conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

It’s been about about a year, give or take a few days, since I stopped working full-time. Three days after I gave notice, we took Jim to the emergency room for seizures. The months after that seemed like a lifetime of pain, although in actuality, it was only about ten weeks or so until the right medication got his seizures under control. But what we went through during those weeks, I wouldn’t wish on any parent.

This summer was an exhausting round of taking Jim to therapy and various new kinds of doctors, and numerous tests. Mostly blood work, which he has come to dread.

But today has been the perfect day, the way I imagined life at home would be. Driving down to the “doctor’s” — our name for the hospital where Jim gets his services — was a quick trip for blood work. Now that I know that we can get his bloodwork done there and insurance pays for it without a special referral, we make the trip because the techs are good, we get to watch kid’s TV while we wait, and then hit the cafeteria afterwards for a donut-y treat. But I digress.

Today we got home, re-energized ourselves with snacks, and headed off to the library. Jim handles himself (quietly) in the adult section while I get my books, and then plays on the computer now without needed incessant help from me. I even got him his own library card now, so we can both use computers at the same time.

While he played, I started a new sweater for him. I still haven’t finished the denim sweater, but I wanted something mindless. I found a pattern in an old magazine last night, and it happens to call for the exact yarn I have on hand — one of the first yarn purchases I made when I was looking for yarn for Dad’s Dr. Who scarf. This was before I knew about yarn, and thought the only way to get soft natural yarn was to get cotton. But, I only have one skein of each of seven different colors. I picked the five colors that go together best, and have made up a stripe (fibonnacci) pattern for it. So it’s not as mindless, with all the skeins to mind, but it should be pretty portable.

So now Jim is sleeping, and I’m about ready for my nap too. Good times.

Yes, this is in the back yard, not by the front door. The sun was too bright in the front, and he was squinting. This is much better.

Jim really loved his first day. He was very proud of his new school bag, and he sang songs and played with toys. Mom got to stay with him, to learn the routine of his day at school. After school, we went out for lunch, and then went to the Y to swim. We think we’ll go swimming on Mondays after school, since the pool was empty.

The rest of the photo albums have been updated over the weekend, going all the way back to April.