Thorough Thursday

It was a busy catch up day around here today. I had physical therapy at 8 a.m. and got my hip/back issue reassessed. My strength in my glutes and my flexibility are vastly improved. I still have balance issues on my right leg, but that's due to the tendons in my right foot. I'm not super awesome yet, but I'm well on my way, and I get to reduce my visits from two visits a week to one. Woot!

Then I came home and picked up X-man to take him to Dr. April's. She worked on some impulse controls with him and he asked her about what to do when a friend escalates to a level 5 (so mad he wants to hit someone or does) and that makes X-man escalate in response. He proposed his own very good solution, and then said, "It seems easy now, but it's hard to think of in the moment. Especially when a kid is throwing a ball at your face." His biggest frustration is that for all the talking we all do about calming down and trying to work things out with words, X-man acknowledges that even though those are the correct ways to deal with a problem, most of the kids he has issues with do not respond to using words. They either just hurt him, ignore him or make fun of him. And then it doesn't seem like talking it out works at all. And he's not wrong. Many kids are just -- cruel. He does remind us that he has his moments too. "Everyone makes mistakes, mom!"

After therapy, X-man ate some lunch and I went to Rotary. I had to do the "reflection" for the meeting today. Dennis, who arranges greeter, speaker, money taker roles for each meeting has been having me do them every other week since I won't be at Rotary for a while due to the surgery. This year's rotary theme is Peace through Service. So I did a reflection on what that meant to me.

I had to sneak out early though, because I hadn't gotten a shower between X's appointment and me needing to go to the meeting like I thought I would, and I felt gross. So I left and got showered and MacTroll and I walked over to Carrie Busey and volunteered at registration for two hours. He had the third grade table and I had the first grade table. It was nice to see so many families that I knew. I also found out that a childhood friend from Rockford is now working for the building maintenance crew for the district. He's in every single building. I gave him a hug. It was nice to see him. (And mom, if you're wondering it was Jason I.) :-)

We picked up X-man at 5 p.m. and were all pretty much wiped out. The Student Painters finished painting our fence and front porch today. It looks awesome. They were really reliable and communicative and came in 50 percent less than other bids. And they did a lovely job. Lee Brown was the head of the crew, and he was just an all around nice guy. He goes to U of I and is in the business school.

MacTroll and I moved all the patio furniture back onto the patio for the first time since April 30. We now have our original parking situation in the garage back. And I can actually clean out the garage soon! Hooray. It's been on my list. I think I'll get to it this weekend, when I can donate the Mommy Schwinn and the Schwinn Trailer bike to the Bike Project. I didn't get any takers on Craigslist and it's just taking up room. So, I think it's time for it to go.