Why blogging? What's the purpose?

Today I talked to my youngest about how I will be taping an episode of The Homeschool Loft's podcast "The Homeschool loftcast". Tomorrow we are recording, I do not know precisely when the podcast will drop on all the major podcasting streaming options. 

Talking about the podcast, watching some Pioneer Woman, and mentioning to my youngest that I followed Pioneer Woman and read her blog before she became famous because she homeschooled and was blogging about homeschooling -- made my youngest say something like: Well that could be you? Why are you not on TV? 

You see she remembers my blogging, she remembers how I had a good size following, how I had companies regularly have me test their products. She remembers how our homeschooling besides the regular stuff we used was filled with other things that mom got for free and had to blog about! Much of it she remembers with fondness and how she enjoyed some of the products! She asked what happened? Why didn't I stop blogging?

Truth is I co-launched a local homeschool group with a couple of other homeschool moms and we had to promote the group and did what every other person did at that time, and still does, got on Facebook, and started to promote it. Made a Facebook page, and later made a Facebook group, but with that also came having to make my own profile. That and promoting my group and trying to get the word out there was my downfall to blogging. My time as an active homeschooling mom, and manager of my household was limited. I didn't feel the need to blog about my day, what was going on, and what we were doing in our homeschool because well frankly I was doing it on Facebook with my posts. 

That and one day go by, one week goes by, one month, and then a year or 2 it gets harder and harder to get into it again. You realize the readers you have had have moved on. Your kids have grown. One is no longer homeschooling -- you sent them to the public high school. The other is still at home and continues to homeschool all the way to 12th grade, but as they get older and can voice their opinions they don't want to be the primary focus of your blog, writings, and musings. They wanted some autonomy. 

Thankfully for my kids, I in all my years of blogging never put their names out there. I always mentioned them by nicknames that were just for the blogging world! So my kid's silliness and the funny things I shared are not associated with them on any type of google searches.

My daughter seems to think that I would be "famous" if I continued blogging seeing I started at the golden age! When it was all brand new -- My ideas changed and I toy with wanting to blog again. I think I have lots to share, but I'm torn over what to do and how to do it. 

I did change the name of the blog and the URL some time ago because while I do want to talk about homeschooling from time to time, my kids are grown now 20 and 21, so without actively homeschooling I don't have much to say unless I want to go down memory lane, share what I did do, what worked for us, what didn't work for us. 

Right now with only 2 years post my youngest graduation it's not that different, but as the age gap goes on it will be. I probably would sound like an old lady "back in my day".  When I told my sister I was going to be on the podcast to talk about Illinois homeschool laws she was questioning if I was even relevant seeing my kids are post-school age. She said I assume you are keeping up with the laws? 

Yes, I'm keeping up with the laws. It's only been 2 school years, going on 3 since my youngest graduated and the laws haven't changed. Eventually, the materials I used could be no longer available -- I have seen that happen in my active years and people scrambling to find alternatives. Does anyone remember currclick? landry academy? 

I have struggled with my weight for nearly all of my adult life! So I have thought about blogging about that -- blogging about politics as I see them. I have had this feeling for a long while which is why I changed the blog's name to "Nikki's Thoughts On ... " I figured I had to expand and grow and go beyond just homeschooling. However, seeing I'm not in the habit of blogging it has been a struggle. On one hand, I want to and on the other, I just got to get over the hump of not doing, dust off the keyboard, and get back at it. 

Also seeing I now sell coffee and teas I would like to blog about that from time to time. Or blog about tips for Facebook groups, email management, etc seeing I do have my virtual assistance business too. 

I have thought about multiple blogs for all of that, the Assistance by Nichole website having a blog, a separate one for the weight/foodstuff, and this one for homeschooling, politics, and all the rest, but the truth is I don't want to be pulled in all those directions. -- at least not when it comes to blogging, sharing, and journaling. I don't mind the separate Facebook pages. It's easier there to post things on the dedicated page, but I really don't want to have a million websites up and running -- okay it's not a million, but I really don't want multiple websites like that.  So I think I'm just going to buckle down and make this really be about my thoughts whatever they may be for the day and just go do it!

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Roe vs Wade and all the rest

So my immediate local area has been without an abortion clinic for the last decade. I thought I blogged about it back then, but I couldn't find the post about why it closed down, but I found other posts about the clinic on my old blog.  

