ADDmire: Short Term Journal 2020-2021

October 30, 2020- The day before Halloween 2020.  There will be a NEW MOON tomorrow, SNOW and extremely cold TEMPS.   Salem has canceled Halloween this year and our Governor in RI is begging us all to change our behavior to head off a major spike in Coronavirus cases right now.   These are your headlines today...  And now on to other news. These days, the Dining Room is the  Virtual Classrooom and Shared workspace for any other projects.   Alex and I set up like this daily.   We get rolling on our day between 7 - 7:20am with a coffee and tea (I drink coffee, he gets tea).  We take our medications together and then we both start our tasks.  His involves 4 hours of classes and mine varies from day to day.  Today (Friday) is COOKING DAY.  I am making a Beef Stew in the crockpot,  a Shepherd's pie and also some chicken dinners.  Some of these delicious dinners will go to Aunt Jean's house so we can try and...

  AUTUMN ON THE EAST COAST IS MAJESTIC-COLORFUL- HARMONIOUS NATURE I am enjoying all of the beautiful "Autumn leaves and trees" photos that friends are posting on Facebook.  Every time someone posts a picture of where they are and what they see, I feel like I am magically transformed into being right there by their side- staring at the same scene and taking in the fragrant aroma of the dried fallen leaves and the cool October air.   Autumn is a magical time of year in New England. I had no idea that I would be "back at home" for a stretch this year.  2020 has been abundant with surprises, and I am sure everyone can agree on that.  I have not seen many of my friends nor my family members in a rather long time aside from online.  My immediate family and I have seen A LOT of each other.  It's hard to imagine what would be different right now if not for Covid-19 and the impact on our outside work due to this Pandemic. Somehow, I still feel that exci...

  I am on a VERY lonely journey.   It feels like nobody else can truly understand how it feels to have another person (and their life's progress), in your hands.   I don't feel inadequate for the task...but I do feel under-prepared .  I was a little "thrown" into it after all.  Perhaps I should not have been, or felt this way.  Maybe I am just as much at fault for not taking a more "hands on" approach from day one.  The truth is, once you have gotten this involved, you are deeply invested and frankly- I am WAY out of my comfort zone here! I am not speaking about being uncomfortable with the academics of it.  No-There is nothing that Alex is learning in any of his courses as a 7th grader, that I am struggling with understanding.  I am fully comfortable with the subject matter.  Anything that I don't know, I at least know the resources of how to get the answer.  But what I AM having a great amount of difficulty with is gain...

The start of a new week can be very difficult!   For one thing, Alex left Friday afternoon to go to his father's house for the weekend while I was away at my first shift at Kohls.  Once again, Alex forgot to take his medications with him.  So when he returned home Sunday, he was two days off of his meds.  This causes more problems than a "part time parent" realizes...leaving the more full-time parents to struggle along with the child.  I have repeatedly spoken to Alex's Dad about making sure of one thing:  Make sure Alex has his Pills when he picks him up on Fridays.  I even bought a pill-sorter.  I sort them weekly.  How much slack can one parent pick up for the sake of a kid?  I am frustrated about it. So my weekend- I had a an enjoyable and busy weekend.  I spent the majority of the day Saturday cooking and visiting family members.  I made  Shrimp Scampi for the first time (see photos below): On Sunday, I washed, d...

BIRDS flying high YOU know how I feel SUN in the sky YOU know how I feel BREEZE driftin' on by YOU know how I feel It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life... for me. And I'm Feelin'....goooooooooooood ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I look sad in this picture...but I am not sad today. Alex completed his classes today and then meet with his English teacher at 11:30 for a bit of one on one assistance in how to log onto a site called CommonLit .  The kids are doing assignments along with the reading materials right on this site.  But due to Alex's lack of effective participation last week, he failed to get this instruction.  Thankfully, she is helping him now.  There are two reading assignments that need to be done..."The War of the Wall "and "Nipsy Hustle".  I will be eager to participate in this reading because I am very interested in the material.  I am listening to the teacher instruct him now... In about 30 minu...

Not feeling very cute today...but feeling internally satisfied.  That counts for something, doesn't it? Last night, the entire family...and I do mean all 4 of us...literally went to Alex's Counseling appointment.  I am not sure exactly why it happened that way but it felt like somehow we were just all there to be supportive and cheer him on- even from the Waiting Room.  Alex has a really perfect therapist for him...we searched and agonized and suffered and struggled before we finally found Chris!  Chris is a young male who specializes in adolescent issues.  He has really been a great resource to us. So last night, Jamie and I sat with Chris and basically just brought him up to speed about what has transpired since his last conversation with us which was a very difficult one and about a week earlier.  During that conversation, the potential that Alex might need in-patient psychiatric attention if we could not get him on track, was posed as a potentiality....

Happy Humpday!   My son is drinking tea out of his HumpDay mug!   Technically it is my mug, but when a coworker of mine gave it to me- and I brought it home, my son sort of took it over....it's been like this for years now.  Yesterday was a mixed bag but mainly it was very productive.  It was productive because I kept focus on our goals, and I continuously brought "His Goals" to Alex's attention.  I used language like, "Keep your goals in mind....if you do this now, you may not complete this later". With the ADHD brain, they tend to become hyper-focused on projects.  This is what set us "off a bit" yesterday.  Alex FINALLY participated in CADD- Computer Aided Drafting.  Below are some "candids" of his work with drawing a Gaming Chair: It was great that he became intent on doing a good job- to be completely honest I had to BATTLE WITH HIM to get him to go to his class!  But once there, he focused.  Then after class, he kept draw...

Late Morning on Monday picked up nicely when Alex came out of his shower.   He took a moment to express that it was nice having me home.  I agreed...it was nice.   He came out and dressed and fussed over his hair for a long time.  He really wants a haircut but there is simply no time for it today...however it is on my list for later this week. Alex dove into some assignments, choosing to enter Google Classroom and go to any available assignment, and complete it.  I asked him a few times to document what assignments he was working on.  I am trying not to hover.    At 11:28am, Katie Campbell emailed from the school, and Alex went into a Meet with her.  She is super helpful, and she gave Alex an update on how the school runs.  At this Meet, Alex was introduced to another 7th grader who is new to Vets.  His name is Evan and he came from St. Rose of Lima School, so he is a transfer like Alex.  Evan had a very confident and...

  Today we start a new day, a new journey.  There will be schedules.  There will be power struggles.  There will be tears.  There will be fights. But also, there will be the undeniable sacrifices made that need to be made in order to preserve the future of a child's life. I am Lilac and my son Lex and I are going to get very close over the next several weeks/months, as we tackle the necessary "Distance Learning" required by our City for his 7th Grade education.  This of course, for those of you reading this in 2020 will already know, is due to Covid-19 which is a deadly pandemic that has ripped through oue country and could cause harm to our kids in the schools where they are not socially distancing.  So for now- they are all using an online model for school which is termed "Distance Learning." It is not all that very different from Home-schooling.  The one problem with such a model is that a LOT of kids are not good at it and we were ALL thrown i...