Forward Motion

Fish, but no Swedish today

A year or two ago, I really thought about making this blog a Knitting Blog, as in one that focused mainly on knitting and had some kind of knit related name.  But I'm really glad I didn't do that because #1, I am not so good at focusing on only one thing and #2, there hasn't been a whole lot of knitting to blog about lately.

I do finally have something to show you though!  According to my Ravelry page, I started these socks in February.

Pattern: 3 x 1 rib, toe up

Yarn:  Yarn Love Scarlett O'Hara (nylon, bamboo, merino), colorway Warmth

Needles: Size 0

I've been thinking of them as the Goldfishy Socks.  The name Warmth was just too boring of a color name and something about it reminds me of a goldfish pond.  (This photo is a little dark, the socks are brighter than they look here.  I'm still experimenting with finding a good place for pictures at this house.  This was done on my bedroom's balcony.)

Apparently every now and then I need to knit ribbed socks to remind myself of how much I hate to knit ribbing.  I love the way ribbed socks look and feel, but they are such a slog for me to knit.  It's probably only because I had so few other projects available that these got done at all.  In spite of the chore they were to create, I do like them.  They'll be cheerful and keep my feet warm when all these tile floors are so cold in a few weeks.

We tried to go to Ikea today.  I knew better than to go on a Saturday, but I didn't think Sunday would be so bad.  Holy crap!!  It was insane.  Think of the crowds on a Black Friday at the mall.  That's what it was like there.  And Italians are not terribly considerate regarding personal space or basic manners.  In 5 minutes, we were shoved and pushed and blocked from walking over and over.  We'd been looking forward to a nice lunch and some shopping, but we turned around and left in disgust.  We'll try again during the week sometime, I suppose.

Yesterday, another pair of socks that have been lingering around were finished.  Now that I'm marginally more organized, I'm finding a little more time to pick up the needles again.

Sometimes, it's best not to know.

First of all - finally, FINALLY, as of about an hour ago, WE HAVE THE TOILET FIXED!  This is such a relief.  The plumber didn't show last night as planned, then turned up this morning while I was gone and the kids were home.  He indicated he'd return tonight and he did!  With a guy to put the toilet in!  They didn't bring any tools and had to borrow DH's, but it's done.  I really hope my landlord doesn't call on this guy for any future repairs.

Second - it was a long weekend.  Saturday morning we were out of the house at 5:30 to get on buses to go see DH in Germany.  Friday night I was definitely not feeling the love for this trip.  9 hours on a bus each way for only a day with him did not seem worth it when he would be returning this week.  Oh, if only I had known.  It was far worse than I had imagined.  Seeing DH was great.  Germany was very nice.  Getting there and getting home was brutal.

The bus that we picked to sit on ended up leaving an hour and 15 minutes late.  Some woman had forgotten her passport.  The only thing she HAD to have and she forgot it.  After waiting over an hour, we left without her.  I had understood something the Italian bus driver had said when we first got on the bus and somehow that made me the official translator for the trip.  He would say something and the other ladies would say, "Hey, get that woman that speaks Italian to come up here."  And they meant me!  I kept insisting I did not speak much Italian, but apparently I do.

It was a gloomy day, but I couldn't resist a picture out the bus window of the views in Austria.  That country is amazingly gorgeous, even though you don't really want to look down at the stomach churning drop just inches from the side of the bus.

The noise on the bus was nearly unbearable.  I give a lot of credit to these women traveling with small children.  I doubt I would have done it when my kids were little.  And I totally understand that they are not going to be content throughout a long day on the bus.  But the tantrums and the screaming and the crying and the mothers berating them made me want to strangle someone.  There was a TV on the bus playing kid movies and even after several requests to turn it down, it still blared like a sledgehammer in my brain.  My plan to sleep on the trip did not work out well.

Then...oh, you guys are going to love this.  After the first hour on the road, the bathroom on our bus broke.  Yep.  It's like the plumbing problems were following me.  And of course, from my past weeks experience, I knew alllll about how to discuss a broken toilet in Italian!  So our bus had to make more stops for bathroom breaks and all told, we were on that bus for a good 12 hours on Saturday.

But the hotel was very nice and we had a delicious German dinner.  The kids and I had nice long hot showers and a good night's sleep.  The next day we barely caught the bus to the Banner Day events since they changed the bus schedules by an hour and I never knew.  DH was there and delighted to see us.  We were lucky enough that he had access to a van and we could drive to the PX and shoppettes rather than walking or just staying at the field.

