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It sounds like a movie title doesn't it :)? I have been getting some emails from an online friend of mine, and she has been sending me pictures of her chickens. I have always wanted chickens. I have had names picked out for them since Jeff and I were first married. That makes me laugh typing that! I had names for my kids picked out, and names for my chickens. lol! Two of the chicken names I wanted were Nadine and Imogene. They sound like chicken names don't they? I always wanted chickens for laying, not chickens for eating. There is no way I could eat Nadine Noodle Soup. It would just be wrong. Part of me really wants to move back to the country. We lived in the country for 7 years. Two years ago, we moved back to our hometown, and moved into the suburbs. In the country we had 4 acres. Keeping up with mowing 3 of the 4 acres was so much work, and Jeff has no desire to live in the country again. I miss having acres and acres for Evie to run in. Now our yard is about 3/4 of an acre, but is a corner lot, so Evie can't run like she used to. My in-laws live on 10 acres, and when we go visit (which is all the time), Evie and our dog just run and run. I would love to have a small farm with chickens, goats, etc., but Jeff hates the idea of it. Since we moved from the country to the suburbs, I have pretty much tossed out the idea of ever having chickens...until recently. I read that many people are raising chickens in city limits. They have just a few, maybe three of four, just for eggs, and they are like pets. It is not illegal, unless you have a rooster that causes trouble with the noise. You don't need a rooster to get eggs. I live in a subdivision, but I am on the outskirts of it near a rural road. I started reading how to raise chickens in the city. It actually is possible. I haven't breathed a word of this to Jeff. He would probably think I was completely crazy. So Honey, if you read this, just think of how cool it would be to get free eggs anytime we want, instead of having to buy those $3.75 a dozen organic free range ones :). |
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We had this kind of a day today....
Yep, it was a bit of a crazy day. The English language is such an insane language to learn when it comes to reading. We have been learning about homophones. Those lovely words that sound the same but are spelled different with different meanings. Like the words red and read, or led and lead. Evie is getting the homophone thing. It's words that are supposed to have "rules" and then the rules change that get to her. Like words that have two vowels like the word "rode". The rule is that the e at the end is telling the o to say it's real name. She got the hang of that completely, and was doing great...until she starts seeing words like "love" and "come". Okay, so that "e tells the vowel to say it's real name" rule just got changed. We had about 20 of those changing em up and not following the rules words today. The book called them sight words. I call them pain in the neck words. Then there are the words that have the exact same spelling, and different pronunciation. Like read and read, lead and lead. We had a bunch of those today too. The book didn't even attempt to explain why in the world we have words that spell the same but are different. She finally just looked at me like this whole thing was just crazy. I don't blame her one bit!
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There are times lately where I have been really doubting if I should continue to homeschool. I sometimes feel very overwhelmed about it. Some days I'm just not sure I am doing a good enough job to teach her. I know she is learning, but I get overwhelmed with the idea of getting into the older grades. I was always bad at math, so I have no idea how I am going to teach her math when she starts getting into the hard stuff. The social issue is big too. Evie is very social, and I know I don't have her involved in enough things. This week I am signing her up to be in our homeschool groups gym class. So far I haven't had much to do with our local homeschool group. When we went to the class before, I thought that the women were hard to get to know, and that was frustrating for me. I'm not so much in need of that now, and Evie really needs to be around other kids more than she is, so I know that the homeschool gym will be good. It is twice a week, for an hour each time. She is also taking therapeutic horseback riding once a week. With all that, and with church on Sunday, that should be enough socialization. Our church does have midweek service, but there isn't any childcare, so taking Evie is almost impossible. She wouldn't sit still for that long. There is a church very close to us that has Awana on Wednesday nights. I may see about getting her into that too. I want to do what is best for Evie. I know that because she is an only, it makes it harder for her to have the socialization unless I actively pursue ways to get her out more. I really need to make that a big priority. One reason I question homeschooling is that I would love to have another child, but I'm not sure I could homeschool Evie and take care of a new baby at the same time. Jeff has been talking about having another baby. This is the FIRST time he has ever said this since Evie was adopted 7 years ago. With the challenges we have had, we just put having more kids on the back burner. When he mentioned it the other day, I almost fell over with shock! We are talking about actually trying again biologically. That is a little freaky for me, but I am open to what God wants me to do. I am praying about homeschooling too. Whenever I start to proceed towards sending Evie to school, I always feel such hesitation in my spirit. I just don't feel right about it. So I am just waiting on the Lord. So far I don't feel a peace about sending her to school. I wouldn't want to send her to public school. No way. I would only send her to a Christian school. But even then I don't feel right about it. I hope I can find some other homeschool moms in my area that I can talk to. So far I don't know any, and that may be why I am discouraged about it. Evie really enjoys homeschooling. She gets very frustrated at times, but I take things at her pace. I know it wouldn't be like that if I sent her to school. That alone makes me want to keep her at home. Plus the idea of having her sit in a classroom at a desk for 7 hours a day just makes me feel horrible. She has a hard time sitting still at all, so the challenges would be huge for her. My word, just typing this all out makes me think more clearly! Sending her to school sounds like a completely wrong decision when I type it all out! I guess that is why people blog. Writing down thoughts helps us think more clearly :). |
