Unmedicating

It's official. After Danny's last EEG, the neurologist feels comfortable taking him off his medication. It's a gradual process, which will take less than a month, and if everything goes well he'll be done with the medication for good.

The doctor says withdrawing from the medicine might make him more hyperactive for awhile (oh good), but since his total withdrawal is happening as the school year comes to an end, he'll have almost the whole summer to return to normal, whatever that turns out to be. Whatever it turns out to be, it will be nice to know that it's Danny and not the medicine.

Also official is my lack of employment. Measured Progress let us go more than a week earlier than I expected. I guess we are all doing too good a job, because we finished early. I know there's a lot of backwards incentives going on in the world right now, but I didn't see that one coming.

No matter. I'm not heartbroken about being laid off. I need to look for real work, and to spend time selling off Karen's craft collection and our surplus furniture (ah, breathing room) and other items, and working on the books that we are in the process of writing. I'll tell all about those as they get closer to market.

The younger boys have only one more week of school. Lots of activities, including a few road trips, planned for the summer. And the boys and I are going to work on some projects and some lessons during the summer. It will be a bit exhausting, a little hard on the budget, but also a lot of fun, and while I know there will be days I wish they were in school, I'm looking forward to it.

And, I hope I will do a good job of sharing with you on these pages, and through daily pictures, now that the most hectic days are behind me (I like to think) and we can settle down into some kind of routine.

Spectacular End To a Nice Weekend

As I'm writing this, there is a thunderstorm going on. Since thunderstorms in our little corner of New Hampshire so often bring power outages, I'll keep this entry short to make sure I get it in. But the wet weather held off nicely for our holiday weekend, which had the rare and wonderful bonus of Karen having most of it at home with us.

The weekend included kayaking, swimming, some fun food (including homemade cinnamon rolls by Tom), and some gardening. There was even some singing and guitar playing by the fire in the front yard.

One of the kayak trips included just me and Daniel. We went all the way from our house (we're not on the pond, but our next door neighbor has graciously given us permission to launch from his shoreline), to the north end of the pond, which is about three-quarters of a mile in each direction. Danny was tuckered out by the end of the ride, but he pressed on until we got home. It's good to see how well he's getting along with the kayak; his steering is still a bit shaky, but he gets where he's going.

There are only a few weeks left of school, and only a few weeks left of my scanning job (which often coincides with the school calendar, conveniently, since there's no way we could afford full-time daycare on what I make there). Starting mid-June we'll be plunging into our Summer routine, with fun trips whenever Karen gets time off, home activities the rest of the time, and as much income-producing work as I can squeeze into the gaps.

It should be an interesting Summer. I'll do my best to give you a ringside seat.