I'm feeling worn out and gross today. I think I could get sick if I don't stay home and slow down for a few days, so I'm going to put my feet up in between laundry loads.

See you in a few days when I'm feeling better.

Janelle

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 In remembrance of those fallen on 9/11/01.

May we never forget.

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I have been reading up on blogging for profit. There are a lot of blogs out there bringing in a few hundred a month or more. Upon doing some research, I am going to try this out. I've made an action plan and the first of which is to learn more about layout and changing my template. I've already been digging into this a bit, learning basic HTML programming, but I am ready for more. I have found a few free tutorial sites on line that I am going to be working through.

So what does this mean to you, my reader? Well, help me come up with a new name for my blog! I need it to be catchy and embrace what I am doing here. Which got me thinking, what am I doing on this blog? Here are my main points of interest that I like to blog about:

1. Autism

2. Living with Autism/How it effects the family

3. Homeschooling Autism/ADD kids

4. Home Organization

5. Frugality

6. Anything funny that happens in my home/homemaking and family

So, how do I combine all of these ideas into a title that speaks for my vision? I don't want this to be just a blog about autism because its not. I have much more than that to talk about. I used to own a home organizing business and I love to organize, make charts, plan and etc, but I don't want that to be my only focus either. I don't want to limit my readers to only those with special kids. That is my one concern. Here are some of my new title ideas:

'Organized Autism'

'What's Your Excuse'

'A Place For Everything'

 And as subtitle:

Autism - Homeschooling - Organization - Frugality - Fun

Tell me what you think! I need some vision and input here. Once I get a new name for my blog, I'll move onto slowly changing my template. Later I'll work on some other additions like having my own weekly blog carnival. Then we'll see if I can get some sponsors and make some money at this little hobby of mine.

So give me some input readers! I need your ideas!

Janelle

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Its true! Perserverence pays off! I got the photo insert to work!

Below is a picture off of our Cabana at Silverwood Theme Park in Northern Idaho. If you ever go, rent the Cabana for a day! It was worth every penny!

Now I can post pictures of projects and stuff. Cool! :)

Janelle

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I have so many subjects I've wanted to post about that I have become overwhelmed and not posted at all. I am sure you can relate to that.

My summer to-do list in my previous post has changed a bit. It always does. The big item, to paint our outbuildings, has been dropped. My husband decided it would make more sense to do them when we do the house next spring. That is fine with me. Less to do!

We are getting ready around here to take a week's vacation so I must admit I am close to being completely shut down to all projects. I would rather be in vacation mode right now, but alas some things must get done. So I have made a very small goal list for the next few days before we depart. We'll see how far I get on it.

The main thing on that list is to weed my flowerbeds and garden. They are out of control. We had a weird week of rain about 2 weeks ago and my garden has yet to recover from it weed wise. So I hope to get out there today and make some progress.

I also have a writing project that I feel I am suppose to finish up by the years end. That is taking some of my time as well. I had thought of closing down my blog so I could devote more time to this project, but have decided that I'll just blog when I can get to it.

The other biggie that has happened since my last post is that I attended my 20-year class reunion. I was on the planning committee so this reunion has been on my to-do list for some time now. I had a wonderful time. It was great to see old friends, catch up with familiar faces and hang with my old group again.

I am learning to post pictures on this site again (they have changed some things) so once I do that I'll post some from my reunion. I took a few.

I learned a lot about myself from this reunion. I discovered I still had some healing to do from a past relationship and I am thankful that I feel so much better about that situation now. I also have renewed an old friendship with my longtime bud. We've kept in touch but the reunion has gotten us together a lot more than in the past few years. That has been a nice surprise.

I hope to post some pictures tonight. Otherwise we'll see you after our vacation! Its time to start planning the school year and I hope to do a lot of posting about that.

Janelle

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Like many great bloggers before me, I am going to take the rest of the month of June off for a blogger break. We are busy getting ready for our 4th of July party and need some down time for just hanging out.

We'll see you in July after the 4th!

Janelle

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I took a spill two days ago. I was at the gas station filling up - more like throwing up all my money for that stinkin' gas. (We're up to $3.49 a gallon on average here now).

Anyhow after getting my pump in place I foolishly stepped over the hose and didn't quite make it. I've stepped over those hoses a hundred times and each time telling myself, 'one of these times I'm going to trip and fall on my face'. Well, today was that day.

Yeah, I hit hard. Right down on the pavement, face first. An elderly gentleman came over and helped me up. I was totally embarrassed and humiliated. I had to sit for a while in my car to stop my head from spinning. I skinned my knee badly, bruised my foot and my entire upper body aches. My arms and left shoulder are the worst.

After a bit I was okay and managed to hobble home. My kids were with me and concerned for me. My daughters have been wanting me to rest a bunch the last two days to recover. But I also know the aches in me will only get worse if I don't use my muscles, so I have been forcing myself to do things and garden.

Today I am not as sore but getting out of bed was much slower than normal. Yeah, I'm not as young as I used to be.

This little experience has been a good reminder for me. I have slowly, ever so slowly, been losing weight. I've lost about 20 pounds over the last 2 years. Recently I lost another 4 and gained it back. I've lost 2.5 of those 4 again, and am looking forward to going beyond that to more of a loss.

Taking a fall is a good reminder that I'm striving to make lifelong changes in my diet not only to look better and have better health, but to improve how my body moves and handles physical stress. I know if I was 50 pounds or more lighter right now that this fall wouldn't have been so stressful on my system. It was a bit of a wakeup call for me to keep striving to lose weight.

