defeating the mom guilt

I'm sure that anyone who has a child who has differences struggles with this from time to time.  Right now, I am struggling with it.  I have a child with *mild* health problems, and another with learning challenges.  It has been an interesting month for me here so far, with Missa trying to get out of doing her math and reading because it is difficult with her dyslexia, and then last week Kimi's breathing started acting up on us.

With Missa and her differences, we've understandably had to figure out EVERYTHING for schooling so that she could learn effectively without having too many issues with retaining the material.  Traditional curricula doesn't always work with her, and I've had to search for just the right fit in each subject or come up with something on my own that will work with her.  Thankfully, her sisters are all more typical learners, and the materials that work for Missa work beautifully with her sisters as well because they embrace multiple learning styles at once (we like multi-sensory approaches that use auditory and visual methods along with manipulatives and hands-on activities).  But I still feel guilty sometimes over her difference in learning.  My mother doesn't help any with this guilt, she told me once that dyslexia and other learning disabilities are either lazy parenting/teaching/learning or caused by not picking one program and sticking to it 100% (changing styles because one approach doesn't work, which is something a LOT of homeschoolers do).  She knows that I went through several programs in each subject before finding something that would work well with Missa, and knew it even back when she said that to me.  My mother-in-law also doesn't help much either, although her latest comment could be taken as a compliment I think.  She's trying to convince Missa currently that she doesn't have dyslexia because "you read just fine honey."  The last time the girls were over with her, she watched them for a few hours so Scott and I could go to lunch and Babies R Us without having to deal with all the hassle of keeping 4 kids occupied and happy (meaning I got a meal I LOVED and don't get often at our favorite restaurant, and I got to casually browse all the different areas and get ideas for our nursery and baby boy at the store without being rushed).  She doesn't approve of homeschooling, so she quizzes the kids every chance she gets.  She tested their reading that day, and decided that they are all doing really well despite not going to a real school and having mommy insisting on playing schoolteacher instead of growing up and coming to her senses about it (yeah we've gone around about this in the past, I'm no longer allowed to discuss it with her per Scott's instruction).  Now, last school year I had mono for 6 months, and the ONLY thing I did with her and her sisters was reading.  I read to them, they read to me, we listened to audio books, we watched movies and tv shows with the closed-captioning on.  Missa jumped during that time from a late K level in reading to now being able to read at a mid to late 4th grade level.  She's in 3rd grade.  That's something to be proud of, and you KNOW I'm proud of her for working so hard.  She's reading the books from our history core (well some of the easier ones, currently she's slowly working through the Usborne Greek Myths book) and she's enjoying reading for fun AND for learning.  That was my goal for last school year and this year, now I need to set a new goal for her learning lol

Then there's Kimi's breathing.  She has asthma, and was diagnosed a couple years ago.  Again, my mom said that I caused it by giving her an inhaler under doctor orders when she had yet another case of bronchitis.  For over 2 years I've struggled with this one before I finally decided that my mother has no clue what the hell she's talking about and I've stopped listening to 99% of what she thinks about stuff (she also told me this week that at 24 weeks pregnant, I've gained too much weight and that I'm fat, I gained 12lbs and am thrilled with it, I think she's spent too long on her diet and has lost touch with reality).  Anyway, this past week Kimi has had a major flare-up with her asthma and I've had a hard time getting it back under control again.  I had her at the pediatrician's office during their walk-in clinic hours on Saturday (Scott had been taking the van to work after blowing out a tire in his car, we had to wait for payday to replace it, so I had no way to get them to the doctor until then) and her asthma didn't disappoint us.  She had an attack in the waiting room, and it sent the nurse AND the doctor both running to stabilize her again.  We left with a nebulizer and a bunch of medications to get her back in check again.  This morning she finished her round of Prednisone, so now she's down to just her 2 daily meds (one pill and one breathing treatment) and her albuterol breathing treatments as needed.  Yesterday she didn't need any albuterol at all, which was a first in the last week and a half.  I think we are starting to get a handle on it again.

But fighting mom guilt is hard.  I feel guilt daily when Missa struggles with her schoolwork, wondering if my mom may be right and I did cause her learning differences by switching around programs so much before we settled last school year on the materials that we are using now.  I struggle now especially with the what-ifs and wonder if my pushing for a low-intervention birth with Kimi could have caused all her breathing problems.  She was diagnosed with severe meconium aspiration syndrome at birth and needed deep suctioning to get all the meconium from her airways, and has been rattly and suffered with breathing problems from the start.  I catch myself several times daily thinking that if only I had agreed to Pitocin in my IV and allowed them to break my water before we did, maybe we could have prevented it from happening.

Yup, the mommy guilt monster stinks.  I know none of these challenges are my fault, but still I blame myself because I'm mom.  The last thing that any parent wants is to have a child with any special needs, and when it does happen we struggle with blaming ourselves over things that are out of our control.  I see my girls, all of them, as unique special blessings from God, and would never trade any of them for another child, nor would I ever wish that any of them were different than they are now.  Yet, I still struggle with the nagging guilt that plagues moms everywhere over everything.  I may not have a child who is non-mobile with a feeding tube or one with a severe birth defect, but I still fight with the guilt every day.  I look at my friends who have children with more needs than my girls have, and know how blessed I am.  I also see them as a source of inspiration.  I look up to those moms, knowing that their burden is so much bigger while they go through life with grace and strength that I have not yet found.  I see what I need to find in them, and pray that I can find it soon.  Especially now that I've entered a stage where I'm too paranoid to leave the nebulizer at home even just to take my kids to Pizza Hut for their monthly Book-It coupon pizzas (and I plan to tote it with us here shortly for a trip to the grocery store, hey its raining right now and a chill could trigger an attack, but not going isn't an option as I'm out of a few things that we need for supper tonight).

Nice try kids......

Nothing bugs me more than the kids wasting my time.  They just wasted an hour of my time, by hiding needed supplies for math when I was resting on the sofa (I fell asleep).  They spent an hour pretending to search for the hidden supplies, then another 20 minutes insisting that the pencil sharpener isn't in the cabinet, before I finally got fed up and went straight to their hiding spots and extracted the hidden supplies and spent 20 seconds looking at the cabinet to locate the pencil sharpener.

I think this calls for a few extra pages of math, and some extra chores.  They waste 1:20 of my life, I will take away free time to make up for it.  I'm thinking they can lose 2 minutes for every 1 minute of mine they wasted at a minimum, but we'll see what it turns out to be when I'm done with this one.

And all because Missa decided to try and pull the "but this math is too HARD mom!" card because she didn't want to put forth a little effort in her work today.  I think the girl shall be working on math this weekend to make up for taking time from me and making my blood pressure rise (yes it did, I'm high risk for blood pressure issues and am well aware of the signs, I was having physical symptoms of it going up)

math upgrade time

Missa is giving me difficulties lately. She is using her own personal learning challenges as an excuse to not do ANYTHING. Chores, schoolwork, being nice to her sisters, all of it she is incapable of doing because she has dyslexia. I remember my father going through the same struggles with me growing up when I was older than she is (in case you don't already know, I also am dyslexic). I now understand his frustration and anger toward me whenever I would shut down and refuse to do anything or even try. So, we are proving a point to her now.

Scott gave her a GEM of insight that is just beyond brilliant. He is as tired of her excuses as I am, and dislikes her insistence that she's stupid as much as I do. So, in the middle of her normal whining and complaining that dyslexia makes her stupid he says.....

"Kid, dyslexia doesn't make you stupid; giving up makes you stupid."

Stopped her cold in her tracks. She had no clue how to respond to that one, and just sat there staring at him. I then took that silence as an opportunity to point out how much smarter she is than I was at her age, and how she lets things stop her because she doesn't TRY. I then decided to prove a point to her.

I got out the next level math book I've had waiting for her since the Cincinatti homeschool convention back in tthe Spring and handed it to her. Now, I know she can do the work if she stops and just TRIES, but we bumped her down a level to make sure she had a solid foundation first. She looked at the first lesson pages, and got excited because she knows how to do the work. I then showed her the final test in her test book for this level, and she got nervous and said that she can't do that work. Well guess what kid, by the time you get to that test you will be able to do the work.

She starts Math-U-See Beta tomorrow, just to prove my point. She also has attempted to give up on her chapter book halfway through chapter 3, but I am refusing to let her stop. I told her I don't care if it takes her a year to read it, she WILL finish that book because I know she can do it. I am all about making a point here with her, and right now she needs me to push her like she's never been pushed before. I know it sounds mean to push a child with learning disabilities to do harder work like I am and to be so heartless about it, but I know she's capable. Its all a confidence issue with her.

oh baby!

Not quite sure what to call this one, but its all about the pregnancy.

We had a few rough days early this week. I have a 4 year old with a cold, and my mother-in-law refused to watch any of the kids at all for us so that Scott and I could go to my anatomy scan appointment without the kids. So I spent several hours frantically calling everyone that I thought I'd have a small shot at getting to watch 3 healthy older kids while we took the sick one with us to the appointment. With 14 hours before the appointment, my aunt and cousin (who live a half hour away) came to the rescue and said we could bring the girls over to hang out while we went to my appointment. Disaster #1 averted.

So, forward to scan. Now, I have 2 friends with special needs children, one who is still waiting for her little man to come, so I was just a little anxious at this scan. If you scan through my list of blogs, you will see Miss Charlie's blog and the Our Busy Homeschool blog. These are the two I am referring to. Both families are incredible and inspirational to me, showing me the amazing love that comes with having a special child or having a large family expecting a special child. So, at the scan I was anxious and wanted to see everything. I asked that we look extra closely at the spine, placenta, cord, and a couple extra areas that I know are common for defects. Everything is 100% healthy and normal. So now we know that its a healthy baby, and I have some amazing pictures from it too.



