The day before Mother's Day, and I am finally getting around to a much needed "teacher work day". I envy those who take the unschooling approach and feel that their children will learn what they need to, when they need to. Although I am laid back, it's only in the area of organization! Ha, ha. There has been much reflection of late. Our children are first generation homeschoolers (in our families). This means that we are winging it as we go :-) Ok, not really. With all the available resources, conventions, online groups, local homeschool groups, no one really needs to wing it. But, it is still uncharted territory, as far as how I grew up.
We've taken a longer than anticipated spring break. We started falling behind on doing everything we really need to be doing on a regular basis (as far as the Charlotte Mason method goes). So, it was time for me to sit down and evaluate where we are, and who needs to be doing what, and how are we going to make this all happen. I was able to get a lot done, but more time will still be needed to really make this all come together as smoothly as possible.
I had some time to contemplate where we've been and where all the kiddos need to be. This year found Saoirse needing to take the extra (3.5) year with Ambleside. I was trying to have two children in the same year. One child behind a year, the other advanced a year. This has worked fine for Isabella and Moira so far, but has failed to work for Flannery and Saoirse. The 3.5 year in AO is kind of thrown together, the premise is you are waiting for your child to mature enough to handle year 4's advanced reading list. I've had time to re-evaluate Higher Up and Further In's (HUFI) schedules. There are a few books we've read on AO that do not show up on HUFI that I wouldn't want the kids to miss out on. It has been a time consuming process of figuring out where the 'missing' books would fit in on the HUFI schedules. The one thing I really like about HUFI is that they start with ancient history and work up, BUT they also do American history at the same time, working chronologically. Jeremiah wasn't a fan of carrying two lines of history throughout their schooling. But I realized that AO takes the same approach, but it isn't as noticeable until year 3 or 4. However AO does not cover ancient history (not that I have seen, yet). So what does this mean?
I will keep Isabella, Moira and Flannery on the AO schedules. I will also be separating Isabella and Moira by years as well. With graduation closing in on Isabella in the next 2.5 years she will need to skip year 8 and move into year 9. I have not seen how this will work for her, as I am only going on recommendations at this time. I may keep her in year 8 if there are things in there that I don't want her to miss out on. I was going to switch Flannery over to HUFI, but I think there would be too much history that would get lost if I did so. So she will continue on in her current level with AO. I've decided to start Saoirse in year 3, term 1 with HUFI. She will be a bit behind, but will eventually catch up in the coming years. This still leaves Flannery and Saoirse with a gap, missing out on ancient history. My solution is for them to get those readings in by reading it to their brothers. Jedidiah should have, age wise, started in year 1 this past September. There was just no way that he was ready for that kind of structure. I may start him on year 1 when the girls move on to their 3rd term for the year. This way he won't have to wait till next September and therefore will only be half a year behind. For his ancient history readings I will have Flannery read it to him, killing two birds with one stone. When it comes time for Jonah to start year 1 I will have Saoirse do his ancient history readings. This way both girls will get what they missed out on.
It certainly isn't perfect. I have to stop myself form wishing, wishing, wishing, that I had started CM at the get go. But I am where I am and I can't turn back the hands of time. It helps that one of our goals is to convey to our children that learning is a life long endeavor. There shouldn't be a time when their education is "done". If we manage to convey that, then I think we should be fine :-)
Right now, as I write this, my bed is a mess of scattered papers, binders, books and such. I have made a book list for what Saoirse will need to get started with year 3. Now I need to figure out what notebooks are needed. The girls really, REALLY need to be doing the small everyday things in CM. The wonderful thing with CM is that the lessons are short. You really do build little by little. But if you are not doing the "little" things....it shows! Not at first, since these skills build on each other, but give it a couple of years and oh, my! That is where I find myself. When we first started CM over two years ago it seemed so overwhelming. So I just stuck with the "basics". I left out what I thought were all the 'extras'. Come to find out that those little extras are pretty darn important. It is time to just put one foot in front of the other. Just pick up where we are and GO.
Now to try to convince my family how important diligence and consistency are going to be, now more than ever. I don't think any of us in our family has even a lick of a consistency bone in our body :-) Or diligence, for that matter. Between our mess of a 'school' and our mess of a house (lack of structure, good habits, etc.), well....things are pretty chaotic. I get one area cleaned up and the rest of the place is a disaster. I have a plan for that as well. I won't write out what it is yet, but will share when we actually put it into place. All I can say is that it is going to take MAJOR discipline on my part to see through with the plan. I don't see how I can continue on with the chaos that I live in now, so I don't have much of a choice, should I wish to stay out of the insane asylum ;-)
It is getting late and I need to get kiddos off to bed.
Showing posts with label Home School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home School. Show all posts
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Replacing twaddle
I've mentioned about ridding our home of twaddle. I think a post of all the changes we have made is in order, but for now here is one snippet of our changes.
Reading materials. It can be a tricky road to cover sometimes. Especially if you don't have the funding to buy books. We make it more of a practice to look for books that we would like for our children to read or use and then go to the library's online search to see if our library system carry any of the ones we deem fit. We 'request' it online, and it is on the hold shelf for us in a few days. This has drastically cut down on the twaddle coming in. My children were very fond of going to the library and searching for books. However, more likely than not, they came back with comics, or other twaddle books. They definitely had art books, or animal books that were fine, but too many poor choices were being brought in. There are only so many hours in the day and the thought of "did I want my child to spend their precious hours with junk food for the mind", made me stop and reconsider our ways. So this way isn't as fun for the kids, but has most certainly helped us to work towards our family goals.
That being said, there are days, like science class days, when it is too cold or wet that we need to pass one and a half hours...with 5 children. Not a fun time. So today I took them to the library. However when it came time to leave I put the children in the van and then went back for the books. I took this time to weed out unwanted books. Below you will see the choices we came home with. Because the girls' schooling is filled with living books, I use library books to fill in their interests. They were pretty excited about the new reads. Isabella LOVES (yes, with all caps!) The Self Sufficient Life by Seymour. She really wants to buy it, but it's a pricey book. So for now we just have to renew it. Hmmm, maybe that would make a good birthday present.
Reading materials. It can be a tricky road to cover sometimes. Especially if you don't have the funding to buy books. We make it more of a practice to look for books that we would like for our children to read or use and then go to the library's online search to see if our library system carry any of the ones we deem fit. We 'request' it online, and it is on the hold shelf for us in a few days. This has drastically cut down on the twaddle coming in. My children were very fond of going to the library and searching for books. However, more likely than not, they came back with comics, or other twaddle books. They definitely had art books, or animal books that were fine, but too many poor choices were being brought in. There are only so many hours in the day and the thought of "did I want my child to spend their precious hours with junk food for the mind", made me stop and reconsider our ways. So this way isn't as fun for the kids, but has most certainly helped us to work towards our family goals.
That being said, there are days, like science class days, when it is too cold or wet that we need to pass one and a half hours...with 5 children. Not a fun time. So today I took them to the library. However when it came time to leave I put the children in the van and then went back for the books. I took this time to weed out unwanted books. Below you will see the choices we came home with. Because the girls' schooling is filled with living books, I use library books to fill in their interests. They were pretty excited about the new reads. Isabella LOVES (yes, with all caps!) The Self Sufficient Life by Seymour. She really wants to buy it, but it's a pricey book. So for now we just have to renew it. Hmmm, maybe that would make a good birthday present.
We got a few more that are not pictured, but the themes are all the same (homesteading, cooking, animals, or crafting).
Aubrey wants to get in on the fun! He's holding a book that the girls are going goo-goo over, called In*Jean*Uity. It's taking jeans and either embellishing them ( you can use the ideas for jean skirts as well), or repourposing them. We just got a bag of clothing off of freecycle, or the homeschool loop (can't remember), and it had two pairs of jeans that we couldn't wear. One had huge holes in the knees, and the other was a men's size that didn't fit anyone. We were going to get rid of them when I came across this book today. The girls have been hard at work cutting, measuring and sewing. Fun stuff.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Play Time in the Cold
Please note that "cold" is a relative term :-) It was a whopping 50 degrees out the other day. You'll see that in some ways our time is the same. Some things differ, like when Jonah catches on that it is much colder than the day before. Jeremiah helped to load the pictures and decided to add captions to them. I decided to leave his up (His will be in black) and to add mine as I had planned (in blue).
My new Danskin clogs
See, layers were in order. Hey, you Northerners....you know you can get hypothermia in 50 degree weather don't you?
Aubrey exploring... dirt.
This little boy's footsies had to be covered...no baby toes to admire.
Aubrey sharing his rock
Aubrey learning to share. I'm sure it is easier to do so with a rock, let's see if it transfers over to when he has some ice cream :-)
Flannery's left foot, painted nails
Sandals are still in use in these parts.
Carefully making hopscotch fun
Hopscotch in miniature.
A girl and her grid
This game of hopscotch was done in jackets and shoes!
Shoes definitely not required
Apparently the shoes didn't last long.
I'm, like, reading
We have a wide variety of activities we do when we are outside. Running, building, creek wading are popular, but every once in a while it's nice to be outside with a good book.
Uhhh, yeah, still reading
You can't see me!
Trying to keep warm as we wait for friends to arrive.
Peak-a-boo!
Unfortunately our friends were not able to make it. So instead we just took some pictures.
Austere pre-teen
Moira while waiting.
Jonah cuddling up
Jonah finally figured out that it was cold outside. He went in to grab some blankets. It was soon after this that we headed inside as everyone was chilled to the bone.
Yep, still reading... and Jonah is cuddling up
Jonah tried to share Bella's blanket first, but then he decided he needed his own (as seen above).
There you have it. Our weekend was rounded off with church and hanging out around here. I've gotten a ton of their school planning done so far, but more is needed to be done. The reason it is taking so long is that I am trying to incorporate two curriculums together. We are also putting in the other 'subjects' that we were not doing last semester. And because we hadn't been doing them it is taking me some time to figure out how to best approach them so that our days run smoothly. I'll show my new schedule when it gets done. We are taking a mini break from school for the rest of the year. The oldest two have one more science class (it resumes in January), and the girls will be doing one math lesson daily (as they are behind). Other than that my focus will be to get their schedule done and to finish our decluttering.
