May Update

I've been working on a blog post for a long time. Today, after I finished it, I realized that I didn't even want to skim it to proof read before posting. Which made me realize that if it's that boring, I probably shouldn't post it. So I scrapped it and decided to write a general update instead :)

The Franzen household has been a busy one lately!

About two weeks ago, we adopted this adorable little guy, Hiccup.

After much deliberation, I decided to look for a new home for Luna, who, out of anxiety, had begun peeing and pooping on the floor daily.  That very same day, I found a young woman who had recently moved out on her own that was looking for a cat. It was bittersweet to drop Luna off with her, but I think it was best for everyone involved. I'm happy to no longer be cleaning up messes every day, Luna is happy to not be terrorized by Arya and the children, and Tim is happy to have a new kitty who loves him rather than being terrified of him like Luna was.

Arya and Hiccup play with each other all the time. Arya often tried to attack Luna and Luna would hiss at her or run away. If Arya jumps on Hiccup, he rolls around with her. He'll chase her tail and she'll lick his head. I haven't heard a single hiss from the two of them, which the vet said indicates angry fighting. They rough house constantly but seem to be enjoying it. I'm crossing my fingers that one day they may snuggle with me simultaneously. It's the crazy cat lady's dream.

The girls and I have wrapped up school for a while. Our enrichment center had its official last day yesterday with a fun field day and celebration. We've had a blast being a part of that community this year! I am going to enjoy taking a break from planning for a bit to recharge, but Lexi has already told me she's bored and wants to do school again. Sigh. We're working on some summer reading lists and we'll see what else we end up doing. I have some lofty goals but it's going to be a busy summer so if we just end up playing, swimming and reading a bunch, I'll be cool with that.

Lexi and I earned our blue belts in karate this week. I never thought signing Lexi up for this class would lead me to loving martial arts, but that's where we are at! We've both learned a lot, gotten some great exercise, and had a blast doing it. We plan to take the summer off and get back into it this fall.

The biggest news is that we're looking into selling our house and moving! Tim has been looking forward to "upgrading" for a while and when I sat down to crunch numbers, I realized that all his hard work at PHLY has paid off and we're in the position to do it! This is an exciting and scary endeavor. I love our house and beautiful yard to pieces but looking at houses is a lot of fun and I feel like the time is right for a move. We're going to work hard making some updates, packing, and cleaning and we're hoping to have our place on the market by the end of June. Of course, if you're looking for a great place in Overland Park with 3 bedrooms, 1.1 baths, a 2 car garage and a great yard...you know where to find me ;)

Overall, I'm excited to see where this summer takes us!

End of the School Year Evaluation

It's May. YAY! May is my favorite month. I love the weather in May (although right now it's a bit chilly for my liking) and I've always enjoyed the feeling of relief as the school year ends and summer begins.

We will "officially" be done with school on May 19th. By then, we'll be done with the required number of days for the year and we should be finished with several of our curricula. It'll be a good place to stop, for a while. Right now, I'm planning to take June and July off. We'll probably have a week or so of science projects and art lessons somewhere in there, and we'll do a little bit of math (Prodigy game, which Lexi loves) just to keep current, but we'll also spend a lot of time going to the pool and playing with friends. The plan is to start back up in full at the beginning of August. We start early so we can take some extended breaks during the fall and spring when the weather is nice.

I'm excited to wrap our school year up! Just for fun, I'd like to look back at where we started this school year and explain where we ended up.  I copied and pasted from my Back to School post and noted how things went. The formatting is going to be odd because of that, but it's too much work to change it now ;)

April Showers

It has been a long time since I have updated. I actually did a pretty darn good job on my March goals, but it seems a little late in the game to be patting myself on the back for that, so I'm moving on ;)

I'm going to be real with you. I had some really hard weeks in March and early April. Out of nowhere my anxiety ramped up so badly that I ended up in the ER one night with a really prolonged panic attack. It was pretty scary! So the reason I didn't create goals for April is that I had just one goal, and that was to figure out a way to feel better.

