Teenagers etc

I'm starting this post without a title and not sure where I am going.  Mostly I wanted to stop by here and say how cool teenagers are.  At least mine are, and I'm pretty proud.  And it's my blog and I'm going to brag.  Jonathan and Chloe are going to Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween party at Disney tomorrow night and guess who they're bringing...Jake!  Granted he paid for his own ticket (yay birthday money), but still isn't that nice.  It is not unusual for Jonathan (and Chloe) to do this kind of thing, but it is pretty unusual for teenagers in general to do this, and I want to remember that.

Also, Madi does indeed have a boyfriend as well.  He seems really sweet and I'm looking forward to getting to know him.  Their dates mostly consist of meeting in one or the other of the local downtowns and walking near the lake, in the midafternoon because...busy schedules.  But today they had a real live afternoon date where he picked her up at our house and everything.  Guess where they went... to Mellow Mushroom and then to reconciliation!!  Isn't that the best??  And he's coming to the theatre tonight to see her perform.


My house is nice and clean (well parts of it) because Reese was going to be coming to the door and we needed to make a good impression.  Now I can bask in the (semi-cleaness) which is a rare treat on a Saturday afternoon of show weekend.  Plus it is my favorite time of year with the windows wide open, so not only is it cleanish in here, but there is a cool breeze blowing in from the open window. 

Speaking of show weekend.  Jake and Madi are in two different casts for this because... (once again) ... busy schedules.  Madi has an opera like song (someone actually asked me if she had taken up opera), another cute song, and she does a split in her cast.  She is also ensemble in Jake's cast.  In Jake's show he falls in love with Chloe (yes, Jonathan's girlfriend) and truly steals the show with his song near the end.  Videos may or may not ever make it on here.  I'm a million years behind on that kind of thing.  My excuse is I'm busy enough living in the moment, and I'm ok with that.

I started this school year looking for opportunities to make a little money while doing my favorite thing (homeschooling).  It is really working out.  A very close friend who I've known roughly since her birth, comes over 2 hours/ day 3 days/week and we work on mostly math and language arts (that sentence may or may not be grammatically correct).  It is so awesome to see the progress she is making.  I'm as excited for her accomplishments as I am for my own kids.  I want to be a professional homeschooler when I grow up!

I've also had long (LLOOONNGG) phone conversations recently with two different moms (one of whom I've never met in real life) who are both contemplating homeschooling.  I really feel like I have significant credibility now that I've officially homeschooled a kid to completion.  My general mantra to people is that it doesn't have to be nearly as hard as you might think.  On the other hand, one thing that I'm not sure how to relay to others is how to naturally talk to your kids about life all the time.  I know that a lot of families do this, but I'm pretty sure there are also a lot of families that don't.  While it might start when they are babies in the grocery store (like "that is a red apple", "oh this aisle is cold") it shouldn't end once they know how to speak.  (Just like reading aloud shouldn't end once they know how to read.)    I get a fair amount of compliments on my kids (and sometimes, like today, I'm the one pointing out their great qualities).  Plenty of people would say I got lucky (and maybe to a certain extent I did), but an awful lot of thought has gone in to this parenting thing and probably the biggest part of it has involved lots of talking.  Talk talk talk talk talking.  

I'm starting to sound a little like those blogs I don't like that only show all the good stuff, but I'm going to trust that the handful of people who might show up in this little tiny corner of the internet know that I'm not really like that.  We are far from perfect, we are real believe me!!

 Next time I might be back here with news like Jake is still sniffing like a pig and it is driving me insane or Jonathan and Madi's bedrooms look like they belong to hoarders.