Football and Busy Life

Happy Monday evening everyone! A Happy Labor Day as well! I had a ton of things to do on my to do list today and I am pleased to say that I did all of them except one thing. Go me! I was trying to take advantage of not having to go anywhere today. I had a rare day off of work and the kids were off of school. It is a rare day that we can stay home all day as things have been busy. 

The kids are adjusting to being back to school which is a good thing. After school activities are gearing up for Rebecca. The boys have been busy with football. 

Jacob is playing for his middle school and is a backup for the 8th grade team. He is really enjoying playing and practicing and being part of the team. It is a lot of commitment but so far he is loving it. Unfortunately, the team is currently 0-3, but he is still loving it. 

Benjamin is playing colt flag football. This is a city league and he has practice 2 times a week and had his first game yesterday. He is playing center as he is the tallest kid on his team. He did great and only messed up one snap. He is loving playing as well as he has friends on the team. 

I have been busy at work. The new owner (she has been approved to buy the business, now they just need to get every thing signed over) is wanting to implement a pre-k program and I have been tapped to start that from scratch! It is hard because the kids haven't really been focused on learning letters, numbers or shapes so it is starting from the ground up. It also doesn't help that we are short staffed so sometimes I can't even separate the pre-k kids from the preschool kids and we have to stay together. It has been fun though doing the lesson plans and coming up with activities. 

So life is just busy and I am taking it one day at a time. I hope all of you are well. I need to get ready to head to bed, as my alarm will be going off sooner rather than later. Have a great week everyone!  

Back to School

Happy Sunday evening everyone! Thank you for all the kind comments on my last post (last week). They made me feel cared for. This whole separation is HARD on everyone. It doesn't help that it is now to the point of hurting the kids. I wish I could say that this week was better in regards to that, but it hasn't been. The kids spent the day with him yesterday (Saturday) and they had a hard day. I won't go into everything that happened, but let's just say that things were said to the kids that really hurt them and Rebecca and Ben were in tears. It is such a sad situation and quite frankly I am angry and frustrated with him. It is a good thing that I also have a sense of self control. Let's just leave it at that. 

Let's move on to better things! The kids went back to school this week. Ben started middle school on Thursday!! He was excited, but also very nervous. In fact, he cried when he got out of the van to go into the building. 

However, he had a great day and he was all smiles when he was telling me about his first day. (For our school district's middle and high school, the first day of school is just for the incoming 6th and 9th graders (and any new student) so that they aren't too overwhelmed by EVERYONE being in the buildings.)

That meant that Jacob and Rebecca started back to school on Friday. Jacob is in his last year at the middle school. Rebecca is a junior this year!!!! They also had really good days. 

Rebecca's schedule this year is extremely difficult as she is taking 2 college classes (honors pre-calculus and human physiology), AP English, AP Government, AP Spanish, along with audition choir and an art class. She said she is kind of overwhelmed but it will all be good. 

I worked a lot and tried to get some things done. Next week, I am actually taking on a new role as the Pre-K teacher, as the program that I work at wants to implement a more academic pre-k program so that the kids are better ready for kindergarten. So, I will start to implement that tomorrow. It should be fun, I hope. A little overwhelming, but should be good. As far as work goes, I have decided to stick with it. I think I am also going to start researching online college programs that will allow me to go back and get my teacher certification. I really enjoy working with the kids and have rediscovered my love of planning and teaching. It won't be anytime in the near future as money is TIGHT, but I want to figure out it if is doable next fall. 

This weekend has been good for me. Yesterday, while the kids were at their father's, I spent the day with my mom doing some shopping and hanging out. We went to a late lunch/early dinner at a local Chinese restaurant and it was so good. Then we shopped at Goodwill, Shoe Sensation (where she bought me a pair of sketchers sandals that are so comfortable! She said it was my belated birthday present.), Marshall's (where I used a gift card from a friend to buy 3 new tops and a pair of pants), and then to Walmart for a couple of things. It was just a fun, relaxing day (well at least until I found out what happened with the kids and their dad.) 

