That plan is week

I am a huge supporter of planning.  I like to color code, I like to schedule, I like things to be predictable.  When we started homeschooling, I figured I might as well apply my love of all things organized to that aspect of our lives as well. I've shared the planners I bought the kids to keep them on track each day.  But where do they get the information to put in their planners and how do they stay on track when the day doesn't go as planned?

That's where I come in.  Last year, I used an excel spreadsheet to lesson plan.  It worked fine, it was flexible enough that I could make it look like how I wanted it to look and it kept track of stuff.  The problem was it didn't allow life to happen.  If something happened that prevented us from getting work done, I had to cut and paste the information forward, which was a pain. I would plan several weeks or months at a time and anytime life happened, like someone got sick or a fun field trip opportunity came up, hours of careful planning went out the window and I'd pretty much have to start over.

This is a screen shot of my spreadsheet. Each day had it's own color and I also included the chore of the day, so they'd always know.

The thing I did like was that I would do the majority of my planning a few times a year and then be basically done.  Every Sunday afternoon, I would sit down with my spreadsheet and verify that everything was accounted for, for the whole week.  I would go through each subject for each kid and see what they were doing each day, so even if I wasn't teaching it directly (like math, that they do online), I would still know what they had scheduled.  My spreadsheet had all of the URLs of online resources and I would go through each one and make sure that everything was printed off.  Then, I printed a copy of the spreadsheet.

Last year, they used plain three binders to organize their papers.  Mostly, it was because we had them from public school.  Even just being used at home, they took kind of a beating and they might have made it a second year, but I'm kind of doubtful.



This year I got them expanding pocket files from Mead which are pretty neat. They have a "turn in folder" in the back of the binder, because I don't want them handing stuff in piecemeal and I want them to practice being responsible for knowing where something is for a few days at a time.

I take all of the print outs and file them by the day they will be starting working on.  So if they have a spelling list that they use all week, I'll put it in the Monday folder or tab and then when they complete Monday's work, they move that paper to Tuesday.  I put the weekly schedule printout in the front (last year, I put it in the inside pocket of the binder, this year, it goes outside, so they can always see it) pocket and then I put their folders away in their rooms.

This lets us be fairly mobile for school.  Anywhere I can get the internet, we can get work done, just by grabbing the binder and going.  So if we have a doctor's appointment or something, we don't have to throw away our whole schedule.  They both work better at home, but work can be done pretty much anywhere.

The biggest benefit for week at a time planning reared its ugly head last winter.  I got sick, like so very very sick.  Not only did I not feel like teaching, I could barely get out of bed and I couldn't talk at all. My brain was total mush and the most energy I could muster was dragging myself to the bathroom a few times a day.  There was no way I could teach them anything or even pull together materials for them to work independently.  Instead of letting it turn into Lord of the Flies around here and throw out the whole week, they already had their assignments, including websites for online, plus all their printed materials, on the day they needed them.  They weren't able to get everything done.  There were some subjects that did require my input.  There were a few technology glitches, that prevented certain things from getting done, but they finished the majority of the assignments for the week and it wasn't a total loss.  The week still counted towards our 180 days, so we didn't have to go an extra week into June.

I'm a stickler for schedules and I like sticking to them as much as possible, but sometimes things happen.  Planning for the entire week, up front, helps us stay on track when those things happen.

How do you stay on track with your schedule?

I can rise and shine, just not at the same time!

To say that we are a family of night people would be an understatement.  My favorite job was working overnights at the grocery store when I was in high school, because it meant that sleeping until 2pm was totally legit.  Because I am now an adult and live in the daytime world, I have to get up earlier than I would like, but we make it work.  When we were in public school, the first bell rang at 7:35, which meant we had to be up by 6:30, to get everything done and be at school on time.  It was awful and everyone hated it. Fighting, crying, and yelling were all common occurrences before 7am.  Not the shiniest way to start the day. :(

Now, since I'm setting the schedule, it is totally different.  RF gets up around 7:30 and gets ready for work.  Some mornings, I wake up, but more often than not, I'm still crashed out.  My alarm goes off at 8.  I throw the dog outside and wake MF up.  She complains about how tired she is and then gets on with her morning stuff.  Bathroom, teeth brushing, eating breakfast, getting dressed, and feeding the cat all need to be done before 9am.  If she gets done early, she can get online, lay around, go outside, or anything else she would like to do.  She also has the option of getting started early on school work.  For the first several days of school, she picked that one.  Recently, she has been choosing the internet, which is totally fine too.

