The Halls Are Quiet

It is strange and relaxing to be working in a school before the children come. It has a rare quiet that is absent the rest of the year. The building has been cleaned. The desks and chairs are ready. Once the school year starts, the buzz of the students remains in the building long after they leave each day.

But in the week before school starts, there is just the sound of industrious quiet. Each teacher working in their room preparing for a new group of students. We don't yet know which students will make us crazy, make us worry, make us proud or make us laugh. We can leave each day without mentally taking them home. Because I have 27 children, two of my own and 25 that I share.

But today, it is just the first day of the week before school. It is a fresh start. The possibilities are endless.

So, Was It A Migraine?

You bet your booty it was. Migraine number eleven set a new record, or personal worst. And it was bent on making me miserable. It was fast moving with all the accessories.

The good news is that I survived today, sans migraine. I really don't want to add to that record, so wish me luck in surviving the next three days without any migraine visitors.

No, It Cannot Be Another Migraine

So in the continuing saga that is my head, I am really racking them up this month. Yesterday was migraine number ten. And today might just be number eleven, or a new record. I visited the neurologist a few weeks ago and we are trying a new medication to prevent them. I don't think it is working, I have had six migraines since I started the drug 16 days ago.

What do you think?

I have tried all four of the classes of drugs that they use to prevent. We are now onto a new drug in one of classes as we work our way around again. My heart rate is great, but I think that is the end of the effectiveness of this particular drug. I am supposed to be on it for two months before we switch. I may not make it. And I go back to work on Monday.

He Finally Gets It

Quite a while ago I decided that sweetE would not go to Kindergarten when he was 5. We would wait. His birthday is so close to the cut off that it just seemed like a bad idea. Many people think that this is because he is my baby and I am not ready to let go just yet. But, in fact it has more to do with the students that I see and the difference between the youngest in the class and the oldest. The younger ones struggle so much more academically, socially and emotionally most of the time. There are exceptions to every rule, but sweetE has not given me any reason to believe he will be an exception.

This spring I was having to justify my decision to everyone, Ducky, sweetP, parents of sweetE's friends. Everyone thought he should go to Kindergarten. SweetP's reason was funny, he wanted to be sweetE's buddy at school. Ducky said he hated being the oldest. But one way or another sweetE was going to be the youngest or the oldest. I would rather that he have the extra maturity on his side.

Ducky has gone along with my plan grudgingly. So I have been repeatedly giving examples of why keeping sweetE back is a good idea. Ducky grumbles and agrees. But he never really got it.

Until he saw sweetE in action with his peers. Ducky is sweetE's assistant soccer coach. Last week, he came home and announced that he "finally gets it." After watching sweetE compared to the other kids on the team, he sees the difference that being so much younger makes.

I don't feel like I need to sell him on the decision to keep him back from Kindergarten anymore. SweetE gets to spend one more year in a small class where his teacher can take the time to help him settle in. Where he won't get lost in the crowd of kids and be overwhelmed by the expectations.

And he is still my baby after all. I might as well enjoy it while I can.

Hmmm, What Am I Getting Done Today?

Just for fun, I am tracking what I get accomplished today. Some days it feels like I don't manage a thing. So today, I will see what I do get done all day. I'll be updating all day, just for kicks and all.