It was almost, but not quite cold.  There was plentiful free food.  The sun shone for most of the day and in the afternoon we spread out poncho liners on the grassy hill and snoozed and chatted for a while.  Nearly everyone did and it looked like Woodstock with all the people crashed out on the grass.

 

So Sunday was a nice day.

Monday morning it was back up too early again for the bus ride home.  Our bus bathroom had been fixed and we left on time.  The day before, I had bought earplugs on one of our trips to the shoppette.  These helped against the noise immensely.  I met a few nice people on the bus and got a lot of knitting done.  We made better time, but it was still 9 hours. 

This is a trip that I never would have gone on had I known how it would go. But having said that, I'm glad we went.  Next time, I won't take the bus, I'll just drive myself.

I came home to my trashed house and made it worse with all our travel stuff.  Having not had internet access for 3 days, I had several hours of work waiting for me, so I took care of that and went to bed.  DH had said he'd be leaving Germany Tuesday morning, so I thought I'd get the house tidied up the next day.

Except the next day at about 6:30 a.m., I heard familiar whistling outside.  It seems when they were loading up their van on Monday night, DH and his co-workers had a sudden burst of motivation and decided, why not just leave now and drive through the night?  So as happy as I was to have him home, I was half tempted to make him wait outside in the rain for an hour while I frantically picked up the house.

I did let him come in however.  We had a belated birthday celebration for him last night and I'm still kicking aside piles of laundry and saying "That wouldn't have been here if you'd come home when you said!"  To be fair, he did try and call me 17 times, but for whatever reason the phones didn't connect.  Now we are enjoying the next two months together before we say goodbye again.

A Picture of Frustration

 

It's still....I'm just...I don't...it's not....

That's what? 3 feet to the left it needs to go?  He didn't even show up on Wednesday night.

Close, but no toilet

It doesn't feel like Labor Day weekend here to me.  DH is gone and it's just another day.  I was soooo hoping that I could write a post tonight with the news "The plumber is done!!!"  All weekend I have been focused on that bit of light at the end of the tunnel - that tonight at 6 p.m. they'd show up and put that toilet back in place and I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.  But the tunnel just keeps getting longer.

Instead, the plumber arrived at 4:45 and fixed the lock on the gate.  I'm grateful for that, of course, but was very bummed out when he said the toilet wouldn't be done tonight.  I'm very puzzled as to why he can't put the toilet back himself, since he's the one who took it out.  I do not know why we are waiting on some other guy who, apparently, is still sick.  It seems like maybe tomorrow is some kind of feast day/holiday/festival day, I'm not sure, but we made plans for Wednesday evening to try again.

On Thursday we had the added bonus of a guy here installing the satellite dish.  He also spoke no English.  He kind of seemed like maybe he had no idea what he was doing, since he asked me what direction to point the satellite dish to pick up AFN.  Like I would know?  A call to housing helped out and we sort of have AFN now.  The satellite is doing its job, but something is not right with the receiver and the way it connects to the TV.  The picture is black and white with wild stripes of red and blue zipping across.  So, that's just one more thing that doesn't really work yet.

Still, it was nice this weekend to have no workers in the house.  There was a sudden switch from summer to autumn and the weather has been gorgeous.  Sunny and cool, the kind of weather perfect for sitting outside with a book or knitting.  I did venture back down to the basement and I'm proud to report that at least half a dozen boxes were unpacked.  I had wanted to get 99% of the unpacking done while DH was gone, but the plumbing really wrecked that idea.  Still, looking around the basement today, I had to remind myself that a few weeks ago we couldn't even walk in there.  Now, while it is far from done, it looks so much better.

DH will be home next week!  And plans are still being made, but the kids and I intend to go on a brigade sponsored trip to see him in Germany this weekend.  Just a day up, a day there, and a day back, hardly worth the trouble since he'll be home a few days later.  But our time before deployment is so short, I hate to miss even a day.  Even if it does mean an 18 hour round trip bus ride.  This definitely means it's time for a new knitting project.

Warning - Nothing but a rant here

Last night there was some guy in the Far East who went home thinking, "My job sucks."  Because he'd been yelled at on the phone by a woman choking back tears who took out all of her frustration with the corporation that he works for out on him.  It was not his fault that her computer had gotten plugged into the 220v outlet without the very tiny, nearly hidden switch at the back being moved from 110v to 220v.  Still, his insistence that she should buy a new computer rather than order a new power supply and motherboard did not help the issue.

