hmmmmm...I have no idea what happened to this post.  It was here and now it is gone.  Strange. 

I might as well give an update as long as I am here though.  Our beautiful little seedlings didn't make it, thanks to a couple of cats who decided to use the seedlings as a litter box!  I have had to resort to buying transplants, which I am doing a little at a time.  So far I have two tomato plants in the box (one cherry tomato and one heirloom).  I have basil, jalapeno and okra ready to go int he box today and I will be getting a heirloom pepper plant tomorrow to put in.  The kids are disappointed that we didn't get to plant watermelon or canteloupe, but I think it is too late to plant them now.  I'll need to investigate that a little more. 

I really should be in bed, but I just had to take a minute and share what a great week we have had with Rebekah.  She is talking and signing up a storm.  Yesterday I was watching the weather as I was feeding her dinner and she kept pointing to her hand and saying Ti-Ti!  Ti-Ti!  It finally dawned on me that she was trying to make the sign for "Signing Time"!  When she finished eating, I put in the DVD and told her that Signing Time! was coming on and she said "Yaaaayyyyy!"  It is so fun to see that she really understands us and is responding so much more and asking for things that she wants, not just repeating words and naming objects.

She had a really good physical therapy session yesterday.  We got a reverse walker for her (had to return it today because it was defective) and we were able to get her to stand with it a little.  She actually held the hand grip and stood with the PT just holding one leg at the thigh.  She has never been able to stand before without support at the knees, ankles and hips.  I guess all that time in the stander is paying off!  She was fitted for orthotics (DAFO's) last week and when they come in  they should really help with her standing. 

She is scooting around the house (sitting on her bottom) so much now!  She went back and forth across the living room, through the kitchen and into the dining room today.  I was amazed!  It is so hard to believe that just 3 short weeks ago she had basically no mobility.  After 2 years, I finally have a need to childproof my house for her.  I need to clean my floors too.  I couldn't believe how dirty her pants got after scooting all over the floor.  Yikes!  Now that she is sleeping all night and I am not living on 3 hours of sleep per night, I guess I have no excuse not to mop.  LOL

To top it off and make the week even sweeter, I went to get her from her (non)nap and she was sitting up in her crib!  This is the first time she has gotten herself into sitting all by herself!  I was so, so, so proud of her.  I am kicking myself though for not remembering to go get the camera and take a picture. 

My baby girl is awesome!  Our God is so good to us!  He has answered so many prayers in regards to Rebekah and blessed her tremendously.

I am long past due for an update.  It was a rough winter in regards to illnesses.  Rebekah seemed to catch everything that came along.  In addition to the run-of-the-mill colds & tummy bugs, she had bronchitis & slight pneumonia, chicken pox and influenza.  Someone in our house was sick almost constantly from just after Thanksgiving until the beginning of March.  We have never had a winter like that.  I am now trying to dig myself out from under the disaster that is my house and trying to get caught up on homeschooling.  We'll get there. 

Rebekah turned 2 in February!  Despite the constant illnesses, Rebekah is doing very well.  She is talking and signing up a storm.  She has 70+ words/signs now and is learning more everyday.  This is huge for her.  We really expected her to have major speech delays, but she is not far behind at all.  I credit most of her amazing progress to Signing Time!  If you haven't seen Signing Time! you need to check it out.  It is a DVD series teaching ASL to infants & children.  All of my kids love, but especially Rebekah.  Aside from the developing language skills, we are working on physical skills as well.  Still no crawling, standing or walking, but she is starting to scoot around on her bottom and her legs are getting stronger.  We got a stander last month and she spends 30-40 minutes two to three times per day in it.  She will be getting orthotics for her legs soon and we will try a reverse walker with her to see if that can help get her moving.  She is not thrilled with all of the therapy, but you can tell that she is ready to be moving.  She goes in for a sleep study tomorrow night, so that we can try to pinpoint where her sleep problems stem from.  She has slept through the night 5-6 times in her life.  Two of those times were within the last week, so hopefully we are seeing the beginning of improvement.

Rachel (5) is doing great.  She has matured so much over the last few months.  She still has her moments where she just loses it, but overall she handles things so much better.  She is ready to be finished with preschool and begin homeschooling with us for Kindergarten in the fall.  She got her hair cut short and it is so adorable.  I was reluctant to let her cut it, but I am so glad we did.  It is sooooooo much easier to take care of.  She has entered the stage where she really likes to be helpful.  She tries to do so much and doesn't let much stop her.  Of all of my children, Rachel has the most determined spirit. 

