We got a new rug!

I was volunteering the day a local pallet store had rugs for sale, so my daughter and youngest son picked it out.  They did great and I love it.  

Finally, maybe.

We may actually get some of the stuff done to the house we've been trying to get done.  The contractor finally called me back and is coming Tuesday and also now my husband is thinking maybe he'll do the work to save money, so there's that.  I'm very hopeful that the house will be in good shape by Thanksgiving, at least the public parts of the house. The laundry room, master bath and bedroom need makeovers as well, but that will have to be for another time.  I'm cautiously optomistic about this getting done now, which is an improvement.  Part of what it took to get out of my ennui was the courage to call the contractor again and ask for an appointment.  My daughter encouraged me to do that and now I feel better.  Although that means I will need to spend my day off on labor day cleaning my kitchen.  That's fine.  I didn't really have plans anyway.

Son and daughter in law are settled in Mississippi and I think it's probably for good.  I am very sad over that.  I'm working on adjusting but it's hard.  As you all probably know, video chats are just not the same and I have been grieving.   Maybe we'll see them at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  I don't know.  We need to work on getting a place for them to sleep when they are here.  We have an air mattress, but air mattresses don't work all that well for 2 people.  I may get a sofa bed of some sort.  We just got new couches from them when they moved, but they are recliner couches, good for sitting, but not so much for sleeping a whole night.

We've settled into this season, I guess, with youngest son starting back to community college a couple of weeks ago.  He dropped a class he didn't feel like he needed and accidentally dropped below full time, losing 3/4 of his financial aid so that has dipped into my savings for the house.  He's keeping busy with schoolwork and playing D&D on Monday, Thursday and Friday, Pathfinder on Saturday and board games on Tuesday.  My daughter is doing all the games as well, and is still "officially" working on the house with me, but since housework has been stalled, she has not been as busy with that.  We really need to be serious about finding her a job.  As you know if you've been reading this blog, she's very shy, so I may have to help her again.  Last time, I actually just took her along to an interview I had arranged for myself, told them I had accepted a different job (which was true) and presented her as an alternative to me.  They hired her and she worked quite happily there until the school started experiencing financial troubles.  Sigh.

The dogs have both been in cones for almost 2 weeks, Cosmo because of a sore on his leg and Freckles because she had to have eye surgery again.  Freckles has had a cone before and took to it like an old pro, but Cosmo has been hilarious running it into things. The whole first day, he just laid around and moaned and whined, but he's gotten somewhat used to it now.  He still knocks it into about 3 things every time he moves and walks behind us bumping it continually on our legs.  I think they'll both get them off on Tuesday. 

Anyway, that's the update.  Again, trying to adjust to life's new pattern, and find the new normal.

Ennui.

Ennui:  a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.

Board Games.

We're still playing board games in our homeschool group every other week.   It's been a lot of fun.  From what I can tell from reading back pages of my blog, we've been doing this for 3 years or so.  Along the way, some kids have joined and some have moved away or just quit coming, and we've picked up some from the board game store where we meet.  We usually have 7 or 8.  It's a decent sized group and the kids have made some real friendships.  I debate sometimes dropping my involvement, but I do seem necessary in some ways, as the hostess, bringing the snacks and making sure we have a place to meet.  The game store keeps changing their hours and the library rooms are often booked on the nights we need to meet, so it is a challenge.  I'm not sure where we are going to meet in 2 weeks since we were doing Monday nights and my son scheduled himself for a Monday night class.  He is the leader of the group.  He gets a game on the table and keeps things moving along.  We only have 2 1/2 hours every other week, so we want to get as many games played as possible. 

Favorites include Werewolf, Superfight, Concept, The Resistance, Coup, Love Letter and Saboteur.  Last week we added A Fake Artist Goes to New York and Spyfall 2.  Old favorites like Dutch Blitz and Clue sometimes show up on the table as well.  Most of the games for a smaller number of players are not played as often because they like to play together and rarely split the group into 2.  We recently divided our game bags into 4 players or less and 4 players and above bags, but then we went on vacation and pulled a few out and messed it up.  I need to reorganize them soon. 

Even with all the scheduling annoyances, it's been a good experience and I'm glad we started it. 

I've just been at work.

Work.  Work.  Work.   Everyone has taken a vacation in July so I've been covering for everybody.  This is my first day off in quite a while and what did I do, I caught a virus.  I went to the doctor today and that's about all I've accomplished.  My kids were running around getting things done though.  The oldest and his wife are moving away from us (sob!) next week so they brought us some furniture and while they were here, took some of our old furniture to Goodwill.  Then they went out and picked all the peaches off our peach tree.  They look green, but they are really tasty.  We've had that tree for years and haven't ever gotten to eat any of the peaches, so we are thrilled.

