Creep-fest 2011
Because our kids are all in school now, I had the whole day to be "fun mom" and gather up everything for a creepy dinner. I think my family was in shock! (Doesn't my husband look disgusted?)
The menu consisted of melon brains, missing fingers, boiling blood tomato soup with creepy crawlers in the bowl...
Earthworm jello...so gross nobody would even eat it!
Vampire fangs, satsuma jacks, and blood-dripping glasses...
Neon devilled eggs, and an assortment of eyeballs, severed fingers and bat wings...
"Fun Mom" makes awesome costumes too...
And we finished off the night meeting up with friends at an annual carnival event at a church up the street, complete with cupcake walk, crafts, and fairway games.
And then it was home for some candy sorting and heavy-duty teeth brushing!
AdvoCare Bellingham - Shawn Ellars
"Catching Up" would be an understatement!
How did the entire summer get away from me in the blogging department?
Here's a quick run-down catch-up before I get back to my more typical (as in never predictable) blogging schedule. What we've been up to:
- I painted just about everything in sight: walls, furniture, canvases. Turns out I really love painting, so soothing!
- We had an amazing week in Maui, a trip my hard-working husband earned through work. Did I mention amazing? The resort was out of control!
- Mady turned 16. Wow. We're entering the stages of full time junior college, driving, and "friends that are guys". Just friends. :)
- There's been a steady stream of friends and kids in and out. Love that, my kids have some awesome friends!
- A certain girl got her braces off, after 7 years of having them on!
- A flurry of horse camps, racquetball camp, a trip to Texas for me, cousin and Auntie visiting, VBS, etc.!
- I fell in love with a company called Advocare and started a business!
- I am working my way through a "24 Day Challenge" - designed to increase energy (yes please!) and lose weight and/or gain muscle. I am really impressed so far, and am happy to be doing the challenge alongside so many dear friends! (Another challenge is starting up soon if you are interested!)
- I'm busily gathering up my supplies and plans for the new homeschool year. I love homeschooling and the fact our state is still homeschool-friendly, despite changes and cutbacks.
What have you all been doing?! I've missed the little blogging world!
pen pal center
The biggest way dyslexia affects Jenson is through his writing. We are adding in a lot of opportunities for him to write, including a new pen pal.
I picked up this utensil caddy (I think it was?) at a garage sale this weekend for 50 cents and quickly turned it into a pen pal center with notecards, envelopes, and stamps.
I painted it with a bit of leftover grey paint. Next I printed out the word "write." in a large point font and cut it out. I flipped it over and traced the word with a pencil so it was in reverse. I did a messy job, but it worked.
Next I flipped it back over, so the printer side was facing me and positioned where I wanted it. I lightly penciled over the whole word...
When I lifted that off, the word was transferred, easy peasy. I painted it with a black craft paint and a not-very-good brush, hence the still messy look of it. (I'd recommend you take the extra two minutes to pick out the right brush). Funny how many times a day I get the opportunity to practice patience and how few times I actually do. It's good to have things to improve I suppose. ;)
I distressed the whole thing with a fine grit sand paper, and that took care of all the messy spots. We added our supplies, and voila, a 50-cent writing center.
Savoring the days
Today I am savoring sharing a birthday morning with my 16 year old daughter. I know these are fleeting, the mornings where I will be the one to make her days special. I am reminding myself that all of these mornings with her are to be savored, not just the birthday ones.
My dear friend shared a thought with me a few days ago that is still ruminating with me. She said she has set a vision for her girls' childhoods, and doesn't want to wake up when they are moments away from leaving the nest and wonder where it has all gone. She wants it to be planned, intentional, meaningful. It really left me thinking.
You've heard it said that the mothering days go so slowly, but the years pass in the blink of an eye. So true. I love the concept of raising my children with a vision, and building into those goals for them every single day, arriving at the end of their childhoods knowing a plan was there for them, goals set and achieved, character developed, and relationships strong.
I am going to start by savoring every morning I wake up with my children still under my wings. And a Happy Sweet Sixteen to my precious first born.
{Find out what others are savoring here.}
A new endeavor...
I am very excited to announce that I have become affiliated with AdvoCare! I'll let the company speak for itself, so please look around their website if you'd like to know more.
Why did I decide to get involved? I love the energy drink they offer - Spark, the first energy drink I have ever tried. It's comprised of vitamins (and caffeine equivalent to one cup of coffee), no yucky high fructose corn syrup or anything like that. I didn't plan to like the Spark, but I sure did! I kept going back to get more from a close friend, until I soon decided I wanted to be a part of the company. I was no longer ready for a nap in the afternoon, I had energy to do things with my kids, all vitamin-powered, and it felt great! AdvoCare offers several other products, nutrition supplements and health being their focus.
In a few weeks I am going to start their 24 Day Challenge after watching several close friends do it, all losing 10 pounds or more, and gaining a renewed energy and fitness level. The 24 Day Challenge is a kit containing an herbal cleanse, quality vitamins, Spark energy packets, and more. I can't wait. If you want to do it along with me, I plan to start on July 25, but you could start anytime that is convenient to you. I plan to blog about my journey through that in a spin-off of this main blog.
I decided it's finally time to look after my own health, and put my own oxygen mask on first, so to speak. In the end, it makes me a better wife and mom.
