Front Door Laptop Blogging: Cyber School & First Best Friend*

It's a very rare thing when I get to use a laptop on my lap and in odd places (like in bed, or outside) like it's supposed to used. At our house I usually prefer the desktop and when I use the laptop, it is always on our second desk.

I think I've blogged once from the backyard of our former house and once in our bedroom at the current house, but I think that was it. It's never too late to increase my "repertoire" of blogging in unusual (for me) places, right? So I'm taking the advantage of the fact that have to supervise my sons and their older cousin bike riding and I brought the laptop outside. I can feel a few stray raindrops, though :-( and they don't have a front porch, only a tiny stoop (it's a townhome). Oh well, I'll try to be quick, since it's not really raining, just sporadically "sprinkling"...

OK, we're here in Maryland at my brother-in-law's house. K stayed at home and will be able to put in long hours at the lab -- good for him and, hopefully, for us, because we want to try to go somewhere for a few days without the kids in the next 2 months. I drove with my parents yesterday evening so they can spend time visiting and caring for my uncle, who recently had brain surgery for the removal of a tumor. I left my parents at my (empty) aunt & uncle's house and came to BIL's house where my sons will be able to enjoy the last two days of VBS at uncle's church. Their very first one -- discounting ones I co-directed in MA when Kelvin was 5 months old and then 17 months old. Yeah... the churches I've attended in the past 5 years didn't have them, the boys were two young, and I was too lazy to take them VBS hopping in other neighborhood churches in spite of the fact that I really enjoy VBS & I've love co-directing them in the past.

So, yeah... boring update blogging, but still, blogging. I want to try and update the Project 365 blog. I did post a couple of photos yesterday (dated from my birthday).

Oh, another important update: we finally picked the cyber school our sons will be "attending." I hope it's a good choice, but I have a feeling it will be. That's how it went: on Monday we went to a friend's birthday party* and while talking to one of the moms there I found out that she had just enrolled her children at a cyber school and she had done two years of home/cyber schooling in the past, but with another school (which she didn't like that much). So, she explained to me why she chose this particular one and I thought it was a good choice.

When I got home I read their whole website and talked to K who also liked the school. Yesterday before leaving for MD I printed out and signed the forms that I needed to sign, found Kelvin's latest report card, and picked up their immunization records from the pediatrician's office. That's why we only left at 5 pm and missed VBS (6-8) :-(. Poor K had to fill out all 20+ pages of forms for EACH BOY and he mailed the forms this morning. So, hopefully that will be all set. And so far, I'm no longer actively looking for work although we would really need the income. Sigh. This is what I really, really want, though, to stay home with my sons. And since working from home for evil for-profit "educational" institution named after bird that came up from the ashes was a living hell and didn't work out, I really don't know what other pursuits to tackle from home. We have several ideas for websites, let's see if we can implement any of them. So, wish us luck! I'll let you know if we start anything.

ETA: Oh, and in the end it never started raining and I'm still out here while the three cousins (7, 5, 4 [2 months to 5]) ride their bikes (without training wheels).

*The brother of Kelvin's very first and very recent "best friend" -- this is a brand new thing for him since this boy had two other best friends for each of the past two years and Kelvin never had had a best friend, he was always friends with everyone. I don't know if I like the gossipy feel of "oh, you're no longer my best friend and now you are," but the former best friend seems ok (I still want to talk to him -- all these boys were my students last year), but it's funny to see Kelvin and C, looks like they just started dating or something, it's cute. Being a girl, I don't know much about how this "best friends" thing works for boys, and I ask the more experienced friends out there -- how does it go? Are there any books I should read on the subject?