The days of summer vacation will soon come to a close and I find myself playing catch up as usual. Last night I did some late night ordering of school supplies. We decided last week to send both kids to school in person this fall. Masks are optional, cases are soaring to December levels in our county, and hospitals are about 90% full. To say I second guess our decision 10 times a day would be an understatement!
We know that if things get really rough we can pull the kids out if needed. Sadly, all the school fees (around $300) would be lost AND we would have to spend an additional $300 on curriculum, but we are praying they will be able to stay in school.
This is T's last year
of elementary school and we love her school. We worked hard to get her
IEP in place this spring (when cases were plummeting) and we feel like
we have to give it a try. This fall T is excited to continue doing her weekly art lessons but is hoping to add in some music lessons (not sure if voice or piano at this point) and gymnastics. She will also meet with her therapist and her mentor each week. She will have a full plate!
M is excited (and nervous) to be a part of the school cross country team this fall. He will be in 6th grade! Wow! He is also going to be in band and choir. Outside of school he is going to be taking private martial arts and strength training lessons. In addition to all of this, he will be meeting each week with his therapist and mentor.
Brandon has had a very eventful summer with his eyes. After his retina detachment in Feb 2020 we knew the other retina could struggle and detach as well. In July this happened. He had one minor procedure right as we were able to leave for MO (more in a future post on this) and then his retina fully detached shortly after we came home from MO. He had to have the big surgery where he again had to be face down for almost a week. The detachment was so severe that he again had to have the oil procedure which means that he will have another surgery in October or November to remove the oil and put in a gas bubble. He will have to be had down again after that. Poor guy. For those keeping track, he has now had 5 surgeries since Feb 2020! Sadly, looking through oil eliminates most of his vision. This is especially sad since most of his vision came from this eye. We are hopeful that the next surgery will restore quite a bit of vision. In the meantime, Brandon is unable to drive, read actual books, read his phone without a magnifying glass, or read words printed on copy paper. We purchased an iPad which he turned to black mode. Black mode provides the most contrast and allows him to read (black background white text) ebooks, emails, documents, his sermon outline etc. The eye is very fragile after surgery, so Brandon was not able to do much activity for the first month of recovery. This week he went biking for the first time in a long time. We are blessed to have a great trail so close to our house so Brandon can safely bike without stellar vision.
I am the cruise director navigating all the crazy haha. The kids had summer school and park and rec this summer which really helped by allowing me time to get church work done. Most of my summer was spent recruiting volunteers. We lost so many during the covid closures and building back the teams has been so challenging. I am happy to report that we have enough volunteers to relaunch ministries this fall. We are very bare bones in two of the three ministries I staff which is scary and stressful, but I worked as hard as I could to recruit, so we have to move forward with what we have. This week had three volunteer training sessions for nursery team, iGnite team, and Sunday School team. Today I am forcing myself to take a day off of church work so I can focus on other things like groceries, laundry, blogging, cooking, school supply prep (sharpening 50 pencils and 20 colored pencils takes a while), and other to do items. I am able to get all these things done because the kids are currently staying with Brandon's parents in MO. They have been there a week already, but it feels like a day because of how quickly time flies when you are working. I have lofty plans of sorting bins, sorting toys, rearranging the basement, organizing cabinets, scheduling appointments, responding to emails hahaha... we will see what gets done in the end. Every thing that does get done is a blessing and we are so thankful for the respite after 17 months of kid time all the time.
Hopefully I can get s few posts up in the next few days. I have several pictures uploaded which is the hardest part.
No comments:
Post a Comment