Wednesday, July 30, 2008

On spelling mistakes, homeschooling, and blogging...

An alert reader (anonymous, perhaps, because s/he was embarassed to be correcting me) pointed out a typo I made in a post back in September of last year. It was ironic (and embarassing, indeed!) that the post was about our homeschooling children. But I have to admit, though it is a bit of a smudge on my face, I had to laugh about it. You see, grammar and spelling are my main pet peeves. I go through our local newspaper with a red pen and have been known to correct signs hanging on check-out registers in stores. It is Homeric that I let that homonym slip-up slip by! I can't believe my kids missed it! I can't believe my husband didn't call me on it! Any one of them would have been tickled to death to catch Mom in a spelling error! I can't believe I did that; I'm mortified!

Not really.

I'm not perfect, doggone it. The truth is out. And I'm not being sarcastic. Really! Homeschooling Moms are rarely Rhoades Scholars, (Did I spell that right?) and many of us muddle through some of our schooling subjects with fear and trembling. (If you're worried about my English skills, you should see my Algebra!) But we muddle through, working hard to balance our children's knowlege of the arts and sciences with their spiritual growth, their physical health, and their joy of living and learning. All this while keeping up on the laundry, the politics of the world and our own extended families, the cheapest place to buy gas, diapers, and milk. Not to mention blogging.

Why do we DO this? Well, moms, you know it. It's all about love. I love my family, and do my best for them in every single way I can. I know I fall far short, but I'm happy to wear myself out for these people. So much so that I choose a lifestyle that is a leap of Faith, allowing God's full reign in our family. So much so that I choose to homeschool because I know it's best for our family at this time in our lives. So much so that every moment of my life, and every corner of it, has a child in it. So much so that I may skip that extra proofreading of a blog post to make cinnamon toast for one of them, or read one of them a story book, or correct someone's math papers...

So much so that I know, especially with schooltime coming around the bend, I need to spend more of my time caring for the needs of my family, editing and proofreading my life and routine here at home ~ and less time on the computer, worrying that I've let a typo slip by. (Because I do worry over that!)

So, I'm editing my time on AWTY. My plan is for Monday to be my blogging day. Friday I'll try to just post some pictures. And I'll try to zip around and visit the amazing, inspiring and resourceful blogging friends I've made as often as I can. But, knowing I have a tendency to lose all track of time on the internet, I'm having to make rules for myself. I have NO self control when it comes to chocolate and blogging.

Please do pop in and visit. I'd miss you all if you didn't! I'll be here, but I'm just going to try to be a little less of a blabbermouth.

I'll be around on Friday, the first day of August, the month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to show you some pictures of our (almost) finished dining room! (Wait 'til you see it! The boys did an amazing job!)

5 comments:

  1. That's funny and ironic that you should post this today. I have been realizing that I have a "blogging" problem. I want to find a balance for the fall as well. I have wasted many mornings...today is a perfect example....checking posts and comments and not really being nearly as productive as I need to be. My home needs attention.
    I, too, shall try to limit my "genius" to a few appointed days of the week.
    It's best for everyone.

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  2. I will miss your "blabbermouth" but I will keep visiting and when you post I'll be reading and enjoying!! (run on sentence?) LOL

    When school begins I will probably be adjusting my blogging time, also. It seems I am switching subjects (yet again) at our school and may not have the computer lab as my office any longer.

    Mondays are about to become one of my favorite days if that is your posting day!

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  3. I'll be waiting...Spelling, grammar, hum! If you would edit my blog you would see that I don't "proofreed" very well myself. Please enjoy family, friends and cherish the time spent with them...time is tooooo short! Cathy

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  4. Oh Lisa.....
    Tomorrow is Bad Haiku day.....take a break from your break and post a bad haiku.
    Make it really bad.
    I'm looking forward to it.
    :)

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  5. I'm thinking about the same stuff. I think I'm just going to do shorter, more concentrated posts and spread them out more.

    It's funny, I've found I tend to look more for typos and grammatical errors when I visit a homeschooler's or teacher's blog. And while I do see errors on homeschoolers' blogs from time to time, it is extremely rare that I come across a teacher's blog that isn't completely riddled with errors. Especially involving apostrophes and homophones.

    BTW it's Rhodes Scholar. :P

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