Time Time Time

Things have been kinda crazy around here lately. I went ahead with Miss Charlsie's Closet, my online vintage clothing store, am still writing up a storm for AMTC, and I have agreed to build a web site for a new business Baxter and a few partners are forming, REO Consultants, LLC. Needless to say, I've been busy. My online sales are going well, although it has been more time-consuming than I realized. I love the vintage clothing thing. I just sold a blue chiffon dress with feathered skirt that I was in love with. It is the kind of dress that makes you say "OOOOOOOOO" when you pull it out of the closet. I wanted to try it on; but realized with my first auction that I part with things easier if I haven't seen myself in them. It's kind of like the theory that if you live on a farm, you should never name your pigs -- but a little sexier. It ships off tomorrow along with some opera length kid skin gloves, two gorgeous painted wide-brim straw hats and a pair of pink marabou mules that I'm shipping all the way to Berlin to a man with a shoe fetish. It's just fun. With all of this going on, you would think that I would be so excited to ship my kids off to school next week. Well, I'm not. Not even close.

If you know me well, you know that I am very particular when it comes to my kids. I research strollers, bikes, shoes, shampoos. I scrutinize underwear. Don't even get me started on food. I have become so picky with what my kids eat that I would probably drive most of you crazy. So, imagine what I was like over the past 2 to 3 years when deciding what school to send Abby to. I have done online research. I have studied demographics. I have taken the tours, talked with teachers at every school and grade level, consulted parents and completely bored my husband to tears. I have read every newspaper article that has to do with education in the last 3 years. I have gone back and forth between public and private and then between which private and which public. I made firm decisions, only to rescind them. Finally, I committed. We chose Whit Davis Elementary school, public but with a good reputation. We registered. We talked it up to Abby every time we passed it by. We told everyone who asked, this is where she is going...

Well, not anymore. I really think my indecisiveness was symptomatic of an underlying problem. She is stressed out. She is not that happy in school. She wants to please us, but she is worn-thin. The past year was very difficult for her. She experienced loss in our family twice with the death of both great-grandmothers. She fell very ill from the flu and missed a month of school. On top of that, somewhere along the way she missed something there. Somewhere, she picked up the idea that reading is boring, that she doesn't like it and she would rather not try. None of that is acceptable to me. Weighing my options for the upcoming year, I have made the decision to home-school her. I'm going to take one year and see what happens. I have my reservations (mostly time-related) but if I don't have 3 hours a day to spend with my child, something is terribly wrong. So, I recently learned to juggle, now I have to learn how to juggle a little better. I'm going from soft balls to bowling pins. But I can do it, right?

So, I'm taking a break from the store while we have a short vacation up in the mountains. I'll get my curriculum together and get ready to dig in my heels.