Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary.
1. Apologies for the slow blogging this week. It was our first full week back to homeschooling and all of the activities that go along with it. I had forgotten how busy I am raising my remaining 5 children! Particularly hard is getting my work schedule down as well as the homeschool schedule. Something has to bend or break. This week I just put aside some of the work to get everything else done.
2. Next year I will have a high school freshman and a high school senior. I can’t believe it!
3. I’ve been considering going to see a grief counselor although I wonder how that would help me other than taking $40 or more just to deal with something that will eventually work itself out. I remember 23 years ago or so, being at the bedside of my beloved grandpa when he was dying and it took months to get that image out of my mind. But it did eventually go because my day to day life didn’t include him. With my mother that is different. She was a big part of my daily life for the past decade. Throughout the day I can see her glassy eyes, struggling for breath and I remember the horrible smell of death (that no one really talks about that much). I’d like to just quit having those types of flashbacks.
4. Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame died this week from cancer. She had the kind of death I had envisioned for mom.
5. Farrah Fawcett, Mary Travers, Patrick Swayze – does it seem like everyone dies from cancer? What’s the scariest is that some of these cancers have no symptoms until it is literally too late to treat them. I feel a little hopeless about that. To the point that Mr. Pete and I have started joking about it. Every ache, pain, or burp I’ll pass off as “ovarian cancer.” Get the hiccups? “Oh it’s just my ovarian cancer.” We laugh about it. But it does seem that inevitable.
6. We did make it to the cemetery this week to do the stations of the cross. Our local Catholic cemetery has the most beautiful stations, and after you finish saying them you are at the foot at this massively huge cross. Unfortunately, this year we showed up when the weed wacking guy was there and he proceeded to wack away while we were there. Also they cut down the beautiful shade trees that lined the way of the stations. The weed wacker guy told me that they had outlived their 25-year life span and were diseased and weak. They took them down and planted these Ohio pear trees. Apparently these will grow upwards but not be as bushy and give a clearer view of the cross itself. We’ll see.
7. The horrible economy took another bite out of our lives this week. Long-time readers might remember that during Calvin’s senior year, he went to the career day for the local fire department. Calvin couldn’t apply because he hadn’t graduated from high school yet. It turns out that all of the young people who did apply and get in lost their jobs this week – the entire rookie class. Calvin felt grateful to have the job he has even though it’s a long commute. Long-time readers might also remember the art classes at the local community center my kids go to. Those are in danger of being scratched due to budget cuts. Izzy and Noah are in a clay class this session, but that might be it for the year. More of that hopey changey thing I guess.
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