I know that it has been awhile since I posted – hope you all have missed me! I have been so super busy that I don’t even know where to begin to tell you all that has transpired within the past three weeks – I cannot even believe that it has been that long! I promise I will try to keep it brief while I get you all caught up on the happenings here at Life in a House of Testosterone!
School Update
Remember when I posted about the glimmer of hope on the horizon for J. and a possible change in medication and school environment? Um, yeah – not happening. While the increase in his medication has helped somewhat, a major change has been removing the XBox controller and his netbook from his room at 9:30 p.m. each evening to ensure he gets a good night sleep. He spent approximately five days at The Georgetown School before returning to his home school. J.’s issues are more behavioral than they are academic – and The Georgetown School just wasn’t equipped with the amount of staff that are trained to deal with behavioral issues and ADHD complications like his home school is – so back he went. Bedtime has been changed to 10 p.m. as well versus the 11 p.m. that it was before. With removing the game controller and the netbook, his brain has time to relax and normally he is asleep by 11:30 p.m. at the latest. Weekends are still a different story – but we are enforcing a 11 p.m. bedtime on weekends so that they aren’t sluggish when it comes time to get back to the school routine come Sunday evening. He’s been back at his home school for about a week now and, while there were a few small issues that week, all in all it was a good week and his teachers are all working with us to get him back on track academically and caught up with his peers.
Mind you – J. is still pushing buttons, especially with his brother and I. The little under-his-breath comments that only his brother can hear just sets T. off into an unbelievable rage. I have had to step in on several occasions and stop The Man Thing from punishing T. for something that J. has done because all he hears is the ruckus that T. makes when J. has pushed him entirely too far – he doesn’t hear the name-calling and bullying that J. does to T. beforehand.
The Man Thing
I have been worried about him for some time now. We thought his emphysema was getting worse since he was becoming tired so quickly and having a hard time breathing, so he made an appointment to see his primary care physician. It appears that at least two of the main arteries in his heart are blocked and require stents, possibly more. They won’t know until they use a dye solution to inject into his heart and see if there are any others that the tests may have missed. That is coming up this month and I have to admit, I’ve been a little more than worried about all the possible “what if” case scenarios. I mean, think about it – an unemployed woman for the past eight years with just a few gigs in between – two kids still in school. What happens to us if something happens to The Man Thing? Yes he has life insurance but that will only sustain the household for a brief period – then what? Where would we live? Where would I find a job? What would I do with the children after school? So all of this has been rattling around in my brain for the past few weeks as well – and making me just a little more crazier than usual.
Not to mention the fact that now The Man Thing is beginning to worry. He is a chronic over-thinker and worry wart to begin with, but the extreme tiredness and pains he has been having in his chest have his wheels spinning, and he is worrying about all the same things, not to mention the surgery itself is just scaring the crap out of him. This is a man who will literally fight you if you even THINK about coming towards him with a needle in your hand without warning him several times in advance and preparing him for it. So on top of my worries that I have been trying to keep to myself – I have been doing my level best to try and ease his mind and assure him that everything will be fine. Not easy to do, trust me!
My Creative Muse Shoppe
As a result of all that worrying about the “what if” factor, I have been trolling the internet for ways to make some money from home. I have left all but three of my active Yahoo groups (I belonged to 40+ last month) and the others I remain in for (a) informational reasons – such as the ADHD parenting groups or (b) as a result of being a owner, co-owner, or moderator for the group. I cannot even remember when the last time was that I had a chance to check any of my email!
While there are a lot of opportunities out there, the majority of them require what I call start up cash (a kit or package to purchase before you can start the business) and that is just something we do not have at the moment. So I am going to return to what I know and what I love – blog design and creating Facebook timeline covers for individuals and businesses. I have a blog set up for my business, My Creative Muse, and have been working on the designs and layouts for that as well as example layouts and such so that people can see firsthand what I can do with their blog and creating some free Facebook timeline covers. I was hoping against hope to be able to get the My Creative Muse Shoppe online and operational by April 16th but I think it may be closer to the end of the month before I am able to complete everything that needs to be done on the store site as well as the blog.
However, if you are reading this and thinking about a change for your blog or business, I would greatly (read: immensely, supremely, forever-in-your-debt) appreciate it if you could hold off just a wee bit longer and let me do the honors of outfitting your blog with some new clothing! Once I am ready for the grand opening, I will be doing a giveaway with some great packages and discount coupons!
Kids and Dogs and Spring Break Oh My!
T. has been just literally bouncing off the walls during the entire spring break this week (not that he isn’t like this normally) and I have to admit I am absolutely longing for the return to school so that our routines are back to normal.
Mollyanna (the dog) has developed some type of allergic reaction to heaven knows what … she’s got these round bumps on her hind quarters and one on the center of her back. They itch her at times, but she seems to just ignore them for the most part. What worries me though is that she is losing hair from these sites and the ends of the hair have little crust-like scabs on them .. even the vet has said that it is due to an allergic reaction, she just doesn’t know from what. We are keeping an eye on the problem and have changed her from Purina’s Beneful dog food to Nature’s Choice, an all-natural dog food without all the junk and fillers in it to see if that helps.
So there you have it! While there is more, that’s pretty much been life around these parts the past few weeks! Hopefully it won’t take me three weeks till I do another post!
