A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

 Our church congregation decided to have our annual Chili Cook-off and Trunk-or-Treat early in the month.  This changed my plans for preparing Halloween costumes!!  In short order, I pulled together 6 costumes, and my older teens managed their own. Nature Angel as Eurydice from Hades Town Ladybug as Hazel Levesque from Heroes of Olympus Mister Man as Leo Valdez from Heroes of Olympus Baymax as Samheed Burkesh from The Unwanteds Lola as Florence, the giant ebony statue hero, from The Unwanteds And Beowulf, Little Princess, and Brother as Minions! I have always limited Halloween to one celebration, but this year with the church party being so early, I am unable to prevent other celebrations closer to or on the actual date.   So. Much. Candy. I'm not a fan. But Brother, Mister Man, and Beowulf have been invited to a Halloween party and trick-or-treat with a group of boys from their church group. And the 3 teen girls have been invited to another Halloween party ...

 I am grateful to report that we had no problems beyond the typical large-family-homeschooling kind of problems that are just part of life. Oh!  Except that Beowulf was made soooooo sleepy by his new med! His prescribed dose is less than half of what Brother takes, and Brother is not even a tiny bit sleepy, but it sure affects Beowulf! I cut his morning dose in half (his psychiatrist always gives me permission to adjust doses based on effects), and he's a little bit drowsy, but not so sleepy that he falls asleep with his head on the mini-trampoline, his arms on the floor, and his body up on the ottoman (which he actually did this week). If he continues to even be drowsy on this half dose, I'll take him off that completely, and adjust his evening dose so that he's still getting the prescribed amount every 24 hours.  The med is helping him control his moods (when he's awake!), and I have hope that we'll find the right way to administer it to him. The teens and I read ...

 At least it has been emotional for Lola and Baymax. I guess it was the previous week that got so emotional for Brother and Beowulf, but it all spread over the weekend, and then kind of spread to other kids. Brother had an actual dissociative episode that needed to be discussed with his case manager, his psychiatrist, and our FSP.   That's a lot of time talking with professionals! The good thing is that his meds are working well enough that he actually was able to remember the episode after it was over, and he was able to talk about how he saw the world.   This is unusual, but his psychiatrist still says it was a dissociative episode. Even though the experience was tough for everyone, we are certain it was not the result of a poor medication regimen, rather it was a one-off from a stressful week of having Sir Walter Scott gone, our van not working, rehearsals and shows for Newsies , etc. All of the adults consulting on his case agree that his meds are actually w...

 We had psych appointments on Monday of two weeks ago.  Dr K-- and I discussed the boys' conditions for a long time, and we pulled Brother in to get his opinion about a few things.  In the end, we decided to make some changes. However, our insurance made some changes to our pharmacy coverage, and not only did they change the way prescriptions have to be made, they forced us to change pharmacies from one that always had our meds in stock to one that had not even one of our meds in stock! (It's gonna be an interesting time for a while.)  Because we'd already been struggling with the prescription situation--trying to get refills before the changes were made --we were in the danger zone for running out completely. And we did. (Run out of their meds, that is.) My anxiety--both from spending hours on the phone every day and from watching for signs of withdrawal and/or violence--was through the roof, and I was taking a full dose of one of my meds that I usually only need ha...

 The kids and I call their workbook school "Bin School." It's separate from math, reading, nature studies, and anything hands-on or real-life that we do. After several weeks of not doing Bin School, we pulled them out again this week and had 4 mostly successful days. Actually, she's drawing just for fun, but I didn't take any Bin School pictures, so this will do.  In addition, we had lunchtime reading more regularly  (still loving The Lilac Fairy ). And I checked on math completion instead of just rolling with it. While waaaay not perfect, it's sure an improvement in our academic schedule! We're also really enjoying Tal: His Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom by Paul Fenimore Cooper.  It's like lots of fairy tales within a fairy tale.  The kids groan every time I have to stop reading aloud. We had our second and last dance performance for the semester. The pictures are in reverse order of how they happened, so we'll begin at the end and work o...