Thursday, April 21, 2016

I like making plans.  Planning my new routines, planning my garden, planning holiday meals, planning all the things I want to learn next year.

The people in my life can sometimes find this...  overwhelming.

When we realized that we were going to be shifting back to full-time homeschooling next year, I started bubbling over with extremely enthusiastic questions about what books/activities/field trips/videos she might be interested in exploring next year.   I very quickly realized I was going to have to keep a very tight rein on myself or I'd wind up seriously stressing Kiddo out.  Every time I wanted to make a new suggestion or ask a new question about next year, I'd write it down in my notebook, or email it to myself, or search for info online and bookmark it.   I asked the occasional question when possibilities popped up that she'd need to register for now, but after a few of those I let her know that I was doing my best not to overwhelm her with questions and asked her to let me know when she was ready to talk about next year.

It has been so hard.  I have been *so* good.   And today I was rewarded!

She bounded into the room, this afternoon, to tell me that she'd been reading one of her books on comic-creation and is feeling really excited about next year and is full of ideas about wanting to immerse herself in comic-creation, US politics, economics, Norwegian, and math (later on she added mythology and literature to the list).   I asked how I can best support her and she said she'll be looking for suggestions for great books on those subjects, and help not overscheduling herself.  Which means...  we get to start making plans!

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Odds and Ends

Even while aspects of perimenopause are extremely challenging, there are also so many things going well.

My new yoga routine is awesome. The new evening routines are *phenomenal*. We're making such great progress with our home repair projects. Our RPG this weekend kicked ass (I killed something like 5 magic spiders and got a chance to explore who my character is during her off-hours. It was such fun!). I'm sticking to my healthy breakfast and dinner plans easily (lunch is hit or miss, depending on how well I stocked the fridge over the weekend). My usual "Learning in a Student-Led Setting" spiel at this week's Open House went really well. I'm behind on email a ridiculous amount, oh my God, but I should be able to catch up in the next few days, now that school's over for the week.

I'm also really appreciating certain aspects of my current stage of life. I'm halfway through a root canal and haven't been thrilled with this dentist's manner and judgement (my usual guy doesn't do root canals and this is the first time I've tried this new person) but thought I could deal with it to at least get finished with this one process. Nope. I went back today for the second half, and she was patronizing, defensive, dismissive of my concerns and was doing her best to run roughshod over my clearly stated treatment decisions. So I walked out. That is something I would never have been able to do in my 20s. Go, 44 year old me! Of course, now I need to spend some time tomorrow finding a new root canal person so I can finish this damn procedure.

Next week is Spring Break, and I have very few plans so I'm making plans with myself to sink deeply into relaxation and not to add anything else to my schedule (except possibly a root canal appointment). I took a week or so off FB (except for doing work publicity stuff there) and then found that if I made some careful choices about how and when I use it, I can visit occasionally in a way that doesn't make me nuts. But I think limiting my online time as much as possible during Spring Break is feeling like the right choice.