Ramblings from an Easter hangover...With a rant on education for good measure ;-)

Ever have one of those days where you just can't get up the gumption to do anything?  That has been me the last two days!

I kind of wonder if it's an easter hang over...

I was overly ambitious with my culinary endeavors and made several recipes I had never tried before. 
There were strawberry donuts with strawberry glaze and French Toast with strawberry butter and yes we did fall into a sugar coma directly after breakfast and I slept from 10 am until 1pm!
Then I started making my sweet potato gnocchi and as if that isn't time consuming enough I decided to make regular gnocchi because one family member despises sweet potatoes with a passion I have never seen before.  So okay bring on the gnocchi!  It took me all day,  then I had to make the mornay sauce and then roast the asparagus and make the corn bread and the salad,  well actually I forgot the salad to be quite honest.
The gnocchi was a huge success both kinds, tho my boys didn't like the mornay sauce.  And the asparagus was perfection,  the corn bread (a new recipe I was trying,  buttermilk cornbread) turned out sadly flavor less.

Anyway I was so busy I didn't get to hide or find any eggs with my boys :( so next year I will either prep way in advance (which I tried to do this year but forces were conspiring against me) or just do something super simple. 

I feel like although I had a ton of fun in the kitchen I missed out on some serious memory making. 

But with all that frenzied kitchen activity packed into one day,  and the late night playing easter bunny I just couldn't seem to muster up anything more than a cup of tea and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For every meal and snack!

Monday and Tuesday I honestly didn't want to do anything.  And I mean nothing, nada, zero, zip,  zilch.  No dishes, no meals, no school.  Monday we did manage to get our  lessons in but Tuesday was a failure and it didn't help that my new shiny, as I am going to call it, arrived mid morning on Tuesday.  My new shiny is the Samsung Galaxy note 10.1 and I am loving it, but it definitely has been distracting, for me and my kiddos.  They love all the drawing apps and those damn Angry Birds,  they are addicting! We resisted as long as we could but they have Star Wars Angry Birds!  Star Wars for cripes sake! How is a fangirl supposed to resist?!

Ky and Sam's art done on the new shiny. 

Needles to say we have not been all that productive.

So Monday all we got done was school and one load of laundry. Tuesday we got all the laundry washed-it is currently piled on top of my bed- a load of dishes done, the new shiny explored,  a lot of Justice League,  Yo Gabba Gabba,  and Muppet Babies watched and I made cream of asparagus soup and FINALLY froze my homemade chicken stock. No school but the boys and I just seemed to need a break. 

I hope Wednesday I will have a bit more get up and go. Of course it hasn't helped that it has rained the last few days, being stuck inside can be such a downer, ya know? 

And don't even get me started on my lack of coffee!!!!! Tea just isn't doing it for me. Don't get me wrong I love tea, all kinds but as far as lighting my fire in the morning, give me a good ol' cup of Joe! I have been out of coffee for about a week.  I have a Keurig and we have been researching which would be cheaper,  grinding our own or buying the k-cups.  I have surmised that buying the k-cups from Costco.com is cheaper than any other option.  So I am going to try their new Kirkland breakfast blend.  200 k-cups for $84 that includes shipping etc. If you know of a cheaper alternative by all means throw it at me!  But I love my k-cups and the brew your own filter dealio just doesn't taste as good ya know?

On a totally awesome note my oldest read his first word tonight!

He said,  "Mom what does m-o-o say?

"My response: "well sound it out,  M makes the... what sound?"

He said "mmooo, moo!" 

"That's correct,  do you know what you just did?"

He looked at me then his face lit up like the forth of July and he said excitedly, 

"I readed!?" 

"Yes you did",  I said,  "you read your first word!!"

 I know it is only the word moo but this is serious progress to me, it means my teaching endeavors are paying off and my children will not end up illiterate!  HAPPY DANCE! 

Being new to the whole homeschooling thing I honestly worry about these sorts of things.  And it can be so hard to balance between where public education says my child should be, learning wise, and where his curriculum says he should be.  Don't get me wrong I love our curriculum, we use Oak Meadow in case you were wondering, but sometimes that pressure to have my 6 year old reading The Odyssey and my 3 year old starting on The Shakespeare Sonnets can really mess with my head ya know?

I find it insane that if my sons were in public school they would be expected to know how to do things in kindergarten that I didn't have to know until 1st or 2nd grade.  It's like the experts decided the only way to fix our boken education system was to speed it up,  because that is totally going to work for all the kids currently getting left behind!  

And don't even get me started on the whole no child left behind B.S...er I mean legislation.  ;)

 We will save that for another day possibly in the future, because I honestly did not intend to get up on my educational soap box tonight, but there you have it LOL

Enjoy and remember sometimes you just need to play hookey to refuel and regroup, because we don't want any burnout here Thank you!  :-)

P.S. I totally wrote this entire post on my new shiny! :-D and yeah that makes me super excited!