Ryan is trucking right along in school, despite my lack of attention to it lately.  He really does seem to just absorb knowledge like a sponge.  He is reading better and finding some books that he enjoys.  He spends alot more time playing and building with his legos and is learning to be more patient in finding solutions to things that are hard.  His big interests are still science and math.  I am going to be in trouble some day, as those are definitely not my strong areas!  He played basketball in the winter and really enjoyed it.  He plans to play again in the summer. 

John is still going to school on-line full time.  It is tough but he is doing very, very well with it.  After 11 classes, he has a 4.0GPA.  I am so proud of him.  Despite going to school full time and working full time, he still spends hours with the kids and has been picking up the slack for me alot during our months of illness.  God has surely blessed me with him.  He is an amazing father and husband.

Rebekah is waking up and Ryan is begging for some computer time.  I'll try not to let so much time pass without bloggin again.  Pray for wellness for all of us. 

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

I discovered today that a 37-year-old woman who has had 3 children should probably not jump rope unless her bladder is absolutely empty. 

I gave my ds a good laugh anyway.

Rebekah (19 months now!) is continuing her language explosion.  New words, sounds & signs for this week are:

bath - both sign and word

eat - has been signing it for months, but now says it too

puppy - sign (not quite correctly, but still) and word

milk - sign

want - sign

horse - says "neeeeiiiiiggghhhhh"

sheep - says "baaaa"

cow - says "mmmm"

We went to the library last week and she signed book and said "gook! gook!"  over & over & over. 

Next time I get anxious about the fact that she is not even attempting to crawl or stand someone please remind me that babies tend to focus on one set of skills at a time. 

I'm starting to figure out this picture thing.  Here are my sweeties on the field trip to the apple orchard.

We took our first field trip today to an Apple Orchard.  There aren't many apple orchards in Texas!  Today we learned why.  It is apparently hard to grow apples in Texas because we don't get cool nights at harvest time and bitter rot (?) is a problem, among other reasons.  Regardless, the apples were yummy!  The kids had a great time.  We went with two other families and there were several homeschool groups represented today.  We listened to a presentation about growing apples, the parts of an apple, what part bees play in apple growing, what part (good & bad) other creatures play, how to properly pick an apple and lots of other fun stuff.  Then we took a tour with Johnny Appleseed and saw a bee hive, watched the mechanical apple washer (like a car wash!), and got to see many other animals and plants on the farm.  The highlight of the trip for the kids was picking their own apple and eating it.  Yummy fuji's!   

 I wanted to post a picture but don't have enough available space in my album on HSB.  Anyone know another way to post pictures?  Do I just have to delete the pictures from old posts?

We officially started school this past week.  We are using My Father's World Kindergarten for Rachel and Adventures in My Fathers World for Ryan.  Rachel is also going to preschool two days per week at a local church, so my plan is to spread MFW K out over 1.5 - 2yrs. We are in no rush to get her through K.

We started on Tuesday and made it through just Monday & Tuesday's scheduled work in Adventures and Day One of K with Rachel.  We had so many interruptions - 2 therapy sessions and a Dr.s appt for Rebekah, and Dr's appt for me and car trouble on Friday.  I was pretty discouraged and talked to dh about just making next week our first official week.  He reminded me that this was a pretty typical week for us and we will have almost as many interruptions next week.  He very wisely suggested that we not try to stick to the MFW schedule and just move through each day as we can.  We will always have multiple therapy sessions, dr appts, etc.  We will just go until we finish the material, whether or not that is on a traditional schedule.  That is the beauty of homeschooling.  Sometimes I just need someone to remind me of the obvious!

The kids really enjoyed the work.  Ryan loves maps and we talked about the US map this week.  He also spent an hour looking through a $1 book from Target that showed each state with a lift-a-flap with capital, state bird and state flower.  He and Rachel both loved the letters dh & I wrote to them telling why we chose their names.  Thankfully, I thought ahead for once and made copies of all of Ryan's workbook sheets for Rachel.  She asked to do everyone that he did.  Ryan is anxious to start math and science, which we will do this week.  One of the things I liked about MFW was the light start to the year.  It is so incredible watching my children learn.  I love being there when they grasp a new concept.  I love it even more when they are just playing and don't even realize they are learning a new concept.  I feel very blessed to be able to homeschool my kids. 

