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The first quarter of 2012 is almost over.

And we’re just now getting to the point where we feel like human beings around here, after prolonged and repeated bouts of illness. So far, 2012 has been pretty much a washout.

Today the Littles and I tried to ease back into schooling. We’re wrapping up the end of a week we started months ago, interrupted by the beginning of “the plague.”

This is Week 17 of our curriculum. If we manage to complete Week 18 next week, we will reach The Halfway Point.

If the first half of the school year took us seven months, that doesn’t bode well for our end date.

Of course, the freedom to take the time off is one of the important benefits of homeschooling. As is the freedom to take as long as we’d like to finish this “year” of curriculum, thank you very much.

But, for me, I would like to finish this year at some reasonable time, enjoy swim lessons and summer fun, and be able to start fresh on a new school year after Labor Day.

Which brings us to the realm of choices. The kind that, while appearing simple, require some real thought about philosophies and priorities.

Say my goal is to get through 1.5 weeks of the scheduled schooling each week.

(A) Do I just do a little more school every day?

(B) Or do I leave some things out (more than what I might normally skip), so that we can get through more in the same amount of time?

Or is that a silly goal to begin with, and do I need to re-think my plan for starting next year in September?

It probably makes a difference to understand that my daughter is in 1st grade. We’re not really learning things daily in the “schooling” part of our day that are of drastic lasting import, nor anything that can’t easily be caught up when we see the topic again down the road.

Working my way up to that statement seems to have pretty well clarified how I actually feel about it, doesn’t it?

I guess CHOICE B (above) is probably the right choice for us.

This time.

“Worry” image from the Health Freedom Alliance, a website about which I know nothing further.

My washer broke down. Great.

It occurred to me that this might be a nudge, and/or an opportune time to take some more steps towards “Off the Grid” living.

So, I’ve been washing clothes in a 5-gallon bucket (I bought one from Lowe’s, since all the food-grade buckets in the house are in demand for bulk food storage!), and agitating with a plunger (a regular ol’ toilet plunger, new, and dedicated solely to this purpose).

It seems possibly adequate, although I’m not sure it will be possible to keep up with the volume of laundry we produce under these constraints.

My current “routine” (hardly routine when you’re starting out and experimenting, is it?) is to start a load in the evening, let it soak overnight, then hang it outside to dry first thing in the morning. Then start a second load, which soaks all day, and gets tossed in the dryer in the evening (still having the dryer makes that part easier).

I guess it would be easier, if it wasn’t for my big problem – water removal.

You see, the “routine” above leaves out several cycles of draining the water out – after the wash, after the rinse (or two)… And each time trying to squeeze the water out of the clothes.

Wringing by hand is both difficult physically, and problematic. You just can’t wring most things to any reasonable degree of dryness. And in the case of many fabrics (like knits), you can damage your clothing by trying.

So it looks like rather than spending some $200 to buy a part for the washing machine (which of course will probably break again in a couple of years), we’re going to invest it in a wringer (which is likely to last neigh on forever).

This method of laundry-doing is no-kidding hard physical labor, though. Whew!

I feel like the Antonio Banderas character in 13th Warrior. The Vikings give him a massive sword, and when he complains that he can’t even lift it, their answer is simply,

Then get stronger!

Yes, Lord.

In many ways.