That Week I Had Surgery {week 21}

Monday  CC.  That is all.

Tuesday  The kids and I got to work around 8 and were very productive.  Attitudes were very good until one kid blew a gasket because they got frustrated with math and couldn't control themselves.  But even then, we still had a good and productive day.  UNTIL right before lunch time when a worker began to relay part of the subfloor and wood planks in the kitchen (from the slab leak digging).  Sawing.  Screwing.  Hammering.  Excruciating.

We had to eat out for lunch that day since the kitchen was kind of a mess and people were working in it.  After lunch, I had an appt at the hospital to pre-register and whatnot for the upcoming Friday surgery.  Kids mercifully got the rest of their work done while I was gone at the hospital.

Wednesday  Wednesday morning got off to a super start.  I knew the floor workers were coming back around 10AM to finish putting down the wood planks (which meant more sawing, hammering, air compressor noises).  The plan was to work until they got to the house, then leave and go to church to finish working.  The kids and I stopped for a snack at 10 AM when Mom told me she got a text that the workers were running late.  I was thinking 20-30 minutes late.  I didn't want to get started back on school work for 5 minutes only to be interrupted and need to leave.  So we didn't resume working. And we waited. And waited.  And waited. (UGH)  Finally at noon they showed up.  By that point, I had kind of given up on school.  The boys had piano lessons at 1:45 which we'd need to leave for, so I didn't see the point of lugging stuff up to church (in the opposite direction of piano lessons) only to work for an hour before needing to leave for lessons.

Despite myself, Cade had resumed working without my knowledge and got several subjects done while we were waiting for the workers to show up.  I was amazed, impressed, proud, and guilty all at the same time.

Thursday  We got started on time and got quite a bit done.  With the exception of spelling tests, Claire was done by 10 and Jack was done by 11. We killed it!

Friday  Surgery day.  I had to check in at 7 at the hospital for my 9 AM gall bladder removal surgery. I'm assuming everything went well (since I scheduled to have this post go live ahead of time)

That Week We Had No School

No real blog post this week.  We have off from CC this week so I decided, in light of everything going on, that we would take the rest of the week off too.

The Slab Leak  The slab leak was fixed late last Friday night.  The holes (in the garage and the kitchen) were left open for a few days to ensure that the leak was indeed fixed.  The holes were repacked with dirt and concrete was poured on Monday.  The wood to repair the kitchen floor was dropped off on Thursday to acclimate to our house temperature and humidity level. 

Wanna see the gory pictures of the digging?

This is in the garage, where the largest hole was.  It was a 5' deep hole and went 10' under the house.  A veritable cave.

This picture was taken not too far into the digging.  The mound of dirt that we ended up with in the garage was probably 5 to 6 times this amount.

Here's the kitchen.

A much smaller hole was dug in the kitchen under where our cabinet with stove sat.  It was only about 2 feet deep.

Gall Bladder  I had an appointment with a surgeon to discuss having my gall bladder yanked out. Sooner is better than later, ya know?  Surgery is set for Friday February 28 in the morning.  It's an outpatient surgery so it should be fine. 

I won't show you any pictures of that.  :)

That Week that Things Went Haywire {week 20}

The leak business was still going on during this week.  We received clarification on where the leak is, and they indeed had to drill inside the house (and rip out some lower cabinets and countertop).  Ugh.  BUT the silver lining is that the insurance company will sand all of our wood floors and restain and seal them (in addition to putting our kitchen back together)!  WOOT! 

Monday  We went to CC as usual on Monday.  And it was a good day despite the dreary weather (cold and misting).  NOTE TO SELF: submit my paperwork for CC for next year before it's too late.  Yes, we are going to do CC again next year.  And yes, it will be at the same campus.  

Tuesday Tuesday was a relatively quiet day at our house regarding the leak.  No jackhammering.  No loud extraneous noises.  So we were able to do school at home. We started on time and had reasonably positive attitudes.  One kiddo got frustrated to the point of tears; i think this kiddo just doesn't like to write.  The physical act of writing is either tiring, difficult, or something.  Once the frustration passed, things were fine.  Even though things got better, by the lunch time, I was done.  We had contractors in and out throughout the day, discussing the different option we have for fixing the leak.  And since neither my mom nor I are plumbers, I had to do a crash course in fixing copper pipes under slabs.  A little stressful.

Wednesday  We got started on time Wednesday.  The kids, however, were easily distracted.  It didn't help that a carpenter was taking out one of our lower cabinets downstairs, complete with loud drill, hammer tapping a crowbar, etc.  We managed to get quite a bit done.  Then came piano lessons.  And then more discussion with the plumber and faxing the proposal to the insurance company for approval {side note: At some point in the leak/tunneling/fixing process, we are going to have to stay in a hotel.  The kitchen will be sealed off and therefore unusable.  SO the insurance company will put us up in a hotel and pay for 2 meals a day.} Then back to school.  At 5pm, one kiddo still hadn't finished their schoolwork.  Aarrrg.

Thursday Sooo.  Where do I begin regarding Thursday?

I found myself in the ER early Thursday morning with what turned out to be a gall stone.  I'd been having infrequent attacks over the last several months but always chalked up the pain and vomiting to my dinners not sitting well in my stomach for some reason.  Apparently I was wrong.  After waking up to stomach pain at 2:30 AM, I vomitted for several hours (usually throwing up makes the pain go away).  But the pain never really decreased.  Scott had to leave at 4:15 AM to take someone to the airport, so I was alone for most of the time (everyone else was still sleeping).  I started to kind of freak out because the pain wasn't going away and I was SOOO tired.  I called Scott around 6:30 and said I was still in pain and didn't know what to do.  He said he'd come home and take me to the hospital.  At this point, I started feeling silly. While my pain was constant and pretty miserable, it wasn't like I felt like I was dying from the inside out.  But Scott insisted I go to the hospital.  And I'm glad I did.  The ER doc said I was a textbook case of gall stones.  A sonogram of my organs agreed with the doc.  So a laproscopic surgery is in my future.  Came home around 10 AM to handle more leak business, including dealing with the insurance adjuster who was being difficult and making my mom upset.