Today, I have been a busy beaver. We went to 8am mass. Then Rebecca and I went to Aldi as I needed peppers and tortillas for our chicken fajita dinner that she requested. I went to Lowes for a dryer vent part and CVS to pick up 2 meds as well. Then home, where I fixed the dryer, started laundry, made and ate lunch (red bag chicken in the air fryer!) with the kids, did the dishes, deep cleaned both litter boxes, spent time figuring out lesson plans for tomorrow, made dinner and cleaned up from dinner, and folded 8 loads of laundry and put them away. I also just got the boys in bed, painted my toenails (which they desperately needed) and am typing this up. After I publish this, I will probably head to bed myself as it my alarm clock goes off way too early. 

It's going to be another busy week. Jacob has his first football game of the year this week. Ben has football pictures. Also we have to get used to a week long school and work week. 

How was your weekend? Until next time, I hope all of you have good days.  

Well...it's been a while

 Happy Sunday everyone! I hope everyone is well. I have been lurking around reading blogs but not really commenting and obviously not writing on here. Part of the issue is that I am constantly on the go and dealing with life, and the other part it that many times I am reading blogs on my phone during my lunch hour at work or late at night in bed and I hate typing on my phone. So I have been keeping somewhat apprise of what has been going on in some of your lives. 

As for my life... well crazy, busy, emotional, hectic, stressful, and peaceful would all make good adjectives to describe life right now. I knows it's been over a month since I last wrote. It seems like a lifetime ago. I had to go back and re-read where I was at in my life at that point. As a recap, my ex-husband had just moved out. I started a new full time job. I was still recovering from knee surgery. And life was crazy. 

So let's do an update on some of these topics....

As for as the situation with the ex. He finally got most of his things out as of July 28. I told him that was his deadline, as I was going to have a yard sale on July 29 and whatever was left would be put in it. I did have a shortened yard sale that day (for 5 hours as it rained in the morning), got rid of some items, made a little bit of money and donated everything that was left. Felt good to get crap out of my house. 

My relationship with him is still a mess. For some unknown reason he is ticked off that I don't want to be around him. We are seperated, if I wanted to still be around him I would be. That has caused many flare ups of emotional abuse, including him posting defamatory things about me on facebook like I am not a good mother, etc. I had to threaten to get a lawyer involved to make him stop. He still tells people that I am irrational and am keeping the kids from him, which is not true at all. We have our agreement in place that he has them on his 2 days off per week, whether he takes them on those days or not is his problem. It's hard. Like I told a friend, I really wish money wasn't an issue right now, and that I could win the lottery so that I could afford to have our paperwork filed in court and get this process over with. However, money is an issue and so that won't happen anytime soon. 

Moving on to better things.... I became an aunt again! My youngest brother and his fiancee had my new niece Naomi 3 weeks ago. She is the most precious thing and we are all in love with her! Our local hospital told my future sister-in-law that Naomi had tested positive for Trisomy 13 when my sis-in-law was having the testing done when she found out she was pregnant and they were trying to get her to abort Naomi. Well, after switching to a high risk doctor (who said that the bloodwork was inconclusive and not positive), Naomi was born perfectly healthy.

 

I am mostly recovered from my knee surgery. I was released by my ortho who told me that when he went in to do my surgery that the damage was more extensive than he thought and I might need further surgeries down the line if my knee starts hurting again. So far it feels better. It still hurts at times, but it definitely isn't impeding what I am doing. It does not help though that my current job is very physically demanding AND I have several troubled preschoolers who love to hit and kick me. I even had one throw a chair at me and kick me right in my incision site. And guess what, NOTHING happened to that child and his parents weren't even called. My job has turned into a s*** show and I am looking for other opportunities unfortunately. I might write a blog post about the drama later. 

As far as the kiddos go... they have been troopers through all of this. Rebecca has been a HUGE help with her brothers and with helping out. She got to go away to 2 camps this Summer. She spent a week at an academic summer camp at a local college that allowed her to learn about being an education major for the week. 

Then she attended Catholic Youth Summer Camp and had a blast. 

She also passed her learner's permit test last week to learn how to drive so that is an exciting milestone as well! 

Jacob and Ben also attended two camps. They attended a week long day camp at MVNU focused on basketball. Then last week they attended Catholic Youth Summer Camp, which was Benjamin's first sleep away camp. 

