This is just to say--

--that sometimes homeschooling is really hard.  That sometimes instead of starting at 9:00 with the housework done, we start at 10:15 with mom sporting a corona of frizz and deodorant smudges on a too-tight shirt.  That sometimes I struggle to get through three subjects with my patience intact.

Okay, sometimes I struggle to get through one subject with my patience intact.

This is just to say that sometimes it is A REAL DRAG to be the one in charge of their education and character formation, that sometimes I wish those two things weren't rolled into one so effectively with homeschooling because character formation is hard work.  Maybe there are character molds in a homeschooling catalog somewhere.  Add boiling water and stick in the fridge for a while, like Jello.

Could I hear the complaining from inside the fridge, do you think? 

This is just to say that some days I doubt myself, and that sometimes my firstborn drives me up the wall so efficiently that I expect a herpetologist to knock on my door and ask me to donate my digits to science when I die.  Maybe I feel like I am coming unglued because all my inner adhesive is trickling down to my fingers, allowing me to make like a gecko and climb the walls. 

Maybe there's an industrial application for that somewhere.

This is also to say that sometimes a person sits down with a cup of coffee to write a quick self-pitying post and is interrupted by the howls of her odd-numbered children, who just bit each other's butts and are wailing in pain and outrage and surprise.

Okay, I am back and I have to laugh at that last paragraph.  I also have to ask:  does carrot cake count as a vegetable?  Because it sounds awfully soothing about now.