Why I can’t have a peaceful evening

I guess I’m a kitten’s grandma

So, it’s been a year since my oldest daughter ET got married. Click for more information on that: (https://christinakosatka.wordpress.com/2019/12/19/so-now-im-a-mother-in-law/) She and her husband decided to go on a tip for their anniversary, and she asked me to come and babysit her kitten, Jellybean. She’s six months old and pretty cute. I figured this sounded like

These kids had better be going back to school soon

So after the three-plus-months-long homeschool experiment of last school year, I’ve been looking forward to having my kids go back to school IN PERSON. They have given us as parents the option of using a “learn-from-home” model, which of course translates to “you-deal-with-your-own-kid-while-we-force-our-teachers-to-work-with-you-online.” No thank you. That sounds like a nightmare for me AND the

Homeschooling (Quarantine Style) Continues

Me: Have you finished your online schoolwork? Little Girl: Yes. Maury Povitch: Mom’s check on your google classroom proves…. that was a lie! Me: (scanning in a completed worksheet called “Canada Facts Fun Sheet” for the twins) Boo: What’s that? It says fun sheet. Is it really fun? Me: No. Absolutely not. Kids: I thought

Do we have to talk about this now?

I was taking a nap when my eleven year old son texted me from the kitchen. Yes. TEXTED me. From the KITCHEN. Having failed to get his point across by text, he tried call me. Actually, he tried to Face Time me. Did I mention I was napping? This a bad time to try to

I am NOT a homeschool mom

Let me say that again: I am not a homeschool mom. BUT…. They cancelled my kids’ school. They cancelled EVERYONE’S kids’ school, in fact. So now, I guess, we are ALL going to be homeschool moms. I’ve been hoping that this whole thing is an elaborate April Fool’s joke, but I guess not. It’s April

Guinea Pigs

So, Little Girl has been lobbying for her own pet for some time. We still have the cat; he’s almost ten years old now. I have actually been blogging long enough (?!) that his origin story is in my archives, if you’re interested. I’ve been strongly resisting any new pets on the grounds that we

The Book Fair at School

The twins’ school is having a book fair. They are in middle school now, so I wondered if the book fair might be different, but it’s pretty much the same as it was in elementary school: Ostensibly it’s to sell books and promote learning, but the real goal from the kid’s perspective is buying random

I don’t know what you’re talking about

Have you ever noticed that when you tell a kid to do something they don’t want to do, they act like they don’t understand? ME: Time to do your homework. KID: What? ME: Time. to. DO. your. HOME. WORK. KID: Home? Work? ME: Did you brush your teeth? KID: What? ME: Your teeth. Did you

So, now I’m a mother-in-law?

My oldest daughter ET got married. I know; I’m nowhere NEAR old enough for this. And how is it that SHE is old enough? When I started this blog she was thirteen, so I gave her the name ET for Evil Teenager. Now she’s 23 (!) and no longer a teenager at all. (But still