The boys are keeping me busy as they are both playing football this year-- Ben for our local colt flag football league, and Jacob for the 8th grade middle school team. (And for those of you who have never had football sons, let me tell you when they come home from practice with pads on, that is a new level of stinkyness!) 

The kids and I attended a family reunion last weekend. I saw family that I hadn't seen in 15-20 years. It was a huge turnout which is wonderful. The kids had fun! 

I also got a surprise visit with my college bestie. She lives in Singapore with her hubby and 2 sons, but was in Pittsburgh helping her mom move to an apartment and selling her house. She made the drive over to Ohio and we got to hang out for the night. It was so much fun and I miss her so much. She really has been a rock to me all these years and it was SO good to see her. The last time we saw each other in person was 2016. 

On July 28, I turned 44. The boys spent the night with their dad the night before as Rebecca was at camp. I worked and when I got home, all 3 kids were home. And on the counter was a handwritten Happy birthday note from my ex and on top was my child support check for August. So tacky. He didn't have the kids get me anything or do anything special for me. In fact, the only thing we did was I went out and got Wendy's for dinner as I wasn't cooking. I know birthdays aren't about things and celebrations but it did suck that there was nothing. I was happy my kids were all home but it still hurt.

Yesterday, was our last event for the summer. Rebecca performed in the youth showcase at our town's music and arts festival. She did amazing and I am so glad I got to hear her sing! Definitely a highlight of my day. 

So that is pretty much the highlights and lowlights of the the last month+. This week the kids go back to school... Ben is starting at the middle school and is super nervous. Jacob will be in 8th grade and Rebecca will be a junior. So we will have schedule pickups and back to school nights, football practices, and more this week. It will get a little crazy, but I am just trying to enjoy the ride. 

I hope everyone is well. I am going to try to be a better blogger, but I am not promising anything! I am still here, still navigating this single mom life and still trying to figure things out.   

 

 

So busy

Happy Monday Tuesday everyone! Hope everyone is having a good day. Sorry I haven't written in a while, but I have been SO busy! I actually started this post yesterday but then got busy with other things and that is just the story of my life right now. 

Before I get into being busy, look at what Ben grew! Before the school year ended, his class planted sunflower seeds into cups and each kid brought a cup home. Ben faithfully watered it and then it started to grow. When it outgrew the cup, we transplanted it into a pot outside and yesterday this sunny flower greeted us! Ben was so excited! 

I started my new job last Wednesday and it has been a whirlwind.  I have come home exhausted each night, but it has been a good exhausted. Trying to get into a routine. My knee has been yelling at me as well, as I have been super active and have had to ice my knee each night. 

This weekend, Bill moved out. He actually slept at his apartment on Saturday night. He moved some things Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday my brother came over and helped him move his furniture. He still has boxes here and it is annoying me. But it is what it is and I am really trying not to let it get to me. I have a lot of things that I could say about this, but I won't. 

This weekend was busy. Friday Benjamin went to my sister and Ceal's place to spend the night. They had a blast with him, going to the zoo and swimming and just having fun. Saturday morning, Rebecca, Jacob and I went to the grocery store and I am trying to figure out meals that are easy to make or that I can make ahead so that Rebecca can get them cooked or at least started for me as I work until 6pm. After we got home and I put groceries away, Rebecca and I disassembled the bed that Bill was taking and we put together my new bed. It is a simple black metal frame and I got a new comforter set that I love! It turned out really cute. 

Then it was off to my parents' house for a hot dog and sundae party for the 4th of July weekend. We had a build your own hot dog party, where my mom had TONS of toppings and instructions for building different hot dogs. I had a California dog-- which had mayo, avocado, tomato, lettuce, bacon, and a hot dog. It was super yummy. I also had a Chicago dog... which had neon green relish, mustard, onions, and I can't remember what else. LOL 

We also lit sparklers with the kids and they loved them.

Sunday was the day that Bill moved his furniture out and I spent the day organizing my living room and dining room.  Rebecca and I also went to Goodwill and Walmart as I was looking for capris to wear for work. I realized I have very few clothes that are appropriate for preschool lead teacher so that was my mission. I found 2 pairs of pants and a couple of tops. Rebecca also confessed that she didn't want to be home while her dad was moving out. 

