Around Here: School, Crazy, School, Loss

As always, the absence of blogging does not mean a slower pace of things around here but a greater pace of things.  It is worth mentioning also, the uninteresting but important news that I have done something to my hands/wrists/arms that is making them regularly/constantly sore, stiff, and numb.  I had an accompanying photo that I took one morning last week of my hand covered by my trusty bag of frozen peas, but it was just a little too depressing for a blog post.  But I'm trying some different things and hoping to get back to normal soon.

In light of that, here is a slightly shorter than usual "around here."

My buddy has been back in school now for about 3 weeks.  The first week or so back was rough, which I imagine we should have been braced for but we weren't, as our chilled out little guy came home more temperamental than I have ever seen.  Actually it was a lot like the stereotypical "young girl with PMS," with random outbursts, lots of stomping and pouting, and irrational rage that was highly disproportionate to the offenses.

He spent a week without Legos, 2 days without tv, weekends full of mandated naps, had several calm chats with me and Chris, and order seems to have been resumed.  I don't know what triggered him being so crazy at first but it has been nice to have my reasonable son back, and I feel like I've had a glimpse into Hannah's preteen stage, which will not be a favorite.  It seems to have been the usual settling in sort of thing.  We know that Year 2 is a pretty rigorous school year, so hopefully there isn't too much pressure on him already.  I guess we're in a  wait and see spot and hoping for the best.

Chelsea is back at work and working hard to finish up.  She presents and turns in all of her research next Wednesday, so there will be much celebrating after.

The Friday after she presents we are all headed to Nottingham for Chris and Chelsea to run the Robin Hood marathon, so it will be a week of wrapping up a few different major tasks that hours of hard work have been poured into.  It's a very big week. :)

As for Hannah, her first day of school is tomorrow, and of course I will be writing more about that after the fact.  Aside from the normal sadness that accompanies such a thing, we are all so ready for it.  She is ready, and I am having a hard time distracting her from how excited she is to get started.  It's time.

With the impending "free time" that I have ahead of me with Hannah starting school, I have, as always, loaded my plate rather full with various commitments.  I anticipate that I will have a bit of a hard time adjusting to not having my girl around in the mornings, and intend to stomp out my sadness by powering through those few hours with various projects.  More on that later.

A few weeks ago now we received the very sad news that Chris' grandpa JC had passed.  Chris went back to Kentucky to attend the funeral and be with his family.  There is almost too much to say about such a thing to even try to scratch the surface, but I can't leave it without saying that JC was a really good man who lived a very full life, and will be wholeheartedly missed.

That's it for now.

 I'll be be back soon and I anticipate it will be regarding preschool…