Autumn Melancholy

Cold and wind greeted me as I walked out the door this morning to finish measuring for the raised bed we're building. Immediately my mood sank. Nothing says the end of the growing season like a blustery day and not enough time to get the greenhouse plastic up. *sigh*

If we have the spare money (who am I kidding?!) I'd like to build some cool covers for the crops (who are just starting to ripen) so that I can extend the season even outside the greenhouse.

With the end of summer comes the blatant exhultation of many moms on the blogosphere extolling the virtues of a near-childless life due to school starting. I'm really not sure what to think about these posts in whole, but when I read them, a small part of me gets wistfull. Oh the joy of silence, the opportunity for true productivity, the chance to not have the kids for just a short while per day so that I could have any time to myself without having to loose sleep to get it. *sigh*

Then I come to my senses and remember all of the myriad reasons that I keep them out of the grasp of the public indoctrination & juvenile prison system. Want a horrifying read? Try "The Children's Story" on for size. In just a few short, quiet minutes at the beginning of the school day, a new teacher literally destroys the families, and faith of an entire classroom. It is frightening and really makes you think. I donated my copy to The Radish several months ago because it needed to be shared. Or read the heartbreaking short tale at the beginning of "The Teenage Liberation Handbook" for why children should be given permission to make their own educational decisions, or at the very least kept out of the public schools. Our children are so very precious.

I had even given thought to sending the girls to the new Sudbury school that is opening up in town. Sudbury is "the unschooling school", so it's worth looking into if for nothing else, curiousity's sake. Amongst other factors, we didn't have the money to do it, so home they stay. It would have been a fun experiment to have tried though.

We will be attempting to enroll them in the Boys & Girls Club's after school thingie, and a few homeschooling parents are talking about 4H and Campfire (which aren't very active around here, so there weren't any groups available). It would be awefully nice to get them back involved with some groups for activities that I don't have to schedule, plan, and facilitate all the time. *smirk* Now if I can only manage to arrange a carpooling thing as well for all of this stuff, we'll be set!

I worked a lot (like 5 hours) on modifying the blog's template and basic layout, polinated some flowers, let mother take the children again, made a really great dinner (recipe later), Keebler knocked down some wood poles that were in the way of my new raised bed (and we'll recycle the wood into the project too), and he & I visited my friend Bobby after we finished with everything else because Bobby looked really unhappy when we saw him on Monday. Come tom find out he had helped a friend of his move an ancient (read: a lot of cast iron) player piano and was seriously in pain. I took him into the back room of the bar and realigned everything and gave him a quick back rub. (I'm not known for my gentleness, just my effectiveness. *chuckle*) He's doing somewhat better for it, and hopefully a good night's sleep will combine with the work I did to fix him up by the morning.

I've been doing a lot of sewing lately (by hand) too, as the girls' Halloween costumes have to be finished relatively soon, and sewing machines hate me (long story, another time maybe).

I went to my first schmeeting in quite a while today and nearly started several arguments by simply translating some notes I had taken during a discussion at the pot luck yesterday. But all good things came of it. It was sort of like a white water rafting trip. Kind of uncertain, sometimes a bit on the edge of danger, but productive, mostly fun, and everyone got off the rafts safe and laughing together at the end of the trip. *smile* I'm glad I was there this time, and I plan to make more meetings in the future. Meetings are at 7pm on Tuesdays, and usually cover several topics throughout the month, from fund raising, website design, and flier making to general Radishal discussions about the space itself. Next week is flier making at The Radish So come on out and get your crafting scrapbooky groove on! *grin*