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Monday, October 31, 2011
Yummy breakfast
Let's start with last night, first. We had a bon fire, as seems to be a custom of ours when the weather turns colder. We had a couple of families over and it turned out to be a wonderful night. The girls wanted to dress up, as we are not partaking in halloween. That was fine by us, as there is no harm in playing dress up. We made some healthy candy apples, some hot cider and a wee bit illegal hot cocoa drink (no cocoa is allowed on the GAPS, but we did make it with homemade almond milk :-)). The apples didn't turn out too great as we didn't allow enough time for the caramel to cool properly. They still tasted yummy.
This morning it was time to think what we would have for breakfast. Eggs? Ugh. Smoothie? That was a favorite choice, but no frozen bananas around. Hmmmm. An almond muffin creation? Nah. How about cake? Yes! There was a white bean vanilla cake recipe that I was hoping we could use for our birthday celebrations. I thought about waiting till Aubrey's birthday to use it. But then I thought, what happens if it tastes bad? So I made up one trial cake. It is not like a box cake, obviously, as it's made with white beans. But we've been on the GAPS diet now for two months, and this was a wonderful treat. I used less honey, as we were eating it for breakfast. But everyone thought that that it didn't need any more honey, they liked it just the way it was. Everyone wanted seconds! But we didn't have any. We only got one piece each. Go HERE for the recipe. I made up some strawberry topping, and we had a bit of our caramel sauce left over from last night that we drizzled on top. It was a winner.
Homeschooling. I had some thoughts on that today. Some good, some sad. I've been a bit consumed lately with other things on my mind, as so I haven't put much thought into our schooling. I really do need to read the whole Charlotte Mason series. I will make it apart of 'my curriculum' :-) Anyways, there are some wonderful blogs out there that others journal about their experiences with Mason's philosophy of education. Wow, I have so much to learn. And here was the sad part...I really wish I had come accross this philosophy before we started homeschooling. I know I can't turn back the hands of time. I just think about all there is to learn about this schooling philosophy, and how short our time is left with Isabella's home education. Only four more years! I need to dig in! Plus I realized that when I start teaching Aubrey the basics, Isabella will have graduated!!! Oh. My. Goodness. The good news is that I am glad I found this philosophy at all, and that we *all* will benefit us. I am praying that Isabella will be able to take what she has learned and apply it to all her life. Speaking of which we are needing to make some big changes in how we do life. Yes, I've talked about this before, and we have implemented a few things here and there. But every day it is more evident how far off the path we are.
Off to life. Errands to run, food to make, school to do, outside time to partake.
This morning it was time to think what we would have for breakfast. Eggs? Ugh. Smoothie? That was a favorite choice, but no frozen bananas around. Hmmmm. An almond muffin creation? Nah. How about cake? Yes! There was a white bean vanilla cake recipe that I was hoping we could use for our birthday celebrations. I thought about waiting till Aubrey's birthday to use it. But then I thought, what happens if it tastes bad? So I made up one trial cake. It is not like a box cake, obviously, as it's made with white beans. But we've been on the GAPS diet now for two months, and this was a wonderful treat. I used less honey, as we were eating it for breakfast. But everyone thought that that it didn't need any more honey, they liked it just the way it was. Everyone wanted seconds! But we didn't have any. We only got one piece each. Go HERE for the recipe. I made up some strawberry topping, and we had a bit of our caramel sauce left over from last night that we drizzled on top. It was a winner.
Homeschooling. I had some thoughts on that today. Some good, some sad. I've been a bit consumed lately with other things on my mind, as so I haven't put much thought into our schooling. I really do need to read the whole Charlotte Mason series. I will make it apart of 'my curriculum' :-) Anyways, there are some wonderful blogs out there that others journal about their experiences with Mason's philosophy of education. Wow, I have so much to learn. And here was the sad part...I really wish I had come accross this philosophy before we started homeschooling. I know I can't turn back the hands of time. I just think about all there is to learn about this schooling philosophy, and how short our time is left with Isabella's home education. Only four more years! I need to dig in! Plus I realized that when I start teaching Aubrey the basics, Isabella will have graduated!!! Oh. My. Goodness. The good news is that I am glad I found this philosophy at all, and that we *all* will benefit us. I am praying that Isabella will be able to take what she has learned and apply it to all her life. Speaking of which we are needing to make some big changes in how we do life. Yes, I've talked about this before, and we have implemented a few things here and there. But every day it is more evident how far off the path we are.
Off to life. Errands to run, food to make, school to do, outside time to partake.
Isabella on the prairie.
Isabella better watch out for the Indians.
Cake time! Nothing like being able to eat cake for breakfast :-)
Friday, August 19, 2011
Toofers, b-days and more
I'm terribly behind in writing down some of the things that go on around here. I felt bad that we weren't able to get a birthday sign done for Isabella. It's been a tradition here for the past 6 years. She didn't seem to notice to much since she's been totally absorbed in her pool party details. For her birthday she chose to have a large pool party. It should prove to be fun. I am praying for good weather and sanity. After the pool we have to get everyone over to the park for some food and cake. I really don't relish the idea of trying to get a bunch of kids out of a pool, clothed and moved to another spot. Especially since I'm still gimpy :-) Seeing as how most of the kids she invited were her age, we shouldn't have too much of a problem. I am hoping that we remember to take pictures, but trying to keep an eye on so many kiddos may mean otherwise.
Baby Aubrey finally got his first tooth!! He has not been sleeping well for the last week or so and we finally know why. I am just so thankful for being able to get some nap time in since my mom is here. Aubrey was waking at 2 or 4 AM and staying up for two hours. Then come the early morning hours and he just wanted to nurse and nurse and nurse and....Since it isn't easy, nor comfortable to lay on my side, due to my leg, I can't sleep while I'm nursing him like I would normally do. We just went online to order an amber teething necklace. It took the baby forever to fall asleep tonight, and it was clear that he was in pain. We only had a wee bit of baby Tylenol to give him. I figured this way we don't have to worry about running out of pain meds, as the teething necklace is supposed to release a natural oil that helps with pain. Hey, I'm gain for new ideas :-)
I start physical therapy next week. I've been told I need to get off the crutches. So I try to walk around with one crutch only using it when my leg feels like it's going to give out. I can already tell that it's getting stronger compared to three days ago. This 'stronger' is only relative of course as my leg is in pretty sad shape. I'm allowed to take off the brace for bed time and if I'm just hanging out on the couch. What a wonderful break from the brace! I've started to try to make small movements. I can only bend my knee like a few inches. Wow, it's amazing how quickly your joints can lock up!
I've been preparing for the new school year. I have a ways to go before we will be all ready, but I may start them this coming Monday. It's hard to say. We still have our summer reading that we haven't finished ( a few more chapters left). And I plan on putting Isabella, Flannery and Moira on the GAPS intro diet on Monday. It might seem odd that Jed isn't included, but this is for many reasons. Isabella is going on it to see if we can't make a big change in her hernia situation. With four months till the end of the year, we need to make some big changes to see if we can avoid surgery. For Flannery, she NEEDS to be on this as there is a big, BIG correlation with her diet and her 'splinters'. She's been on a much restricted diet for the past week and only once did she complain of some pain, and that lasted only a few minutes. But, she had birthday cake for Isa's birthday....Oh...MY...GOODNESS!! Yeah, she claims that she isn't better at all, that she has been in pain all week long and just hasn't told us. If you knew, and saw Flannery during these episodes you KNOW that isn't true. This child can not hold back from freaking out over every little thing. I'd give some examples to show how totally out of control this is, but I dont' have the time to do so right now. Trust me, this is crazy! Moira is joining them only because she has been begging me to start the GAPS diet and when she heard that those two were going on it she asked to go on it too. Since my mom will have to help with the cooking, I didn't want to add anyone else on the list. Once I am better (up and doing all the cooking, etc.) I will put everyone on the diet. So with a new diet and starting the new school year on the same day...hmm, yeah crazy, school should wait till the following week.
All right, it's getting late and I need to get some sleep before the baby wakes to spend the rest of the night restless.
Baby Aubrey finally got his first tooth!! He has not been sleeping well for the last week or so and we finally know why. I am just so thankful for being able to get some nap time in since my mom is here. Aubrey was waking at 2 or 4 AM and staying up for two hours. Then come the early morning hours and he just wanted to nurse and nurse and nurse and....Since it isn't easy, nor comfortable to lay on my side, due to my leg, I can't sleep while I'm nursing him like I would normally do. We just went online to order an amber teething necklace. It took the baby forever to fall asleep tonight, and it was clear that he was in pain. We only had a wee bit of baby Tylenol to give him. I figured this way we don't have to worry about running out of pain meds, as the teething necklace is supposed to release a natural oil that helps with pain. Hey, I'm gain for new ideas :-)
I start physical therapy next week. I've been told I need to get off the crutches. So I try to walk around with one crutch only using it when my leg feels like it's going to give out. I can already tell that it's getting stronger compared to three days ago. This 'stronger' is only relative of course as my leg is in pretty sad shape. I'm allowed to take off the brace for bed time and if I'm just hanging out on the couch. What a wonderful break from the brace! I've started to try to make small movements. I can only bend my knee like a few inches. Wow, it's amazing how quickly your joints can lock up!
