Tales of Capitalism and Motherly Ponderings

First mentioned here, my latest and greatest obsession is turning my kids into little money makers. Our own vending business! It will be so easy!

So we picked up our two machines on Sunday. I'd show you pictures but I can't find the camera cord thingy. Then we created flyers to pass out to local businesses. Today we spent our afternoon canvasing potential customers. I, my friends, am not a salesperson. I'm the girl who threw away the candy order forms instead of soliciting our poor neighbors with overpriced junk. But there is a natural born salesperson in the family. See if you can spot him/her:


(in an insurance office)

Ava: Can we put our candy in your store?
Office worker: blank stare
I mercifully intercede.

(in a doctor's office)

Charlie: Uh....we...uh....started....er...our own company....candy...uh.... machine...errr...
Office worker: stare of pity
I mercifully intercede.

(in a pharmacy)

Juliet: We've started a candy vending business and we were wondering if you would like to have one of our machines in your store.
Pharmacist: What kinds of candy will you have?
Charlie: Uhhh...errr.....
Ava: GUMBALLS!
Juliet: Skittles, M&Ms, Reeses Pieces...


Juliet was born to make money. She scours the house, collecting loose change, which she hordes like a Mongolian warlord. She's savvy, but personable. It was rainy and cold outside, and the kids were getting turned down every where they went, but she said it was 'fun.' Good for her, I say. Every family needs a Juliet.

Charlie is altogether different. You may have read his dialogue and presumed he's just an awkward, shy, altogether unfortunate individual. This is not the case. Charlie is inexplicably well-loved. He's the kid that is universally liked by all sorts of other kids and adults. It's a phenomenon, really. There was this one Sunday when I had no less than three different individuals tell me how much they like my son. Go figure.

Ava. Oh Ava. Did you ever see Amelie? This is Ava. Impish, mischievous, borderline bizarre, but so freakin' adorable that she gets away with it all. She recently promised that she 'would never choke me because she loves me so much.' And smart as a whip, that one. But so was Ted Kaczynski, so we have to keep an eye on her.

When I started homeschooling, I went from dropping my kids off at daycare at 7 am and picking them up at 5:30, to being with them 24/7. There are days, ahem yesterday, when the whining and bickering and trivial annoyances knock me out. Literally. I was in full crisis mode by dinner last night. But there are other days, like today, when I see glimpses of the people they will become, when I know it's worth the headaches. Homeschooling gives me the time to know my kids. Warts and all. And vice-versa. I don't have to listen to a teacher tell me how they interact with others, or how they are getting bullied or being brats in the classroom. I get to watch them be brats all day.

Knowing your kids better, in itself, is not a sufficient reason to homeschool. But watching them grow and catching them being momentarily brilliant is definitely a plus. The way I see it, this is my one shot with them. I've got a few years and then it's all over. They move on, hopefully to great lives with their own families to exciting places, and I move on to do all the stuff I'm not doing now. But I'll know I gave them all of me when they were mine. This, my friends, is why I homeschool.