Busy weekend, changes in the house.

Meet Piggy, part of my daughter's latest craft phase, sock animals. 

Sometimes the events just kind of gang up on you. This weekend, we had a mom's night out, a Halloween party and 2 birthday parties, kind of .  (We didn't really celebrate my brother's this weekend, but will next weekend).  The kids were also supposed to have some kind of unbirthday party at youth group, but on the way there, we had car trouble, so they didn't get to go to that one.  It just seemed like we were going, going, going and I did not feel like the Energizer bunny.  I was kind of dragging around all weekend, still not feeling well.  I still haven't been to the grocery and I usually go on Friday.  I got my husband to go Saturday after work and get milk and a few other things and that has helped us get through the weekend.  The weekend is over now and I for one, welcome ordinary life.  Or as least as ordinary as it gets considering that today is Halloween.  We still have one kid who wants to go trick or treating and I will take him later tonight to the grandmas houses and a couple of aunts.  One of my aunts who died in August is one that I really looked forward to seeing every Halloween so it will be sad going past her house and not stopping.  :-(

We've also had a very big change in our house this weekend.  We finally got a good internet service that is available out here in the boonies where we live and as of today, I was able to move my work from my mom's house to home.  I'm going to be working more hours to help with college expenses and this way, I'll be able to work earlier in the morning and later in the evening, taking the mid-days off to do my homeschooling, housework and chauffeuring duties.  :-P   In other words, I'm keeping pretty busy.  I'm thankful that I can do this because a lot of people don't have the option to work more hours when they need to like I do.

And for the record, for my youngest son's benefit I would like to say "Yes, we do school on Halloween.".  He's already tried to use a holiday loophole to no avail.  

Cool idea.

I'm sitting here waiting for some work to be dictated so I could type it and I did some browsing via Pinterest and found this web site.  She features all these adorable things she mails for 13 ounces or less and calls it Happy Mail.  Apparently in the United States you can mail a package weighing 13 ounces or less for regular first class postage?  So much fun.  I may have to send out some happy mail.  :-)


Givers Log - Happy Mail

Whirlwind weekend.

Yesterday, I had to work, then stop in the middle and take my daughter to her guitar lesson, then come back and try to finish work.  Then, I had mom's night out in a neighboring town, which is also where the nearest Michael's craft store is as well as the salvage grocery store.  So I finished work, went to the salvage store, met the moms at Tumbleweed, had dinner, went to Michael's, then to Target because I didn't find everything I needed for today at Michaels and then came home.  So basically, other than 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there, I was gone for 12 hours yesterday.  One of the times I was home briefly, I decided to apply makeup for the night out festivities.  I went into the bathroom and while I was applying makeup, all 3 kids came into the bathroom to talk to me because they'd missed me throughout the day.  I looked at myself in the mirror and thought "you are one blessed mom." 

Today, I have a similarly lengthy day planned,work with my new longer schedule which is proving pretty difficult to accomplish each day and then multiple preparations to go to Trunk or Treat tonight.   Then tomorrow is pretty much the same.  Whew.

Yes, we tried something new this week and found it to be even more of a disaster than our usual schedule and since we did that, we can now clearly see the merits of our usual schedule and it makes us want to follow it again, so yesterday, our usual schedule went more smoothly.  It was not a disaster, but a calm orderly day.   Does that make any sense at all?  With homeschooling, as with life, I guess we just need a different perspective every now and then and we can be flexible.  We can try things and if they don't work, we can give them up very quickly.  It seems like we are in a constant state of flux, but that's just life, I guess.

Well, that didn't work.

Yesterday's schedule was strange.  My daughter, whose idea it was to flip-flop the schedule, did not decide to do it after all.  When I got home from work, she was basically done with school, something that almost never happens.  I think maybe, just knowing that she could postpone it, made her feel empowered or something.  Who knows?  My youngest son on the other hand, did not start until 7:00 p.m. and at 10:59 p.m., was incredibly crabby, which in turn made me yell at him which I almost never do, but the combination of not feeling well, staying up later than I usually would to accommodate his schedule and then having him complain that I was rushing him, did not sit well with me.  Yelling ensued.   After that, he said that he was not going to do the new schedule today, but go back to the way things have always been.  I agreed with that decision.