I've been preparing for the new school year. I have a ways to go before we will be all ready, but I may start them this coming Monday. It's hard to say. We still have our summer reading that we haven't finished ( a few more chapters left). And I plan on putting Isabella, Flannery and Moira on the GAPS intro diet on Monday. It might seem odd that Jed isn't included, but this is for many reasons. Isabella is going on it to see if we can't make a big change in her hernia situation. With four months till the end of the year, we need to make some big changes to see if we can avoid surgery. For Flannery, she NEEDS to be on this as there is a big, BIG correlation with her diet and her 'splinters'. She's been on a much restricted diet for the past week and only once did she complain of some pain, and that lasted only a few minutes. But, she had birthday cake for Isa's birthday....Oh...MY...GOODNESS!! Yeah, she claims that she isn't better at all, that she has been in pain all week long and just hasn't told us. If you knew, and saw Flannery during these episodes you KNOW that isn't true. This child can not hold back from freaking out over every little thing. I'd give some examples to show how totally out of control this is, but I dont' have the time to do so right now. Trust me, this is crazy! Moira is joining them only because she has been begging me to start the GAPS diet and when she heard that those two were going on it she asked to go on it too. Since my mom will have to help with the cooking, I didn't want to add anyone else on the list. Once I am better (up and doing all the cooking, etc.) I will put everyone on the diet. So with a new diet and starting the new school year on the same day...hmm, yeah crazy, school should wait till the following week.
All right, it's getting late and I need to get some sleep before the baby wakes to spend the rest of the night restless.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
A Rough end of the Week
So it turns out that Jed had to miss his last day of speech therapy! Thankfully I thought ahead and we made up a large chocolate chip cookie that Jedidiah decorated with colored frosting. We also printed out a thank you card for him to color and give to Miss Bonnie. We did drive over to give her those things, and he was bumming to have to miss out on a game she had planned to play with him. In the picture below he looks totally fine, but that is only due to the Motrin running through him. I was starting to get a bit concerned due to the painful headache he kept having the moment the medicine wore off. I tried a few homeopathic remedies, but they were not working...until...For some reason as I was reading through my materia medica no one remedy seemed to fit the bill, so I mixed up a concoction. I didn't want to put too many in one bottle so I made up two remedies, each with 7 different substances in them. I used the first on for a few hours to see if there was any effect. I didn't notice any. During this time Moira said she wasn't feeling well. Oy. I gave her the remedy as well. Same deal, no improvement. So I started giving them the second remedy. Jed had gone to bed and Moira was heading to bed when I decided to give her the remedy one more time. For some reason the remedy "Pulsatilla" kept coming to my mind. I wasn't sure why, especially since I had put it in the second bottle. Just as I gave Moira the remedy it hit me....I also put Lycopodium in the bottle as well, and it is known to antidote Pulsatilla. Hmmmm. So I quickly made up a single remedy made of just Pulsatilla. By morning Moira was fine. I meant to give her another dose before I headed out to the barn to milk the goats, but I forgot. When I came in she told me her tummy was just starting to hurt again. She told me that she woke up pain free (the result of the Pulsatilla I was guessing), but now her tummy was starting to hurt again. I gave her another dose and her pain was gone very soon after, not to have returned. I figured I would give the remedy to Jed as well. He would be feverish once the Motrin or Tylenol would wear off, not to mention the *very* painful headache. Well, whether he was going to get better that day or the Pulsatilla was working, I'm not sure. I just know that he has been fever and headache free since! Phew! Now my only problem is that Flannery is now getting sick. For some reason I have a very hard time trying to find the correct remedies for her. She may be exhibiting the same symptoms as her siblings but the chosen remedy doesn't do anything for her. She always needs a different one. So it will be back to the drawing board. Especially since tomorrow is the first day of Runners Camp.
The girls are very excited to be attending their second year of Runners Camp (RC). The program is for ages 6 to 12. So this year Isabella is a volunteer helper. Since she was the first to sign up, she got one of the most covetous spots as a water game helper. :-) Moira, Flannery and Saoirse will be runners this year. Moira was happy to know that one of her friends is signed up for this week as well. RC has two sessions, one in June and one in July. We did the July one last year. Not good. Note to self...it is HOT here in July!!! Poor Flannery got heat exhaustion one day last year. Thankfully the temps here are only going to be in the 80's, which is much better than the 90's we have been having for the past few weeks.
Once camp is done I plan on starting our 'summer program'. I was able to get away for an hour last night to do some planning. I need longer than an hour, but it was a start. We need to do some schooling through the summer, but just in a couple of subjects. Plus, things have gotten a wee bit out of hand in a few areas around here. For one, the girls have been really bad about getting to sleep at a decent hour. We put them to bed around 9 or 9:30, but they have been staying up late reading, talking or what not. This is becoming a problem in multiple ways. The goats really need to be milked before 8 AM to keep close to milking 12 hours apart. Then on top of it, I have had this policy that I will not make breakfast if the kitchen is a mess. I hate messes. And it really gets to me if I have to try to make breakfast with NO clean dishes or bowls and NO space on the counters. And I don't do this myself, so it wasn't getting done until late in the morning and we have been eating breakfast at 10 or 11 AM. So our summer program will focus on fixed wake up and retire times, plus fixed meal times. Woe to those who miss the time slots :-) I never finished my decluttering and spring cleaning I had wanted to during that last week in May. Yesterday was a great work day and we got a lot done. I was finally able to get most of the laundry room done. It had been turned into a chicken hospital. Anyone who has chickens knows what this means. It's not pretty in more ways than one! Lets just say that the shelving we put back there to put the folded laundry on has sat empty these past few weeks. I could not use them. Nothing like a chicken who decides to roost on your clean laundry. Which of course is no longer clean by morning. I got it all cleaned up. Yeah! Now all that is left is to clear the top of the washer and dryer. I hate how all of our horizontal surfaces seem to attract clutter. I need to find a way to de-magnetize all my horizontal surfaces :-) Our summer program will also have lots of training time. We are going to go back over the basics of how to do all the various chores. Plus we will be training the boys to start doing some chores. Then we will practice various activities like getting in and out of the van, putting our shoes away when we come inside, putting our dishes in the sink when we are done with them, etc.
Along with our summer program I am hoping to start the GAPS Intro diet around July 20th. That gives us time in the beginning of July to gather a few more needed things like probiotics and soup bones. Plus I can try to bulk cook some things and start making some sauerkraut to be one step ahead. I have written out some details but will need to do some further research. I found some herbs and homeopathic solutions that I want to try to help with yeast and possible parasites. Along with diet, the older two girls and I will be starting an exercising program. We will start with walking and the short T-Tapp video.
I think the biggest area that I am most excited about is to truly concentrate on our spiritual lives. I was very blessed by some things I have read from another family on GAPS and how God is working in their lives. It was very motivating. I am very blessed to have at times deep fellowship with the Lord. Those have been very wonderful times in my life. For some reason I start to think I can handle things on my own, and then my whole life starts to fall down a slippery slope :-( I can't promise that this will be any different, but I do know that I am most excited to "walk with God in the cool of the garden". And I am very excited to bring my children with me :-) We all have some very, very (*VERY*) bad heart attitudes. Each and every one of us. Not pretty. We have plans to also work more together as a family on things than each going on their own way. I am sure things will become more clear as we pray more, so for now I only have a bit of a sketch of how I am going to go about this all. My problem thus far is that because I haven't had a specific plan or that I didnt' have the perfect conditions I have put this off. I know, I know, very silly. My sister was saying, "What? What are you waiting for? Just do it, don't wait for this or that to be perfect before you start!" Good idea.
I am sure there is more. But for now I will leave you with a picture of Jedidiah and his speech therapist on his last day. I will hopefully be able to share more details as they fall into place!
The girls are very excited to be attending their second year of Runners Camp (RC). The program is for ages 6 to 12. So this year Isabella is a volunteer helper. Since she was the first to sign up, she got one of the most covetous spots as a water game helper. :-) Moira, Flannery and Saoirse will be runners this year. Moira was happy to know that one of her friends is signed up for this week as well. RC has two sessions, one in June and one in July. We did the July one last year. Not good. Note to self...it is HOT here in July!!! Poor Flannery got heat exhaustion one day last year. Thankfully the temps here are only going to be in the 80's, which is much better than the 90's we have been having for the past few weeks.
Once camp is done I plan on starting our 'summer program'. I was able to get away for an hour last night to do some planning. I need longer than an hour, but it was a start. We need to do some schooling through the summer, but just in a couple of subjects. Plus, things have gotten a wee bit out of hand in a few areas around here. For one, the girls have been really bad about getting to sleep at a decent hour. We put them to bed around 9 or 9:30, but they have been staying up late reading, talking or what not. This is becoming a problem in multiple ways. The goats really need to be milked before 8 AM to keep close to milking 12 hours apart. Then on top of it, I have had this policy that I will not make breakfast if the kitchen is a mess. I hate messes. And it really gets to me if I have to try to make breakfast with NO clean dishes or bowls and NO space on the counters. And I don't do this myself, so it wasn't getting done until late in the morning and we have been eating breakfast at 10 or 11 AM. So our summer program will focus on fixed wake up and retire times, plus fixed meal times. Woe to those who miss the time slots :-) I never finished my decluttering and spring cleaning I had wanted to during that last week in May. Yesterday was a great work day and we got a lot done. I was finally able to get most of the laundry room done. It had been turned into a chicken hospital. Anyone who has chickens knows what this means. It's not pretty in more ways than one! Lets just say that the shelving we put back there to put the folded laundry on has sat empty these past few weeks. I could not use them. Nothing like a chicken who decides to roost on your clean laundry. Which of course is no longer clean by morning. I got it all cleaned up. Yeah! Now all that is left is to clear the top of the washer and dryer. I hate how all of our horizontal surfaces seem to attract clutter. I need to find a way to de-magnetize all my horizontal surfaces :-) Our summer program will also have lots of training time. We are going to go back over the basics of how to do all the various chores. Plus we will be training the boys to start doing some chores. Then we will practice various activities like getting in and out of the van, putting our shoes away when we come inside, putting our dishes in the sink when we are done with them, etc.
