And Now It's Going too Fast!

It's the 21st already!    We aren't celebrating officially this year until the 27th, but still!   It just always goes so very, very quickly and I never feel ready.  I think I'm going to have to be one of those people who puts the tree up and starts listening to Christmas music on the day after Halloween.   Or I'll plan to, then procrastinate it and get busy and really actually get the tree up the week before Thanksgiving and give myself an extra week.  That sounds like a plan. 

I hope if anyone is reading this, they are doing well.  I wish you a happy holiday season.   We are doing okay.  We've almost gotten through 2020.    I guess maybe I could do some updates.

Oldest son is doing good in his new job, having changed jobs several times during 2020 because of the pandemic.  

Daughter-in-law is doing well in her master's program.

Husband still working at same job, on a slightly different team, but working at home completely since March.

I passed my coding exam and have to have knee surgery (blah) and we'll see what 2021 brings.  I want it to bring increased mobility, weight loss and a good job.

Daughter did not pass coding.  I think it was just too much without having a medical background.  They should not sell the classes to newbies in my opinion, but I guess they just want their money.  :-(   She's going to re-group and come up with another idea.  She didn't really like coding.   She's good at pretty much everything she tries so I'm sure she'll find something.

Youngest son is still doing well at his job as a temp for the company I also work for and hopefully will get officially hired by the company soon.  He has plans to buy a car, then a house.  

Dogs 1 and 2, Cosmo and Freddie, are still settling after the new addition of Freddie a couple of months ago.  Still kind of stressed but hopeful will settle in soon.

Cats, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Zelda, Zoey, Duncan, Squinch, and Mr. Miller doing well, fat and happy, tormenting the dogs when they get a chance.  

We're looking forward to the holidays, eating, visiting and hanging out together.  

  

The Christmas Season is beginning!

 Christmas season is upon us.  We had a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving at home, but we missed getting together with our extended family.  We haven't seen anyone since last month.  Thankfully, we got out a tiny bit back then to go to birthday parties and stand in driveways outside and talk.  I think it was possibly the only time this year we've seen some of them.  

With just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving, we cooked our own feast and just had what we wanted. We roasted a chicken, made dressing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, green beans, gravy, rolls and pies, pies, pies.   It was great and we are still eating some of it, several days later. 

I blog so seldom lately that I can't keep up with what I've put on here.   Did I mention that we adopted a new dog?   He apparently needed my daughter (He really did.) and he has now joined our family. His name is Frederick Von Spookington a.k.a. Freddie, which is a nod to Freckie.   He's young and he's learning and he's big enough to get on his hind legs and get things off the countertop.  His adoption necessitated us installing barn doors between our kitchen and living room.  This has been wonderful.   It has cut down on noise between the two rooms and with the 4 of us and 2 dogs stuck here at home all the time, it helps to have 2 kind of separate living spaces.  It also helps keep the dog out of the kitchen sink which is very important to us all.   

Back to thoughts of the Christmas season, I've uncharacteristically gotten some of my Christmas shopping done already.  It just has been such a year, I think we all need it to get in the Christmas spirit to try and keep our spirits up.   My latest thing, after this year of trying to do different jobs and cover for others and work all the time, is now working at home, which I will be doing for the next while.  I miss my co-workers and am more distracted at home, but it's okay I guess.  This week I'm glad to be protected from getting the virus as I prepare to take my coding test next weekend.  (big sigh).  I'm praying my daughter and I both pass the darn thing this time.  I don't know what we will do if we don't.  I don't know if I'll have a job after February if I'm not a coder.  

We've done okay through the pandemic and I hope you have too.  Keep your spirits up.  I believe it will eventually be over.  

Mid November Already.

