Snow day and selfish

It's a snow day today. The first snow day this winter. Yes, and we've had 90 inches this winter. So the snow plows and road crews know what they are doing. But today, we have a day to enjoy being home together. My husband even has the day home...rare, indeed! We've got the three kids of our own plus a buddy of my 7 yr old son's. We were all out playing and building a massive snow fort in the backyard, made with recycling bin-packed snow. Pretty cool. Maybe I'll try to snap a pic. (And here you go.)

I've got to start lunch for the crew soon. Maybe left over soup. I made a delicious soup last night. I love soup and crusty bread, especially in the winter. The soup is curried roast butternut squash with coconut milk and ginger. If that doesn't sound good to you, there's something not right with your taste buds.

It's pretty cool that I have gotten a few comments on this blog of mine. I got an interesting comment regarding homeschooling. The comment was referring to a post I wrote about freaking out that my kids wouldn't be able to get through high school with this FS life. At least not traditional high school. I wrote that (essentially) I couldn't imagine sending my kids off to boarding school, sending my husband off to Iraq or homeschooling my kids.

The comment reads:

"In my opinion, homeschooling isn't that scary of an option. Your kids won't turn into booger-eating weirdos, just weirdos (I was homeschooled for 8 years, and I don't eat my boogers). Seems like most people have strange perceptions of what it involves and who does it. I just know that personally I felt like it was the best education I ever got and also allowed me to develop a better relationship with my mother."

That's funny. The boogers part. I'm 38 and booger comments still make me laugh.

I appreciate the comment. I appreciate the sentiment. I have great respect for homeschoolers. I mean it. And I would and could homeschool if necessary. The thing is, I don't want to. I don't want to *have* to. Maybe I'm selfish. Is it selfish to want a career, activities and interests of my own? Am I selfish because it doesn't really thrill me, intellectually speaking, to do the laundry, cooking (other than that rockin' soup!), cleaning and managing of the household? Is it selfish that I don't want to teach the three kids full-time on top of everything else?

Don't get me wrong.

I love my children and husband. I have been home for nine years taking care of the family. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. It was my choice. I decided this was what I wanted to do. But now, my daughter (the youngest of the three kiddos) is 5 and in kindergarten for half the day. I am enjoying the longer stretches of quiet, of having solitude and time to be me, alone. Ah, just me and the laundry. sigh.

Before having kids I was a teacher. An art teacher. But the teaching part was more to pay the bills. To be honest, I didn't *love* teaching kids in the public schools. All that constant challenging of my authority was exhausting. It was more management of kids and less art. I've taught adults too, and that's fun. But my love is art. Making art. Seeing art. Talking to people about art. But mostly making art. I have undergrad and graduate fine art degrees. I'm good at art. I used to be anyway.

I know women aren't supposed to say this, but, I'm looking forward to having something besides my family to keep me busy. I'll homeschool if I have to. But I really would rather be an artist, and maybe even an art teacher, just not teaching all the subjects, all the time. Is that selfish?