During that same time, I'm also getting ready for the day, including getting dressed, and then I spend the rest of the time house walking.  I've also made myself the deal that I won't waste time on the internet, unless I'm walking, until I make 10,000 steps, so I use my phone to check email and browse facebook, while I'm walking.  That way, I'm killing two birds with one stone and I've checked in, so I'm not tempted to be online while I'm working on school.

At 9, MF starts school and WF gets up for the day.  This lets him sleep the recommended amount and helps prevent conflict by not having them trying to share space in the kitchen and bathroom each morning.  It also gives me time to work one on one with each of them, while the other is self-sufficient. He has to get himself ready for the day, eat breakfast, feed the dog and clean up any messes the dog made during the night.  We'll see how this changes over the next few years as she starts to require more sleep each day.

While he is getting ready, I work with her on spelling.  We do a lot of stuff together, but spelling really needs to be one on one.  We are using All About Spelling and, while I really like it, I can see why it isn't used in public schools.  It just isn't suited for group work, even small groups.  Once her spelling is done, she goes to her room to work independently on things.

He has the same options she does during "breakfast" time. If he doesn't choose to get started early, I continue with my walking until he is ready to start or 10, whichever comes first.  When he does get working, we do spelling first.

Depending on where she is at with her work, he will either work independently in his room or we will come back together to work on a shared subject.  While they work on things on their own I will walk, which means I'm passing their rooms at least once per minute, so I'm able to monitor their work and be available to help or answer questions they might have.

Most days, we are completely done with school by lunch time, so our "morning routine" encompasses our whole school day, but some days, there is stuff to finish up after lunch.

The only day this is different is on Fridays, when I occasionally have coffee with some friends.  I've found that our days don't run nearly as smoothly on those days and, although I love seeing my friends, I'm seriously considering giving that up.  I'll miss my friends, but it is more important that school goes well and the kids are learning like they are supposed to.  The days are still a lot easier than when they were in public school, but it is more difficult than the days when our routine is in place.

What does your morning look like?

I think that I found myself a cheerleader

I planned to write this yesterday, but the day got busy and it just didn't happen, so a day late, it's still fine!

You can't homeschool without support.  At least not well.  You need friends and family who support the choice and help you when you need it.  For us, we've not had anybody who has been outright negative about it, although we do have some people who I'm pretty sure are taking the "if you don't have something nice to say" track and just not commenting about it.

RF is passively supportive, like he is about a lot of stuff.  Mostly, unless he has a really good reason not to, he pretty much tells me to do whatever I want.  The only point he raised with regards to homeschooling was, if I was going to do it, I needed to commit 100% and be home full time, instead of trying to work during the middle of the day and school around that.

Our friends are cool with it and a few have even decided that they might consider homeschooling soon as well.  Plus, we've joined several homeschooling groups, mostly just get togethers but no actual co-ops, since those kind of stress me out.  We can do games and playdates and park days, but I like to be in charge of the academics and not outsource that.

Back row: Non, Pops, RF, Me, GJ

Front row: WF, DF, MF

ready to zipline!

Out of everyone, though, my parents have been our biggest supporters.  For years, we shared a duplex with them, where they had half and we had the other half.  MF was born in that house and lived there until she was 5.  She had no idea what it was like to not see Non before she got dressed for the day.  Our first year of living in this house was rough on her, because of that separation.  To help offset that, the kids spend nearly every weekend with my parents.  Sometimes, it is the whole weekend, sometimes, just parts.  My mom will often drop by during the week, just to hang out as well.  The kids are almost as comfortable over there as they are here.  Because of the amount of time they spend together, my parents were as aware as we were that things weren't going well.

Pops and the kids ice skating

When I told them that I was seriously thinking about pulling the kids out of public school, they were all in.  Somedays, I think they are more into it than I am! LOL  My mom even offered to cover outside classes and any curriculum we needed, since I was going to be quitting my job.  I could (and did most of last year) pull together free resources from the internet and we would have been successful at this.  The purchased curriculums have been worth it and would have been outside our budget without their help.

They are always interested in hearing about how the kids are doing. They take them places and go on field trips with us.  They take the kids most every weekend so we aren't together 24/7 and killing each other because of it!

Non and MF, at her play, where she was a boxer.

