Hurricane Detox Week and our new Sunday routine
Happy Sunday, friends! Let me start off by warning you that I've had a headache all day, and I've decided to switch up my music choices so I have no idea what this will do to my ability to proofread. In case you're interested, I'm going back to Switchfoot to see if it will work as background music. Okay...now then.
If I spoke to you in person last week, I might have seemed a little off. I basically questioned all my homeschooling choices and might have told you I was considering quitting all the things. Friends, I am not quitting all the things. What I was actually doing was coming down from the hurricane. Yall. Hurricanes in Charleston are a three week event for some of us. Nope. Can't do Switchfoot. I'm back to Kings of Leon. Anyway. Week one of a hurricane involves increased vigilance for our chosen weather resources. Small talk is centered around the potential storm and whether one will stay or go if the need arises. We buy extra water and snacks at the store. We might not even need it, but we can't help ourselves. We have a primal need that can only be fulfilled with canned soup and Little Debbie products. As we get closer to the storm, our ability to think ahead proportionally diminishes.
Week 2 begins with the evacuation order. As soon as the governor lets the word "evacuation" slip through his lips, I mentally throw all of my plans in the air and walk away from them because now we have to pack to be gone for at least a week. The school books are packed. Clothes are packed. Important papers/items are put in waterproof containers just in case. The kids pack their favorite things. We move all the outside things into the garage. I check in with the neighbors. We pack an apocalypse worth of snacks. The rest of the week is spent obsessively watching weather people.
Week 3 is what we often forget is coming. We come home from the evacuation, see everything is fine, and think that it's over. Now everything is back to normal. NO! EVERYTHING IS NOT NORMAL YET! This was my mistake and what led me to question my ability to finish out September without melting into a puddle. After talking to friends and scrolling facebook, I remembered that we have to finish the hurricane detox. First, I've been eating crap food for a week so I feel like a slug. Second, I don't know how we skipped to the end of September, and yet, we have. The hurricane sucks half of our month away without us even noticing. I don't know how Week 3 played out in your house, but for me, I was completely and utterly undone by Wednesday. Seriously. I was in a fog the entire morning and slept for over 3 hours that afternoon. On Thursday, I was questioning all my choices because I could not envision a future that involved me homeschooling my children for one more day. By Friday, I was a little more hopeful and realized that I was coming to the real end of the hurricane. Saturday, I cleaned the house, and today I am finally normal again. All that to say, if you also had an extra tough week last week, it wasn't your fault. It was the hurricane's fault. If you have an extra tough week this week, I can't help you.
Now then, let me tell you about our new Sunday routine. A few weeks ago, our church changed up their service times to 10am and 11:30am with an 8:30am service planned beginning in January. We decided to go with the later service. At first, the kids were concerned because they were convinced they would be STARVING by the time church was over. *eyeroll* Instead, we sleep in, I make a large, late breakfast (fancy people would say brunch), then go to church. Lunch involves finding what we want when we get hungry. I have no involvement in lunch. Instead, I go take a nap then get up in time to go to missional community (our version of small group which is the newest version of Sunday School, but Sunday School isn't cool anymore so we changed the time and address.) By the time we get home, it's time for dinner which I just happened to have started in the crockpot. This morning's breakfast included sweet potato pancakes from Tupelo Honey's recipes. I thought they were perfect for the first day of fall. Jon thought they were another way I was trying to sneak vegetables into him. Maybe it's both. Who can really say?
Finally, let me end with my parenting flop of the day. So. This morning I got an email letting me know that Tommy's precal teacher had graded their homework, and she'd posted the grades on Edmodo (online school thing that all the cool people use now). I told Tommy to check it. That's when he mentioned that he wasn't sure he understood everything. Yall. That boy was trying to set up low expectations. I immediately go into the "Seriously? Why didn't you say anything over the TWO WEEKS you had to do the work?" He's all "I don't know..."
He goes to the computer. While he's logging in, I've already prepared the forthcoming lecture in my head. It is fully formed and ready to burst out as soon I can see his score on the screen. Do you know what score he got? He got 100%. He got them all right, and I was IRRITATED. I had a superb lecture on procrastination and taking advantage of the help you have available all ready to go, and then suddenly I had to choke it back because he got every single problem right. With annoyed pride, I congratulated him on his first perfect score in his math class. Then I fussed at him for not cleaning the kitchen the night before. I am sorry, but a Grade A mom lecture cannot simply dissipate because the child gets a perfect score on his math. He should do the math and clean the kitchen when he's supposed to.
Before I end this, I should say that I haven't had a chance to do much with my women's roles in ministry topic because, as I just wrote, I had to make it through the week of hurricane detox. Still, I'm planning on going through it more deeply. I feel pretty good about my thoughts on everything except for one last part that I need to really study up on. I'll be sure to update when I feel I can explain myself better.
