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Isaiah 5:3-5 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down." Lord, I praise You that You love each one of us soooo much that You have done every thing You could to bring us to Yourself! Thank You for the walls and boundaries You have put up around me! May I never become a wild grape! Help me to always be a good grape for You!! Amen!

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Check it out! This Friday and Saturday Freedom Fest will be celebrated! http://www.thejoyfm.com/Article.asp?id=1353443

Our very own Pastor Danny will be sharing the gospel with the crowd!! Please pray for him as he shares! There will be tents set up for prayer counselors to pray with those seeking salvation. May God start a huge revival here in FL! 

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I feel that I should apologize to the few of you who try to follow my blog. I have been terrible at keeping up with it! Seems that it is so much easier to post something in FaceBook by way of a quick update.

We have had DH's mom here visiting for the last 3 weeks. We have also been attempting to keep some sort of homeschool routine over the summer. This past week was a wash. I decided that my kids should be allowed at least one week off from school for the summer. They will also get the week of VBS off. DH reformatted the hard drive on the main computer yesterday. That means that I have to reload their Homeschool Program. I am not looking forward to doing that. It was a pain the first time! That is only because I am loading an older program on a newer operating system. I was able to backup their previous work before hubby whiped the system clean.

Grandma has been such a sweetheart to allow hubby and I to have chances to go out. It is like she is letting us make up for years of not having a grandma around to watch the kids for us. This past weekend we when to see two movies at our local theater! Then we went out for a cheap meal just the two of us! We saw two of the movies hubby had been dying to see, "Terminator Salvation" and "Star Trek". I enjoyed "Star Trek" the best although both were pretty good.

Monday, (Memorial Day) hubby spent playing videos and then worked on clearing a clogged drain. Fun! NOT! He was able to get it going again without having to call a plumber tho! Praise God for that!

Then Tuesday, hubby and I headed out to Busch Gardens to use our annual passes. We were able to spend the day riding coasters and doing things we wouldn't be able to do with three children in tow. It was great fun! The only problem was that I forgot to put on sunscreen and got roasted! I had some medicinal spray that a friend had mixed up for our really bad burns a while ago. I sprayed that on that night and by the next day most of the sting was gone.

Grandma hasn't spent her whole time here watching our kids! She also went to the flea market and the mall with her daughter, (my sister-in-law). This Saturday she went with both her daughters to window shop, (something I don't do well). She has also been going to church and home fellowship with us. She said that this time she really didn't want to do any of the touristy things like Busch Gardens. She is planning to move down here, hopefully in January, and is saving her money to that end.

She and the kids and I took one day a week or so ago and went around to pick up applications to the apartment buildings she was interested in. We were all most impressed with one that is just down the street from us a few blocks. It is very much like the one she lives in now. It is also close to the grocery store and church and also has a bus stop near by. It is subsidized for the elderly just like the place she is in now.

This weekend I had another bout with a debilitating migraine! They have gotten to the point that my Rx will not touch them anymore. I have decided that it is time to talk with the doctor about changing the med she has me on for something else. They didn't get this bad until I started taking that. I believe that it is messing with my hormones and causing the migraines to be worse.

The same night that I was throwing up due to migraine pain, DH suddenly had a case of the stomach flu!!! Poor guy had it coming out both ends! Thankfully I was feeling well enough the next day to go get him some Gatorade to keep hydrated. He spend most of that day in bed, but seemed fine yesterday and is at work today! Lord?Can that be enough of the sickies for a while, please????

Knight #2 has been going for more hyperbaric chamber treatments. He is not thrilled with having to go. I think the poor kid gets bored to tears just laying there inside the chamber. I do have him bring the DS and his stuffed animals. I think he gets bored with the DS quickly tho. I am thinking about finding a way to do books on tape for him to listen to while in there. The doctor says that we should start to be seeing a change by the 20th treatment. He has only completed 3 so far. I guess they recommend 40 treatments in all. I am not sure but think I am already starting to see small improvements.

I guess that is pretty much all for now. Grandma has to go back home tomorrow.  I will try to do my best to keep up with this blog better than I had been doing.

