Back to School

Today was my daughters first day of 2nd grade. We homeschool, so it’s a lot of work, especially since she has the attention span of a gnat. It’s a challenge, but we have a fun time learning together. She learns Math, English and history. I learn patience.

Still it was a fun day, just harder then I thought it would be. While we did school her last year, it was in the middle of the year and it wasn’t something we had planned for.

We had always talked about homeschooling, but it hadn’t seemed like an option for us. My wife and I were both working full-time, and we didn’t have anyone to help out.

My daughter was having anxiety attacks at school and we decided that homeschooling was going to work for our family.

Last year I was trying to play catchup with what my daughter had missed, combined with piecing together new curriculum. Luckily my daughter is a quick learner and she did great.

I try to make it a fun experience and she did great today. I on the other hand am exhausted. I pushed myself way to hard. Between trying to keep up with housework and shopping, plus homeschooling all day it was just to much.

I have a hard time with change, and the last year has brought a ton of it.

My Accident(s)

I was in a better place physically last year. I used to get almost 20,000 steps a day, now I am lucky if I hit 5,000. I could sleep 4 hours, work a 9hr night shift and then come home and homeschool. I don’t recommend that, but it’s what I thought I has to do at the time. Now I sleep 9 hours and feel dead all day.

I ended up having two separate accidents that lead me to eventually need surgery. I’ve been out of work since May, and it has been a struggle for me to adapt. I had made some progress in my therapy sessions last year, and I felt like I regressed a few years.

The anxiety and depression that I had been keeping at bay hit me hard. June and July were tough, but I feel like I am getting into a better headspace again.

My surgery was at the end of June, and honestly I was terrified of having to take pain meds after the surgery, but I did it and no slip ups after that. once I got through the worst of the pain, I was fine.

I was really proud of myself, I started to work my way out of the fog of depression.

Last month I started to fall apart physically. I’ve had back, neck, shoulder and wrist pain for years, but I worked a very physical job, so I never thought about it once. I was raised not to complain about pain, so I didn’t.

Right when my shoulder started feeling better, every other joint in my body decided to kick my ass. My hips, ankle, knees, shoulder and wrists are the worst. Not complaining, just trying to draw a picture of how different my life is now.

The chronic joint pain makes it hard to do any activity for to long, but we make it work.

Pushing Through and Having Fun

I have to remember this is a big transition for my daughter too. She pushes herself to learn and she has developed her own methods of coping with her anxiety.

I am so proud of her, and being able to teach her from home is a gift. She’s my favorite person in the world, and I know tomorrow will be an easier day.

I am going to go take a nap, hope you all have a great day.