What is normal anyway?

I don’t think I would know normal if I experience it anytime soon, but hopefully some version of it will appear in the next month! We started off the school year with Nik having emergency surgery to remove his appendix. Then I caught some virus while staying at the hospital with him. In the first week, I had a sub in my room for as many days as I was there. We are now back on the mend (while the rest of the family cycles through the virus).
Meron had her braces off so she was able to have the MRI; it showed her left jaw is “irregular shaped, small, has no visible disc”. We may find out what this means at her appointment at Children’s Hospital in Seattle on October 8th. Her general dentist gave us one likely cause: trauma earlier in life causing the joint to slip off the disc. This would cause a ‘bone on bone’ scenario, which then causes the bone to wear down and become irregular shaped. This would also explain the asymmetrical appearance. It does not explain the shoulder irregularity though, so the dentist said it could be ‘idiopathic’ in nature. Diagnosis and treatment yet to be determined.
At the moment Tye and Nik are packing up our house in CA so renters can move in on Monday. They hope to be home Sunday evening and be able to move everything into a duplex Nik will be sharing with a friend. Sarah found a nice apartment in mid-town Sacramento, just where she has wanted to be for some time now.
Joseph is midway through his football season and they are undefeated. It is a sport he really enjoys, so we will support him in it. He likes his 8th grade teachers and I think he will enjoy this school year. Berhanie is finding she likes middle school, even though she has already experienced a new schedule and teachers after her first week. They decided she was in need of a special reading class. I didn’t want her to lose her favorite Choir class, so they accommodated us by dropping her science. Berhanie needs to put a strong focus on math this year, as she is far behind at the moment. We have tried to make her feel better about her math ability by reminding her she has only had a few years of math in her life. She is catching up at double speed (about a 4th grade level), but still far from being able to function as a 7th grade math student. I hope we can get her math to reflect ‘no credit’ this year rather than an “F”, as she is making progress, just not at a 7th grade level.
I am off to Arizona next weekend to visit my Mom. My stepdad passed away just before school started and I attended his memorial through telephone. I look forward to seeing Mom and my brother Jason.
So, will I know 'normal' when it happens? Maybe this doesn't exist with a family of seven!