It's almost August!!

Back in my homeschooling days, I would be happily looking at the Rainbow Resource catalog and having a great time picking out a curriculum for our school year, which I would then probably change out in December and start something new in January.  It was always so much fun planning and ordering and getting out supplies.  Sigh.  I miss it.

We're getting ready to celebrate our daughter's 23rd birthday.  Oh goodness.  It doesn't seem possible.   No back to school for anyone this year as our youngest has graduated college.  So it's weird. 

I'm waiting for the peaches on the peach tree to be ready to eat and hoping that something else doesn't eat them before we get them picked like they did one year.   I'm also pondering whether to apply for a full-time position that's come open at work and trying to lose weight (that never ends, but I have lost 30 pounds this year through intermittent fasting!) and casually shopping for a dress for my brother's wedding which is in October!!  I'm very excited about that.  My brother is going to get married for the first time to a wonderful lady that we all love.  I'm going to have a new sister-in-law!

I'm also working a little (very little, sad to say) on my book about homeschooling and playing the Sims 4 hundred baby challenge in my spare time.  I need to play less Sims and work on my book more.   Some things never change.   By that, I mean me.   :-) 

Summertime!

I've been doing summery things.  I've been swimming in the pool most days and I love it.  We went to see Shakespeare in the park, which was fantastic again.  It's funny, Facebook notified me that we went exactly a year ago on the same day.  This year we saw As You Like It which was excellently performed, but it turns out, is not my favorite of the Shakespeare plays I've seen so far.   I've seen 4.   In order of my favorites, they are 1.  Comedy of Errors, 2.  Julius Cesar, 3. A Midsummer Night's Dream and 4.  As You Like It.  The Comedy of Errors production that we saw last year was the absolute best.  It was fantastic.  In a couple of weeks, I'm going to get to see Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which I'm also excited about. 

Also in summertime things, I made my daughter go try and pick blackberries.  We didn't apparently have very many blackberries on our property this year so she only got a very few.  It was 1/4 of a cup.  So what did I do?  I made a tiny vegan, dairy, gluten-free cobbler.  It was good!

I'm working on writing a book about homeschooling and raising kids and trying to work on that a bit every day, hoping to have my rough draft done in December.

My husband is working at home at lot this summer, which is nice.  He's getting to be here and not do the long, long commute 3 days a week.  

The young adults who live here are still doing gaming and D&D, hanging out with their friends.  My daughter's job is out for the summer and hopefully, my son will find his first job soon.  

That's our summertime update, which admitttedly, I am writing mostly for myself.  If any blog readers are still reading now that I've stopped homeschooling, hello!  

  

Homeschool printables.

Great homeschool printables here. 
5 Js Homeschool.

A little better.

I just passed the 3 month mark after my surgery and I had a really normal day yesterday.  Nothing was particularly hurting and I was able to get a lot of stuff done.  It was wonderful!  I hope to get to the point where most days are like that.   I cleaned.  I cooked.  I got in the swimming pool.  Yay, normal life!

I made it.

Of course, I made it through working 4 days this week.  It was a little hard on my knees and hard on my back, but honestly, at this point, I'm used to working through the pain.  I got a lot of work done and it was fine.  I wish I'd been more on top of the cooking and meal planning, washing dishes and other things around the house, but I was pretty much wiped out every evening after work.  I was off on the fourth and used that time to get caught up on the laundry and dishes, but still, for some reason, didn't cook anything.  I've been eating a lot of oatmeal this week, so I guess that's good for me.

Last weekend, we met our oldest son and our daughter-in-law in Alabama and had a couple of relaxing days visiting and hanging out.  We had a lot of good gluten-free food and played a lot of games and enjoyed the company.

Youngest son is now officially on the hunt for a job, since he graduated and now we're back from our tiny but expensive vacation. 

For the fourth of July, we didn't party or do fireworks this year, we just went to the movies.  We saw Yesterday, which was a really fun movie.  I highly recommend it!

How it feels.

I'm back to work and kind of back to a normal life.  My husband and kids still have to do a lot for me as they did before the surgery and I'm thankful for it but I am not even back to where I was before the surgery.  I don't think.  That last week before the surgery was pretty awful, with my knee sliding out of place and having to miss work, so I'm not sure if it's better or worse now, I just know it's not great.

Yesterday I had to work, so I went to bed at about 10:00 p.m. the night before and tried hard to sleep, but my knee and my back were working against me.  I've aggravated my old back injury this week.  So, I can't really sleep on my sides because it hurts my knee and I can't really sleep on my stomach because it hurts my back and I've never been a back sleeper.  I just can't do it.  So, I got some sleep, but not enough.  When I woke up, my knee was stiff and I could barely walk.  I got it into the shower, barely, and took a shower, got dressed for work and got (with difficulty) in the car for my 45-minute commute.  About half an hour into the drive, my knee feels done with it, but I can't really stop there and rest - I gotta go to work.   So I get to the parking garage and start my walk.   It's quite a ways.   I manage to make it to my desk, but at this point, I'm pretty tired and hurting and want to go home, but I'm too sore to do that, so I stay and work for the next 6 1/2 hours.  I'm lucky I have a light schedule right now.   I spent a lot of that time with an ice pack on my knee and one on my back, doing my medical transcription, which, fortunately, is pretty sedentary.  It was hard putting the hours in, because I was just plain hurting, but I did it.  Then I had to commute home, 15 minutes walking and 45 minutes driving, only there was a traffic jam and I ended up doing an hour and 15 minutes of driving.

Today, I'm so sore I can barely walk.

Next week I have to work the whole week because a co-worker is taking vacation days.  Do I feel ready?

Um, that would be no.

This is the third-to-last hallway.  Almost there. 

Back to Work.

I've been back to work 2 days now and though it makes my knee hurt to walk in and out of the building, it's good for me to get out and talk to other people.  I got really tired of being home and it was not good for me.  When I was unemployed and being a housewife, I had goals and plans and lists and I got things done, but this time recovering from surgery, I goofed off a lot more because I was, well, recovering from surgery and it was hard to walk and all that.  Anyway, it's nice to get back to my normal-ish life.

I did get some things done, like Mr. Miller, the stray cat, got neutered and given a rabies shot and treated for ear mites.  I think he'll be looking fat, healthy and happy like the rest of our cats soon.  

Case in point, ever photogenic Duncan.   He has been hovering around while the other one has not been feeling well, "helping".  

How cute is he?

This is what the weather has been like EVERY DAY for as long as I can remember.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.  But it's been very stormy and I am tired of it.

I've been doing a homeless single parent Sims 4 challenge - speaking of goofing off.

Fun!

The girl and I set out for a fun day yesterday.   We went to Louisville, which is the nearest city to us, and tried out the new gluten free exclusive cafe.  Everything on the menu is gluten free which is a treat for us.  We tried a club sandwich and some kind of strawberry shortcake pudding dish.  The strawberry stuff was just okay, but the club sandwich was very, very good.  We enjoyed it immensely.

This is half of the sandwich.

The strawberry pudding dessert.

 Then we headed to our favorite gluten free bakery.  This is something we treat ourselves to every 2-3 months, and dream about the rest of the time.  We each got a gluten free big soft pretzel and a cupcake, both of which we had to bring home because we were so full, both of us, from our half of a club sandwich!  After that, we went to Hobby Lobby to look at art supplies and they had canvases 50% off, so we each got a small one and started working on masterpieces last night. Hers is probably going to be, mine not so much, but its still fun trying.  I get frustrated with myself when my I try so hard and my work looks primitive and childlike.  Still, I persist because I enjoy the process.

It still needs something, but I don't know what that is.

Fun times.