But that isn't the only thing that we found out. We have a healthy baby, but also we learned that our sweet healthy baby is a boy. Yes, that is right, after having four daughters and figuring we'd never have a son, God blessed us with one. All the girls have wanted a little brother, and now they will have one. I still have no clue what I'm going to do with a boy after so long with just girls, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. I was looking forward to early March already because I couldn't wait to meet our newest family member, but now ALL of us are beyond excited about meeting the new little boy joining our family!!!! (I'll not share the money shot to prove its a boy, I have 5 different angles of it because we couldn't believe it).

And to add to our great day, just as I pulled into my aunt's driveway to pick up the girls I got a call saying that my excusal from jury duty was approved, so I didn't have to spend today sitting in a courtroom. I'll have to go in later, but hopefully I'll have healthy kids so I can do it. I don't mind jury duty at all, but I do have issues sometimes with getting a sitter when I have anyone with any kind of runny nose or cough. Hopefully I can get it done before the baby comes so that I'm not forced to ask for an excusal due to having a breastfed infant.

halfway there! and this week's plans

OK double purpose for this post. So stay with me please lol This could get scattered.

On the pregnancy, today is the OFFICIAL halfway point for us. I am 20 weeks today!!!! My ultrasound is Wednesday, and Scott got time off work to be able to come. Now if only I didn't have sick kids, I don't know if his mom will watch them for us now. Its just a cold, but she's paranoid about any kind of illness and refuses to watch them even if we have allergies acting up out of fear that she may get sick. Soooooo it looks like he may be stuck staying home with the kids while I go alone to my ultrasound and appointment unless I can get them up early enough to load up on Dimetapp so it kicks in before we get them to his mom's so she doesn't know they are sick. Yes, I know its sneaky, but I do NOT want to miss having him there for my scan and I have a suspicion they wouldn't allow the kids in too if we have a full round of runny noses and coughing. It also messes me up for jury duty on Thursday, if she won't watch them Wednesday she will refuse Thursday as well just to be safe (even if they are ok by then). *sigh* Yup, this week is going to be interesting for me.

On the homeschool front, we're just plugging away with stuff. I got the big 2 doing math right now, and Jojo is complaining and whining about some electronic toy she wants us to buy while also cuddling up to me. Kimi, she's somewhere around here, most likely playing or making a mess. Since we have sick kids right now, we're just going to do a bit of math and such as they are interested to keep their brains working a little bit. The sickest one of the bunch is Jojo, she's all stuffed up and yucky sounding. Poor kid sounds like Kimi because of how stuffy she is.

In reading, Missa is still plugging away at her chapter book. I do believe she is close to halfway done with it. She's discovered that being sick means that she's stuck laying down resting a lot more, and reading a book helps to pass the time. Yeah, she's going to finish her book I think. I need to make out a request list at the library soon so I can pick up a few more books for her, anyone got suggestions for some good books for her to try out next? We're quite liberal in what we allow them to read, and yesterday they watched part 1 of the last Harry Potter on tv with Scott (told ya we're liberal!). She's not *too* girly typically, and I know she'd really like to read the Harry Potter books but she's just not quite there yet in her ability. Oh, and she hates Magic Treehouse, we've already tried that one (maybe it overwhelmed her at the times we've tried it, but we own a few books in that series and she's never even liked them when I read them out loud to the kids)

Hopefully we can get through this week without too much, I really don't like having sick kids and now I think I'm coming down with it too. Yuck!

reading with Missa

I am dedicating this entire post to my oldest today. She hasn't had an easy time with lessons, and I wanted to just note here how she's progressed over the past few years with her reading.

She started off in K not even knowing her letters by sight, let alone the sounds they make. We got her to at least know the sounds halfway through the year, but it took a half year of public school to get her started trying to read. Their method of doing sight words WORKED with her somehow and she started.

1st grade, she was backed up in phonics with the k12 school into K level because of gaps she had in her reading. She finished K phonics in 1st grade, and moved to phonics 1 for 2nd grade before we withdrew from the virtual academy. It was a smart move for us, and we spent 2nd grade just reading and enjoying books.

Now here we are in 3rd grade. A few weeks ago she decided she is GOING to read the NIV bible she has, and she's slowly and painfully working through it. Then this morning, she was checking out the books on our shelf (I told the oldest 2 girls to get a book each and spend some time reading) and she brought me a CHAPTER BOOK and asked me if she could read it. So, she's sitting in a chair now, slowly reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle out loud quietly so she can hear it and see it at the same time. She definitely has moved up in her reading ability I think if she's taking on books like that during her free "ok go read for a bit" time during school. I am now thinking up a reward to give her when she finishes that book, so she has an incentive to actually follow through and finish instead of just giving up. Its her first attempt at reading an entire chapter book, and I don't care how long it takes her but I want her to have something GREAT as a reward. I was thinking maybe going to a movie with me and Scott? I do have free passes to the movie theater at Easton mall, and I'm sure that Scott would be more than willing to get a sitter for the other three so we can take Missa to a movie. Or maybe a special toy? I know she's been wanting a real American Girl doll.

19 weeks and disappointment

I'm 19 weeks, we have 8 days until that big anatomy scan when they can tell us what this baby will be. Yet, for some reason I am really not looking forward to it. I feel just empty over all this right now. Yes it is our fifth baby, but is it really too much to ask that people try to at least FAKE happiness and excitement for us? I'm so tired of being pushed off like its no big deal, its just another baby in my home. Yes I understand that its important and special that the 14 year old granddaughter of Scott's cousin just had her first baby, and I'm happy for her that she has a supportive family who is there to help and that her baby boy will be fine, but when is it MY turn for a little notice? I act like I don't care that people aren't even acknowledging for the fifth time that we're having another blessed addition to our family, but in reality I am devastated by this. Why can't people at least fake it for me?

I'm not asking for the baby shower I never got or the fawning and "worship me NOW" that most pregnant women get that I never really had. I'm just asking that family at least act like they are happy for us. I'm not asking you to buy all the things we gave away as our youngest no longer needed them, or to go buy anything off my baby registry (which I set up as nothing more than a checklist of what we need to buy still). I'm asking that you smile and say congratulations instead of asking me what birth control we're going to use after this one. I'm asking that you not make "no more babies!" comments before we even announced our pregnancy that we had just found out about. I don't want you to buy us a new minivan or a house, or pay our bills for us. I want acceptance, support, and at least fake smiles and excitement.

Is that really too much to ask for? I don't even WANT to go to my ultrasound next week at this point. I feel like Scott and I are totally alone in our happiness for this baby. I know that I've always been alone doing things and I've never had much support in the past, but that doesn't mean that we should be forced to do it alone all the time. We don't ask for help usually, but we have our moments where we NEED it and we almost never turn down an offer for help. Well, now I need support and encouragement from family, and I'm not getting it at all. Thanks, that shows me how you really see my family.

how I get happy attitudes around here

If you have more than one child, you know that sometimes it can be difficult to get your kids to get along and be good helpers and all that. My family is no exception. On a regular basis I am breaking up fights and disciplining children for unkind words, and oh the messes they can make and then refuse to clean up.

So what's a pregnant and exhausted momma to do in such a situation? I pulled a trick out of the book of tricks that my local public school must have read. I first bought a HUGE bag of Tootsie Rolls for rewards, then I set up a reward system for different tasks and behaviors. And this weekend, I'm going to the dollar store to get a crate, some little trinkets, and some poster board so that I can make a treasure chest and chart to earn a dive in the chest.

Now, it sounds like I just stooped to bribing my kids with candy, and that's pretty accurate. BUT, so far today I have a clean kids' bedroom, 4 kids dressed, their breakfast dishes in the sink, the little 2 did their Awana verse practice, and now they are cleaning up the mess they made in the bathroom (including cleaning the toothpaste off the wall that SOMEONE smeared all over it, an entire big tube GONE in one shot). All for the total of 4 tootsie rolls each, and the bathroom (being an extra chore considering what all needs done in there) will earn them each another 4 tootsie rolls. My plan is to take advantage of the Halloween candy that's being sold right now to add some variety to my instant rewards, and upgrade it to a bucket (with a lock on it of course, I'm not stupid).

So how do I handle misbehavior with such a system in place? Well, that's easy. Right now Liddy has decided that she does not want to help with cleaning up the bathroom mess, so when its done she won't get any tootsie rolls. Or, in the case of fighting, the two sisters have to work together on a task (usually something disgusting like cleaning the hamster cage or washing out the insides of trash cans). They also can lose the ability to go to Awana, or to participate in our weekly girls' night (pizzas and a movie, Scott is banished to the bedroom while we take over the living room for this). Last week they all four lost the ability to go to Awana by misbehaving in the grocery store (I had to break up an actual fist fight, that almost NEVER happens here, plus they were all disrespectful to me, one another, and the other customers and ignored my reminders of proper behavior and back-talked me constantly).

And I do everything possible to remain consistent with my ways of doing things. Consistency is more important than anything, if I reward and discourage behaviors the same across the board then they learn what the right actions and attitudes are to have. I'm still working on how to incorporate our reward system into our schooling, which is where the treasure chest comes in. That one will have a daily small reward from the bucket, and a weekly reward from the chest. Hopefully it works well and doesn't backfire on me.

car seat is ready

Yes, I said I got the car seat ready for this baby. LOL As of yesterday, I am 17 weeks pregnant. I'm currently assessing the things we have and are getting these things out and ready so that we can start on the real fun: buying everything ELSE we need. Since we gave the crib and all our baby clothes to a friend's sister, we have literally nothing for basics. I'm hoping I can find the pack n' play for us to use until the tax refund comes and I can buy a crib. Hmmm I think we may *not* have fully thought this through before we decided to have baby #5, it may have been better to wait a few extra months so that I had the tax refund to shop. Eh, we'll figure it out.