We took a vacation last week to Gatlinburg and all 6 of us got to go, so that was fun - a little bit of family time before they move.  Needless to say, with work and vacation, all the plans we had for the house have not been done.   They're still here waiting for us. 

Busy.

I'm busy and I'm not really liking it.  I've got 2 1/2 weeks of full time work ahead of me and I know myself.  I know that by about the third day, I will lose the will to live and think "how am I going to get through this?".  Our new boss stopped by for a meeting and I asked her if I could work part time the first week, because I can't really sub for the person who is out (we don't do exactly the same work)  but I could come in and give the other person a lunch break, etc.  but then my 2 co-workers butted into our conversation and now it seems like I'll be working all day long.  It's hard for me with my arthritis and Sjoegren's to have the stamina to do that, but I guess I have to.  :-(   I also asked off for the Monday of the second week when no-one else is off and my 2 co-workers indicated that the always needed me on Mondays because the workload is higher, so I'm working that day too.   Really, I work so hard and I have figured out their computers, so I'm fast and most days, we get completely caught up by 1:00 p.m. and I can't imagine why I'd need to stay until 4:30.  Sigh.  Next time I am going to ask to speak to the boss privately.  Good grief.

Things are going okay around here otherwise.   My son and daughter-in-law have decided to move away and I'm not happy about that, but there's nothing I can do so I'm working on accepting it.  We will have to put aside money and time to go visit them pretty often.  Daughter is still working on the house, though much more slowly than I would like.  Actually, everything about the house is going more slowly than I would like.  We need a lot of work done and I can't get anyone to come out and look at it, so it's at a standstill.  It's frustrating.

Youngest son is getting ready to go back to school.  He and the girl have had a busy, busy summer playing Dungeons and Dragons and board games with friends, but he's going to have to cut back on that when he goes to school.  He's going to have to do some homework this semester, and take more hours --- 16!  He will be busy, busy.

That's all from here, I guess.   I'll share some pictures of various things we've seen and done.  Now that we are finished homeschooling, this blog is mostly about what we are doing at our house and to help me journal about our lives.   If anyone else is coming along for the ride and reading it, thanks for hanging in here this long.  :-)

These 2 things are hanging up at work.   

This is a game we played at my son and daughter-in-law's house, last week, when I was busy with things I enjoyed being busy with.  :-) 

A drawing of mine that I'm proud of.  

Can we still call it a field trip?

We went to the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival last night and saw "A Comedy of Errors".  It was great!  So funny.  It was like a sit-com from the middle ages.  We enjoyed it so much.  It was outdoors.  The park was beautiful, the weather was great and the company was great.  Also, the price was right, because it was free.  Wherever you are, check out your local Shakespeare performances and go! 

Trying to find my place.

I'm working.  I'm volunteering.  I'm trying to keep the housework done.  I'm keeping busy.  I'm not one of those people who can just do everything.  I get so tired.  This week I've been working most of the time and have had an event several nights this week.  Last Saturday I volunteered at the hospital then came home and picked blackberries and then collapsed. Sunday, I had to sing a solo at church, go to the grocery, make a dessert and then go to a party for my nephew and his girlfriend, who were visiting from another state.  Then, Monday, I had 8 hours of work and board games.  Tuesday, 8 hours of work and then Tuesday night dinner.  Then Wednesday, I was off work because of the holiday, thank goodness, but then we had a party that evening with some new friends and ended up not getting home until around 11:30.  Then I couldn't go to sleep that night and ended up trying to work 8  hours on Thursday on 4 1/2 hours of sleep.  Not fun.  Last night, I went to bed at 9 pm, after falling asleep in my chair almost as soon as I got home from work.  Today is Friday, thank God and I don't have plans for tonight.  I will be volunteering again, tomorrow, but I may take Sunday as a day of complete rest.  I'm tired, tired, tired. 

I also got some bad news this week, that my oldest son and his wife are moving back to Mississippi next month so I'm trying to digest that information.  It's not helping my feeling of overall world-weariness.  I'm tired.  Did I mention that? 

Anyway, here are some pictures from last week, when I was not having such a crazy week, a pigeon in the parking garage where I volunteer, the 3 stop signs at the pharmacy drive thru (I think they want to make SURE you stop.), and some of my art from when I actually had time to do art.  I don't see how full time working moms don't absolutely loose their minds.  I don't even have little kids, but helpful adult kids and I still can't handle it and the housework and the other commitments. 

I'm trying to find my place here in my post homeschooling life.