Along with our summer program I am hoping to start the GAPS Intro diet around July 20th. That gives us time in the beginning of July to gather a few more needed things like probiotics and soup bones. Plus I can try to bulk cook some things and start making some sauerkraut to be one step ahead. I have written out some details but will need to do some further research. I found some herbs and homeopathic solutions that I want to try to help with yeast and possible parasites. Along with diet, the older two girls and I will be starting an exercising program. We will start with walking and the short T-Tapp video.
I think the biggest area that I am most excited about is to truly concentrate on our spiritual lives. I was very blessed by some things I have read from another family on GAPS and how God is working in their lives. It was very motivating. I am very blessed to have at times deep fellowship with the Lord. Those have been very wonderful times in my life. For some reason I start to think I can handle things on my own, and then my whole life starts to fall down a slippery slope :-( I can't promise that this will be any different, but I do know that I am most excited to "walk with God in the cool of the garden". And I am very excited to bring my children with me :-) We all have some very, very (*VERY*) bad heart attitudes. Each and every one of us. Not pretty. We have plans to also work more together as a family on things than each going on their own way. I am sure things will become more clear as we pray more, so for now I only have a bit of a sketch of how I am going to go about this all. My problem thus far is that because I haven't had a specific plan or that I didnt' have the perfect conditions I have put this off. I know, I know, very silly. My sister was saying, "What? What are you waiting for? Just do it, don't wait for this or that to be perfect before you start!" Good idea.
I am sure there is more. But for now I will leave you with a picture of Jedidiah and his speech therapist on his last day. I will hopefully be able to share more details as they fall into place!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Tired
Phew! I feel drained. Surprised? Ha, ha!! This past week was supposed to be our purge (aka spring cleaning) week. Even with the children all being sick I was able to get the boys' room done, the girls have most of their rooms done, I have most of the family room done, started a bit in my bedroom and tackled a bit of the laundry room. I'm going between the laundry room and bedroom depending on if the baby is sleeping or not. I was able to thoroughly wash our big blue couch and two blue cushioned chairs. They needed it, BAD! Let's just say the "no food on couches" will be firmly instituted and followed! I didn't get to everything that needed to be done, but I am just happy, that despite the many small trials, I've accomplished so much.
I've been sick on and off, but not with the horrid illness that everyone else had. Mine is due to allergies getting out of control. Because it is more of a constitutional illness than an acute, homeopathy is working, then my allergies take hold again. I am thankful for the reprieve, but at this point I need to do a bit more drastic measures. I could go off to get an antibiotic. Number one, I don't want to, and two, I'm not sure if I need one. My allergies have produced this cough, that I've had for a month now. Thankfully it's not painful, or severe. But it's there, and it's not a dry cough, which is what I am a bit concerned about. A month of a goupy cough and I know I am risking bronchitis or pneumonia. Not exactly something I want to battle with. So I've pondered my options. I know I could call the homeopathic doctor to get the "right" remedy to set me straight for a while. But that costs a good deal of money. If I had pneumonia, I'd be calling, but I don't....so I need to do something here at home. So here is what I came up with:
1. I've researched and compiled a list of about 16 remedies (homeopathic) to try. The classic way would be to take one remedy and see if that helps. I would need to take it for at least a day. That means a possible 16 days to figure out if I got the right one. So I am making my own combination remedy by putting 5 remedies into one bottle. I'm hoping to find the right remedy a lot quicker than two weeks.
2. I plan on juice feasting (I think I mentioned this before) for a full 3 to 4 days, with lots of water in between.
3. Start taking 1/4 of a probiotic capsule each day.
4. Make a whole bunch of my Immuni-T(made with the Immuni-T tea, garlic, lemon juice, honey and elderberries) and drinking that in between the juicing. I'll add a bit of vitamin C powder and echinacea drops to it as well.
5. By day 4 or 5 start adding in bone broths.
6. Day 5 or 6 start to add coconut oil and raw egg yolk to my broth.
7. From there add whole veggies, then meat and rice or wheat free pasta.
8. Each evening take a detox bath.
I'm a bit worried how the baby will react. But at this point I feel I am between a rock and a hard place. Taking antibiotics will only further weaken my body, and possibly cause things like thrush for the baby. The juicing will help to strengthen my body to fight this illness off on it's own, BUT I risk toxins being released into my milk and on into the baby. It seems either way the baby looses. Poor guy :-( But I'm hoping that by maintaining my calorie requirements, and drinking lots of water in between and the baths, that it may help to minimize the impact for Aubrey. Something needs to be done though. I've just been much too tired, foggy mentally, and having to go through a box of kleenex weekly. Not fun.
In other news our four boy baby goats went to their new home today. They are going to a great couple, with 20 acres. They will be well cared for and loved on. I really enjoyed talking to the wife. I don't think I would had ever pictured myself hanging outside chatting with a women about chicken illnesses! Too funny. So all of this means we HAVE to milk each morning now! Actually I plan on milking the goats three times a day (for Honey at least as she had all her babies taken from her). Then after a week or two go to two times a day. I will see where that takes us. In the mornings, when we have milked, we have gotten close to 3 quarts. Not bad. The only 'problem' is how fast it goes! I'm going to have to write, "Don't touch" on the milk I plan on using for recipes :-)
We've had a few problems with our chicks this time around. First we had a sick chicken that died in only hours from when we found out it was sick! Thankfully we treated the whole crew and no other chicks died. Then we lost two, they wondered into the dog area....chomp! And now we have turned into some chicken recovery place with two chicks that have a broken leg and another one that has a broken wing. The broken legs happened from the goats stepping on the chicks. The broken arm was from the dog. The girls just took off the splint to one of the chicks broken leg. It has healed, although a bit out of place. But the chick can walk on it and do all of it's chickeny things. So we have hope for the other wounded ones as well. Although I'm not sure about the broken wing one. Isabella was able to wrap the broken wing to it's body to immobilize it. Smart girl! I was talking to that lady today about it and we both agreed that not to many people would have tried to 'salvage' the chicks. They would have been culled. Ah, not these peeps! Our peeps are cherished by the girls and we go through great lengths to save any chick who is in peril.
The oldest two girls had their Portfolio Night for their art class last night. It was a lot of fun. It was a pot luck dinner between the art class and another class. I told Jonah we were going to a party, and ALL day he kept asking about the party! Oh too funny. He was quite obsessed about it. When we got there he was like, "Where's the party?" Ha, ha. Speaking of funny. I soooooooo wish I had a video camera to have caught this, but it would have been impossible since it was just one of those totally unexpected things. We were going through Walmart after church, picking up a few things. Jonah was in the seat in the cart. Coming towards us, but behind Jonah, were his Sunday school teachers. I was about to say, "Hey, Jonah, look who's here." But he happened to turn around and saw them himself. His eyes went WIDE with wonder, confusion and I'm not sure what else, and he exclaims, "HEEEEYYYYY, what are you guys doin' here?!?!!?" As if his Sunday school teachers only live in the classroom. I think I almost cried I was laughing so hard! Oh, the look on his face!
Well dinner is here. Long, long day so we got some take out. I'm beat! Oh, do pray that I will get over this illness. Not only will I be trying to recover next week, but it's also testing week for the three oldest girls. Not their favorite time of year :-) I've got to maintain a quiet area for them. That kind of stresses me out. Moira, in particular, has to have quiet to work. She gets very stressed out with tests. Although last year she did much better, and it was Flannery who was freaking out. I'm a bit nervous to see how it goes this time.
I've been sick on and off, but not with the horrid illness that everyone else had. Mine is due to allergies getting out of control. Because it is more of a constitutional illness than an acute, homeopathy is working, then my allergies take hold again. I am thankful for the reprieve, but at this point I need to do a bit more drastic measures. I could go off to get an antibiotic. Number one, I don't want to, and two, I'm not sure if I need one. My allergies have produced this cough, that I've had for a month now. Thankfully it's not painful, or severe. But it's there, and it's not a dry cough, which is what I am a bit concerned about. A month of a goupy cough and I know I am risking bronchitis or pneumonia. Not exactly something I want to battle with. So I've pondered my options. I know I could call the homeopathic doctor to get the "right" remedy to set me straight for a while. But that costs a good deal of money. If I had pneumonia, I'd be calling, but I don't....so I need to do something here at home. So here is what I came up with:
1. I've researched and compiled a list of about 16 remedies (homeopathic) to try. The classic way would be to take one remedy and see if that helps. I would need to take it for at least a day. That means a possible 16 days to figure out if I got the right one. So I am making my own combination remedy by putting 5 remedies into one bottle. I'm hoping to find the right remedy a lot quicker than two weeks.
2. I plan on juice feasting (I think I mentioned this before) for a full 3 to 4 days, with lots of water in between.
3. Start taking 1/4 of a probiotic capsule each day.
4. Make a whole bunch of my Immuni-T(made with the Immuni-T tea, garlic, lemon juice, honey and elderberries) and drinking that in between the juicing. I'll add a bit of vitamin C powder and echinacea drops to it as well.
5. By day 4 or 5 start adding in bone broths.
6. Day 5 or 6 start to add coconut oil and raw egg yolk to my broth.
7. From there add whole veggies, then meat and rice or wheat free pasta.
8. Each evening take a detox bath.
I'm a bit worried how the baby will react. But at this point I feel I am between a rock and a hard place. Taking antibiotics will only further weaken my body, and possibly cause things like thrush for the baby. The juicing will help to strengthen my body to fight this illness off on it's own, BUT I risk toxins being released into my milk and on into the baby. It seems either way the baby looses. Poor guy :-( But I'm hoping that by maintaining my calorie requirements, and drinking lots of water in between and the baths, that it may help to minimize the impact for Aubrey. Something needs to be done though. I've just been much too tired, foggy mentally, and having to go through a box of kleenex weekly. Not fun.