So, the first thing we got ready is the most important item of all. We can NOT bring the baby home without a proper car seat. Now, if you know me, you know I'm a safety junkie. I keep up with all the latest safety in regards to car safety and my children. We rear-face until they hit the limits of a seat, then we forward face with a harness until they show the maturity required to sit properly in a booster full time (as long as they meet the legal requirements for a booster as well). Currently, I have 3 in boosters and one in belt only (she passes the 5 step test where she sits, no worries!).

So I decided to get out the convertible seat and get it ready today. Cover: cleaned up. Harness: dropped to bottom slots. Infant insert: found, cleaned up, and put on. Rear facing boot: hunted down, wiped down, attached. Now I just need Scott to put the middle seat for our middle row back in the van so I have a place to install the seat. This baby will be riding in the luxury of a Sunshine Kids Radian80 car seat, which rear faces from 5-33lbs and forward faces from 20-80lbs (yes it IS a harness that goes that high, it does NOT do the booster thing at all!!!!) It has a steel frame inside that plastic shell, and is very plush. It was donated to us when Jojo was a baby by the Kyle David Miller Foundation, and it has 4 years left of the 8 year life span (I had to double check the life span, most seats expire 6 years from date of manufacture but some do go to 8 years). This seat should work just fine and dandy for the baby from birth with the infant insert, if my girls' sizes are any indication of the size this baby will be. I can't wait to get this seat back in use regularly.

And for those whose heads are spinning at my using a convertible instead of an infant seat....... if the baby does NOT fit properly in this seat then I shall wait at the hospital with baby while Scott runs to the store to buy an infant seat to use instead. I have one already picked out, and the local WalMart carries it. But we will not be buying it unless the baby NEEDS a smaller seat, or someone decides to look up my WalMart baby registry and buy some of the stuff for us (I'm using it as a checklist for what we still need to buy for the baby, all our needs plus the goodies we want if we have enough money/time).

God bless the person who discovered peanut butter

I do NOT like peanut butter. I think it has a nasty texture and it tastes bad. So, why am I blessing the person who discovered it? Well, I am sitting here eating it by the spoonful from a jar now, and its one of the few things that is consistently staying down. I hate it but I cannot stop eating it.

I hope this one passes soon, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up this peanut butter thing......

holy COW that's cooking!

I made a late supper tonight for the kids, and just realized exactly how much food I cooked. It was spaghetti night since I had some hamburger in the fridge that I needed to use up, so Scott got water on for me to boil up a 3lb box of spaghetti and I got out the big skillet and the hamburger.

Now, if you've not figured out by now, I like to cook. I cook in mass quantities sometimes so that I can have a meal for the freezer, or a leftovers lunch the next day. This meal is one of those leftovers lunch meals. I doubled everything so that Scott has lunch tomorrow at work, and so that I can assemble a spaghetti bake and put in the fridge to just toss in the oven tomorrow for lunch. (I learned during my pregnancy with my oldest that cooking any time other than supper makes me throw up, so I like to cook at night and have crazy leftovers for at least one more meal)

Now, the essential kitchen equipment for a bigger family is slightly larger than a typical family's stuff. Most people find a 10" skillet to be perfectly adequate, while I tend to reach first for my 14" chicken fryer (its one of those ones with 2 handles) when I cook. A stock pot for me is larger than many would consider adequate for cooking. When I cook, recipes that serve 4-6 automatically get doubled or even tripled so that I have enough food. "Family size" packaging at stores makes me laugh because I know it takes at least 2 or 3 packages to feed my family. In the freezer section are frozen macaroni and cheese and lasagna entrees that are marked as "party size" and THAT is the right size to feed us all. So, as you can probably guess, I tend to fall back regularly on my experience cooking in a restaurant kitchen, making large quantities of things at once to serve the dinner rush. I don't do small amounts of food normally.

So tonight's supper consisted of the BIG box of spaghetti noodles (3lb size box), 3 jars of sauce, 3lbs hamburger, and handfuls of various seasonings and dried onion. I need to go out there and assemble Scott's lunch for tomorrow and the spaghetti pan for tomorrow's baked lunch. There may even be enough left to make extra lunches for me to toss in the freezer for Scott to grab and take to work when we don't have leftovers.

Next bulk meal I'm hoping for will be a lasagna. That one will be made in 3 pans, so I have 2 for the freezer on top of the one that I'm going to serve that night for supper.

movement *yay*

Yup, we officially have movement here with parasite. I'm 16 weeks today, and I've not called any of it officially feeling the little booger move simply because it wasn't that strong yet. Well, I can no longer deny it, today it made a few very good attempts at kicking my laptop off my stomach. And a couple nights ago, Scott felt a VERY faint movement himself with his hand firmly on my gut at just the right moment before we went to sleep. Its cute now, but in a few weeks it will get annoying. I already know how I'll react to it, and I can't wait for it to be consistently strong enough kicking and moving for the girls to feel themselves as well.

It makes the next 4 weeks and 2 days until my ultrasound feel like an eternity. I can no longer deny it, there really is another one coming. I can feel movement.

Now if only I could stop throwing up...... but on the up side, I'm losing some of the 12lbs I gained in my first trimester, and I *can* zip my regular jeans up again fairly comfortably. Seems that I may be going the wrong way with that one, I'm supposed to be getting bigger (not smaller). Oh well, I'll pop back out soon enough.

I'll have an update this week hopefully on how the girls' lessons are going, we took some time off with the second trimester pregnancy sickness that has occurred (I had almost none during first trimester).

first baby appointment done finally

I finally got to have my first prenatal appointment yesterday. I'm sure you may remember, I was seeing an OB about 45min away before. Well, before we moved here it wasn't too bad, I had to drive a half hour to get to ANY doctor for my prenatal care. Well, then we moved here and I kept my amazing doctor because it was just the yearly exam right? No biggie. Add a pregnancy and it becomes a big deal, monthly appointments that go to every 2 weeks and then every week makes for a lot of time loading kids, driving, unloading kids, and all that just to see the doctor for 10min or so. So, I got a midwife locally instead, and yesterday was my first appointment with her.

I had to take all 4 girls with me. That's the downside to the local midwife, when I was making that drive out to the OB I wasn't too far from Scott's mom so she'd take the girls while I was at my appointments. Now, I'm not going to drive a half hour to take them to her, then back home to the practice 5min from my house and then go back to get them afterward. That's more gas than staying with the other practice would have used. It makes more sense for me to just pack them along with me, and arrange for her to take them overnight once in a while for certain appointments (like my next one, which I'm getting to).

So, they drew blood (Liddy had to sit on my lap so that I had a cuddle object while the vampire sucked 6 tubes from me) and they weighed me (their scale LIES!!!!!!) and then they asked me for a full history and all sorts of odd questions (ummm yes my husband IS supportive of this baby, he just has to work which is why he wasn't there or watching our kids, bills don't pay themselves you know). The kids watched Signing Time on my laptop while I got all this done..

Enter midwife, and I get to hear a heartbeat. 158 beats a minute, fast little bugger. It ain't looking good for Scott and his hopes that this time he gets a son..... lol I really like her a lot, she's not the one that a few people I know see but I'm very comfortable with her.

My next appointment is October 19th, I'll be about 19 1/2 weeks along and we'll have the anatomy scan and hopefully determine gender at that time too. I sure hope this next 5 weeks passes quickly, I'm really looking forward to this appointment.

God always provides to His faithful ones

So, I'm sure you have figured out by now that my family isn't exactly wealthy. In fact, we are probably the opposite of how I was brought up in this area. When we have extra money, we must spend it wisely and usually do so by stocking up on things that we need like extra food and household supplies (toilet paper, dish and laundry soap, shower soaps, stuff like that). We make it work somehow.

So, I did some calculations not too long ago based on the homeschool materials I have here currently, and realized that I may be lucky to make it to our tax refund with the stuff we have currently. I have curriculum I love, but in some subjects it is too expensive to buy whenever we need it. Those subjects I purchase with the tax refund, attempting to estimate how many levels we'll need in math (for example!) or if our history and science will be enough for a year and what supplemental materials to buy.

Well, I can tell you that I likely miscalculated math. Liddy is close to moving up a level in math to Beta, as are Missa and Kimi (they will likely by Christmas). Which that's no big deal, I have the next level already purchased for all 3 children. However, the rate Liddy goes in math I'll need the level AFTER what I've purchased by my birthday in February most likely. That is where the issue lies. Same in history, we're at a good groove in our program and supplements but I can see us finishing by my birthday, putting me in a position where I'll need to purchase the next core level. So what is a girl to do in a situation like this?

Well first, I take it to prayer. I don't do ANYTHING major without praying first until I know what to do. I still didn't know what to do really, but hey it'll work out. That's about all I knew.

Now enter Scott's old babysitter. She would watch him when he was younger than our children, and she homeschooled her 3 kids. The youngest just recently graduated from homeschool in fact, and she decided to clean off the homeschool shelves. She decided to offer to us first, and said that anything we can't use to pass to someone else who can. I got 6 levels of Math-U-See, starting with the very next level in line from where my current collection leaves off, and a lot of books for history, science, grammar, and other subjects. So now, I have solved the issue of what to do, as I have several years' worth of resources and materials that I can just grab and use, supplementing with the library as needed once I get the 2 teacher sets for the math that aren't here.

