I don't recognize myself.

I'm not vain. I can hope, at least.

Before I ask why then I'm posting all these pictures if I'm not vain, let me explain.

I'm looking through these pictures, and I don't recognize myself. That's not really my nose, those bags under my eyes are not that dark, are they? my skin isn't usually that clear (Thanks, Proactiv!), are those wrinkles always there? Are my eyeballs getting bigger?

I'm thinking about the trauma to my psyche the process of updating my photo causes and am reminded that I've spent well over 10 years avoiding mirrors and photographs. The last image of myself that was really carved into my memory is of a much younger version. I'm dismayed when I look through these photos. It is difficult to find a photo that matches what I think/remember of myself.

Does everyone feel this way? As our bodies age, do our minds not? I certainly think my mind is not the same "age" as when I was a kid, but in a lot of ways, it does still feel like my 20-something mind. Does this change? Certainly our shells do. And I'm thinking of crawling back in mine and hiding some more.

My Partridge in a pear tree

New Phase

We've decided to give WAVA a try with Joel. He seems excited about it. It's been a couple of years of him not loving school and having a tough time keeping his hands to himself in class and driving his teachers nuts and riding the bus a couple of hours each day. I feel like we gave the traditional school a fair chance. The prospects of it getting better with time seem remote as class sizes are predicted to rise next year and more budget cuts are expected. So, I think I'm ready to try something else.

I'm nervously excited. It'll be a big adjustment for me to be "home-schooling" him. I love having large chunks of time to myself during the week, so we'll see how I handle the new schedule as soon as things rolling. A "pro" is that the K12 curriculum is already provided along with all the supplies, so that makes things much easier for me, I think/hope. Another "pro" is that WAVA is a public school, so we don't have to pay for anything. Some kinks to work out that I'm expecting is figuring out how to share my computer with Joel for a large portion of the day, keeping track of hours he spends on each of his courses, and making sure he doesn't burn out and lose his enthusiasm/motivation.

Stay tuned and wish us all luck.