Bad bad blogger

OK so it's been almost a month since my last post. I know you've been breathlessly awaiting to hear from me : ) No pics no graphics hardly any amusing banter just my and my rambling thoughts. Hey you get what you pay for right?

So a quick update before I get distracted again. I thought very seriously about quitting my job but decided not to. I got a crappy evaluation which pissed me off but once I could look at without crying it was not totally unfair or unreasonable. Plus our nurse is coming back two years after a car accident and I saw the floor plans for my potential new building and got kinda psyched.

Lizzy and I are reading the Twilight series together. I finished Eclipse this weekend and am waiting for her to finish New Moon. This is the first time she's read a book first then I read it. It's fun and she is very good at not spoiling things. Liz was banned from my sister's house until she finishes because my niece is not so good at it. Lizzy is looking forward to being able to completely obsess about Edward with her cousin.

As of Friday I am on a three week vacation. September 9th is my 10 year anniversary with Alternatives and I decided to celebrate by not being there : ) After I decided not to leave all together anyway. The only plans I have is hang out with Liz, check out a new home school, center in Worcester, go to the beach one day, shop for camp and take Liz up to Vermont for camp. Should be fun.

Liz is REALLY excited about Not Back To School Camp. She went last year and had an awesome time. She's bummed some of her friends won't be there but a lot will plus all the friends she hasn't met yet.

Gotta run to pick Liz up from weaving. The fall events have begun!

Mommy's grumpy

Everybody went to the ocean today but me cause I went to work like a dummy. It's a beautiful perfect 80 degree day and there are boogie boards involved. OK whining out of the way. I'm glad everyone is having a good time. I just wish I was with them. Hopefully I'll be able to do a few days at the beach when I take vacation in September. One of my favorite things about unschooling is no back to school. Whatever Liz plans to do this fall will start in October. She's having a ball this summer with her crew. Once they go back to school I'm on vacation then it's time for Not Back to School Camp. After camp she and mom are doing a few days in Vermont then she plans on crashing for a week or two before getting into fall activities. Good times.

Teen sexuality & sleepovers

Most of Lizzy's friends at this point are either gay or bi. This is something I've known for awhile now and the kids have become pretty open with me about. Recently her two best male friends have both had their first boy friends. Her very best friend J decided to tell his dad. He lives with his dad and grandfather and his mom lives in another state so he and his dad are pretty close. It went pretty well as these things go. His dad's initial reaction was that he's still the same person and that he loves him no matter what. After thinking about it for a day he decided maybe he is confused and needs counseling and by the way Jimmy can't sleep over anymore because he's probably the one putting these ideas in your head. Now I know J does like Jimmy and they did date at one point and probably will again. I also know J had been checking out boys at the mall with Lizzy long before he met Jimmy.



Lizzy and her friends remind me of a big pile of puppies. They are just all over each other all the time. They hug and punch and cuddle and generally hang all over each other all the time. I do remember being like that as a kid with my gang. It was so much fun then. That innocent intimacy that is so natural to teens. Once upon a time I was telling Liz she couldn't date until she was sixteen and I would never have dreamt of letting a boy sleep over. Now I've reached a point that I know Liz is going to do what she wants and more importantly NOT do what she doesn't want to. She's not afraid to ask for help if she needs it. Also her female friends are just as likely to make a move on her as her male friends. So I just let it go and trust her. It's harder than it sounds and she calls me on it all the time. It's easy to say yes, I trust her judgment and much harder to really TRUST her. To put that feeling of trust into trusting actions. Practice, practice, practice.

Summertime fun

Ever since all Liz's friends got out of school for the summer it's been pretty non stop. She either has someone over or she's at someone else's house. Her social input is just non stop. This is great in a lot of ways. I know she is having the time of her life. She has put together quite a cool little tribe for herself. The kids are interesting and a lot of fun. I get to be the cool mom and I know they like hanging out at my house. I'm the only mom they talk freely about who is going out with who, especially if it is same sex couples. I know who her friends are and I have a general idea of what they are up to. My mom was the same way for my sister and I so i am happy to do this for Liz. Drive them around, feed them, listen to them. I complain sometimes but really I love it.

I appreciate this moment of parenting the same way I appreciated when she was very small. It is totally intense but so brief and precious. I want to close my eyes and remember exactly what this feels like. When she was small I would try and hold onto the memory of what it felt like to hold her. When she fit along the length of my arm, the length of my torso, on my hip, in my lap. My memory has always worked in small snaps of time. I was so terrified I would forget her childhood I worked extra hard at making sure I held onto those snaps of time. I want to hold onto this moment in the same way. The swirl of teenagers, the noise, the laughter. She is waking me up in the middle of the night and making lots of demands of my resources just like when she was little too. At least there are no diapers : )

This rocks!

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My girlie is home!

Lizzy is home! She had such a great time. She brought the map from Busch Gardens to show me everything she did. Now that she's the roller coaster queen some of the rides she used to think were scary are totally boring. I have never been on a roller coaster in my life but I'm glad she likes them. Where fear holds me back she blazes through. It's good to know that whatever mistakes or struggles Liz deals with they will almost certainly be different than mine. Sometimes that means I have no idea how to help her but we keep working on it together.

Apparently Water Country was just OK. She used to like water slides but just doesn't any more. Tyler got annoyed because he really wanted her to go with him but that child will never do what she doesn't want to. She said there were 2 different kind of "lazy river " rides that I would have loved. One with a tube and one without. They don't make you get out like at six flags. The tubes just float around and you grab one and use it until you want to get out. So cool!

Busch Gardens

Lizzy and Tyler had a blast at Busch Gardens. There was only one ride she wasn't able to go on because she was too big for the harness. Tyler's mom said she had problems on the same ride that the seats were smaller. She went on every roller coaster and had a great time. They all got sun burns a few days ago at the beach but it didn't seem to ruin their day at all. The day after the beach she texted her god mother aka my best friend about it. I get a phone call and the first thing she said was hadn't I taught the child about sunscreen. Liz cracked up when I told her I got yelled at for her getting a sunburn. That child knows darn well she never had a sunburn when she was little enough for me to be responsible for all the sun screening. I even made a point of asking if she had sunscreen with her. She said they were sun screening like crazy yesterday. Today is Water Country then tomorrow they are heading home!!