In other news our four boy baby goats went to their new home today. They are going to a great couple, with 20 acres. They will be well cared for and loved on. I really enjoyed talking to the wife. I don't think I would had ever pictured myself hanging outside chatting with a women about chicken illnesses! Too funny. So all of this means we HAVE to milk each morning now! Actually I plan on milking the goats three times a day (for Honey at least as she had all her babies taken from her). Then after a week or two go to two times a day. I will see where that takes us. In the mornings, when we have milked, we have gotten close to 3 quarts. Not bad. The only 'problem' is how fast it goes! I'm going to have to write, "Don't touch" on the milk I plan on using for recipes :-)
We've had a few problems with our chicks this time around. First we had a sick chicken that died in only hours from when we found out it was sick! Thankfully we treated the whole crew and no other chicks died. Then we lost two, they wondered into the dog area....chomp! And now we have turned into some chicken recovery place with two chicks that have a broken leg and another one that has a broken wing. The broken legs happened from the goats stepping on the chicks. The broken arm was from the dog. The girls just took off the splint to one of the chicks broken leg. It has healed, although a bit out of place. But the chick can walk on it and do all of it's chickeny things. So we have hope for the other wounded ones as well. Although I'm not sure about the broken wing one. Isabella was able to wrap the broken wing to it's body to immobilize it. Smart girl! I was talking to that lady today about it and we both agreed that not to many people would have tried to 'salvage' the chicks. They would have been culled. Ah, not these peeps! Our peeps are cherished by the girls and we go through great lengths to save any chick who is in peril.
The oldest two girls had their Portfolio Night for their art class last night. It was a lot of fun. It was a pot luck dinner between the art class and another class. I told Jonah we were going to a party, and ALL day he kept asking about the party! Oh too funny. He was quite obsessed about it. When we got there he was like, "Where's the party?" Ha, ha. Speaking of funny. I soooooooo wish I had a video camera to have caught this, but it would have been impossible since it was just one of those totally unexpected things. We were going through Walmart after church, picking up a few things. Jonah was in the seat in the cart. Coming towards us, but behind Jonah, were his Sunday school teachers. I was about to say, "Hey, Jonah, look who's here." But he happened to turn around and saw them himself. His eyes went WIDE with wonder, confusion and I'm not sure what else, and he exclaims, "HEEEEYYYYY, what are you guys doin' here?!?!!?" As if his Sunday school teachers only live in the classroom. I think I almost cried I was laughing so hard! Oh, the look on his face!
Well dinner is here. Long, long day so we got some take out. I'm beat! Oh, do pray that I will get over this illness. Not only will I be trying to recover next week, but it's also testing week for the three oldest girls. Not their favorite time of year :-) I've got to maintain a quiet area for them. That kind of stresses me out. Moira, in particular, has to have quiet to work. She gets very stressed out with tests. Although last year she did much better, and it was Flannery who was freaking out. I'm a bit nervous to see how it goes this time.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Free reading program
Thought I'd pop on here and let you know that there is a free reading program available today and tomorrow only (I sound like a commercial!) at Funnix. It has been free all month long, but I only found out about it yesterday. Jeremiah actually spent some time looking into it as he was afraid it could have been a scam or spy ware. And believe it or not it's been covered by multiple news stations. This reading program normally goes for almost $250! So hurry on over and grab it. I really don't know how good it is, or how it works, but I figured we'd download it and ask questions later :-)
Alright, off to get ready for church.
Alright, off to get ready for church.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Our week
So we finished our first week of homeschool. Yes, I know it is only Thursday, and no we are not running on a four day school schedule. It's just that I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow and the girls have their last summer book club meeting which means that our school day will not happen. Fear not, I thought ahead and we got everything done in the four days so that we didn't have to fall behind in our first week of school. So far things have still been going smoothly. We most certainly did not follow the schedule one day but we still followed the flow of the day and got everything in, just got it done much later in the day. No biggie. The younger girls are still wiggly during reading time. Our reading time is not long at all, they are just out of practice in sitting still. I can tell they found our Shakespeare reading interesting, but they tried not to let it show :-) I happen to be in the same room with the older girls while I was reading Shakespeare to the younger girls and the older ones wanted to know right away what I was reading. They stopped what they were doing to listen! Too funny. It was one of Shakespeare's comedies. They thought it was quite outlandish, all the drama! We are still waiting for the girls math DVD's to come in. Thankfully we usually just skim the first dozen or more chapters as they are review.
Jeremiah had one of his wisdom teeth pulled today. Not a pleasant experience to be sure. He was in pretty rough shape an hour or so afterwards. Four Advil did nothing to relieve the pain, swelling and discomfort. And on top of that there was a lot of bleeding. A lot. Not profuse, but constant. So hours later with still no relief from the pain I decided to try two homeopathic remedies. The first I gave was arnica for swelling, bruising and pain. Minutes later he was asleep. Now that is not anything odd as he was already drowsy and headed for snooze land. But he did sleep soundly for a couple of hours. One of the things that intrigues me about taking a remedy during an acute event is that the person will fall in a deep sleep when given the correct remedy. Now clearly this sleeping could have been coincidence. However when he woke up I gave him the second remedy, hypericum. That is supposed to help with deep puncture wounds. Well fifteen minutes later the eight hours of non stop bleeding came to an end. Coincidence? I think not. Homeopathy really does work that fast. (There was still some bleeding, but very, very noticeably reduced.) Not only that but when I told him to take his next round of remedies he said he didn't need it. He wasn't in any pain or discomfort! That is pretty amazing. We'll see how he fairs later tonight.
Jed's speech therapist called and we have days and times for his speech for the school year. The good news is that they are all at the same time! Phew! The bad news is that is in the middle of the day. Oh well. I have to say I am not looking forward to three days a week being out mid day. But it's for the best and we will make it work. I am excited to see what his therapist thinks of Jed's progress. If you remember I was a bit nervous for the long break and wondered how he would fair. I really didn't want to see any regression. Not only was there no regression but Jed has made improvements! He can now say some sentences! Things like: "I want more ice cream." "Mom, I play computer, please?" This is pretty huge seeing as how when we left off of therapy our goal was to work on him putting two words together! Don't get me wrong, he still talks a lot using single words. But with some prompting he is putting two or more words together on a daily basis. And all of his sentences are from Jed alone, no prompting.
There is more I would love to write, but I am getting sleepy. We have a long day tomorrow so I need to get to bed so I can be ready for it.
Jeremiah had one of his wisdom teeth pulled today. Not a pleasant experience to be sure. He was in pretty rough shape an hour or so afterwards. Four Advil did nothing to relieve the pain, swelling and discomfort. And on top of that there was a lot of bleeding. A lot. Not profuse, but constant. So hours later with still no relief from the pain I decided to try two homeopathic remedies. The first I gave was arnica for swelling, bruising and pain. Minutes later he was asleep. Now that is not anything odd as he was already drowsy and headed for snooze land. But he did sleep soundly for a couple of hours. One of the things that intrigues me about taking a remedy during an acute event is that the person will fall in a deep sleep when given the correct remedy. Now clearly this sleeping could have been coincidence. However when he woke up I gave him the second remedy, hypericum. That is supposed to help with deep puncture wounds. Well fifteen minutes later the eight hours of non stop bleeding came to an end. Coincidence? I think not. Homeopathy really does work that fast. (There was still some bleeding, but very, very noticeably reduced.) Not only that but when I told him to take his next round of remedies he said he didn't need it. He wasn't in any pain or discomfort! That is pretty amazing. We'll see how he fairs later tonight.
Jed's speech therapist called and we have days and times for his speech for the school year. The good news is that they are all at the same time! Phew! The bad news is that is in the middle of the day. Oh well. I have to say I am not looking forward to three days a week being out mid day. But it's for the best and we will make it work. I am excited to see what his therapist thinks of Jed's progress. If you remember I was a bit nervous for the long break and wondered how he would fair. I really didn't want to see any regression. Not only was there no regression but Jed has made improvements! He can now say some sentences! Things like: "I want more ice cream." "Mom, I play computer, please?" This is pretty huge seeing as how when we left off of therapy our goal was to work on him putting two words together! Don't get me wrong, he still talks a lot using single words. But with some prompting he is putting two or more words together on a daily basis. And all of his sentences are from Jed alone, no prompting.
There is more I would love to write, but I am getting sleepy. We have a long day tomorrow so I need to get to bed so I can be ready for it.
Monday, August 23, 2010
The start of the new school year
So today was the big day. We started the 'official' schooling around here. I say official, because I am trying to teach my children that we are learning all the time, and there shouldn't be a time to shut off our brains :-) But as far as actually pulling out the math books, or purposely teaching reading, well that started today. I had written everything that needed to be done down on paper. I had each child either working with me, working on their own or watching the boys. It happened to have time slots, but I had no intention of trying to keep to a schedule. I just needed to see, if on paper, we were supposed to get done within a reasonable time frame. And by golly we did! In real life that is! My schedules never seem to work out like they are supposed to on paper. But this one was pretty close. Everything got done, with no rushing. We had outside time as well. The late afternoon there is nothing scheduled. This way we can catch up on things if need be. Plus starting this week the girls start soccer practice. Although that is not until the evenings I wanted to make sure we were not packing our days so that we were going non stop. Jed hasn't started speech yet, so I am not sure how much adjustment we will need to make. I am assuming he will still be in speech three times a week, and quite possibly all at different times, like last year.
It was an adjustment for the girls to have to be "working" so much. Ha, ha! Nothing was hard to do, they just didn't want to have to keep thinking, using those brain muscles hurt! The younger girls were happy to be watching the boys. I'm not sure how happy the boys were though :-) I told them that they only needed to make sure that the boys didn't get into trouble. Play with them if they wanted to, but nothing fancy needed to happen. Well they got it in them that they would be the teachers and the boys the students. Um, yeah, that didn't quite work out. The boys just wanted to play with the cards, not have to play an organized game with them. Jonah was pretty ok with it, but Jed was starting to freak out. I am sure they will all get used to the new set up, we'll just have to work out the bumps.
