New Normal Report.

It seems a little hectic some days, but I think the new normal is okay.  Over the years, we have had so many changes and so many new normals and a lot of them have not been the best, but me going to work has been okay.  I'm only working about 12 hours a week right now and that helps.  It's helping me ease into going outside the home to work, which I haven't done for many years.  I'm getting to know the people and so far, everyone seems really nice.  I got a welcome email and phone call from one of the other transcriptionists who is in my department but in another building.  I thought that was very nice.  Today was Halloween, of course, and a lot of people in the hospital dressed up and the hospital gave us a free lunch and some small free gifts which was fun.  I actually had a pretty good time at work today, though I'm still learning the job and that's a little hard.  It's good.  I think it's going to be a good fit for me.  I hope.

I got my rheumatologist to write me a note to try and help me get a better parking space a little closer to the building, but I am not sure, now, if I want to.  The walking will be good for most of me, only bad for my knees ... so I'm torn whether to turn it in or not, or just keep walking.

Other things that have changed in our world this year are that my husband's brother and my brother both got engaged and his brother is married and mine will be soon.  Kind of exciting~!   We love both of the new family members, so that's good!

Sweater

My daughter finished knitting her sweater this week. 

History Test!!!

This is a victory for a student with a really good knowledge of history, but a difficulty with expressive written language.  It says "Great results on the objective questions - Well expressed, solid essays." 

Note that one of the people he was asked to write about was Clovis, ruler of Gaul and go back for a blast from the past and read this blog post.  

Trying to settle in.

I'm trying to settle into my new normal as a working outside the home person and not only outside the home, but a 45-minute drive and, it turns out, then a 15-20 minute walk from home.  As you may remember, a year or so ago, I turned down a job stocking the bread at walmart because I couldn't do all the walking and standing, and looked instead for a sedentary job.  I found one, but the parking garage is 3 1/2 blocks away.  To some people, I know that seems like nothing, but to me with my osteoarthritis, it seems like a long way.  I can do it.  I did it yesterday and yes, it hurt my knees, but then the rest of the day I'm sitting, so I don't know ... it might be a good thing.  If I decide it is too much or if I just want to save that time everyday, I can probably get a note from my rheumatologist that would allow me to park in one of the closer parking garages.  I've been doing orientation and going through computer training modules, getting a tour, meeting everyone, looking over the types of reports I will be doing and studying computer manuals (a little) but I don't have a log-in ID yet so I can't log in and start actually doing the work.  I was supposed to get to log in yesterday and start, but the ID didn't come through so I got today off.   Today I'll find out my schedule for next week.  I did learn yesterday that this department of the hospital is closed on holidays, so bonus!   I think I'm going to mostly like the job.  There are going to be difficult things to type like autopsies but I have done those before, so I guess I'll be able to do it.  We haven't eaten quite as well this week or had as clean of a house as usual, but it's fine.

Youngest son is continuing to do well in school.  He had a history test this week and knew it would take a long time, so he went to his writing professor and told him that he would be late for writing class due to his ADA accomodations and the other class going over, so he wouldn't be counted as tardy.  It's manageable with the accomodations but he does have to let the professors know about things like this.  He's doing what he needs to do and it's great.

Daughter is still working at the preschool and doing well with it.  She has more hours than last year, but seems to be managing it fine.  The other day she and the children walked into their other building and there was a snake under the art table.  She handled it well, getting all the kids back outside and calling building maintenance.   Adulthood!  She's working on her stern voices that she needs to use sometimes and is doing well with that.  She still works on writing her book, crocheting and knitting and doing art in her spare time that's not taken up with work and playing Dungeons and Dragons which she and her younger brother do a couple of times a week.

Oldest son and his wife are still working at Amazon.  The mostly like it.  Daughter-in-law has been having some trouble with her shoulder and may have to change to a different job.  They are tougher than me, for sure, standing on their feet for 10 hours at a time.

My husband still works with software at the same place he's been for a while.  I think he's relatively happy there.  We've finally got enough vehicles going all at once so that everyone can get to where they need to be each day, but I'm not happy, getting stuck with the one that no one else wants to drive and seriously regretting that I ever learned to drive a stick shift.  :-P

Anyway, that's what's going on with us now.  I'll look on my phone and see if I have any good pictures to share for this week.   Now that we're not homeschooling, this blog is about our lives with a little bit of post-homeschooling/disablity/college stuff thrown in.  I appreciate that some of you are still reading.  Over the years, I have enjoyed going back and looking at the blog to see when our family did what and enjoying the memories, so even if no one reads, I'll probably still blog for us.