Dell made me cry, people.  I wailed at this man "OH MY GOD, why won't you just sell me these damn parts!!  I do not want a new system!"  And if I did, I sure would not get it from Dell.

So yeah, our computer blew up when we plugged it in our first week in the house.  We had a few choices:

    1.  Buy a new computer.

           1a. Buy a new computer with Vista

           1b. Buy a new computer with XP

    2.  Buy a new power supply.  

    3.  Buy a new power supply and motherboard.  (Dell tech support seemed positived that the motherboard would be blown, but several other regular tech knowing type people we spoke to thought maybe the power supply had protected it.)

            3a.  From Dell

            3b.  From some place found via Google.

This computer is only 2.5 years old and more importantly, it has Windows XP.  We kind of hate Vista in this house and so #1a. has not been well received.  I was willing to go with #3 just so we'd hopefully get it taken care of and not try #2 and have to order the motherboard anyway.  I thought buying it from Dell would ensure that I had the right parts even though I'd probably be paying more for them.

I spoke to no less than 7 people at Dell last night.  I'll freely admit that I made this more difficult by explaining that I wanted the parts shipped to my APO address.  Dell doesn't ship to APOs.

(And now I must pause my rant about Dell to rant about companies that do not ship to APO addresses.  I am unable to remain calm about this issue and instead holler out "COMMIES!" when I find yet another business that does not ship to APO.  I understand that it is additional work to ship overseas, what with the customs form.  I'm not asking for free shipping.  I'm not asking even for fast shipping or warranty coverage, etc.  And I'm not talking about items that are again federal regs to ship, even though I think it is stupid I can't order nail polish online now. 

There are services such as APOBox.com that provide an intermediate shipping address and will send the package on to your APO.  They aren't free, so essentially I'd be paying twice for shipping.  I think it is wrong for companies to not have any option for shipping to APO.  It equals a lack of support for the military and a huge company like Dell should be ashamed of this policy.)

I was determined to get Dell to ship to my APO.  Several Customer Service Reps assured me it could happen, they just need to transfer me to another department.  Some departments also thought they could make it happen, but wait...not those parts.  Transfer.  Transfer.  Transfer.

With each new CSR, I reexplained the situation, not even trying to get my warranty to cover it, not trying to get anything that complicated done.  I was getting angrier and angrier and finally conceded the APO shipping matter.  I would get the parts sent to my dad's house and he could send them on to me.  Enormously aggravating to me, but much simpler.

Transfer back to the regular parts sales department.  Suddenly now the price of the parts gone up by $100.  Then the man WOULD NOT SELL them to me.  He told me they were complicated parts to install and who told me that's what I needed anyway?  (Answer: Dell.)  He felt I should buy a new system and he could recommend one that would cost only a bit more than the parts.  I repeated that I wanted to replace the parts and he could not replace MY system for the kind of price he was thinking.  He did not want to sell me the parts.  That was when I wailed at him.

I concluded with "You know what?  Forget about it.  I do not want to talk about this with you or anyone else at Dell any longer.  I will never purchase from Dell again."  And I hung up.  Which I'm sure made him just roll his eyes.

I know many people have had bad experiences with Dell.  I read that Dell has 18% of total computer sales and 52% of total complaints.  I have stuck with them for about 6 years and 2 systems now, because I liked the computers and eventually I could always get things fixed.  But dealing with them is getting worse and worse and worse and I have had enough.

If I were in the US, I would just take the computer into Best Buy and get it fixed.  Or no, because Dell would send someone out to fix it if I were in the US.  Or not at all because it never would have been plugged into a 220v outlet if I were in the US.  But I just want my computer fixed.  I've asked and asked and no one knows of or can recommend a computer repair place locally. 

DH has given me permission to buy a new computer.  He's going to be taking a computer on his deployment and that will leave us one computer short.  The desktop was the one we used for the kids' schoolwork so we definitely need a replacement.  www.TigerDirect.com (love you, TD!) has Systemax build to order systems with XP on them, but I'm not reassured by some of the reviews I've found on the internet.  Systemax is based out of Ohio so that's American made and English speaking CSRs, but apparently they've got some very unsatisfied customers out there, too.  Maybe every computer company does.

