Day 59--Yay for school!

I have the hardest time remembering to post on Monday night! After how many weeks of blogging? Almost 12, right? We did have a busy evening yesterday though. We had to go meet the furnace man at the old house so he could change the igniter. They are doing some inspections on the house today and Saturday we found the furnace not working! Bad timing. It was an easy fix though. We waited for him for two hours, but it only took him five minutes to change the thing. Then when we got home, we had to sign some forms for the realtor, and that was a hassle because we sign digitally and it never works the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Really. At least the sale is moving along.

We did have school yesterday before we went to the other house. I honestly can't remember at the moment what we did exactly. That's my reality. It's like each day is isolated. But that's ok; we manage. Sam and I started a chapter of some old math text on statistics. He loves stats, so I figured I'd teach him to organize and manipulate them. We started working on a code where we had to make a frequency table of letters in the message and compare that to a table of letter frequencies in the English language. We finished it today. It was pretty fun. I love working with the kids and not just having them do all the assignments alone. It was a bit lengthy, and I think he might have gotten bored if he was working on it by himself. I don't feel that makes the learning less valuable. It gives him someone to discuss it with and bounce ideas off of. I think it gets more done actually.

We started reading Anne of Green Gables yesterday. We love that book, and I have a Brave Writer Boomerang issue to use with it so I thought it'd be fun to read again. It's just going to make us want to watch the movie. I really should just buy it; it would be a good investment. I love the Boomerangs. They're just the way I think. I like to go through literature and learn what's there in context. I don't think it's necessary to use grammar workbooks about the same thing over and over for years. I remember Wilson doing workbooks about adjectives for years on end. Crazy. He liked it, and he knows all about grammar, so it worked for him; but this works for us now. It's alright to change what you do and what you like for your school. Also, different kids need, want and like different things; and it's ok to go with that too.

We're reading Black Horses for the King. I don't remember if I even mentioned it before. I guess we've been reading it for a couple weeks. They aren't sure they always want to hear it, but it got a bit more interesting yesterday when a bad guy was introduced and started seeking vengeance. I'm glad that's not the only thing that makes real life interesting!

We're also reading about the Declaration of Independence in The Making of America. We've been talking about the "ancient principles" which are inalienable rights that just are. We started memorizing the first paragraph of the Declaration today. I guess we'll be going over it for a couple weeks.

Jeff and Sam are going to a jr. high football game tonight with some boys from church. Jeff's been wanting to go to a game like that for a long time. It should be fun for them. Sam's never been to a football game. I hope he's comfortable on the bleachers since it's just a week after surgery. It's hard to believe how well he's doing.

See you tomorrow!

Day 58--Sam's home!

Sam got to come home today! He was here before lunch! He is extremely happy to be eating and creating with legos again. He's sitting on the floor in his usual lego position, but I think it hurts to sit that way. I cleared off a desk and gave him the office chair so he could have it at a height that wouldn't require slouching over onto his incisions. Some friends brought him a new lego set and he got right to work on it at the desk.

They gave him a stethoscope at the hospital and we've been having fun with that. It's a cheap one, but it's real. The kids have listened to everyone's hearts and stomachs. Apparently my heart sounds different than everyone else's. I do have mitral valve prolapse, but I wasn't expecting the kids to be able to detect that. They did say Jeff's sounds the same strange way mine does, though. The doctor told him recently that he has something different about his too. I just can't remember what it was. And it seems that Rachel's goes boom-boom-boom instead of ba-boom-ba-boom-ba-boom like other people's.

Now the stomachs, they make a lot of noise. At some places, it sounds like boulders scraping together, and at other places it sounds like air gurgling. I guess we want Sam's to be making plenty of noise, so we're sure it's working! When we've had him at the hospital before with his twisted colon, they didn't like it because his belly wasn't making any noise. No silent bellies around here!

This week was hard, but it didn't take the toll on us that I thought it might. So back to school Monday. I'm so excited! Maybe then we can actually get "back to normal" around here. We keep saying that after this or that is over, we'll get back to normal. It's pretty funny, because we never have. No matter what was over. I guess that is normal for us. I wonder, do other homeschool families actually have times when they just go along "normally" and have school all the time? What about you? Let me know!

