<p>Dad II</p>
<p>So pleased about your news and also not surprised.</p>
<p>The apple pie ala mode does sound tempting!</p>
<p>And jude–what an annoying dream!</p>
<p>:: restocks freezer with vanilla and butter pecan ice cream ::</p>
<p>:: polishes the forks and spoons, stacks clean plates and bowls ::</p>
<p>:: notes someone has found the rum stashed under the table ::</p>
<p>:: starts pots of coffee and hot water for tea and cocoa ::</p>
<p>May all your mailboxes be filled with fat envelopes today!</p>
<p>This thread is the first comfort I have found all year!!! Thank you!!</p>
<p>Stress? You want to talk stress?? I have home schooled my daughter since she begged me to take her out of kindergarten and do so. I went through the periodic bouts of self-doubt and wondering if I was screwing my daughter up for life that most home schoolers do, but the results over time were so great and my daughter was so happy that I eventually left all the second-guessing in the dust.</p>
<p>Or so I thought. Last October, all my doubts and second-guessing came roaring back with a vengeance. We had no guidance counselor, even a worthless one, to advise us about anything - I had to be the guidance counselor. Besides everything parents of traditionally schooled kids have to do, I also had to create a transcript, a school profile, a course description document describing every course my daughter took, fill out the secondary school report form, the home school supplement form (complete with essays of my own), and write the guidance counselor letter. She needed extra tests and extra recommendations, and we had to get official transcripts sent from six different course providers. It was soooooo time-consuming and so anxiety-producing. It really felt like it all came down to me, and how well I would do my job as her “school”. </p>
<p>I just could not stop the wild ravings of my mind! I would wake up in the middle of the night going “What was I thinking??? I home schooled my daughter through high school!!! What a wild card to be holding in the most competitive year ever! What have I done?” I thought I would die before I got everything done and mailed out to all of dd’s school choices. The anxiety leading up to December 14, when EA decisions were released by her top choice school, was absolutely unbearable. I could not stay off of college confidential every available minute, as if there were some important piece of information I could still unearth that would help her, some stone I had left unturned. Seriously, I thought about starting a Chance Me thread on whether or not I would go insane.</p>
<p>Thankfully, both my brothers were visiting me at the time and kept me occupied, or I do think I would have been hospitalized before 5 pm on December 14. They also got to enjoy seeing me do Pee-Wee Herman’s “tequila” dance when dd was admitted that day to Yale. Stress over with, right? Well, for awhile…</p>
<p>I relaxed about the home schooling thing, and went back to knowing it had been the right decision for my daughter, and the best thing in the world for the relationship I now have with her. Life was good. In early February, I realized I was going whole days without thinking about college admissions, I’d go weeks without checking CC, and we focused on dd’s senior year endeavors (although it seemed we went straight from finishing applications to putting together the MidYear Reports for all her schools). In mid-February, totally out of the blue, daughter got a call from Harvard saying she was admitted. I’d never really known about likely letters but went straight to CC to find out all I could about them. This happened to be one week before we were making a trip to Cambridge so dd could check out Harvard, in case by some miracle she got in. Well, now dd loves, loves, loves Harvard.</p>
<p>Here’s the really sick thing I will now confess. I feel more stress than ever lately, worrying that Harvard will rescind its early write! DD was interviewed by the Crimson, and had some horrific grammar “quoted” at the end of the article (definitely not what she said). I worry that Harvard will change its mind before Monday! I worry that ridiculous things, like posting this for catharsis in this forum, will somehow cause it! I think my head will simply explode before 5 pm on Monday night.</p>
<p>Just wanted to share with others admitting they need a 12-step program for the anxiety. Mind-numbing stress has become my natural state this year. I have wondered if the unrelenting anxiety of the college application process is Nature’s way of getting us to wish for senior year to be over and helping us get ready for the empty nest. I mean, who has any energy left? </p>
<p>Seriously, this has been such a learning and bonding process for us and, in our case with home schooling, an amazing opportunity to take stock of the last 13 years and all we’ve done together. What a ride it has been!</p>
<p>Best of luck to everyone in these last few days! We’re going to make it!!! Beulah, another mojito, please.</p>
<p>alchemymom - Congratulations to your D! I am quite sure your D will be admitted to Harvard. Our stress is getting the better of us. </p>
<p>Mailbox scene at our house (daily exchange)
Me: “No college mail today?”
H: “Nope.”
Me: “Are you sure?”
H: “Yep.”
