Thursday, May 18, 2006

AND WE'RE OFF.....

I'm up before everybody else. Not uncommon. I'm the morning bell. The wake-up call. My gentle voice rings through out the house, "Wake-up girls. Time to get up.". Five minutes laters my gentle voice rings through out the house, "Wake-up girls. Time to get out of bed.". Fifteen minutes later my gentle voice rings through out the neighborhood, "Come on girls. Get up.".
Twenty minutes later my gentle voice rings through out the county, "Get out of bed now!!!!.".
This morning we are packing up for a show in Tarrytown, NY. This one is supposedly a very snooty one so we washed our rubber floor mats yesterday and the side panels to our tent. We want to look fresh and snappy for all our customers. Husband says it feels like the circus everytime we set up and break down. Not just because we are clowns. It's the magic of creation. Starting with a blank space and filling it.
So, off we go in our big white van, Moby, with hopes that someone remembered to bring cash for tolls. We've been known to forget and have to borrow from the girls. This show is at an estate, it might even be some sort of national park...something like that. It's a mansion called, Lyndhurst. On Sunday morning we get a free tour of the mansion. I'm thinking...homeschool!
Mornings that we leave for shows are like being at the horse races. We are twitchy, anxious. Everybody running around trying to gather what they need and trying not to forget the stuff you really need. We pile into our very own big white, starting gate...and we're off.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

IT'S REALLY GREY OUT THERE

In a million years. No, in a million, trillion years will you guess what I did this morning.
We got a visit from CPS. Someone called in a complaint about us. There is a child abuse hotline here in NY and someone called in their hot tip of the day. They feel that our children are being homeschooled improperly. They referred to it as "educational neglect". They said that our children have to work in our pottery business. And something to the effect that there is just all around neglect.
The interview process was rather painless. The CPS worker was pleasant and great with our youngest daughter (who was wigged out!). We answered all her questions. We gave her a tour of our apartment. She interviewed daughter #2 (daughter #1 was at a friends house). We had to give her someone else to contact to ask about us. We did. We talked about unschooling and child directed learning. We set up an appointment for her to interview daughter #1.
Now we just sit back and wait. Who would do this? Is it someone wanting to give us a hard time? Or is it someone that in their heart of hearts truly feels that our children are not getting a proper education and we are neglecting them? We will never know. Ouch!
There will always be a case file on us now.
Is this backlash from horrid sister? The timing works. The call was made on the same day that she finds out that her brother is revoking his waiver and contesting the will and her as executrix. Would she? Could she?
I can't find my rose colored glasses. It's really grey out there.