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You are probably thinking I am going to post a tasty recipe. I wish that was what this post was about! Yesterday, Jeff took 1/2 day off work, and we thought it would be fun to take Evie sledding. We went to a local park, and the hill was really steep with lots of huge bumps. It was also solid ice. Jeff went down with Evie first on our little snow pan, and Evie loved it. Then it was my turn. I sat cross legged on the sled and had Evie sit on my lap. We went sailing over the first bump, and I was completely airborne. One thing about me is that I am kinda boney. I don't have a lot of padding, which is good...except when you are sledding. I came crashing down (with Evie's weight added) onto my tailbone. Then we hit the next bump, and I was holding onto Evie so she wouldn't fall off, and I fell hard sideways and whacked my left rib cage against the ice. Then we both fell off the sled. Evie was fine, and was laughing her head off. I on the other hand wasn't so fine. I just laid there thinking I had broken my rib. I slowly got up, and with much pain walked up the hill. Jeff asked if I was okay, and then he saw that I was clearly in pain. I didn't want Evie to miss out on the fun of sledding, so I stayed and watched for awhile while Jeff took Evie down the hill. Then a bunch of other kids came, and Evie was having a blast. We ended up staying for another 2 hours. I went to the car and sat for about an hour of it. I didn't move much, so I didn't think I was hurt too bad. When we got home, and I tried to get out of the car, I then realized how much pain I was in. We went inside, and I was yelping in pain as I tried to take my boots off. We ended up calling the chiropractor, and I got in right away. He felt around and said he was pretty sure I cracked one of my ribs. I didn't want xrays because even if it showed a break or crack, they don't do anything for it anyways except wrap it. He said he wasn't about to manually adjust me, but he did use the Pro Adjuster (it is a new device chiropractors use). It actually helped me to feel less stiff, and really helped my lower back. Last night was bad though. I was in a lot of pain in the rib area. This morning my lower back and tailbone felt much better. My ribs still hurt like mad, but I am a little better today than I was yesterday. The doctor gave me a rib wrap that is elastic, and that helps it feel a bit more secure. I'm still feeling the pain whenever I take a deep breath, or whenever I move. So it was an eventful last few days! I was bummed that I didn't get to have any fun sledding. Nothing like wiping out on the very first run down the hill!! |
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Evie and I spent the night last night at Jeff's parents house. Jeff was on business, and I wanted some company, so I called Jeff's mom and asked if we could come over yesterday morning. I love that I can do that, and know that she will always say yes. I am truly blessed with wonderful in-laws. My mother-in-law is such a blessing to me,and I call her Mom because she truly is one to me. She lifts me up spiritually, and is so encouraging to me. She is one of my closest friends. That may sound crazy, but it is true! She is also very understanding when it comes to Evie. I wish I could say the same about my family, but it just isn't the case. But I won't go into that. My in-laws see Evie as very gifted, and as a blessing. I am so thankful for that. This morning, I packed up our stuff from being at Mom and Dad's, and Mom took us to a Bible study at our church. It is an awesome study. We are doing a book about Tamar (not David's daughter, but the Tamar in Genesis that was in the lineage of Jesus). The author is Francine Rivers, and it is such a good book. The group of ladies at the Bible study are older (I am by far the youngest), and I love to hear words of wisdom from them. Evie loves to go to the Bible study too. She goes to another part of the room and watches a movie on her little dvd player during the study. There is one woman there named Ida, who is this little, sweet southern black woman who we adore. She is in her 70's and every time Evie sees her, she yells, "Miss Ida!" and goes and gives her a huge hug. She is just the sweetest thing ever. Every week for our Bible study, our pastor's wife has us put our names in a jar for a drawing to win some sort of basket that she has made up with goodies. Today it was filled with practical and fun stuff. It had all kinds of boxes of different sized ziplock bags, a couple of adorable coffee mugs with spoons, coffee, and Starbucks cocoa. Ida ended up winning the basket today, so she was really excited about it. My hubby is coming home today, and I can't wait! He has been traveling for business a lot, and for awhile I was really complaining about it. The Lord really convicted me though because at least Jeff has a job! And it is a job that is very secure, and it is one that he loves, so I have MUCH to be thankful for. Here is a picture of my wonderful hubby. It was taken when it was about 99 degrees outside, at a local fair. It is about 10 degrees outside now, with 15+ inches of snow, so quite a contrast from the picture!!
