If anyone passing our house sees flames coming from the window--never mind them. Someone will put them out with a spare pile of clean laundry or two.
You see, it is the Saturday before the official close of summer "vacation"! At the very least, you all will enjoy the end to my annoying passive-aggressive way of complaining about the title name given to our own private torture that exists between the end of the school year and the start of summer services--vacation. Or, as I like to say it, "vacation". You know it. It's the cousin of "break" and a good friend of "holiday".
"Vacation".
Huh. It is a curse word all it's own.
As is par for the course, our house is in sorry shape right now following two weeks of combat with unchanneled special needs kids. My friends and I are all in crisis mode, counting down each day until this dreaded time is over and summer services mercifully begin. This calls me to consider:
The Top 10 Signs that Summer "Vacation" is Drawing to a Close in a Special Needs Household.
10. You see your child eating chalk, and all you do about it is hand him a wipe so that he can clean when he is finished.
9. Growling has become a second language in the household.
8. You are too tired to stay awake past 8:30pm.
7. You lose sight of your dog when he is walking among the piles of clean laundry.
6. Consider the fact that husband hasn't had a home cooked meal in weeks. Check fridge. See slices of cheese and some break and decide that, yep, it's all good.
5. Mountain Dew has become the new coffee.
4. Personal grooming? What personal grooming?
3. The kids have figured out that grocery store trips are only made to kill time.
2. You've depleted your stash of power drinks/ wine/chocolate/the-stuff-that-gets-
you-through-it.
1. You converse with yourself and are starting to enjoy it.
Hang in there all!
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The NaBloPoMo July Challenge. Thirty-one days of blogging about "kids". The first week was rough!
Less than 49 hours to go! You got this!
ReplyDeleteGotta say, housework will always be there when you get time. Dishes can be thrown into the dishwasher or pulled out to be used. Laundry, once clean and dry is done...putting away is for OCD people.
The time you spent with your angels (?) this week cannot be done over. Sure it was exhausting, isn't your life? Sure it was a challenge, again, isn't your life? It was not what you usually do and certainly not what they usually do, but it wasn't the nightmare it could have been. It wasn't the worst time ever, it was just different and now it's nearly over and as usual, you underrate yourself. You did a tremendous job of making it work and much of the time making it fun.
Yep, you rock this special needs mom thing. You rock the mom thing, period.
Big hugs, big love and big congrats on surviving the vaca and still having 2 living children. That is success!!!!!!!!!
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It is true. Thank you for the reminder. It was one of our better breaks, even though it drove me crazy---I managed to keep those thoughts to myself. lol. I think our older son actually enjoyed himself. I think he enjoyed my company, which I love, and now he's ready to go back to school. Mission accomplished. A very difficult mission, but nonetheless complete.
DeleteI always smile when you refer to"vacation". It's never a fun thing even for the parents of non-special ed kids--at least it's torture for me. This is the first year since kindergarten that Bear has not received summer services. He was eligible but we wanted to let him experience a "real vacation" ( at his request). We're only at the normal level of crazy so far, but i'm expecting it to quickly escalate to full on madness very soon :)
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is, "Good luck!"
DeleteOne more reason why I love summer vacation is that parents realize just how underpaid we teachers are.
ReplyDeletehttp://joycelansky.blogspot.com
I know not all parents do. Perhaps not all special needs parents do? I know I do! I know those special needs parents around me sure do! The job isn't easy, and I don't think anyone could pay me to be a teacher. Thank you so much for the work that you do. You are shaping lives of others, and that is so important!!
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