I attended the Women of Faith Conference today and cried through much of it.  I had the pleasure of watching Lisa Smith, a young woman with Downs Syndrome, perform.  Lisa learned ASL (American Sign Language) and taught herself to sign to Sandi Patty cd's.  Sandi Patty saw her in the audience at one of her concerts and invited Lisa up on stage.  Since then, Lisa has signed at many Women of Faith conferences around the country. 

As I watched Lisa, God reminded me that Rebekah is not limited by her diagnosis.  GOD is not limited by Rebekah's diagnosis.  I was reminded that God loves Rebakah.  That He created her.  He formed her in my womb.  She was not some accident of conception.  God knows every intimate detail of how she was formed.  God will raise her up for His good purpose.  I just need to let go and let God do His work.  Or as Luci Swindoll said "Show up, shut up and let go!". 

I thought I had been dealing well with Rebekah's diagnosis.  I found today that I am not doing as well as I thought I was.  What I have really been doing is supressing all of my fears and putting on a brave face.  Don't get me wrong, I still know God is in charge, I still believe God chose her for us.  I am just willing to admit now that I have fears.  I have worries.  I have guilt.  I have all of these irrational things swirling around inside that I need to just let go and give to God.  I do not know Rebekah's future, just at I do not know the future of my other children.  Only God knows.  I do know now that she can have an amazing future if I do not limit her based on her diagnosis.  My role is simply to love her and follow God's leading for her.  Please pray that I can step back and give the control back to God.  He has already blessed her tremendously and I know he will continue.

It's been awhile since I posted an update on Rebekah.  She will be 18 months on Friday.  That is so hard to fathom.  Not only because time just flies by, but because she is so tiny and her motor skills are so delayed that it is hard to believe she is supposed to be a toddler.   She weighs just over 17lbs, is 30 inches "tall" and has 6 teeth.  She actually looks like she is filling out a bit.  Her legs and arms have a little "fluff" and she doesn't look so painfully thin like she did for so long. 

She has a bit of a virus today - low grade fever and vomiting - that just appeared out of nowhere.   I gave her a bath and she is having a good nap now so hopefully she will wake feeling better.

As for her progress, she is in a slow stage right now.  Her developement really does come in spurts.  She will learn two or three new things then nothing new for months.  Just before she starts something new she will temporarily lose the skills she has.  It is a pattern that she has followed several times over now.  As of now,   she sits well and can almost get herself into a sitting position.  When she sits, she uses her legs to spin herself around.  She also has a really long reach, thanks to her incredible flexibility.  She can fold herself in half and reach way out to get what she wants.  When she is on her tummy she rolls and pivots and pushes herself backward a little.  Still no forward motion and no hands and knees for crawling.  She will briefly stand with support but she is not bearing weight on her legs enough.  Part of the problem with both the hands/knees postion and standing is the double whammy of hypotonia and hyper-mobile joints (the extreme flexibility).  This just doesn't give her enoug stability to stay in those positions.  We did get her Hip Helpers (www.hiphelpers.com) and a pair of good walking shoes to support her ankles and they help some, but not enough.  We go see the pediatric orthopedist tomorrow to evaluate and see if she will need some type of orthotics.  I'm pretty certain that she will.  I will be glad to get help to get her standing.  The longer she goes without weight-bearing on her legs the harder it is for the hips to develope properly. 

Aside from physical developement, her cognitive and speech developement is a little delayed but not as much as physical.  At her last evaluation she was about 3-4 months behind on speech and 2-3  months on cognitive, with a few skills that were actually right on target.  She has a few words now - bye-bye (her first word, spoken at 16 months), uh-oh and mama.  She also signs eat, more, drink, mama and daddy.  She understands several more signs and seems to understand alot of what we say to her. 

Sleep has improved - she was waking every 2-3 hours throughout the night but now she has many nights where she sleeps for 5-7 hours before waking to nurse.  We have been praying for this time to come.  The sleep deprivation was really starting to get to me.

DD2 needs some "mama time" now.  I'll go enjoy her while the little one sleeps. 