10 years ago the clinic shut down because of serious health violations. rusty tools, no way to sterilize tools, no nurse on staff, and just nasty and filthy. The doctor and owner ultimately decided to shut down permanently - The fine was much cheaper if he just shut down vs trying to stay open and fix the violations. 

So for the last 10 years, there has been no clinic here. The nearest one is 70 plus miles away. Yep, that's right, people here have to travel and have been traveling for the last decade 70 plus miles for an abortion. 

I'm sure many of you have seen the maps and Illinois is basically an island and basically the only "abortion friendly" place in the midwest. As a result, not surprisingly, a doctor wants to open up a clinic here. I shouldn't be surprised, but the doctor that wants to open up a clinic is the SAME doctor who owns and operated the nasty, dirty, unsafe place I mentioned above.  Yes -- that doctor wants to open up a new clinic. 

Putting aside my personal views on abortion I'm appalled that anyone would be happy about this particular doctor opening up a new clinic. His track record has shown he's unsafe for women! No nurse, filthy environment, rusty tools, no machine to sterilize equipment, etc. 

There is a local Democratic candidate running for local office and when I pointed that out to her the response I got was that it was basically the fault of the pro-life protestors.  That the protestors make it so good abortionists do not want to work in our area; that the protestors make it too much of a hostile environment.  Yes, it's somehow the fault of the protestors the place this doctor ran was just nasty, filthy, dirty, on the inside. 

I pointed out this doctor's track record to a local liberal who on their TikTok expressed wanting help. They wanted people to gather around the women that want to use this new clinic when it opens (if it opens), to protect them from the pro-life protestors. When I pointed out that I wouldn't use this doctor or any clinic associated with this doctor her response was "that's your choice, but I'm going to help women get access to what is their choice" -- or something to that effect.  Totally disregarding the fact that my concern is how this particular doctor has a horrible track record on keeping a clean, sterile, healthy environment -

These two women are angry and appalled that women (or children) have to travel out of state for care. They are appalled that rights are being taken away, they are angry over all the stories of care being denied, medication being denied, and appointments being canceled, but yet have no anger or disgust for the way this doctor ran his clinic 10 years ago, have no anger and disgust that he may open up a new clinic. 

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Me Too!

I believe the Johnny Depp - Amber Heard trial has shown the dangers of cancel culture. Let's just "cancel" them before we ask questions, learn all the facts, etc.

While I believe victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault should be taken for their word, it needs to be balanced -- we should not just automatically cancel people -- because of what one party says about them.

Mr. Depps and Ms. Heard's relationship was toxic. The toxicity came from both sides, indeed! It's clear, to me, from what I have seen on the trail that neither side is innocent. However, with that said, Ms. Heards testimony does not line up with the evidence that she has presented to the court, thus far.

Not to mention there is a huge difference between donated and pledged. They do not mean the same thing!

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Illinois Homeschool High School Graduation Requirements

It's that time of year when people are either thinking ahead for the next school year or start to question if they have done everything they need to do to meet Graduation Requirements.

Over and over again I see nervous parents start looking for requirements, standards, and it never fails someone pulls up the requirements on ISBE site and thinks it applies to them.

Illinois laws, believe it or not, when it comes to homeschooling are very relaxed and low-key. It can be summed up this way.

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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Separation of Church and State

Illinois like other states had swiping abortion law changes. The changes in the new laws in Illinois will make it easier for abortions and will allow for later term abortions as well.

With these changes in the law, there is an actually a Catholic Bishop standing up! He announced that lawmakers that voted the recent bill will not be allowed to receive communion.

Of course, my local news outlet posted about what the Catholic Bishop did on their Facebook page and many commented with "separation of Church and State".

My first thoughts after seeing all these comments about "separation of Church and State":

The Next Chapter

My son, Scout or Superstar as my older readers may remember me calling him, graduated from high school! He for the second summer in a row will be gone all summer - leaves little over a week from now and will not be back until the Sunday before school starts. He for the second summer in a row will be working at a BSA camp. Last year he worked as a merit badge counselor, this summer he will be a line cook. He's super excited about being a line cook because in the fall he will be going to a local technical college to study culinary.

This means my daughter Cadet or Web-Princess as my older readers may remember me calling her, will be starting her senior year of high school. She wants to homeschool all year this last year -- right now we are on a little break; she is just chilling and doing her thing. I'm focusing on my son and helping him finish up his BSA Eagle project before he leaves for camp and ages out.