Honestly, I'm too weary of the situation to be able to figure out what to do.  I guess when I calm down I will order a new power supply from somewhere.  The plumber is STILL working here and I'm not sure when he'll be done.  He keeps pointing up at the outside air conditioning blower like he need to do something to it.  I have no idea.  And now my neighbors have begun building something in their back yard that involves much hammering and a power saw at 7 a.m.  I can't blame them since we've made such a racket over here this week.

Sigh.  Maybe some gelato would help.

Pipe down

Today was my 4th day of waking up earlier than preferred so that I could greet the plumber.  Thankfully, he has not asked again to borrow money or anything else inappropriate.  Well, he did pantomime "toilet" by pretending to drop his shorts and squat.  I definitely got his meaning and also, I need more brain bleach 'cause I used it all up with that scene.

My guess is that this leak turned out to be more complicated that they had anticipated.  Here's what ended up happening:

 

I got some nice new orange pipes! As you can imagine, this was all verrrry noisy.  I kind of feel bad for my landlord.  Having been a homeowner, I know this can't be cheap.  Even though I doubt he blames us, he must have gone from "Oh good, the house has renters now." to "Oh no, these people are costing me a fortune."  The toilet still is not put back in the downstairs bath but I'm hoping that happens tomorrow.  I also have reason to suspect that our satellite dish will be installed tomorrow!  Yay!

You better believe that I lay in bed for a deliciously long time on Sunday morning, knowing there would be no jackhammers for a whole day.  It seemed like it was so hard to open my eyes and get out of bed.  After a bit I realized, it wasn't laziness, it really was hard to open my eyes as they were practically swollen shut.  Thank you, Ponds Anti-Aging Makeup Remover Cloths.  I am more than a little bit allergic it would appear.  Alex said I looked like JarJar Binks.  The swelling is down now, but the skin around my eyes looks like that of an 85 year old, so you know, that anti-aging bit was quite the fail.

The plumbing issues have thrown off our schedule some, but I'm very pleased with our start to school.  They seem to remember how to read and which end of the pencil is up.  I forgot to stock Pop-Tarts for our 10:00 break, so the only answer was to let them go over to the gelateria for a snack.  I haven't posted any photos of them lately, so here's the 1st day of school picture as they returned:

Plumbing as a second language

I had an insight today.  I've really been too tired for such things lately, so it took me a while to catch it.

When speaking to someone who does not have a powerful grasp of the language you are using, they may SEEM like they are understanding, but they are probably getting only about 50% of what you are saying.  If they are smiling and nodding and agreeing, drop that figure down to 30%.  I have spent much time contemplating the language barrier today.

'Member the water in the basement?  It wasn't too much, just some yucky colored water trickling down the wall in one corner.  DH determined it was happening when the laundry room toilet was flushed and I stuck my fingers in my ears and went "LALALA that is gross I can't hear you LALALA".  We have avoided that corner and waited until every last person in Italy returned from vacation to get it fixed.

Our not-a-bit-of-English speaking landlord dropped by last night with a no-English-either plumber to see what was to be done.  I think he told me we'd have the satellite dish installed in 7-10 days, but he may have been showing me a cloud shaped like a dolphin.  Not entirely sure.  There was fruitless discussion about the lock on the gate too and finally I went to Google Translate and wrote down what I needed to explain.  Comprehension burned brightly for a moment.

He and the plumber poked around the plumbing and through my limited Italian, Google Translate, and charades, we arranged that the plumber would come by at 8 this morning to begin repairs.  Using the computer was really valuable, but the landlord types soooo slowly.

The plumber came at 7:45 this morning, egads.  Every item of information that we tried to share was done under much confusion and wrongness.  It took me nearly 5 minutes just to get that he wanted to pull his car into my driveway. 

There was a lot of noise.  SO MUCH NOISE as he drilled into the tile and the concrete basement walls.  It was deafening.  We attempted to continue with our schoolwork, but gave it up after an hour or so.  After two hours he had concluded something and wanted to tell me about the plumbing.  We walked around the house as he pointed and gestured and spoke. 

In desperation, I called our housing coordinator on post and begged for translation services.  With her on speaker phone, we were able to figure things that a drain had been blocked but is no longer and the final repairs (done by someone else?  Not clear on that.) will be finished next Thursday.  We can't use that toilet or shower till then, but with just the 3 of us here, it's really ok. 

An hour later he indicated that he would not be able to finish today and he would return tomorrow morning.  Again at 8 a.m.  Sigh.  The Italians do get going early, I will give them that. 

