Theater of the Soul

Now that I’ve gotten this joint back up and running, I guess it’s time for a real update. So, what exactly has kept me away for so long? Oh, where to begin…

Some of you remember that I homeschool my oldest son and send my youngest to public school. I spent a fair amount of my blogging hiatus fighting with the school. Again. The short version is that Monkeyboy raised a ruckus by saying the word ‘penis’ at school. Twice. Neither time was it in a sexual context. But those of you familiar with the public school system’s sensitivity towards anything that could be construed as even remotely sexual can probably identify with the crap I’ve been dealing with ever since. I’ll probably write more about this whole thing later (oh imagine the Google bait!). Suffice it to say that I haven’t pulled Monkeyboy out of public school yet but it’s been very close.

BooBoo continues to do well with his homeschooling, although he also continues to be ‘uninspired’ with schoolwork in general. For a while, I thought it was me or the subject matter that was boring him to death. I’ve since concluded that he’s a typical 13 year old boy…he’s uninspired about everything that doesn’t have a video game controller attached to it. I’ve decided to stop worrying about it and just go with the flow. He’s learning…even if he’s not excited about it.

I know a few of you would like to hear the latest in the Pseudo-nephew Saga. The two of them are growing like weeds and, health-wise, are doing wonderfully. Looking at them, you’d never know the hell they went through for the majority of their lives. Their eyes are bright…complexions are rosy. According to the group home cook, they’re capable of eating them out of house and home, so that’s an issue we’ll need to confront soon. The youngest will eat until he literally pukes it all back up, so I’m sure that we’re going to be looking at both of them having serious issues with food if we don’t nip it in the bud now.

Behaviorally, there’s been no progress. They are each happy and compliant children…until they’re NOT. And then there is no reasoning with them at all. I’ve got a stack of Physical Intervention Reports on my desk almost 4 inches thick. These reports get mailed to me every time one of them needs to be physically restrained by a staff member. Sometimes I get several in the same envelope. This was incredibly depressing to me for a bit but my own self-preservation kicked in and I have started making a game out of it with myself trying to guess which kid each report is about. Seriously. Anything to keep my own sanity in check.

Academically, they’re blossoming…thank goodness. At least that’s one strike against them that they seem to be able to overcome. Hopefully they can build on that.

As for me…well, there’s the good and the bad. All of these kid issues combined with the loss of one of my contracts are just sucking the life out of me right now. I promised myself a long time ago that I would never work for someone else again, but at the moment, self-employment is no rose garden. I’m considering looking for another online community manager gig. I did that during the ‘dot-com boom and bomb’ and working remotely is the best of both worlds. Especially since someone else gets to worry about the bottom line.

On a good note, spring is finally making an appearance here in the mountains. It’s a time for renewal and rebirth and that alone is something that makes me happier than I can say.