Saturday, June 09, 2012

My dog's got a prozac problem

That pretty much sums up life in the schoolhouse right now.

It's Saturday morning. This has always been one of my favorite times of the week.  I get up early, and usually have the house to myself for at least an hour or two, with no immediate obligations of my own.  This is when I have the urge to blog (not that I've been giving in to that urge much lately).

But it's already 10:30 am here, way past my usual quiet time.  I didn't get my nice Saturday morning and let me tell you, I'm a little crabby about it.

Our dog has been suffering an odd side effect of prozac:  sleeplessness.  Odd, because prozac is supposed to help calm the nerves, which, one would expect, might help one... sleep.

The past couple of nights he's been wandering the house, pawing at the side of the bed, looking for something to do and someone to hang out with.  It's been... unpleasant.  I admit I have a hard time getting up nice and early when my sleep is interrupted by an insomniac dog.  For about 2 hours.

Our dog Max was a rescue dog.  He came to us about 4 1/2 years ago, and is a pretty good dog (not the most obedient) but, as rescued dogs sometimes do, has always had some issues.  Lately, they've been getting worse.  He has always loved long walks, though sometimes sounds (like doors slamming, kids yelling) can make him turn around and head for home.  Lately, that's been getting worse -  sometimes we only get to the next driveway before he decides he's had enough.  He's not a big dog, but when he digs in and refuses to go, there's no moving him.

So, the prozac. 

Otherwise?  Life is fine.  Homeschooling is over for now; our evaluations have been completed and I just need to turn our portfolios in to the school district.  As usual, we ended with a fade-out rather than the decisive "OK, we're done!" moment I always long for but have never achieved. We had another tough year, frankly, and it's hard to figure out exactly how to write about it.  Sarah at Smallworld has a great post up that relates to that problem.  It reminded me of Sandy's post in a similar vein from a while back.

We don't always want to show our ugly parts to the world, do we?  But, as a homeschooler and a mother and the owner of a dog who needs prozac, I appreciate the rare glimpse into a life that is more like mine - one that is not perfect, not always pretty, and sometimes hard.  So I guess I should return the favor.

But not today, because it's late and my time is up. 


3 comments:

Sandy said...

Sorry, Margaret. No platitudes here about how it will get better or make us stronger or some such. Just wish I could be there in person so we could hang out with our collective problems for an hour or so. I think hanging out with your friend and her problems is probably in one of the commandments somewhere. Hang in there.

Birdie said...

Quite honestly, the only reason this year had a truly decisive ending was because my daughter graduated. That part was wonderful! The rest of the it... well, it was a bit less wonderful.

I'm not at all sure why this was such a hard year for us, but it was. We are planning to continue with some lighter homeschooling through the Summer months anyway.

Birdie said...

Quite honestly, the only reason this year had a truly decisive ending was because my daughter graduated. That part was wonderful! The rest of the it... well, it was a bit less wonderful.

I'm not at all sure why this was such a hard year for us, but it was. We are planning to continue with some lighter homeschooling through the Summer months anyway.