I think I need to send Scott over to Home Depot for another shelf and brackets for the shelves in our bedroom where I store all the homeschooling books that aren't currently in use...... almost all of this stuff is totally usable to us, with the exception of a couple items that I know right now we won't be using (like Apologia science). I can't wait until later tonight when I can really get deep into this box and log each book into my library spreadsheet and organize and start skimming books to see what will work when and how to best utilize materials.

Just another example of God providing for us when we come to Him in need. He has many times provided things as we needed for our family, by providing extra overtime for my husband at work or leading others to bless us with things that we may need (as in this case, a bunch of homeschool books) or by simply putting us in the right place at the right moment to find something we need (like a much-needed book at a thrift store, or a $1 clearance rack at Target or WalMart for clothing for one of the kids). And sometimes, God smacks us back to reality by reminding us that we do not need what we think we do, that what we have will work for us well enough.

~Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.~ Psalm 128:1-2 (NIV)

~Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.~ Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)

God will always provide what we need when we truly need it, and sometimes before we need it. But we have to have the confidence and knowledge to approach Him with our needs, otherwise He cannot provide if we do not ask.

When is the last time you approached the throne in prayer and asked Him to bless you with the things you need? No matter how small that need may be (perhaps gas to get to the store or a box of pasta for supper that night), when did you ask Him to provide for you in your time of need? When you truly need something, God will NEVER look the other way. He loves us, and wants us to come to Him with our wants and needs just as we as parents want our children to do with us. Give God the chance, and He will bless you beyond anything you could have ever imagined.

4 years ago yesterday.....

Four years ago yesterday was a holiday. It was Labor Day. It was also 3 days past my due date with my fourth child, and I woke up at about 6am in early labor. She was the only of mine to make it to her due date before being born. She was an unexpected blessing, and it had taken me the first 6 months of my pregnancy to stop being angry at Scott for tossing the condom aside that day. (how's that for TMI mom?) Well, 4 years ago yesterday I fell in love all over again, and we had to FIGHT to time with our baby girl.



An now, here we are with a 4 year old again.......



Happy birthday Pickle...... you are already VERY good at being 4.

seriously? PINK?????

Scott is getting even with me I think. The last two nights, I've refused to take the pain so I stole his pillows and used to prop my back and stomach in bed while I sleep. I don't have any pain when I wake up, but apparently his neck hurts from no pillows.

So he bought me a body pillow today.

He bought a PINK eff'ing body pillow. Like, I've had a lovely $60 pregnancy support pillow picked out at Amazon (with free shipping too!) for a few weeks now that he said I could get. Well, its payday, and I was looking forward to ordering that support pillow this weekend. Instead, he went to WalMart and got me a $10 cheapo body pillow and he had to choose the pink one.

I hate pink. I may be a female, but pink is NOT a color that I feel looks good on anything but bubblegum and flowers. And he got me a PINK pillow.......

I will find the humor in it later, but now I have to get back to Jordan's 4th birthday. But before I go, here's a picture for you to see what I'm looking like at 13 1/2 weeks pregnant.



Yup, I'm going to be HUGE again this time. And no it isn't quadruplets. Yes, we're sure.

need some guidance here for a health/science study

So I had a moment this morning. I was just getting out of the shower, I barely had the towel in my hands even, when Kimi and Liddy came into the bathroom. (sometimes I really do NOT like having only one bathroom, this was one of those moments at first) Now, these two kids are my inquisitive ones who make complex connections quickly on a regular basis. I'm regularly surprised by the things they say, think, figure out, and do.

Their question when they came into the bathroom was one that I was NOT prepared for, however. "Mom, we want to know how the baby is going to come out of your tummy." Oh my....... I'm dripping and trying to cover the important parts with a too-small towel thanks to my stomach growing (I show early and then gain a lot during pregnancy, I'm hoping to stick under 50lbs this time) and now I get to figure out how to answer THAT to a 5yr old and 7yr old. I told them I needed a bit to think about how to answer that because it is a little complicated, and they skipped off to let me think.

An hour later now, I still have NO IDEA how to answer that and they've asked me about it already a couple more times. Anyone got suggestions for me on how to explain that to them (we've not had the talk yet about how the baby actually got there, they are starting with the end and working backwards for information) without scarring them for life? We've already talked about the things a newborn needs and what they can and can't do, looked at pictures of them as newborns, and stuff like that. So, now we're talking about the baby growing in there and then coming out. Suggestions?

they never cease to amaze me

My sweet little Kimi and I have been working on writing her numbers for math mostly, and counting to 20. Well, it looks like now I need to teach the kid to skip count by 10's and then 5's because she can count to 109 with help at each ten's change. CRUD! I'm not ready for her to be moving this fast...... and I'm thinking that Primer may now officially be beneath her level, she's also memorizing some of her facts just from playing with the math blocks with her sisters (they are all playing with them lately to help them memorize which color is what number).

pregnancy- week 12

I have officially hit the 12 week point, as of yesterday, in my pregnancy. I can now start to relax a bit about it. However, by now I've usually had one or two appointments with my OB/GYN. I've still not had my first appointment due to money issues, but we're getting that fixed now.

I woke up this morning to the sound of my two sweet oldest girls fighting quite loudly. Yesterday I caught them playing in my front yard without even mentioning that they were going outside at all, which doesn't EVER fly with me. As a result, they got the lovely task of "go clean that black hole you call your bedroom and don't come out until it is finished!" for this disobedience. They are more than welcome to play outdoors, but they must ask first and are required to stay out back unless they ask special permission (which is only granted if an adult is able and willing to sit out front since we live on a busy main road). Its the same rule we've had since my oldest was old enough to go down a slide on her own, and it hasn't changed even with moving to a new city and house three years ago. Rules are rules, and I will punish those who break them.

So yes, they got to clean their room, and they took all day until Scott got home and still didn't finish it. So he fed them and sent them to bed after getting on them about it himself, and I gave them hugs and then told them that if their room wasn't finished the next morning before I woke up they would have warmed butts. (I did mention that i have NO patience when I'm pregnant right?) Yeah, they decided to get into a screaming match at 6:30am and it woke me up.

I tried to lay in bed and ignore it, until I heard one spout off, "oh don't worry about cleaning our room. Mom won't do anything, and she's probably already forgotten about it by now." That got me up and I warmed butts for not doing their task I assigned yesterday. 4 hours later, they finally decided to do it and had it finished for me to OK Missa running the sweeper in there. I got my point across....... now let's hope this time it sticks.

But when i had to get up this morning so early from the fighting, I stood up and had this horrible sharp pain in my lower stomach. It felt like i pulled a muscle, so I scrunched right up immediately and stayed for a minute before slowly straightening myself up again and rubbing my stomach to loosen it up. Ahhhh the aches have begun.

I also canceled my appointment with my OB/GYN for next week, and requested the release form to transfer records to another practice. See, I live about 5 minutes from an acceptable hospital, but my practice delivers at an amazing hospital in Westerville (northern Columbus if you aren't familiar with this area). With my being due March 5th, as soon as I found out my due date I started feeling uneasy about the distance to my doctor's practice and to the delivering hospital. I have had to reschedule my first appointment as well, due to financial reasons. So, I spent a lot of time praying about this and trying to figure out why I felt uneasy, and then decided to transfer to a practice with a midwife that delivers locally. Well, when I looked up the number this afternoon at the hospital's web site, I discovered that this practice has three CNM's instead of just the one I knew about. I got the call made, appointment is scheduled with the midwife, and I just need to get my proof of pregnancy mailed in for my insurance coverage and then the form for records transfer to the new practice. Amazingly, despite not particularly caring for the local hospital, I feel completely at peace with the decision. It isn't St. Ann's Hospital, but I'm sure that they can take care of everything just fine with my delivery. Now I just need to find a sitter for the girls for my 2pm appointment the 7th, I really don't want to take them when I'm going to my first appointment at a new practice and not knowing what exactly to expect. Eh, I'm sure I'll find someone.....

I love Math-U-See

So I posted over the weekend how I'm starting to feel better and was starting officially this week. I really need to learn to not say that kind of stuff, because I now feel like crud again. I'm so tired that I can barely stay awake, pregnancy sickness is starting to make an appearance again, and I'm sore everywhere. Its just that awkward stage for me now. Poor Scott ended up sleeping on the sofa last night because I went to bed before the kids did and I locked the bedroom door, when he was ready for bed he couldn't get me to wake up to unlock the door for him.

But anyway, my love for Math-U-See........ As you may know, we switched in the middle of last school year for the kids. Well, this week with me feeling so tired and unable to do much of anything has pretty much meant that we're just doing basics. For us, basics means they read to me and write stuff as they want to. At least, that's what it meant to me in the past. Now, they can do their math fairly independently as well when I'm not able to spend the time teaching them. Math-U-See has a dvd instruction video for each level that teaches the lessons, and the worksheets ALWAYS follow the same format for practicing the material so there is no guessing. This week, Missa has done an entire lesson on her own pretty much, and will do the test tomorrow or Friday. Liddy is halfway through a lesson herself, and tomorrow Kimi and I will be watching the DVD lesson she's on together (I love my laptop).

