April In The Burbs

Sitting in our living room/virtual school room. Even before Covid hit, due to Dot’s medical condition, my mom was pressing me to homeschool the kids. I told her that it wasn’t my plan because I’m a high strung type of mom. All of the schooling for both kids would fall upon me - with their other parent working full time (out of the home at an office that I drove him to and from our whole existence living together and married). Darren and I agreed when Dot was a baby that we’d treat her the same as any other kid. She gets no real special treatment around here due to her condition.  I’ve enough on my plate, to be honest. Dot working hard during Art Class. Then Covid-19 hit and we were essentially forced into homeschooling or virtual learning. Their desk setups didn't last all year. They ended up taking classes anywhere but at their desks - whatever gets the job done, kids!  It’s still hard work, but definitely different than when I homeschooled myself in 7th & 8th grades whil...

 Dot has been seeing an ophthalmologist for most of her life, named Dr. Rainey.  Due to Dot having Panhypopit , her optic nerves could have been affected due to her condition - so we started seeing Dr. Rainey when Dot was about 1. Luckily, any of the eye issues that Dot might currently have, have nothing to do with her medical condition.  We were supposed to be patching her left eye for 2 hours/day to help strengthen her right eye which is lazy or has amblyopia. Lazy Eye runs in my mom’s side of the family and is certainly genetic for my Granny, mom, myself and Dot. We all have it! We haven’t been patching at all these last six months. I have some excuses as to why not, but honestly there’s no great reason. Dot doesn’t like it. I don’t like forcing her. She doesn’t want to wear it during school hours and to school meetings and she has speech 4 days a week and doesn’t want to wear it during that either. It’s just been a mess trying to get us to patch, honestly. 🤷🏻‍♀️ She...

Our stay at Shorty’s Caboose was better than expected, and from the reviews on Airbnb alone, I knew it would be a great place to visit for a couple of nights.  I really loved all of the small personal touches. They thought of everything you didn’t think to bring with you, which was a lovely touch.  We’ve stayed in a couple of tiny houses now, and I found this one to be the most well thought out as far as space goes. Also the bathroom is amazing as far as bathrooms in general but especially for tiny house you never find one that is that spacious and comfortable.  My kids super loved the bunkbed and the yellow ladder leading up to the cupola that overlooked Lake Limestone.  There was a fully stocked and well maintained fire pit, as well as BBQ to use. We opted to make smores at the fire pit and had hot dogs inside towards the evening. I was very impressed with the small but robust stove/oven, as well as the space available in the kitchen.  The beds were very com...

Virtual school has been a definitely challenge this year. Of course no one was expecting life to look as it does at this point in the pandemic.  No one even saw it coming, so we're all coping the best we can.  In the mean time, the kids weren't really into virtual learning from the start. We made a big deal about getting them their own desks and chairs and setting up them a school room. I wanted to build excitement and give them some resemblance of what we typically consider our "normal" school year. The best we could do at home on pretty short notice, with half the country buying up kids desks and chairs with the same thoughts of homeschooling or distance learning as we did.  At this point in school, we are pretty much doing classes anywhere around the house that the kids feel like it. I'm not a big fan on forcing them into sitting at their desk when they just don't feel like it, and it's going cause a lot of drama. I'm very of the attitude of let...