The beauty of homeschooling when you are recovering from surgery

 

 

I love this meme. I've seen it from time to time on Facebook. The hilarious thing is that the photo in the upper left corner belongs to a homeschool mom I met once... Tish, over at FreeplayLife. I believe that the photo is of Naturalist and Golfer, taken several years ago.

 

I think that all of the pictures really do the whole societal opinion of the homeschool 'thing' justice. And, as painful as it is to admit, the "What I really do" is soooo true! I am a curriculum junkie!

 

SEE?

 

This is our work area as of this morning. A lot of these books, workbooks and so forth, have remained untouched these past three weeks. We've done just a bit, here and there. I went on a curriculum binge just before the surgery, and feel incredibly guilty that those new items sit with just the first couple of pages worked through... :( But. Then again, boredom has a way of getting the kids to explore in here just the same. Puzzles have been worked, tangrams played with, unifix cubes counted, art created (see Rylan's Day of the Dead 'skeleton'?), and words spelled. We haven't done much, but the kids continue to learn just the same. Colin explored new stuff I put on the iPad, and is playing with a geoboard app constantly.

 

This surgery has knocked me on my ass... I knew it was going to be intense, but you never really know how your body will respond until you live through it. My plastic surgeon is a miracle worker - and his handiwork has made this recovery just a little more difficult than average. With my blessing, he made things high and tight - with the emphasis on tight. There is a lot of stress on my incisions right now because of this, and each episode of swelling is gut-wrenchingly painful. Each day during these past three weeks has felt different... levels of pain, discomfort, energy, ability to move... I'm healing pretty well, but the swelling and massive discomfort continues. I am constantly holding myself in a guarded manner (so yeah, no freedom from back or shoulder pain as of yet...) as I have been fending off assaults from the kids - errant elbows or shoulders, hard hugs that I have no warning are coming... I can't begin to explain how bad it hurts to be nudged in the chest right now. I literally want to puke on the spot when it happens.

 

I went clothes shopping with my mom a couple nights ago, and got some long-sleeved running shirts and then a couple of normal shirts. Shopping is a lot more enjoyable, now that things fit a little more properly. Yet my spirits are down since I can not fathom I will ever make it past this stage of discomfort and pain. Running seems absolutely impossible at the moment. Walking fast does too. As does jumping, stair climbing, wall push ups, chest presses, reaching above my head, walking the dog, carrying a child... carrying anything... I feel pretty much useless right now.

 

But my boobs look great!

 

I can see my feet! I can zip my jacket! I can wrap a towel around me. And it STAYS!

 

I don't know how these wonders play into the fact that I've been blowing off schoolwork - other than I need to get better about giving myself the mental gift of grace, give myself the time to heal, and come back better and stronger than ever.

 

Then I can tackle Algebra, phonemes, Mesopotamia, derivatives of density, Fern & Wilbur, letter recognition and Rudyard Kipling like nobody's business. BTW... where are those safety goggles??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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