Every homeschool family needs people that support them.  We've been very fortunate that our family is so supportive and being our biggest cheerleaders.  They are completely and unwaveringly convinced that this is the right course and it is a good thing, because sometimes I'm not.  Even when I'm pretty sure this is right, sometimes the doubts can creep in.

The adults at a friend's superbowl party last year

Who is your homeschool cheerleader?

Why we Homeschool

Warning-super long.  I'm still totally worked up over this situation a year later.  I've included some off topic pictures to break things up a little! :)

We've joined some local homeschool groups and I was asked recently "So how did you get to homeschooling? That is a big jump from public school." and she was totally right.

Our school district has "schools of choice", meaning the spring before your kid starts kindergarten, you tour all the elementary schools, figure out what middle schools they feed (high school is location based), stress yourself out to no end, narrow your choices down to 3 (at the time we started K, it is now 5), and then cross your fingers that you get one of those choices.  In the event that you don't, you make back up plans by touring all of private schools in town and wondering where you are going to find the money for THAT in your budget.  Since our budget wasn't going to stretch to cover that, homeschooling was our back up plan.  We had friends who homeschooled and it only made sense to go that route, instead of going back to work full time to be able to pay for private school.

We got our top choice and we went all in with public school.  I immediately joined the PTA and signed up for everything.  I jumped at the chance to be kindergarten room mom, I volunteered in the classroom and spent hours sitting on the hallway floor, listening to kids read or practice sight words or sitting at the table, cutting out pieces of file folder games.  I became a copy machine expert.  I also signed up to help with the fall fundraiser, the yearbook, the student directory, and the spring fundraiser.  I even managed to get roped into chairing the games committee for the spring carnival because I hadn't learned not to ask when things were happening yet. I ended up co-chairing with another mom for a total of 7 years.  I eventually worked my way through various PTA board positions, including vice president and president, I chaired the hospitality committee for our fall fundraiser for several years, I continued being room parent for both kids and volunteering in their classrooms.  As WF got to middle school, the teachers were less interested in having help in the classroom, but I stayed active with the PTA, including being the president all last year (even after my kid left the school).

I loved our schools.  The community was a good place to be and the staff and other families were great.  There were drawbacks.  WF had the first grade teacher who, when I asked every week how he was doing, insisted that he was doing "totally fine".  Except, come the end of first quarter and parent teacher conferences, he suddenly "can't read, can't write, and doesn't pay attention". She also didn't like that we let him cut his hair in a mohawk, dye it blond, and occasionally spike it.  She told him that he "needed to talk to [his] mom about [his] irresponsible hair".  I told his hair to get a job and quit being lazy, but it didn't really listen to me.  LOL He also had the third grade teacher who was marking time until she could retire and had no control in her classroom. We soldiered on because everything else was fine. It was frustrating, but we made it through, even if I occasionally asked "why aren't we homeschooling, again?"

Pictures from the first day of school:

Last year was the straw that broke the camel's back.  MF was in 4th grade and for the first time since WF was in first grade, I didn't write a teacher request letter because I felt like any of the choice would be fine.  Over the summer, one of the teachers took a different position in the school and we ended up with the new teacher.  In talking to people at the school, they were very excited with the hire and we approached the school with a sense of hope about how good it would be.  Not only did she have a young, interesting teacher, all of her friends were in her class.  A better year would not be had by anyone.

On day 6, she came home from school and said that she lost recess because I hadn't signed her planner the night before. All of her work was done and turned in, but I had forgotten to sign it.  I couldn't believe that was the case, so I emailed the teacher and asked her to clarify her policy.  She called me later in the afternoon and explained that MF wasn't wrong, she did take away recess for kids who didn't have a parent signature in their planner! Um, WTF? I explained that I was concerned that she was holding kids responsible for things entirely outside their control.  If she wanted to punish parent for failing to sign, then we could talk.  We talked about it for several minutes, but she stood firm and eventually told me "well, that is just the way it will be this year in MY classroom".  I immediately sent an email to the principal voicing my concerns over her policy.  A few days later, he caught me in the hallway and asked me to come for a meeting with him and the teacher.  He explained to her that I had complained to him and that he agreed with me, she couldn't punish the student for not having a parent signature, but she could reward those that did.  She wasn't pleased about it and for the next several weeks, continued to punish the students who had parents that weren't causing problems.  She attempted to punish MF a few more times and each time, I emailed the principal about it and he told her to stop it.

