I wrote most of this on Tuesday and finished it now, so read it as though it is Tuesday. You can do that. It's dated as though it posted Tuesday. I can do that.

The less I blog, the more I don't blog. Or something like that. The longer I go without blogging, the harder it is to do it. Besides, all my good intentions get sabotaged by life. It is very sad when life has to impede important things like blogging.

I didn't even blog about Spaz' 14th birthday. But I scanned the old pictures I was going to use, so that was something.

There is no way to get this blog caught up with my life, so I am just going to sort of start in the middle here. Here's an overview of the past week:

*I worked on the editing job I have mentioned. I really enjoy this and would like to pursue it, though I'm not sure there will be more work where this job came from. For that reason, part of me doesn't want to finish it, beacuse... well, when it's done, it's done, and then what will I do for fun? I do obviously need to finish it, probably within a few weeks, and I still have quite a ways to go.

*I trained for and started my new 2nd-shift "boring job to help pay the bills". I am doing data entry for a school portrait company and worked my first full shift last night, 4-12. I will be doing this 4 or 5 nights a week through mid-November and then the job will probably end. This will be a huge adjustment for all of us, since I have not held a job outside the home in 23 years of marriage. Obviously it will have an impact on our homeschool as well. I could write a lot more about this, but I'm thinking I have a decent chance of actually finishing and posting this, so I'll not hinder my odds.

*One of the kids finished a thorough and much-needed summer-long bedroom overhaul-- not redecorating, just weeding out, cleaning, & organizing. Yes, it took all summer to do that. This has resulted in a really nice bedroom that is the cleanest & neatest in the house and a school/craft area just beyond that is now the sloppiest and worst. There are boxes and piles of stuff all over and it just pretty much makes me want to cry. All my delusions hopes of cleaning & reorganizing the already-messy-&-cluttered schoolroom for our new school year have pretty much been flushed away.

*My brother (age 45) had a stroke one week ago and is still in the hospital, though doing quite well. The stroke was in the cerebellum, which affects balance & fine motor. His speech and reasoning were not affected, for which we are all thankful. In my family, losing verbal or logical ability would be like... uh, trying to think of a good analogy here... like an athlete losing a leg, or an artist losing vision, or a politician losing his pork fund, or something. Fuzz and I drove 1-3/4 hours each way to visit him on the second day, which turned out to be the worst day possible to visit. Six hours at the hospital yielded one 4-minute conversation in which I'm sure it was all he could do to not ask me to just leave so he could sleep and get rid of his pounding headache. However, we had a very nice 20-minute phone conversation on Sunday which more than made up for it. He is even posting his own Facebook updates now, which means I don't have to any more.

*A major crisis erupted with one of my young adult kids. Actually there have been crises with this particular kid for about 5 years, and they just seem to get more serious. It ain't over yet, either. Said kid needs to be whacked upside the head with a 2x4 to knock some sense back into that good brain. Said mom needs to cry less and wander around the house less and run the mouth less and pray more.

So that's been life around our house.

I had decided a few weeks ago that we would start our "official" school year (which differs from our "summer school" in matters of quantity, frequency, and structure) on September 1. We wouldn't be full swing until the 21st, but we'd start our structured, school-focused days nonetheless. When I found out sortly thereafter that my job would start not on the 24th of August as I had first been told but on the 31st, I considered deviating from the Sept 1 plan, but decided to go ahead with it anyway. "Time to adjust" is overrated, right? I'm sure people start a new job one night and a new school year the next morning all the time. And it isn't as though I would be tired or anything, since my job would entail sitting in front of a computer for eight hours. May as well just start everything all at once.

So last night --I mean this morning-- when I got home from my first night of work, I wrote a little sign on our message marker board for the kids that said, "Happy 1st Day of School!" I think it was almost more for me than for them. I needed to get myself into the mode and the mood so that when daylight came, I would jump out of bed all ready to start a structured day of intentional learning.

Or not.

Some seven hours later, after about an hour of hitting the snooze button, I dragged myself out of bed. The kids, of course, were not yet up. According to the loose "schedule" I'd typed up, I needed to get them out of bed about 45 minutes later. I made coffee and wrestled with the devil on my shoulder throughout my shower. After said shower and a couple cups of coffee, I still felt dead on my feet.

I looked at my marker board note. I listened to the devil on my shoulder. I wiped off the marker board and wrote a new note:

"Happy Last Week of Summer Break."

Because I am flexible like that.

The kids were rather elated. I was rather relieved. It was a wise move.

Note from Wednesday night, when this was finished & posted:  My 2nd night at work went well and I had tonight off. The kid crisis has been pretty well averted, at least for the time being. Hubz has hired a friend's daughter to come and help me take care of the mess downstairs. I haven't done a lick of editing yet this week. My brother is still doing great. The kids and I are not even doing "summer school" and are  thoroughly enjoying having one last week of summer break.