George, my dear husband, was laid off from Hewlett Packard in May of 2009. Thus, began a new journey. After much prayer and soul searching, we decided not to return to the ranks of other-employed and to enter the world of self-employed. We started a company together, MantyWeb Designs, which led to the next change.

I transitioned from the world of at home, at the beck and call of my children with time to go on field trips, cook, bake, clean (okay, who am I kidding? I didn’t find time for that even back then), read out loud to the world of, “Bwa ha ha! You want dinner?”.

Some things have stayed the same. We’re still homeschooling, although now George and I juggle those duties between the two of us. We’re still happily married. Yay! The kids still seem mostly happy, except on whiny days, which they certainly still had even back in the “good old days”.

For the most part, it’s been a real change for the positive. I really enjoy working outside of the house, building the business, meeting with clients and working on such an immense project with George. In some ways I feel more myself than I have in years. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the years of being home with my children, but there’s a lot about the stay at home, homeschooling world that’s not the best fit for my personality. I always felt a bit like a fish out of water, and I feel more at home with a foot in both worlds, rather than immersed in home.

On the other hand, some days I really miss being able to focus on just one thing. The other day George and I sat down to do some long range planning. Part of this planning was sitting down and writing out your “ideal day”. When I was done, I decided my ideal day had 42 hours because I felt like there just wasn’t enough time for everything and everyone. On the up side, I did discover that there were some parts of my “ideal day” that I was missing that I could have right now with just a little bit of rearranging.

I’m still working on figuring out how to integrate it all together. Not in the “Super Mom, I can be all things to all people all the time” way. But in the “I know my priorities, but today’s priority might not be tomorrow’s priority, and some things that seem like they ought to be priorities may just have to go by the wayside” way.

It’s been a huge lesson in letting go. For someone who has controlling tendencies, it’s been hard but so what I needed. I almost made myself sick after meeting with the first few potential clients waiting for them to get back to us. Now I know that it may take people MONTHS to make a decision, and there’s not a whole lot I can do to change that. On the other hand, some things that seemed so completely out of our hands before now are within our control (to an extent). Where before we had to wait on corporate headquarters to determine whether George’s salary would increase, we can now get out there and make more calls, meet with more people and improve our bottom line.

If you’ve read all this, wow, I’m impressed. But I wrote it because I needed to write down the journey thus far. Maybe you’re in the same place. Whether you homeschool, or not. Whether you work outside the home, or not. Mom, or no. Wife, or no. I bet today you’re trying to juggle it all.

I wish had a cute wrap up with some sage advice that would make it all fall into place and simple for myself and for you. Unfortunately, for us all, I don’t. I do feel better having written it all down. So, if you think it would help you to get it all out, feel free to write back in the comments and let me know what you’re trying to juggle these days.

Even though it’s not part of the official La Salle Odyssey exhibition, the first floor of the museum is dedicated to the exploration of Texas, especially encounters between European explorers and their interactions with the native Texan tribes. It also houses many of the artifacts from La Belle.

You can download a museum guide for more information. If you’re visiting as a field trip, you’ll want to visit the education part of the museum’s site and download the cards that go along with the exhibits.

If you’re going to Austin, there are lots of places to visit, in addition to the Texas History Museum– so many that I’ll have to dedicate a complete post to that subject later on. For now, I’ll just say that the museum does have a cafe, and it seems to have a pretty decent assortment of choices. Since our trip to the museum is probably just going to be a day trip, we’ll probably just eat there. But look for my future post on Austin as a multi-day field trip.

The museum looks like it’s pretty small, so we will most likely combine this with one of the other museums in the area– probably the Texana Museum in Edna, Texas. The museum’s website does have some educational materials on it, including a vocabulary list and a timeline. The museum has other exhibits, covering Matagorda Island, the Karankawa Indians and a couple more items that may be of interest in our studies.

It’s likely this trip will also include some birding, since Matagorda Island is a great place for seeing some rare birds. We’ll also check out Indianola, which had the La Salle monument. We may also see Half Moon Reef lighthouse, which has been moved onshore and is no longer in use.

