An Update from the Carlson's//August 2017

I wrote this originally on Aug 3:

Today marked the last day of summer school for lil man. His PCA and I wondered how things might change again since, once again, we have thrown his world for a loop. We ask him to get used to no school, then a new school (an hour away), and now he has the remaining summer vacation to be school free.

This is not a great scenario. My home has a become a target for his boredom. Meaning, he has really gotten aggressive towards our personal belongings. Art on wall, items on counters, things in his hands, and my lamps. Everything is thrown and pushed. I feel like if we were not home so much, then it would be a non-issue and so in July I came up with a new plan. We left. We take him anywhere, but we don't stay home much. We have discovered swimming he likes and so we find splash pads around the Twin Cities, lakes, and pools. We go to the gas station and Target to buy soda pop and dump it down the sink. We watch videos on the Ipad and repetiviely delete preferred apps. He rediscovered swinging, so we have that too. This has been my summer. Press play, rewind. It's an endless loop of the same thing.

And yet the summer swiflty zooms by. Time can't be contained when you want it to be like this forever (meaning not being at work). Summer is an interesting time. Teachers know that the gigantic perk of their career is this down time. It sounds like a long time, but time is strange how it slows down and speeds up at always the wrong pace. Summer speeds through and there we are in August. It's like one long Sunday. Awaiting for you... a mound of work. Copies to be made, filing, seating charts, and the non-stop questions we ask ourselves about our policies and lesson planning.

For the last 12 summers, I spent a majority of my time on these types of thoughts. I re-write curriculum and dream of how to make my classroom outstanding. But, this summer I did not devote my days and weeks to the subject of art education. Mostly because I didn't need to and also because I had to work on a new adventure.

Scott and I have been involved in investment companies for a few years and I have taken it one step further by selling real estate. My website, is here if you are curious.

My goal is to not give up teaching for a variety of reasons. I will be invested in both ventures equally.

My paintings have taken a back seat to my interest in real estate. Time is spent on flipping homes and rentals. My head is in a book or watching youtube to learn more. A vast world of information is filling my head. I am enjoying learning something new and different from the last decade.

Grant is doing the same. He hits very, very hard and I feel like a turtle. I want to hide from his behaviors but, spending summer with him makes it impossible to be clueless.

His love for me feels very high right now and he genuinely wants to be with me which is not a feeling I had had for months from him.

Summer has healed us in some ways and yet, spending so much with him makes it hard to move forward with all of our business projects. I am going to figure out how to do it all. Please wish me luck and send me referrals so I can make this dream a reality :)

Kennedy Krieger's last 2 emails have said that we are waiting for 1 particular bed. I don't know why (other than he has a g-tube making him a more complex case). They also make me feel like this will be very, very soon. I will admit that it has not made my make believe deadline. Because on Monday I go back to work full time. Now, going forward, it is back to being hard and inconvient to get him out there. This piece I am disappointed by and, obviously, that does not include all of the feelings of watching him pound away on his face for the last year of signing him up.

Don't get me wrong. I believe strongly that this is all happening at the time it is meant to happen. There is another person's child that is getting the help they need. I do keep that in mind.

To end on a happy note, we took family photos and I am very happy that my goal of at least 1 good family photo came true! Thanks to our family friend for the photos below :) I will release more in future posts...