The good news is that I think I am well on my way to achieving that goal. After chatting with my therapist (if you've never paid someone to listen to you, you've got to try it. seriously.) we decided it was time for me to see a new doctor. She gave me a recommendation and (by what I can only imagine was the grace of God) I was able to get in within the week. If you've never made an appointment with a specialist before, that's basically unheard of.

Anyway, I saw the new doctor and I immediately felt like I was in the right place. She asked a lot of questions and listened intently to my responses. I felt comfortable with her and that I could trust her judgment, which is, sadly, not something I can say about all the doctors I've seen. Together we decided on a course of action. I'm trying a new medication.

Honestly, I had a bit of an epiphany. I've been looking and looking for causes for the ups and downs I've been feeling over the past four years. At different points along the way I've blamed hormones, iron levels, diet, vitamins, motherhood in general. I found out I have a strong family history of depression and anxiety, so I blamed that too. But rather than continuing to focus on why why why is this happening to me and what is causing this, I've decided to set that aside for now and just focus on feeling better. It appears that my brain has some sort of chemical imbalance going on right now. So I'm going to take some medication to help with that. That sounds simple, but for me it was a big step. I may never have all the answers, and that's OK.

I'm starting to feel better. The panic attacks have gone away. I'm not waking up with a racing heart. Yesterday I noticed that I felt great, and I don't remember the last time I felt so...normal? So I guess that's just a sign of how crazy things had gotten.

Anywho, because I can't resist a corny joke, I'm hoping these April "showers" will bring some May "flowers". I'm not giving up. Whatever you're going through, I hope you don't give up either.

The joy of spring BREAK

This past week was Spring Break. And it was great.

As a homeschooler, I can pretty much do what I want with my schedule as long as my kids complete about the same number of school days as our local district does within a calendar year. The flexibility is really nice. Some homeschooling families choose to school year round- some schooling six weeks on, two weeks off, all year long. Others choose to follow a more traditional September-May school year. We fall somewhere in the middle.

 We had about a week of school in July last year where we focused heavily on writing skills, and will probably have a bit of school here and there over this coming summer as I see fit. I wouldn't exactly call our schedule "year round" but at the same time, I don't plan to take three solid months off over the summer. The kids got a week off in October because Tim and I went to a wedding out of town and they stayed with my parents. We actually started out Christmas break pretty late (December 23rd I think) because we were really close to finishing our reading curriculum and I wanted to get it done.

I've been keeping track of our days and I realized that if we continue at our pace, we'll be done with the required number of days the first week of May. I didn't originally plan to have Spring Break. But then I found out that Tim was going to be out of town for almost the entire week, and that our Enrichment Program would be off for the week, so I decided we needed a break too.

I'm really glad that I did! I personally needed time to not worry about school, and I know the kids enjoyed it too. We got together with family and friends, rode bikes, played outside, had a super lazy day of doing nothing, and just hung out. I also had time to schedule the 5 or 6 appointments I've had on my list for a while, which was a huge relief. I read a book and a half, tackled almost an entire season of Grey's, scrubbed the litter boxes in the sink downstairs, and went through the girls' clothes to see what they need for spring and summer. (Turns out Lydia has enough stuff to clothe four girls while Lexi had no shoes that fit and only one pair of shorts) I even cleaned the entire bathroom, including the baseboards.

Overall, it has been a productive, fun, chill week and I am glad we took a break. Breaks are refreshing. Taking a break from school allowed me to focus on other aspects of my life that really needed my attention. After not thinking about school for a week, I feel like I'll be ready to approach it again with fresh eyes and renewed energy over the weekend. And I think that will be good for all of us.

So I guess the moral of this post is: Whatever your job is, whatever you do with your time, don't forget to give yourself a break now and then to recharge. You might find it's just what you need.