10 Reasons I’m Glad to Be Home

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As you probably know, this past weekend, I was at Great Homeschool Conventions in Cincinnati helping out at the Geography Matters booth. I had a great time and it was such a blessing to meet so many of you. I can’t begin to tell you what it meant to have so many of you stop by to introduce yourselves or to tell you how much my blog has meant to you. Really. Y’all made my weekend.

As much fun as I had, I was so glad to get back home. I’m not sure why this trip was so different. Maybe it was the lack of a mini-fridge in my room, meaning no sweet tea or cold water to make my morning Spark before getting dressed enough to find a vending machine. Whatever it was, I was really, really glad to be home. I lost track of how many times I made that statement yesterday, but it was enough that the kids were rolling their eyes at me.

Between working non-stop at the GeoMatters booth (a very good thing!), trying Cincinnati chili (a very bad thing…yuck!), and getting treated to dinner at Scotti’s (more on that in a sec), I didn’t have time to put together anything meaty to help you in your homeschooling journey or anything funny to give you a chuckle for today’s post. Instead, it’s just a little fluff piece about why I’m glad I’m home.

1. I missed my family. While I am an introverted homebody, I do enjoy traveling to new places. I don’t usually get homesick, but this time, I really missed my family. I was so glad to get home to everyone – including the dog who, if dogs could cry tears, would cry tears of happiness every time I come home from a trip. Seriously. I am his person and he can’t stand me being away.

2. It was so good to take a shower in my own shower. Now, I’ve got the say, the shower in our hotel was surprisingly nice. It was roomy and had great water pressure and plenty of hot water. Still, it wasn’t home.

3. Sweet tea. Y’all. No kidding. I was going into withdrawal. I had a caffeine headache so bad Sunday morning that it woke me up. Even my Spark wasn’t enough to ease the headache or clear my head and help me focus. After more than four years, I broke my McDonald’s fast just because I knew they’d have sweet tea. I started to just get the tea and have breakfast somewhere else, but I was ready to get on the road – the whole missing my family thing.

mcd

4. I could make my Spark in the comfort of my own home. Yeah, I realize I’m starting to sound addicted. I am. It’s sad, but, oh so true. It took two Sparks and one and a half McDonald’s sweet teas to get me home safely Sunday.

spark

(My oh-so-healthy breakfast Friday and Saturday mornings)

5. I could sleep in my own bed. Enough said, right?

6. I could go back to wearing my favorite clothes. I’m trying to convince my friends at GeoMatters that I could be a much more effective representative in my jeans and sneakers. I don’t think they’re buying it.

7. I can watch Castle and Bones. It’s probably kind of sad how much I missed crawling in bed with Brian at night to watch Castle and Bones.

8. I can get back in my workout routine. I may have been slacking lately, but doing something is better than doing nothing. I’m glad to be back at it.

9. I can get back online! Oh, I missed my online time. The internet access in Cincinnati was lousy.

10. I got my new glasses. I tried to time my eye exam so I could get my new glasses before I left. I left Thursday morning. They came in Thursday afternoon. Figures.

All that being said, I had a great time hanging out with the GeoMatters folks. Without a doubt, they are some of the world’s sweetest people. I love them and I love working for them. They treated our team to dinner at Scotti’s, this amazing little hole-in-the-wall Italian place that’s just celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Scotty's

The storefront picture above is it. That’s the entire width of the restaurant. The picture of the tables? The tables on the right are against one wall and the tables on the left are the other wall. It was such a nifty little place!

And, I got to drive my car. It will be a year next month since I got it and the honeymoon isn’t over yet!

Ford Edge

Hey, did I mention that I’m glad to be home?

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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14 Comments

    1. Oh, me, too! I’m so excited for 2:1…but I’m also just enjoying being home these few days, too. I wish we were traveling together.

  1. Hello! Good to have you back in Blogland. I particularly resonate with your list (or should that be – your list particularly resonates with me?) this week. Apart from Spark (never tried it), glasses (never worn any), and work out (never done one of those), I’d have pretty much the same list.
    I’m slightly jealous you get to snuggle with Brian and watch Bones and Castle from your bed. Please understand, I have no wish to snuggle Brian in your bed (I’m sure he’s delightful, but I’ve got me a Gary to snuggle – oh and my own bed) but I must say the idea of a dvd, husband and chocolate in bed sounds Heavenly. And yes, I do realise you never mentioned chocolate….
    How’s Bones going? We’ve just started season 7 (are you up to there yet? – I want to ask a pertinent question but I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it yet)
    Right, I’m going now. I really must stop writing you essays each time I leave a message.
    Enjoy your next weekend away!

