Trying to figure out.

How to get through the week without a car.  As I may have mentioned, my husband is gone to work ALL the time now.  He went from being gone 4 days a week for about 12 hours to 5 days a week about 12 hours which really doesn't seem like that much of a change, but he's going in later, so he doesn't get home until about 7:00 p.m. most nights.  That makes it very difficult to share a car with him.  My son is working about 40 hours a week and generally leaves for work about the time I am getting finished with my job.  So I am trying to get to all my obligations without a vehicle.

Again.

Sigh.

It's frustrating.

My husband is shopping for a vehicle and he may buy one soon.  In the meantime, I may get the use of a vehicle without air conditioning, but as a menopausal female with a chronic infection (this is a long and recurrent theme on this blog and I don't want to get into it right now, but I reserve the right to whine about it.) and a constant, ongoing low grade fever, being without air conditioning is particularly difficult for me right now.  I'll take it though, if I can get some of these things on my list done.  I need to get some things done and crossed off.   I need to get my mom's VA benefits applied for again.  I need to get her car transferred into my son's name as we are buying it from her and I need to get her house appraised to sell.

Just feeling a bit overwhelmed today.

:-(

The low key summer continues.

Growing garden.

Lightning bugs.

Purple coneflower.

Walking to the mailbox.

Fair time!

It's county fair time so I woke the kids up early (for them) and took them to the county fair grounds to register their 4H crafts for this year.  My son entered a walking stick and a terrarium and my daughter entered a quilted bag, a pencil case, the big knitted afgan and a couple of crocheted wash cloths.  Trying to get them to agree to enter things this year was like pulling teeth, I have no idea why.  They were just reluctant.  They seem to be going through a reluctant to do anything kind of mood, which is no fun for those of us who live with them.  On the way up there, in my son's tiny car because my suburban sounds like it's got a wheel bearing going out, we said something that was hilarious and I said I was going to blog about it, but of course, we all promptly forgot it upon arriving home.  Sigh.

Now I need to make an appointment to get the car fixed and let my brother know I can't visit my mom today because both of our working vehicles will be at work with the men until later.

Kind of boring.

It's actually been a kind of boring couple of weeks in some ways.  We are not having summer adventures.  We haven't really been getting together with family as much as usual, I think.  I need to get my husband's family together before my oldest son goes back to school.  We got some of us together for Father's Day but we need to all get together and have one of our hilarious board game sessions.   Our pool is not up and we haven't been swimming.  We don't have a vacation planned, instead, we are going to pay to repair the vehicle of a stranger in another state ... anyway, money's kind of tight and we haven't been doing a whole lot.  For me, who was riding the up and down emotional roller coaster of middle age, this calm part is really kind of nice.  I think the kids are getting bored with it though.  Fortunately, we got together with our homeschool group family on Tuesday and planned some small adventures, some pedal boating, visiting a farm and some gym days.  Not much, but something to look forward to.  Some low key adventures.  It's nice to plan some things to look forward to after the year we have had.  I have also been doing a bit (okay, a lot) of art journaling and we have been doing some decluttering, trying to figure out a schedule of things that we like to do and things that we have to do on a regular basis, since all of our routines have gotten upset in this new normal, with my mom moving farther away, both my husband and I changing jobs, and everything else.

I did put my art journal pages up for sale, for 4 dollars each and several friends have bought some, which helped with my son's expenses going to Mississippi and court and all that.  They all say it is very pretty.  Of course I feel like they aren't all that good, but they have been well received and that's been kind of fun for me.  Who knows, if my son hadn't had the car accident, I might never have gotten the courage to sell them.

A little thought.

My summertime challenge is always to figure out what we are going to do homeschooling the next year.  I get more involved in the homeschooling in the summer than I do the rest of the year, choosing resources and implementing a schedule.  Then, I am a pretty hands off homeschooling mom.  I may have to get more involved in these last 2 years (sob!) because my daughter has been 'little mama"  since my youngest son's birth and has bossed him around for me and since we've been homeschooling, she's been my assistant teacher, basically making him do his work every day and checking up on him and now she has graduated and I am not sure what she is going to be doing this fall.  She's not either.  She may start some on-line college classes or she may take some time and work on writing her book.  She's been working on it for a couple of years between other things, but we might be able to give her the gift of some time to work on it, before we toss her out into the world.  She's not even 18 yet.  My oldest didn't start college until a year after he graduated from high school and that's not the end of the world.  He will finish college and move to graduate school at 23.

