Harmony and Havoc: Weather weirdness and other bizarre happenings

This was a strange week. To start with, after consistent 80+ degree temps, we suddenly found ourselves in the 40s with snow being predicted. The snow never came, praise be, but it was plenty cold and I did not enjoy it. Our house is not young - bless its heart - and it takes a good 2 days for the radiators to really warm up enough to be noticeable. This meant school time being spent wrapped up in blankets and generally feeling uncomfortable. I think my homeschool kids were actually envious of their public school siblings who were warm and toasty in their classrooms.

On Tuesday I went to PT and had another ultrasound treatment on my shoulder. I don't know if it really helps or not, but I *think* it does. I've tried to be better about remember to ice it and do my exercises, but it still hurts like no other at night. She told me to baby it for one more week and that this Tuesday, we'll start to "push" it a little. I don't know if I like the sound of that...

Also weird was that after a nearly 12-year hiatus (save for some subbing here and there), I went back to work. It's only for a few hours a week, so it's nothing demanding, but it's still kind of surreal to be back in the saddle. I'm enjoying it, though. The speech pathologists I get to supervise are great women who seem to know what they're doing, so I think we'll have fun together.

And perhaps the most bizarre happening of the week was that our church hosted a back-to-school dance, and that despite my grumblings about it, we went and actually enjoyed ourselves. We made our teens sacrifice an hour of their precious Friday night to attend, and even though they probably won't admit it, I think they had fun, too. A couple of them stayed the entire time in spite of swearing they'd rather DIE than go to a church dance - a church dance with GROWN-UPS and with LITTLE KIDS!

On Saturday, Curtis and a young man we've hired to help us with projects around the house worked most of the day in the basement, trying to organize it and get rid of junk. Once upon a time, we had a fairly nice family room and school room in the basement, but once we quit homeschooling and the family room TV quit working, people quit going down there and it morphed into a giant storage area. Unfortunately, there is still another full day of work to do down there, so they're planning to get back on it this Saturday. We already have a truckload of stuff that will need to go to the dump first, too. We're going to use the schoolroom area as a temporary bedroom for Joshua, who will be here for 3 months before starting school, and then maybe for Christmas we'll get a new TV so we can watch movies together down there. It's the only room with a TV that's really big enough for our whole family. ;)

Also over the past week, I canned my own roasted red peppers for the first time (I usually just make them for a meal we're eating right away), I gave Rocket his first bath, and I got to go to Jackson and Beck's soccer games. Jackson scored 6 (!) goals, and Beck scored 2. I love my soccer-playing family (although I do have soccer to blame for my dang dislocated shoulder!).

This week I'll be working a few hours on a couple of days and restarting clogging after a 3-year break. I'm simultaneously excited and stressed about it - excited because it will be a form of exercise I can still do with my arm and I enjoy it, and stressed because it's a bad time of the week/evening for me, and I'm worried about all the things I've forgotten. I hope I'll do OK!

Friday marks two weeks until Joshua is home!