On that note, blog construction will be underway for a bit, bear with me. :)
3 Things:
1). Inspire me with your summer goals! Giveaway ends Friday night. You know you want me to buy you a Vanilla Bean Frap or an Iced Caramel Macchiato. :)
2). I have a little announcement to make tomorrow. (Nope, definitely no bun in my oven!) But still very exciting!
3). I am savoring summer with Renee at Fimby again today. I am savoring the ability to take ten steps off my back deck and pick our dinner salads! Those grubs put up a brawny fight, but I think I have finally conquered! Dill, lemon thyme, romaine, flat-leaf parsley, mesclun, radishes... even a strawberry beginning to blush. What are you savoring this summer?
Savoring Summer with FIMBY
I'm joining up with Renee at Fimby (excellent blog and great inspiration for healthy living, by the way!) in taking a moment to savor the bits of summer. For us, having access to an outdoor pool, overlooking the ocean no less, has been a huge blessing!
If you want to see other savory things or link up, check out this post at Fimby. Fimby is a happy little acronym for Fun In My Back Yard, and Renee is totally clever, and seems to have an awesomely fun backyard. :) Happy Summer!
10 goals for summer:
{Keston planting red onions}
1. Become more organized in my home-making planning. Domestic engineer planning? For this I need a shiny new home management binder.
2. Prep and plan for our new homeschool year in a way that actually makes sense and isn't a waste of time! I think I may have this one in the bag for once.
3. Lose 10 lbs. at least. I think I have this one in the bag too! Finally. I am tired of buying clothes based on their ability to make me look not pregnant. That is kind of exhausting.
4. Improve my health overall, and get more energy. Finally take the Zumba class I am scared of!
5. Make my house a place we love. Paint color picked and projects underway.
6. No complaining about migraines or any other similar dumb ailments. It doesn't make them any better anyway. If I forget, slap me.
7. Stay on top of housework so I can spend every free minute at the pool or hiking with my kids. This means preparing dinner in the mornings too.
8. Make double the amount of jam that I made last year, preferably raspberry. (Anyone know a way with less sugar than the pink-box that is "so-called" less sugar? Please, please tell me.)
9. Grow something in my garden other than grubs and onions. (Did you know grubs will destroy everything in their path except onions?) I should try making low-sugar onion jam. Yum...
10. Blog more! To all 4 readers that are left, what are your summer goals? Please tell me. A $5 Starbucks card to whoever lists the most summer goals of your own in the comments by July 1. :)
A dyslexia "Re-Post"
{Just this weekend, two different parents have asked me more about dyslexia. It is so common and so often misdaignosed or not diagnosed at all. I'm re-posting this in case it might be helpful to someone. Catching this can make such a big impact on your child's education, esteem, and future! It's still wordy, but there is a lot to it, so I left it in its entirety.}
...I had made this huge discovery... one of my kids has dyslexia.
Never one to sit around when it comes to this kind of thing with my children, (speech, bullying, health, and the like), I got right to work. I was really eager to learn as much as I could and figure out what to do with it all.
It is funny though, I have since researched and learned a lot... yet when I have shared with people, I sometimes get responses like "You diagnosed it yourself? Hmmm" in a disbelieving way. So be prepared for that. It's akin to "Oh, you homeschool your kids?" all over again. Only doubly so. But hold strong! You're just ahead of the game on this, I think it'll get its spotlight soon enough. It affects 20% of people! Dyslexia is just patiently waiting its turn behind gluten right now, ha ha.
I asked my son before writing about this publicly, and he is good with it. When I figured it out, I was so ecstatic, he really has no clue it is anything someone might feel badly about. I intend to keep it that way for him! People with dyslexia are almost always strongly gifted in another right-brained area, and have amazing IQs. For him, he's gifted with construction/engineering/spatial reasoning. (The Lego creations that come out of his room area all starting to make sense!) A few days ago I heard Keston lamenting "I want to be dyslexia too... I want a special gift." I corrected her verb useage and told her she was indeed special. :)
When you are a homeschool parent, it can be frustrating to feel like whatever you are doing isn't really working or sticking. I got really frustrated because Jenson was having trouble just repeating some words back to me (metamorphic and sedimentary, for the record). Talking louder and slower wasn't helping, go figure. While I really regret now that I got angry at him about it, it was what lead to me thinking maybe there was something more going on. The next day I had my answer, and due apologies were given.
Side note: Jenson was in public school until third grade, and was in a writing class with a credentialed teacher last year. If he were in public school, it wouldn't have been picked up any earlier. I truly don't place blame on anyone, but it isn't being diagnosed in public school as far as I can see, so even if your child is in school, don't let that stop you from looking into it if you have suspicion. My son was in 'literacy support' for over two years, where you might have thought it would be picked up. Sometimes it just doesn't become clear until around age 10 or so anyway, as kids are able to continue making progress until around then.
As a parent, you can diagnose your child, you do not need a formal diagnosis! I did talk with several professionals, including a doctor of child behavior psychology and several teachers, to make sure I was on the right track. They all backed me. A formal diagnosis might be needed in some instances, but in our case, nope.
How I went about diagnosing:
We happen to have duplicate copies of many books around here, because I often follow along with Jenson as he reads in order to help him with words. One day recently, I grabbed a pencil and wrote out in my copy every mistake he was making, so I could later look at it more closely. At that point dyslexia hadn't even crossed my mind. I thought dyslexia meant that people just transposed letters. For whatever reason, I had a hunch to begin some research. I compared samples of his writings, and notes from the book I had penciled in. It was like a light bulb went off. No wonder so many things were difficult for him, yet he is so advanced and amazing in other areas!
