Week 11 ~ Hello November!

Wow! It is November already. This is potentially the busiest, craziest month of our entire year. The Nutcracker is always the first weekend of December. This year that weekend actually starts on Friday, November 30. Even though the Nutcracker will only be about 5 days early this year, it feels like it is very early. I am mostly excited about it being early so that we can embrace Christmas the whole month of December, but it means that life is taking on a very fast pace -- starting now.

I feel like I have been dragging and weepy for weeks. I know lots of my emotions are tied up in our estranged daughter's transition into adulthood. Goldilocks turns 18 three days after Christmas. We will start the new year without any legal responsibility for her. That is a relief in the respects of not having to jump through tons of hoops that her doctors, case workers and teachers demand. Their demands are often misplaced, confusing, conflict each other and are unhelpful to Goldilocks or to the rest of us. Meanwhile, Goldilocks has cut us off completely. She even managed to avoid her IEP meeting last week so my husband was not able to see her at school. This is so typical of RAD and FASD young adults. I have heard about young adults disappearing for months or even years at a time. This is such a painful journey!

One would think that this would be the time to hunker down and try to stay the course. It is definitely not the time to start new goals. Or is it? I have found time and time again that making a change when things are crazy often takes hold the best in our family, for some reason. This time, I am making a personal goal to lose a bit of weight and get my energy back. Recently, my husband and I were talking about our goals for the next 20 years of our marriage. I want to be here and with full energy and health to enjoy our future. I spent the first 20 years of our marriage being a hardworking mom of special needs children. I have loved that role very much, but now I have a bit more time to pursue my own interests (a bit more time, I still have much parenting to do). I really do very little for myself. I honestly don't really know how to put myself first and it even sounds a bit icky to me to say that I should put myself first sometimes. I am going to try to keep up with my exercise plan, low calorie diet and really enjoy my walks which is my main "me time". I am feeling a bit better already.

Just so my Mom doesn't worry about me starving myself. This was my breakfast most days this week. It is 254 calories of yummy goodness.  (Strawberries, tomato slices, one egg and one oz of bread)

Highlights from our Week ~ We had a balmy Halloween. We did not trick or treat. I am a bit tired of seeing posts about how teens are going to commit crimes, drink and drive or do drugs if they can't go out and get candy. Please...what is the excuse for the other 364 days of the year? That doesn't mean I have a real problem with teens trick or treating. I just think that is a very dumb reason for encouraging trick or treating in the teen years. Because dance messes up Halloween for us every year, we never are able to throw a party. So, we went to our favorite street which was closed to traffic and stuck to the middle where all of the adults and teens hung out. We enjoyed the decorations and costumes. It is a carnival atmosphere every year. We then picked up a pizza and took it home to enjoy it and our bag of candy that we bought at the store.

Me as the crazy Mad Hatter

Tim as Mr. Spooky, Husband as a Munchkin Game character and Dean as an Aztec Warrior

Anne as a Vampire

There was a sale at the local dance store, so we decided to purchase three (!) pairs of pointe shoes. Anne goes through a pair every six weeks. Each pair only lasts for about 30 hours of dance time. Yikes -- the cost of dance is overwhelming at times! She has been very busy sewing straps on pointe shoes this week.

Tim took cupcakes that he made with Grandma to his brain injury day program's Halloween party. He was a knight for that occasion.

Wednesday is our new crazy day. We have condensed several weekly standing appointments to one day and now spend the whole day on the road. This means that on three other days we will be able to  stay home until the late afternoon instead of having an interruption during class time every single day. We are trying it for the month of November. I sure hope it works, since I really need larger blocks of time at home for the kids to get through their work peacefully and at their own pace. Our day is so scheduled that both kids have to be on the road the entire day, because I do not have time to run home to pick up whomever is needed next in between appointments. This means Wednesday is waiting room school for each teen. They liked it this week.

Meanwhile I was playing with settings on my phone.

We finally started Conceptual Physics this week. We are using several books but started with this one! We love it so far.

All other subjects are rolling along. I am linking with Weekly Wrap-Up.

Blessings, Dawn