Nor have we moved off the grid.
Well, we did move, but I don't think moving 7 blocks in Manhattan constitutes a major move ... unless you decide to have all three generations of Richter girls under one roof.
Yup, my mother is now a full fledged New Yorker once a again. Her sojourn in the Garden State came to an end last fall and she, Eliza and I now live together. The decision to move in together was well overdue. My mom living alone in NJ and Eliza and I being only able to visit on weekends was not the best arrangement. So after much thought we took the plunge. Three generations ranging from 8 to 91 has its challenges at times, but the benefits outweigh the hurdles we occasionally face. However, my mother and I will never agree on the right way to cook rice.
And we have a fourth edition to the family in the form of Pikachu, our rescue dog. Sadly we lost our beloved cat Bosley shortly before my mom moved in with us. Although Bessie was not too thrilled when she discovered Eliza and I surprised her with a dog, she has come to love the little fur ball and I think she is jealous that he sleeps in my bed not hers.
This school year has presented more challenges for Eliza than one kid should have to shoulder (or that one parent should have to deal with). In the past two years her class size was manageable for her and she had the great support. This year Eliza's class increased in size by almost one-third and it has just been overwhelming for her. To make things more difficult she was continually bullied by another student who began with verbal taunts (baby, stupid, dumb) and then escalated to violent behavior against Eliza. Despite a DOE "no tolerance" policy for bullying, he physically assaulted Eliza on two occasions and even went so far as to say he was going to kill her. It appears that the "no tolerance" policy means that it takes almost 6 months to remove the offending student from the school.
In the DOE's continued slow boat to China method of addressing issues, it took far longer than it should have for Eliza to have her Assistive Technology evaluation. Eliza will now be given a word processor for class work, which she can also use at home. Given that her fine motor function score for her dominant hand was in the 4th percentile, being able to type her classwork should be a great help. She has been typing her homework almost all year and it has helped to diminish the angst that homework creates. But more on the DOE later ....
Eliza is counting not the days, but the hours until school ends and I can't say I blame her given this past year in school.
In the DOE's continued slow boat to China method of addressing issues, it took far longer than it should have for Eliza to have her Assistive Technology evaluation. Eliza will now be given a word processor for class work, which she can also use at home. Given that her fine motor function score for her dominant hand was in the 4th percentile, being able to type her classwork should be a great help. She has been typing her homework almost all year and it has helped to diminish the angst that homework creates. But more on the DOE later ....
Eliza is counting not the days, but the hours until school ends and I can't say I blame her given this past year in school.