Keep in mind I am in no way an expert, take it for what it's worth and do your own research if you see any of these symptoms in your own child. (But as I said before, after asking professionals, I strongly feel the source of my information is accurate and credible.) There are roughly 35-40 different symtpoms, and to have dyslexia you only need to possess three of those symptoms. Jenson had well over 15.
Here's an abbreviated symptoms list, taken from the Bright Solutions website and also paraphrased from me:
- Speech delay as a toddler, even if they went on to speak fine, but started after age 2 in speaking.
- Stuttering or speech difficulties (I didn't find any specific info. about articulation disorder, not sure about that one)
- Slow to learn to read or overall reading difficulty
- Poor spelling, even with lots of help and practice. They may do fine on weekly tests because they learn to memorize the words, but then they do not translate this into their writing later. For example, on a spelling test, they'll write "could" perfectly fine, but in a story they will write "cold" or some other variation.
- Many other spelling related symptoms, including transposing letters, but that isn't the only one, and even if they don't transpose, other symptoms could be present.
- Dominant hand not chosen early, or may be able to write with right hand and cut with left or vice versa (like me!) or kicks with opposite of dominant hand, etc.
- Extremely gifted in a right brained area such as sports, building, mechanics, art, music, etc.
- They read better with books that have larger fonts. Tiny fonts and crammed sentences pose extra difficulty. Italics are the worst!
- Trouble remembering punctuation and capitalization, even though you've reminded them hourly! (I paraphrased that one especially!)
- Disregard for margins on the paper, may space things weird when writing.
- When copying from a white board, they need to look up a hundred times to write one or two sentences, and still it may come out wrong.
- They are very bright, you know they are smart.
- Dsylexia is hereditary. Any poor spellers in your family that instantly come to mind?
- Lack of confidence and possible self-esteem issues.
- Good at math but much difficulty with word problems and/or memorizing times tables
- Confusion of left/right, it's not an automatic.
There are many more symptoms, these are just a few. If any sound familiar, you may want to check out the link at the bottom of this post or do your own research. It is well explained and worth your time if you even just barely suspect your child may have dyslexia after looking over the lists. And what was very helpful for me was giving him that challenging book*, and discreetly writing down all the mistakes he made, as well as going over his wiritng samples. It couldn't have been any clearer to me!
I hope this will help someone, and I plan to share more about the tips and tricks, and the method I use to teach him from here on out. I certainly do not view it as a "disability", just something that needs addressed differently in how I teach him. I have confidence he will succeed at anything he wants to do in life! (Because his right brain is 10% bigger, ha ha!)
*For Jenson, a 'challenging book' doesn't necessarily mean a higher RL, but longer sentences, finer print, and longer words, such as in Harry Potter. His favorite Beverly Clearly books are in the same RL range, but have nice large font. It made a big difference in his case. You might try comparing different books for your sample.
To find the video I mentioned: (the links do not seem to work after many attempts) -Google "Susan Barton Dyslexia Bright Solutions" and the top result will be what you want. On the main page, the free video I referred to is called "Symptoms and Solutions".
A list of symptoms: HERE.
Reasons I love my library: (updated a little)
1. I can request books I want any time of day, and they get delivered to my little neighborhood branch. For free!
2. They usually have most of the books I want. It's true, if you go to the actual library to find books, the good ones won't be on the shelves. That's why # 1 is so important. Sometimes when I am waiting at the airport, I make lists of all the books that I'd love to read, because the airport book shops only keep the best-sellers and new ones. Then I take my list home and request them all. For free! Sometimes I do the same thing at Barnes and Noble.
3. I could probably homeschool my kids entirely using only library books and the internet. Seriously I could.
4. My library people are very nice. That's why I smile cheerfully every time I pay my bill. It turns out the library is only free if you bring your books back on time.
5. I can renew online. (But I rarely do, which is why I smile cheerfully at the librarians so often.)
6. They have summer reading programs for adults! You just write simple reviews of books or music you've checked out, and they draw winners each week. I have won certificates to Village Books, Katie's Cupcakes and Rocket Donuts. What's not to love about that?!
7. Summer reading program for kids too, of course, teens too. (Along with the other usuals that my kids do - Barnes and Noble, Borders, Village Books (my favorite of all the challenges), and Launching Success. The C Shop offers free snow cones on Wednesday afternoons if you show them a library book you are reading - we heart this one too. :) During the school year we do Pizza Hut's Book It too, for free pizzas each month.
8. I love that I can get cookbooks from the library to try new recipes without the clutter/commitment of buying one. Again, requesting is the best way to go about this to get the good ones.
9. The librarians have been really helpful in helping me find suitable books for Jenson (dyslexic) that have crisp font, and they have tons of audio books which are great for Jenson too.
10. They have great kits - for starting your own book club and kit boxes for preschool kids. They also have Tumblebooks to download and e-books. (Right now they work for Nooks, but soon kindles will also be compatible).
* And I just have to say... see this photo above? Those top two books in the stack are incredible! Chris Cleave is an amazing writer. I highly recommend! There is a movie version of Incendiary too (Netflix instant), but watch it only after you read the book, you'll be surprised at how it differs from the book. Great summer reading books!
