May 13, 2013

Just checking in. We all had colds over the last couple of weeks, so I had to get through that. I feel like all creative progress has been slowed, because I can't write through a headache. My fatigue has been so overwhelming today that I had to have a little meltdown of frustration and discouragement before fixing the kids their lunch. I am taking a multivitamin, Floradix iron and herbs, vit c, garlic, vitex berry, eating decent and seeing no improvement whatsoever. Staying off the gluten keeps me from extra discomfort and inflammation. But I can barely drag myself through my day on 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

It doesn't help that the house is torn apart because we knocked down a wall in our living room. My living area is 10 by 16, and it has felt cramped no matter how I rearrange it. We expanded the office nook into a dining area that we never used, and now have an extra 9 by 17 room that feels much more open. It's going to take a while to finish the drywall work, repaint everything, carpet it (because it's two different types of flooring and uneven), and then arrange the furniture. We will have desk space for 3 computers, Mac's business stuff, and a long table for my crafting/kid art. I'm painting the long wall a dark color like Martha Stewart Poppy Seed or something similar. The rest of our walls are Pewter Tankard (from Sherwin Williams). I want less color and visual clutter (no more granny chic and colorful boho), so I'm going with a rustic industrial palette of white, grey, black, brown and mustard.

The kids are going through one of their unmotivated periods. The only way I can get them to do anything is to dangle screen time as the reward. It's not even really hot yet, and they don't want to be outside. In springtime past, I would hardly even see the kids during the day, because they'd be out in the backyard for hours. That would be more convenient right now. W & N have watched 4 seasons of an X-Men cartoon on Netflix in the last week or so. I'm needing more structure that I don't have to orchestrate. I'm thinking about signing up with Veritas Press self-paced history again. G & J are working through all of http://more.starfall.com, and the new first grade content. She is still not reading, though she knows some sight words and phonics. J is picking up on several sight words; he will probably start reading sooner than she will. I'm still really surprised with all the world's technological advances that I haven't found better than Starfall and Veritas. Apparently, there's no money in educational content.