Free . . . or just Weird?

How free do you feel?

I mean, do you feel free enough to be your authentic self no matter what anyone else thinks?

Seriously. Do you? Sometimes I think I do, but sometimes I'm not so sure.

Here's an example of what I mean. Yesterday Baby Boy felt free enough to go to the public library dressed like a ninja. Not just a regular ninja either, a really ninja-ey ninja, even though everyone else was wearing regular clothes.

Take a look

What you can't really see in this photo is the great big bandage wrapped sword or the knife wounds he drew on his face with one of my eyeliner pencils that really put the cherry on top of this little ensemble. ;-)

When I asked him if anyone else was wearing a costume or if anyone looked at him like he was crazy, his response was "Some old man said I looked cool." He said it with about as much enthusiasm as if he had just told me the sky was blue. In other words, none whatsoever.

He has been enjoying a particular graphic novel series (at least he's reading, right?) this summer and got so enamored with one of the characters, that he actually saved his hard earned money, researched online, and purchased himself a costume to wear just because he wanted to. I mean this child was walking around a conservative (Ha Ha Hee Hee! We got by them!) suburban neighborhood in a full-fledged ninja costume in the middle of the Texas summer heat (it was 102 degrees here yesterday, by the way).

You see, he was wearing the costume for himself, because he liked it and wanted to wear it. He wasn't wearing it to impress anyone else or to see what kind of reaction he would get. It just didn't matter to him.

This is one of the things that really impresses me about my son. When I was his age, I was so busy trying to "fit in" and do just the right things, and wear just the right clothes, and go to just the right places (failing miserably on all accounts, by the way), that I almost lost myself in the mix. I think it's amazing that somehow Mom #2 and I have managed to raise a son who doesn't give a flying fig about what others think of him. I think of it as private liberation, personal freedom.

I mean I am fully aware that sometimes when our homeschool group gets together, we can look like a big old bunch of misfits, and that used to bother me a little bit. I really wanted people to think of us as "normal" people who just happen to homeschool.

Now I know that when I look at that brood of bohemians, that I'm looking at individual pillars of freedom, with Baby Boy (bless his heart) at the head of the pack. Long live the King!


They always make me smile.


So now you all officially have my permission to embrace your inner weirdo today and every day.


Go forth and wreak havoc on all that is plain, usual, and ordinary.



Until next time . . .

Hi, I'm Mom #1. Remember Me?

Thanks so much to everyone who commented and emailed wondering how we are doing.

We're fine.

I'm just having a lazy summertime, I guess. I took a big old break from blogging and blogs in general. I have no sense of balance when it comes to the computer, and blogs specifically. You all are just so darn interesting . . . I'm either reading, commenting and posting all day long or none at all. It's a character flaw, I know, but that's just the truth. ;-)

We've finished up our homeschool studies for a bit and are taking a break, which actually means we're just laying on the floor under the ceiling fan trying not to pass out from heat stroke. It's so hot here! It's been at least 100 degrees for 16 days in a row. We broke the streak yesterday because it was only 99 degrees, but I was still hot. It's back up to 102 degrees today. Last week we had a couple of days when it was 106 degrees! It's too hot to move, yet alone do anything actually constructive, so I've been watching TV. ;-)

I had some more dental work done. If y'all have been reading for any length of time, you know that I have an extremely tumultuous relationship with all dental professionals. They are some of my least favorite people. I was on some really good pain medication for about a week, and that also prevented me from being online, because I was living in a land inhabited only by myself and the Tooth Fairy, I kid you not.

And guess what else, I sewed. Yes, you read that right, I sewed! I haven't sewn anything since I made myself an outfit in home economics in high school. I have a photo around here somewhere of me wearing said outfit, but since I haven't posted in almost a month, I'd better not walk away from the computer now, or this may never actually get finished, LOL. I'll try to find it later, it's hilarious. I actually wore it on my senior trip. You know the trip, we all put all of our hard earned money together and we barely had enough to drive to Six Flags, which is just a few miles down the road, LOL. We were so pathetic, LOL. Anyway, I digress.

Baby Boy was playing not one, but two parts in our local homeschool group's production of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, so I actually had to make him two costumes. They actually came out pretty good. See . . .

This is our super-fantastic cast . . . (I couldn't get that other Mom to move over) . . .

. . . this is costume number one . . .

. . . and this is costume number two.

Not bad, right? So now I've officially earned my Greatest Mom on the Planet badge for this grading period. I'm not sure what my next magic trick will be, but I'll keep you posted.

Baby Boy also recently did one gruesome dissection project. I would tell you about it, but it really deserves a post all to itself. I'll be sure to post a disclaimer for you squeamish types. It certainly isn't for the faint of heart. In fact, I left the house, so all the photos and commentary will be courtesy of Baby Boy and Mom #2. Stay tuned.

So consider yourselves caught up! I'm going to be making my way to all of your blogs over the weekend and next week, so look for me to be back in action.


Until next time . . .