(UPDATE - He came this morning and was here about 30 minutes.  It didn't look to me like he did anything but he came and said there was a problem in the basement.  I have no idea what the problem was.  He took me outside and showed me that he would have to return and jackhammer up the back patio to fix everything.  He called my landlord and talked to him, but I still wasn't sure what was going on.  I dutifully called the maintenance desk number and of course no one answered.  I called a friend who has bilingual neighbors, but the neighbors were out of town.  I finally called a maid that worked at the hotel on post who very vaguely knows our landlord.  Thankfully I happened to have her phone number and she was able to translate.  The plumber will return on Monday and will be here all day making noise and hopefully fixing things.)

Then he went on about something else that I just could not grasp.  I understood the word "favor" but couldn't figure out the rest.  I asked him to type it into the computer for translation.

After his long hunt and peck session, I hit "translate".  What he was saying was that he had left his bag/purse at his daughter's house and needed to borrow 30 Euro.  That really kind of freaked me out.  30 Euro is about $45, not small change really.  I was baffled that he would ask me this.  I did something I never do and I lied.  I told him I had no Euro, only dollars, telling him I was very sorry.  He seemed sorry too and cleaned up his mess and left.

That left me very unsettled.  I emailed the housing coordinator and asked if there would be anyone I could call tomorrow for weekend translation.  Thankfully, there is a maintenance desk that will be able to help.  I told her about the strange request and she was dumbfounded, saying there must have been a misunderstanding.  Since he is the one who typed it, I doubt there was any mistake.

Needless to say, I am missing my husband being here more than ever.  I've got the heebie-jeebies about this guy.  I don't even have anyone I can call to be here tomorrow when he returns.  I will be so very glad to get this all done.

Anyway, the language barrier thing.  When I understand 2 words out of 20, I smile and nod and say "Si!"  Chances are one of the words I'm misunderstanding anyway.  But finally catching the meaning feels like successfully bench pressing a gorilla.  I am studying and learning and trying to very hard to improve my Italian, and I have.  But I'm still such a long way from being able to converse.  My neighbors continue to gift me with fresh tomatoes every time I see them.  They seem so nice and I hate that I cannot do more than exchange simple greetings.  Also, I hate tomatoes.  And that I do know how to say, but I wouldn't tell them that.

A Toilet for Spongebob

It's only Tuesday and already I've accomplished more than I did in all of last week.  Yesterday morning I went down and dealt with the basement.  There are many cobwebs there, but I took the radio with me and listened to AFN, which had a surprisingly good cleaning playlist.

I didn't so much unpack a ton of boxes as I did organize and sort and move stuff around.  I opened up several boxes just to see what was in them and went "Huh...don't know what to do with that." and closed them back up.  There are an unholy number of boxes marked "Books" stacked against one wall.  I have claimed one corner of shelving for my yarn supply and with it all in one place, I have the happy yet financially disturbing impression of having an entire yarn store in my basement.

Today I took care of the living room boxes and tried to make that room look less like a cargo container.  While having our stuff unpacked makes the place feel much more like home, there's no denying we are far, far away.

This is a corner of my kitchen.  Two outlets there, plus some kind of phone or tv connection.  Note the white adapter that my microwave plug uses.  You would think you if you could plug the microwave into the one on the left, then surely when you moved the microwave off the counter onto the cart, you could easily plug into the one on the right.

No.  You are in an Italian house.  They are stingy with outlets here anyway and most rooms only have one.  You will require many trips to Brico, the Italian version of Home Depot, to buy plug adapters.  Every time you think you have bought every possible kind of adapter, you will find a plug or an outlet that does not go with anything you possess.  These two outlets are right next to each other and are different.

The outlet in the garage was giving me such a fit that I finally took a piece of paper and rubbed the side of a pencil lead over it to give me an impression of the holes and took that with me to Brico. We have a huge bag of adapters now and whenever we need to plug something in, we bring it along and play "how 'bout this kind?" till we find one that fits.

Here is my toilet in our upstairs bath.  Yes, I'm putting a picture of my toilet on the internet.

 

Because it is square.  I don't know what genius designed this thing, but they must have been trying to ensure that no one sat there for too long.  A round bum does not belong on a square seat.

There's no flush handle on the toilet.  (That's another fun game to play overseas.  "What Makes The Toilet Flush?"  Is it the button, the lever, the weird looking panel thing?  I'm continully amused at the variety of flushing mechanisms here.)  To flush this toilet, you push this button on the wall.

