Time hates me. I am absolutely convinced. I got up this morning, completely believing that today was August and school was about to start in a short two weeks. Man was I wrong…..

Seeing June on my calendar today was a sour punch to the gut of my reality bubble. Not only have we had several changes in Greyson’s (and the entire family’s schedule), but I feel like every day is another day of chaos and some sort of disaster. Reminder- the kids have been out of school for 20 DAYS. I have no idea how the remaining weeks will pan out this summer, but I’m hoping they calm down a bit, and we get in a good rhythm of our new day-to-day. I assumed the first two weeks of summer would be difficult for G since he was transitioning from such a rigid routine to a basically non-existing routine everyday.

The kids ended the school year off strong. Roslynn did a wonderful job this year and ended 4th grade on solid footing. She went the entire school year without her ADHD medication and had no issues with attention or focus issues. We are so incredibly proud of her and all she has accomplished. She began the violin this year and was quickly upgraded to the middle school level orchestra. She practices every single day and is very invested in her music. Typically in elementary school, kids can only play one instrument and Roslynn chose to play the violin. We wanted to give her the ability to play a band instrument, too, so we signed her up for either the alto saxophone or clarinet to join band. Because her musical abilities are so strong, she was given the pass to be able to do both, but she wasn’t paired with either the Saxophone or the Clarinet. Nope. Roslynn was paired to be most compatible with the OBOE. So, Derek and I are in search of an oboe and we will go from there.

Since Greyson’s goal for this school year was to survive, I’d say he accomplished it. He is still breathing and is proceeding to the 4th grade. His school data from this year shows he had little progress and we are pretty much in limbo when it comes to next school year. We are unsure of where he will be and who his teacher will be, despite receiving a letter stating that he will be in the same classroom with the same teacher for the next school year that he was in this school year. After reviewing the other option for schooling for Greyson, we decided it would be best for him to not attend the local IU school. So now we keep searching and hope we find a better placement where G will feel safe and happy.

If I learned anything from last summer, it was that the old mums tale: “Sleep when the baby sleeps”, is totally right. Greyson is very active and never sits down- I mean, how else will he burn off all of the Cinnamon rolls he eats every day? I never really had to worry about napping during the day, except when the kids were infants, but once they hit a few months old, they were sleeping well and I didn’t have any problems with their sleeping habits. Though over the past 4 years, Greyson has been the WORST sleeper. He has to be touching me or within cuddling distance and will only allow someone else in the bed with us if he is in between me and the other person. Sadly, Derek often is physically kicked out of the bed and forced onto the sofa. Now, I am finding myself falling asleep constantly throughout the day because trying to function on 2-3 hours of sleep is simply not feasible 5 days a week. When the kids were in school, I was able to plan out days and times I could squeeze a nap into my daily schedule, but now I am on the go constantly with the heavy eyes and brain fog to match my exhaustion. So I am currently training myself to sleep whenever Greyson sleeps (if I am able to). So far, so good. I’ll let you know how it ends up though. I slowly feel my sanity fading away into the hidden abyss of work-from-home parents during summer vacation.

There have been many changes happening at the company where Greyson’s FT behavior support comes from, which has also added quite a lot of stress onto me and onto Greyson, since he has had a good, consistent schedule with the RBT/BHT team we had in place for the past 6 months. Unfortunately, the company policy is that the technicians switch clients and change schedules about every 6 months to allow for all techs to be cross-trained on other clients and so other techs don’t get burnt out on more severe cases. Our new schedule allowed us to keep many of our techs that we had already with Greyson, but we were able to get one new guy, who has been AMAZING! I think Derek likes this dude more than G does, but he is so helpful and is prompt and actively engaged with everything G does on a daily basis. He’s currently with G 12 hours a day, 4 or 5 days a week, which is a LOT, but he says he enjoys it and is having a fun time hanging out with us. With this most recent change in schedule, G did lose our longest RBT who has worked with him, “A”, who has been with our family for just over 3 years. Greyson absolutely adores “A” and we were really disappointed with the company when we heard that they were transferring her back to another program, where she would be working with the younger kiddos again. We are hoping that “A” will be able to come back to his case eventually, or will have availability to fill in on some of G’s open shifts, but as of right now, we will only get to see her in passing at the center if she is there while G is there.

The most difficult thing about the summer overall is that I am going from having 9 am to 3:30 pm without the kids to do work, housework and to go into the office (if needed), to being home with two kids, minimal staff to assist with G and sometimes no staff to assist with G at all. I’m also taking time away from work to bring the kids to appointments- dentist, neurology, psychiatry, brain surgeons, etc., often with members of G’s team because I can’t even fathom trying to do all of that without help. I feel for the parents who don’t have services established, or don’t know that they can get help- they are the true VIPs of the summer breaks.

It also wouldn’t be the start of summer if I didn’t mention Roslynn’s birthday! We always kick off the summer with Memorial Day weekend and celebrating Roslynn’s birthday. This year, she turned 10- which makes me feel incredibly old! We will end summer with Labor Day, right around my birthday and my dad’s birthday. Roslynn is excited to be having a “Wicked” themed birthday party this year, since she absolutely adores the music and the first half of the movie. I didn’t think she would care much for the story line of the show, but she loves the entire show and has been really excited for part 2’s release in November.

So for now, I will try to keep my sanity for the next 60 days, I will continue to play stay-at-home mom, working mom, mom taxi, chef, personal assistant, and personal shopper. Check back in after August 19th to see if I made it through the summer. 😂😂