Today finds me in the middle of creating literature study guides for Charles Dicken's novel "Great Expectations" for my 10th grade and 8th grade boys who are homeschooled. I always liked the novel, but never paid a lot of attention to certain things in it...like Miss Havisham and her creepy house. I don't think that most school age kids really grasp that novel and I'm happy to be having to read it again at a much older age.
While I'm definately NOT Miss Havisham, I have recently been finding myself in a unique place. I don't know if I'm beginning to hit my "mid life crisis" or exactly what is going on. I'm drifting back to music I loved as a teenager, my "style" is changing and I can't honestly say it's becoming more "mature"...more like more "gothic". Deep down I thought that the weird "Gothic" phase I went through between the ages of 18 and 19 were just that, a phase. However, I find myself drifting back to it. I'm not saying that I go grocery shopping decked out in black lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, and jet black nails. Nor can I say that I've went as far as to dye my hair from it's natural medium/dark brown to crimson red. But purple is sounding intriguing....ROFL.
But seriously, almost a year ago I was "informed" by an 18 year old girl that HER generation invented the funky colored hair. When she said that, I had to laugh and then I had to pull out pictures that were taken when I was in high school. The pictures weren't of me, but they were of my friends and classmates. Some people had raspberry blue hair, others had grape purple, some had fruit punch red, and there was even some lemon-aide (including strawberry lemon-aid) and lime-aid colors. Now, WHY do those hair colors sound like kool-aid flavors? Because that's exactly what they are. There's a non-toxic technique for dying your hair with kool-aid, coffee and tea will work too if you want more natural colors, lol.
I'm also finding that my parenting is changing a bit. As my children get older, I'm giving them more freedom. Some of that "freedom" has led to learning interesting things about my boys. My oldest son wanted to take photography as a school elective, and I discovered that he's a very good photographer and his favorite subject matter appears to be nature. However, he's also taken a few interesting "selfies" with our digi camera...one makes me want to label it "Class Clown". I also learned that he despises jeans and button-up shirts. He always looked so good as my "preppy" kid, lol. My youngest son has decided that he wants to have long hair. He looks good with longer hair, and he can continue to let it grow as long as he keeps it washed and brushed. And I've learned that not only does he dislike sports, he also hates wearing sports themed clothes. In fact, it would seem his favorite clothing colors are black...and he too hates jeans. And allowing my children this "freedom" has caused some backlash from in-laws. My MIL is a 60 something year old pastor of a church. In her opinion, I should "force" my boys to maintain a "clean cut" look. Why? Would I prefer for my boys to go through their "learning" phase while at home where they can have positive guidance or would I prefer for them to "rebel"? I remember being the teenager who had EVERYTHING dictated to her...how to dress, how to act, what to listen to, who to be friends with, and even who to date. Yeah, that resulted in a MAJOR rebellion phase. I don't wish the same for my boys, and I'm finding that when you give your children trust and "wiggle room", you not only learn about your kids, but you also give them the opportunity to earn MORE trust. Am I saying that we should always trust our teenagers 100% of the time with everything and never give them any "restrictions"? No, but I think that teens should be given trust unless they have given us a reason to NOT trust them. Along with that I believe that good, sound guidelines should be in place...sort of like, "yes you can go out with your friends, however I would like to know where you are going, who you are going to be with, and I expect you home at a certain time." Why do I want to know where my kids are and who they are with? Well, I'm a mom who cares a LOT about her boys and I simply can't shake some of the "old fashioned" ways I was raised.
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