 

This concerns me.  It seems to flush just fine, but what if there's a plumbing problem?  There's no taking the tank lid off and jiggling the thingy or whatever.  I think I prefer my toilet parts to be right back there where I can get to them.

The house does have two full baths, but we all mostly use the upstairs bath for showering, teeth brushing, etc.  The downstairs bath doubles as a laundry room and has a really small shower stall.  Mostly we just use the toilet in there when we are too lazy to go upstairs or the other one is occupied.

I'm used to having a master bedroom bath that DH and I shared and the kids had another bath all to themselves.  Now we're all kind of crammed together and it really hasn't been as bad as I'd anticipated.  We just need places to put our stuff in there.  Shelves, a medicine cabinet, more towel rods, anything.  Above the sink is nothing more than a mirror with a small shelf.

 

Oops, sorry about the blinding flash there.  One of the first things on DH's to-do list when he gets back from Germany is putting in a medicine cabinet with lots of shelves.

To the left of this sink is a bidet.  I don't even want to get into the questions I have about bidet use, but it's not something we need and it's taking up space.  In a moment of absolute brilliance, I improvised this bidet cover.

How classy is that?  Who needs Ikea? 

Me.  I need Ikea.  I need it badly.

Looking beyond "Dumb"

When I began blogging three and a half years ago, I used a blog site* that was geared toward home schoolers.**  While I rambled on about many different things (that's a shocker, I know), initially my blog focus was on our home schooling lives.  Then I moved over to Typepad and knitting sort of began to take over my posts and now I think I've gotten to the point where the is just a blog about me and my life.

Last night I was reading one of the blogs I subscribe to, The Ever-Changing Life of a Military Wife.  Casey, the author was venting about things she labeled "Dumb".  Casey is a young military wife and kindergarten teacher stationed in Germany.  #4 on her list was this:

4. Home school. And homeschoolers who say the worst day in homeschool is better than the best day in public school. Having a baby doesn't make you a qualified teacher. And while were on the subject- socializing your kid with other unsocialized kids does not alleviate the problem.

I read that and thought, "Hmmm...really."  I know that many people do not agree with home schooling, which is fair enough since I don't agree with public schooling.  At first, I wanted to just click away and forget about.  I could just unsubscribe from her blog and never read it again.  She's got the same absolute right to post her thoughts and feelings just like I do.  It's her blog.  But it is her blog and when she puts something out there for the public to read, then I think she can expect to get a public response.  

So I opened up the comment box and composed several comments, all of which I deleted.  There was some deep breathing involved while I lectured myself not to type anything that I would not say to her face to face.  I don't even know Casey other than what she has revealed of herself on the blog and a snotty and disrespectful comment does nothing to get my point across.

Here is what I commented:

Oh wow. I've enjoyed your blog very much up until today. I go out of my way not to bash the public school system. However, there are a lot of "qualified" teachers out there that I wouldn't trust to educate my dog. I'm not going to bother defending home schooling, since you clearly have your strong opinions about it. But thanks for reminding me why it's the right choice for our family.

And Casey very kindly responded to me with a comment here:

Ah, sorry. I meant no offense to you and to those that take home schooling seriously and do it well. We had two people come into our school this week who have been homeschooling and both of their kids are about a year behind academically. Their parents chose homeschooling for the wrong reasons and the kid suffered. It upset me very much to see. Add that to the PMS and I was pretty pissed off. I totally agree that there are public school teachers I wouldn't trust my kid with. In college I was already making a list of teachers my child could never have. I suppose homeschooling is the same way- very dependent on the teacher.

Okay, see?  There was no great conversion to the other's point of view from this exchange, but we were both mature and respectful about it.  And the truth is, there ARE some home schoolers out there who perhaps should not be teaching their children at home. 

