Day 6/Week 2: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

So....today we saw our first hurdle. Not with the boys - with me.

For those of you who don't know me, along with being an older mom, I have two significant health issues: UCTD (an autoimmune disease - undifferentiated connective tissue disease - that is one  marker away from a Lupus diagnosis) and a slipped L4/L5 vertebrae that was treated 2 years ago with a very successful spinal fusion to stabilize, not correct, the slippage.

So...today my issues intersected with my boys'. I am in a full blown flare. That means that my symptoms from my UCTD have kicked into high gear and right now, I am in bed with total brain fog, extreme exhaustion and worrisome other symptoms that I am watching to see if I should call my rheumatologist.

I bring these up to you because this is a part of my need/want to homeschool. There are days I cannot possibly get my kids ready for a public school day, drive them, and handle their afternoon pickup and homework. So - I am now figuring out how to adapt our homeschool to handle these days and we have hit one right away. This doesn't surprise me as the extreme stress of getting set up for school, worry before I started and 5 hours in "teacher mode" a day last week most certainly set it off and it wasn't totally unexpected.

Here's how I made the mods for it on my first "sick" day:

• Feeling it start over the long weekend, I let my boys know last night that today's school would be a "take it slow day" and ask for their help in making it a success. Danny wanted to make sure we didn't to it "too" slow-he wants it to go fast! lol
• Last night, I also decided to start using their own interests in their schoolwork. They are currently infatuated with the computer building game Minecraft, so I thought of a way they could construct a science "project" in their game right in line with our science unit on animals and taxonomy and figured that would be their afternoon in school today.
• I did get up, showered and dressed to feel somewhat "normal" and finished our morning classes of Bible reading/history/geography right away since they need me to read aloud. 
• Had one boy do his computer math class while I worked with the other boy on handwriting and worksheets, then switched.
• Had a nice break for lunch and to visit with my daughter Kelly who came for a while, then did our Read Aloud while I was still upright.
• Took lots of breaks when I needed them
• Went over their science unit, then sent the boys off to do their "project" on the computer in their Minecraft creator - and got into bed.

So far, so good. I got to rest and try to get back on track and the boys think this is the most awesome school day ever because they got to use their game and count it as schoolwork. Win-win, I think. :)

Now, off to stare at the ceiling and hope the total bedrest gets me on my feet for another great day at the Varga homeschool. I truly love that the only one I am accountable to - is me!