Me: Walks over to the mailbox to double check and looks around surrounding snowbank just in case mailperson missed the box! UGH.</p>
<p>Dad II,
Congrats to your D – we told you so! Hope the FA is what you want to see!</p>
<p>DS2 (my soph) is making more hamentaschen (prune and cherry) this afternoon. I am going to suggest that he send some to his top chocie schools come early March, two years hence. </p>
<p>He has had a busy day: got his learner’s permit this AM, whereupon we went out for our first driving lesson. I am teaching him w/a stickshift. (I need a drink and hair dye. Hope I don’t mix the two. ;)) Then he got home, called a local picnic/catering company for summer work and they practically hired him on the spot – he has been volunteering on the catering committee at our synagogue for the past two years and has lots of experience. This would involve mostly weekends, which still leaves him time to volunteer during the week at the archaeology camp he worked at last summer. And last, but not least, an environmental camp he attended a few years ago finally got back to him about being a CIT this summer. Volunteer, not paid, and he might have to wiggle a little bit with one weekend of catering, but it might all come together (he also wants to do some research for a possible science fair project, and this camp would give him some opportunity/contacts). The dates all coordinate, and he could still do karate and weight training for football. Cross your fingers – it may all work out!</p>
<p>This is a good way not to worry about the Trials and Travails of FA and the Waiting Game for DS1. DS2 will take a different road, but it promises to be a very interesting one!</p>
<p>Countingdown, the same “moving on” is going on in our household. S, on spring break, is in a state of bliss about a summer job (paid), short internship (not paid), and other exciting things too specific to mention–all the direct or indirect result of a brief summer internship last year that has branched and blossomed until he can hardly contain the joy. We are trying to decide whether it’s worth it to prowl consignment shops for a vintage tux for prom or just go with the crappy and expensive rent-a-tux. There will even be time for a family trip of his choice (to a national park, because those have been his favorite vacations). It takes my mind off wondering about that reachy reach school and letting my fantasies overtake reality–and his reality school is just great.</p>
<p>Alchemymom, you express all the reasons why I would have been a terrible homeschool mom–especially that all the stress is on you–but from your post it’s clear that you definitely were not. Don’t worry. It will be fine. And you’ll go back to remembering with justifiable pride the 13 years you invested.</p>
<p>Right now I am wondering if my S will call with excitement on his cell phone as he heads home from a lunch related to the job bliss described above. He usually does that. I am preparing myself for next year, when I imagine that I won’t get those “guess what just happened?” phone calls often, if at all. Sniff.</p>
<p>walks in Vigil lounge,</p>
<p>(((hugs))) Owlice who takes such good care of us…(((high fives))) to all with good news…(((hang in theres))) for those still waiting…</p>
<p>music selection for today:
<a href=“http://youtube.com/watch?v=EWXQ4DrqWNU&feature=related[/url]”>http://youtube.com/watch?v=EWXQ4DrqWNU&feature=related</a></p>
<p>The mailbox scene at our house Monday: Our road is undergoing a major construction project, so the mail truck came halfway down the road, saw the road was impassible, turned around, and left without delivering our or our neighbor’s mail that day. I guess the letter carrier figured what’s the harm in waiting a day to deliver the mail. . . . Of course, every other day the mail has been delivered, there’s been a big white envelope from some place other than a college my DS has applied to. I really think that out of consideration for all of the stressed out parents and students, businesses should avoid using big white envelopes in March and April, and mid-December too, I suppose. Then the rational side of me acknowledges that 8 out of the 10 decisions DS will be receiving will arrive online, so the US Postal Service is mostly a non-factor. Still, there’s something about the sight of the white mail truck coming down the road . . .</p>
<p>I am enjoying the quiet of my H & D being out of the country, alone with younger S. I have a diversion suggestion for those of you, like me, who are feeling college obsession at the moment (redundant for this thread). I have made hotel reservations at D’s current top choice (still waiting for the big reach schools and one hopeful match). I have researched thoroughly all of the parent info at the top choice, just so that I can start to feel excited about her going there, even though it’s a safety. What kills me about this whole thing is watching her work so incredibly hard in high school at not only academics but extra-curriculars, student govt, etc., only to be less than stellar - at least compared to the kids on this website. Fingers crossed that we all get happy news for our kids.</p>
<p>I checked the snowbanks too!!</p>
<p>I have sometimes regretted not homeschooling–no more! That level of stress would make me ill.</p>
<p>bethievt - I was telling S how I wished I homeschooled him. His sarcastic reply, “Yea, right.” He knows me well.</p>
<p>DadII - Congratulations on the great news!</p>
<p>Mountains</p>
<p>With 20/20 hindsight, I’d have homeschooled in grade 2. It was rough for DS. But I did spend a lot of time in his classroom and advocated every way I could. And he probably learned something— I certainly did!</p>
<p>My oldest daughter homeschooled. It seemed like the right choice for her, but now she is watching middle daughter and I think she is feeling very left out - no prom, no ‘graduation’, etc. We have a really strong home school community here though, and she did get some great opportunities.</p>
<p>My middle daughter, the one going off to college in the fall, is way too competitive to homeschool… she wants someone to beat!</p>
<p>OH BARF. I just talked with my son - NO MAIL today of import. NOTHING! We are waiting on CMU, Rochester, UM and Emory (which won’t be until next week). NOTHING! Even he was annoyed!</p>
<p>Can I ask an obsessing mom question here? DS’s first choice college mailed their decisions yesterday. He has a (local) friend who received his acceptance today. Our mailbox was empty. Does bad news come after the good or is this more likely a post office issue?</p>
<p>I feel ill :(</p>
<p>Oxyalum, at this point I’d go with the post office theory. Wait until tomorrow, and it’ll be there. (Yes, I know how long it is from one mail delivery to the next . . . do I ever!) ;-)</p>
<p>We have had good news today, which completely makes up for yesterday’s bummer. D is in at GW, which is a better fit for her interests than the place that rejected her yesterday. (their loss!)</p>
<p>Knitmom, many thanks for your reply. Today is my birthday and we were hoping for good news for DS (who was dx with mono today!) and a big celebration. I hope it is a PO thing. It does feel like an eternity until tomorrow’s mail.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter!!</p>
<p>Thanks! And happy birthday!!</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the mono–while there IS no good time for that, now is not a good time for that! Hope he feels better soon.</p>
<p>knitmom, my D got into GW too, which is a good match for her. It is a relief to have somewhere she could be happy, now we are waiting on the more reach schools. I just want to know how many trips I am going to have to plan in April for visits.</p>
<p>::carries in birthday cake that owlice had ready and waiting::</p>
<p>Happy Birthday, dear oxyalum! Happy Birthday to you!</p>
<p>::retreats back to glum mail-less day::</p>