Grabbing the Bull

Have you ever been in one of those places in life where you aren't sure if you're in the middle of a phase, a transition...or a really sticky spot where you need to grab the bull by the horns and twist him around until he's headed in a different direction?

Yup, I'm there.

Life seems so very scattered and random and directionless lately. In between the screaming and the fits and the drama, there's the attitude and the kicking-the-crap-out-of-each-other and major anxiety and I-can't-sleep-take-me-to-the-doctor.

Life with children is beautiful, they say. And it is. There are just certain parts that never make it into the painting. Like when the Mom is really frustrated and can't focus long enough to string two thoughts together. And the kids overtake the day like this insane cosmic force that plows through the house and destroys everything in its path. And Mom just wants it quiet in her head so she can figure things out, but its never quiet.

Some people come to homeschooling because they don't like the rigidity of public school. They don't like the boundaries. They don't like being told what to teach their kids when. And so on and so forth.

And other people come to homeschooling and realize that somehow the complete and total freedom is somehow suffocating in its own way and that when the boundaries are taken away, you can get mixed up in anything from overkill to absolutely nothing, neither of which are any good at all.

Hubster reminded me last night that the entire point of homeschooling is that a family can make it work for their own situation. If something isn't working, the freedom is that you can change that "something" until it does work. Don't worry about what the label is for what you're doing educationally. Just do what works. Whatever it is.

And so today, for me, is about grabbing the bull. Figuring out where we lost it...whatever it is...and finding out where to pick it up again so we can move forward. Schoolishness, emotionalness, behavioral junkiness...whatever it means for us.

Because, after all, that's what homeschooling was supposed to be about.
Us.