With the kids getting older and approaching college I have decided it's time for me to think about what I'm going to be doing for my next chapter. That next chapter for me is doing virtual assistant work. I have a Facebook page started https://www.facebook.com/assistancebynichole and been reading up everything I can on being a virtual assistant, running your own business, and everything else related.

I'm looking forward to this next chapter! 

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Thankful; Not to be

Unless you live under a rock I'm sure you know who the Duggars are!  Society or at least social media can be so cruel. To the Duggar women -- those born into the family and those married into the family.

Scrolling through the Google news app on my phone and I stumbled upon an article about a wife of one of the Duggar men.  This article pointed out how the wife was 19 when she got married, has only been married for the last 20 months and are already expecting baby number 2. -- an issue she's too young.  Likewise, the eldest Duggar daughter is just under 30 and is often criticized for being single still, no husband, no children. Seriously, you can't have it both ways, people!

Playboy and Homeschooling?

In my nearly 12 years of homeschooling I never in a million years would think I would be talking about or sharing my thoughts about a homeschooling article that showed up in Playboy of all places.

Sure, I thought I would be sharing things like how to filter the internet, how to protect kids eyes from porn, but never thought I would actually be talking about an article in Playboy.

Yes, Playboy actually has articles and sometimes it can be even informative or misinformative, but the articles do at times bleed through and matter to people and you may be surprised what kinds of articles have been published in the magazine over the years. For example,  Playboy did an interview with Martin Luther King Jr.

Leftist Feminism: Scouting

I know not everyone agrees with Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and their current stands on many issues including the most recent change that started earlier this calendar year: Allowing girls into its flagship program commonly known as "boy scouting".

This post isn't so much about if BSA should have allowed that or not. At my core, I'm of the mindset that a private organization, such as BSA, has the right to decide who can be apart of their group and who is not eligible. I'm of the mindset that if a group of people does not like a particular group's rules instead of bullying them and pressuring them to change they should start a group that meets their needs and values. Example: That's how Trail Life USA, Heritage Girls, and other scouting groups came to be.

Yes, I can issue my child a diploma

You never know when homeschooling, graduation requirements, diplomas will come up in discussions.

The other night, at scouts I was talking to one of the other adults about it. I even mentioned how I could scribble out something in crayon on a napkin and it would be valid and legal.  Of course, I wouldn't because no employer would take that seriously.

The other parent was just floored that I could just issue my child a diploma. That I don't have to submit them to some kind of test, registration, etc.

Movie Reviews

With the uptick of cartoons like Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo and Lion King being made into "live action" type films I have been noticing more and more asking for movie reviews. I also have noticed what seems to be more people "shocked" when someone says that the movie is not appropriate for young children, such as Dumbo.

Even though I find the MPAA not to always be trustworthy it can be a starting ground. When MPAA rates something as PG then one should NOT be surprised that the film is inappropriate for young children.

STOP Illinois SB 2075

Illinois SB 2075 purpose is to lower the compulsory age in Illinois from 6 to 5. This bill if passed and made into law will apply to children, public, private and homeschoolers. Over the last couple of weeks while the bill was in committee many Illinoisian tried to voice their opposition to the bill and filled out witness slips.  Over 2200 witness slips were filled out saying NO to this bill; on the other hand 7 that's right 7 1.2.3.4.5.6.7 slips were filled out saying yes.

Witness Slips for Illinois SB 2075

Electoral College

Twitter is all of a buzz seeing many wanting to get rid of the electoral college.  It's nothing new as this video was done in 2015 shows it's been in the works for a while now.



There are many reasons for popular vote should not be in practice, but I think the biggest argument is people's failure to understand that on election day, especially for the presidential election, is NOT ONE election that takes place. It is 51 separate elections 50 states plus DC. Each state's election is sovereign and independent. So electoral college points should be awarded based on how the people from that state voted.

Some states split their electoral college votes instead of being all or nothing. I was thinking that would be a good compromise until I read this morning that doing that would result in no winner.

One thing for sure is that we can't go by national popular vote. If we do away with the electoral college we are then moving from 51 separate elections taking place simultaneously it will be one election. If we move to one election I believe would have to make sure all polls open and close the same time, regardless of time zone differences, the same type of ballot machines are used and polling places set up the same. Perhaps even 2 different ballots. One for the national election, one for the state elections.  It wouldn't be as simple as just tallying up the national votes as people seem to think it will be.

I also annoyed that many states including my own, IL, are willing to let electoral college votes go to the national vote and not what the majority of the people in IL wants!

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