Yesterday, I ended up running a few errands in the morning. Then I spent the day decorating my living room walls and doing laundry. I also had to do an online class for my new job that was almost 4 hours of online training. 

Today is the 4th of July and honestly we haven't done anything. It was hot here today, close to 100 degrees so we just stayed in. I worked on moving some things around my bedroom and got all the laundry folded. I also made a pasta dish for a freezer asset, cooked rice for dinner tomorrow night and made meatball subs for dinner. There will be no fireworks for us tonight. 

Things are weird now that Bill has moved out. He got upset when I asked for the key back. The boys went to his apartment yesterday and when he dropped them back off, the boys said that their dad told them he wasn't coming in as I have negative energy. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Things are coming together. I still have to figure out my laptop, printer, art supplies, catch all area. I also need to paint my bookcase that I brought upstairs from the basement. My bedroom is also a work in progress.  I intentionally took it somewhat easy today though as my knee was KILLING me last night and I have over done it lately. 

Tomorrow is back to work and I hope the rest of this week goes well. 

What are you guys up to today? Anyone celebrating the Fourth of July? Do you have favorite hot dog toppings? 

Thanks, Job Hunting, and Getting Crafty

 Happy Wednesday everyone! Thank you all for your words of support on my last post. They really have helped me, especially on days that I feel like I will not be able to do this. I never imagined myself as a single mom, but that is soon to be reality and it is the hardest thing I have ever had to walk through. 

I have been busy... looking for and applying for jobs. I actually had 3 interviews and 3 job offers last week. One I turned down, as they couldn't guarantee full time hours. This was for a dietary aide position at a senior citizen apartment complex. They could only guarantee about 24-30 hours a week. That is not going to work. Also, the hours were from 2-8 and every other weekend. Not good for a new single mom. 

The second job offer came from a foodservice company that serves a local college. I almost accepted that offer. However, the hours were okay 6-2 for 3 weekdays and then I would have to work EVERY weekend from 6-2. I would never get a weekend off. Also, they couldn't guarantee full time all year, only during the college's academic year. 

The third job offer is from a local childcare center. It is for a lead teacher position, and I would be able to work year-round and get full time hours. Also, it is 5 minutes from my house. No weekends. The pay is a little less than the foodservice company, but it is so much closer to my house. I have been working this week on getting the paperwork done for them. Tomorrow, I have to go get a work physical and a background check and then I can turn all the paperwork in.

So that is where the job search is at. I am scared to death of failing, but I need to have faith that it will all work out. 

In other news, I had my 2 week follow up from my knee surgery. He said it looks like I am healing well. The incision points look good. He gave me some photos that he took during surgery. He said the surgery went well; however, the cartilage damage was more than he thought and what showed on the MRI. There was one area that was bone-on-bone that we need to keep an eye on as I may need another surgery in the future to fix that. Not what I wanted to hear, but it is what it is. 

The area my ortho marked on this photo is the bone-on-bone area where the cartilage has pulled completely away. :( 

I have been trying to stay busy with getting into a new routine of doing more around the house, since I will soon be the only adult here. I have also been planning out some changes that I would like to make once Bill moves out. I have done a couple of small changes so far and I love the new look that they bring. One thing that I did, was I reupholstered the lid to my cedar chest. I was given this chest as a gift when I was a teenager and I have never changed out the padding on the lid. Well, I bought some fabric off Amazon and switched it out. It was super easy to do and felt good to get something done on my to-do list. 

Before

After

I also replaced our downstairs bathroom door curtain. The door is a sliding pocket door, and it has gotten off its hinge inside the wall. Our landlord knows about it and has known about it for some time, but obviously is in no place to fix it. We had an old sheet up, but it looked really tacky. I finally got tired of it and bought a curtain panel and tension rod to replace it. It looks much better in my opinion and was a cheap way to fix the problem. 