 I can't believe it.  I know it's been a weird year, but for our family,  it hasn't been an awful year.  We've been very fortunate in some ways.  Life has gone on.  There have been some positives.  We still have our jobs (at the moment anyway).  Youngest son got his job and he likes it.  Oldest son switched jobs and (I think) likes it better. (I'll have to ask him next time he calls which I hope is today!).  The weather has been okay.  We've gotten some improvements done on the house.  We got the bedroom flooring done.  We got new shutters.   A few small things here and there are adding up.   I've lost a tiny bit of weight, but it's better than gaining a ton, which is my norm.   My daughter has 3 commissioned art pieces to do for Christmas.   Oldest son and daughter-in-law might be able to come here for Christmas.   They both work at home, so they're pretty much quarantining all the time.   I might get to start working at home too, maybe next week.  I'm trying not to be too excited about it because it might not happen and if it does happen, it might not last long.  The 2 ladies who currently work the front desk are pretty fragile and I may be asked to step in there again.  We're getting to go back to church again, with stringent precautions of course, but getting to go feels good.   In working all these hours I haven't wanted to work, I've saved up a pretty decent little nest egg.  Not wealth, but nice to have a little saved.   It's a good thing too, because our heat pump has quit working and is going to need to be replaced.   

When you watch the news, it's hard to stay hopeful, but it helps to just make a list of things that are going well lately, things that worked out, things that you can be happy about.   

I'm getting excited about Christmas a little bit and planning ways that we can make the holidays fun even if we can't get out and do things or see extended family.   

Now if we can just past that darn coding exam!  Attempt 2, here we come!   

Okay, starting again.

 I'm trying to make a study schedule, trying to deal with working all the time and figure out what to do.  We've applied for my daughter to get a longer testing time due to daily migraines so we have to wait on that to schedule the next test.  I am the most impatient person in the world, so all this waiting around is about to kill me, but I'm doing it.   It's frustrating, but it's not the worst thing ever and I need to remember that.   I'm trying to enjoy fall and keep a good attitude and for the most part, I'm succeeding.  Youngest son got hired as a temp for the company I work for and he's working nights, so I go and stay there from 8-4:30 days and he goes from 8:30 to 5, nights.   We work in different locations in the same city but at the same company.  It's good for him to get out there and finally start living his life.  COVID really through a wrench in his trying to launch.  He got laid off from his other job in February and then in March, the world basically shut down.  Hospitals always need people though, so now he's got a pretty decent job, can save some money and get started on what he wants to do in the future, which is real estate investing.   

Happy fall, ya'll. 

Okay, trying to get the courage to start again.

 Both of us failed our coding exams.  It's pass-fail, it's not like there's a grade.  It would be easier to say I got a "C", but if you miss it by one point, it's a fail.  I literally missed it by one point.   So now, we have to schedule the test, make a study schedule and try again.   Please pray we pass it.   It's excruciating.  

In other news, we're still in limbo, it feels like, because of the stupid coronavirus.   We're getting out and doing a few things but being cautious.  I have been out now and had dinner with friends.  The young adults are getting out and seeing their friends at a park or something a couple of times a month.  As I said above, the coding quest is not going well and the job hunt for my son is not going well either.   He hurt his back when we were on vacation and that is limiting his prospects for jobs, since he is reluctant to do warehouse jobs and that seems to be all that there is out there right now.   

I'm still working a lot more than I want because my co-worker is still out with a broken leg and the person we hired to fill in for her just found out that she also has a broken leg (Friday afternoon) and has been walking around on it for 3 weeks.   I have no idea what that's going to mean for my work schedule, but it doesn't sound good, does it?  

I am angry at the virus and what I feel might be an over-response to it by the government (I really don't know) but it is freeing a lot of kids from the public school system and that's going to be really good, life changingly good for some of them, the ones that don't fit in, the bullied, the outcasts.  I am trying to be patient with all of the restrictions in my life, for those kids.  For some of them, this might be the best thing that ever happened to them.   

It's over.

 I don't know if we passed our failed and won't know for a couple of weeks, but my daughter and I sat for our first examination in medical coding.   It was brutal but we survived.  Now no more studying before work, on the way to work, (at work) and after work.  I'm taking a break to reconnect and rediscover who I am as a person.   I'm going to read some books, play some games and relax for a bit.   

I recently listened to this Podcast called "Rest is More than Sleep.  What kind of tired are you?" and I feel like I'm all the kinds of tired.   I know all of us are tired of COVID, tired of the media crap show, tired of protests and social unrest, tired of election stuff, just tired.  Try and take care of yourselves readers.  Go outside with  your kids, explore nature, go for long walks, try and enjoy the last bit of summer.   Take it easy on yourself.    That's what I'm going to try to do.  

