Homeschool Benefit: I actually know who are around my kids

My own kids are nearly 20 and 21 now, adulting and doing their own thing and like many parents of young adults, I don't know everyone that my kids interact with. They hold jobs, have co-workers, developing friendships outside of mom's social circle. 

However, when my kids were young all the way up to high school I knew who they were hanging out with, the adults they interacted with, etc. Even if I took them to soccer, swimming, dance, I was there. I saw who they were interacting with even if I didn't know them well. Same with scouts. 

With the kids being adults I have been working. I have my own business doing virtual administrative tasks, Assistance by Nichole. I have been selling responsibly grown coffee and teas, Nikki's Coffee Klatch.  I'm doing okay with those things, it's slow and steady, but I also have taken to working part-time outside the home. I'm working at the local boys and girls club as part of the program staff for the after-school program. 

I have been working there for the last 3 months and today's events brought me to today's thoughts. Hubby and I went out to eat at a local restaurant. I went to the bathroom and on my way back to my table I was being stared down by a little girl. I could see she was trying to figure out where she knew me from or why I was familiar. I said hi to her. This alarmed the parents! They had no clue who I was, I could sense that so I just told them I work at the club. This put the parents at ease and also gave the little girl more time to figure out who I was and she shouted my name with glee because she realized who I was. 

The little girl is 6 maybe 7. I would be rightly concerned if a stranger saw my daughter at a restaurant at that age and knew my child. It's amazing how stating I worked at the club put the parents at ease, but also goes to show how I have interacted with their child for the last 3 months and they have no idea who I am.  This honestly while the cultural norm is very scary. You should know or at least recognize every adult your child has regular, daily, contact with. 

With homeschooling, you know who is interacting with your children!

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Social Distancing, Church, and all the rest

With 2021 coming to a close it's hard for me to believe that I truly haven't been to Church since March 2020. This is hard for me to swallow and realize this has been the case. 

When March 2020 hit my home church first decide to cancel Mass. Then it decided to only allow those that registered and submit to contact tracing. The church decided to share the attendance list with the State. Every bone in my being screamed "NO!" I just couldn't do it. 

Luckily for us, we live on the state border and our neighboring state and churches were not that strict. Yes, wear a mask, but we did not have to register or submit to contact tracing. I went a couple of times, but I still struggled with the mask, only one family to a pew, every other pew, and other social distancing rules.

So I quit going and here we are 18 months later. It's been hard on my marriage, my husband called me an unbeliever, and feels like he's failing as head of the household. It's not just me not going, but our young adult children have fallen away. 

I wish I can say their fallen away was covid related too, but in truth, they had fallen away way before that. We didn't see it, because there were legitimate reasons for missing church, mostly their work schedules, only having one car, etc. For example, they worked Sunday morning, when hubby and I would go, but hubby and I would be out Saturday night -- preventing them from being able to go Sunday evening.  Times were they were not working, they would go with us, were respectful, etc. Looking back I saw it, -- lack of prayer before meals, like of truly participating in Mass, etc -- but I just didn't really want to acknowledge it.

So here we are approaching the end of 2021 and things are not better, in terms of how covid is being handled. In fact, I feel in many ways it's worst now than it was in March 2020 -- when this call started. I'm still struggling and have come to realize I just may have to "suck it up buttercup". 

I know my husband is being even more upset with me seeing I took on a job 3 hours a day, Mon-Fri, where I have to wear a mask, but yet still have not stepped foot into Church. Taking on the job wasn't fully by my choice; it was my husband's needs from me. He's feeling overwhelmed and burnt out with being the sole breadwinner in the family.

I have been doing virtual assistant work. I will continue to do that and hope to continue to go grow my client list. In the meantime working the 3 hours a day is helping my husband feel better. While what I do does not match his income, he doesn't feel the pressure as he's the only one supporting his family; between the virtual assistant work, selling coffee and tea, and being employed outside the home he feels better!

Now to just get to Church -- 

photo credit: dbgg1979

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Chemtool Fire part 2

I ended with the first part of the tale sharing how a modified one-mile evacuation map was released. 

This is a significant part of the tale here because you see every year on Father's Day weekend a large music festival takes place. This festival includes carnival rides and food,  beer tents, and big-name country music stars. Well, most years it's country music stars, some years they have done other genres of music.

The original evacuation map that went out included the park on the north shore of the river; the new maps that park, known as Settlers Park, was excluded. Basically, the park is 0.2 miles outside that mandatory evacuation zone -- a zone that was still in place!