• Sewed the tail back on Cuters the stuffed animal. What animal he is, is a bit of a mystery.
• Started and finished doing back to school clothes shopping for the boys. It is very handy that they are boys and young enough that it is easy to do online. And gotta love the Old Navy sale, I can buy slim jeans for my super skinny boys with adustable waistbands for $7 off the regular price.
• Did the dishes.
• Started one load of laundry, folded and put away another load.
• Dealt with too many wrestling, tickling, shrieking tournaments to keep track off. And it is just barely 10 in the morning. It could be a very long day.
• Assigned chores to be completed before lunch. We'll see if it happens, the boys have not been entirely cooperative lately.
UPDATE: They actually did their chores.
• Helped sweetP with a song on the piano. Can't say it was the highlight of the day with the whining and complaining, but he did finish the song and it is sounding better.
• Took a shower.
• Changed the sheets on sweetE's bed.
• Took off the sheets on sweetP's bed and my bed.
• Made 2 pepperoni and cheese sandwiches, toasted, to fill the order that my two little diners requested. There are no requests at dinner, you get what you get. Lunch, I take requests.
• Did the dishes, again. The sink is empty, a rare occurrence.
• Gathered wayward socks and other miscellaneous clothing items that never travelled to the clothes hamper. Shockingly, none of the belong to me. Okay, not so shocking.
• Dealt with the boy that threw the book, and the boy that was hit by the book. Thought about the end of summer and fewer of these incidences once school starts.
• Sorted clothes and started another load of laundry. Folded and put away earlier load. The dresser drawers are getting full again.
• Made lemonade for the boys.
• Made brownies because they sounded good and I intended to make them Saturday. Do you see how far behind I am? SweetE helped and got to crack the eggs for the first time.
• Checked status updates on facebook and checked for new blog entries. I also investigated the delight of the day at Delight.com. They have such cool stuff.
• Took a quick break to catch my breath. Better go get a glass of water, I haven't been drinking today.
• Ate a brownie with sweetE. Yum.
• Folded and put away another load of laundry and continued the cycle with a new load started.
• Matched socks and sent them to their respective rooms.
• Played two races of cycling on wii sports resort with sweetE. I tired out my virtual mii.
• Vacuumed the family room.
• Spot treated the spot on the carpet where Velcro peed. His parents fault for forgetting to put him out one night.
• Yet another load of laundry started and one set of sheets folded.
• Changed clothes just in case I had to act as assistant coach for sweetP's soccer practice.
• Took sweetP to soccer practice, didn't get my exercise, the regular assistant was there.
• Harvested a head of broccoli from the garden.
• Made a super yummy and nutritious dinner, that the children only slightly resisted.
• Did the dishes again.
• Trimmed the dead flowers off one of my hydrangeas and trimmed the shrub next to it while I was there.

Still coming up, making sweetP's bed and my bed, getting the boys into bed, finishing the laundry and straightening up downstairs some. Then I hope to settle down and read for a while. Or more likely collapse.

Conversation with an Almost 5 Year Old

"Mommy, why don't our bodies come apart?"

"Because then you would lose some of the pieces."

"Do they come apart when you die?"

"Sort of."

"Unless you become a zombie."

"Why do they put dead people in the ground?"

"So we can't smell the stinky."

"But can they smell their own stinky?"

"No, their noses don't work anymore."

"Why, because they fell off?"

"Something like that."

Later...
"Mommy, don't cut off my toes."

"Why would I cut off your toes?"

"The knives are right here."

"I wouldn't cut off your toes, you need them."

And the most frequent conversation....
"SweetE, why did you [fill in crime here]?

"I dunno."

Oh, My Throbbing Head

It is two in the morning. I am awake. I went to bed at nine. I was laying in bed wondering if death was a viable option. I was also wondering what kinds of brain surgery I was willing to endure and with what long term effects to not have to endure any more headaches.

I have had four migraines in less than one week. I am not so much living as existing. When I am not having a migraine I am anticipating when the next one will hit. I am afraid to do too much and then trigger one. I am becoming afraid to live.

The worst part is that I have been being good. I have been going to bed on time. I have been getting my 8+ hours of sleep. I have been valiantly drinking my water. We all know that I hate drinking water. I have been doing my best to not stress or get grouchy.

I finally had a drug that had them under control. I only had one mild side effect that I could totally live with. Except there was also one major side effect that would have been detrimental to my long term well being. So I am no longer taking the drug. And now, I am spending half my life with a headache and the other half waiting for one.

I go in to see the neurologist again in three weeks. I really wonder how I will make it that long. I wonder how many options are left to explore. I have tried so many different drugs to prevent them. None had worked well or they had side effects that were problematic. There was the drug that if I sat down in the afternoon, I could not stay awake. There was the drug that gave me daily headaches. Then there were the ones that just didn't work.

All I know is that if this continues I will require a padded room because I will lose my mind.