See you next week--when we're back to normal--ha!

Day 57--Let go of Guilt and Worry

Of course nobody would think they had to have school while their child was recovering from major surgery, so why did I start to have a guilty moment last night for not having school with the girls this week? I almost had to ask some other homeschool moms to reassure me that I didn't need to worry. But I'm so proud of myself for stopping that worry before I let it get to me. As I was considering posting on some homeschool forum, I thought about how I would respond to someone in my situation. Of course I would tell her It's completely unnecessary to have school at a time like that!

Lots of times, we can just keep going even when it's tough. But there are times for me when I'm trying to serve from an empty plate. It's at those times that I just have to let learning happen in ways that maybe I'd rather not. It's going to anyway. Like Sam learning how it feels to eat clear liquids for five days, and thinking he would starve to death--finding out he can do hard things. Learning to trust others like surgeons and nurses. I like to take care of it all and have control of the situation. But when I'm serving from an empty plate, I just can't help anybody. And I definitely can't have school.

Rachel learned something valuable over the last week or so. She's taking the ACT next Saturday and has been pretty nervous, especially about the math. We were planning to go over and over the practice questions together. I don't know if she just gave up on me or if she had a personal insight, but she told me that she just wasn't going to worry herself about it. We'll go over the practice problems, but she has given up the worry and fear. Maybe we helped each other learn the same lesson this week.

Sam's coming home from the hospital tomorrow, but I'll try to post anyway.
See you then!

Day 56--Sam's Surgery

Sam's surgery was today. It went great. Rachel, Sarah and I went to the hospital yesterday; and of course, I got a headache. By last night, I was in extreme pain. Still am. But I thought I'd post something brief, since I know some of you are wondering how the surgery was.

Jeff said they took out what looked like almost 2 feet of colon! Isn't that crazy? The doctor said there's plenty left. I can't imagine how the length of his colon got so out of hand. I can understand the fact that it's all stretched out, but that length! They were able to do it mostly laporoscopically, so the recovery should be better and shorter. He may even be able to start eating clear liquids tomorrow!

Of course I had a hard time because of not being able to go today. I've been cranky and sad and in pain. I haven't had a full blown headache for at least a few weeks, but I guess the tension of this week was too much. I've been using a peppermint and lavender oil mix on my head when it starts to hurt. I discovered (on the night the drunk driver hit us) that it works better than just peppermint. Not today though. So I think I'd better quit for now. By the way, no school so far this week.

See you tomorrow!

Day 55--Getting ready to get ready for surgery

Today we had to go get a few things for Sam's "clean out" this weekend. He needed more juice because I had some red juices that I can't give him after all. We had to get prescriptions for things that would clear out his colon from the top and bottom. I asked him what he wants for breakfast tomorrow before he goes on clear liquids, and he said he wants grilled cheese with roast beef and sautéed green beans. I think I would have said I wanted pancakes with warm peaches, scrambled eggs, and hash browns in tiny cubes. Although, if I wasn't going to have another solid meal for almost a week, I might pick something more like a dinner.

We also got unflavored gelatin to make with juice and cheesecloth to strain the broth I'm making from roasted chicken bones tomorrow. I've never used cheesecloth. I hope that works out. Usually when I make chicken broth, I just use the strainer; but the holes are kind of big. I want to make sure to do everything right. They said no "particulates" in his broth.

Yesterday, Sam emailed the Lego company and asked a few questions about how they make stop action videos. He's dying to make his videos more smooth and give them some effects. They emailed him back with some suggested places to look for tutorials and software to make his videos better. It was so cool! I noticed that all the words in the email he sent are spelled correctly. That isn't always the case when he's writing. I wonder if he can tell easier when it's typed because he's so used to reading printed books, or maybe he's just more careful in an email. In the past, I've typed out their writing just as I see it so they can look at it as if it's a printed book. Sometimes it's easier for them to pick out errors that way. I haven't done that in a while; I should do it for him again.

