Eclectic Muddlehood

I am not Super Mom.  I struggle with my children too.  Sometimes on what seems like an almost daily basis, I match wits against the formidable Triad of Chaos.  And honestly, to date the score is about even.  There are days that I yell.  Days that I give up and just put us all to bed […]

This summer, I have been very focused on reading, researching and generally studying all manner of subjects associated with gifted children, gifted education, the pros and cons of labeling children as gifted, the concept of intelligence in general, testing for giftedness, American culture and its view on intelligence and giftedness and other assorted topics that might […]

I am exhausted.
Seriously exhausted.
But in a very positive way.   It is actually somewhat amusing to me that, as a year round homeschooler, I am being struck by the physical, mental and emotional adjustment period that is Back-To-School time.  Athena had no desire to take a break over the summer for more than a few days […]

I have heard this statement countless times in the last four and a half years in any number of locations, always in reference to the fact that I have taken my children somewhere with me that others dare not venture with their own or anyone else’s itty-bits.  Most recently, it was at a Major League […]

It is a sad scene, often repeated over and over again in this country with a terribly messed up birth culture.  A mother learns she is pregnant with multiples.  Her thoughtless, institutionalized doctor fills her head and heart with crushing, fear inducing phrases- high risk, preterm labor, bed rest, preeclampsia, mandatory c-section, TTTS, long NICU […]

I recently read an eloquent plea on an international discussion board for unity among modern mothers.  The board’s user agreement does not allow me to link or quote from the thread on which one woman bravely issued her clarion call, but I will try to give everyone the gist of her message and share my […]

Part 1 available here
In a matter of hours the Master and Mistress will officially be 18 months old and my heart whispers forcefully that I can wait no longer.  The past reaches out and tugs frantically at me, not to harm me any further, but to grab tightly to my attention and force me to focus on what […]

I woke up in a winter wonderland this morning.  No, there were no freak snowstorms ravaging Gulf Coast Texas last night, just a flea-crazed husband.  After a little research. we created our own nontoxic flea carpet powder using diatomaceous earth.  We’ve been using this to attempt to control the flea population at least until the exterminator comes […]

For the past sixteen years of my life, there has been a subtle four year cycle underlying my life.  Like many American teens, I spent four unruly years in high school in the suburbs of Northern Virginia.  By the time the standard pinnacle of that particularly excruciating main-stream rite of passage rolled around, I was […]

Barely able to suffer the one hour wait required before the gingerbread house could be decorated, my eldest swore she would stand a vigilant watch until the much anticipated moment the kitchen timer would chime heralding her into the land of frosty gumdrop and sweet peppermint ecstasy…