Simple Life

Short version: Today's Children's Hospital visit didn't give us answers. We are waiting on labs and a new specialist.  The MRI was clear, and Lily is still lactating (for more on that fun fact, read on...) About 10 days ago, Lily emerged from her therapists office, shyly.  We are close.  She tells me everything. For her to be shy was unusual.  Turns out, she's been lactating - for about 3 weeks. She didn't know it wasn't normal and was really embarrassed about the whole thing.  During school she'd feel the leakage begin and just hope that it wouldn't show through her shirt.  She talked with her therapist about it - only to discover that, it is not normal for a 15 year old to lactate, unless pregnant or having just given birth. Lily has never even seriously held a boys hand, let alone being pregnant.  Barring divine intervention, this was a new problem.  I called her doctor (and bought the poor girl nursing pads).  A blood test revealed high...

It has been nearly three years since I last had the courage to post.  The original purpose of this blog, to detail our lives as we lived overseas, faded when we returned to the US.  Once home, I couldn't bring myself to post, not with any integrity.  Everything I wrote once home went through a filter of self protection before I published. I worried more about offending or upsetting someone by my post than being honest and sharing, so, I quit.  I focused instead on my schooling, work, etc.  I've missed this blog.  Writing it became therapeutic to me. I've never been to confessional in a church, but I imagine that the way I feel after writing and sharing is much the same as one feels after confessional.  There is an unburdening, a lightness.  I still feel the weight of my words and thoughts, but much less so knowing that they are being carried by many and no longer mine alone.  I can't honestly say that this post will be the first of many....

Parenting brings obstacles and challenges like none that we've ever dealt with before.  My first was when my son was born.  He was the most difficult baby I'd ever come across, and I got to be with him all the time .  I remember how defeated and discouraged I was, and how I thought to myself, "I can't do this.  I can't parent this child, make him happy, stay sane.  I don't even want to".  I didn't know how I was going to get through his infancy and this obstacle felt like the greatest obstacle of my life. We got through it, I got through it.  Time passed and allowed me to forget the depth of the struggle so that when the next challenge arose, that one felt like a new biggest and worst.  The new challenge was now the thing that was going to end all civilized thought in my head.  Again, we got through.  Time and again, challenges, the biggest and worst, have arisen.  Each time I have thought, "How? What am I supposed to do with this...

Many of you already know that Jason and I decided to buy a house in the Tri Cities.  This goes against everything we've been saying since we got here.  Our plan was 2 years, 3 at the most.  The desire to leave the Tri Cities is still very strong, but, it won't be happening.  We had a couple life events that told us that we needed to stay put for a while.  We may still leave, but it won't be for the next few years - probably not until the kids graduate high school. The home we bought is great for several reasons.  It gives us just enough space to live and not be on top of each other all the time, it is located 3 minutes from the middle school so the Lily can just walk to school and home, and, it was cheap!  Another benefit of this house is that it has 1,000 little projects and fixes I'd like to do, so I'll stay busy (and drive Jason crazy).  It is not our dream home, but it is a good "for now" home.  Can you believe this is the 6th house we'...

I think I'm starting to like my kids... It is Friday night and I've just attended a 3 day writing workshop intended to help some of us teacher types wade through the scary, wordy, commandments known as Common Core.  (Fearless leader, if you are reading this, fabulous job!  I am only a fraction as scared as I was before the workshop!  Only problem I'm seeing is that before the learning, I didn't know how little I knew.  Now I am fully aware of my ignorance and potential incapabilities…) One of the activities that we did in the room paired us up in groups of two and had us introduce our partner, answering these three questions: best job you've ever had, best place you've ever lived, and riskiest thing you've ever done.  I fretted over that first question.  Best job I've ever had?  Two jobs came to mind before I started to answer.  The first thought was…which one?  Then, it dawned on me, neither job was my current one, or being a teacher at al...

It's been a while; a little more than 6 months to be inexact.  I was looking for a word to describe why I haven't written - a single word that could sum up my state of being in a succinct way that would leave you to say, "Oh, I get it.  No further explanation needed."  That word may be out there, but it is beyond  my reach at the moment.  Here is what I came up with: NEUTRAL.  Weird, until I really started thinking about it.  Neutral means  having no strongly marked or positive characteristics or features .  The synonyms for neutral are:   inoffensive ,  bland ,  unobjectionable ,  unexceptionable ,  anodyne , unremarkable ,  ordinary ,  commonplace .   In other words, my attitude for the last 6 months.  I have a couple really good excuses that totally make sense, but really?  Who cares.   I am back, possibly in limited release, we'll see.  (I have missed this blog dearly.)  ...

I was really fortunate to face the school year with two job offers.  Living in the area that I live where there seems to be more teachers than jobs and everyone knows everyone, I was concerned that I would not find a position for myself.  The first job I was offered was to teach Math and Science with what I could tell was a great team of women at a really low income school.  The job was only .6, so not full time, but it was supposed to go full time before the year started.  I accepted.  I love science.  Not so much math.  I can do it but it bores me...I didn't care.  I was excited.  Then I got the offer to teach full time, language arts.  The team was less inviting but the day in, day out seemed better.  English over math? Yes please!  So I switched.  I have wondered since then if I made the right choice and I am often left in the corner thinking...no. Here are the blessings: first, two job offers in a pretty competitive...