Added -- I should clarify the Little Bee and Incendiary books both have some graphic/adult content, as does the movie, definitely an R rating. I didn't find it all to be totally gratuitous in the books, and really overall enjoyed the unraveling of the stories in both books. That's all, just don't want to offend anyone by mistake, I should have mentioned that right away, sorry!
We're about to start Mr. Popper's Penguins, just in time to see the movie after. My kids' all-time favorite read alouds are the Little House books. I agree with them! Do you read to your kids? What are your favorite read-alouds?
Happy Summer Reading!
My cute little buns...
Elsie Bun Buns is a mama! She and her husband Beau were (are) the proud parents of three (two) sweet little kits.
This little one was less than 24 hours old. I brought it in and warmed on my chest after it got out of its nest box. Those cute little wrinkles! Elsie has rocked being a mother - she's done all the instinctual things she should, and did not eat her babies, which we were especially happy about.
Elsie did her part so well, but then I failed miserably... one little guy got tipped out of the nest and wound up falling through the front of the cage, which I never thought to baby-proof. I think it survived the fall and crawled away, but I unknowingly put the dog out that morning and he found the little toy. I don't think he was very rough, it was still living, but was very cold and had a puncture that it couldn't recover from. I was so sad! I grabbed a little cloth and wrapped it up, trying to suffocate it gently so it wouldn't continue to suffer. Traumatizing! I would never make it as a farmer. My kids however, will either make great farmers or perhaps serial killers. They were quite excited to dig a hole and bury it. Very odd kids, I should be concerned.
Now our two survivors are ten days old and just about ready to open their eyes. Adorable aren't they? They are purebred Jersey Woollies if you need a new pet, and will be very used to being handled. :)
Oh goodness, since Elsie didn't eat them I might just gobble them up! Pretty much the cutest little things ever.
Seeds and Beads
A few weeks ago (actually it was April, I'm such a slow blogger lately!)* Keston and I found ourselves with some nice bonding time while Jenson was away for three days at Mountain School with our homescool group. I had found Action Pack just a few days before, and fell in love with it! For those three days, Keston and I kept busy with the many awesome activities!
Oh my goodness - we love, love, loved it! For homeschoolers it is amazing, and even includes science and some quick history too, drawing lessons, and recipes. I think it would be fun for summer break too, even if you don't homeschool! The e-magazine has already put out 4 issues. I have all but the #3, the Tea and Sewing issue. I might just get that one in the fall too. They are so cheap for all you get in them! The best $5 I have spent lately, actually! We didn't even get close to completing all the fun things yet.
Keston started with making Salad Seed Sprinkle... it was delicious. I hadn't thought of using seeds in place of croutons. Much healthier, but still crunchy yumminess!
She also made some Dukka - that was really good too, and included a little bit of story behind it.
We moved past the edibles and made treats for birds...
and some seed bombs for guerilla gardening, (though we learned the hard way - use your bombs within a few days, otherwise the seeds will sprout from the moisture and then die if they aren't near soil. Mine all sprouted in a little wicker basket...).
But our favorite of all were the beaded dragonflies. We managed to give them all away before I took photos though, so you'll just have to trust me. :)
Super cool little magazine! We have all the supplies ready for the Paper and Beeswax issue (homemade lotion and lip balm? Yes please!) and the newest is a nature theme that is right up our alley and perfect for summer. Thank you Action Pack! Such a great concept!
{*Yes, I've been a slow blogger lately, but I am catching up right now, just 3 hours after getting home from a minor surgery. Surely that should earn me some points, huh?}
I've been a little bogged down with life's activities lately (aka: being a taxi driver), thus blogging has been severely neglected. And that makes me sad, because when I look back at my old blog and posts from this blog, so much of it is the little details of life I'd otherwise have forgotten.
So... coming soon, a little blogging! Back to homeschool, dyslexia, gardening, cooking, crafts and family! See you soon. Pinky swear.
I see London, I see France. (Part 1)
Frank earned us a trip through his job for reaching certain criteria, and we had a whole catalog of destinations to choose from. We quickly chose a London/Paris trip, and my auntie flew up to stay with the kids. I am told they had a great time that week too!
Getting to London was... interesting. We sat in our tiny local airport for more than 5 hours, while the entire airline we were travelling had a computer glitch. Not a single plane from Alaska or Horizon Air could depart, anywhere in the country. It was actually fun, and we met some very nice people. Once we finally arrived in Seattle, we had to wait in a line to re-direct our flight, since we'd missed all of our connections. We weren't the only ones... it was a 2 hour line for customer service! People were in line as far as we could see. We wound up on a better, direct flight to Heathrow Airport, and only lost half a day. Of course that threw off a few details, like our chauffeur from the airport. He left me to hold the sign for the next arriving couple while he went to make a plan. But really, with no kids to worry about, it was all part of the adventure.
Our hotel, the Grosvenor House, was the nicest I have ever stayed in! Everything was gorgeous. It had a really old feel to it, but it was at the same time, very modern and fresh. Our room was perfect, with a bathroom made entirely of marble, and crisp white bedding. That evening, the hotel was hosting some movie awards - red carpet, velvet ropes, papparazzi and all. We were told Keira Knightley, James Franco and Colin Firth were there in the ballroom. We never recognized anyone, but we saw many fancy dresses and people wandering around carrying their gift bags from the evening. Yes, definitely the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in.
