Let's talk Lice!

So there we were, chugging along beautifully in our brand new school year.  We were waking up to alarms, getting our chores done, working hard on academics, what could possibly go wrong?

What could go wrong?  Well....let's see....we could maybe, just perhaps, quite possibly discover that our entire family (minus 3) was infested with lice!!!!!!! I will spare you the details about how this was discovered and where we got it.  Let's just say that dealing with lice on 6 people (all girls with long, long, some very thick and long hair) is absolutely as awful as it sounds like it would be.

I was absolutely horrified at our discovery and will admit to shedding tears over the ordeal!  I realize that anyone can get lice, but I've been a mom for almost 16 years and have never even considered it a possibility!  The homeschooling family with lice?  What in the world?!?!

We spent fourteen hours on day one cutting and treating everyone's hair.  It took six hours in the morning of day two and three that evening.  We've spent a little less time each day, but we are still checking everyone over and talk about what we're going to do with our time when we are no longer staring at each others' heads. I contacted anyone I knew that had any experience with lice and we have been so very diligent with everything for almost two full weeks that if we haven't completely gotten rid of it for good I'm shaving heads and burning my house down!

This Wednesday is technically the two week mark, but if everyone says check for two weeks I'm going to check for three!  Not only was this ordeal extremely expensive, but we have spent hours and hours and hours nit-picking, and checking, and washing things, and bagging things.  It has been an all-consuming endeavor to ensure these unwelcome guests are gone for good!

Back to School 2017

We had the best first week of school that we've ever had in the entire history of our homeschooling! We had such a great week in fact that I didn't even take a single picture until the second day of the second week.

I did something this year that I haven't done before, at least not successfully.  I planned out our entire year.  I know, I know, that's a recipe for disaster usually.  It's very un-"Teaching from Rest" and Sarah Mackenzie just might have my neck if she found out about my year-long plans.  I'm totally kidding!

What I've learned from years of homeschooling this crew is that I simply don't get the time to plan as we go.  In years past I have planned out two weeks at a time and have told myself that I'm going to use the "extra" week to keep a week ahead in planning.  The reality of it is that I have a husband who has crazy hours at work and just isn't available much to give me time to plan.  It's true that my older kids can help out and I could technically use them to get time to plan, but I use them for more pressing matters, like menu planning or bill paying.

One thing I've become very good at is being okay with it if we get "off" of my plans.  They're my plans to begin with so there's no need to freak out if a couple kids are on Week 1 Day 3, but others are on Week 2 Day 1.  Whenever one of my checklist-loving kids starts getting worked up over being "off" I just say, "Do the next thing."  All will be well, just do the next thing, and then the next after that, and the next after that.  In the end we'll be fine, learning will happen, the world won't come crashing down around us, and if we need to take time to deal with something (stay tuned.....) then we will.  No biggie.