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We let Knight #1 have a friend over on Friday night for a sleepover to celebrate his birthday. He is now 11 years old! Saturday night he had a headache and again on Sunday morning, only he also had an upset stomach. He has also been sleeping a lot. I kept him home from church yesterday. At first we were thinking that he was just getting over his sleepover.

Then this morning he woke up with pain in his ear. I took him to the doctor this afternoon. She confirmed that he has a raging ear infection. Her exact words when she looked in his ear were, "Oh, my!" She then showed me the back of his throat and I saw white stuff there and it looked swollen to me.

While we were still talking with her, she sent a prescription for an anti-biotic to the pharmacy from her laptop. She asked me where I wanted it sent and I told her. There must have been some confusion in the translation because I went to the pharmacy I thought I had told her to send it to it wasn't ready. We figured it just hadn't made it there yet. So we waited till we went to get DH from work to try again.

It still wasn't there! They called the Dr. and said it would be another 30 mins before it would be ready. So we went to a nearby Sonic to get some dinner, then came back. When we got back they told us that the insurance wouldn't cover it because it had been filled at another pharmacy earlier in the day. That was when it dawned on me that I had not specified which pharmacy, just the cross streets. There is another pharmacy on the other corner.  

So we headed over to the other pharmacy only to have them tell us they didn't have it either! Oy! At least they were able to tell us where it was supposed to have been filled. So we went to the 3rd pharmacy! Praise God! They actually had it! Well the pharmacist was filling it. We were finally able to get the medicine Knight #1 needs. We had been making jokes about having to go to another country to get it. I am sure it was an honest mistake but next time I am going to be much more careful about finding out exactly where the Dr. is sending that Rx!

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Ok, so it's new to us! And I am blessed WAY beyond words by it!!! A month or so ago I began a search for something different because my kids were all bored to tears with what we had been doing. Knight #2 especially balked at doing it every time. When I was able to get him to sit and do it, he would sigh and say, "This is soooo boring!", the whole time.

I was thinking that I wanted to try an online program called Time4Learning that sounded really great and has gotten really great reviews from other homeschool moms and kids alike. The problem was, when I brought that proposal to my DH, he said there was no way we could afford to pay the monthly fees to do that. So I thought I was back to square one.

Then my dear friend Mrs. Bee mentioned to me that her church's library has had Switched On Schoolhouse sitting in a closet gathering dust for the past 4 years! She could check it out for me and I could try it for free!! This is a curriculum put out by Alpha Omega Publications, for those of you who do not know. They are a premium homeschool publisher and have been for years.

This particular curriculum is all on the computer and has different grade levels from 3rd - 12th. They cover the five core subjects of Bible, Math, History/Geography, Science and Language Arts, plus electives to choose from. The software includes a lesson planner which can be printed out to serve as our record of what we've done for the year. What we are using is from 2002, but still very little has become outdated.

So we were able to start this new curriculum on Monday. It is taking some time for all of us to adjust, but I think once we all get used to it, this is going to be awesome!!! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders!

In case you are wondering about the timing of starting a new curriculum...I mean why not wait till the new school year starts? I just feel that we have missed out on so much schooling this past year that we need to work thru the summer in order to catch up. We will take off for VBS and I am seriously considering only having a 4 day school week. That would leave a day open for field trips, play dates, etc.

Oh! One of the things I like best about this new curriculum is that I no longer have to have all three kids together to teach them. See I have one who gets up extra early and one who likes to sleep as late as he can. Maiden is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Knight #1 can get his school work done and move on to what he wants to do often before the other two are even up!

The draw back is that I've been having to sit right with the two younger kids while they do school. Since the software is only on one computer so far, this takes up a huge chunk of my day. I am hoping that DH will be able to figure out how to get the file sharing set up for at least one more computer so that they can work simultaneously. They will probably still need my help but at least it will not take up so much of my day.

The other advantage is when for some reason, like my frequent migraines, I am not able to do school with the kids, daddy or practically anyone else could step in and help them with no trouble at all. No more missed days of school just because mommy is sick!

