Lance and I leave for NYC next week!  I am so psyched to see Hamilton.  The kids and I have been listening to the music nonstop for 8 days.  We have our definite favorites, and all of the kids can rap/sing the majority of the songs.  It is just so good, I can’t wait to see it live.  When we were planning the NFL trip, Lance asked if I wanted some place different or new, and I pretty much said it had to be NYC because I was seeing Hamilton.  This spring.  We’ve got some other fun stuff planned, a kickass hotel and time to just walk the city.  Seriously, why can’t my husband work there?  Why can’t we just live there?  I love it.

The kids love the music from this show so much that they are asking when we are taking them to see it.  Hmmmm, when prices go down.  Way down.  Maybe when I run the NYC marathon.

Lent is over.  Over!  Whole 46 done.  No cheating at all.  No grains, dairy, legumes, soy, lots of label checking.  Oh and no sugar or alcohol.  The hardest part was probably checking labels.  I don’t care much for grains or dairy and I can live without legumes.  I like vegetables, meat and fish.  I don’t like chicken.  After the first ten days, it was fairly bearable, then got bad again at day 30 because I realized how much time I had left.  By the end it was more of the spectacle of getting a drink and a sweet.  Now, I’m fine without the alcohol.  The sugar?  Not so much.  I could eat sweets every day of my life, and I have never lost that craving.  I literally thought of sugar every day during Lent.  That said, I’m not eating sweets until our trip.

I’ve tried to really think about my relationship with food once I got over myself early on in Lent.  I love to eat.  I love to workout which basically maintains my weight.  I’m always going to want to lose “10 pounds”.  I’m just that annoying girl.  But reality is that since the year after Snax was born, I have gained way more weight that I realized.  So even if I was too skinny after Snax, I have some weight to lose.  I ended up losing two pounds.  Two pounds.  I mean, what the heck?  How does one give up all that without cheating and not lose weight. I’d like to say it’s because my body is where it wants to be, but really, its just that I eat a lot, healthy or not.  One day, I ate 2000 calories of raw (compliant) cashews.  Who does that?!  I’m thinking its gluttony like that that keeps me from losing weight.  So Lent is over, and I’m off whole 30, but I’m trying not to lose it over food.  Though Easter did see me lose it.

Speaking of Easter, We had an amazing Triduum.  Alec served at all three masses of the Triduum as well as Easter Sunday mass.  I’m so proud of him.  Friday we went to confession waiting for an hour, outdoor stations at the Grotto and then the Liturgy of Good Friday service.  It was really a special day except I felt like I needed to go back to the confessional within an hour of leaving it.  Sometimes, my kids can make me feel like I have no control.  And I hate not being in control.  So back to confession I’ll go this weekend.  Alec even served at the Easter Vigil mass, the long, long mass.  (As if the other two weren’t long.)  It was really cool and our priest was proud of him, giving him hints about having a vocation.  Fine by me.

Lance and I have been talking all year about Mari and school.  I toured a couple of private schools because I honestly didn’t think she would qualify as GT and just wasn’t happy with the direction of the classes at the boys’ school.  I never felt comfortable at the private schools so we discussed other options.  Pretty much by November, Lance was on board with homeschooling Marianna.  But since he’s said that for each kid, I tested her.  Turns out, she did qualify as GT, (seriously, I have four kids who have qualified as GT–what does that say about GT qualifications in HISD???)  So she qualified and got a spot at the boys’ school, and we are declining.

Honestly, it was a total pride thing.  As much as I mock the GT standards here, and they are low, I would have been a bit flustered had she not passed the test.  I mean, I’m the one who taught her to read.  And while our teaching right now, is very minimal, (we are still in preK and just having fun), I’m the one who has taught her whatever she knows.  So my pride was saved.

I’ve had several parents ask what will we do when we don’t want to homeschool anymore.  The short answer, send her to school.  We will lose our spot at Rogers, but oh well.  The reality is that the school has never been to me what it is to others.  I’ve known that since the first month Alec started K.  I never did anything about it.  Now I can.  Assuming my husband doesn’t change his mind.  (Please don’t change your mind, Lance!)  But even then, I think I want a better situation for my kid.  When teachers tells you they wouldn’t send their kids there, even for elementary, that says something.  Right?  Having to drive to two different schools?  Not an issue, I’ve already done that.  I know people who drive to four different schools.  So that’s where I am on Mari and school.  Fingers crossed that my husband stays on board with me.  Oh and best question I received was, “will you homeschool all the way through?”  I’m just trying to make it to day one of Kindergarten!

So middle school has kicked my ass this last nine weeks.  I’d like to say all year, but really it was just recently.  The work has been nonstop all year long including weeks with several tests and big projects due.  In the first half of the year, Alec did fine, I would have preferred more A’s especially the 89, but he was doing well.  Then he lost his mind in January.  I started getting grade alerts…I needed to pay more attention.  I did, and he worked hard and got all his grades back up.  His lowest grade was a low B, but I was fine considering what had been going on earlier in the 9 weeks.  Two days before the grades were due, he called me from school saying his art teacher wanted to talk to me.  Art teacher?!  Turns out that 100 I had seen on grade speed was wrong.  He was failing.  Badly.  First, off, who fails art?  Second, my kids love art- to make it and look at it.  We go to the MFAH a lot and study different painters, I have 7 different picture books on painters plus kids’ coffee table art books that I catch him studying all the time!  We know art in this house, damnit!

She actually told me she would give him a 75.  I refused that grade, telling her to give him what he earned, but that maybe next time she could update her grade book so I would have accurate grades before they were due.  I wasn’t rude, promise.  I was furious at him, annoyed that the grades weren’t updated, but just so mad.  I had made sure he was studying and checking work and then this?!  He came home and I made him finish everything he hadn’t done.  He turned it in and managed to pull off a 97.  I’m not thrilled with the lesson he learned, but I wasn’t thrilled with him failing art either.  He has art again this 9 weeks, and I can promise I am now asking daily what he needs to finish in art!

Best new ever?  School is almost over.  38 more days!  I can’t even tell you how excited I am!

Do I have summer vacation planned?  No, but I do know we’re going to relax quite a bit around here.  Probably study a bit of Shakespeare.