This week.

 My test is this week.  I am, of course, also scheduled to work 40 hours this week and with driving, that means I'm gone around 50  hours from home.  I'm going to try and study as much as I can, but I don't know how much good it will do.  I just spent the weekend studying and testing and I barely tested, one of the times, at 70% and that was on a test that I had had before and had studied the answers.  I'm just really bad at coding.  This whole thing may just be a lesson on how to deal with failure.  Oh well.  At least, one way or the other, I'll be done with it. 

Pray I make it through the week without any meltdowns.  After this, I will write a bit about what we're doing otherwise, and how we're getting through 2020.   It's already more than halfway through August!  

Struggling!

I'm studying for coding every single day that I don't have to work, 7 days a week.  I do not enjoy it.  I'm also, now, getting up early and coding before work.  Right at this moment, it's 6:20 a.m. and I'm taking a mental health break from coding to write this blog post.   It's hard.   It's just a struggle.   I don't think I'm going to pass the test.  I don't think there is any possibility that I'll pass it.   I am frustrated with them taking my money for extensions and memberships and I feel like it's a racket.  I wish there was an apprenticeship for coding. That is something I could get behind.  This studying a poorly written chapter, watching a poorly executed computerized lecture and then answering oddly specific tricky questions on an exam is not my cup of tea.  I just got docked on an exam for not knowing, off the top of my head, without looking it up or ever being presented with the information, that an Oxinium knee replacement is made of oxidized zirconium and is a metallic alloy with a ceramic surface.   I'm not kidding.  God, how I wish I was. 

It's awful. 

I hope everyone else is having a nicer summer than I am.  The rest of my family is still pretty much quarantined and I've had about as much COVID as I can take.  I want the test to be over and I want COVID to be over. 

I'm weary. 

Getting back into a routine.

I'm back at work and working 2-3 days a week.   It's nice not to have to work all the time, but I do struggle a bit with it, because every day I'm not there, I know I need to do coding.  The test is looming and I need to actually learn to code.  So far, in this course I've been doing for 8 months, I feel that I have learned very little.  It is a very poorly designed course.  I hate it.  I know that my learning style does not mesh with their "teaching" style (if you can call it that).   I pray that I will pass the test just so I can be free from it, because if I don't pass, I will feel like I have to study some more and do a second attempt.  I've already paid for a second attempt, actually, it came with th package.   So there you go.  I'm praying I'll be able to pass and be freed from the all the time either studying or feeling guilty for not studying.

This was a good weekend.  Our son called and we got to talk to him a bit.  I met a friend at a picnic pavilion and sat and talked for 4 hours!   I finished the next-to-last chapter of stupid busywork that doesn't really teach me coding and printed out the last chapter which is only a few pages.  So the end is in sight.   I got some time outside with the cats this weekend and was mosquito-free, thanks to some new mosquito traps that we bought (on the recommendation of our Mississippi daughter-in-law).   We ordered takeout for father's day and enjoyed it together last night.  That was great! 

I'm still missing Freckles quite a bit, so there's that and I did feel a bit crabby towards the end of the weekend, but I think most of that is because I'm on the early morning shift on Mondays now and have to get up at 4:30.   Blah.    I'll need to listen to praise music and cheer myself up on the way to work, that's for sure. 

Happy Monday! 

Still alive!

I had some kind of weird, weird virus and a UTI and have felt so, so bad the last few days.  I had a fever of 100-101 for 4 days, sweating the whole time, but it has finally subsided.  Thank goodness.  I still feel bad and weak, but the fever is gone and I've been cleared by employee health at my company to go back to work tomorrow.   (yay)   I'm so glad that's over.  My quarantine time of 48 hours alone in my bedroom while waiting for the test to be back has taught me some fear/respect for this virus and what it can do to your life so I'm not feeling anxious anymore to get back out there.  I'm sure my need to see people will be strong again soon and I'll get out there, but I tell you, it put the fear into me.  I'm going to appreciate being able to socialize with my 3 people, my dog and 6 cats here at home for a while! 

