Happy Fourth!

 

For all her issues - yesterday, today, and into tomorrow, I'm still awfully glad to be a citizen of the United States of America.

We have freedoms like no other.

We have rights like no other.

We have responsibilities like no other.

My we who live here, remember whence we came and protect the legacy that was started by our Founders.

Teenagers, man.

In...April? Early May? Recentlyish, is the point, eldest boy walked past me and I squinted and asked, "Are your glasses taped together?"

"Yeah," says he, "they broke."

Pushing aside the whole, why didn't you say something conversation that would be much like beating my head against a wall, I said, "Would you like me to see if there's a warranty?"

"Oh. Yeah. Please."

So I call up the eye doctor and there is, in fact, a warranty. Just $50 for a replacement (given the ridiculous amount they cost, that's a steal. Our eye doctor...I like the doctor, but I really need to stop shopping for our glasses there. Except the thought of herding the children to yet another store to do it fills me with a desire to crawl in a hole and die.)

Cool. They order the frames, they'll be in maybe a week, ten days.

They come in. We go get them. They pop out the lenses from the broken glasses and into the new frames and we're in and out fast.

All is good.

Then he heads off to London on his mission trip. Comes home. Goes out with friends the day after he returns. And comes home...without glasses.

Because he wore them swimming.

In a lake.

Because why? No one knows.

Can I wait the 3ish weeks for new glasses from the eye doctor or Costco or whatever? No. No I cannot.

Why, you ask? Well, because he's off on a canoe trip on Friday.

FRIDAY.

Thinking I'm smart, I say, cool, we'll get a copy of the prescription and then head over to Lens Crafters and we'll come home with new glasses. All good, right?

NO. Because not a single Lens Crafters in the NoVa area still has a lab in it. They're now a 7-10 day wait.

When all is said and done, we come home and I order from Zenni Optical and pay more for shipping than I did for the damn glasses and maybe, MAYBE, we will be blessed enough for them to come before he has to leave.

Now I'm off to see about prescription goggles. Because apparently my child needs some.

Father's Day Random

It's a rainy day here around the Sleepy Home this Father's Day.

Eldest left for a mission trip on Friday, so he's off in London today. I checked in via text to remind him to say hi to hubs today and was told he already did. So big checkmark for him. He'll adult yet!

Youngest, hubs, and I took my dad to lunch after church, as per usual. We generally pay (there are more of us than him), so I told him for his Father's Day gift this year, I'd be buying him lunch. He laughed, as was the intent. I then suggested if he didn't like my gift he could pay and he decided it was a pretty good gift after all.

We did splurge on cake for after (Chuy's makes amazing tres leches cake if you haven't tried it and you like delicious things). It's a rare treat (because oh the calories) but it seemed a fitting excuse.

Now, we've all kind of gone to our corners as introverts will. The pups, birds, and I are in the living room. Hubby is downstairs playing video games. Youngest as well. But we're all content with the way of things, so that's good.

Although, I will say I'd rather be in London. If that were an option. (To be fair, I probably could have signed up to go on the mission trip, but a) eldest would have been annoyed and b) as much as I am very pro sharing the gospel, I like mission trips where we go and do useful things like construction. This trip is much more street evangelism focused and that...is just not my wheelhouse. I am amazed how much eldest likes it - and is apparently good at it -- but yeah. Not my calling.)

Anyway, happy Father's Day to the dads out there. Hug your dad while you have him.

I got better...

In some ways, I regret it.

The big problem, you see, of coming out of a giant fog of depression is that it is then undeniably obvious just how much has been getting overlooked and let slide as you struggle to do the things that MUST be done to keep the ship from sinking.

The boys are supposed to clean their bathroom every week. The tasks are split in two and I have been taking them at their word that they are doing it as they check it off their list.

To be fair, in the back of my mind, I knew better.

At the same time? I didn't have it in me to face the inevitable argument that would come from checking on it and then the whip cracking involved in getting them to actually do it (correctly).

But today, youngest said, "My sink doesn't drain."

Ugh.

I went in to look and...honestly, I'm sort of (not sort of) surprised that they are even willing to go in that bathroom. Because just ugh.

I poked at the sink and got some drain cleaner working on the clog and then rolled up my metaphorical sleeves to scrub the other boy's side of the sink. And then I made the mistake of looking at the shower.

An hour later and half a bottle of soft scrub, it's a lot better. But I have learned several things:

1) Don't trust them when they say they have done something. Ever.

