We have a bridal shower and a marriage reception tonight. Kelly has a piano festival in Salem and Christian is scheduled to solicit cans for a cub scout Christmas food drive on Saturday. Of course, we have a couple of church meetings on Sunday. Lorena has her math final on Monday. Christian has cub scout meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Kelly has piano lessons and both the kids have swim team practice on Tuesday. Meanwhile the local government school kids have another day off today. Our homeschool has currently been in session for two and half weeks longer than the government school and we started at about the same time only three months ago. Sometimes I think those kids are home more than ours; It is an amazing thing. There are some nice families in our neighborhood. Of the families that have school aged kids, both parents work in all of them. It seems to be quite a struggle for those families when the schools are closed because they depend on them as a baby-sitting service. I just do not see how some of them do it. With the low quality of education, inconvenience of so few school days in the year, and the bad socialization, a parent has to make a herculean effort and many compromises to raise children in the government school system. Doing it well must be close to impossible. Our family just could not meet those challenges and raise our kids the way we would like, but we are truly amazed by those who try.