Because of our choice in curriculum for math, even days that I'm not really able to be much use beyond the most basic of tasks aren't a total wash academically. If I'm not up to actually teaching, I still have that fallback of them reading to me and being able to do their math fairly independently. I know this isn't exactly how the program was intended to be used with lower elementary students, but it is working beautifully for our family right now when life is upside down because mom and dad got this crazy idea to have another child.

energy bursts, new homeschool year, and stuff like that

Well, I've hit that point where I am starting to feel less tired. If you read my last post, I'm having some trouble with this pregnancy feeling real to me. I've not had much in the way of symptoms really this time around, and almost NO sickness. The main clues I have, besides my beautiful ultrasound, are tiredness and crampy/achy feelings in my stomach and abdomen as things start stretching and moving around to make room for the baby. OK, I've been hormonal and moody lately too, picking fights with Scott and being harder than usual on the kids. I've said things to the family that I wouldn't normally, and I'm using obscene language more around the kids than what I'd ever do typically. I am having issues with a short temper lately, and saying a lot of unkind things.

So anyway, this week I've noticed an increase in my energy level. It started with a few minutes of playing with the kids instead of just laying around supervising them (I get REAL tired at the start of a pregnancy apparently) and has moved up to where I was able to take a child with me out on a 2 hour grocery shopping trip this morning. So obviously, I'm not needing as much rest as I was even a week ago. It is now that I'm realizing exactly how many symptoms I was having earlier even though I wasn't too terribly sick.

So, now this is starting to feel real to me since I've figured out my major symptom. I now am starting to feel the anticipation. And, I'm beginning to take advantage of the energy that I'm starting to get back. We've put off starting the new homeschool year because of my lack of energy, and now I'm thinking I can do this on Monday. I don't have *all* my supplies really for this, but I've got enough to last for now. I have most of our books, and although I cannot make the switch in history that I wanted to originally (since we did so little history last year I wanted to pick up a couple books and switch from the 2 year program to the 1 year program for world history) I feel like we can totally pull off this whole thing.

I have a few weeks of basic consumable supplies for projects at least, but Scott has worked a lot of extra overtime this last 2 weeks so I will have the money hopefully to go out next weekend and finish off my supply shopping on top of a good restocking of groceries. This paycheck was a bit tight thanks to renewing tags and a driver's license, the mortgage payment, and having to get the drain guys out here to run the auger through our sewage line for the year. That took every bit we had, to where we had to ask Scott's mom for a small loan to get us through this second week of the pay period. I just needed a few more basic groceries, and Scott needed gas for the week so he can make the commute to work. We're good now though, thanks to her. Good supportive family is so important when it comes to the success of our family, and knowing that I can call her when it gets tight or I need a sitter in a pinch has been vital for the success of our family. She watches the kids for my prenatal appointments, watched them for several days/nights when Scott had his surgery, and even took them overnight a few months ago when Scott took me to the homeschool convention in Cincinnati. She will also keep the girls when we have the baby, hopefully we can convince her to come stay here in our house during that time instead of taking the kids all to her tiny 1 bedroom apartment for that 2-4 days. It may just save her sanity to have the extra space (the girls' bedroom is bigger than her apartment, plus the actual yard and toys that we've got to keep them occupied).

I'm really hoping that the fact that I'm starting to feel more energy and less cranky means that my house will start getting cleaned up and that I'll be more able to get things going again around here. Last homeschool year was so filled with interruptions that we have a LOT of math catch-up to do this year. I can't afford to be too far behind at all this year, Missa and Liddy both need to finish Alpha and Beta this school year in math and Kimi needs to finish Primer and start Alpha. Yes, that is more than a year and a half of math in one school year. All 3 girls are about 1/4 to 1/3 through the current levels in math. Last year we made huge strides in reading, so this year the plan is to go heavy on math and get that caught up to a degree. I hope I can pull off my plan for this subject.

Also, next weekend I hope to have pictures to post of the indoor garden that we are starting. I plan to send Scott out to purchase the materials needed to build the platform, and then hopefully we can get hold of one of those hard plastic wading pools still to use for our garden plot. If not, the plan is for him to build a box from wood and line it in pool plastic before filling it with soil. Then we wait for the seedlings we've started to get big enough to transplant successfully. The tallest one is an adorable little 3" tall cucumber plant. I am really looking forward to being able to post an update and pictures of our big science project that I'm doing this year with the girls.

is it real?

I still am having trouble here with believing that we're expecting baby #5. I've had almost NO pregnancy sickness except for a week or two where I just felt horrible, and really there hasn't been anything to indicate that I'm pregnant happen. Yes, I am tired and I have some round ligament pains, but other than that I'm having no issues really. Scratch that, I've turned mean according to Scott and the kids. I've been picking fights with Scott lately, but he is such a good man he just forgets about it once I get done with my fighting and doesn't say a word.

So I decided that since I hit 10 weeks yesterday, putting me at 25% done with this pregnancy (give or take, as I'll likely deliver sometime the week before my due date), it was time to dig stuff out that I've been storing. The first thing I dug out was my boxes of cloth diapers.

Yes, I use those old-fashioned things. For over a year I used them on 3 kids at once while Missa was being too stubborn and not developmentally ready to learn to use the toilet instead of her pants. And, there are a LOT of options available for diapers now. Some are just as easy as changing a disposable, but you wash them instead of throwing them away. I have some of those; however, I prefer the good old fashioned pinned prefold with a cover over it. And yes, even the prefolds and flatfold diapers (those big squares of cloth you do origami to so they fit the baby) are better quality than they used to be back when we were children. In fact, here's my sweet Kimi modeling one of my diapers at 1 1/2 years old.



That is just a simple bleached infant prefold pinned, she was (and still is!) very small for her age so she never made it into premiums or toddlers before we quit using cloth at the end of my pregnancy with Jojo. I love them, and am planning to use them again this time.

So, I dug out boxes. Now I know I'm missing at least 1 or 2 boxes here of diapers, because I'm not seeing some that I clearly remember that are NOT cheap diapers. I had some very desirable fitteds and pockets with the girls that I was VERY proud of having, and they aren't in the boxes I got out today. However, with what I did find today I discovered that minus pins and a few covers, I don't need to buy ANYTHING to start from birth once the Pampers St. Ann's Hospital gives us runs out. Not too bad huh.........

But even with digging out the diapers, noting where my baby swing is at, and finding the pack n' play, this still doesn't feel real to me yet. I've had an ultrasound already, and I heard the sweet little heartbeat, but still it just isn't quite real to me. I sure hope that changes soon, because it feels odd to know that another baby is coming but its not sinking in really.

the start of a new school year

Well, it is now August so I decided to go ahead and start our new school year today. I didn't do too much really, but it is more about getting into the habit right now than anything.

We started off this year's big science project. The kids are totally obsessed with how things grow, so I decided a while back to pick up a Miracle-Gro greenhouse kit for kids. It is a cute little thing, essentially a plastic base with clear plastic sides and lids and then there are 4 cups that you put the gro-mix into and then plant 4 different kinds of seeds that it came with into the cups. We have tomatoes, cucumbers, a hybrid of eggplant, and orange bell peppers planted in my living room now. Each girl got to plant one cup, and then Scott is going to build me something to transplant these little plants into hopefully in the next few weeks (or whenever they are getting too big for their containers). It was pretty easy and the kids got a kick out of it, and I have a feeling they will really enjoy watching the plants grow. Tomorrow I'm going to take some dried beans and wet paper towels to put in a clean empty pickle jar so they can SEE the process that their seeds are going through with growing in the "dirt" mix.

Then tomorrow will be a light day as well because we have a 9:30am appointment that will likely take us all morning, and hopefully that will be followed by a small food shopping trip. At least, this is what I'm hoping happens, I've heard rumors that WIC is changing from paper coupons to a debit card style like food stamps are done now so I may not be able to get milk and cereal tomorrow like I NEED to do. If we get to math and reading tomorrow, I'll be happy.

hmmm what do I still need to buy?

It is school supply shopping time! Yes, that time when the kids all groan and the parents cheer because their kids are going back to public or private school. For homeschoolers, this means cheap supplies for our schooling. I like to take advantage of these sales.

While we may not buy things like lunch boxes and backpacks, there are many things we do get. For example, each of my girls is given a milk crate to keep her workbooks and supplies in. Missa and Liddy are on their third year with their crates, and this year we bought crates to add to the set for Kimi and Jojo. I color code their materials as much as possible also

With the addition of 2 more kids getting crates, this means I need to purchase some additional items. So, I'm trying to remember what all I need so that we can pull off this year beautifully. I'm going to post a list here, and then edit it as I remember more that we need and cross out items we've gotten as they are purchased. Pardon my running tally on this.

100+ boxes of 24ct Crayola crayons
12+ packs Crayola colored pencils
10+ packs mechanical pens
5+ packs ball-point pens
50+ glue sticks
2 pencil/crayon boxes, colors red and green (or clear and some spray paint)
40+ notebooks
1 3-ring binder, 1 1/2" size
ponytail elastics
barrettes
poster boards
paints and brushes
single hole punch
new 3-hole punch (unless I can find my good one in the garage boxes)
8+ pairs school scissors

OK I know I'm missing stuff. I'll edit it later lol

a due date, water play, and disappointment

Yup, we have a due date. I personally think the ultrasound tech has no clue what she's doing because she didn't take many measurements of the baby and kinda said "uhhhhh I think...." when we asked how far along I am and when I'm due, so yeah. But for now, we are calling a due date of March 5, 2012. And with my pattern for delivery, there IS a chance that I could go into labor on February 29th (leap day baby!!!!) OR on our anniversary March 6th. That puts me right now at 8 weeks pregnant. I'll be asking Dr. Parker about this when I go see him on August 9th and get his opinion.

In terms of water play, the kids have been doing a LOT of that lately. We had to get a new hose over the weekend for their sprinkler, and the increased water pressure as a result has them giddy. I have a feeling our water bill will be over $100 when it comes next month with how much they've been playing in the water out back.

