My Oldest Applied for His First Real Job Today

This is a huge milestone for him, and if he gets it, it will go along way in getting scholarships.  He has done here and there jobs to earn money for camp, and that went very well.  But, this is a real job, with taxes and paychecks and such.  I think he was real nervous, but my husband went with him, and he filled out the papers and was fine.  He had to ask my husband if he had ever been convicted of a felony.  LOL, apparently we need to cover some Criminal Justice topics.  I am so proud of the young man he is becoming.  Oh, and hallelujah he finished the first half of Chemistry, on FLVS with a B, yay!!  Chemistry, according to people we have talked to, is one if not the hardest course FLVS offers.  He worked his butt off to get that B.  He will take the second half in the Fall, and take a break from it over the Summer.  He will be finishing Geometry over the Summer, but now that Chemistry is over, he can do 2 lessons a day, unless it is something really demanding for Geometry.

My daughter is doing very well on Easy Peasy Homeschool Middle School  Math.  She was just not progressing with the textbooks, or work books and I had to make a change.  She picked Easy Peasy, not me, and it seems to be working.  We also switched to PBS media learning for Science, and History and that has replaced the workbooks.  She is at least happy now, and learning.  She still has Language Arts and Bible workbooks, with at least two writing assignments a week.  I need to find a more structured, but fun Writing curriculum for her next year.

We have started our 4th quarter, and the end is in sight for this school year.

Thinking of Next Year School Year and Online Education Classes for Kidney Disease

Well, I have been slightly busy this last month.  First my FIL came to visit, then I started back to work, and this past week my sister came to visit from NC,  An update on the Sjogrens Saga.  I saw the Rheumatologist about two weeks ago, hoping to have a lip biopsy to either prove or disprove Sjogrens as the cause of my chronic dry mouth, and eyes.  Just to put it mildly I was not impressed with this doctor.  At first a little standoffish and unfriendly.  However, he did warm up towards the end of the visit.  All my labs were normal, the last set, except for my C3 and C4 which were extremely low.  He said, and I actually agree that there was no way those could be correct, because I would have had other labs that would not be normal, plus I was feeling fine.  He said the lab that my insurance insists I go to does not have quality results.  Great, that is awesome!  He said I could do the test again through his company, and it would only cost 500 dollars as my insurance would not cover it.  Um, no thanks.  Then he told me he does not do the lip biopsy, that I have to see an ENT doctor.  Good grief already!  Another 40 dollars, and that is if my insurance covers it.  So, I have to find that out.  The Rheumatologist said he does not think is is Sjogrens because my labs had all returned to normal., nor does he think it is any Autoimmune Disorder, which I am actually ok with.  Because, I can not take any of the immunosuppressant drugs he would want me to take, one because my kidney can't handle it, and two I work in the medical field.  Having no immune system would not be a good idea.  So, now I wait, again.  This is why people don't go to the doctor, because it is ridiculous the way the system works.  On the renal side, my kidney continues to  improve, though they do not think it will ever regain full functioning capabilities.  The good kidney is holding up well.  I will be doing some of these online kidney classes offered by Davita.  They are free of charge, and you can take live ones if they are near you.  Online just works better for my very busy schedule.

On the homeschool side of my life, we are starting our 4th quarter tomorrow.  DJ is finishing up a very challenging Chemistry two semester course, and will finish up the second half in the fall.  He just really needs a break, so time consuming this class was.  He will complete Geometry over the Summer break, as he started it in February.  I will be registering him for the August SAT, but he does the questions of the day test prep, and so far he has a near perfect score for Reading and Writing, and the Math could still use a little work, but is not horrible.  He is looking at Santa Fe College next Summer or Fall semester.  We have a lot of prepping to do for next year, as it will be his Senior year.  He will be doing most of his classes on FLVs, with the exception of Japanese, and History.  He will do Japanese on Time4Learning, and History will be Greek Mythology, curriculum not chosen yet.  I will be looking at various sources for that, and will share them when I figure it out.

Caitlin will be in 8th grade next year, and this year I have discovered that she very much hates workbooks.  I chose Alpha Omega for her, for this year, and though not challenging she hates them.  Her Saxon textbook, my preferred Math choice, she does not like either.  She wants online Math.  So, we started using Easy Peasy Homeschool, middle school Math, and she is doing quite well.  We will finish up 7th grade Math using Easy Peasy through the Summer months.  Her writing is still not what I want, and I am unsure what to do with that.  My son did not like writing either, but he learned to love it.  I just have to find the right fit for her.  I will be looking at Teachers Pay Teachers for some ideas.  She has changed her mind and wants to do French instead of Spanish, and I will be looking at FLVS for her to do that.  It will be her first time using FLVS, and I think language would be a good place to start.  She absolutely hates History, and since it will be her last year where I can really pick and choose how I want her to learn, I think we will do video and living books on Inventors, famous Women, and Black History for her next year.  I will update as I go, and discover things to use.  I also have to really buckle down and start looking at putting together our portfolios for this school year.  Being sick, and having so much family visit, has thrown me off my normal organization path.  But, I have everything, just need to get it in order.