For some reason we decided to homeschool four days ago...

We went and met with some new friends on Saturday.

Wait. I should back up. Haha, five and a half years ago, we had a son...

We've discussed homeschooling off and on over the last several years, but I'm going to bare my soul here. I've been secretly counting down the days to when I could send every single one of my children to school. Seriously. I have my whole day planned out when Bug goes to kindergarten. I will likely frolic through the living room. Naked. Until at least noon. Then, I'll go eat lunch at a restaurant. Alone. In this dream, my meal will by yummy and hot. My waiter will be kind and I will be able to tip him according to taking care of one clean, pleasant person....not the zoo I typically drag in. Then I will go home and I will nap. I will nap until my nanny (hey, we're dreaming...back off) brings the kids home from school. I can afford a nanny now. I'm not buying diapers or formula. I envision the k-4th the "fabulous years;" post diapers, pre-sports. It's wonderful in my head. The second day of school will be mani/pedi/massage day. I'm secure in how ridiculous and unrealistic...and probably a little selfish this all sounds. I'm okay with it.

So. Anyway. This time last week, my husband came home and informed me his friend from work wanted us to come out for dinner over the weekend. They wanted us, our kids...everything. Seriously?! Someone expected me to bring my brood and that they would behave? Hmmm, that could be fun. I had approximately five days to come up with an excuse as to why we couldn't go. I'm that person, not really the social butterfly I once was...ha.

Saturday came along and I had no excuses. I got up, played Suzy Homemaker and made the dessert I promised my husband I'd make. It is imperative we as wives do our husbands proud and bring stellar desserts to friends' houses when we go (insert eyeroll here...). I reluctantly dressed the kids and myself (no naked frolicing; this isn't the first day of school...) and informed my husband (like the submissive, Godly wife I tend to be) that I had nothing to offer these people. You see, Bean has a lot of medical issues we're in the process of working through. Between those, my recent ACL surgery, and the typical "three five and under" exhaustion, I'm just spent. Not to mention, we have no family within a six hour radius. None. That's my whine fest; it's over now. Anyway, I informed him that I had nothing to offer; no help with dinner, no offering to watch their kids, no recipe swaps. Nothing. I went in fully planning to be that bump on a log we like to sit and make fun of.

We got to their house and their five year old met me at the back of the car. "You're Mrs. Bennett, I presume." Ha! What the what?! A five year old with manners? Ooooh, we're in trouble. He was seriously the sweetest thing I've seen aside from Bean when she's on the floor, having an Emily Rose moment (don't act like you don't know what those are; head spinning, growling, convulsing...). We were greeted at the door by their other two sons, equally polite. Serious; what's their secret?! I met Jesse's friend and his wife and they had all their hair and seemed to be sane people...how did they do it? I MUST know their secrets. They were so warm and welcoming. It did my heart a LOT of good to be there. It's funny how God works; if you just do what He prods you to do, He ensures you're blessed by it. Know what? They didn't ask me to help with dinner, never indicated I bore any responsibility for their children and no one really wanted my cobbler, anyway. It was an evening filled with good fellowship, good food, and only a few "BEAN! PLEASE STOP!" moments. We discussed homeschooling in depth. She showed me their "school room," their curriculum (Any MFW mommas out there?!), and explained to me their beliefs as far education and its place in their house as far as priorities. I was sold. She seriously could've made a million bucks off me that night if she was selling, because I was buying.

Rewind to the day before. I went to register Bub (yes, a week late and counting) for Kindergarten in the public schools. I walked in, told the registrar his school district and grade, to which she rolled her eyes and started explaining to me that his school was so overful of kindergarteners that they didn't know what they were going to do. Get this; over 160 kindergarteners, FOUR teachers, TWO aides. But don't worry, they're trying to hire a fifth kindergarten teacher to help out. Then it won't be SO bad. Let's see. I'm not a REAL smart cookie, but my math says 160/5= 32. THIRTY TWO KINDERGARTENERS in one room with one teacher and potentially one aide, depending on if the aide is floating in his room or not. Blown. Away. I left still needing a Hep A booster I know he'd already gotten with word that I'd go looking for it when I left her. After calling three places to get a vaccine I knew he'd already gotten, it hit me. There was no way on this planet I could send my son to a classroom full of now 40 students (remember, teacher #5 hadn't been hired yet) and expect him to benefit even a little bit. We also struggled with sending him to school when we were doing so much traveling for Bean's doctors and kept such a strict schedule with her. Private school isn't even an option. I refuse to pay ungodly amounts of money just so my child can go to school in a church. I hae diapers and formula to buy. And bows. No extra money for school tuition.

So we dove into the great curriculum hunt and decided we LOVE MFW. We should have it by the weekend and we'll dive right in, hopefully mid-week as I collect all the other pieces. So seriously, for some reason we decided to homeschool four days ago. I've had many friends and family tell me I'm crazy. Some tell me I'm short changing my son. Some tell me there's no way I can possibly do it. Hi, y'all. That just makes me want to do it more. Just to prove you wrong. Oh. And to get my son the best education possible, of course.

So here we go! We're going on an adventure. Care to join us?