{Frank and Caidee in Hyde Park, with the Serpentine Lake in the background}
The whole reason we chose the London and Paris trip was so that we could see (Frank's daughter) Caidee! Once we dropped our luggage at the hotel, already many hours late, we found her. It was sooooo good to see her!
We wandered around Hyde Park with her and saw the leftover shenanigans from the riot that had occured the day before. The chauffeur from earlier told us that had we arrived the day before, there was no way we could have gotten to our the hotel. It was so chaotic that all the roads were shut down. We saw broken windows, paint bombs, graffiti and a tent city in Hyde Park.
We had to go to a reception dinner that night, so Caidee went back to the hotel she was staying at with her mum and aunt. Late that evening we went out pub-hopping with some friends.
The next day we met up with Caidee again, and wandered around the city...
We went on the London Eye, a large ferris wheel kind of thing, and a fairly modern London landmark. It is on the south bank of the river Thames, with an incredible view.
We went to Trafalgar Square to find tickets for a show that night. As we wandered around the square, there was a street performer, and gobs of people stopped to watch. I wasn't really interested, so I went to look at a cool bronze statue. I looked straight up its nose. Then it moved, and scared the heck out of me. I shrieked especially loud... and the entire crowd from the street performer had all turned to stare at me. Sort of Hugely embarassing. Caidee paid him some coins and Mr. Statue took photos with us.
We did watch a show that night, Dirty Dancing. It was one of my favorite parts of London. Frank napped through it. Caidee and I loved it.
The following day we took the train with Caidee to her town of Ispwitch. We saw her new flat, where she works, and "The Butter Market" - her local shopping mall. The train we took there was just as in Harry Potter, pigeons and platforms.
{Doesn't she look like Mariah Carey here? In real life she doesn't. She's cuter than Mariah!}
I met Caidee's mom for the first time on the train to Ipswich. She was very nice and it wasn't awkward for more than 5 minutes. :) She has done such a fantastic job of raising Caidee.
We met them all - Caidee's mum and step-dad, her two sisters, her aunt, her grandmother, and her cousin Kammie, for dinner at a nice pub near Caidee's house. I hadn't thought about it from Caidee's perspective, but she was really nervous about the dinner - It was the first time she had ever seen her parents in the same room. I think it all went really well, everyone was comfortable, there was a lot of laughing. I think it was good for everyone involved.
And that was some of our England trip. We packed up early the next morning to take the Chunnel train to France...
Friday Scene:
I really should have seen this coming... Keston is a gifted artist. Her drawings are extremely detailed for a kid her age. Lately though, the fairies and pick-your-own-outfit drawings have been replaced by all horses - all the time. Maybe it was destined to be, since we named her after a sweet horse-girl!
All I know is I better get some warmer layers ready, I foresee some time spent in that chilly arena coming my way soon!
She was able to turn fully around in her saddle after less than 2 hours on that gentle horse! Thanks, friends, for an especially fun birthday party!
Kids in the kitchen: Nut Cups
If you are visiting from Crafty Crow, Hello! I hope you have a blessed Easter!
Every Easter for the last decade (at least!), the youngest kid in our family makes Nut Cups for the Easter dinner table. I have no idea where the tradition started, but I remember doing it myself as a kid. It is a sweet little nibble while you are waiting to pass the ham, and adds a fun touch to the table.
This year, Keston was in charge, and they turned out beautifully! So simple, and your child will be proud to contributer to the Easter table!
What we used/have used in years past for nut cups:
Pretty paper muffin liners (mini or regular), and any of the following: cashews, walnuts, almonds, chocolate covered peanuts, candied sunflower seeds, Dutch mints (those pretty pastel ones), Jordan almonds, mini peanut butter cups (Trader Joe's), Hershey kisses, dried fruit and cranberries, or any other similar treat. Mix and match, use anything you like. This year our supplies all came from Trader Joe's, but your supermarket bulk bins are a good place too.
Happy Easter!
Short and sweet:
{Caidee (stepdaughter) and I, at the London Eye}
I know, I have barely blogged lately. Life is just too busy to justify and hour here and there right now. But I came across this post today from Karen Russell (um, because I have no problem wasting an hour reading blogs?) and thought it was too good not to share. Enjoy it here. :)
The gist of things & it's my favorite time of the year.
{Source: marleyandme via tumblr}
The gist of what's been happening for the last month...
- Project Birthday was a huge success! I delivered 26 bags of groceries and two heaping boxes for their freezer. Best birthday ever, thank you so much to everyone that made that happen. Thank you cards are in the works, I'm just slow. Obviously.
- Project Minimize is still moving along. Though I must say, it is a really messy process. Closets and drawers unpacked and sifted through everywhere. Save for a couple of closet spaces, I am nearly finished.
- It's St. Paddy's Day, and I have a brisket and cabbage in the slow cooker. Yep, I'm still a vegetarian though (nearly 18 years now). But, my sweet husband is not. Hence the hunk o' meat. I can't get the disturbing smell off of my hands.
- Also for today, a Clover Party for our 4-H group. You know, the whole 4-H clover logo thing and all, it seemed a good idea. Should be quite fun, the kids are doing the whole party themselves - games, decorations, treats and crafts.