Headed to a hotel that night since the plumber sealed up our kitchen in preparation for drilling through the slab in the kitchen.  Humph.

Friday The kids and I went to the Perot Museum of Nature & Science on Friday.  What a fabulous place!  It was a little chaotic because there were so many public school kids there on field trips.  But it was still a marvelous place.  I was still feeling pretty puny and tired from the previous days travails.  While we left a little earlier than the rest of our CC group, we had a wonderful time.

General Thoughts  I have no general thoughts this week other than I WANT IT TO BE ANOTHER WEEK ALREADY.  This week was the pits.  I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal hopefully by the end of next week.

That Week There was a Leak {week 20}

Monday  Monday was CC.

I always walk away astounded at all the information the kids are learning at CC.  I also always walk away knowing that I don't like most other people's kids.  Geesh.  It's obvious that a lot of these kids have never had to and don't know how to sit still or quiet in a classroom. Exhausting (and annoying) doesn't even begin to describe being in the classroom with some of these kids.

As for our future with CC, I think we'll stay at it and at the same campus. The benefits seem to outweigh the negative aspects, and I promise to try and quit whining about CC.  That includes a cease fire on whining about the bratty, disrespectful kids.

Here is Claire's class doing a science experiment on inertia:

Each Monday, every kid makes a short presentation to their class about a particular subject. Here is Claire presenting this past Monday on our family traditions surrounding Christmas:

Here is a terrible shot of Cade's and my Essentials class.

Tuesday  Despite the fact that I had two kids crying by 9:30 AM, Tuesday ended up being an OK day.  Jack & Claire were just about done by 11:30 (lunch time).  And Cade and I just had Essentials to work on after lunch (which was kind of a drag -- lots of hand holding)

Wednesday  We battled bad attitudes and frustration throughout the morning.  I've noticed that I have a difficult time stopping what we're doing to deal with the bad attitudes and frustration.  I have a tendency to push through it in an effort to accomplish tasks and get assignments done.  Doing this helps no one.  I need to stop the day when I sense a bad attitude or frustration taking hold in one of my kids.  Make things come to a grinding halt.  And address the issue.  And not pick back up with school until behaviors are properly addressed and dealt with.  I've also decided that I need to write down some action steps and consequences for bad attitudes and frustration.  Because in the moment, I seem to never be able to remember how to deal with these situations. I feel my frustration level rising and then I'm seemingly incapable of making wise, emotionless decisions.

Thursday & Friday  Thursday and Friday were a big loss.  On the previous Sunday, we found water leaking in the garage.  We incorrectly thought it was the refrigerator leaking and called a Sears repairmen out Monday morning.  He quickly informed us that the water was coming from the house, not the fridge. Uh oh.

Tuesday the plumber came out to assess the situation.  Wednesday a leak detector came out to locate the pipe that was leaking.  Thursday, demolition started in the garage (thankfully they dug out there vs digging up our wood floors inside the house).  Demo included a concrete saw and a jackhammer.  It was kind of loud inside, and my Mom needed me nearby so I could help with the situation.  So no school happened Thursday.  Thursday was also the day it snowed a little.  While the the poor public school kids had to sit inside, we ventured out for a little.  Jack stayed inside.

{here is some of the demo.  The hole is in the far back corner with a piece of plywood and a 5 gallon orange bucket on top}

By Friday lunch, the leak still hadn't been found and it seemed apparent that they were going to need to dig in the kitchen.  Beneath the cabinets.  Through the wood floor. Uh oh.

As far as school, we met Friday head-on with terrible attitudes, frustration at high levels, and lots of crying.  I was *done* by lunch.  In combination with the above leak problems, I was fairly useless.

General Thoughts  After a particularly rough day last week, I had posted on the Well Trained Mind Forum some issues I have with the way our homeschool runs.  I was seeking a group hug as well as some advice in my post, and I received both.

While I was thankful for the group hugs and encouragement I received, I was thrilled to receive a priceless reminder:  work with the kid(s) you have, not the kid(s) you want to have.  Basically, that reminded me that I may want an overachiever.  A student who works extremely hard and is self-motivated to learn and absorb all the information they can.  But I may not actually have that kind of kid/student.  I may have one that requires hand-holding. And prodding.  And reminding.  And... the list goes on and on.  I can wish that I had the ideal student(s), handle the kid(s) the way I would if they were that ideal in my mind, and I will continually be disappointed and frustrated (as will the kids).

I need to "mourn" the fact that I may not have kids that are carbon copies of my husband and me as young students.  Even though these are our kids, God has created them in a unique way.  And I need to treat them and handle them uniquely.  In a way that meets the kids where they are at. Not where I wish them to be.

On a different note, if attitudes, frustration, and crying don't stop, I may need to stop doing this.  As much as I want to help my children deal with their emotions better, I don't know if I can do that AND be with them every day.   I'm not sure how helping them would work if the kids were at school 7-8 hours a day.  But I can't continue to exist the way I'm existing.  I'm exhausted, frustrated, and grumpy most days.  If this is just a phase (this being our first year and we are still transitioning to the homeschool life), then I can push through.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  But I don't know that.

Humph.