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I am excited to join homeschoolblogger! Hopefully I will be able to connect with other homeschool moms. I'm in my second year of homeschooling my daughter Evie. I should point out that her name is pronounced Eee-vee, because everyone seems to want to call her Evvv-eee. She is 7, and in first grade. She is so full of life and energy. Evie was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, with sensory processing disorder and adhd. She is a sensory seeker, so she can be my little daredevil at times. My husband and I always joke that her guardian angels have to be exhausted by the end of the day I really wanted to start this new blog so that I could voice some of my feelings about things. I am a huge adoption advocate, and am very much against abortion. I have another blog, and it got to the point where I could hardly say a word against abortion, or talk about politics, without getting nasty comments and emails. So I found a new blog, and a new start. I am a huge adoption advocate because Evie is adopted. We adopted her from birth. I am so thankful that her birthmom chose life for her! Our adoption journey was definitely not planned. I always planned on having biological children, and I wanted to have a lot of children. Life doesn't always turn out like we plan, but God can always make something wonderful out of something awful. I went through 6 miscarriages, and as we were getting ready to try again for another baby (I was going to a specialist at this point), God spoke to me about adoption. It was so audible that it was like someone sitting right next to me. I was holding a little girl that was born on the day of my last miscarriage. She was only a few months old, and I had spent the whole weekend taking care of her while my friend had a youth group outing. As I was holding this beautiful baby, I heard the Lord tell me to look at her. Then He said, "If she were yours, would you care that she wasn't biologically related to you?" I was flooded with emotions and for the first time realized that it was in God's plan for us to adopt. We ended up adopting Evie a little over a year later. Evie had many challenges in her first year. She had horrible colic that lasted 4 months. She was allergic to EVERYTHING. The poor thing had a full body rash for about 6 months, and the doctors had no clue what it was. I finally had to take matters into my own hands because the doctors were no help. I finally figured out that she was allergic to all disposable diapers. Once we switched to cloth, the rash went away in about 2 days. Anything that she ate that wasn't organic gave her a rash. Laundry soap that wasn't organic gave her a rash, as did any lotion, soap or shampoo that wasn't organic. She was allergic to cow's milk formula, and I wasn't about to give her soy formula because of all the chemicals, so we put her on goat's milk. God really knew what He was doing by putting her in our lives. I'm a health nut, and have been for awhile. I am also a huge researcher. I read oodles of books and searched online for answers. I started doing everything from baby massage to making my own baby food. We put supplements in her goat's milk, and used cloth diapers. People thought I was a bit crazy, but she got better! The rash left, and her little cheeks got rosy, and her eyes got bright blue. As she started walking, we started noticing that she didn't react the same way as most kids. She would fall all the time and not cry. One time she tripped and fell and hit her face on the window sill. Just typing that makes me cringe! She put her teeth all the way through her lip. She cried for about 10 seconds. That was it. In the nursery at church, people would comment on how she always fell but never cried. Later we found out that that is a very common symptom of sensory processing disorder. Once Evie figured out walking, she started running, and hasn't stopped since
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. We truly believe the verse in Psalm 91 that says "For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways." We have seen miracles of protection happen in Evie's life many, many times.
. She is a fireball of energy, and I know God is going to use her in awesome ways! 