I am so tired. Every time I get a few spare minutes and I think "I should write. I want to write," all I end up doing is going to bed or vegging on the couch. Since these moments are so rare - the ones where I can actually think a full thought without being interrupted by "Mom. Mom. Maaa-om!" - I don't really feel any guilt over not utilizing them to their fullest (or maybe am I using them to their fullest.....). But parking my butt on the couch or crawling under the covers is not very conducive to keeping this blog up to date. Sorry!
I might be more inclined to update if there was, well, an update. Not much has changed on the house. We had another BPO about a week ago. Today we were told the file is back with the specialist, and that this is a good sign that "we might just be nearing the decisioning process," according to the mitigator doing the back and forth for us. We've heard it before, so I promise you I'm not sitting here turning blue as I anxiously await their response with bated breath.
Otherwise, we are continuing to settle into the new place. Spring is refusing to make an appearance here (it snowed again this morning in the surrounding areas!!!!), but I'm forging ahead without it, planting a few small plants I picked up on a sale a couple of weeks ago. They'll probably die, but it made me feel good to get out and plant them, so if they survive it's all gravy. Yesterday, Mr. Four Walls transplanted the Hydrangeas -my absolute favorite shrub- from the old house to the new, redoing a bit of one of the front flower beds. I'm not sure how they'll fare having been unceremoniously yanked from the ground, but they're replaceable.
The girls, especially Jellybean, are having a harder time at their new school. She's being bullied. Not to the point we need to step in as parents, but just to the point that she's unsure of how to react and is not enthused about dealing with this girl. I try so hard not to helicopter-parent. Kids have to learn how to deal, you know? So often nowadays parents swoop in at the first sign of distress, and what does that really accomplish? A generation of soon-to-be-adults with zero problem-solving abilities, that's what!
(Oh goodness, I'm sounding old. Cue the granny on a rocker, telling all the young-uns how it was done in her day......)
But it's easier said than done, to let them work it out on their own, when it's your little girl crying on your lap. So I did what I do best. I found a book. It's all about bullies and how tween girls can approach the situation. She's read that thing at least twice since Saturday, and she and Miss Florida sat outside in the rare sun breaks over the weekend, reading it aloud to each other. That reminds me, I snapped a few black-mail pictures of their impromptu picnic in the driveway that I need to get uploaded to my computer, but I digress.
Then that evening, I sat down (in my rocker) and told her all about my own experiences being bullied and picked on as a kid. How we dealt with it on our own, but always knew that we had grown-ups that had our backs if we needed help or to talk. And how sometimes the bullies chased us home after school. Through the snow. Uphill. Both ways. With no shoes.
Yep, I'm becoming a geezer, and proud of it.
