Well, I see by my Facebook feed that I missed
Grandparents' Day once again. I can
never seem to remember that holiday.
Maybe because it wasn't one I grew up with. I'm not sure when the card makers decided
that was an actual day. Sorry, Mom and
Dad! You really are appreciated and
quite important to my crew - even if you didn't get a card that says so!
Tomorrow marks the two week point of the school
year. They asked parents to not drop
into the classrooms until after that point.
I don't really have any plans to do that, anyway. It will also be the first late start
Monday. The school district is still
trying to figure out what they want to do.
Since Ben started school 5 years ago, they've had early outs, no school
at all on Mondays during the winter months, and now they're trying two hour
late starts on Mondays. Wonder what it
will be next year? But at least I won't
have to get up quite so early tomorrow.
Neither will the kids.
We are all struggling with fatigue, I believe. I know I am.
Mine is further compounded by the fact that it's allergy season and in
order to function at all I have to take sleep-inducing allergy drugs pretty
much around the clock. Don't tell
me about the wonders of Zyrtec. I can
only take that in the beginning of the hayfever season. The further we get into it, the less
effective it becomes. And while it is
marketed as "non-drowsy," it is not.
I know.
I've just been so weary, though, and I think it's
probably deeper than having to get up early and rush the kids to a 7 am bus
pick-up. It's emotional.
I'm still struggling with the whole not-homeschooling
thing. People have been very encouraging
to me about this and I am appreciative of that.
But, I feel like a failure. I
feel like I should be able to continue to do what I've done for so long. I know the kids are not getting as good of an
education and I know they are being exposed to things that are wrong.
I want to do it all!
I want the kids to have the best of me and to turn out wonderfully and
to never encounter bullies or classroom boredom or all kind of other
stuff.
But I can't. It
just isn't in me anymore.
The kids are so tired.
I am seeing behaviors in Lizzie I haven't had to deal with for quite
awhile. I'm still playing around with
their bedtimes. But I hate having to put
them to bed so early at night because they are gone for 9 hours a day. That's 9 hours I don't get to influence their
little lives. And then if they go to bed by 8 so they can get the sleep they
need, that gives me exactly 4 hours a day to shape their characters and the
course of their entire lives.
No pressure.
It's also 9 hours I get a break. I'm not doubting the value of that, either.
Sam was very bothered the other day when he had to take a
quiz and the question had to do with when dinosaurs roamed the earth. He told me he knew the right answer
was, "6000 years" but the quiz only allowed him to choose one of four
wrong answers, all of which involved billions of years. It about killed his little conscience to have
to put down the answer the teacher wanted to hear.
I hate that.
However, it's real life, unless you are able to live a
pretty isolated existence. You have to
pick your battles with the world.
He also seemed to struggle for a few days with math,
which is Common Core and not what he is used to. It seems to be coming along better. After all, numbers are numbers. Common Core is just a different way of
teaching them and he's figuring it out.
Lizzie reports that everything is fine at school. When I ask her if she is making friends, she
says that she is. But she's
struggling. I am appreciative that the
school gives the kids 3 recesses a day - over an hour of outside play. But she is losing some of that time because
she says she has to stay inside and finish her writing. I haven't heard anything from the teacher yet
so I don't think it's a real huge problem yet.
I also know Lizzie and I know she doesn't like to spend any time on
things she is not interested in.
Handwriting has never been something that excites her and when I
homeschooled her, her writing was barely legible because she was in a hurry to
get it done.
I was talking to my pastor's wife this weekend and she
commented that it always took her kids about 6 weeks to get back into the
groove of school after summer vacation.
So, maybe it's just going to take more time. It's only been 2 weeks.
Ellie, on the other hand, is loving everything about
preschool! Every day she comes home with
stories. Last Thursday one of her
classmates had a diarrhea accident and she talked about that all the way
home.
Of course.
There is a little girl in the class named,
"Awna" which is kind of unusual.
But it sounds a lot like "Ana" from "Frozen." Ellie has that twisted up in her mind to the
point that she nows refers to this little girls as, "Elsa."
And Ben, of course, has slipped right back into the
groove of high school although he is fretting more and more about next year and
already missing the school, I think. I
told him he's going to miss out on today's enjoyment if he constantly borrows
trouble from tomorrow. I should probably
remind myself of that more often, too, huh?
Last week the classes had their elections and Ben's
senior classmates decided they wanted Ben to have a position. So they created one for him - "officer
at large." This is primarily
honorary, but when they have their meetings Ben will attend and fill in for
anyone missing. He was so tickled and I
about cried over the kindness of those fellow teenagers.
Ben was telling me about it (I had to text his teacher to
get clarification) and he said, matter-of-factly, "It's just because I'm
so popular, Mom." That made me
smile.