Chemtool Fire

Monday, June 14th about 7 am Rockton Police were called on scene to Chemtool on Prarie Hill Rd in Rockton IL.  By 730 am my Facebook newsfeed was full of people asking what's going on, what's on fire, what are the explosions they are hearing. 

I step out and see this:

Federal Plus Loans

Chef is finishing up culinary school; like many, he does have student loans. His loan totals are small and modest compare to others. He has $5500 total in student loans, which is just under half of the total cost of schooling.  The other half was paid with scholarships, grants, and out of pocket by us. 

This morning I was reading a news article about Federal Parent PLUS loans. The couple featured owes nearly $500,000 in loans. This happened because of deferments, forbearances, and high-interest rates. The couple has even filed for bankruptcy and lost their home. It's mind-boggling how quickly that can happen. -- however, even with bankruptcy they still owe on the parent plus loans. (Not all debt goes away with bankruptcy.)

Nikki's Thoughts ...

My thoughts are all over the place and I can't help, but think I'm being called back to blogging. I did it when the kids were younger and enjoyed the interaction. I meant many wonderful people many of whom I'm still friends with and will be for the unforeseeable future. 

This blog is going to be shaken up some. Sure it will still include some homeschooling, but not as much seeing both the kids are high school graduates now. Yes, that's right Webprincess and Superstar are adults now, 19 and 20! Wow, in my early years of blogging they were just kids, 7/8. Seeing they are adults now there social media nicknames have changed. Superstar is now Chef and Webprincess is now Cadet, but Cadet is probably not fitting, seeing she's no longer active in CAP (Civil Air Patrol), maybe I should nickname her Artist. She spends her free time drawing and her art is impressive.

Post High School Education

It's 2021 and the realization that it's been almost one year since I graduated my youngest! What has happened in that year! A lot, it was 2020 - Do I really need to say more.

My daughter has decided to take a gap year, get a job and figure out exactly what she wants to do before pursuing any post-high school education. A move I fully support! I rather her spend time figuring out what she may want vs just taking classes to be taking classes because that's what you are supposed to do.

My son is finishing up his culinary degree at a local technical college and just this week landed a full-time job at a local restaurant whose focus is on offering seasonally driven dishes from locally sourced ingredients. The type of restaurant that grinds its own meat for burgers! -- I'm super excited for him and what this job opportunity will mean.

Then just today the technical college announced on their Facebook page that they just received the highest accreditation possible for their culinary program from American Culinary Federation Education Foundation Accrediting Commission (ACFEFAC). There are 13 schools within WI-IL that have accreditation and only 4 of them, one being the school my son attends, have this exemplary status.  4 of the 13 schools.

All of this started to make me think of the choices people make, especially when it comes to post-high school education. Will my kids even go to school? I don't want them to pursue a career in this, because it's perceived they will not make money. In addition, I often see the push for 4-year schools and technical colleges and community colleges get poo-poo on as if they are not superior or can not hold up. As if 4 years are the only good options.

My son's technical school earning the highest accreditation possible for culinary made me realize how wrong people can be. Seeing it's a 3rd party accreditation board that is doing the accrediting we can look to them as a means to measure without bias. All ACFEFAC cares about is that the program meets its standards -- so two schools that meet the same standards can be seen as equal with the quality of education they produce. 

One of those 4 other schools that received the same accreditation happens to also be a larger school more widely known for its culinary program. Both schools are 2-year culinary programs. Both schools offer an AAS in Culinary Arts. It's just one is a small technical college that is not widely known and the other is a much larger school that is widely known.

Technical College Cost: $12,000
Well Known College Cost: $72,000 plus housing

WOW! look at that price difference for what is basically the same program according to ACFEFAC! Sure there are drawbacks to being at the technical college, such as potential employers outside of the area may have no clue or knowledge about the technical college and may have questions about the school. However, my son can overcome those challenges at job interviews when he can say the program is accredited by ACFEFAC and actually has the highest accreditation status: exemplary.

All of this to say: do not dismiss a local technical school or community college just because it's a community, technical college. Do research on the school, programs they offer, etc.

Yes, schooling has been expensive and we have had to do some loans to pay for it, but we saved ourselves $60,000 by going to the technical school. And what loans we have needed at the end of the day is equivalent to a car loan; so it will be easily paid back vs a loan that is equivalent to a house!

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