Sorry for the break, folks. Sometimes…life happens. Despite our best plans. So where were we…
- Thrown out ALL you think you know about parenting and education…CHECK!
- Gotten to know your little person…CHECK!
- Died to self and put them first…CHECK!
- Discovered you REALLY like this human being and want to spend time with him…CHECK!
OK…now that we have broken with traditional parenting and learned (more accurately started to learn) this amazing human being that has been entrusted to us…now we are ready to begin rebuilding. Something I am coming to learn loads about actually…thanks to #HomeCrazzyHome.
In fact this whole process is kinda like what we have gone through with re-wiring this house…
You see #HomeCrazzyHome is over 150 years old…back before electricity was common. We have a fireplace in almost every room of the house because back then that was how you heated, gave light and cooked. The walls are between a foot and eighteen inches thick…of pure stone and brick. They are covered in the old lath and plaster…which is pretty darn messy when you mess with it.
Once electricity did come into being…well there was no master plan for adding it. It was pretty much a mish-mash of wiring added onto by each successive owner of the house. Most of it terribly out of date…and some of it quite dangerous.
Now considering that Cookie Monster works from home…as a techie…the amount of power we use is…considerable. And that is not even counting the gaming room or iPads or sewing machines or the hundreds of other modern ‘conveniences’ or addictions as you choose to see them. Needless to say, we knew going in that this house needed to be re-wired before we bought it.
And we had a plan…a GOOD one. We had sixty days on the home owner’s policy in which to do the work before we had to move-in. No problem, right? Our builder sub-contracted with an electrician who said he could do the job in two weeks.
That is where things started to go wrong…first we signed and closed on #HomeCrazzyHome less than ten days before Christmas. Nothing was going to happen until at least the New Year. Then because they had other work on at the time, nothing even got started until mid-January…with less than a month left on our move-in clock. Still plenty of time, right?
Except that each time the builder called the electrician…he said that he had another ‘quick’ job on and he would get started on it…tomorrow…in a couple of days…next week. In the end…with less than a week before our scheduled move date, the electrician backed out…the job was too big for him.
So we scrambled for new electricians…we considered putting off the move, but that was not viable. It was a mess. And about to get messier. We finally found a team of electricians who would tackle a job this size. They were honest from the beginning…it would take them four to five weeks and cost considerably more than that other guy said.
The messy work began…and boy was it MESSY…the dust from drilling channels for the wires in those walls hung in the air. The noise was almost deafening at times. And nothing ever stayed the same…they were constantly moving something. Finding things became a daily adventure. And we had anywhere from three to eight electricians in this house…five days a week…for almost six weeks.
How we survived I don’t know…especially PanKwake with her sensory issues associated with the autism. But we did…and now…we have a house that not only has safe, modern electrical cabling, a wired in fire alarm system, but even network cabling for internet in practically every room of the house.
As big a pain in the a$$ as it all was…it was so worth it. And this will be too…I promise.
I was reminded yesterday when a new friend who has just begun this home education journey visited that making that commitment and learning new ways of educating and parenting your child can feel pretty much the same.
So before we jump into the nitty gritty of rebuilding and organizing a NEW way…a whole new lifestyle…take a day…think about how far you have come. Pat yourself on the back. Hug your child. Thank your partner. Breather deeply. Heck, grab a cuppa, a coffee or even a glass of wine.
You really are doing something special and amazing for your child…children…your family…yourself…and even the society that does not understand or appreciate it.
Self-Directed Learning & Neurodiversity 
your such a good writer
You too, sweetie.