Flipping the schedule upside down.

Our schedule has basically been a disaster this year.  There are kids doing school every day, all day and finally finishing at 11:00.  This is not just one of the kids but both of them.  Every evening, my older son and I can't watch TV or listen to music or anything because they need to concentrate on math, but then, they'll be doing absolutely everything else.  They miss screen time all the time because screen time is in the evenings.  My daughter suggested that we have screen time now in the afternoon with the understanding that they will not even start school until the evenings.  I know they are teenagers and teenagers are notorious for staying up later and sleeping later and generally doing everything later, but I just don't know about this. I really think that if they could just concentrate/focus, they could get done in a reasonable amount of time, but they never do that, so I can't say for sure.  :-/  It is obvious though that what we are currently doing is not working.  :-(

Catching up.

I didn't post over the weekend.  We were busy.  Friday night we had the family fun night at church that we planned.  We only had a few people there and most of them were related to me, but it's okay.  Those of us who did attend really had a good time.  Then Saturday, the kids had a hayride and I went to the grocery.  I really, sincerely hate going to the grocery now.  I mean I didn't like it before all the prices started going up exponentially, but now I really hate it.   I really need to start doing the coupon thing again I guess, but I'm not very organized for stuff like that.  It would be easier for me to just work more hours and I am considering that as an option.  :-(

I finally got the results of my echocardiogram and Holter monitor.  It was fine.  I'm pretty sure that the palpitations were caused by a combination of stress and anemia.  I'm taking iron pills now and I'm not having any issues with that.  I still don't feel great but I'll be okay.

This post is kind of random, but that's the way I roll.  :-).  I thought I'd share a few work funnies from this week.  These illustrate why some doctors will probably never be able to dictate to voice recognition software, or at least not for a while.  One of my doctors always dictates "parasitic atrial fibrillation" instead of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't mean that the patient's heart is being faster because of parasites?  Other always says that "a cardiology consultation was seeked." and another recommends that the patient have postsurgical monitorization.  I'm fairly certain that monitorization is not a word.   I correct these and make them sound fine and that's why I continue to have a job.

So anyway, that's what's going on with us.  We're doing school, we're procrastinating about all the things we usually procrastinate about and just being ourselves.  My oldest son is playing guitar all the time now and is making huge callouses on his fingers.  My husband got the Suburban fixed. (yay!)  I have beef stew in the crock pot that I'm looking forward to when I get home from work.  Life as usual.  Kind of nice.

Busy and funny.

We've had some busy and funny times the last couple of days.  We've had things to do pretty much every day this week and also, in between, we've been screening comedy videos for a fun night we're planning at our church tonight.  I think the winner is going to be Tim Hawkins, I'm no Rockstar.  We watched it last night and it is just about the funniest thing I've ever seen.   Today, if we get time we'll watch Insanitized, his other DVD and see if it is just as funny.  That one last night made my cheeks hurt.  :-)

I'm at work right now, but I keep thinking about other things.  I'm having a hard time working because I'm so distracted and also because I'm cold!  One of my hands is completely numb.  I have turned up the heat, but it doesn't seem to be making any difference.   I'm also sincerely hoping that the kids get their school done in a timely manner today (unlike yesterday!) and we have time this afternoon to get ready, to make the dessert we're taking tonight and generally get ready.  Since I'm in charge, I'm nervous.  I'm really good at planning things, but I tend to obsess a little over whether everyone I've invited is having fun.

I'm reading a book called Nurture Shock, which is about what the scientific studies say about raising children, versus what we as a society do.  Right now I'm reading a fascinating chapter about how much sleep kids need and the effects a lack of sleep has on them.  I'll try and sum up the whole book later, but I have already read enough (I'm on chapter 2), to think that everyone should read it.