I am a homeschooling mother of 3 children (7,4 and 17mos) and a wife of (almost) 16 years to my dear, sweet, amazingly supportive husband. 

We will begin our second year of homeschooling in about 3 weeks.  DS7 will be doing My Fathers World Adventures and DD4.75 will be doing MFW Kindergarten 3 days per week and attending preschool at a local church two days per week.  We struggled with the decision to send her to preschool but in the end, it is the right thing to do for our family and for her.  She really, really wants to go and this is a great program for her.   In addition to MFW we will use Shiller Math, Handwriting Without Tears, Drawing with Children, Spelling by Sound and Structure and Rosetta Stone Spanish. 

Last year we had very little structure in our homeschool and things were pretty chaotic.  I am hoping to have a little more structure this year.  Our youngest has some special needs, which means lots of therapy and appointments, so it is difficult to stick to the traditional "school in the morning" schedule but I am hoping if I plan out each day a little better things will go more smoothly.

The other thing we will do differently this year is to join a local support group.  There are three large groups near by.  We just need to decide which one meets our needs thebest.  One of our main goals in joining is to have little boys for ds to play with.  Most of his playmates are girls because all of my friends have girls.  He is hungry for more male companionship. 

Thanks so much for visiting our virtual Open House.  I look forward to meeting more of you as I visit for Open House.  Thanks Tianly for organizing this!

I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I would take a minute to update the blog. 

Rachel (dd4) talked Dad into playing dress-up with her tonight.  I am kicking myself for not charging the batteries in the video camera because it was hilarious.  I did get some pictures and will try to post them tomorrow.  Everything was "Royal" - the Royal Daddy (wearing a crown, cape and beautiful beads), the Royal Brother (who did NOT want to participate), the Royal trumpet, the Royal Pet, etc.  She put on a show and made up a song  that included praising God, the beauty of the white, fluffy clouds, the blood in our bodies that is so red and our bones that are so white and strong. 

Rebekah (dd17mo) is doing well.  She is up to 16lbs 12oz now and 30" long.  She has been very active lately and loves to play on the floor, especially if she can get to my purse and empty it.  She is rolling and rotating on the floor, but still no crawling and she is not able to put weight on her legs for more than a few seconds at a time.  We had a doctors appt yesterday and she gave us a referral to the pediatric orthopedist to make sure her hips are developing normally and to see if he thinks she will need some sort of orthotics, such as AFO's.  We also found out about something called Hip Helpers (www.hiphelpers.com) that can help her keep her legs together instead of splaying out in the "froggy" position.  If she can keep her legs from splaying out it will be much easier to crawl, stand and eventually walk.  I am so ready for her to be more mobile.  You can tell she is getting bored with the limited area she can get to right now. 

Ryan (ds7) is enjoying his summer.  He is not going to be happy when it ends and the kids down the street go back to school.  He has had a blast this summer running back and forth and playing with them.  He is not looking forward to starting school again either.  I keep trying to talk it up, but he just wants to play.  I think he will enjoy it once we get going though.

John (dh) started back to school a couple of weeks ago to get his bachelors degree, as well as several computer certifications that he needs.  He is doing it all on-line and so far is doing great.  He has earned A's on all of his assignments so far.  I am very proud of him for doing this.  He is already very good at what he does, but I think this will give him more job security and more options for different positions in his company.

As for me, I am doing really great some days and some I am just worn out and feeling incapable of making it another day without sleep (so what am I doing on the internet at almost midnight, right?)  17 months of sleep deprivation is really starting to get to me.  I really would love to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for just one night, but I don't see it happening any time soon.  Rebekah has needed to nurse at night for so long that now she does not know how to go back to sleep without it.  We have tried letting her fuss a little but she gets absolutely hysterical, to the point of throwing up, within 5 minutes and I just can't do that to her.  So for now I will just hang in there and keep praying that God will get us through each day.  I am still struggling with keeping my focus on God.  I am not being consistent with my daily prayers or bible reading.  It is no wonder that I feel like I am drowning some days.  My focus is off.  I will keep working on it though. 

Baby waking now...more to come soon. 

I just signed up to be on the My Fathers World Blogroll created by Tamara at http://www.traininghearts.com/blog/ .  I guess it is time to start blogging about My Fathers World! 