I'm also disappointed. We had to cancel the order from Amazon for my Kindle. Plumbing issues need fixed before we can play. Oh well, just as well I think, Scott's overtime is coming back in a big way now and we're going to have some great paychecks. I'll just take a little from each of them until I have the money for my Kindle again. I'm not going to worry over it, especially since I have the Kindle app on my laptop and can read anything I want at any time.

What I'm reading this week

I have trouble with books. One, I'm dyslexic and have ADHD (hmmmm sounds like Missa, doesn't it?). I have trouble focusing on pages in a book and getting started reading because of the ADHD, and then the simple act of reading is very tiring for me once I do get going. If you are dyslexic or have a dyslexic child, you know what I am talking about on this one.

And before I go ANY further, I'd like to point out something. Dyslexic people may not be behind in reading. In fact, I was a very early reader and can read anything I want to fluently. However, my dyslexia affects my comprehension of written material. Often, THIS is what happens with dyslexia. Missa is a "classic" dyslexic child, where her reading level AND her comprehension are both affected. Dyslexia looks different in each person, and many would never guess that I am one of these people. I'll spare you the list of famous dyslexic people (ok maybe just a few..... Patrick Dempsey, ya know, Dr. Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy, he's dyslexic, as well as Picasso, Beethoven, Darwin- ok bad example there LOL- and even the son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ozzy Osborne's oldest daughter, they are all dyslexic) but trust me when I say that dyslexia is much different from what people would normally expect.

So, now you know I'm dyslexic, and I can already hear you screaming at the computer. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE A LITERATURE-BASED CURRICULUM FOR HOMESCHOOL??????? Easy, I can read out loud just fine and dandy. I even have excellent comprehension when I hear myself read out loud. I just flat out love books, and I want my kids to have that excitement too. OK, I got that one covered, I have to go into their bedroom tomorrow and round up all the library books to take back because I have a feeling half of them found their way off the shelf and under their beds, in the closets, and in other odd places. They read constantly, and they enjoy it. Yes, even my dyslexic Missa enjoys reading.

But, outside reading to the kids for lessons, I do very little reading myself outside my college books and what I find on the computer screen. So, I am fixing that now. I have the Kindle software on my laptop, and my lovely husband decided to surprise me by ordering a Kindle for me from Amazon. Yes, I too am joining the crowd of Kindle owners. I am especially excited about this "experimental" feature of the Kindle that reads books to you. If this works well enough, I can immerse myself in books as much as I want to without tiring from the struggle to read. But anyway, my plan is that tomorrow I am going to start with a book on my laptop with the Kindle app, and then I am going to read it. I should finish the book right around the time my Kindle is delivered. So what am I reading this week?



Now this book appeals to me on many levels. One, I'm a slob. There, I said it. I hate housework, and will do anything I can in an attempt to get out of doing it. I don't see any point to cleaning all the time only to have my kids undo the cleaning as fast as I clean it up. I've heard that this book is full of Christian content, and I hope that it can speak to my heart about this little issue I have with cleaning. I've tried so many other things in the past for housework, and nothing really has worked because in my HEART I've always resented chores and don't see a point to doing this stuff most of the time. And if you don't get the title, it is referring to Luke 10:30-42 when Mary sat at Jesus' feet listening while Martha was running about cooking and cleaning. I am very much a Mary, and very little Martha in this case. Hopefully this book will give me some inspiration to embrace the Martha side of my life a little more instead of pushing it away all the time.

Scott's surgery- update 3

Well, we are now at the 1 week point after his surgery. OK almost, that comes tomorrow. His incisions are healing nicely,and he's not taken any of his pain medication for a couple days now. He even made a short trip to the local WalMart (with 2 kids no less, Jojo ALWAYS goes with whoever is running an errand and then he took Missa to be a useful help to him). He is healing nicely, and much quicker than I expected given his post-op issues. He goes in on the 20th to see the surgeon and get a work release, and to get that pesky 10lb lift restriction lifted as well.

This morning he looked at me and said, "honey I really hope he releases me for work next week when I go in. I love you guys but DANG woman this house is insane during the day!" He misses the peace of his job apparently. At work he is on his feet for 10-14 hours a day with loud machines running nonstop, but at home he's had the joy of a little person poking him every 30 seconds and chanting, "daddy daddy DADDY" from the time they wake up until they go to bed. And that's not including the typical sibling rivalry and fighting, arguing, screeching, complaining, and whining and crying. He's ready to go back, we've driven him to the point where he's ready to shoot himself if he is told he has to stay home longer.

a glimpse of God's awesomeness

~Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him. Psalm 127:3~

Yes, the day after I worried that I was going to lose my husband from an anesthesia issue from his surgery, we learned that we are going to be welcoming a fifth child into our family. Because I haven't had a cycle since we had my IUD removed in May, I will be going in a week and a half to my obstetrician to have an ultrasound to date my pregnancy and calculate a due date. I am anywhere from 4-10 weeks pregnant. So far, I have been blessed to not have any pregnancy sickness at all. This is a major blessing as the girls all made me so miserable sick that I ended up on medication after a 20lb weight loss each time. It is such a blessing and joy to know that our family is being blessed with another member joining us in 2012.

And now we all know why I was so upset and crying when I got to go up and see Scott at first after his surgery. I overreacted big time because of the hormonal changes I'm going through right now.

Scott's surgery- update 2

Yesterday was just a bit trying for me. I should have done this last night, but ended up collapsing with exhaustion at 7pm and just now woke up at 6am. So yeah, I'm sure I get a little grace for not updating right away. So anyway.....

Around 3pm yesterday, Scott stabilized and woke up alert. We got him eating ice chips, and when that stayed down he got a small can of diet cola and some saltine crackers. He was given a pain pill and they made him walk a bit in the hall and then make an attempt in the bathroom (anesthesia can affect a person's bladder usage so we needed to make sure that he IS capable of emptying it, he hated that but got over it and tinkled for us a little). At 5pm, we got him dressed and I had the van at the door to pick him up. Since I do not have air conditioning in my van, the nurse made sure that he had a 32oz. mug freshly filled with water and a LOT of ice for the hour ride home.

I dropped off the prescription for him at CVS on our way home, and then I got him inside and he decided that he had to use the bathroom again. That time it was painful because he had to push a bit, but it is a good thing he did go because his bladder was apparently urgently filled. Then I got him into bed, skipped over to the neighbor and asked her to keep an eye on him since he did have surgery that morning, and I went to get his prescription and some Sprite.

Right now, CVS here has a deal for 2 liter bottles of Coke products for 69 cents with their card. I got him a Sprite and me a Coke, and I had to get a new CVS card because I lost ours and they couldn't find it in their system with any of the 5 phone numbers I gave them. Go figure. His prescription thankfully was only $7 so it didn't hurt us too much financially. No, the problem with his prescription is a little different.

The surgeon prescribed him Vicodin for his pain. He is allergic to Percocet (and I have a feeling I completely butchered spelling that one) so that one wasn't an option. So why is Vicodin an issue? I am highly allergic to Vicodin. Last time I took it myself, I broke out into serious hives, itched like crazy all over, and had trouble breathing. Once I recovered from that reaction, I took my bottle and tossed the remaining pills in the toilet, but just coming in contact with them caused me to break out in hives again. So, I cannot even TOUCH his pain pills, or the bottle itself. He had the bottle on his nightstand overnight, and I woke up this morning itchy and a little wheezy. I'll be living on Benadryl for a few days until the Vicodin is gone, in an attempt to reduce my allergic reaction to his medication. I'm not going to ask the surgeon to give him a different medication just because its causing me some issues, it works for him and the other popular one he can't take. I just have to make sure I know where that bottle is at all times until it hits my outside trash, and keep my time around it to a minimum.

So, he is doing MUCH better now than he was at my initial post on him post-op. He says his pain isn't too bad at this point, but he's in bed asleep right now. We'll see how he does in a few hours when I make him get up to use the bathroom.......

Scott's surgery

Today was surgery day. Yesterday the hospital called and told us that he had been moved to an earlier time, so we had to be here at 5:30am instead of 7am. The gallbladder removal and hernia repair went perfectly, and the other stuff turned out to be fatty deposits so no need to biopsy those. This is WONDERFUL news. He has been out of surgery almost 4 hours how, and I'm sitting here watching him sleep. He has had a bit of trouble with his breathing, so they have him on oxygen. In fact, as of right this moment his stats are....

blood pressure: 104/63
pulse: 61-65bpm
oxygen saturation: yeah uhh.......

The oxygen is a bit of an issue. Even with being on oxygen, his saturation is dropping below 80 every minute or so until the alarm wakes him back up. His body is having trouble coordinating itself to breathe while he sleeps off the anesthesia that is still in his system. He is pale and has been vomiting as well. We're looking at a long day here and possibly him spending the night to get him stable if he doesn't come out of the anesthesia the rest of the way soon. At the moment, while I've been typing up this post his saturation has stayed consistent between 93-98 (so about 10min now, which is an improvement) so he may be able to go down a little in his oxygen flow soon. I'm hoping this is a really good sign that he's going to be off the oxygen soon, he's been on it for about the entire time since he came out of the operating room.

So, now I'm going to find my way to the hospital cafeteria to get some lunch because the Tim Horton's here at the hospital STINKS, their timbits were stale so I'm not going to punish myself with one of their soup/sandwich combos. I'll give another update once I know if he's going home, or if he's staying overnight, or what. Please pray for Scott until then, that he will come out of this quickly.

Thursday is the day!

Well, we're in the final countdown. Tomorrow around suppertime, I'm taking the girls over to sleep over with grandma and then Scott is going to take me out to eat at Olive Garden with the two $25 gift cards we have (free date night, SCORE!!!!). Then we get to sleep early tomorrow night so that we can be at the hospital by 7am for him to be admitted and prepped for surgery.