2) Dr. Squatch soap is from the devil. It's black and it dyes the tub and tiles. Oh, it'll come off with a lot of bleach and elbow grease but good gosh.

3) My children don't seem to throw away empty bottles. They just kind of ...toss them on the floor and walk around them? Like why? 

I know I have trained them better than this. But obviously it didn't stick and if mom's not riding their tail, it doesn't happen.

Yaaaay.

It's almost enough to get sucked back into the depression vortex.

The Bird is the Word

This bird is such a delight.

Who knew how much I would enjoy her? Certainly not I.

Of course, because I'm me, I'm really overthinking some aspects of having a bird. Like, "Does she need a friend or three?"

The internet is no help. Everything online says "Yes! Your birds need bird friends! Buy allll the birds!"

And I mean...okay! But also, do I really have to fall down that rabbit hole?

The people I adopted her from kept her as a solo bird for 3 years. She seems very happy. She flies around. She eats. She plays. She sings.

You know, all the bird things.

So then I wonder...if I get her a friend or three, what happens if she hates them? How do I deal with bird fights? I honestly have no clue what I would do. Separate them seems like the obvious answer but then...isn't that the same as having a single bird? Or, in that hypothetical case, multiple single birds?

I've already failed in the "Let's have another kid because siblings make life better." format. My kids spend a lot of time separated. Because, real talk, they basically hate each other. Nothing I do seems to help there. People say, "Oh, give them time. When they're grown up, they'll appreciate one another."

Meh. I don't really hold out a lot of hope. But I guess we'll see.

Point being, I've bungled it with kids, so how the heck do I make the decision with a bird?

So I guess we'll see what we see.

In the meantime, I really love this bird.

Proof of Age

Today, a box arrived in the mail that was a rather startling proof of age. It was a "Welcome to OurUniversity!" box for the eldest boy.

He still has his senior year of high school to do (although he's really finishing up his associate's degree during this upcoming year), but he has been pretty set on this school since we visited in the fall. As part of the visit, he could start his application (and they'd waive the fee - woot). So he did.

Last week (week before maybe?) I got his O-fficial grades through his junior year, so we sent off a transcript. It was the last piece he needed.

And he is in.

I had planned to force a few other visits this summer, just to round out a plan B. But I guess that's off the table at this point.

It seems odd to go into his senior year (or heck, the summer after his junior year) with college all but squared away.

I'm still making him take the ACT in July (and probably again after that), because there are scholarships for scores to consider. Plus it's just a good idea.

But for whatever reason, my little doodle boy is old enough to head off to college soon.

The tempus, it does fugit.

General Malaise, Reporting for Duty

I keep popping into the dashboard and staring at the new post button and then asking myself, do I actually have anything worth rambling about?

The short answer is no.

But when has that stopped me?

(It actually stops me quite a lot. So I guess that's a dumb question. But it didn't stop me today.)

Both boys are done with school. I'm making youngest do math through the summer because he needs to solidify his facts still. He has them, he just has a hard time accessing them. So more drill. Whee.

Eldest was able to get his transcript shipped off to Liberty (his #1 choice for college.) (Also currently his only choice. I'm working on getting him to broaden those horizons a little just in case.) So his application is in progress. He's going to take the ACT in July (and then probably again in September). They don't require it, but they do have scholarships based on your scores available, so it's worth doing. Plus it's just worth him remembering how to do standardized tests. His test taking skills are not always amazing.

Eldest has also, possibly, landed a job lifeguarding. I'm cautiously optimistic. I need him to have more to do with himself. And also to be able to stop giving him money constantly. 

Youngest...is back on the struggle bus. We're switching his meds again (I feel like I've said all this already, but who knows?) and that's always less fun than it seems like it should be. (And it doesn't seem like it should be fun at all. So yeah.) It's been a rough two weeks. Three? Who even remembers?

We might actually be making progress on getting the permits for the addition now. Hubby has resumed his optimism. I...have not.

I had a really deep funk of missing Mom and my sister. It's easing some, but it's not gone. The biggest impact with these is in my writing. I just...can't seem to make myself open the document. And I find myself wondering if it's time to hang up the keyboard. Because really, who would care? 

I don't know. I guess we'll see what happens. The boys are off on a camping trip this weekend and I ought to spend a good bit of time writing. I even sort of *want* to do that. We'll see if it actually happens.