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No air conditioning may not sound that bad to most of you, but we are talking Florida here! Here we have humid heat most of the year. Thankfully, we are not in the really hot season yet. Yahoo is showing that our high for today is supposed to be 87 degrees. But there has been a nice breeze blowing for the last several days.

Night before last we couldn't understand why it was sooo COLD in our house. It got down to 68 degrees. When you are sleeping with just a sheet and thin blanket and a fan blowing on you, (I got up at some point and turned the fan off) that gets pretty frigid! I spent that night curled in as tight a ball as I could get into for warmth. Hubby got up at around 4 that morning to try to adjust the thermostat. We were thinking that one of our kids had gotten too hot during the day and turned it way down, it has happened before. Heads were gonna roll!

However, when he tried to adjust the thermostat it wasn't responding like he expected. He tried to turn it off and made sure the fan was on auto...it just kept on running!

The next morning when my hubby explained to me that the air wouldn't shut off, he asked me to call our friend who does AC for a living. I explained to our friend what was happening and he said, "Oh, bummer!" This doesn't bode well when a repairman says that! He had me go to the breaker box and turn it off from there so at least our electric bill will not go thru the roof. He was going to try to get over here to look at our system yesterday evening, but I am thinking he got busy and was exhausted by last night. We are hoping to have AC back really soon. In the meantime, we are keeping our windows open and have fans blowing.

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Knight #2's doctor has wanted to try this treatment with him for a while now. They recently got the chamber and have been working to get funding to provide free treatments to families who can't afford them, (like us). Today was the first one for Knight #2. Basically he goes into this tube like thing and then it fills up with air. They gradually increase the pressure so as not to cause problems with their ears. The child is wearing an oxygen mask and that provides extra oxygen to the brain and other areas of the body. We are hoping that this will help to reduce the symptoms of his Aspergers.

Dr. K adjusting the pressure.

Knight #2 inside. He is also wearing earphones to protect his ears. The equipment gets a little noisy. He was looking at the DS he was playing.

Knight #2 being silly with mom. He had to stay in there a little over an hour. The first 30 minutes or so was spent just getting the pressure up to the proper level. He had his webkins and DS in there with him.

This is a shot of the side of the chamber.

This is the pressure gauge. It got all the way up to two knotches past 4. Dr. K was very impressed that Knight #2 was able to go up to the top pressure the first time. He said that he is a very brave boy.

This is the knob that adjusts the pressure. Like I said they have to increase the pressure very gradually. Sometimes if it jumped too quickly Knight #2's ears would start to hurt. Dr. K had given him a signal to let us know if that happened and he would point to his ears. Dr. K would then reduce the pressure again. Knight #2 would give us the thumbs up when all was well again. Oh, he also had to learn how to make his ears "pop" to help reduce the pressure on them.

These are the tubes going into the chamber. Notice Knight #2's shoe next to the wall? There were little windows around the sides of the chamber and a big one on the top. Dr. K calls it the spaceship.

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There is a ministry at our church that partners with other local ministries by providing handmade crocheted or knitted items. They help the local crisis pregnancy center, nursing homes, downtown outreach and foster parent ministry. I am very excited about getting involved with helping them! Crocheting for the foster parent ministry has captured my imagination. I wanted to make little toys for the kids so I looked at some of the patterns I have for little critters. The first one I came across was a little frog. I made one up and showed a picture of him to my best friend Mrs. Bee. She said, "Oh, yeah! Frog stands for something too!" I said, "Re-birth, new creation?" She said, "No, Fully Rely On God".  

I sent a picture of my tiny frog (he is only about 4" tall) to the lady who leads the crochet minsitry and told her about F.R.O.G. She loved it and agreed that I should try making a larger version to give to the kids.

I worked on the bigger one all day and ended up with an original pattern that will be distributed to any who want to help make them for the foster kids. I like the fact that unlike any of the other crochet frogs I've seen online, mine has webbed feet!

This is little froggie dude.

Here is the froggie family. I made the multi-colored one last night just to see how she would look.

This is big froggie dude. He is the one that is all my own design.

And here is big froggie dude with little froggie dude. My kids have addopted my froggie family. They were playing with the two little ones while I was working on big dude.

