Homeschooling Snapshot

This would be far more effective if I had taken a picture, but there was something about the moment that seemed like a "homeschooling snapshot moment" and I have decided to write about it since it's now too late to get the picture.

What is today's moment?

It is about 10:30 a.m. Snow is coming down fairly steadily, fluffy and white outside. Other than my niece who is with us for the day, and my husband who is at work, none of us have been outside.

My 16-year old is in her pj's still, I believe (she just wears random t-shirts and stretch shorts to bed most of the time) with her hair pulled back and pinned down, sitting at the kitchen table working on a math test that she decided she would do this morning. She has been up since about 9.

My 13-year old, up since about 8:30, is in a t-shirt and tattered shorts I'm pretty sure he wore to bed. I made sure he had at least changed his underwear. He has a freer rein when cousins are here for the day, so he is sitting at the electronic piano with earbuds in his ears, his 6yo cousin on a chair next to him, she wearing his headphones, and they are playing who knows what but they are enjoying themselves. He's gotten a little more serious with playing the piano lately.

On the flip side of this is that my daughter is very tired and a bit stressed, so all kinds of noise is bugging her as she tries to make her way through the test. I am very tired and bothered by the thumping of the piano keys and the occasional high-pitched sounds that come out of the earbuds. I send the two pianists away to find something else to do. They go to my son's room where he pulls out his acoustic guitar and my niece starts on this:

 

(This toy has been one of the best my son ever got if not the best!) 

His bedroom wall is just on the other side of our kitchen wall. And sound carries through our house very well. I can not think/focus, so I go ask them to find something quiet to do. I come back downstairs and the dog wants out (the door is right next to the kitchen table), the fridge is making loud humming noises and I'm painfully aware of the clickety-clack of my typing. Then I make some tea with the Keurig, which makes "un bruit du diable" (literal translation would be "a noise from the devil", but I suppose we'd say, "God-awful noise" in English, which doesn't seem like a good expression, does it?), the dog wants back in, the one cat is meowing to get my daughter's attention and the other cat has stolen my spot and meows loudly when I come back to claim it. As I type this, the first cat is lapping water in the pet bowl next to the table. It seems ridiculously loud.

As I finish writing this, I find myself chuckling, despite my tiredness and irritation. :)