My first 5K

I'm not saying I'm awesome.  Well, I do have moments of awesomeness but it's not because I'm a runner.
As a matter of fact, I'd rather let the zombies have me than run from them.  Bad knees, big boobs, it's a terrible combination.  I did "do" a 5K though.  My first one.  I ran for a total of 103 seconds.  But...I started the run and finished the run on my own two legs so there's that.  I kept telling myself, "You made it through Disney.  Pretend Mickey is just around the corner.  Now, GO! GO!"   The part that was the hardest and more of an accomplishment is that I did something resembling anything.  Don't get the wrong idea about me. I'm not a couch potato.  I mean, I do things, I just have to be blasted out of the house.  That sounds bad too. I just love being at home.  I'm not a "I have to run around to seem busy" kind of gal.  My kids do activities like dance and sports and have friends they hang out with.  I don't have chips on my shirt and an empty Mt. Dew can at my feet. I really like my kids and my dogs and my husband and my house.  Gen pop, not so much.  I'm a photographer and the sessions with kids and families, I LOVE!!! So, it's not that I hate people. I think if I didn't worry so much about money or family drama (extended, always remember my little nuclear of a family is perfect) I'd enjoy "doing" a little more.  Well, that all makes me seem unlikable.  I'm not though. I'm very likable.  So here is me and my sister, who signed us up for the Graffiti Run to begin with.  I love to do digital scrapping and I'm trying to do my own version of Project Life.  Below is my Graffiti Run PL page. See, I'm enjoying myself. All the templates and digital supplies came from Sahlin Studio. You have to check them out.  They have great digital scrapbooking stuff!  

So here is what I'm working on today.  I'd have put a picture of what I was working on last night, but the recycling truck has already picked up my empty wine bottle.  That whole fearless living thing is rough some days. So today I'm organizing clothes for a consignment sale, doing a little scope and sequence planning for the kids schooling and putting homeschool supplies away.  It's raining and the kids are playing quietly so I'm also propping my eyelids open and not looking directly at my bed.  It's like a dog, if you make eye contact, you're finished.
We are going to use Time4Learning  as a base line for homeschooling.  I liked the concepts taught and the independent nature of the work and it's on the computer with updated animation, so all in all it's pretty cool. That will only be a snippet of the day, but it will help me organize the skills I'll teach throughout the year.  I started by going through the yearly lesson plan/scope and sequence on Time4Learning and writing down the skills my daughter would work on throughout the third grade term.  The language arts portion had me so excited.  I'm a grammar lover.  I get excited about sentence structure and usage.  Oh, especially usage. Now, when I got to the math, that was a different story.  I may or may not have had to google a term or two. I really think though that some of the things in the 3rd grade curriculum were what I learned (or was supposed to learn) in high school.
I should take the time to explain here that I was a teacher for 15 years.  I taught pre-k for 4 years, 1st grade for 4 years and kindergarten for 7 years.  Kindergarten was always my true love.  I could totally rock kindergarten math like nobody's business.  Ok, so this post is over.  I mean, I'm done writing for now so, yeah.  Um...(insert witty/wise/profound sign off here)

This is exactly what I think.  Harsh?  Maybe. True? Definitely. 

Here are a couple of pictures from the morning.  Seems like for at least one day, I got it right. The one who wants to go to school did and the one who will blossom being homeschooled

didn't have to.  It was the first first day since I've been teaching or had kids that I wasn't physically ill thinking about the first day.  Today, the right decisions were made and there's no second guessing.  Who knows about tomorrow?  But for one day, I can breathe a sigh of relief.  

Introduction

So this is my first blog post for Our Life and a Red Wheel Barrow.  I've been wanting to start one for a while and since school is getting ready to start up, I thought it'd be a good time.  I really want to use the blog to record our new trek into the world of homeschooling.  I have a feeling I'm going to have a lot to say about it.  
     The title Our life and a Red Wheel Barrow comes from the William Carlos Williams poem, "The Red Wheel Barrow."  I love the imagery from the poem and the idea that even seemingly insignificant things can be meaningful and important.  
      Tomorrow is the first day of public schools here in our county and I have a sophomore in high school that will start then.  We joke that it's too late for him to be saved by homeschooling and he's just out of luck.  Truth is, he loves the social aspect of school.  He's super bright and not being around people and all the activity just bums him out.  He's also so comfortable in his own skin, that I don't worry that "they" will get to him.  More about "them" in future posts.  I'm cool with him going, except I feel old or unprepared for him to be so old, I'm not sure which.  He turned 15 today, we practiced driving and my heart ached at the thought of him going away to college, which we discussed ad nauseum.  I also made a "15" collage out of adorable/embarrassing pictures of him through the years.  
    The starving kids are screaming, evidently they want me to fix dinner.  Demanding little boogers.  Hopefully this is a decent first attempt at blogging.  :)