Have a great day everyone!

Remus got a haircut this week and looks like a different dog.  He's learning to deal with the paparazzi here at our house, taking pictures of him every day.  :-) 

Cosmo is used to the paparazzi at this point and bored with it.  Hey, trying to take a nap here.  

Freckles sometimes adopts dramatic poses in the hopes that someone will take her picture.  We always fall for it.

I took this sunset shot through the window of the place the kids were playing Dungeons and Dragons the other night.  I had forgotten my book and was bored, but isn't it pretty?  

I won some gaming dice in a contest on Facebook.  Aren't they pretty?  

Keeping busy and another new normal.

I start my new job this week, working 4 days.   I'll have orientation and then 3 days of working.  I'm a little bit terrified.  It's been a while since I have worked outside the home, 9 years ago when I started working at the local hospital and had such problems with the chair and the computer program that they had.  I'm coming off of a year and a half of unemployment, a couple of failed new job attempts and I'm more humble and prepared to like it no matter what because I don't want to have to job hunt again.  Ever.  It kind of reminds me of the Winnie-The-Pooh story about how they are going to take Tigger into the woods and bring him back as a humble Tigger, a sorry Tigger and hopefully a less bouncy Tigger.  It didn't work on Tigger, but it worked on me.  I am prepared to like this job and do it no matter what. 

So anyway, we're moving into a new normal with me working.  I won't be home to wake up my college-aged son and though he sets alarms, he still needs someone to nudge him in the morning.  I guess his sister will have to pick up her old role of little mama and do it, at least this week.  I think once I get going in this job I will be working later in the afternoon, so it possibly won't be an issue after this week. 

Another part of the new normal, which is a good thing, really is that the younger kids social lives are expanding.  They are playing games and Dungeons and Dragons 2 nights a week and going to art classes another night of the week and often going back to the game store for pickup games or just to socialize at other times.  It's good for them.  It's a little hard for the 2 helicopter parents (who are trying hard not to hover) but we're doing okay.  :-P 

Doing better.

Youngest son is doing better and better in school.  He's taking less time to write things and writing well when he does write.  His history quizzes, which are essays, have needed less and less editing from me, just 2 commas and a semicolon on the last one and he's getting 19 and 20 out of 20 on a regular basis now.  He's got about half of his first paper written for writing 101 and it didn't take him but a couple of hours, whereas the first things he wrote took many, many hours and needed a ton of editing from me and his sister.  I'm thrilled by his progress.  He shows me a lot of his writing when he gets it back with the grades because he knows how happy it makes me.  The most recent history quiz/essay was 20 out of 20 and said "Good job!" on it.  You all know how much I worried when he was little and wouldn't even draw and hated coloring and then didn't learn to read until he was 10 and always, always hated writing, but maturity is working for him.  I'm glad we didn't sacrifice our relationship to trying to have him conform to others expectations of when he should do things.  He did it in his own good time.

If you have a little one who is struggling with any skill. lagging behind his peers, tell him or her about my son and read him or her this book.  Leo the Late Bloomer

A concert!

We went to a concert and variety show for youngest son's college last night.  It was very good. There's a lot of talent in the group.  I especially enjoyed the choir parts when my son was singing, but I enjoyed the other parts too, mostly.  There was at least one singer that I just sat and hoped would be finished soon.  That's how it is, though, isn't it?  During the in-between times, when no one was singing, they gave away door prizes.  Most of them were things like candles or T shirts, but my daughter-in-law won some Disney Princess stickers and my husband hit the jackpot with a bookstore gift card and some Godiva chocolates.  :-)  Anyway, it was a fun, family time.  It's interesting for us, having been homeschoolers, to start participating in these kind of school/family events that we've been out of for so, so long. 

History Test #2.

This is for youngest son (who was 6 years old when I started this blog and is now in college!).  He has dyslexia/dysgraphia and got a 92 with "solid essays" on his history test!  He has a chance to do a 6 point extra credit and he's going to do that too, to bring his average up a little bit.