I don't know if I shared yet exactly what the surgery is for, so I will now just in case. About 5 years ago, he was having some stomach problems and had a full abdominal MRI done. They found gallstones and a tiny spot on his liver (about 10mm if I remember correctly). We were told that the spot on his liver was likely nothing, and that eventually he'd likely need his gallbladder removed. The last several months, he's been having problems with his gallbladder, and the pain has gotten more severe with attacks as they got more frequent. He had a particularly bad attack a few weeks ago, and ended up seeing his doctor and then being referred to a surgeon to get his gallbladder removed. They did pre-op testing and found a mass around his gallbladder and the spot on his liver has grown, plus he also has a small hernia that is coincidentally at the location of one incision that will be made for the removal surgery. This surgery will be removing his gallbladder, checking out the mass and spot (plus taking biopsies if they look suspicious), and repairing the hernia.

This isn't the first time I've been right by his side through surgery. 3 months before Liddy was born, he had back surgery that removed close to 40% of a herniated disc in the L4 region. That procedure was done outpatient however, at a surgical center. There is a good chance that Thursday's surgery will have him in the hospital overnight for anywhere from 1-4 days, depending on how they have to do the gallbladder removal. If they do it laproscopically, he could be outpatient or spend 1-2 nights admitted, but if they determine that it is too risky and they have to fully open him up for the traditional procedure he's looking at 4 or more nights. We've been together almost 9 years now, and we've NEVER really been apart during this time. Even when I am in the hospital after having a baby, he's usually stayed with me in the hospital room while his mom took care of any kids that we had. I hope the hospital will let me sleep there with him, because I really don't want to go home without him.

I love VBS week

This week my older 3 kids are at VBS up at SHBC. This means that I've just got Jojo with me in the mornings from around 8am until noon. I'm finding that when she's alone, Jojo is a completely different kind of kid. Right now she is sitting happily on the floor and playing with a duck game (not the way its meant to be played with but she's having fun and it isn't being destroyed so I won't say a word). She's quietly entertained herself every morning so far this week (except yesterday, she didn't sleep well the night before and was WOUND UP from being overtired so she was being aggressive and whiny and wouldn't lay down with me to nap while her sisters were gone, instead she napped for 3 hours after we had lunch).

This is the week I look forward to every year. We are in the period that usually Scott is going 6 months without a week vacation, so I use the VBS week to recharge with fewer kids around. Last year was Kimi's first year in VBS, and I used the week to relax and enjoy myself, reading good books, playing favorite computer games, and doing some errands and chores that don't get done usually with the kids around. This year's VBS week is no exception. I'm catching up on laundry, deep cleaning my kitchen and living/dining room, relaxing with my laptop (instead of playing games and reading constantly I'm working on getting ahead in my college homework and surfing Facebook), and just enjoying my time until I pick the kids up at noon. Monday I did a BUNCH of paperwork for our homeschool, including scheduling some electives, coming up with a working schedule for lessons, making a rotation list for activities to add in Missa's workboxes, and getting my notification prepared to send in late next month so that our homeschool is legal for another year. Tomorrow my plan is to take Jojo to story time at the library at 10am, and I will spend some time with books in the children's section scanning them to determine how much I want to accelerate our time in Sonlight core B followed by core C (I have to be sure they aren't too much for Missa) to make sure I don't hit core D (US history) too early with her, from a maturity standpoint. I will also pick up a few more readers for the girls, and return the ones that we've finished already from my trip there last Saturday.

And of course, I hope to get almost fully caught up on the laundry, clean the majority of the house up completely, and get some yard work done and freezer meals made for while Scott is off work recovering from his surgery. I love having things all planned out for me when we hit a crazy time, and I know that Thursday is going to start a VERY crazy time for us with his surgery. Hopefully I can get all the preparations made for that before this weekend is over.

Introducing..... S'more the hamster!

He's sleeping right now in the top of his habitat (this section snaps off to use as a transport carrier) so I grabbed the camera to get a shot of him. The girls also tried yesterday and Sunday to get a good picture of him, so I'll share the best they got as well from those attempts.



Don't you just LOVE the white stripe? They picked him out on Saturday at the pet store, and PRAYED that he'd be there still when they got to take daddy to get their pet on Sunday. Apparently, God listened because he was still there for them (he was the only brown one with a big white stripe) and Scott thought he was cute enough so he paid for the one they chose.

Liddy, Kimi, and Jojo love to watch S'more eat, play, and chew. They can spend all day watching him and fighting over whose turn it is to have the center spot for watching (the one with the best view). Missa, on the other hand, enjoys watching him but she's more interested in taking care of S'more. She has been making sure he has fresh water in his water bottle, brushing him, bugging me to put him in his exercise ball so he can run around the living room, and keeping an eye on his food dish and the condition of his habitat. She thinks it is great fun to take care of him. I wonder how she'll feel this afternoon when I have her changing the bedding in his habitat and washing the base of it (from his toileting habits)......... bet she doesn't find THAT part to be very fun.

Now, how long do you think it will take the novelty to wear off to where I'm the one taking care of his feeding, water, and cage cleaning and nobody wants to watch him, pet him, or hold him....... LOL

reading progress

Usually I post about how my older girls are doing, especially Missa, when it comes to reading. Well, today I'm bragging (again!) on my sweet Kimi.

This afternoon, after the kids got home from VBS, we ate and then took a nap. Jojo is still snoring away happily on the sofa, in all her 3 year old cuteness. So I took the opportunity of her being silent for a bit to work with Kimi on her reading. She's hit a bit of a wall lately with the Sonlight Fun Tales readers that we have been working on, so I decided to change things up at the library. I grabbed her a few of the easiest readers they have there for her to try out as a change of pace. Today, we read one. Its a Rigby 3 reader, so very simple. Each page has one simple sentence and the child is supposed to use clues in the picture if they have trouble with a word in the sentence. There are a total of 5 or 6 sentences in the entire book, so obviously a short book. She and I went through it together once, me helping her with the words, and then she read it by herself to me. Then she read it to her big sisters, and plans to read it to her daddy tonight when he gets home from work. We will *hopefully* spend the week reading this book and the other 3 of this level that I got and then next week we'll move up to the next level of readers if she feels comfortable with this level (I also got her a Dick and Jane book to try out if she wants). I have a feeling that this is exactly what she needs to get going and build her confidence quickly while we slowly work through the Sonlight readers.

But my third baby read a book! Yup, total proud momma moment here......

new pet

It all started yesterday at Wildwood Park. Scott took the girls there to play while I went to the library to get some books for this week. Liddy cornered a wild bunny just as Scott decided that it was time to go home. The entire trip home, and for a good long while after that at home, she threw a loud noisy fit over not being allowed to keep the bunny she had cornered.

So, we decided to look into what all is needed for a pet rabbit, and do some research at the same time about different breeds and caring for one. Basics, right? Well, we got information and then I went out to get some prices for stuff for a bunny, along with finding out what it will cost for the stuff we need. Of course, Missa and Liddy wanted to come along to see too. So off we went.

We fell in love with the mini lops, but yeah a little too expensive for us right now. So we decided to keep looking at other pets they had there to get ideas. They ended up picking out a brown hamster with a big white stripe around his middle (yes, we made sure we got a male). Then this morning I went and got a habitat, food, and such at WalMart (paid half as much as what I would have at the pet store). We got it all set up, and then went off to get their hamster. Once I get a good picture of him, I'll introduce S'more the hamster.

UGH at Scott's surgery

So, we had the scans done on Tuesday for his surgery, and they found a couple things in addition to the immediate problem. Great......

And to top it all off, my mother-in-law was going to watch the kids so I can go with him to see the surgeon tomorrow. Well, she's in the hospital now and can't watch them, so now I can't go because I'm not going to be able to find a sitter on such short notice who is willing to take 4 kids at 8am for a few hours so I can take notes at the appointment and make sure I have all the details I need for his recovery post-op and the long term things that we need to take care of because of the surgery. *sigh*

I'd ask what else could go wrong, but really at this point I just don't feel like pushing my luck any further........

looking for something!

I'm hoping that I get enough traffic that this may actually get answered, but if not then no big deal I'll keep searching on my own. I am looking for every free resource I can find for lapbooks, unit study ideas, activities, file folder games, and such that I can use for our homeschool. Also open to cheaper stuff (we have a few things we want to buy from Evan-Moor and Hands of a Child as we have the money) but would prefer to not spend *too* much. Anyone?

summer school theme 1

Well the kids want schoolwork daily, despite the break, so I'm doing a bunch of preschool unit studies and lapbooks to make this fun and to include all the girls. On Monday, we start our first week of this. We're going to learn a bit about mice. I have the book "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" from Sonlight core P3/4, and I just printed off a couple minits from the lapbook at Homeschool Share for the cooresponding lapbook to make a mini lapbook (we'll cut the folders in half for this, it should be perfect). I have a mouse craft, and we'll learn the different parts of a mouse and some interesting fun little facts. To go with it, our baking project for the week will be cookies. Nothing big or fancy, but it should be interesting and light and fun for the girls. The older two will have copywork from the story as well, and they will each read the story to me by the end of the week. I'm not doing full-blown week units here, just a little theme activity to get them all having fun together and hopefully teach Jojo and Kimi how school works in our home so that they are ready when we get into the big lapbooks and studies this fall with each pair (if you didn't know, Missa and Liddy are a pair and then Kimi and Jojo are a pair).

