Quiet house rambling

Yesterday's post seemed pretty lame to me, and I'm finding myself in a quiet house once again and since the laptop just happens to be right in front of me, I figured I could try again. The big kids are at the movies and Jake is at Joe's. The laundry is still (mostly) caught up, and I even changed our air filters today (It had been 10 months! {gasp} Gross huh?). Pinto beans are in the crock pot (that is not a yummy smell) for refried beans for Taco(ish) Tuesday (I think I'm making chalupas actually). I realized that when I bragged about being all caught up that was really just a perspective thing, but the house is still pretty fair, so I'm calling it caught up. We get a houseguest from China for 10 days starting tomorrow. It is through the same program that we got Mathilde and Christina last year. This girl is only 13 and I think China is going to be a whole different ball of wax than France and Spain, but it is a very short time. It is sure to be educational! Tonight is the All Star Game (for those of you like Madi, that's baseball {as of this morning she didn't know what the All Star Game was}). When I was a kid, each year I wore all of the American League hats that our family owned on the night of the All Star Game (yes all on my head at once, even a Yankee hat). This morning I brought the kids to theatre (they had auditions for Into the Woods Jr today), went to daily Mass, chatted over tea with some lovely ladies, went to an hour body flow class at the gym, catted with another friend, talked to a few friends on the phone, did a little dusting, ate a peaceful lunch, and made cookies (and ate a bunch) all before picking up the kids at 2:00. It made me realize all of the things I could do if I didn't homeschool. The thing is though, I could really do most of those things anyway (and I often do). I want to be with my kids as much as possible though. We have occassional arguments "discussions" over Madi's time with friends and Jonathan's time at the theatre, but it's not because those aren't great things, it's because I know how fast time is flying and I'm still trying to hang on. I don't mean hang on in an unhealthy way. I'm pretty sure I'm not stunting their development in anyway (I know this because we say yes just about every time). Recently I was having a discussion with someone I'd just met (who doesn't homeschool) about Madi's plans to take a class at the local high school. I'm fine with this, but she is wanting to do it sooner and I'm a fan of later. I mentioned to this woman that I wasn't ready to be tied down to the school schedule and she laughed. It made me realize that I've been a parent for almost 17 years and haven't had to be tied down like that yet. The majority of families get tied down by that within 5 years of becoming a parent. We've got a pretty good thing going here, I recognize that.