This will probably be a picnic day, since I haven’t been able to find any really interesting, appealing places to eat. There is a Pizza Hut and a Sonic, so we won’t starve Maybe we’ll take a picnic to Matagorda Island or if we go to the Texana museum, we could have lunch at Lake Texana.

Here are the basics on the museum:

Open: Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Cost: Adults $3.50; Children $2; under 2 free

The La Salle portion of the museum consists primarily of an exhibit about Fort St. Louis and 7 cannons brought from France by La Salle (my 2 year old’s favorite part of the Alamo was the cannons, so this should be right up his alley). There are also some artifacts recovered from La Salle’s ship La Belle.

The museum website contains numerous learning activities, as well as a page which lists extra resources for learning more. Most of the additional resources for kids are concentrated on archaeology, but it’s still a start.

I don’t really expect us to spend a whole day at the museum. Generally, my kids are only happy in one location for a couple of hours. But it seems a shame to travel four hours roundtrip for two hours at a location. So, I’m looking into other things to do in Victoria.

The forerunner is the Texas Zoo for two reasons. 1) We have a zoo membership at the Houston Zoo that will get us in to the Texas Zoo for free. 2) It’s a zoo, and my kids (like most kids) love zoos.

Other possibilities are The Children’s Discover Museum, a walking tour of Victoria’s historic homes, McNamara House and the Nave museum.

We’ll be eating lunch there, which provides even more choices. The most economical choice is packing a picnic lunch. There are a couple of nice places where we could go to have a picnic. One is Riverside Park. If we go to the zoo, that would be really convenient since the Zoo is located in Riverside Park. Of course, if we decide not to pack a lunch but still want to picnic, we could stop at Fossati’s delicatessan, the oldest deli in Texas (in operation since 1882; at its current location since 1895; still operated by the Fossati family). If the weather prohibits a picnic, there are many restaurants in Victoria. If we go that route, I’m leaning towards Furr’s. It may not be the most historical choice, but it has a buffet, and I’m almost assured that my somewhat hard to please when it comes to culinary matters children will find something that they will actually eat. Of course, we might have to stop into the Rosebud Fountain for a milkshake before heading home.

Other Victoria attractions:

The Old Mill
De Leon Plaza

Links about Victoria’s history:

City of Victoria
The Handbook of Texas Online
Texas Escapes

So, this year I’m planning to concentrate on 7 museum exhibits dedicated to the explorations of La Salle. These museums are Museum of the Coastal Bend in Victoria, Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History in Corpus Christi (naturally), Texana Museum in Edna, Matagorda County Museum in Bay City, La Petite Belle in Palacious, Calhoun County Museum in Port La Vaca, and The Texas Maritime Museum in Rockport.

We’re going to do basically one per month. My husband may join us for a few trips, but many of them will be day trips with my Mom (Corpus Christi is the farthest museum at 3.5 hours, so a day trip is doable). Anyway, I’ve decided to report my planning here– you know admission fees, hours, where to eat lunch, etc. So, if you’re interested in homeschooling, or Texas History or just are curious to see where we eat lunch, check back often.

Now, I agree that some of what is being taught in those curriculae is pretty goofy. BUT I taught special education, and the ideas taught in Everyday Math would have been PERFECT for my students. They could have used more instruction in calculators, as they really had learning difficulties that made memorizing times tables and learning long division practically impossible.

Obviously, I think that the average student should be able to learn to multiply and divide. But I think Everyday Math could have its place.

If you try this at home, let me know if it works. I’m planning to try it tomorrow.

To me, that’s a scary thought. Corporations encourage the attitude, but really the responsibility for keeping kids kids falls with the parents. I remember years ago there was an episode of Full House where the twins were going away to kindergarten, and the Mom was having a hard time letting go. I was so struck by the quote, “Well, they have to grow up some time”. At five? Are you kidding me?!?

So, what do you think? What, if anything, should parents do to preserve their children’s childhoods? And does it really matter?