Quarantined!

I got up Wednesday feeling okay but then sometime during the day, things went downhill.  I started throwing up and I started having really bad muscle aches and pains.  I guess it's a muscle ache, I don't know.  My back hurts in a very strange way and sometimes my neck and sometimes my head.  My temperature ranges from 99.9 under my arm, to 100.7.   So, I had to call my job and let them know that I couldn't come into work and according to their protocols, I had to be Covid-19 tested and quarantine myself until I get the results back in 3-5 days.  So I'm in my bedroom.   All the time now.   I'm trying to stay sane by making a to-do list, even a small one, to feel like I'm accomplishing something.  My family brings me food and occasionally someone will come to the door and talk to me for a minute.   My sickness was ill-timed because it was my sons' birthday yesterday and he was going to have friends over, just a few, to celebrate.  I feel so bad about that.   No telling how long it will be before he gets to see his friends again now, especially if I have already spread this to my family.   So, fun times.

Another good homeschooling article / compliation.

This is people's true stories of homeschooling.  https://outwittrade.com/why-homeschool/   I haven't read it all yet, but what I have read is compelling. 

Life.

Life just marches on.  We're a 1 dog family now but we're doing okay, I guess.  My daughter and I got hit with a deadline on our medical coding course, which I guess is a good thing, or we'd just keep studying forever and never get done.  We have to finish by the end of August, so we've scheduled our test and we are studying in earnest, trying to get a basic understanding of coding, which is not easy.  The material is hard and the way that the course is set up is not good.  I hate the whole process but this is what I get to do, every day off of work, from now until August 22.  Joy.   Maybe at some point, I will get a better grasp on it and it won't be such a struggle.   At least at some point, it will be over.  I guess.  I don't know how many times I will attempt the test if I can't pass it on the 2 I've already paid for.  I may just decide to do something else entirely.   We'll see. 

My co-worker is back to work and I had my long-awaited 3 days off this week and I'm heading back to work today for 1 day, then the weekend!  Thank goodness.  I needed a break very badly. 

Freckles Marie

Freckles passed away yesterday.   It was not as gentle and uneventful as I had hoped.   Our vet was closed for the holiday weekend, so we had to drive her 45 minutes away to an emergency pet hospital.  She did sleep on my daughter's lap on the way there and my husband and I talked to her and loved on her as she went to sleep in the vet's office.  We're all pretty heartbroken, but there is a feeling of relief as well that she is not suffering.  She really went downhill fast over the weekend, getting so much worse from Sunday to Monday. 

I'd like to say she was a "good girl" as everyone says about their dogs but she rarely got called that.  I called her "crazy woman" or "Freckie"

most of the time.  When I'd say "who's a good girl?", I'd always say "we don't know any do we?"  Freckles was loving, on her terms.  She was the queen of the world with her own boundaries, her preferences.   We loved that little tiny bundle of attitude so very much.   I'll miss the way she would suprise me with a lick in the nostril and the way she'd fake snap when you'd lean in close to love on her.  I'll miss her little underbite and the way her tongue stuck out between her  snaggle teeth.  Her little bug eyes, barrel shaped body and teeny feet.   The way she'd sit outside and pine if both of us girls were gone someplace and she'd been left with only boys to take care of her and to let her in and out and in and out and in and out.   I miss how she snored with her little crooked nose.   

I don't know what we're going to do without her.   

Sadness.

We found out Friday that our little Freckles has a tumor near her spine that is inoperable by a normal vet.  Our vet gave us the number of a specialist, but said that he did not recommend treatment.  She had a tumor removed about a year and a half ago and had to spend 5 weeks in a crate.  That time, she was vigorous and healthy going into it, but this time, she's weak.  She's been losing weight, not eating much and throwing up frequently.   We're trying to give her a gentle time here at home, carryng her out to go potty and hand feeding her.  It's sad though and I can feel the weight of it on me 24 hours a day.  She doesn't seem to be in pain.  She lies around all the time but when you talk to her, she'll roll over for you to rub her tummy and she looks at us interestedly when we walk by and talk to her.  She does not seem to be suffering all the time.   I'm not sure what to do.  Prayers please. 