So anyway, back to the next 2 years with the youngest.  He is the most nontraditional learner of the three.  I have done some research and I believe the term for what my son is (not that he can be labeled exactly of course) is twice exceptional.  Actually, he's probably at least quadruply exceptional.  He's very smart, has a vocabulary that could put most college professors to shame, is very good at math, doing even very difficult problems without writing them down but he cannot spell and can barely write, despite trying a bunch of different spelling and writing programs.  I am not sure where to begin with him. 

Here's an example of an interaction with him that occured last night.  My daughter is reading our current book, something about time travel ...and one of the lines said something about the timbre of a character's voice.  My daughter didn't know how to pronounce, said timber? and paused and my son pronounced it perfectly.  So, after looking at me to make sure he was correct, she looked at him and said "How do you know that?"  He said, I was analyzing the syntax of what you were saying and that seemed like a likely word and then we discussed that timber and timbre are spelled very similarly and he probably got it from the fact that she said timber, but really he truly has absolutely no idea how either one of them is spelled, except maybe that they start with a T and that was evident on further questioning.  My question is how can he read so well and have no idea how anything, and I mean anything, is spelled?  Anyone have any clues?  Should we tackle the spelling and try to conquer it or should we bypass it with technology?  Also, the handwriting is an issue and the first thing anyone says is that he can type, but he really can't type much at all, because spelling becomes an issue then too. 

It's going to be interesting trying to figure out what to do. 

Happy 5th of July. :-)

I forgot to blog on the fourth, so I didn't wish anyone a happy fourth and now it's too late, but have a happy fifth as part of the whole 3-day weekend thing.  :-)  My husband was off work yesterday, but my son and I did have to work.  When you work for a hospital as I do or a grocery store as he does, some of the smaller holidays, you just don't expect to get them off.   After work, I went to see my mom, who is doing okay.  The way our visits go has changed somewhat and she is becoming more peer dependent there at the facility, bonding with her peers and making friends, which I am all-for and very happy about.  She does still enjoy seeing me and we do talk about some of the same things over and over, but one of the concerns last night, was getting back to the group, which I had isolated her from so I could talk to her one-on-one.  I think that is a good thing.  I want what is best for her. 

Then, I came home for an evening of eating spaghetti and setting off fireworks with my family.  Fireworks aren't really my thing, so I watched a few and went in and kept the dogs company for the rest.  Freckles is terrified of fireworks, so I had to do a lot of comforting and she had to go with me while I was in the bathroom and even sat kind of behind the toilet for a while.  Poor kid. 

Anyway, now it is the fifth and I have some very, very difficult reports to transcribe, groceries to get and various other things to do.  I guess we are settling into our new, current normal?  I wonder how long this one will last?  Our son is going to go back to college early this year, so then we'll have to adjust back to the 4 of us, but hopefully mom is done moving for a while.  I hope so.  Also, now we are going to have to focus on selling her house, which I am extremely sad about, but what can I do?  :-(  Just suck it up and deal with it.    New normal. 

Another summer cold.

This really has not been our summer.  (reminds me of the Friend's theme, "and it hasn't been your day, your week, your month or even your year...)   The pool's out.  This is the second summer cold that is going through the family.  It started yesterday with the younger 2 kids.  The court date is over and mom seems to be settling in, so the bigger things are better and it's just the small annoying little things that go on, so I guess that's okay.  The garden is growing.  I get to go see my peoples today even if I may have to leave some of the younger generation at home.  They are certainly old enough to do that and did I mention, I get to see my friends?  My fellow homeschooling moms have been such a help and such a support system to me.  I honestly don't know what I would have done without them.  One of them sent me this yesterday and I love it.

Good.

My son's court appearance went well.  He stated his case.  His car broke down so he borrowed his grandma's car to go back to school,  then grandma's health status changed and she had to go into assisted living and ended up changing addresses 3 times.  Meanwhile, her son and daughter tried to keep up with the address changes and the bills but this one bill for the car insurance slipped through without being paid, because of the address changes, etc. and it was just a mess.  Anyway, the judge basically said "235 dollars, pay by July 16" and then he said "Next."  After a little snafu with his debit card being accidentally deactivated and reactivated by phone, the fine is paid and he is coming home tomorrow.