I Have Some Catching Up to Do!

Things around here have been rough :(

In September, the main company Jesse freelanced for decided they didn't need him anymore. There was no warning. He just woke up one day and had an email and that was that... He had some smaller side jobs, but nothing near what we needed financially. The little bit of savings we had was gone pretty quickly. He's gotten some jobs here and there since then, and got his business website up and running. But if not for the help of family members, who knows where we'd be living. Certainly not here. I don't know how long the help will last, but am extremely grateful for it! We may soon be looking at having to find someone with a spare room who's willing to let us live there for a while till we can get back up on our feet again :'( Jesse is working 70-80 hour weeks right now for very little pay. Which leaves me doing pretty much everything else. At least we have food stamps coming in now so that's definitely helping!

October, we didn't get hardly any school done. The boys were sick. Then I was sick. My anemia got really bad because I reduced my supplements to make them last longer. There is only one type of iron I tolerate well, it's only made (and sold) by one company, and it's not cheap. Between being sick and anemic, my hand/wrist that I strained in September has been extremely slow to heal. I'm still having to wear a brace for most of the day. My chiropractor would probably be able to help, but it's a money issue right now. We ended the month with Jesse not being able to work for almost a week because of having the flu. Sometime in the midst of all that, we found out the place Ethan is getting his occupational therapy is having to shut down :( There is only one other place in this area that accepts Medicaid but it is a lot different. For one, they only do therapy 30 minutes a week instead of the 60 we get now. It's a lot further away. There will be a long waiting list. We can't even get on the waiting list until the current place releases him. His therapist asked me if we wanted her to do the release paperwork so he can get on the waiting list. NO WAY! It's so important to us that Ethan gets as much therapy as he can at his current place, which he's used to, rather than stop there when we don't know if the new place will work out. The therapists at the other place are supposed to be excellent, but Ethan is not the easiest child to work with and I don't know how willing to work with him they will be...

Okay, onto some good things :)

When we've done school, Ethan has enjoyed it :) I jumped ahead a week in the curriculum because he knew what we were covering and was ready to move on. There has only been one day where he couldn't focus well enough to do that day's lesson plan. So I did a review day instead. Gotta love the flexibility of homeschooling ;)

We started a new therapy with Ethan's social worker. It's called Circle of Security http://circleofsecurity.net/ COS is based on attachment theory and is a perfect fit for us! It focuses on what Jesse and I are doing, what our emotional triggers are, and how our relationship with our children is. It's helping me fine-tune things a bit, but Jesse is really getting a lot out of it :) He told me that a lot of what he's "learning" is stuff that I've told him, but it's presented in a way that he understands. One of the main points of COS is that we should be Bigger, Stronger, Wiser, and Kind with our children. It's something I try to keep in mind!

Jesse is taking some time off from worship team. There are good and bad things about this, but right now it's mostly good. Sundays were long, difficult days for me, and his break takes a lot off my shoulders. There were a number of reasons he felt the need to step back for a while and we've seen nothing but good come of it so far :) He talked with the worship leader who was very understanding. I know he misses being on the team but I think the temporary sacrifice has been worth it for him.

Hmmm... I think that's it for now. I'll try to keep up better on here but it's hard with only having one computer! Jesse is taking a few much-needed hours off work to watch some college football on TV (GEAUX RAGIN' CAJUNS!!!!!) so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to be typing much faster on a computer keyboard instead of the touchscreen on my phone ;)