Soon!

Soon, we'll get to go to restaurants and have meals with other people, I assume.  I'm not sure how it will work if I have to be 6 feet away from the people I'm having dinner with, if they're not from my household?  I'm ready though.   This past week, my aunt commissioned my daughter to make some special art for her granddaughters and yesterday they came and met us in the driveway (at a safe distance) to pick it up.  On the way, they picked up another cousin and her daughter and granddaughter, so we got to see 5 people!!    It was great.  We stood in the driveway and talked for an hour.  I miss that kind of thing so much.   

I hope you all are doing well.  If you need a pick me  up, go watch all the episodes of John Krasinski's SOME GOOD NEWS on Youtube.  It's fantastic.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXdKrtmexWU    Get the tissues handy because there might be happy tears. 

Gearing Back Up.

At work, we're starting now to do outpatient procedures, so maybe, our workload will pick up.  I've been sorting and organizing and alphabetizing and cleaning things.  It's been crazy not-busy most days.  Monday is usually an exception, pretty busy.  Come what may, I'm going in 2 hours earlier today and working for 6 hours, not 4.   I'm not really very happy about it, because I have a UTI and feel like crap.  But that's life, right.  That's just how it works.   I'm hopeful that my husband and young adults will be able to leave the house soon or at least have people over.   It's been a crazy, crazy time.  Really, when you think about it, it's not that bad.   We just have to stay home more than usual and take more precautions when we do go out. 

Here are some pictures from home.

Cosmo turning his head to the side when you say "food?".  

Everything is getting so green and beautiful.  This is from the bottom of our driveway.   

My view from inside my car the other day.  Zelda did not want to get off of my car so I could go to work.  

A different, funnier view of Cosmo.  

A piece of art I made during drive in church the other day.

The masks my daughter made and donated to the nonprofit hospital system I work for.  They sent her a very nice thank you letter.    Some people out there are wearing some very fashionable masks.  :-)  

Great article on Homeschooling.

Life Learning Homeschool

Go and read it, her experiences remind me of our homeschool, but she's a better writer than I am. 

Hanging in Here.

It's not too bad, working shorter days, getting to be home more.  I have this overwhelming feeling that I should be accomplishing something really great with all the free time and this conflicts with my need to study for my coding class and my need to play the Sims4.  We've done some things to intentionally try and enjoy the time.  I'm sure in the future when my kids have moved out for good, that I will wish to repeat some of these days.   I'm trying to get outside every day, do some house chores every day,  do some studying every day and try to watch things on TV/Youtube that are uplifting and fun.  Last night, my daughter and I watched 13 Going on 30.  That's a really fun movie and it put me in a good mood for Monday.   Hopefully, work will go well.  I'm doing my co-workers job all the time now, but I do have hope that that will end maybe in a few weeks to a month.  We'll see, I guess.  I keep trying to predict the future all the time and, my daughter told me last night, I really need to just live in the present.   Wise words.   Our state is lifting some restrictions on medical procedures today and so things might pick back up and get back to normal soon.  I have hope, at least.  Anyway, here are some pictures from our current quarantine life.

Mr. Miller being cute.  

A squirrel visiting the 4th floor of the parking garage at work.

My daughter cleaned out her closet and dug out this piece of memorabilia.  This reminds me so much of my parents, who had a lot of fun collecting the quarters from every state for my kids.

Cosmo killed his toy and my daughter made this chalk outline and police tape photo of it.  So funny!  

Freckles got a new bed.  It has cats on it, but I don't think she cares. 

Okay.

I'm ready for the quarantining to be over.  It's crazy in my case because I have all that I need, I'm getting out to go to work 5 days a week, only working half days and getting paid for full days (of course, doing my co-workers job and not my own) so I should not be complaining, but I'm worried about everyone else.  We need to get the economy going again.  People need jobs.   My oldest son has been laid off from both his jobs.  My youngest son can't go back to his job as he had planned to do in April and hasn't been able to find anything else.   Our library is closed!  Restaurants!  Church!  I miss community.