We were able to get outside in the afternoon. It's been a while since I've been outside with the boys for a long stretch of time. I've not been able to deal with the heat this summer. Today I felt up to taking them out and even brought my camera out to take some pictures. So I compose my first shot with Jonah, hit my shutter button half way down for it to focus and instead of focusing it got more blurry. That's odd I thought. So I let go of the button, redid the set up and pressed the button half way down again, only to get a totally blurry view from the view window. I take a look at my camera to see that the front half of the lens popped off onto the gravel driveway!!! Sigh. A big Sigh! I picked it up, dusted it off, then tried to put it together again. Wasn't happenin'. Sigh. Jeremiah took a look at it tonight only to find the reason it wouldn't reattach was because one of the tabs was broken inside. So we will take it to a camera shop (sometime in the future) to see if it can be fixed. I do have another lens, but it's not great on close range shots. So I asked Isabella to get me the family camera. It only had two batteries in it, it needs four. I got a couple more, but they were not charged. Oh well, no picture taking for me today.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything went today. I had put together some food prep items Sunday and was a bit nervous to see if I would get to it all today. And behold, I did! I was able to cook up two pots of beans, strain the chicken stock that was percolating all night, and dehydrate the soaking oats. I am really trying hard to make sure we have all our grains soaked as I see a difference in my ability to think and talk straight when I do. So hopefully tomorrow we will have the oats made into granola, and the beans will be used for bean burritos for lunch and baked beans with corn bread for dinner. Speaking of tomorrow I need to get to bed to make sure I have the sleep I need to make this all run smoothly. Sleep helps. A lot :-)
It was an adjustment for the girls to have to be "working" so much. Ha, ha! Nothing was hard to do, they just didn't want to have to keep thinking, using those brain muscles hurt! The younger girls were happy to be watching the boys. I'm not sure how happy the boys were though :-) I told them that they only needed to make sure that the boys didn't get into trouble. Play with them if they wanted to, but nothing fancy needed to happen. Well they got it in them that they would be the teachers and the boys the students. Um, yeah, that didn't quite work out. The boys just wanted to play with the cards, not have to play an organized game with them. Jonah was pretty ok with it, but Jed was starting to freak out. I am sure they will all get used to the new set up, we'll just have to work out the bumps.
We were able to get outside in the afternoon. It's been a while since I've been outside with the boys for a long stretch of time. I've not been able to deal with the heat this summer. Today I felt up to taking them out and even brought my camera out to take some pictures. So I compose my first shot with Jonah, hit my shutter button half way down for it to focus and instead of focusing it got more blurry. That's odd I thought. So I let go of the button, redid the set up and pressed the button half way down again, only to get a totally blurry view from the view window. I take a look at my camera to see that the front half of the lens popped off onto the gravel driveway!!! Sigh. A big Sigh! I picked it up, dusted it off, then tried to put it together again. Wasn't happenin'. Sigh. Jeremiah took a look at it tonight only to find the reason it wouldn't reattach was because one of the tabs was broken inside. So we will take it to a camera shop (sometime in the future) to see if it can be fixed. I do have another lens, but it's not great on close range shots. So I asked Isabella to get me the family camera. It only had two batteries in it, it needs four. I got a couple more, but they were not charged. Oh well, no picture taking for me today.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything went today. I had put together some food prep items Sunday and was a bit nervous to see if I would get to it all today. And behold, I did! I was able to cook up two pots of beans, strain the chicken stock that was percolating all night, and dehydrate the soaking oats. I am really trying hard to make sure we have all our grains soaked as I see a difference in my ability to think and talk straight when I do. So hopefully tomorrow we will have the oats made into granola, and the beans will be used for bean burritos for lunch and baked beans with corn bread for dinner. Speaking of tomorrow I need to get to bed to make sure I have the sleep I need to make this all run smoothly. Sleep helps. A lot :-)
Monday, August 16, 2010
How our week in food went
Well it went fine, except for the lack of pictures I thought I would be able to post ;-) So since things got a bit busy and we had a few little surprise messes this week I thought I would just give a recap on how our menu went.
The food prep was pretty minimal during the week. Although I really need to get a handle on getting it done earlier in the evening and not at 11 PM at night! I made beef stew for the first time ever. It went over well for about half of us. The other half picked out the meat and potatoes to eat and left some of the best parts (the broth). Wednesday's meals were not as listed due to a few factors. For one, I tried to bring a snack with me to the doctors appointment to hold the boys and I off till we got home. However snacks are no good to you if they are left at home on the piano.....So I had to stop by and grab some lunch. I would have just run to the store to grab something healthy, but I had two sleeping boys in the van and my blood sugar was crashing. There would have been no way to accomplish that without becoming very, very sick or passing out. So I went to Chik-fil-a. A friend of mine offered to watch the girls. I thought I would bring pizza over for lunch for them all. However they all ate by the time I got there. So we celebrated Jed's tube removal with a pizza dinner and cake. Totally not on the menu :-) By the weekend I was worn out from a few happenings and didn't get around to making out my menu for this week. So we had unsoaked granola this morning. I really need to sit down later today and make up a menu so that we can get back on track with NT eating.
Poor Jed had a bad morning. Screaming, and LOTS of it. Not even at anyone! He just kept breaking down over any little thing. He dropped one of his toy trucks as he was walking along and he lost it. Small things like that just set him off. It was looking like it was going to be a long day, but he seemed to have calmed down some. I gave the boys some spray bottles filled with (very) diluted window spray. I gave them some paper towels and told them to wash the windows. I am pretty sure every window and then some have been hit by the boys. It kept them busy for quite a while.
This is our last week of 'summer vacation' before we start up with school. I hate for it to be spent cleaning and organizing, but that is what happens when the children refuse to take care of their things. So to make it easier on everyone I am taking trash bags (only because we are lacking boxes) and putting pretty much everything in it that are on the floors. With the exception of books and school items they were using in their playtime. I figured if it is on the floor they must not care about it. They have been told repeatedly to pick it up, so this is not a surprise to them. I also went through the boys room and cleared out a lot of stuff. Any toys that have a lot of pieces I put up high in the closet so that they can't dump all the boxes out at once. This has made a big difference in clean up!! Jed really enjoys sorting things, so at clean up time he can pick up all the toys himself. I have to say I am bummed that we didn't do more or accomplish more over our summer break. It hit me hard the other day. We really need a lot of things to change around here. One being that the girls really need to become more self motivated and self directed than they are. Having to stand over them while they are cleaning to make sure it gets done leave me without any time to do the things I have to do. Not to mention that they are sorely lacking in effort. A clean room to them is that the very middle of the floor is visible. Never mind all the things on top of the bookshelves, or the end tables, or around the outskirts of the room. Sigh.
I am hoping a new routine will get things to go more smoothly. I have been relying a bit too much on cartoons of late to keep them from all tearing down the house. I will most certainly be getting rid of those, plus getting rid of the 'twaddle' books. The books they have been reading have been better than in the past, but they are still going to find it hard to switch over to "living" books with the book diet they have been ingesting. One step at a time. I just need to keep remembering to persevere and keep working towards our goal.
Ok, enough rambling for the day! Off to clean, organize and prepare for next week!
The food prep was pretty minimal during the week. Although I really need to get a handle on getting it done earlier in the evening and not at 11 PM at night! I made beef stew for the first time ever. It went over well for about half of us. The other half picked out the meat and potatoes to eat and left some of the best parts (the broth). Wednesday's meals were not as listed due to a few factors. For one, I tried to bring a snack with me to the doctors appointment to hold the boys and I off till we got home. However snacks are no good to you if they are left at home on the piano.....So I had to stop by and grab some lunch. I would have just run to the store to grab something healthy, but I had two sleeping boys in the van and my blood sugar was crashing. There would have been no way to accomplish that without becoming very, very sick or passing out. So I went to Chik-fil-a. A friend of mine offered to watch the girls. I thought I would bring pizza over for lunch for them all. However they all ate by the time I got there. So we celebrated Jed's tube removal with a pizza dinner and cake. Totally not on the menu :-) By the weekend I was worn out from a few happenings and didn't get around to making out my menu for this week. So we had unsoaked granola this morning. I really need to sit down later today and make up a menu so that we can get back on track with NT eating.
Poor Jed had a bad morning. Screaming, and LOTS of it. Not even at anyone! He just kept breaking down over any little thing. He dropped one of his toy trucks as he was walking along and he lost it. Small things like that just set him off. It was looking like it was going to be a long day, but he seemed to have calmed down some. I gave the boys some spray bottles filled with (very) diluted window spray. I gave them some paper towels and told them to wash the windows. I am pretty sure every window and then some have been hit by the boys. It kept them busy for quite a while.
This is our last week of 'summer vacation' before we start up with school. I hate for it to be spent cleaning and organizing, but that is what happens when the children refuse to take care of their things. So to make it easier on everyone I am taking trash bags (only because we are lacking boxes) and putting pretty much everything in it that are on the floors. With the exception of books and school items they were using in their playtime. I figured if it is on the floor they must not care about it. They have been told repeatedly to pick it up, so this is not a surprise to them. I also went through the boys room and cleared out a lot of stuff. Any toys that have a lot of pieces I put up high in the closet so that they can't dump all the boxes out at once. This has made a big difference in clean up!! Jed really enjoys sorting things, so at clean up time he can pick up all the toys himself. I have to say I am bummed that we didn't do more or accomplish more over our summer break. It hit me hard the other day. We really need a lot of things to change around here. One being that the girls really need to become more self motivated and self directed than they are. Having to stand over them while they are cleaning to make sure it gets done leave me without any time to do the things I have to do. Not to mention that they are sorely lacking in effort. A clean room to them is that the very middle of the floor is visible. Never mind all the things on top of the bookshelves, or the end tables, or around the outskirts of the room. Sigh.
I am hoping a new routine will get things to go more smoothly. I have been relying a bit too much on cartoons of late to keep them from all tearing down the house. I will most certainly be getting rid of those, plus getting rid of the 'twaddle' books. The books they have been reading have been better than in the past, but they are still going to find it hard to switch over to "living" books with the book diet they have been ingesting. One step at a time. I just need to keep remembering to persevere and keep working towards our goal.