The crochet and knit projects are all given with a tag on them which has a scripture verse on it. I would like to tie in the new creation with Fully Rely on God's Grace In Everything (Froggie). Maybe something like: As a new creation in Christ, you can Fully Rely on God's Grace In Everything. Most of the kids will probably not really grasp that, but will at least appreciate the froggie itself. And who knows? Perhaps as they get older, they will wonder about the message of that froggie and it could help guide them to Christ.

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My friend sent me this link with pictures that were taken the morning after the big twister. It truely is a miracle that more people were not injured or killed! God was watching over that town! It happened in the early evening, around 7:30, so most people were at home.

http://www.cswnet.com/~luther/mena_tornado_april_9,_2009.htm

All the reports I am getting say that everyone is pulling together to help eachother. The true American Spirit! Sure wish I could be there to help too!

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I got online this morning and in my Yahoo News top stories there as a line that read something about a small town in Arkansas being devastated by a tornado. I grew up in AR so I clicked on it right away. I was shocked to read that this happened in a town just 30 miles from where I grew up!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/fulltext/news/?cid=210142

They are reporting 3 deaths and at least 24 injuries. Some 10 businesses have been leveled! At least one of them being a main source of employment in the area! In a town of only 5000 people that will be catastrophic to their economy! I have been told that power was out from DeQueen to Mena (the town that was hit). This encompasses about a 60 mile swath. The town I grew up in is almost smack in the middle of that area. I am being told that at least two households of my family members (my parents and my sister) have power back already. Please pray for all the rest of these people as they try to assess the damage and pick up the pieces.

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Sorry that I didn't send out an update sooner. I have been laid up with a migraine for a couple of days and also had a lot of work to get done. I am getting a little break in my work so am posting this update.

My MIL was sent home on Sunday and seems to be doing well. I have talked to her a couple of times since she has been home. She is on a low fiber diet until her infection clears up completely.

She has already made reservations to fly down in May. While she is here she plans to check out apartments in preparation for moving down in about a year.

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My youngest son (7 years old) has Aspergers and ADHD. He is quite a challenge. We have been doing really well for a long time. Now all of a sudden he is having tons of meltdowns. His last melt down, just a little while ago, lasted for about 10-15 mins. I don't know what to do with him except ignore him and keep telling myself, this can't last all day! Then comes the moment when I think, "Oh, I think he is finally calming down! Thank you, Lord!!!"

What triggered this latest meltdown was that he wanted to play his video game on the TV. His brother also wanted to play it. I decided, in order to make it fair, we would draw straws. His brother won and Knight #2, who was already starting to melt down just went completely balistic. He grabbed the game case and was keeping it from his brother. I told him that if he didn't calm down and give the game to his brother, he would be grounded from all games for the day. He refused so I grounded him, thus causing him to continue to melt down.

You know, you read all the books and listen to the "experts" and still when the rubber meets the road, it can be such a challenge to know how to handle these little ones! It is so easy to feel like you are doing all the wrong things. I don't want to give him preferential treatment just because of his issues and yet there are times when he simply can't be dealt with in the same way you would nomally deal with other children.

What I really need is to find ways to keep him from going into full blown meltdown. But how do I do that without letting him have his way every time? The kid needs to learn that in life things don't always go your way. I thought he was finally starting to learn this and now it is like we are back to square one!

On a positive note, after he finished this latest meltdown, he was sitting on his bed, blankie and thumb in mouth. I asked him if I could have a hug. He didn't respond so I sat down next to him and put my arm around him. He didn't pull away, this is good! I gently told him that he can't always have his way and that if he had just listened then he would have gotten his turn with the video game too. Now he is sitting here watching his brother play the very game he melted down about not getting to play!

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We got Maiden moved back into her room! There is one little detail that needs to be done but will have to wait till after Grandma's visit. That is the floor trim. We simply ran out of time to get that done.

This is the shelving for the closet laid out ready to be installed last night.

Here is the box! Yes, I am excited!

DH making sure the shelves go in straight.

Gotta check the directions to make sure we are doing it right!