Also, I think from what I've read we've flattened the curve and now our healthcare organizations are going to be able to handle the influx.   The number of patients at the healhcare organization I work at have been dropping.   We can still stay 6 feet apart and take precautions, but I think maybe we're ready for stage 1 of the reopening. 

But what do I know?

Signs of the times, I went to an 80th birthday parade yesterday, instead of a party.  It was fun.  And when I got home, we had new shutters! 

Happy Easter!

This is the first and hopefully only year we'll spend Easter in quarantine.  I intend to make the most of it and enjoy resting and spending time with my family.   I hope that you all have a wonderful, blessed day!  

Still here.

My hours at work have been cut to 4 hours, starting this week.   I seem to go in there and have 4 hours of frantic busy-ness and then come home.  Even though the transcription workload has dropped significantly and the phone hasn't been ringing hardly at all (thank goodness!), cases still need to be packed up and logged out and sent to other hospitals and received from other hospitals and logged in and refiled, which has been taking me large portions of each day.   Today, I already know 3 that I have to send out and UPS is not coming inside the hospital now, so I'll have to wait for their phone call and then take my package down 2 flights of stairs and outside.  And then I'll have to come back UP 2 flights of stairs.  My one already replaced knee and my other knee that needs to be replaced are already dreading it.  It's just one adjustment after another. 

While I am at home, I'm trying to savor the time.  I enjoyed seeing the super moon last night, watching old episodes of Monk, hanging out outside with the cats, etc.  It's not terrible to be quarantined with these people and these 7 pets.

An admittedly terrible photo of the supermoon last night.  I did enjoy looking at it and it looked fantastic to the eye, but like nothing at all to the camera on my phone.  

Duncan, inside of the stepstools we prefer to use rather than a pool ladder.  Getting ready to get the pool up soon!  

Mr. Miller.  He's such a sweetie.  I'm glad he found us.  

Some art I've been working on.

A wild turkey who decided to fly in front of me on my way to work yesterday.   Again, it looked really impressive in real life, but my camera makes everything seem so far away and I couldn't zoom while also driving, even though there was no one else out there driving with me.  

The Royal Game of Ur.

So my son watched a video from the British Museum on the Royal Game of Ur, a game from ancient times, like 5000 years ago, made a board and we played it last night. Once a homeschooler, always a homeschooler I guess. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZskjLq040I

Toilet Paper Anger.

I can't believe I'm even writing this post.  What a tragic situation to find ourselves in a pandemic.

I finally was able to buy toilet paper yesterday on my (or my husband's) 14th trip to a store.  We've also had trouble getting meat and milk and other necessities.   If it weren't for the hoarders, I could have ordered it through Click List or pickup, or had it delivered to my house.  If it weren't for the hoarders, I would have never had to go inside a store at all.  But my husband and I had to go out and buy it and it took 14 trips before we found any.  I don't have the virus yet, but I know I'm not the only one who had to go out who would ordinarily have sheltered in place quite happily at home.  Some of the people who will die of this horrible virus will die because of the actions of the hoarders.  I believe that.

Not sheltering in place.

As a health care worker, I still have to go to work.  It's crazy times right now and I am exhausted from hearing about it all and from trying to do my co-worker's job  (she's off for the duration at this point) and from trying to get out of the darn building with most of the entrances and exits closed.  But, I'm trying to keep my sense of humor.  My son took advantage of a huge sale of downloadable games and he and my daughter and husband spend the evening last night playing some kind of cooperative cooking video game.  It was pretty hilarious to watch and listen to their comments.  At one point, my husband's character picked up a fire extinguisher and carried it around for a while without knowing it, which was funny.  When my son told him to put it down and he said "what?"  It's not too bad having to spend time with these people.  :-)  

We didn't rush the stores and grab all the toilet paper so we'll be running out in a little over a week and that is a significant source of stress to me for some reason.  Also, we placed an online order for groceries and didn't get any meat.   Hopefully, we can solve both of those issues this weekend.   Please, people, don't hoard.   Some of us are out there working in hospitals and don't have time to wait at the store for toilet paper.  

Still working.

