Perspective

Sometimes it's hard not to dwell on things or focus on the bad or rough things going on in our lives. Sometimes it's hard to find the positives in the situations. But today, I'm looking back on a few things from the last few days, attempting to do just that.

Last week, Brutus (our year and half old pup) swallowed a bouncy ball whole - leading him to need abdominal surgery on Friday. He had all the necessary blood work and when Jas took him back on Saturday for a follow-up, we were informed he also has hookworms.

Had he not eaten a toy, we may not have known before he got really sick that he had hookworms. In addition (and to me, worse yet!), my children or any of our friends' children could have gotten them by playing in our yard barefoot!

Brutus refused to eat the special diet he was prescribed, even going almost 24 hours not touching it. He would eat the high-fat store-bought canned food, but really needed the low-fat stuff so I had to make him some homemade food. Frustrating and a bit time consuming.

However, we could afford to, and I have kitchen utensils like the instant pot and food processor to make it easier.

Ethan's laptop power button stopped working. No powering on, no putting in or waking from sleep mode. Not responding at all. The same laptop we purchased for him in December and needed repairs in January for a defective battery... And that he uses for math and German as well as research and other school things, and he was still finishing some things this week.

It's still under warranty for 3 months and is definitely a manufacturer warranty issue. The laptop worked otherwise (emergency power button worked but not recommended...). He only had 4 math lessons and one test left of Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 to finish and we were able to transfer it to the other laptop to finish. Geek squad handled the repair drop off and shipment smoothly and the parts are already being replaced! Should have it back in a few days.

Jas dropped his phone on the driving cracking the back of it.

When he dropped it, it fell just right so the cracked area is small and on the back. It's not affecting the function.

The truck's brake lights and rear turn signals keep going out due to connection issues. The truck's a/c keeps going out due to a faulty water temp sensor. In summer. In South Florida.

Jas is pretty handy around vehicles thanks to my awesome father-in-law teaching him, and he can fix them both for fairly inexpensive. Oh and the a/c is currently working again without the repair, so at least it's only randomly going out and usually only for a short time. Plus he will likely be able to replace the sensor this weekend.

We aren't finished with our 2016-17 school year and July is almost over.

I planned to go year round so this isn't really an issue. 😃 But also, we are finishing it up today! E finished math yesterday. Today they both finished writing their final history essay, their final creative writing paper and their final draft of their lesson 6 paragraph from writeshop 1. We may not be as far as I'd hoped with writeshop, but they both struggle some with composition, especially Ethan. In regards to that, I am happy with the progress we've made and know that we will pick it back up in September.

Since this week ends our official 2016-17 school year, we are taking next week off, followed by - by request, as I was willing to take more time off 😉 -  a few weeks of lighter work: A unit study on Ancient India and another on Ancient Japan (both of which include some history, science, art, language arts - we will try our hand at poetry and myths! - and even a little practical math) plus some life skills. A couple of neat field trips that go with our unit studies might be in the works. Oh and throw in a microstudy of the upcoming solar eclipse on 8/21 for which we may just take a road trip north to South Carolina and turn it into a mini vacation too. After all, we have a National Parks pass and that has me wanting to visit some parks. Anyone up for a camping trip to Congaree NP (which by the way has no entrance fee)?

I'll leave you with three of the best reasons I'm am trying to change my perspective and focus on the little ways things are good. These three amazing young men may drive me crazy even in our best days, but I love them so very much and they teach me as much as I do them.