We're still struggling quite a bit in our home, so unfortunately I haven't had the emotional strength to get on and post very much. But we're
finally getting some extra supports in place to help with my son. We got him on a 504 plan, which is a legal plan that says medically he requires accommodations at school. The very next day something pretty bad happened at school which led to an out-of-school suspension, and starting on the 3-strikes path towards expulsion. The good that came out of that bad situation is the school psychologist is now aware of our son. She asked the assistant principal to take our son to get his things so she could talk to us. She said "I can't believe I haven't heard his name before now; I need to be seeing him." We agreed and told her we'd been asking since October for him to see her, but it seemed like no one believed the issues weren't just poor parenting until now. We're seeing the psychiatrist again this coming week and we've already called to let them know we need a longer visit because we think my son's diagnosis needs to be re-evaluated. We found a therapist who my son seems to connect with. We also got him a guinea pig which seems to help him to relax when he's stressed. So hopefully we'll figure a few things out and start making some positive movement.
Mental health issues are tough. It's hard to know how many of the behaviors we see are related to the issues; how many are the result of a smart, but unhealthy mind manipulating; how many are due to puberty and the general stress of middle school (the worst time in pretty much everyone's life); and how many are due to poor parenting. I don't think we're bad parents, but maybe we don't understand exactly what our son needs and aren't doing what we should be doing. There's no manual for this. I would just really like to see something positive soon, because with everything that's been going on, I've started battling real depression for the first time in my life (thus not many posts).
In more positive news, the first day of spring is also my daughter's birthday, and this year she turned 15. She got her permit yesterday and now we're teaching her how to drive. She's pretty much the opposite of our son and is extremely responsible and trustworthy. So although there's the normal anxiety around a young person piloting a machine that can cause severe destruction, I don't have any extra worries. I know she takes it seriously and will do what she's told. Plus, we've still got a year before she can drive on her own!
Our school district moved spring break this year to accommodate the state testing window (and then the state moved the testing window), so the kids were in school this week and ended up getting two snow days. Wednesday morning when I came upstairs after my workout my husband told me school was cancelled. I was a bit skeptical when I looked out the window and saw about an inch of snow. However, that superintendent was doing a good job watching the weather forecast and made the right call. We had a legitimate spring blizzard with the snow falling at over an inch an hour and the wind whipping fiercely. We ended up the day with around 18 inches of snow at our house, and an amazing workout with all that shoveling! Thursday morning the roads still weren't fully passable and the buses wouldn't have been able to get to all the kids, so they got an extra day to hang out at home. I worked from home on Wednesday because I had so much to do that I didn't want to cut into work time commuting, but went to the office on Thursday. It's hard to work when everyone else is playing at home!
These photos were of the days leading up to spring. January and February had been pretty dry months here, so it was nice to finally see some moisture.
 |
| There were pretty blossoms under this blanket of snow. |
 |
| Sun and shadows on the fresh snow on the deck. |
 |
| Rabbit in the yard overnight. |
This picture is from the morning of the official start of spring. It was snowy, but sunny.
These pictures are from the blizzard on Wednesday. For a time we couldn't even really see out the windows because the wind had pasted the snow to the windows.
 |
| Around 9:00 in the morning when visibility was pretty low. |
 |
| A robin hanging out in the tree. You can see the flakes falling against his red breast. |
 |
| The wind making art on the deck slats. |
 |
| When the wind had covered the windows and it was hard to see out. |
 |
| Shoveling the deck. |
 |
| Shoveling the driveway. |
 |
| Wednesday afternoon during a lull in the storm. |
It's snowing lightly again this morning and it's beautiful. It doesn't feel much like Easter though. I suppose my kids are too old now for an Easter egg hunt anyway.
I'm hopeful that this week will bring some relief to everything that's been happening. I'd like my son and I both to start feeling better, and life to become a bit more stable.