I'm working and I'm studying.  It doesn't leave much time for blogging or any of my hobbies.  I did get to go out with my cousin last weekend and do some shopping, just recreational shopping, not shopping-shopping.  :-)   We bought some food for our weird diets and then had a weird diet-compliant lunch out.  It was great. 

Youngest son has had the flu this week and the girl thought she was getting it too, but she just had a cold.  I'm still going to work at a hospital in the midst of this corona virus scare, but I'm just not thinking about it that much.  I don't have time to worry about that.  I'm just trying to survive my job at the intense level it is right now.  I'm trying also not to think about the future too much because I don't know if I will be able to pass the coding test and become a coder and I don't know what I want to do if I don't.  I don't really want to stay where I am because I don't want to be pulled over constantly to do my co-worker's job.  I had've already had to do it 3 days in the last 2 weeks and I'm going in today for a day of it and also tomorrow.  Then back to my regular job for Thursday and Friday.  I am not happy but I am going through the motions, hanging in there and waiting for things to change.  They always do.  If I do get to start coding, I might be able to work at home and I feel like that's what I want, though I will miss the people I work with now.  I like all of them and they have been good to me. 

Sigh.   It's always somethng.  I had such a great job and then I got put into a position of subbing for my coworkers job which I hate with my whole being and everything changed.   I also just found out from my supervisor that they're not going to hire anyone to help, just depend on me to work all the time.  I am going to have to put my foot down about that.  I need a break. 

Anyway, nothing about homeschooling here.  Sorry.  We're not doing that anymore.  I miss it.  I have found that all my vacation plans seem like good homeschool field trips, the museum, the sculpture garden, the other museum .. :-)



 

Another one.

What is the point of having transplant as an entry at all?  

My coding laugh for the day.

In case Mad Eye Moody's warning about carrying a magic wand in the back pocket of jeans ever comes true, I will know how to code the buttock reattachment, either right or left.

Keeping incredibly busy.

I'm working pretty much full time and doing my school work in the mornings.  It's keeping me going for many hours a day and I'm not, to be honest, really hanging in there with the housework or the hobbies or getting together with friends.  Yesterday at work, I realized that I needed to see people besides work people and texted all my cousins and some of us are getting together at work today.  Of course, I have people here in my home, but sometimes they're not the most chatty.  They're all involved in their own interests all the time.  Anyway, so today is Saturday and I have school work, lunch out, going to the grocery, laundry and dishes.  You can see how a lunch out is very important to break up the rest of the work, work, work, work.  :-P   I'm working hard and saving for retirement so that maybe someday when I get grandkids, I'll be able to spend time with them.   I don't regret for 1 minute pouring myself so fully into motherhood and neglecting my career, but the time is now to build it up and get some savings.    That studying though.   I'm not a big fan of the course I am taking.  It seems like it's set up in the worst possible way and maybe these people need to go and read How Children Learn by John Holt.  It's written for kids but it applies to adults too. 

This week marks the fourth anniversary of our board game group.   I'm no longer participating, but the kids and their friends are still going strong, meeting every Tuesday night.   I'm so glad I started that.  If you're a homeschool mom looking at this blog for homeschool advice, here are 2 things.  Read How Children Learn and be proactive for your kids socialization, take them out and let them meet other kids and do it regularly.  It's so easy to neglect that part.

Work again.

I am a p.r.n. employee, which means "as needed" apparently in Latin.  It is the same abbreviation they use to write prescriptions for medications to take as needed.   My minimum contracted hours is 4 hours a week.   The minimum that I ever work, however, is 16 hours a week.  That was my schedule in January, but now we have another transcriptionist who is going to have surgery, so I'm going to near full time from now until May 5 when she gets back.  With the coding classes I'm doing, it's likely to be pretty stressful.  The only way I'm consoling myself is thinking that the money will be good.  I am going to work a little later, study my coding in the morning every day before I go, do some make ahead and freeze freezer meals and try not to be too grouchy when I get home.  It's personal growth, right?

I'll share some pictures of what's been going on here.   When I looked at my phone for pictures I found mostly pet pictures.  The young adults have been doing a twice a day medicine regime for 2 pets with ear infections and 1 with an eye infection (Zoey has both an ear and eye infection.) So they're keeping busy with that, D&D, writing books, board games, job hunting and school.