- The head: I have started a new-to-me preventative medicine for my migraines (which I had for 7 straight weeks this winter), seems to be working! There are a few hitches, like needing to increase doseage to get it effective, and the morning drowsiness. But oh-my-goodness, I haven't felt this good since my car accident 6 years ago. (I was rear-ended at a high speed, resulting in back/neck/migraine issues).
- To my friends who were there that morning, can you believe it has been 6 years? Also, best place ever to be in an accident, on the way to a MOPS meeting. Friends everywhere stopping on the roadside t to take my children, call my husband, call 911. I had no idea the pain that it would result in, and walked into MOPS still, an hour later, and they were in the midst of praying for me, all 100+ women. It was awesome. :)
- I am leaving next week for a trip, passport in hand. Cannot wait to see our Caidee!
- It's daff season. (The real daff season, when you can get a 10-stem field bunch for a buck fifty. Go Yellow! Why I love daffodils: here.
- And that's it, I beleive we are now caught up. Good?
The 100 Thing Challenge. (Care to join me?)
This book is inspiring so many of my thoughts right now. The author challenges himself to keep only 100 personal possessions in order to have a better quality of life - more time, more freedom.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I came across it, because it so perfectly decribes my struggle. I spend my precious time devoted to my stuff, and the stuff of my household. It frustrates me every single day. I clean the stuff, pick up the stuff, find homes for the stuff, trip on the stuff, fix the stuff, organize the stuff and then buy new stuff. All for what?
What would my life look if I eliminated all the stuff?
Well, personally, I'd have more time to sit down and play Playmobils when my daughter asks, go out for a hike on an unexpectedly sunny day, read a book without guilt, walk the dog more, take the kids to the gym, welcome my husband home from work to a neat house. I could relax!
I didn't survive cancer just to live my life trapped by stuff. I wasn't blessed with three children only to be too busy with stuff to sit on the ground and play with them. This I know for sure.
My house is not a hoarder's episode by any means, it is just like most other homes as far as I can tell. Closets get stuffed, homeschool supplies get spread around, and clean but not folded laundry sits a day or two in a basket near the couch. There's a short stack of paperwork - mostly junk mail, and a little pile of ironing, Overall, it isn't bad, because I just don't do well with clutter to begin with. I try hard to keep it at a minimum, but the stuff of running a household for 5 people sure adds up quickly.
Could I get by with only 100 personal items for myself? I'm not sure. The author of this book is a man. That makes a difference I think. The toiletry items he owns consist of a razor and toothbrush. I probably have almost 100 items alone in the bathroom, if not more. I have quite the collection of Jafra skincare that I use everyday - eye cream, elasticity gel, deep line corrector, day moisturizer, night moisturizer, face wash, toner. And more. Clearly wrinkles and skin cancer are a concern! Ha ha. Cosmetics are the same. Hair products, hand lotion, blow dryer, straightener, bobby pins, pony tail holders, shower caps. I wasn't blessed with an ounce of natural beauty, it is pretty important to my acceptance into society to own most of that. (I kid a little, but it is also fairly accurate).
I was pondering for myself if I could get down to 100 items, not counting those of which are household items. It is kind of a fine line when you are the mom. Does a container of gift wrap count as household when I'm the only one actually getting into it? Does every single piece of scrapboook paper count? Dave Bruno, the author, chose to count his 'collection' of underwear as one item, his collective socks as one item, and household items, used by everyone, did not count. His entire list is here, and interesting to look through.
I think I might be able to pare down to 100 if I played by my owns rules. I think that is the key for each individual, to make it work for you in a way that stretches you to own much less. I plan to count grouped things, but make sure that group is contained together, and holds only essentials.
Here are the rules I plan to follow for my own 100 Thing Challenge
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Skincare that I use each day is grouped together as one item.
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Frequently used cosmetics count as one item, contained in one spot. Only one of each item, but 3 lip gloss tubes.
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I have a mini scrapbook caddy of tools, which is well organized. I count this as one item.
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Each storage bin for scrapbook or craft supplies counts as one item, though they may have 100 papers in them. I recently went through and pared my crafts down significantly, so I know that what is in those containers is only what I love and plan to use.
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Books: I will keep no more than 20 books, and count them as a 'library'. At this point, homeschool reference books do not count, as they are needed for a specific purpose that isn't really personal.
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Every piece of clothing counts as one item. However, once I get going, I may change this slightly. If I can pair down my basics, I will likely need a few accessories to make my outfits not seem so repetitive. One small basket of scarves could help create many varied looks, so maybe I'll count that basket of four scarves as one. Each pair of shoes counts as one.
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Jewelry, contained in one spot, and only what I love and use, will count as one item for the reason listed above.
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Like the author, I allow myself one week to deal with gifts. If I choose to keep a gift, I have to give up something else in it's place, or pass it on. (More on gifts soon!)
It may sound as if I have made a lot of concessions for myself, but the idea is to be thoughtful about what you own. I have no idea how many items I own right now, but I suspect it is somewhere around 300-500 maybe. My new mantra: Keep only that which you find to be useful or beautiful.
My daughter chuckled when I told her about this challenge. She knows me well. I get excited about something and go off on a tangent of it for a while and then become bored. I'm going to have to prove her wrong on this one! I'll let you know if I succeed or fail. Please pray. :)
Anyone want to join me in their own variation of this? You can play by your own rules, the idea is simply to pare down.
