Lately...

So Friday I will begin treatment for Hep C. If you'd like to follow that story, please visit my healing blog.

But I've not just been preparing for treatment. I've been very aware that we now have a schooler 2 doors down. It's a rental house and the family has an 18yo son and a 13yo daughter. Every afternoon, about 3:05, the bus comes down our street. Yuck. The sound makes me queasy. Nope, the bus was not a fun part of my day.

And so many friends on FB posting about back to school. I know, we are a minority, but it's just so "in your face". I'd imagine this is how my non-participating friends feel at Christmas time. Part of the angst is that we aren't active with an homeschool groups right now. We belong to 2, and they have email groups, but we've not gone on an outing in several months. The last one was to go ice skating. Truth is, G's just not interested. He's more of an introvert than his dad and I are. He has his 3 friends that spend weekends here, and he has many cyber friends as well. For now, that's meeting his social needs.

Very recently he's come to me bored a few times. Poor kid can't wait to have a job. For the money, of course, but also to have the responsibility. He's taken on a lot of little jobs at home, which is nice since I'll probably need him a bit more while in HepC treatment. He's just so mature for his age, and it's hard even for me to remember he's *only* 13. Being 5' 4" tall doesn't help! He and I are nearly eye to eye now. And if I call home, I have to ask, "what are you doing?" before I know if I'm talking to my hubby or my son.

Speaking of hubby, he's going to have back surgery again before the end of the year. It's bad. He can hardly walk. His leg muscles are just gone. He's waiting to see how I do with treatment before scheduling his surgery. This will be more invasive than the last. He'll spend 3 or 4 days in the hospital, and then be in bed at home for 3 weeks.

And my poor darling lost his grandmother 2 weeks ago. She was just a month shy of 90, and lived at home, on her own, until her last hospital stay. She went peacefully. After my MIL died 12 years ago, Grandma really became all the more a treasure to us. She was G's only great-grandparent, and I knew her longer than I knew any of my own grandparents. I'm thankful for all of the trips we were able to make to see her. She was about 2.5 hrs away and the trip was rough on hubby's back. We saw her last in March.

SCHOOL SUCKS

For the last 3 days I have been helping a friend that's in a true bind. Three of her children have been sleeping at my house. So come 6:30 in the forsaken AM, I have to get up. Then I have to wake them up. Then I have to feed them, tell them and help them get dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, shoes on, potty?, where's your booksack?, come on let's go! OH, and don't forget to take your "medicine" . Rush, rush, rush, rush, phooey! And then right smack in the middle of my day, I get to go back to retrieve them. Then it's rush them home, rush myself home, make dinner and get my family fed, relax for about half an hour, then go pick them up again to sleep at our house so I can get them to school the next day. All of the time they spend at home (all of 4 hours)is spent fighting over getting homework done.

For quite some time, these kids have made no secret of how they envy Gregory's not having to go to school. Lately, they've said they want me to homeschool them (Yeah, Right!). Yesterday afternoon my friend asked me some questions about the cost of homeschooling. So we talked about the basics - our state laws, using PS curic., using full curics., using bits and pieces, and a very basic description of unschooling. Truth is, I spend less than $50 per month on things that could be considered related to homeschooling (field trips, mag. subscriptions). She said her kids are always saying they want to be homeschooled. In fact they say they want me to homeschool them "because Gregory is so smart!" Wow. That suprised me. Not that they think he's smart, he is smart, but I was not expecting that to be their main reason. I'd love to see her homeschool. Now, she's one of the most mainstream people I know. We parent very differently. I'm sure she'd be a school-at-homer, but it would still be so great to see them out of school. I know she'd love to get them off medication. Over time she has stopped spanking (still punishing tho), stopped letting her babies cry (she's had 4 since I've known her), and even allows some co-sleeping now and then, so there is hope. Baby steps...