That is the beginning of every spam message I’ve gotten recently. Then they want to tell me about shot cuts so I can spend less time writing.

I am very confused about how other people perceive the act of writing.

Very bad news about a close friend. If you ride a motorcycle it is not if you will get in an accident it is when and how bad. I’ll spend a lot of today thinking really hard about her. I don’t know details yet.

We had awesome plans for today, then the three kids from the other family all wound up puking. Whoops. Postpone. No biggie. We will still be here liking you when your bodies stop staging a revolt. I cancel stuff for illness sometimes.

But unexpectedly I get a day at home. I will make a lot more progress on painting the planter boxes. It is really cool having all these large art installations that the kids have helped me with. It won’t be as obvious to other people, but I am watching their abilities blossom.

Shanna’s art doesn’t look like a polished professional adult but it is better than anything I did as a child and it is close to being better than me as an adult. I’m sure she will be better by the time she is eight or nine. I’m not that skillful at representing things accurately. I like suggestions of things. I can’t do so much with the realism.

I feel like I should sit down with the kids and ask them a bunch of questions as a “beginning of school year” activity. I should collect writing samples/drawing samples and start the portfolio process. This is our first year registering as a school. Technically only Shanna will be enrolled. Time to start tracking so that if she has to transfer I can communicate well about her learning style, abilities, and deficiencies. (We all have them.)

I believe that my children will probably enter some sort of schooling at some point. They both express strong desire to do so “some day” but not yet. Transitioning can be bumpy if you aren’t sure how to set yourself up for success in your next environment.

It kind of sucks that in life, you usually only find out what you should know by the time you need it instead of with plenty of time to leisurely study. I’m trying to stack the deck in their favor.