Ok, let's do this!
gulp
I'm telling my husband it'll help with airmiles. And yes, it goes against most of my beliefs to buy something like this, and yes, I've wanted one for ages. And yes, last Sunday's sermon keeps echoing in my head... "What's the wise thing?"
You'll also be surprised to know I am seriously involved in minimizing what we already own. Really. Raise your hand if you think I've lost it.
Something was lost in translation... (oops, updated)
{Photo by Mady}
Today Keston tipped over a vase, spilling water. This conversation ensued:
Keston: Oh, I'm the lamest kid.
Me: Yes! You ARE the lamest kid! (Said jokingly).
Keston: YOU'RE the lamest mom! (Said quite seriously).
Me: Kes! I was only joking!
Keston: Well you're still the lamest mom.
Nice. For the record, she's usually pretty quick-witted and can carry jokes well, and learns words like 'lame' from her 15 year old sister. And no, we don't make a habit of caling any of our kids lame, ever.
UPDATED: It seems some may have mistaken this conversation. We do not allow our children to talk like that, she was frustrated as she was sopping up a vase full of water, and on the verge of tears because she didn't realize I was joking. She's not a sassy kid at all, which is why it was so funny to me. We're raising good kids, I promise. :)
A layman's guide to diagnosing dyslexia
Proceed with caution... it's a little wordy.
So I had made this huge discovery... one of my kids has dyslexia.
Never one to sit around when it comes to this kind of thing with my children, (speech, bullying, health, and the like), I got right to work. I was really eager to learn as much as I could and figure out what to do with it all.
It is funny though, I have since researched and learned a lot... yet when I have shared with people, I sometimes get responses like "You diagnosed it yourself? Hmmm" in a disbelieving way. So be prepared for that. It's akin to "Oh, you homeschool your kids?" all over again. Only doubly so. But hold strong! You're just ahead of the game on this, I think it'll get its spotlight soon enough. It affects 20% of people! Dyslexia is just patiently waiting its turn behind gluten right now, ha ha.
I asked my son before writing about this publicly, and he is good with it. When I figured it out, I was so ecstatic, he really has no clue it is anything someone might feel badly about. I intend to keep it that way for him! People with dyslexia are almost always strongly gifted in another right-brained area, and have amazing IQs. For him, he's gifted with construction/engineering/spatial reasoning. (The Lego creations that come out of his room area all starting to make sense!) A few days ago I heard Keston lamenting "I want to be dyslexia too... I want a special gift." I corrected her verb useage and told her she was indeed special. :)
When you are a homeschool parent, it can be frustrating to feel like whatever you are doing isn't really working or sticking. I got really frustrated because Jenson was having trouble just repeating some words back to me (metamorphic and sedimentary, for the record). Talking louder and slower wasn't helping, go figure. While I really regret now that I got angry at him about it, it was what lead to me thinking maybe there was something more going on. The next day I had my answer, and due apologies were given.
Side note: Jenson was in public school until third grade, and was in a writing class with a credentialed teacher last year. If he were in public school, it wouldn't have been picked up any earlier. I truly don't place blame on anyone, but it isn't being diagnosed in public school as far as I can see, so even if your child is in school, don't let that stop you from looking into it if you have suspicion. My son was in 'literacy support' for over two years, where you might have thought it would be picked up. Sometimes it just doesn't become clear until around age 10 or so anyway, as kids are able to continue making progress until around then.
As a parent, you can diagnose your child, you do not need a formal diagnosis! I did talk with several professionals, including a doctor of child behavior psychology and several teachers, to make sure I was on the right track. They all backed me. A formal diagnosis might be needed in some instances, but in our case, nope.
How I went about diagnosing:
We happen to have duplicate copies of many books around here, because I often follow along with Jenson as he reads in order to help him with words. One day recently, I grabbed a pencil and wrote out in my copy every mistake he was making, so I could later look at it more closely. At that point dyslexia hadn't even crossed my mind. I thought dyslexia meant that people just transposed letters. For whatever reason, I had a hunch to begin some research. I compared samples of his writings, and notes from the book I had penciled in. It was like a light bulb went off. No wonder so many things were difficult for him, yet he is so advanced and amazing in other areas!
Keep in mind I am in no way an expert, take it for what it's worth and do your own research if you see any of these symptoms in your own child. (But as I said before, after asking professionals, I strongly feel the source of my information is accurate and credible.) There are roughly 35-40 different symtpoms, and to have dyslexia you only need to possess three of those symptoms. Jenson had well over 15.
Here's an abbreviated symptoms list, taken from the Bright Solutions website and also paraphrased from me:
- Speech delay as a toddler, even if they went on to speak fine, but started after age 2 in speaking.
- Stuttering or speech difficulties (I didn't find any specific info. about articulation disorder, not sure about that one)
- Slow to learn to read or overall reading difficulty
- Poor spelling, even with lots of help and practice. They may do fine on weekly tests because they learn to memorize the words, but then they do not translate this into their writing later. For example, on a spelling test, they'll write "could" perfectly fine, but in a story they will write "cold" or some other variation.
- Many other spelling related symptoms, including transposing letters, but that isn't the only one, and even if they don't transpose, other symptoms could be present.
- Dominant hand not chosen early, or may be able to write with right hand and cut with left or vice versa (like me!) or kicks with opposite of dominant hand, etc.
