Unexpected lovliness...

Today should have been one of those horrible days where the kids do nothing but wander around the house whining and carrying on and I become increasingly cranky and threaten to beat them with my shoes.

My reserves are low because of a strange cough virus which seems to be accompanied by muscle tightness around the back of my rib cage. Basically, I need to cough but I can't take a breath deep enough to do it properly.

The children's reserves are low because they stayed up late last night, determined to not sleep a wink until I returned from a dinner out with friends.

Do you like how I just threw that out there like I eat out all the time? Amy and I were both invited out to this dinner and it went against our most serious anti-social tendencies. Somehow we put on our big girl pants and went out to dinner like the grownups do and had a wonderful time, though you must know that we rhapsodised the entire way home about how wonderful it would be to get back to our warm beds.

So today had all of the ingredients for a day of great unpleasantness: tired children and a sick and tired mother. Add school work and allow to stew until the screaming begins.

The morning did include Lily screaming that under no circumstances was she tired and would I stop bringing it up because it was making her mad. And then she cried.

Somehow the schoolwork got done and then we all read for a while. Then Rebecca made lunch for her sister. I paid Rebecca $6 to clean the bathrooms and another $1 to vacuum the stairs. Nothing puts that kid in a good mood like capitalism and I was delirious for having avoided the task.

Then Lily and I snuggled and we all read some more. We had dinner at 5pm and the table was cleared by 5:25.

For the past two hours the girls have been playing with their teddy bears, an elaborate game involving broken bones, hospitals and many wardrobe changes.

This is the part where I go on a bit about homeschooling.

It's not like this for everyone. I know that.

But I have to tell you, and I whisper it as I do, but the change in these children and the way in which they relate to each other since we have started homeschooling is extraordinary.

There is all this time for them to be with each other, to discover each other again. They play and they bicker, but the quality of their play, the laughter makes me ache. They are so happy, so stinking happy. It makes them very easy to be with.

I imagined when we started homeschooling that I'd feel shackled, ready to chew my own leg off to escape and have a few moments to myself. It has not been like that. It has been the opposite- I adore being with them.

Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. I love this life.