Day #29

As I have proclaimed many times, I have been dreading online schooling. I promised myself I’d go in with an open attitude and try to be optimistic with the girls. School starts tomorrow (today), so I figured we should check it out to make sure we knew what was what. We looked at reading first because duh, fav. Then math. Learning disabilities are hard and this sweetie struggled through a 30 question assessment. I really wanted her to have a break but wasn’t sure if she’d lose what she’d already done, so we powered through. This was an assessment so we weren’t supposed to help so they can be placed appropriately but it was frustrating for both of us as she struggled and really had no clue. She looks to me for help and I vacillated between putting her on the right path (multiply that, don’t add) and to make her best guess. Blah. 

Delaney is much more independent, but still only 8 and needs help sometimes, plus, I want to know what she’s doing. But Frankie gets super distracted, so I had to separate them and give Delaney headphones. 

Christian was off today and came up to do his homework and I thought how cute that these two were doing their schoolwork together. 

Addie checked her stuff out too, but we’ve only got the iPad and laptop so they can’t be all on at the same time. We took turns with piano and baths, and somehow Addie escaped all pictures. After lunch and a break, Frankie and I did tutoring but she was so done with school. My fav description of an adhd brain is that it’s like a busy downtown, with lots of traffic and one way streets, but instead of stoplights there are traffic cops, and in the adhd brain, all the traffic cops are asleep. I see her trying to focus but it is so hard. So hard. And I know she is mild compared to many, but it’s still difficult. We were very blessed that even though we were both frustrated, we weren’t mad and we were able to calmly persevere. By 3:00 I had done nothing but basic maintenance and helping children. And then we had piano lessons at 4:30 and it really works best if I sit there and take notes and help when they need it. While i sat, I blogged about our summer trip to palmyra so that was fun and brought happy memories. 

So it was a very child labor intensive day, but mostly good. We had leftovers for lunch and dinner, so that was easy. The girls and Christian have been planning an all night movie night. I told them I didn’t love it because their sleep would be thrown off and then they are hard to manage, but tomorrow (today) Chris is off also, so they hatched the plan that tonight (last night) would be their movie night and then Bubba is in charge of them all day, and Matt and I can stay in our room or do whatever mom and dad thing we wanted to. I am always happy when they get along and plan fun things and after our long day of hard work, I have the green light. 

I wanted to go for a run, so finally at 7 I was able to head out. I’ve been going for about an hour which was perfect because the sunset at 7:40. My goal was to increase my mileage this week, so to avoid injuries, only by10%, so I planned for 5.5 miles and I decided to head to the wharf. When I got to downtown, I meandered, and then as I headed up the hill from the wharf I noticed it was getting dark in a hurry and I saw that it was already 8! I still had 2 miles to get home, so I kicked it in gear and pushed myself to make it back before it was super dark. I’m already a super cautious runner and i hate being nervous, but it did help to fuel my sprints. I ended up going 6.8 miles, so a little over my goal for the day, oopsie. I got into the shower while it was cold and warming up to help my knee and hip which both felt a little wonky, and felt fine after. The movie crew was going strong when we had a date movie night in our room that lasted until 10 when we both fell asleep. Now I’m up for a middle of the night stint but heading back to sleep before Groundhog Day all over again tomorrow (today).