And the bonus is that since I'm only going to do mini-laps with them, we only have a couple minits to do each one and it should be easily finished in a week. It is those longer units that take more than a week and/or have a dozen or more pieces for the lapbook that get me bogged down and overwhelmed.

proud momma moment

Let me tell you about my Kimi. She is 5, was a late talker, and is small for her age. She has an attitude the size of Texas, and a stubborn streak wider than the Mississippi. Needless to say, she's my difficult strong-willed child of the bunch. We butt heads regularly as she attempts to plow through the boundaries and rules in our home.

Well, today I believe we had a small breakthrough moment. She didn't get her way with a sister, and decided to stomp on her hand as a response to it. As a result, I smacked her butt and put her in her bedroom, prompting her to throw a lot screaming tantrum complete with dumping a bin of toys and throwing them around. She asked me after a bit if she'd be allowed out, and I told her (as usual) that she can come out after she cleans up the mess she made with the toys she dumped out and threw around. She did try to tell me that she didn't throw and dump any toys, but I just looked at her with that "yeah, right" look and she gave up. She pouted off to their room again. When I peeked in on her after about 10min, she had picked up all the toys PLUS put dirty clothes in the laundry pile, throw away a few papers, put some crayons back in the drawer the art stuff goes in, and was making their beds.

I told her that she can go outside and play if she wanted, with Jojo. I think she is starting to figure it out....... And I hope that her cooperation this time wasn't just a one-time thing. She's becoming such a wonderful and helpful young lady lately, these little moments of sweetness and rule-following have been happening more often.

Just so I can remember this later

Scott has his pre-op testing on the 21st, needs to be there at 7:30am and fast at least 8 hours prior. Then the 24th at 9:30am he has the surgical consult. Gotta ask his mom if she will watch the girls the 24th so I can ask a hundred questions and take notes and all that since he will NOT be smart enough to do it for me, and then I need to uhhhhhh CRAP what did I forget on top of this all? Oh well, I'll remember later. Oh yeah, I need to type and print out a full list of things to ask the doctor and make sure its in my binder with blank paper for me to take notes and write down answers to stuff.

And I need to hit the ATM tomorrow so I can go to JoAnn's for some fabric, I need a couple new dresses and got a coupon for 50% off one item (a single cut of fabric counts so I'm gonna get enough of one pattern to make me a few dresses/skirts I think). I need to oil my machines and get them ready, and I need to remember zippers and a couple other notions to finish a few pending projects. Yup, that should cover it. I hope.

(yes, I totally just used my blog as a notepad to keep track of stuff, you *will* see that quite a bit for now so that I can keep track of everything with the chaos of Scott going in for surgery soon, hopefully I don't start posting chore lists too LOL)

PROOF that I got a second lefty kid

I was trying to keep Jojo from throwing a FIT over my saying no to watching an inappropriate tv show, so I told her to pick an activity. She chose to do school, strange child.... lol Anyway, I did her math with her (she is not doing Math-U-See with her sisters this year in attempt to hold her a year, instead she's doing Singapore Earlybird) and then we did a lesson in All About Reading. She got the biggest kick out of doing her math lesson and then doing reading stuff. We talked about same and different, and compared sea animals in a picture in her math workbook. In her reading lesson time, we did the capital B lesson. She loves her lessons time, it gives her a chance to have one on one time with me daily and we snuggle and giggle and talk and play games.

Anyway, I like telling people this little useless trivia that we have a perfect 50/50 split in dominance for writing. I'm a lefty. along with Missa and Jojo, while Scott, Liddy, and Kimi are all right-handed. Well, I've had a few people tell me that it isn't possible for me to know that a 3 year old is a lefty, so I decided to get a little proof. So, here we have it, I took these pictures of Jojo during her reading activity page today (she doesn't do the craft part of these pages, she so far just wants to color the pages instead so we do that together)




See? I do know what I'm talking about here. I've been able to identify dominance with each of my girls before her third birthday, and Jojo is no exception. So, 3 lefties and 3 right-handed in this household. Totally blows away the statistic that less than 10% of the population is left-handed........ or something like that.

well I was right

I mentioned Scott may need surgery in the near future...... He has an appointment in 2 weeks for a surgical consult to get things going there, and also has pre-op scans and tests scheduled. He could be off work for 4-6 weeks recovering, so my life is going to be turned upside down here real soon.

And the kids asked to do lessons, so I had Missa do her journal and then we did step 2 in All About Spelling and Liddy did her journal while Kimi did her handwriting practice. They just came in from recess (they are afraid it may rain) and in a bit we'll do some math and other stuff. I got all our materials for a full day of work pulled out, so if we do it all cool. If not, no biggie. Its not like I have to finish cleaning the house for a friend to visit since he decided to cancel on me last night. So I guess the 11 years we've not actually been face to face in person will continue to go on longer....... since there weren't enough people here that he wanted to see that were available this weekend for him to feel like it was worth coming up. Yes, I'm slightly hurt to know that my family is not worthy enough of a visit if he can't see a dozen others, but hey life goes on. Its not as if I actually spent all week scrubbing my house down and then bought some steaks that I couldn't really afford on my current food budget so that I could feed him a good meal. Its not as if I saw his coming up as a special occasion and got all excited like a kid looking forward to Christmas. I don't feel heartbroken and want to just break down and cry because I got my hopes up. Life goes on, I've got too much to do to be bothered with doing all that stuff.

Which speaking of my busy life, I may not be around much for a while. With getting things in order for Scott's surgery next month, the kids insisting on doing schoolwork anyway, and keeping up with my college classes I have enough on my plate that I may not be able to post much of anything. If you are one of my Facebook friends, I'll have myself logged in with the window minimized while I study. If you want to message me, feel free and I'll get back with you during a break from my studying.

summertime plans

Like I said last week, summer is one of my favorite times of year. I had originally planned to spend the summer working full speed with history, science, the basics, and all our extras. However, every time I set out to do a full day of lessons I get stopped by life and I get a feeling that I need to focus on other things. So, I do believe this year we will get a summer vacation and only do a bit of math, reading, and journal work a few days a week so they don't lose what we've done.

The biggest reason right now for that is because Scott is having a *small* health issue that will require him to have surgery at some point, likely in the near future. I am not sure what will happen when we are in that place, but I have faith that we will end up just fine and all will work out in the end. Scott is worrying about how we will pay the bills, but I don't think that we need to have any worries at all.

That has also lead to us trying to simplify our lives. I'm sorting through everything we own to cut down how much we have and hopefully make everything easier to keep track of and cleaned up. I'm hoping that this summer we can have one heck of a yard sale to bring in a little extra money (which will have the added bonus of easing a little of the worry about money that Scott is having).

Of course, there are other things beyond Scott's health that we are juggling. But only time will tell what is happening with those things. So there you have it.

summer treats

I love summer. We had to get a new grill to work in a pinch while Scott does some work on ours (the ingition system is malfunctioning on one burner) so we got a cheapo charcoal grill. He bought it Saturday and we've used it twice already, and I'm planning to again tonight I think.

But it is also popsicle season. This year we decided that instead of buying them we would try making our own. And my recipe that I used is a total hit. For less than $1 I can make 24 popsicles that are similar texture to the ones that are $4 for a box of 12, and the flavor is WAY better. We just finished off the ones that I made 2 days ago, so I need to make more and refill our molds. The nice thing is, I can do any flavor combination I want, as I'm only limited by the flavor availability of Kool-Aid and Jello powder. I'm sure it can be tweaked to use natural ingredients, but part of the fun of popsicles, in my opinion, is the lack of nutrition on top of the cold smooth frozen goodness. If you've never made your own popsicles, here's what I use for them (and you can do them in paper cups with store bought sticks, or in ice cube trays with toothpicks if you like)

1 small packet Jello
1 packet Kool-Aid mix
1 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 cups COLD water

Mix the jello, kool-aid mix, and sugar. Add boiling water; stir until fully dissolved. Add cold water, stir and pour into molds. Freeze until solid.

What are your favorite summertime treats?

what's gonna work? TEAMWORK!

If you have preschoolers, you are probably beating your head on the desk now at that image and the reference to their teamwork song. Unless you don't have television, then you are lucky. (for those of you who fall in the latter group, that is a picture of the Wonder Pets, show same name is on Nick Jr. and they focus on teamwork and problem solving skills)

So how does this apply to my home? Well, yesterday Missa and Liddy started their guided journals from Write Foundations. They each had a verse from the bible to copy, and then a journal prompt. Since they are both in book 1.1 the expectation is only one sentence answers for journal topics. Missa loves doing such things, she thinks it is great fun to copy books into a notebook and doing writing prompts. So, it wasn't much difficulty for her. I just explained to her what to do with her page and let her loose. Liddy, on the other hand, hated it. She has fine motor delays, and tires quickly with writing. She can spend hours reading daily without issue, but writing tires her out in seconds. She also didn't quite understand how to do the work, since she has never done a journal topic or copy work before. Lots of whining and complaining from her obviously, with me helping her figure it out until I got frustrated and told her to ask Missa because I can't take it any longer.

So a few minutes later I go back to the table to apologize to Liddy for losing my patience and help her finish the assignment, and what do I see? Missa scooted over close to her, with her journal right there to use as a model to explain how to do it. They are one grade apart in age, but have such different strengths that they are worlds apart at times. I think I need to take advantage of their strengths more often like this, teach them more about teamwork and working together to do things when one is struggling. I've discovered yesterday that they are an amazing team, maybe I should use that with Missa's math struggles to try and get Liddy to help her with math and see if they can teamwork their way to Missa mastering her basic facts, or for Liddy's hatred for history to get Missa to help her with the work when we are working together in history lessons. This is something I need to consider, I'd never thought that they could work together like that so well.