Ok, enough rambling for the day! Off to clean, organize and prepare for next week!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A day in pictures.....mostly
This is pretty much a typical day...although all our days can be different. I don't adhere to a schedule, but I do try to follow some sort of routine. For example I try to get some laundry started in the morning. Depending on what time we get up I will try to exercise before we eat breakfast. After breakfast will be a clean up and if it's really nice out the kids get outside before we tackle school. This day did not end well, we got some very bad news. I contemplated if I should post this as it seems surreal that all of this shows such a normal day, but then it ended with the abnormal. But this blog is here to document the story of our life and so I decided to put it all here as it happened. At least to the best of my memory as the pictures were taken on Wednesday and it is now Sunday.
I try (note the word 'try') to start my day with reading the Bible, praying, or in this case reading another book. This is the Wise Women book by Erin Theile. I have been highlighting her words in orange that I want to remember, and I highlight any scriptures that I want to remember in blue.
Jed was hungry first thing in the morning. He wanted noodles of all things. Thankfully they heat up quick. He is a messy eater. And he usually doesn't eat on the couch, but sometimes he does like today.
I got my shoes on and got to exercising. I started back with T-Tap this past week. I am on day four of the bootcamp. In another few days I go to every other day for a month, then to once every two days in between for another month. After that maintenance is two to three times a week.
Right before I started Moira asked to jump on the trampoline. She did that for a while, and then Saoirse joined her when she woke up. At this point Isabella and Flannery were still sleeping.
Jed decided to play with the train set and then he hopped on the computer while I was exercising.
After I was done I found Moira reading in the living room.
Jonah had spent his time playing with puzzles and the toy food (as seen below). Here you can also catch a glimpse of Saoirse's feet as she was getting hungry.
The mess that Jonah left behind. He was playing with this right behind me. He does pretty well with keeping his distance from me while I am exercising, but I do have to stop from time to time as he tries to squeeze past me.
After exercising I started some laundry. Laundry is never ending. I also did not bother to take pictures of when I rebooted the laundry throughout the day. I think I did three loads today.
I pulled out all of our ingredients for pancakes. Lately Flannery has been making them. Today she was still sleepy eyed and so I got some other help.....
My breakfast helpers. The boys love helping to pour things in and stir things up. Jonah made sure to have at least five spoons to help with the stirring.
Isabella likes to do most of her school in her room. But for some reason prefers to do math out with the rest of us. While I was making breakfast she was doing her math. She has only a few lessons left in her book and was determined to finish it that day. She wasn't able to finish it, but got close.
Breakfast time. See, Jed does eat at the table. However I think he, Jonah and I were the only ones! The girls were in various chairs/couches reading as they ate.
Moira went out to feed the animals. Isabella soon went out to feed the dogs. I started cleaning up the kitchen. I had the other girls start to get ready to go out as we had to go Jed's speech therapy soon. After I cleaned the kitchen I took a shower and then got the boys dressed. The girls at that point all went out on the trampoline. I didn't bring my camera with me to speech and the store as I my camera bag had not come in yet, and didn't want it to get banged up.
But I resumed picture taking as soon as we got home! Here is the scene from when we pulled in.
Another tired out boy.
Isabella was helping bring in groceries and asked for me to take her picture.
The chickens were hoping that we bought them something. Sorry girls, not today. Although the boys had a few crumbs left from our snack that I threw to them.
Our groceries from our weekly grocery run. We usually shop on Friday or Saturday. But I wanted it to get done earlier in the week as we had a busy weekend ahead of us.
Isabella helping to put the groceries away.
Flannery wanted to get her schooling out of the way and dug into her math when we got home. I was whipping up some lunch at this point. The boys were playing, the other girls were having some free time.
After lunch, it was time to unload the dishwasher. Jonah loves to help unload! Here he is putting the silverware away. The front of our drawer fell off so he can now just reach in without pulling out the drawer.
After lunch Moira jumped on the schooling wagon. Here she is doing her vocabulary. After I took this picture I helped her with her math. I had the girls clean their assigned rooms. So far having them each have a room that they have to clean up is working much better than when they all work on the rooms together. I then did our 'school together'. This is when I do our read alouds. I first read from the Bible. I am following the 'read through the Bible in a year' plan that is in the back of our Bible. However we are not following it day for day, as there are days when we don't get to it (like on Saturdays and Sundays), but I have the plan printed out and taped up on our computer desk to cross off each days worth of reading. We are also currently reading, "Just in Case- How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens". Not your usual read aloud I'm sure, but I try to share with them the things I am learning. This is a book I wanted to get to and just didn't seem able, so I made it a part of our school reading. And then we read a chapter from "Caddie Woodlawn". A book about a young girl in the Pioneer days.
There was some more free time. I checked emails and blogs, the girls played outside. After I checked my computer stuff I took the boys outside. When we came in it was getting late. I started to put dinner on (black beans and rice). While that was cooking I did math and reading with Saoirse. Here she is with her math lesson.
Jonah couldn't resist jumping in and doing math as well :-) He basically tried to drive Saoirse crazy by trying to 'knock' over her shapes. So I spent some time building him things to knock down so that Saoirse could finish her math. After her lesson, Saoirse continued to play with the blocks as did Jonah. Jed joined in as well. I really wanted to get a picture of Jed's creations, but I was tending to dinner. Jed was really loving the patterns that he could create.
I don't have any other pictures of our day and here is why. We ate dinner and cleaned up afterward. It was late and I went to put Jonah to bed. When I came out the girls were sitting in the family room ready for Jeremiah to start family worship. Jed happened to be playing on the computer. Jeremiah was on the phone with his mom. His step dad had been in the hospital for a few days as he was very sick. I was hoping that maybe he just got a really bad case of what we all had (the horrid tummy bug), but I knew that was not the case when I saw how upset Jeremiah was. It turns out he has cancer. Its a very aggressive kind and they have caught it late in the game. He does not have much time left by doctors estimates. They have started chemo and are hoping it will give him a few months to settle things. Please pray for his readying for the eternal. The biggest prayer request from Jeremiah's mom is that he would not be in pain. Jeremiah went down to see him the following day. We are hoping that we will have at least one more visit together as a family. The girls spent the rest of the evening making cards for their grandpa for Jeremiah to take with him on his visit. Then they went off to bed and we put Jed to bed. I stayed up for a bit more, I can't remember what I was did.
That was our day. We have had a busy few days (a visit with cousins!, more speech, a haircut for Isa, a trip to the movies for the whole family, soccer, the park, and church). I'll have some more pictures to share from our visit and the park.
I try (note the word 'try') to start my day with reading the Bible, praying, or in this case reading another book. This is the Wise Women book by Erin Theile. I have been highlighting her words in orange that I want to remember, and I highlight any scriptures that I want to remember in blue. 
Jed was hungry first thing in the morning. He wanted noodles of all things. Thankfully they heat up quick. He is a messy eater. And he usually doesn't eat on the couch, but sometimes he does like today.
I got my shoes on and got to exercising. I started back with T-Tap this past week. I am on day four of the bootcamp. In another few days I go to every other day for a month, then to once every two days in between for another month. After that maintenance is two to three times a week.
Right before I started Moira asked to jump on the trampoline. She did that for a while, and then Saoirse joined her when she woke up. At this point Isabella and Flannery were still sleeping.
Jed decided to play with the train set and then he hopped on the computer while I was exercising.
After I was done I found Moira reading in the living room.
Jonah had spent his time playing with puzzles and the toy food (as seen below). Here you can also catch a glimpse of Saoirse's feet as she was getting hungry.
The mess that Jonah left behind. He was playing with this right behind me. He does pretty well with keeping his distance from me while I am exercising, but I do have to stop from time to time as he tries to squeeze past me.
After exercising I started some laundry. Laundry is never ending. I also did not bother to take pictures of when I rebooted the laundry throughout the day. I think I did three loads today.
I pulled out all of our ingredients for pancakes. Lately Flannery has been making them. Today she was still sleepy eyed and so I got some other help.....
My breakfast helpers. The boys love helping to pour things in and stir things up. Jonah made sure to have at least five spoons to help with the stirring.
Isabella likes to do most of her school in her room. But for some reason prefers to do math out with the rest of us. While I was making breakfast she was doing her math. She has only a few lessons left in her book and was determined to finish it that day. She wasn't able to finish it, but got close.
Breakfast time. See, Jed does eat at the table. However I think he, Jonah and I were the only ones! The girls were in various chairs/couches reading as they ate.
Moira went out to feed the animals. Isabella soon went out to feed the dogs. I started cleaning up the kitchen. I had the other girls start to get ready to go out as we had to go Jed's speech therapy soon. After I cleaned the kitchen I took a shower and then got the boys dressed. The girls at that point all went out on the trampoline. I didn't bring my camera with me to speech and the store as I my camera bag had not come in yet, and didn't want it to get banged up.
But I resumed picture taking as soon as we got home! Here is the scene from when we pulled in.
Another tired out boy.
Isabella was helping bring in groceries and asked for me to take her picture. 
The chickens were hoping that we bought them something. Sorry girls, not today. Although the boys had a few crumbs left from our snack that I threw to them.
Our groceries from our weekly grocery run. We usually shop on Friday or Saturday. But I wanted it to get done earlier in the week as we had a busy weekend ahead of us.
Isabella helping to put the groceries away. 
Flannery wanted to get her schooling out of the way and dug into her math when we got home. I was whipping up some lunch at this point. The boys were playing, the other girls were having some free time.
After lunch, it was time to unload the dishwasher. Jonah loves to help unload! Here he is putting the silverware away. The front of our drawer fell off so he can now just reach in without pulling out the drawer.