I wasn't the only one complaining, but I was the face behind the cause, so my kid was getting the grief for it.  A few weeks into school, the teacher mentioned to me that MF was complaining of having trouble seeing the board.  I scheduled an eye appointment and found she needed glasses.  We ordered them, but were told they would take 7-10 days to come in.  In the meantime, I emailed the teacher (and the principal, because by that point, we'd had so many issues with her, I was including him on all emails as a matter of course) and asked that MF be moved to the front of the classroom for the time being, until her glasses came in and corrected the problem.  She refused.  RF got pissed and went to school (our deal is, he works, I deal with the house and the kids. He rarely goes to school and the situation had to be serious to get him there) and demanded that the desk be moved.  He even picked up the desk and started to move it himself.  The teacher called the principal on him (I'm assuming that she thought he would back her) and the principal helped RF move the desk and asked the teacher why she wouldn't make that simple accommodation to help a student be successful.  She didn't have a good answer (she was "maybe going to move the classroom around tomorrow).  This was the second time in the first month of school that my family tangled with the teacher, involving the principal and he came down firmly on our side both times.

Over the next several weeks, she continued to be a bad person and worse teacher.  She kept the entire class in from PTA's fall fundraising event because one kid couldn't get it together.  She would read parent emails to the class and ask them why they complained about how things were done, when they were supposed to be responsible for their behavior.  She regularly took away morning recess from the whole class for minor infractions by a few students.  I had multiple meetings with the principal.  Other people in the class had meetings with the principal.  I was told he couldn't fire her because there weren't enough bodies in the district to cover all the classes that needed people.  I begged to have MF moved to one of the other 4th grade classes.  I was told they were full and the teachers wouldn't take anyone new.  I found out another family was moving and asked to PLEASE have that spot.  Nothing. I don't blame the principal, I feel like his hands were kind of tied in the situation, but that didn't help MF dealing with that situation.

Here is a picture of MF, with the bike she won at the fall fundraiser.

We'd made it through bad teachers before, and in a normal situation, we could have done it again.  I would have parked my butt in that classroom every day of the world and told that teacher and that principal EXACTLY what was being done wrong and how they could fix it.  But it wasn't a normal situation, because at the same time, at the other school WF was going through hell as well.

He was failing PE because he refused to dress, yet I never got a phone call or an email or even a note home, letting me know about it, until I got the letter telling me that he was suddenly failing. I was getting calls 3 or 4 times a week from the AP, telling me that he was fighting, he was threatened with in school suspension, then it was revoked because what they said happened wasn't actually what happened (It's been a year and I'm still not clear what happened. Some kid thought he was someone else and jumped on his back, playfully, and WF pushed him, so the kid hit him, I guess, but then the other kid said he hadn't jumped on him and WF just pushed him out of the blue, then his story changed again). I got a call in the middle of the day that he had been pushed over the back of a couch and had his head smacked into a wall during social studies.  Apparently, he told a kid that there were only two people allowed to sit on the couch, so the kid shoved him, with the teacher in full view, and gave him a concussion.  The punishment? No one could sit on the couch until the teacher felt they'd all learned their lessons.  :/ Turns out, the PE thing was because someone in the locker room was causing problems, since the teacher couldn't be in there to monitor them.  Taking things, shoving people, calling names, etc.  Instead of saying anything about it, WF's solution was just to not go in there, which meant not dressing.  Kids were following him down the hall, calling him gay, saying pretty terrible things about him and his family.  The teachers, for the most part, really tried to keep an eye out, but middle school kids are sneaky jerks and they knew when the teachers were distracted or where they couldn't be and that's when they would start in on him.

MF cried every day.  WF was an explosive, angry wreck.  They were both "sick" nearly every day, with headaches, or stomaches, or other unverifiable illnesses.  I couldn't devote the time needed to fix the problems to both kids, because both were huge problems and required most of my time to fix.  The last week of 1st quarter, it was a short week and I told the principal that I was keeping MF home.  I sat down with my ancient laptop and google and started trying to figure out how to homeschool.  I found a few things and got her started on them.  I sent her back the next week, because I couldn't figure out how to do it and still manage to work my part time job.  Monday afternoon, I put in my two weeks notice and Friday, October 31 was their last day of public school.  WF stayed in "special" classes, during the last hour of the day, so he got to do art, music, and science tech until the end of the year.

Our first "field trip" was to go vote as a family.