If only I had not returned to her blog to look at more of the comments.  Here are some of them:

I have a freakin' law degree and don't feel qualified to homeschool my kids. I can't do math to save my life and should NEVER be trusted to teach my children math. And really, teaching kids out of a work book their entire lives? Um, that doesn't strike me as exceptionally educational. There was a proposed bill in CA a while back that was actually going to make homeschooling (unless you had a teaching license) illegal. I think I would support that, you know, if I lived in CA! And really, how the heck are you supposed to socialize your kids?!?! (Sorry mini-rant, homeschooling is at the top of my "irk list")

Great list :)

Whew.  This comment to me seems based in a lack of knowledge.  I definitely don't consider myself a math scholar, but I have relearned math right alongside my kids.  I know very few home schoolers who teach kids out of a work book their entire lives.  Alex spent last year doing nothing but science experiments for that subject, from building a robot to making slime to working with lasers.  And the socialization thing just KILLS me.  Do they think we keep them locked away all day, out of contact with any other people?  Our home school group in Georgia was a great example of kids that were wonderfully socialized.  Not only with other home schoolers, but with anyone.  I maintain that public school is a completely artificial environment for socialization, often breeding more hostility and defensiveness among children rather than the ability "socialize".

I have never been homeschooled/feel inclined to homeschool, but I have always wondered if those children ever REALLY learn anything.

Hahahaha!!!  I say the same thing about public schoolers!  This commenter should perhaps talk to some college administrators about the quality of education that most home schoolers exhibit. 

My mom is a teacher. She has a new student who just came from a Pace curriculum. If you've never heard of it, it's worse than homeschooling. The kids have workbooks and can finish the assignments at their own pace. What elementary student would ever finish any assignment without a due date? My mom is having lots of problems with that student.

Okay, I know the Pace curriculum and it's definitely not one of my favorites, but that has nothing to do with the format.  Worse than homeschooling?  I don't even know what that commenter means with this, since Pace is generally used as home schooling curriculum.  What elementary student would finish an assignment without a due date?  How about an obedient child who understands what is expected?  And let me point out that home schooling does involve due dates.  Most of us do not hand over the workbooks and tell the child to go ahead, finish it whenever.

home schooled kids are always weird and socially awkward

This is my favorite comment.  I wonder how many home schoolers this person has met?  That is incredibly sweeping generalization that reveals far more about the commenter than about home schooling.  And I can guarantee you does not apply to my children.

A kid who likes home schooling? Of course they do, they don't have to sit in a classroom all day w/a bunch of kids doing work. From what I can tell, most home school kids I've known don't have many friends, they've never had to learn how to deal with conflict, and they don't learn much since they get to play and watch tv all day. School was usually the only break from my parents I got. Not just that, they don't get the joy of group activities or a real class trip. I realize public schools aren't the greatest (boy do I!) but I got a better education there then I would have at home. Just the fact that my parent's couldn't help me out with my homework after the 5th grade should be a indication of that.

I hope this lady never talks to my kids.  They are going to be really pissed off to find out that they are supposed to be playing and watching tv all day and I've had them learning!  Yes, a home schooling parent has to make the effort to ensure that the kids have the opportunity to experience activities and the conflicts and joys that accompany them, but it's not difficult.  And many parents cannot help with the kid's homework because they are not involved in the teaching of it.

Oh my god, you are full of yourself aren't you? How about as the Christian that you claim to be, if you followed that sage advice- if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. There are OVER ONE AND A HALF MILLION home schooled children in America, thanks so much for enlightening us all on how you are right and they are all wrong. I feel SO sorry for the kids that you teach and the parents of those kids. I'm pretty sure they'd be better off being home schooled. To the people that actually read this blog and think you are so flipping funny and great, seriously, take a minute to click on the "school" tag and ACTUALLY read what this "teacher" has written. Casey, you make fun of your students, you make fun of the parents, you post pictures of their school work, you post pictures of the kids- do you have the parents permission to do that??? How many of you parents reading this would think it was so funny if that were YOUR kid she was poking fun at and posting pictures of on the internet without your permission? I think its sad you even still have a job teaching children.

Mmm...yeah, that's not helpful.  I give Casey credit for leaving this comment up.  I consider my blog to be my internet home.  If someone came into my actual home and insulted me like that, they would not be welcome.  Same here on the blog.  I have no issue deleting comments that are rude or offensive.  By the end of the comment (and there's more that did not apply to the home schooling issue that I did not include here) the reader is left with only the anger and none of the point of the comment.

I'm not out to convert the whole internet to the wonderful rightness of home schooling.  It is a choice that works for our family.  I very often have my doubts if this is the best thing for the kids.  Moving here, I have contemplated putting them into public school and I may try to have them partipate in the school's extra-academic subjects like art or band this year.  I want to challenge them and expand their boundaries, whether it is with me at home or with another system outside the home.

