July 24th

 Isaac passed his driving test!  YEE HAW!

I am very proud of him.  He learned exclusively from Kevin and me because of COVID -- there weren't easy ways for him to get a few hours in with a certified instructor. Since he is over 18, he didn't NEED the time with a certified instructor, but probably the test would have been easier if he'd worked with someone like that. He is a careful driver and so are Kevin and I, but there are rules with testing that aren't obvious.  I mean, he got some points off for "taking turns too fast". In my view, he takes turns at just the right speed. So that kind of thing.

Here he is, the newly minted driver in the flesh.

The new book, The Golden Daffodil, is doing well on Amazon.  It is currently sitting at 4.6 stars out of 5, which is very very good. It is almost impossible to stay any higher than that because there are always trolls out there.  Part of being an author is being able to shrug off negative reviews.  I got a one star review this week which went on and on about how terrible the book was, and then ended with, "Overall, a simple and somewhat annoying read. Would not reread."

So a 1 star review usually means that this is one of the worst books on the planet, not "somewhat annoying" but of course the reviewer is free to say what he or she thinks. It is still frustrating because one star reviews pull down the overall ratings a lot.  But I am not really bothered because I am an experienced author.  It has to be hard for first time authors when they get reviews like that.

Most reviewers are very generous, actually.  Anything below a 4 star average on reviews usually means a really lousy book OR it is on some terribly controversial topic and a lot of people hate the subject matter.

Anyway.  We are happy the book is doing well.

I was thinking through homeschooling this week and how I always get stressed this time of year.  Since Isaac is 18 and going to college full time, I "only" have six kids I am legally homeschooling this year.

Only Six!  Ha ha ha ha ha!

I have been doing this for 16+ years now so I am very experienced. Having said that, it is hard work and stressful. Most homeschool moms find teaching their children a challenging prospect because it is a huge responsibility and we love our children to the moon and back, and don't want to fail them.

So of course the OBVIOUS question is, why homeschool at all?  There are fine public schools within easy bussing distance in most places.

The answer for us is a mixture of the divine and the practical. First, we believe God told us to homeschool, so we are.

Second, Kevin and I both more or less loathed our time in public school and don't want our kids stepping foot across the doors school building. That sounds dramatic. It is probably overly dramatic.  But honestly, when I think about school, when I even have to walk INTO a school, I usually feel sad.  I obviously didn't have a good time.  It wasn't all bad, but it ranged between mildly positive to very negative.  Probably my memories are skewed toward the negative.  I don't want to base my life off of bad memories, of course, but I can come up with plenty of reasons why public school isn't a good fit for our family so yeah, unless the Angel Gabriel visits me in a dream and tells me the children belong in ps, they will be home.

Kevin and I are both probably "gifted" in the technical sense, in the math and science arena, anyway.  We both have Ph.Ds in engineering, after all.  I read a book saying that gifted kids often struggle in school a lot because they get bored easily. I did. I was bored a lot, and so was Kevin. I am not blaming the teachers, who had to teach to the middle of the class -- of course they did!  But we would grasp a science or math concept immediately and then sit through hours of the teacher explaining it to the other students.  It sounds like a mild problem to be bored but it isn't.  It wasn't.  Hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks of sitting around with nothing of interest in the classroom.  I did enjoy my last couple of years in high school more because I was able to take higher level math and science courses and those were interesting.

I also loved books and reading and most of my classmates weren't interested.  Again, that's on me being weird, not on them, but I usually felt like a fish out of water and definitely not part of the crowd, and when you are a teenager, you want to belong.

I am confident this year will go well because every year has gone well. Our older kids have thrived in college in spite of Mom having numerous babies and surgeries and the like.  I am awed at how they have pursued their passions -- the girls are artists, Joseph is building mods online and getting paid (don't ask me to explain because I don't get it) and Isaac is trucking through Calculus 2 on his own.

It is a hard road to take in some ways, but a blessed one.  I am so thankful we live in a place and time when I can homeschool my children.  Of course, other families make different choices and that is TOTALLY reasonable. I LOVE that people have options.  Homeschooling definitely isn't a good fit for some families, and obviously public school isn't a fit for our family.