******************************
The other night at church Ellie approached a 60+ year old
friend of mine and asked her about her cold sore on her lip. My friend replied, "Oh, it's just a
little sore I get sometimes." Ellie
replied, sympathetically, "Because you're old?" It's a good thing my friend has a sense of
humor!
**********************************
Monday Morning
Ok, so I might actually like this late start Monday
thing. All of us snagged extra sleep
this morning. I didn't feed the kids
breakfast because they were actually awake enough in able to manage to do it
themselves. And there was even time for
them to get a start on their after-school chores before the bus arrived.
I went to Ladies Retreat this weekend. It had been several years since my last time
there. I did not realize how much I
needed that time away until I was there.
The speaker was a college professor from Summit University (formerly
Baptist Bible College in PA). She
coached basketball for 20 years and kind of loped up to the podium. I wasn't sure if I was going to get much out
of her at all.
She spoke on holiness.
But the way she did it made it seem, suddenly, accessible. And then, partway through the first session I
looked at her left hand and realized she wasn't wearing a wedding ring. That filled me with immense gladness, which
kind of surprised me. But I reasoned it
out later that this single, middle aged lady up on stage was radiant with the
goodness of God and a close walk with him...and she didn't have a husband.
Kathy and I were both shocked when we ran into each other
that first day. We had just been
together 2 weeks earlier but apparently,
it never occurred to either one of us to ask the other if they were planning to
attend this year! I had a chance to talk
with her pastor's wife who approached me and told me their entire Sioux City
church has been praying for me since Paul's death. She seemed to know all about my kids and
said, "Thank you...for doing what you are." I'm not quite sure what she meant - maybe,
thank you for not falling apart? For
doing what needs to be done? Not sure.
I was going to go to an optional session on Sat. morning
but my friend, Jenny, and I got into an intense, sweet conversation in the
basement of Jensen instead. I think that
was more beneficial.
Arien and her sister rode with us because they were
working the retreat. When Kathy found out Arien was there, she told me
she had to meet this girl who has stolen Will's heart. I introduced them and we talked for a little
bit on Saturday. As Kathy and I walked
away, she said, "She was homeschooled, right?" I affirmed that and she said, "Yeah, I
could kind of tell. She just seemed so
comfortable talking with me." I
told her I'll try to snag her an invite to the wedding. Not an announcement...just looking ahead to
Someday!
Marcia and I listened to the end of the Hawkeye game on
our way home. She is a huge Iowa Hawkeye
football fan. It was an exciting game
and she was whooping it up in the van.
We were just trying to get past Ames before the game ended and we'd
encounter all the game traffic. We made
it.
Jonathan had spent Friday and Saturday at my house so he
could help David watch Sam and Ellie (Lizzie ended up spending the weekend with
my friend, Deb). So, Arien and her
sister followed me out to my house to retrieve him.
I fed them supper and they saw I had a sink full of dirty
dishes and before I knew it, those two girls had done them up, wiped down my
counters, and swept the floor. Will got
home from work during the time and I'm sure he was happy to see who was in the
kitchen! But they didn't leave until
after 10 - which was totally fine. And I
got to wake up to a clean kitchen, which was wonderful.
Monday aft.
I'm not getting much done today. I did take David to a new chiropractor, which
is going to cost me. It's very hard to
find any chiropractic care with his state health insurance. He's been complaining of neck and back pain
for months now so I figured I had better get it checked out. I wanted to go somewhere other than just a
bone cracker, like I see. I had heard
good things about this particular chiropractic dr. in Altoona, so I took him. This lady was very thorough and asked all
kinds of questions and even did xrays.
She thinks David's stress levels have definitely been a contributing
factor, but announced that he does have scoliosis, which alarmed me. However, it's not severe and she thinks she
can take care of it through chiropractic care.
She said if the curvature was worse, she'd definitely send us to a
regular dr, though. She also said his
rapid growth that occurred between his 14th and 15th birthdays could have
messed with his spine as well. His range
of motion is not what it should be and she said he's just not moving like a
normal 16 year old.
She needs some time to analyze all the data and xrays she
took today and then we go see her in a week to discuss a treatment plan. I'm hoping it's not too involved, given the
insurance situation. However, I want to
see him healthy, as well.
**********************************
Well, I think that's all I know.
Arien called me today while I was driving home, bubbling
over with excitement that she just landed a full-time job. It sounds like an ideal situation and I am
thrilled for her. It just seems like God
is opening up doors left and right for Will and her - doors that will
eventually merge into one, I presume.
Ok, so THAT is all I know. Tomorrow I have to get ready for a city
council meeting, Wed, I have to take David back to the chiropractor for an
adjustment and then I have to write an article for an on-line publication that
is due by Sunday. Thursday I am devoting
to writing the RBP article that's been hanging over my head for weeks and is
due in early Oct. Still don't know what
I'm going to write for either article yet!
I'll be back...sometime.
.
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