After lunch Moira jumped on the schooling wagon. Here she is doing her vocabulary. After I took this picture I helped her with her math. I had the girls clean their assigned rooms. So far having them each have a room that they have to clean up is working much better than when they all work on the rooms together. I then did our 'school together'. This is when I do our read alouds. I first read from the Bible. I am following the 'read through the Bible in a year' plan that is in the back of our Bible. However we are not following it day for day, as there are days when we don't get to it (like on Saturdays and Sundays), but I have the plan printed out and taped up on our computer desk to cross off each days worth of reading. We are also currently reading, "Just in Case- How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens". Not your usual read aloud I'm sure, but I try to share with them the things I am learning. This is a book I wanted to get to and just didn't seem able, so I made it a part of our school reading. And then we read a chapter from "Caddie Woodlawn". A book about a young girl in the Pioneer days.
There was some more free time. I checked emails and blogs, the girls played outside. After I checked my computer stuff I took the boys outside. When we came in it was getting late. I started to put dinner on (black beans and rice). While that was cooking I did math and reading with Saoirse. Here she is with her math lesson.
Jonah couldn't resist jumping in and doing math as well :-) He basically tried to drive Saoirse crazy by trying to 'knock' over her shapes. So I spent some time building him things to knock down so that Saoirse could finish her math. After her lesson, Saoirse continued to play with the blocks as did Jonah. Jed joined in as well. I really wanted to get a picture of Jed's creations, but I was tending to dinner. Jed was really loving the patterns that he could create.I don't have any other pictures of our day and here is why. We ate dinner and cleaned up afterward. It was late and I went to put Jonah to bed. When I came out the girls were sitting in the family room ready for Jeremiah to start family worship. Jed happened to be playing on the computer. Jeremiah was on the phone with his mom. His step dad had been in the hospital for a few days as he was very sick. I was hoping that maybe he just got a really bad case of what we all had (the horrid tummy bug), but I knew that was not the case when I saw how upset Jeremiah was. It turns out he has cancer. Its a very aggressive kind and they have caught it late in the game. He does not have much time left by doctors estimates. They have started chemo and are hoping it will give him a few months to settle things. Please pray for his readying for the eternal. The biggest prayer request from Jeremiah's mom is that he would not be in pain. Jeremiah went down to see him the following day. We are hoping that we will have at least one more visit together as a family. The girls spent the rest of the evening making cards for their grandpa for Jeremiah to take with him on his visit. Then they went off to bed and we put Jed to bed. I stayed up for a bit more, I can't remember what I was did.
That was our day. We have had a busy few days (a visit with cousins!, more speech, a haircut for Isa, a trip to the movies for the whole family, soccer, the park, and church). I'll have some more pictures to share from our visit and the park.
Friday, November 06, 2009
A this and that post
I have a few really cute pictures to share....but they are on the front computer! Right now the girls are watching a movie on that computer (pizza and movie night!) so I can't get to them right now. I'll try to edit this post later to put them up.
Jed's speech therapist called to cancel the afternoon appointment. We will make it up next week. I was able to talk to her about my concerns of getting Jed an ACC devise that will meet his needs. I was pleased to hear that she does not agree with the new (to be) speech therapist's view. She said because of the severity of Jed's apraxia she foresees him being in speech therapy for the next five (or more!) years. She felt that it was very important that he have a way to communicate effectively in the meantime. It has been really neat to see the next 'level' Jed has taken with his signs and communication. He has known the signs for help, want, my turn and things of that nature, but has never used them on his own. Well just yesterday and again today he has used those...totally on his own, with no prompting. As a matter of fact we were wondering what he was signing as he has never signed those things unless we have prompted him. So imagine our surprise this evening when Jeremiah put a movie on and Jed was trying to tell us something, with 'words' and with sign. He made it clear he was unhappy about something. We figured out that he was signing, "don't like" for the movie!!! He didn't want to watch the movie Jeremiah had on the computer! This is amazing!!!!!! Jed has only used signs to label things. He seems like a new child to me as he is just now communicating not liking something, or trying to tell me this afternoon that it was "his turn" on the computer. He likes to get on Word and type in letters. So he signed, 'my turn' and signed some letters! Can you tell I am excited?!
I have other exciting news....well for me anyways. My sister has a new calling plan!! That means I don't have to wait till after nine p.m. or the weekends anymore!!! I remember one rough day, Jeremiah had come home to me being a puddle. After talking for a while he said, I think you need to call your sister. And I had to tell him I couldn't...she didn't have any minutes left (boo hoo). So when the phone rang this afternoon and her number came up I thought that perhaps something was wrong. Thankfully not so! She was just calling to tell me I can now call her any time :-) I truly pray that my girls will have such wonderful relationships with each other like my sister and I share.
I got our new spelling program, All About Spelling, in the other day. I haven't used it yet as I am 'setting it up'. They recommend that each student, or every two students have their own letter tiles. I didn't want to fork over the money for that, so I have been spending time making my own. I am really excited about this program as it will serve as our spelling and phonics program. I will continue to use Phonics Pathways as our learning to read program, but I think that the spelling will help with the reading. I was really disappointed in my lack of ability to use Spell to Write and Read. It was just too much for me. However I really liked their premise and ideas, just too much for my brain to process. Anyone who has the program or seen it will know what I mean. I mean they have seminars to better learn how to use the program! I was a little worried about that when I first heard about the seminars. But the person who told me about it said that it wasn't something you needed, just a bonus. Another person, who was in the field of languages, told me it was the best program out there. So I got it. And like I said, I really like the ideas. I really, really wanted this program to work. I have been holding onto it in hopes that somehow I can make it work. Maybe it's just the season I am in, but it has been sitting there, staring at me making me feel guilty! Ha! So when I read about All About Spelling, I was intrigued as they use some of the same ideas. But they lay everything out for you! I know that working with the letter tiles are really going to help some of my girls with their reading and spelling. I am hoping to start the program come Monday. By then I should be done....at least close enough to start...with the prep work.
The girls have their last soccer game of the season tomorrow. I am hoping they will all make it to their games. It seems we have a small tummy thing going on. Nothing that has stopped the household from running as normal, but they clearly are not feeling great. Moira is on the up and up, Isabella hasn't had it...yet, and Flannery just started. I am assuming Jed has it as well as he 'lost' his afternoon feeding. But this evening he has been fine.
Well the baby is asleep (he went to bed REALLY early), dinner is done, the kids are still watching their movie and I need to do more cutting (the letter tiles). After the kids go to bed Jeremiah is going to teach me how to edit movies.
Jed's speech therapist called to cancel the afternoon appointment. We will make it up next week. I was able to talk to her about my concerns of getting Jed an ACC devise that will meet his needs. I was pleased to hear that she does not agree with the new (to be) speech therapist's view. She said because of the severity of Jed's apraxia she foresees him being in speech therapy for the next five (or more!) years. She felt that it was very important that he have a way to communicate effectively in the meantime. It has been really neat to see the next 'level' Jed has taken with his signs and communication. He has known the signs for help, want, my turn and things of that nature, but has never used them on his own. Well just yesterday and again today he has used those...totally on his own, with no prompting. As a matter of fact we were wondering what he was signing as he has never signed those things unless we have prompted him. So imagine our surprise this evening when Jeremiah put a movie on and Jed was trying to tell us something, with 'words' and with sign. He made it clear he was unhappy about something. We figured out that he was signing, "don't like" for the movie!!! He didn't want to watch the movie Jeremiah had on the computer! This is amazing!!!!!! Jed has only used signs to label things. He seems like a new child to me as he is just now communicating not liking something, or trying to tell me this afternoon that it was "his turn" on the computer. He likes to get on Word and type in letters. So he signed, 'my turn' and signed some letters! Can you tell I am excited?!
I have other exciting news....well for me anyways. My sister has a new calling plan!! That means I don't have to wait till after nine p.m. or the weekends anymore!!! I remember one rough day, Jeremiah had come home to me being a puddle. After talking for a while he said, I think you need to call your sister. And I had to tell him I couldn't...she didn't have any minutes left (boo hoo). So when the phone rang this afternoon and her number came up I thought that perhaps something was wrong. Thankfully not so! She was just calling to tell me I can now call her any time :-) I truly pray that my girls will have such wonderful relationships with each other like my sister and I share.
I got our new spelling program, All About Spelling, in the other day. I haven't used it yet as I am 'setting it up'. They recommend that each student, or every two students have their own letter tiles. I didn't want to fork over the money for that, so I have been spending time making my own. I am really excited about this program as it will serve as our spelling and phonics program. I will continue to use Phonics Pathways as our learning to read program, but I think that the spelling will help with the reading. I was really disappointed in my lack of ability to use Spell to Write and Read. It was just too much for me. However I really liked their premise and ideas, just too much for my brain to process. Anyone who has the program or seen it will know what I mean. I mean they have seminars to better learn how to use the program! I was a little worried about that when I first heard about the seminars. But the person who told me about it said that it wasn't something you needed, just a bonus. Another person, who was in the field of languages, told me it was the best program out there. So I got it. And like I said, I really like the ideas. I really, really wanted this program to work. I have been holding onto it in hopes that somehow I can make it work. Maybe it's just the season I am in, but it has been sitting there, staring at me making me feel guilty! Ha! So when I read about All About Spelling, I was intrigued as they use some of the same ideas. But they lay everything out for you! I know that working with the letter tiles are really going to help some of my girls with their reading and spelling. I am hoping to start the program come Monday. By then I should be done....at least close enough to start...with the prep work.
The girls have their last soccer game of the season tomorrow. I am hoping they will all make it to their games. It seems we have a small tummy thing going on. Nothing that has stopped the household from running as normal, but they clearly are not feeling great. Moira is on the up and up, Isabella hasn't had it...yet, and Flannery just started. I am assuming Jed has it as well as he 'lost' his afternoon feeding. But this evening he has been fine.
Well the baby is asleep (he went to bed REALLY early), dinner is done, the kids are still watching their movie and I need to do more cutting (the letter tiles). After the kids go to bed Jeremiah is going to teach me how to edit movies.
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