After nine years of home schooling, I have learned that it's not about the academics.  Kids can learn in many ways, in many places, from many people.  Home schooling is not a ticket to brilliant, well-educated, sophisticated children.  It's about the relationship.  It's about knowing your kids.  It's about learning their strengths and weaknesses and guiding them.  It's about expecting the best from them.  I did this when they were toddlers, why would I have ceased when they became school age?  It's about family.

This sounds like I'm saying that parents who send the kids to public school don't do any of these things.  No, not at all.  I'm a product of the public schools.  But I disagree that just because you are a parent doesn't mean you can teach your child.  Oh yes, it does.  It's not easy, it's not to be done alone, and it's not perfect.  But it is that simple.

*I think that old blog still lives at www.homeschoolblogger.com/not1worry.

**I have a hard time bringing myself to type anything regarding home school as one word.  It seems like the combination of the words, as in "homeschooling", "homeschoolers", etc. has become the norm now, but it just seems wrong to me.  No one writes "publicschooling" or "privateschoolers".

29 August - Before there's any deceased equine violence, I am closing the comments.  Thank you so much to everyone who has respectfully participated in this discussion.

This week, not so much with the whole productivity thing.

This week has not gone at ALL like I had expected, although I don't mean that in a bad way.  DH left on Sunday for Germany and thankfully we got done all the top priority things I wanted to do, plus we managed to sneak in a date at the movies on our own. 

Oh WAIT!  I should tell you!  We have wireless internet in the house now!!!!  This is such a relief for everyone.

Anyhow, I thought that this week would be just a blur of productivity and unpacking and settling in.  I figured by today I'd have all the main areas totally complete and the basement would have all the rest of the stuff neatly arranged.  The kids had a Youth Services day camp all week so I would have the house to myself each day to accomplish this.

Except no.  It did not work out that way.  For one thing, this week has been HOT.  So hot.  Even with the AC, it's that's kind of hot that makes you want to grab a cold drink and just sit.  There was also the element of sadness that came with DH being gone.  Although it's only for a month, I feel like this is just practice for the deployment coming this fall.  That feeling sapped a good deal of my mental energy.

And this whole day camp thing?  The kids had a BLAST!  Every day they came home laughing and exhausted and full of stories.  On Tuesday and Thurdays they went wind surfing at Lake Garda, a gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains:

 

(Totally not my photo.)

Yeah, can you get over that??  On Wednesday they went to a beach and Monday and Friday were activity days at the youth center.  M,W,and F they had to be at the YS building by 8:00.  That meant getting going definitely earlier than I am used to being functional.  T and Th?  They had to BE at the YS at 6:30.  A.M.

I kind of joke about how I home school because I am too lazy to wake up early enough to get the kids on the school bus, but this week showed me there's a great deal of truth to that.  I cannot imagine waking up before 6 every day and doing that whole routine of "Have you got everything?  Where's your phone?  Do you have euro and water?  No, you cannot wear that. C'mon, we have to go right now right now right now."  After avoiding this for 9 years, I had not really comprehended what it takes to send a kid to school.

So on M, W, and F, I managed to get dressed and drop them off on time.  Then I went on post to take care of somethings, although most places don't open till around 10.  On Wed., I took my laptop and aircard to Burger King and worked for a while before a 10:00 appointment.  So I'd get home right before lunch and get a load of laundry going, tidy up a few things, then eat lunch.  By that time it was too hot to deal with unpacking, so I'd get online and work or more likely, play Scramble on FB.  By around 3ish, it was time to go back to post and wait for the kids.

On T and Th, I rolled out of bed and dressed in something resembling daywear and blearily drove them to the YS.  Then I came home and went right back to bed.  Pretty pitiful.

We ate at the mess hall on post for dinner every day this week.  You just can't beat a meal at the dining facility.  It's only $4.25 per person, there's something different every day, you get a lot of food, and I do not have to cook or clean up.  As long as we were on post at dinner time, it just made sense to take advantage of it.

I did get a few boxes unpacked and made some progress in organizing the massive amount of stuff that keeps appearing.  But the amount of work that still remains is ridiculous compared to what I achieved.  I'm mostly okay with that.  DH still has a few more weeks and his impending return will spark a panic burst of efficiency.  We plan to gently begin some school work on Monday, even without every last school item unpacked and the general state of mess.

I took a few photos around the house one day, but I will save those for another post.  I'll just show you a glimpse of my pomegranate tree in the front yard.  I peer through the leaves every day, watching the fruits become redder and riper.  I've never eaten a pomegranate.