We discovered My Fathers World at the local homeschool bookfair in May and dh immediately said "That's for us!". We tried peicing together our own curriculum last year and it was very difficult for two highly unorganized people.  I had very good intentions and planned to make a weekly schedule but that just didn't happen often enough.  The result was that we wasted lots of time wondering what we should do next.  I "lost" the kids during transtions to the next task because I took so long trying to decide what the next task was.  We need a little more structure.   

Even more important than structure, we need a curriculum that helps us naturally integrate Godly instruction into our daily lives.  Spiritual discussions were just not a natural part of my family life when I was growing up and, sadly, I find that I need direction in this area.  My primary goal when we decided to homeschool was to give my children a Christ centered education and I did not fulfill that goal well this past year.  I admit that a big part of the problem was that my relationship with Christ falls far short of my goal.  I got overwhelmed and my quiet time and personal Bible study were (are!) sorely lacking.  I am working on my own personal commitments and I believe My Fathers World will help as I strive to give my children a firm foundation.

The other thing that appealed to me with MFW is that, aside from K & 1st I can teach my children from the same curriculum.  I love that!  We are so excited to get started.  We will be using Adventures and Kindergarten.  I have been reading my (very well written) TM and am starting to slowly gather supplies and get things ready.  Wahoo!  I look forward to blogging more about our experiences as we get started. 

We went for a walk around the block today and my 4yo came running back to me:  "Look!  Look Mama!  I found some Nature!"  She was proudly clutching a red leaf and a mushroom.  I guess you know you are raising city kids when nature is something found lying in the street.  

I'm sure the little one will wake up any minute but I just had to share - 2 days shy of 16 months Rebekah said her first real, actual word!  She said "bye-bye!" and waved!  It was so cute!  I almost wasn't sure she had really said it, as it was really close to her usual babbling, but the wave along with it confirmed it.    I am so very proud of my baby girl.  She also has a few consistent signs now - Daddy, eat, and more (which pretty much means "I want").  She is not yet crawling but she does push herself backward across the floor some.  It makes her so frustrated!  Ryan (ds) and I both have a really hard time letting her be frustrated so she mostly moves when we are out of the room and don't rescue her.  It is so hard to watch her have to work so hard for the things that come so easily to others.  God has blessed her in so many ways.  I just need to trust that He created her to be who she is and there is a purpose.  I feel so honored to have her and I pray that God will make me worthy of this blessing.

From Ben Spurr, INFACT Canada

INFACT Canada has long supported the international boycott of Nestlé products. As the campaign’s coordinator in North America, we are very excited to announce that this year, July 2-8 has been declared International Nestlé-Free Week.

According the the World Health Organisation (WHO) 1.5 million babies die every year as a result of inappropriate feeding practices. Many of these deaths occur in impoverished nations as a result of infant formula use. Despite this, Nestlé continues to aggressively adverstise its baby milks in breach of international standards.

Monitoring by groups on the ground around the world shows Nestlé is responsible for more violations than any other company. That's why it is singled out for boycott action.

If you don't boycott Nestlé already, we ask that you consider looking at the evidence and giving up Nestlé products for one week, at least.

Boycott groups around the world have declared 2-8 July to be International Nestlé-Free Week.

The boycott has forced some changes from the company, but Nestlé is still a long way from complying with marketing standards that will save infant lives. Campaigners are also working for laws which implement the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes. Nestlé can be forced to comply if it is given no choice, but without pressure it continues to put its own profits before infant health and mothers' rights.

You can find out more information and look at the evidence yourself on the Baby Milk Action website at:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/resources/boycott/nestlefree.html

You can sign up there to support the boycott.

You can also visit http://www.infactcanada.ca/Nestle_Boycott.htm.

It is important to tell Nestlé you will be boycotting it, whether it is just for the week, or indefinitely, until it accepts and acts on the plan put to it by boycott groups for saving infant lives.

You can telephone Nestlé Infant Nutrition in Canada at 1 800 387-5536. In the USA, their contact number is 1-800-225-2270. You can also send them an email through their website at www.nestle.com. Let them know you won’t fund their unethical marketing of infant formula.

I am finally able to log in for the first time in two weeks.  Thanks for all of your hard work Jodi!  I appreciate you.

I will try to get back in the blogging swing (like I ever really was in the blogging swing!) tomorrow!