There was a lot of book reading and badminton playing today between all the running around. And Sarah was texting and emailing Wilson and Kamille several times today--writing. Rachel's thinking about entering her book in a contest for young writers that are going to self publish a book. She hasn't decided whether to enter or just go ahead with our plans to self publish. The girls also watched a lesson from The Great Courses on acting. It was all about using dialects and accents. The teacher is so amazing. They're learning a lot from it.

I don't know how blogging will go next week with the surgery--I'll try!

See you then!

Day 54--Playing Games and Watching Shows

We didn't have school today. We just didn't do it. It was Rachel's 18th birthday today, so we got a lot of phone calls from family members. We watched videos of Eliza that Kamille put on youtube. We watched a few "When Calls the Heart" episodes, and the kids played a spy game they made up. I talked to the surgeon's office about some of the pre-surgery instructions I got for Sam. We need to watch the pre-surgery tour online I guess. I'm not sure he wants to, but it's probably good. I cooked a bunch of meat to make broth for this weekend. Sam has to start eating clear liquids at noon Saturday. His surgery isn't even until Tuesday! He's go to have his colon cleaned out too. He doesn't say much, but I'm sure he's not looking forward to that. He is convinced he'll starve to death eating clear liquids for 3 days.

Tonight I went to a presentation at church on being mentally healthy. Some ladies from the moms' support group were there, and we were talking afterward about husbands and cleaning the house. Someone said something about having the laundry on the bed until it just gets put back in the basket. I had to laugh, because that's what we do every day. I don't know why we just don't fold it. We dump it on my bed and look for something to wear. Then at night, we have to take it all off the bed and put it back in the baskets. And in the morning, someone usually comes into my room looking for something to wear before I'm out of bed, so they have to rummage through all the baskets. It's ridiculous, really. But it's so good to know we aren't the only ones that do that.

The presentation was excellent. I came away with a list of things to do to pick myself up. I think I'll choose a few to start out and see how I feel. I definitely need to get outside more. And eat better. I don't eat any refined sugar or corn syrup and several other things, but I need to eat more fruit and vegetables. We have a good amount of them, but I think I could personally do better and have more energy. Also, I should go to sleep earlier at night. I'm not sure I'm ready to work on this one yet, though. I'll probably also try to do better about taking my fish oil. I can tell a difference when I take it regularly. Those things should be fairly easy to start, and I think they should help.

See you tomorrow!

Day 53

Sarah finished her book report, and it's fantastic! She rewrote a chapter of Understood Betsy in first person from Betsy's point of view. Here's a little bit of it: "I took my cup out to a clean snow bank, and I made loops and curves with the hot, fragrant syrup that hardened as soon as it touched the snow. As I let the maple candy melt in my mouth, I thought about what cousin Ann had said about my examination and about Hemlock Mountain. Of course Hemlock Mountain would still stand there just the same, even if I failed in an examination!"

So after I pasted it in here, I asked her if that was from the book. She said no because she didn't even have the book in her hand when she wrote it. I told her some of it sounded like the book, which is fine because when we tell about something we usually include vocabulary and the voice of the book. So she looked in the chapter and found much of it was totally from the book. She was flabbergasted! She had not realized at all that this had happened. I told her that's ok because her aim was to rewrite the chapter changing the point of view, but I wasn't sure what would happen if she did the same thing in a school setting--plagiarism? She really did do a beautiful job of writing it from the first person though. 

I've said before that I want to show real life as a homeschooler in this blog, so that's where I've been the last 2 days. Real life. Honestly, Monday I just forgot to write a post. Last night, I started to at bedtime and it just got away from me. I've had a bit a depression lately, and sometimes things are just hard. The last 2 days have been pretty good school days though. Jeff's been off a few extra days, so that's been fun. He likes to have school with us and talk about what we're learning. Right now, he's got the kids down the road playing basketball before other kids get out of school. It's totally silent here except for the sound of the keyboard as I type. There's a nice breeze blowing in the window--and there are a few gnats in the house, and I have to go to the dentist in a little while. It's all reality, whether it's pleasant or painful. And we have plenty of both.

See you tomorrow!