Ok, here's the right spot!

And we have success!

I just love how her dresser looks in there! I think we are going to leave the closet doors off. I like the way it looks more open without them.

I think Maiden is happy with her room too. Notice how her comforter matches? We found that at Walmart for $15! It was perfect!

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I saw my little friend's daddy and 4 of her siblings at church this morning. I asked her daddy how she is doing. He said, "Oh she's home now, she was up walking around yesterday." I couldn't help but shout out, "Praise the LORD!!!!" I don't have any more details than that right now.

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We have been working on the tile again today!  I was the official tile cutter. They don't tell you in those DIY shows what a wet messy job that is! I was soaked and dripping by the time I was done! I was sooooo glad to get out of those wet clothes!!! We got all the cuts done and then DH took the two older kids to get some chicken for dinner. 

Those are 16 x 16 tiles! Not easy to cut! A big thank you to our neighbor who loaned us her late husband's tile saw!

What you can't see in the picture here is the water spraying up into my face! It was amazing that I could see anything more than spots through my glasses.

DH and I were going to team up on getting the cut tiles placed after dinner. We got in there and he showed me what to do. I got a few done in the closet, then he asked me if I wanted him to take over. After all that tile cutting I was more than happy to let him do the rest! He is still working on it even as I blog. I think he is almost done though.

DH got snap happy and had to get some shots of me trying to lay the few tiles in the closet. Not my best side here!  Yes, these were taken on the same day. I had changed out of those other wet drippy clothes and pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

I am sooo glad to be so close to done! We have the grout, trim and closet shelving & hanger bars left to go. We are at a bit of a time crunch to get it all done. DH's mom is coming to visit for 3 weeks March 31st and the plan is for her and Maiden to share Maiden's room. MIL said that if the closet isn't done when she gets here, she will take all DH's clothes out of his part of our closet and put hers there.

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My best friend, who I will call Mrs. Bee (she loves bees), found out that her son, Biggun has an enlarged thyroid. The doctor noticed at an appoinment about a week or so ago that his neck seemed swollen on one side. He sent him for an ultra sound and Mrs. Bee got the results today. She is understandably very worried. They may need to go see an Endocrinologist but are waiting to see what the doctor wants to do next.

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Thankfully I was only there for a visit. Our home fellowship leader's little 4 year old daughter is admitted there. She had a stomach virus a few weeks ago, it ran through their whole family, not fun! Apparently her little body thinks it still has the virus and is trying to fight it off. She has arthritis like swelling and if she tries to move her legs it causes her excruciating pain. They said last night they couldn't even touch her legs without her screaming in pain.

After I heard this morning that she was in the hospital, I couldn't stop thinking about this little fabric "Easter Story" book I knew I had waiting to be sewn up. It had been sitting in the closet for a couple of years. I decided that the Lord was telling me to make it and bring it to my little friend. She seemed to really like it.

Her mama had already gone home to get some rest and feed the baby. They have a little one who is breastfed. Her daddy was there to stay the night and we visited for a little bit. He told me that they are talking about keeping her in the hospital for several days anyway. I was glad to see that my little friend didn't seem to be in too much pain at least not while I was there. Her daddy said that have been giving her anti-inflammatory meds and she was on morphine this morning.

Please keep her and her family in prayer! Pray that the swelling will go down and with it her pain level. She still can't move her legs. Also, please pray for her daddy's boss to be more understanding about him having a child in the hospital. He tried to get him to go do a job today, but relented when asked if it could wait till Monday. I know her mama would appreciate prayer too. She is having to drive to and from the hospital several times a day because she has a baby that needs to be fed and only mama can do it.

They also have 5 other kids at home. Another friend has set up for meals to be delivered to them as well as meal to go to her parents at the hospital.

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Our Home Fellowship Leader's 4 year old daughter is being admitted to the hospital. She went to the hospital last night and is being admitted today. They believe she has HSP. This is where her body is fighting a virus, but instead of the normal immune response there is also an inflammation response similar to arthritis. She is in excruciating pain. Her mother and father have been there all night with her. They have 5 other kids. A close family friend is watching the other kids.