Ugh, you guys. I was so naive. I legitimately thought that public high school, even pandemic-themed virtual public high school, meant that my homeschooling workload would be cut in half. I figured I'd help Syd with her homework, maybe sneak in some fun activities to supplement her learning, maybe focus on my OTHER high-speed learner while Syd contentedly worked away on her own high school stuff, maybe just get caught up on all the arts and crafts activities that we've been longing to do in our non-school hours. Finish our paint-by-numbers. Buy some resin supplies.
What virtual public high school ACTUALLY consists of is me homeschooling some other teacher's lesson plans every day, all day, with no prep time. Trying to interpret some video lesson to figure out what the teacher wants my kid to learn from it, then trying to teach it to my kid some other way so she actually will learn it. Still being the bad guy, since all the instruction is still coming from me. Getting just as frustrated as she is with weird and wonky technology and online stuff that doesn't work right. I swear to the heavens that she has submitted that very first Upload a Photo assignment to her algebra teacher 40 times, and the algebra teacher still can't open it and so still won't award her the points. All her other teachers can see her photo uploads!!! WhAt ThE hELL!?!?!?!? Also, her French teacher kept assigning the kids readings in their French textbook, and Syd kept doing them, but bombed the first quiz, and it turned out that Syd randomly has a different French textbook (????) that's just randomly also in the online portal where she accesses her online biology textbook, but that's not the French textbook that the French teacher wanted them to use--it was some other textbook, in some other online portal, but we didn't notice because, you know, THERE IS A FRENCH TEXTBOOK RIGHT FREAKING THERE.
Want to guess how many times Matt has caught me sitting on the kitchen floor in the middle of the day, crying while rage-eating macaroni and cheese straight from the pot?
More than once, you guys. More. Than. Once.
Anyway, that's why I read so many books in August. It's because after I finish the daily hell of mentoring Syd's virtual public schoolwork, all I want to do with the rest of my life is 1) watch my month of Disney+ that I got for my birthday (I have seen Hamilton as many times as there are days), or 2) read quietly while listening to Spotify. Preferably no other humans exist in the dimensions in which I do these activities. If they do exist, they ideally should also be very, very quiet. If they wanted, they could hand me the pot of macaroni and cheese when I spontaneously start crying.
Okay, *sometimes* I will do the New York Times crossword. But I still don't want to talk.
My obsession with series books continued through August. It turns out that most of what I read is part of a series!
--and even better, and knock on wood(!), we've possibly found a venue to host her PSAT AND her AP exam (it's an hour and a half away, but whatever--I'm thrilled!), and so far her very first real-live college class seems to be challenging and engaging and fun for her.
Will is a beast at getting her schoolwork done and happy as a clam afterwards, burying herself in fantasy novel after fantasy novel. Here are her favorites from August:
You'll see, of course, a goodly amount of Tamora Pierce--of course! And apparently she's also on yet another Wings of Fire read-through...
Here's what else she read in August!
That reads like a life well-lived, doesn't it?
Another pandemic fun fact: along with my resting heart rate, my insomnia has been ratcheting up like you would not believe. I've had some level of insomnia since I had the kids, but now I do shit like waking up at 4:00 am on a SATURDAY and wandering, zombie-like, around the house, until by the time someone else finally wakes up at a reasonable hour, I'm presenting them with a spotless, dirty-dish free kitchen in which there are freshly-baked blueberry muffins and a breakfast casserole I'm just taking out of the oven, and I cannot tell them my name or what year it is.
I've become, then, a connoisseur of those ten-hour ambient noise YouTube videos. Some of them sound cool but are too gimmicky--a pirate ship during a storm would NEVER have zero people hollering on it!--but others are pretty awesome. I like to turn those fireplace videos up until it sounds like there's a forest burning down, and this is my favorite rain video:
That, plus my weighted blanket and a sleep mask, generally gets me to sleep... until 4:00 am, at least! After 4:00 am, I'm just gonna go vacuum the kitchen and bake muffins.
I am in a podcast drought! Much of it has to do with the fact that I don't feel like thinking during my free time right now (not when there are books and Disney+ for zoning out in!), but now that 1) my birthday Disney+ subscription ends tomorrow and 2) I have my sewing machine back and it works great--YAY!!!--so I can start sewing again, I'd love some more good podcast recommendations. In the meantime, I'm going to share with you what I'm mostly listening to while I read:
It's my dorky, dorky, nerdy, dorky personal playlist of my own personal favorite songs. Feel free to skim through it and judge me for my choices. It's even got my name on it, so you can come stalk me, I guess. I mean, I'm pretty boring--as you can tell from my Spotify favorites!--but if you want to quietly watch me quietly reading while listening to indie folk/Broadway show tunes/vintage country gospel, feel free.
Also... send me your best podcast recommendations!
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