Dodging Curveballs

Hello friends :)

Well, it's Thursday morning and here I am, ready to sit down for a little and say hi, give you a small update and share a cup of coffee.

No matter how much I want to keep up with the blog, it's just not happening at the moment.

Life has been throwing us some major curveballs and I've been desperately dodging and when possible, grabbing and throwing them back.......far, far away from our lives.

I'm exhausted physically and mentally and quite honestly there are days that I just want to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head and wake up a few months from now.  Then I realize that isn't possible or productive, so I push through and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

For the most part life is the same, in some ways.  I still enjoy waking up early before the house is awake, and taking some time to sit and read, check through email, enjoy a quiet breakfast etc.

And then there are the curveballs.

I think the biggest two we've been thrown have to do with the IRS and the kid's schooling with Connections Academy.

Oh IRS, I don't know about you but that name gives me hives.

So for the year of 2013, when my husband was enrolled in school, we unknowingly, and I say unknowingly because we truly didn't do it intentionally.....entered in one of his school w2's in the wrong section.

What has that error cost us?   $3600.

Yes, we are now being told we need to pay back $3600.  I'm sorry folks but that is not money that I have laying around or money that I could even come up with that quick to pay this off.  It's frustrating, it's disappointing and it's sad and nerve wrecking.  We have to pay it off in installments, obviously, but what horrible timing as we are trying to prepare for this move across country.

I am leaving it in the Lord's hands and I know it will all work out.

Then we come to the kid's schooling.  Texas has some crazy state legislation in place that is probably, at this point pretty certainly, going to prevent us from enrolling in Texas Connections Academy for the coming school year.

According to them, and mind you Texas is the ONLY state that requires this, my children will have to have attended a Texas public school before being eligible to enroll for the new year.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

Not happening.  There is a reason why my children are in Connections and have been for the past 5 years.  I will  NOT put my children in public school, no matter the setting, or the reason.

I'm beyond frustrated at this point and I just don't understand why we can't even transfer the kids to the Texas Connections for the remainder of the year and then enroll them.

It might just end up that we move to Oklahoma, close to the border with Texas and have my children attend the Oklahoma Connections Academy.  Very strong possibility of that.

I would really appreciate some prayers at this point, not just for this but for the IRS and the move and everything else in my life.

It's one roller coaster that I can't seem to step off, and frankly, I'm starting to feel nauseated with the ride.

Aside from the craziness, the packing and preparing continues.  I've got piles of things all over the house and as I pack boxes, I move them to the garage to the area where everything is ready to go into the moving truck.

I've also been taking down pictures, filling in nail holes and pretty much making sure the house is ready for the walk through and move out.

The other day I had to paint over the chalkboard wall that I so loved.  That was a sad moment for me, but I'm hoping I can get another put up in Texas, or Oklahoma, or wherever we're moving to.

It is a lot of work, but I think that doing it this way is so much easier than leaving everything until the last minute and then rushing to get the house cleaned and patched up etc before moving out.  I would rather take my time.

I also have so many recipes that I need to put up on the food blog, and just haven't had time, I hope that I can carve out some time this weekend and sit down and just get everything updated.  Who knows, we'll see how things go.

Right, now I have to get on up, get dressed for the day and get cracking with my to do list.

Sure hope you are all doing well, I miss chatting with everyone, I miss visiting blogs, I miss taking photos and putting up posts and I miss the simplicity and the calm that I used to have last year.  I know I'll have it all back soon but sometimes it's frustrating and I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyway, let me get on with things.  Sending you all lots of love.

Sandra
xoxoxo