It was a desperate reaction to a terrible situation and was only really supposed to be a "stop gap" until they could go back to school this year.  About January, I asked them if they wanted to go back and they were both pretty firm that home was where they wanted to be.  We will continue to take it year by year, but as of right now, it is working and as long as that is the case, why wouldn't we keep it up.

Last day of school

So, homeschoolers, did your kids ever go to "real" school?  What prompted you to bring them home? Or did you know before you started that homeschooling was the way to go?

First Day of the Rest of your Life

My boy is a typical teenager and, because of his learning challenges, a disorganized hot mess.  His superhero name is pretty spot on.  He is wild! Keep that statement in mind as you read the rest of this.

Last week, we started our first full year of homeschooling (we started in November last school year).  My biggest goal for this year is to teach the kids good habits and organization.  I bought them nifty binders and planners in matching colors, in an effort to keep them organized and on track.

WF, showing his plain black binder.

MF is displaying her pretty teal student planner.

The first week of school, WF got up, not only on time but EARLY.  We've all seen information on how teens need more sleep and how schools start too early for teens. I intentionally scheduled his school start later to be later, so he could get enough sleep. He gets to wake up on his own and he is choosing to get up early.

He has also filled out AND marked off his planner every day! Let me say that again! HE IS FILLING OUT THE PLANNER AND MARKING OFF HIS COMPLETED ASSIGNMENTS EVERY DAY! I know, I'm yelling, but this is a big damn deal around here and totally worth yelling about!

Besides that, he, of his own volition, added his daily chore to his planner and offered to fill it out during his "study hall" the day before.  These are choices he is making to be more organized and keep better track of his time.  This is absolutely amazing for him and has kicked his school year off on a really impressive note.

The road to success is always under construction.

This was our first week of our second year of homeschooling.  I have to tell you guys, it has been AMAZING.  I know it is just the first week, but I'm thrilled with our new schedule (and I'm sure that is going to blow up in my face for bragging about it).

I'm the type of person who wants to work on one thing, until I'm completely done and then move on.  Last year, I was trying to push the kids to "get done, get done" and trying to convince them to multitask and read during breakfast or practice math facts during lunch.  We were all stressed and angry and we staggered across the finish line in May, beaten and bloody.  

This year, I've decided to be much more intentional with our schedule.  I've always known that homeschool doesn't need (and probably won't) to take as long as a public school day, but I felt really rushed that we HAD to get done sooner.  I created a Google calendar and blocked out our school hours.  I've scheduled breakfast time, lunch time, a study hall, and assigned periods to all of our subjects. 

I decided that the kids should get up at different times, to prevent a bottle neck in the bathroom and kitchen each morning.  This kicks the day off without the sibling squabbles that have plagued us in the past. 

I've also blocked off an hour of time for morning activities, including breakfast, dressing, pet care, etc.  They can chose to take that entire time and eat a leisurely breakfast or watch TV before school or whatever or they can chose to get right to work and get on with their day.  I don't say a single word to them about school until the scheduled start time.  That also gives me time to work one on one in subjects that require it, while the other is eating breakfast.

I've scheduled each subject for 45 minutes.  If the kids get done with something early, they have the option to take the rest of that time as free time or move on to the next subject.  Spelling is a particularly good example of this, because I've scheduled it for 45 minutes but it hasn't taken more than 15 yet.  So far, they've been choosing to move on to the next subject and get done, but if they don't that's fine too.  

The other thing I've done is schedule an actual lunch break.  For 1 hour, they can do what they want (no electronics), except for 10 minutes, that I made them go outside and do something that isn't sitting on their butt in front of a screen, I've been calling it "recess".  I don't ask them to do other things or try to work during that time.  They can take their time and cook their meals, eat a reasonable pace, and spend the rest of the hour relaxing, if they want. 

At the end of the day, they have a study hall time, where they watch  CNN Student News and do 30 minutes of free reading.  They can use the rest of the hour to continue reading, complete subjects that didn't get done earlier or do an art project or study (spelling words, math facts, upcoming tests). Basically, it is quiet time and takes the place of "homework time" from public school. 

Their days start at either 8 or 9 and if they decide to take all the free time, our day would end around 4.  It is a long day, but includes a lot of down time, if they want or need it.  Because they've been choosing to keep working, our day has been ending around 12:30. That is about when I'm happy ending and gives us plenty of time for afternoon activities and classes.  