Before

After

I have some other projects in the works. I bought a mirror for $10 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to hang in my bedroom to be able to do my hair. (I currently use the mirror that is attached to Bill's dresser that he is taking when he moves out.) My plan is to take the covering off the wood frame and paint it to match my decor. 

I also ordered 2 posters to replace artwork in the living room and dining room. Bill is taking the map artwork that we had on our mantel, and I replaced it with an art poster using colors that I love. 

Before (this was taken last summer but shows the map art that he is taking when he moves)

After (It is really hard to get a good photo without a reflection of the lights from the windows or light)

He also didn't want the sunflower art that we had in our dining room from when we first moved in together) so that got replaced with a Monet poster. I LOVE the blue! 

Before (this was taken before we had the piano but was the only pic I could find with the sunflower art in it) 

After ( I really need to clean off the piano LOL) 

So, life is moving on whether I want it to or not. The kids are keeping me busy, as always. Last week was VBS, where Rebecca and Jacob helped out and Ben attended. This week the boys have football camp in the evenings. That means that I have been cooking our main dinner meal at lunch time. That means that I need finish this up so I can go cook, as the boys are asking "When is lunch?" LOL 

I hope everyone is doing well. And once again thank you for your kind words, prayers and support during all of this time. I appreciate each and every one of you. 

Difficult Familial Situation

Hello everyone. I mentioned in my last blog post that while there have been highlights in the past month, there has also been some lowlights. And these have been really low lowlights. 

I am not even sure what to say or how to say this. 

My husband and I are currently in the process of getting a dissolution of our marriage. We are currently considering ourselves separated as we navigate this difficult familial situation. 

We have told the kids and they are devastated as you could imagine. We are both committed to making this as amicable as possible for the kids and we are both committed to shared parenting. Our children will always come first. 

He will be moving out in July. He has been approved for an apartment that is not too far from where we currently live. 

I am currently looking for a full-time job and have been sending out resumes daily.

I don't want anyone to speculate about the whys and I will not be going into the whys on this blog. My daughter, my soon to be ex, and others that I know read this blog regularly and the things that caused us to separate are between us. I will just say that we have worked on our marriage for the last couple of years, including rounds of marriage counseling, and this is the solution that we have made for everyone affected. 

I originally wasn't even going to post about this, but my life is about to change in a huge way, and I want to make sure that I can still document it. I am still going to be trying to live my life better one day at time. I am still going to be here, just with a different life than I thought I would have. 

 

Quick Updates

Happy June! Happy Thursday! Life has been crazy and busy and there have been some major changes. Before I get into all of that though, I wanted to do a quick update on some of the highlights rather than the lowlights. 

Rebecca received her Academic Letter! It was a nice little ceremony to recognize the academic accomplishments of the kids. 

I was on the parent committee to put on a spaghetti dinner/concert for the end of the year high school choirs. My mom and I ended up doing all the shopping, cooking, and cleaning up for 300 people. It was a huge success and I am so glad it is over. 

My beautiful niece graduated high school. She was so nervous for her graduation, but she did amazing during the ceremony and I am so glad we got to her graduation ceremony. We celebrated with a family dinner at Rooster's afterwards. 

One of the projects that I wanted to take on was the flower bed in the back of our house. It was so overgrown, and I hated every time I came home and saw it. Well, I decided to do something about it. It took me several hours, but I felt accomplished and loved how it turned out. 

Ben graduated from 5th grade! He was so excited to graduate, but is also scared of moving on to the middle school. In other news, he is also going to join the choir in middle school and he is going to join the orchestra playing violin. 

I had my last day of work. After closing down the kitchen, I met my mom at a local cafe for a celebratory lunch. It was a hot day to sit outside but felt good. 

This past weekend, Jacob was Confirmed in the Catholic Church. My dad was his sponsor and it was a beautiful mass led by our Bishop. Jacob chose St. Gregory the Great as his Confirmation saint. 

And most recently, I finally had my arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday morning. Surgery went well. I slept much of the day on Tuesday and have been using an ice machine on my knee since. I was able to get a shower today and I am still in some pain. It is a process. 

 So those are the highlights since my last update. There have also been some major lowlights that I will go into later. Right now I am going to focus on healing my knee and focusing on the good. 

How is everyone else lives going?