- Extremely gifted in a right brained area such as sports, building, mechanics, art, music, etc.
- They read better with books that have larger fonts. Tiny fonts and crammed sentences pose extra difficulty. Italics are the worst!
- Trouble remembering punctuation and capitalization, even though you've reminded them hourly! (I paraphrased that one especially!)
- Disregard for margins on the paper, may space things weird when writing.
- When copying from a white board, they need to look up a hundred times to write one or two sentences, and still it may come out wrong.
- They are very bright, you know they are smart.
- Dsylexia is hereditary. Any poor spellers in your family that instantly come to mind?
- Lack of confidence and possible self-esteem issues.
- Good at math but much difficulty with word problems and/or memorizing times tables
- Confusion of left/right, it's not an automatic.
There are many more symptoms, these are just a few. If any sound familiar, you may want to check out the link at the bottom of this post or do your own research. It is well explained and worth your time if you even just barely suspect your child may have dyslexia after looking over the lists. And what was very helpful for me was giving him that challenging book*, and discreetly writing down all the mistakes he made, as well as going over his wiritng samples. It couldn't have been any clearer to me!
I hope this will help someone, and I plan to share more about the tips and tricks, and the method I use to teach him from here on out. I certainly do not view it as a "disability", just something that needs addressed differently in how I teach him. I have confidence he will succeed at anything he wants to do in life! (Because his right brain is 10% bigger, ha ha!)
*For Jenson, a 'challenging book' doesn't necessarily mean a higher RL, but longer sentences, finer print, and longer words, such as in Harry Potter. His favorite Beverly Clearly books are in the same RL range, but have nice large font. It made a big difference in his case. You might try comparing different books for your sample.
The video I mentioned, well worth the time investment: HERE.
A list of symptoms: HERE. (Jenson has dysgraphia too, which will make more sense once you understand this list. They often go together.)
a little field trip
We headed back to our local raptor center for an impromtu weekend field trip. The center rehabilitates injured birds and aims to release them back to the wild. Some aren't able to be released, and live there permanently. There are lots of bald eagles, a pair of golden eagles, a peregrine falcon, various owls, a turkey vulture and a few others.
This bald eagle reminded me of my dog, tilting its head when I talked to it.
This barn owl Chilli has lived her whole life here, and thinks she's a person. She has a damaged wing and can't fly.
And then we attempted our family photo. We've done three or four this month already, part of our new year goals. So not easy to get five people looking in one spot with reasonable faces and open eyes, but totally worth it (even for the so-so result)!
things have shifted dramatically...
I diagnosed one of my children with dyslexia very recently, which explains so, so much about his reading/writing/spelling progress. In today's mail I received our new reading system, an Orton-Gillingham based method. I cannot wait to get started!
In the meantime, we used as many multi-sensory and tactile materials as we had around the house. His traditional workbooks are out the window, and I am absorbing all the information I can get my hands on. It's a very cool adventure we are embarking on!
A love affair with my dish towels.
Is this normal? Also I iron them. I doubt that is normal.
(Also, the rest of my house is pretty much a wreck, in case you were wondering.)
My Birthday Wish List, revised!
My birthday (yikes, 39!) is coming up in less than a month. And I really love that. I loooooovvvvvveeee presents. My love language is presents, that is how I feel loved and show love to others. It isn't as greedy or superficial as it sounds, it just is how I was designed. :)
So I mulled over this thought I had for two days. Because, you see, I really love presents and pretty things.
But then I wised up, like any almost-39 year old should, and decided to just go with my mulling idea. This really only pertains to a few close people in my life - friends and family that year after year show up at my door with sweet and pretty things on my birthday. (I love you!) But here is my idea...
Instead of getting me something this year, would you consider instead using those funds to help me help a friend?
My friend has a hard-working husband and three kids. Her kids and mine play together every week. This week it came up in conversation that they were struggling financially. Their income is paying the bills, but each month it is a struggle to buy groceries. They are just above the income limit to receive assistance, and they are falling through the cracks. She gets creative. She returned Christmas gifts that she received this year in order to literally buy food for her family, and she sells possessions on Craigslist. They didn't buy any gifts for each other this year, including for the kids. (Sad!) They are doing their best to hang in there.
We have had lean times in our family, and had to watch our budget closely, but not to this extreme. When we want to save money, we eat out of our pantry. My friend has nothing left in her pantry. She wasn't whining to me or complaining, she has a positive spirit.
So if you are one of those people that always gives me a sweet gift, would you please buy me some food to give her instead? I have all I need, and I know a re-stocked pantry and freezer would really lift a burden for her. I know she would be very appreciative. If you'd prefer to not deal with that, I would happily do the shopping for you or pass along a gift card to her. In advance, thank you so much. This means way more to me than presents for myself. And that is saying a lot!
She doesn't know I am doing this, but I recently asked her for her grocery list so I could help too. Here is a blurb of that email to guide you in what might be helpful to them (though just about anything would be helpful I think)...
I'm Shawn...
- I love my life! I have three zippy kids, an amazing husband, and charming friends and family. I strive to be like the Proverbs 31 woman, but could use a whole lot of improvement. :) I love helping people meet their health and financial goals as an AdvoCare advisor! (And to keep it real... there's probably a big pile of laundry needing to be folded and crumbs on the floor, but I do love my life!)
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Making A Home
Blogs I Love:
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