Seeking a "New Normal"

This has been quite a school year. Back in August I bought some workbooks, intending to send them with Jordan when he needed to do his school work with a babysitter. The mojority of school time we were going to spend on research, projects and field trips. Then came my mother's diagnosis. As we moved into the routines of chemotherapy and, later, palliative radiation those workbooks became the lifeline for Jordan's education. They were all we had time for.

Next, Jordan had a bout of pyomyocytis and spent January and early February going in and out of the hospital. We didn't get much school work done then, although his education continued. He learned a lot about veins, arteries, art and more. Following that we managed to get in a weeklong writer's workshop with friends and a week of regular lessons.

After that, it was full tilt into hospice and bereavement routines. Lessons were entirely suspended.

Now we are trying to find, as my friend put it, a "new normal." I don't think, though, that we will really get into a consistent routine until after we move, which should be in the next month or so.

It's interesting being in flux, to say the least.

Jordan would have progressed more in his academics over the last couple of months had he been in a regualr school. Well, maybe. There is no guarentee of that. It seems likely, though as his class schedule would have remained stable regardless of what was going on. Except when he was in the hospital of course.

Then, again, he would have been segregated from the family. He would not have participate in his grandmother's care much as he would have either been at school or doing his homework. He would have had very little time with her. I think the tradeoffs were worth it.

Now his lessons are being interrupted by the processs of moving. His lessons, but not his education. Yesterday, he went around with the home inspector and learned a bit about things like electric control panels and chimneys. In the afternnon, I came down with a little a bug and he put his recent education to work by diving into the role of my caregiver. There is a very detailed log of my symptoms, food intake, etc., upstairs.

We are trying to devise a schedule so that his academics get back on track. Perhaps we will do summer school this year, with extra tours and field trips. Things will settle down and we will find that "new normal" which will, hopefully, involve a consistent routine.

Until then, we'll take this phase, this season, as it comes. God will see us through, and very likely we will learn more than we are expecting.


Have a great day!