Dog bed

My daughter made this adorable dog bed for her dog.  Of course, he would rather sleep in her bed.  He has been shunning it unless told to stay. 

And this was my weekend coding laugh.

It was in the causes of injuries section.

This is when I lost it yesterday ...

and started giggling.   This is the code description for when a patient is injured at home. 

Home, not otherwise specified.

Could we BE more complicated. 

Still working on it.

I'm still trying to get through my coursework.  I'm still not enjoying it very much, but I'll live.   I'm trying to have a lot of discipline and get a lot of it done, but yesterday and today, not so much.  It's hard to be disciplined every day of the week, so I have been taking some days, well, not off, but only working lightly.  Yesterday, for example, I just read part of a chapter and did 3 chapter exercises.  Today and tomorrow, I'm planning to finish chapter 6 and get a good solid start on chapter 7.  Whew, it is very hard to teach an old dog new tricks.  Meanwhile, everything else is getting put off until my daughter and I can finish this course and take our test.  The home remodeling, day trips, all kinds of things are waiting until we get done.  It's frustrating because I really want the home remodel done.   My husband has agreed to 2 one major home project done each year (which is better than none, I guess) but we have 3 more rooms to go and I am so ready to just get it done, done, done. 

Cosmo is not an old dog and he's learning new tricks all the time.  This is him trying to get me to play patty cake (pat a cake?) with him because he knows if I do, he'll get a treat.  

Finishing chapter 5.

I finished chapter 5 of my coding course the other day (I should be further along, but that's a post for another day).  While I was taking the 2-hour timed exam with lots of practical coding that I had to do (no quick answers), our internet went down for about 15 minutes, twice.  I was a little worried that I was going to need my second attempt and that maybe I didn't know the material well enough and having to also deal with the internet being down was about all I could take.  I yelled into the other room for my family to pray for me and maybe reset the router ...   My husband reset the router and it eventually worked, but while I was still waiting, my daughter walked into the room and silently laid 3 mini Snickers bars on my desk.  Ah chocolate, the help in my distress.

:-) 

Yes, I'm very dramatic this morning, but it's been that kind of week. 

Moving on to January.

Yesterday was Epiphany, also known as 3 kings day and the official end of the 12 days of Christmas.  So yesterday, the kids finally started taking the Christmas decorations down.  The whole house was decked out, so it still isn't quite done this morning, but it's mostly there.  We don't usually celebrate Epiphany but youngest son, because he loves Christmas so much, has decided that is when we un-decorate --- no sooner!  So I decided we should also have a feast, but then I had to work and didn't feel like making one when we got home.   I looked up traditional foods for this festival and found that in some places, this is the day that they have a king cake, a green, yellow and purple cake that has a plastic baby or a bean hidden in one piece so that whoever gets the special piece is the lucky one.  We ended up doing the "I'm tired and haven't felt good for several WEEKS" version, which was gluten free blueberry muffins with a huge blueberry in one of them, making that the special/lucky one.  Youngest son got it, as was fitting since we wouldn't have done any of this without his love of Christmas.  I would have taken the tree down on December 26th, because about 4:00 p.m. on December 25th I felt DONE with Christmas.

I still feel awful, my head is buzzy and stuffy and I feel like I may go into another bout of vertigo any minute.  Let me tell you, that puts a damper on everything.  I don't want to do anything.  Nevertheless, I am still working (a couple of days a week), studying my medical coding when I feel like it and can, and trying to get back on the diet and exercise bandwagon.  I made some cabbage soup the other day that was really good and hopefully, the fact that it's very low calorie and I've been eating a lot of it, will help kickstart my weight loss this year.  I've set a goal of losing 40 pounds.  I lost 30 pounds in 2019, but then gained 10 of it back during the holiday season, which is frustrating, but I'm still coming out ahead, so I'm trying to focus on that and also trying to decide whether to go to the doctor for my head buzz situation.  :-/

Mexican Cabbage Soup (I added a packet of taco seasoning).