documentation as far as science labs and such. You have to show proof that you graduated from at least high school. You also keep all schoolwork in an organized binder in case you are audited. You could cheat on these, so not a perfect system, but we're finding it way nicer and better than private school. One wonderful thing is that your accountability association helps with all sorts of suggestions. I just asked them about the best college test prep classes, and got a really detailed answer on which classes are good for all different reasons. As far as grades, these vary from school to school as far as how rigorous they are anyway, so I think as long as you teach the basics, the state is happy, and you need to take college prep tests for college admission anyway. Colleges are generally biased favorably toward homeschoolers. They are usually a lot better at independent learning.

That's really sad about the controling parents who shelter their kids way too much. There's a lot of really bad parenting out there, and it makes me feel horrible hearing about it.

Darn, not going to have time for diaries yet. Woke up too late! Hopefully later today...
 
Oh, I have no doubt that it's possible for homeschooling to be the right choice, to do it well, and to show your work when you want to. But it all sounds so dependent on the parents meaning well and wanting to put in the work and it makes me sad that that isn't always a given.
 
Things sure sound super busy for you @Marsia ! But it sounds like you're really starting to get a nice system going both with the homeschooling stuff and the gardens. I love the homeschooling option. I really struggled in the school system and really see a lot of the system as not being a healthy environment for a lot of kids so its nice to have that option available.
I admire you getting out on that bike ride after the big day in the garden!
 
There are so many children in the public school system who really struggle & who slip under the radio. I think K is very lucky she has such intelligent parents who will give her the best education & it seems like she will thrive. I think you are doing an amazing job, Marsia :grouphug:
 
Thanks so much everyone! Sorry I keep disappearing from the forum. Homeschooling is like another 2/3rds time job, and I am still adjusting to that and also trying to get good exercise and do more of the stuff I have been putting off that makes me enthused and engaged in life. I am reading and doing yoga, and the exercise in the garden is starting to pay off and I have more energy and ability to think more clearly.

With the clearer thinking, I am realizing that:
1) I don't want to calorie count because I feel intuitively that I need to learn to tell how much food is enough and stop. I also want to view food as something I have a good relationship with instead of it being something I have to dole out carefully. I really get what a good thing calorie counting is, and if my experiment fails, I'll definitely go back to it.
2) I want to view life as something to plunge headfirst into and not be so worried about if things will be hard or inconvenient. I feel like I am turning to food for comfort too much because I am limiting myself so much in life. So I think I need some time to get re-balanced in this regard.
3) I really want to come back to the forum and read everyone's diaries several times a week, but think I need to wait a little so that I don't see if someone is overeating and let that influence me to also overeat. I have tended to be too lax seeing other people be lax also, and I want to get a good routine going so that I break this habit.

So sorry for being flakey, but I think I'll take a couple more weeks off and then come back more on track! Miss reading how everyone is doing!!!
 
I think those are great goals and I'd love to read how you get along with them but I understand your third point, too. Best of luck and hopefully we'll see you soon.
 
Thanks everyone! I prepared yesterday for a possible touch down of a hurricane here today and hauled everything in from the yard and screen house. So far just heavy rain and wind, and hopefully that holds true for the day. Last night we had a talk, and everyone just wants 2 meals a day instead of 3, so that should make my intuitive eating thing easier, I am hoping. Ok, back in a couple of weeks once I get this down, I hope!
 
That hurricane has wreaked havoc. I'm glad that so far you are safe & have battened the hatches. Thanks for checking in xoxo
 
Hi everyone, the storm passed just north of us, due to a cold front pushing it in a different direction, or it would have come straight at us. It downgraded from a high category 4 storm to a category 1 by the time it reached us. It flooded Charleston, but here it just downed small branches and blew my garden around a little. It's mostly fine, and it was stressful to worry through the storm, but it wasn't nearly as bad as some downpours here where I have to pull off the road because of unsafe driving conditions. We just lucked out completely. The new eating schedule is going well, and I tried the Wim Hof breathing method and liked it, so did it with K, who likes it, too. I think we'll keep doing it before school in the morning. I did snack quite a bit due to worrying about the hurricane, but probably not too bad. Ok, over and out for now!
 
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