I know when I started looking at scheduling our days, I read dozens of blogs and none of them had a schedule.  They all talked about the "flow of the day" or their "routine" but nothing that said "here is our schedule" so I'm saying "here is our schedule, for your inspiration". Homeschooling doesn't have to be "school at home" but I need a solid schedule I can count on and my kids do so much better with clear expectations for their time.  This puts them in charge of how much or how little they get done, in a time frame I am comfortable with. It is the illusion of choice, like when they were toddlers and I'd tell them they could wear either outfit A or outfit B!

MT's Tuesday/Thursday schedule looks like this:

8-9 Breakfast

9-9:45 Spelling

9:45-10:30 Science 

10:30-11:15 Social Studies

11:30-12:30 Writing

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:15 Math

2:15-3:15 Study Hall

Monday/Wednesday/Friday switches French and Reading for Science and Social Studies.

WF's Tuesday/Thursday schedule looks like this:

9-10 Breakfast

10:00-10:45 Spelling

10:45-11:30 Science 

11:30-12:30 Writing

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:15 Math

2:15-3 Social Studies

3-4 Study Hall

Monday/Wednesday/Friday also switches French and Reading for Science and Social Studies.  

So far, everything has gotten done, with no fussing or fighting.  The kids are in charge of their time and I'm not constantly rushing them to hurry and get finished.  I've said several times that they have the choice to keep working or take a break, so they are reminded that I'm not the one forcing the issue.  

Reintroduction post

I've had this blog for a long time and in that time, it has been a lot of different things.  It started out as just a place to share pictures and stories about my kids.  Then, it became sort of a group record of all the things we did with friends and it was SUPER boring.  Like, "we went to the park today and had so much fun and then we went to the store" level boring.  I'm not even sure that my mom was willing to wade through all of that! LOL  Then it became a chronicle of our home projects and all the cool DIY stuff we were doing (I had a wild idea to start a cable access show about women DIY home projects and get picked up by the DIY channel and get super famous for making things and being snarky.  It didn't happen, sadly). Now, I've decided that I need to add to the already crowded homeschool blog network and will be trying to keep up on that for at least a little while.

I'm hoping to provide a unique perspective, as a new, secular, organized homeschooler of older kids, with a sense of humor.  I'm going to start promoting my blog a little bit more and hopefully pick up some new traffic.

For anyone new here, let me give you a quick introduction.
I'm the Fearless Freak.  I started homeschooling in November of 2014, after we had some terrible problems with public school.  Prior to that, we had been all in with public school. I'd been the PTA president, class mom, school volunteer, field trip chaperone, committee chair, fundraiser organizer, etc.  Basically, you name it, I did it.  I taught preschool for a number of years and worked as a lunch lady until I came home to teach them full time.  I like to make things, I've taught myself how to knit and sew and I'm working on learning crochet.  I've also spent a lot of time learning how to do home repair things, so we can remodel our house on a budget.  I never used to be very organized, but over the years, I've had to learn how and I've been a little nuts about it.  I'm also pretty cheap and hate spending money if I don't have to.  I have an attitude problem and a smart mouth, a sometimes lethal combination.

Hubs is Radioactive Freak (RF).  He works long hours to support our homeschooling choices. and likes to play video games in his spare time.

Son is Wild Freak (WF).  He's nearly 14 and in 8th grade.  He has some learning challenges, including dyslexia and ADHD and, I suspect, some Executive Functioning Disorder.  Since it doesn't matter to how we teach him, we've never had it formally diagnosed.  He loves video games, paintball, and bowling and doesn't like his sister or doing school work.

Daughter is Magnificent Freak(MF). She's 10 in 5th grade.  She is a pretty typical preteen, will all the accompanying attitude. She has recently discovered a love of Harry Potter and fan fiction. She also loves One Direction, cats (all animals really, but particularly cats), and talking to her friends.  She does not like getting up in the morning or her brother (sensing a theme?)

Dark Freak (DF) is my step daughter. She is 18 and doesn't live with us, but might make an occasional appearance here.

Additionally, we have Charlie, a perpetually stupid chihuahua who is pretty sure he is a cat and Princess, a gray cat who loves people and is pretty sure she is in charge around here (Somedays, I'm inclined to agree).

Going forward, I'll try to do more pictures and less walls of text, but no promises.  I've got way too much say, about most everything! :)

Welcome aboard, gang.