From a Cluttered Desk

I am Tammy Cardwell, she of the cluttered desk. (Hey, you think I'm kidding?!) I'm having a blast here in Blogland and invite to you to peruse my ramblings. Like a buffet, they offer variety - essentially whatever makes it to the top of the piles that sometimes clutter my brain. We'll eventually cover it all - homeschooling, God, our church, the Eclectic Homeschool Online, books I'm writing and publishing, conferences I speak at, the joys of grandmotherhood, and hopefully chocolate. Of course, this is only what's near the top now. Who knows what's in those piles?

I’m at my son’s house for a few minutes before heading to work. Now that the kids are gone back to school, work is a WHOLE lot better. Until I started working at the mall, I had no idea how many parents let their kids run amok in the mall unsupervised. I’ll not go into details, but the problems they cause in our mall are such that the Security guards joked about having a party Sunday evening after close - to celebrate the end of their season of babysitting. Specifically because of the hoards of kids (and yes, even some teens who have apparently never been taught proper behavior) I reached a point where I dreaded going to work on some days. Since they’re back in school, work is a joy again. It’s amazing how something you totally enjoy can turn so completely into something you dread in one short summer. I wonder if I can take next summer off.

Speaking of taking off. Someone tell Gustave to take off (or die, preferably), okay? I don’t have the patience to deal with a tropical storm or hurricane right now; the kids wore me out.

I also don’t have the patience to deal with Fuzzball. He’s the oppossum we gave a name to because he kept getting into the house. We didn’t know how he was getting in and so couldn’t keep him out, and the helpful cats just laid on their perches and watched him. The other night, though, Merry (Meriadoc Brandybuck Snoopybutt) decided to chase the thing through the house and we’ve not seen it since. We’re praying it decided that the territory was too dangerous.

Don’t know when I’ll be back online. On top of all the other things we need to take care of financially, I’m also thinking NEW CAR. Well, not new, but I really need to start putting money aside for something. Just yesterday Jack had to fix the gear shift, and he’s now informed me that the speedometer has gone out and he’s having to read his tachometer. He knows how to use it and our nevvy, who followed him on a long drive, confirmed that he’s spot on, but still… Is this the way things are supposed to be? Not in my opinion.

Jack’s been working on the new house as he’s been able. Thanks to the heat, that’s at most a few hours a week, but any progress is progress, right? We need to look into getting the building permit renewed, though, because it dawns that it’s been a year. <sigh> A YEAR we’ve been working on this thing. That would be enough to depress a person if you were a person inclined to depression. But we’re making progress and I’m thankful for the progress we’re making!

And it’s time for me to be thinking about spending time with my grandson before getting to work. At least I had a little time for this today.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Yeah, coming out of nowhere this is a little strange, and it’s a post that doesn’t update you one bit on what’s going on in my life. But I’m at my son’s house and just stumbled across this blog entry by an unschooled young man who decided to try a year of public high school. His take on the experience is eye opening and he does a great job of expressing his thoughts.

Unschool v School

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C