    1. I love your comments. You crack me up. We’re going to have so much fun when we finally get to meet one day. Okay, you know the very convoluted way I watch Bones, right? So, I just started Season 4 during my treadmill workouts and Brian and I just finished Season 7. Funny story about that. We put in the final disc for Season 7. It ended on a cliffhanger. We were going to go to sleep after that, but it was such a cliffhanger, we knew we’d have to watch another episode. Brian said he sure was glad that wasn’t the season finale.

      It was the season finale. The last disc only had that ONE episode on it! I ordered Season 8 the next morning! We’re anxiously awaiting it. It’s supposed to be delivered tomorrow. We thought we had a new episode of Castle to tide us over since it comes on Monday nights, but we had severe weather last night and all shows were preempted by continuous weather coverage. I know what we’ll be watching tonight!

  2. I am glad to be home too from Cincinnati. I haven’t written my post yet about my first convention trip but when I do meeting you will be at the top of my list.

  3. I miss sweet tea! (But it’s totally not worth the kidney stones I get. Yeah. That’s fun, right?)

    I’m an introverted hermit crab, too. The odd thing is, when I go on trips, I always decide I want to live there forever. No matter where it is. LOL! I NEVER want to go home.

  4. I need a kick in the pants! I stopped by the booth at the convention and talked briefly with you! I had that moment of thinking, ‘hmm, she looks familiar but I’m just not sure…’ And I sorta had a feeling you may have done the same, but that could just be my over-stimulated convention brain working overtime. Ugh! I wish I had the opportunity to tell you in person how much I gain by reading your blog!

    I stopped by the booth in an overwhelming moment of confusion and anxiety over my oldest starting 9th grade next year, searching desperately for the perfect packaged curriculum for her. After some decompressing and praying, I now realize that the perfect package does not exist for us! There are SO MANY really great options, and truthfully, I wish we could do them all!… or at least pieces of them. But, even if there was time for that, I think my kids would go on strike.

    Anyway, I wanted you to know that if you remember speaking with a perplexed homeschool mom, who may have seemed a little off her rocker, that was probably me! And I’m truly sorry that I didn’t go with my gut and introduce myself.

    1. Aw, I wish you’d introduced yourself. I’d have loved to have met you. I think you’re right about the curriculum, too. There are so many great options and not enough time to delve into them all.

  5. That booth was sooo busy! I stopped by three times and all the reps were taken each time! Next year will be our first year homeschooling. I am trying to decide which geography curriculum to use for my first grader. I saw the file folders with other papers that accompany Cantering the Country. I was curious what they were and if this would be a good introduction to geography for a six year old. Or any other recommendation?

    By the way, I too am from the south (Louisiana) and am a recent transplant to Ohio. I miss the lack of sweet tea and do NOT enjoy Cincinnati Chili either! (It has cinnamon and cocoa in it. It makes me gag just to think about it!)

    1. That was the weird thing I kept tasting! Cinnamon. Yuck!

      The file folders were part of the lapbooking kit for Cantering the Country. I think either that or Galloping the Globe would be an excellent geography intro for a 6 yr old. CtC is US geography and GtG is world.

  6. I can’t believe you didn’t like Cincinnati chili!!! But then again, I’ve lived here for 24 years so I guess it’s just an acquired taste. I do have lots of friends who don’t like it though (not surprising that none of them are from Cincinnati!!! lol) The only thing we argue about here is which parlor makes it better (Skyline, Gold Star, Emperess, Dixie Chili, or Blue Ash!) Next time you are here skip the chili and go for the ice cream…there is seriously not a better ice cream in the world than Grater’s! Or check out our famous pizza joint, LaRosa’s. I guarantee you’ll get some sweet tea there!! Mmmm…now i’m hungry! lol-

    Stopped by to check out the blog hop and got sucked in and stayed for a while! Have a wonderful week!!

  7. Okay, I feel like I need to stand up for Cincinnati chili here! My husband is from Cincinnati and when I married him, I had never tasted the stuff. But to him, it’s the only chili there is. Now I am a convert. Maybe it grows on you? Like a fine wine? Haha. It was awesome to meet you at the booth Kris. And I also enjoyed hearing Ashley Wiggers speak- love Geo Matters!

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