Until next week...
If I spoke to you in person last week, I might have seemed a little off. I basically questioned all my homeschooling choices and might have told you I was considering quitting all the things. Friends, I am not quitting all the things. What I was actually doing was coming down from the hurricane. Yall. Hurricanes in Charleston are a three week event for some of us. Nope. Can't do Switchfoot. I'm back to Kings of Leon. Anyway. Week one of a hurricane involves increased vigilance for our chosen weather resources. Small talk is centered around the potential storm and whether one will stay or go if the need arises. We buy extra water and snacks at the store. We might not even need it, but we can't help ourselves. We have a primal need that can only be fulfilled with canned soup and Little Debbie products. As we get closer to the storm, our ability to think ahead proportionally diminishes.
Week 2 begins with the evacuation order. As soon as the governor lets the word "evacuation" slip through his lips, I mentally throw all of my plans in the air and walk away from them because now we have to pack to be gone for at least a week. The school books are packed. Clothes are packed. Important papers/items are put in waterproof containers just in case. The kids pack their favorite things. We move all the outside things into the garage. I check in with the neighbors. We pack an apocalypse worth of snacks. The rest of the week is spent obsessively watching weather people.
Week 3 is what we often forget is coming. We come home from the evacuation, see everything is fine, and think that it's over. Now everything is back to normal. NO! EVERYTHING IS NOT NORMAL YET! This was my mistake and what led me to question my ability to finish out September without melting into a puddle. After talking to friends and scrolling facebook, I remembered that we have to finish the hurricane detox. First, I've been eating crap food for a week so I feel like a slug. Second, I don't know how we skipped to the end of September, and yet, we have. The hurricane sucks half of our month away without us even noticing. I don't know how Week 3 played out in your house, but for me, I was completely and utterly undone by Wednesday. Seriously. I was in a fog the entire morning and slept for over 3 hours that afternoon. On Thursday, I was questioning all my choices because I could not envision a future that involved me homeschooling my children for one more day. By Friday, I was a little more hopeful and realized that I was coming to the real end of the hurricane. Saturday, I cleaned the house, and today I am finally normal again. All that to say, if you also had an extra tough week last week, it wasn't your fault. It was the hurricane's fault. If you have an extra tough week this week, I can't help you.
Now then, let me tell you about our new Sunday routine. A few weeks ago, our church changed up their service times to 10am and 11:30am with an 8:30am service planned beginning in January. We decided to go with the later service. At first, the kids were concerned because they were convinced they would be STARVING by the time church was over. *eyeroll* Instead, we sleep in, I make a large, late breakfast (fancy people would say brunch), then go to church. Lunch involves finding what we want when we get hungry. I have no involvement in lunch. Instead, I go take a nap then get up in time to go to missional community (our version of small group which is the newest version of Sunday School, but Sunday School isn't cool anymore so we changed the time and address.) By the time we get home, it's time for dinner which I just happened to have started in the crockpot. This morning's breakfast included sweet potato pancakes from Tupelo Honey's recipes. I thought they were perfect for the first day of fall. Jon thought they were another way I was trying to sneak vegetables into him. Maybe it's both. Who can really say?
Finally, let me end with my parenting flop of the day. So. This morning I got an email letting me know that Tommy's precal teacher had graded their homework, and she'd posted the grades on Edmodo (online school thing that all the cool people use now). I told Tommy to check it. That's when he mentioned that he wasn't sure he understood everything. Yall. That boy was trying to set up low expectations. I immediately go into the "Seriously? Why didn't you say anything over the TWO WEEKS you had to do the work?" He's all "I don't know..."
He goes to the computer. While he's logging in, I've already prepared the forthcoming lecture in my head. It is fully formed and ready to burst out as soon I can see his score on the screen. Do you know what score he got? He got 100%. He got them all right, and I was IRRITATED. I had a superb lecture on procrastination and taking advantage of the help you have available all ready to go, and then suddenly I had to choke it back because he got every single problem right. With annoyed pride, I congratulated him on his first perfect score in his math class. Then I fussed at him for not cleaning the kitchen the night before. I am sorry, but a Grade A mom lecture cannot simply dissipate because the child gets a perfect score on his math. He should do the math and clean the kitchen when he's supposed to.
Before I end this, I should say that I haven't had a chance to do much with my women's roles in ministry topic because, as I just wrote, I had to make it through the week of hurricane detox. Still, I'm planning on going through it more deeply. I feel pretty good about my thoughts on everything except for one last part that I need to really study up on. I'll be sure to update when I feel I can explain myself better.
Until next week...
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