About 12 days ago our church entered a 40 day fast. Some folks are fasting sugar, some tv, some video games. I prayed and God asked me to fast gluttony. Yeah, gluttony. No more overeating. I tell you it is hard to not overeat. When your mind is programmed to overeat and has been since you were a wee child, it is hard to break it. Its not like smoking or drinking where you can just quit the habit, as you need to eat to live. You have to find a balance between nourishment and indulgence.

I have been doing a bible study at the Setting Captives Free site. http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/home/our_courses.php

I've started this study before but never finished so my goal is to finish their study on biblical eating. Their entire focus is on not overeating and eating only when your body is physically hungry. Sounds good, huh? Well it is, but hey, its hard! Thankfully God is strong when I am weak and he is helping me through.

Enough on that for now. Monday I'll do a review again and I have a plan to start my Home Management Series - finally!

Janelle

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Meet Mr. Rose - mighty hunter. Here he is digging for a mole, which he eventually got and threw around the yard a while before leaving it to me to clean up.

He is the king cat out of our 7 cats. He is the dominator, the great hunter, the ruler of all cats who reside in our home and of a few more on the block.

This cat took out a squirrel. No lie. I wish I would have taken pictures of it now. He stalked this squirrel for over 2 years. I can remember taking walks and there he'd be, just up the street staring down this squirrel in the big Evergren tree. I would tell him he didn't have a chance - give it up buddy. But he was persistent. He was tenacious. He was patient and waited for the right opportunity to take that big squirrel down.

You have never seen a cat strut his stuff like that day we found his dead squirrel back by the woodshed, which incedentally, is where he deposits all his kill for us to admire. He was so proud and was sad to see Dad deposit his trophy in the dumpster, but I didn't want that smelly thing rotting by my woodshed!

This cat is also by far the biggest baby of them all. When he is with my youngest daughter, his very attentive owner, he melts like butter in a microwave. She has carried this cat around since he was 6 weeks old and he will let my sweet little girl wear him like a scarf around her neck. He is a huge cat now and its funny to see this tiny little 7 year old lug around her giant cat like a bag of potatoes.

Here is another picture of Mr. Rose as a kitten along with his sibling, and my youngest holding her prize pet.

Everyone has grown a lot since then, but the love is still there.

We love our cats. They are such fun!

Have a wonderful weekend! I will share more pictures now that I know how to upload them!

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Welcome back. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We have had the most eventful 2 months that I can recall in a long time.

First, before I get to that, please pray for Joel.

http://www.weloveyoujoel.blogspot.com/

 I have been following Joel's progress since he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer about 5 weeks ago. He has now been pronounced brain dead by the doctors and his family is searching out a place that will care for him. God is in the business of miracles and I am believing it for Joel! God will be glorified in this for He does all things for His glory.

My life has been busy but fun. All of it seems minimal to what the Morris' are going through right now with their little Joel hanging onto life. Even so I will share.

Over the past 2 months we have had a major flood, our septic was out for 8 days, a snow and ice storm that made the roads messy for a week, a major wind storm that knocked out our power for 6 days and of course the business of Christmas. Wow it has been a ride. My hope is that January will be a bit quieter and so far it has been.

Through all of this my kids have been rolling with it. Noah has done very well with the chaos but in particular having the power out for 6 days was his biggest test. The first few days with no computer was a challenge for him but he adjusted as did we all.

Well I have noticed the time and it is flying by so I must depart for now! I hope to blog again more on a regular basis. I will keep you updated on Joel. Please pray for him!

Janelle

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First off let me tell you how much I love comments! Both Emily and Brooke commented on my last post. It is good to hear from other moms out there who have special needs kids or other moms who are striving to raise their kids to the glory of God. This mothering thing is tough and we need to stick together to support one another and lift eachother up in prayer!

This last week brought some interesting trials to our home. We had a flood in our town. Our town normally floods each year but this one was close to the 100 year flood level. Our home is in the flood plain. Fortunately our main living space is raised about 2 plus feet from ground level so it'd have to flood really bad for our main living space to get water. We do have an entry and large sunroom/playroom and our garage and shops at the normal building level though, and all of those areas got hit with water. We had about 8 inches of water in our garage which also is in the process of being converted to a homeschool room, two bedrooms and a bathroom, plus with stairs to additional bedrooms. We also had about 3 inches in our entry and sunroom/playroom. Fortunately we got most everything up in time, including our freezer and dryer. The biggest loss was the furnance which is under our home and the duct work.

All of this is a blessing though. Our home is old and we are slowly remodeling it. We wanted to replace our furnance anyhow, so now insurance will help us with that. Fortunately we have wood heat too so we are using that as our primary heat now. Its working out fine and I love having the fire lit. Its so cozy and comforting.

We got all the ruined rugs up and what other things were ruined, mainly some old furniture, all thrown out. I bleached all the floors and now we just need to put things back in place. I'm hoping that will be complete over the next 2 days so that we can start cleaning up the shops and outside. Its messy out there!

Even with all of this extra trouble we are reminded that God uses all things for His purpose. The flood reminds us who is really in charge. God is the ultimate power and controller of our world. A flood is a good reminder of that. A flood also reminds us to be thankful for what really counts: our families, our salvation, God's provision. The stuff that is ruined is just stuff and replaceable. I don't say that lightly as I lost some precious things to me about 5 years ago in a fire. I nearly lost one of my children to that fire as well. It was an extremely emotional and trying thing to go through. Even so, God used it for good just like He is using this flood for good.

My kids did okay with the flood. They have missed having their play area and I'm looking forward to having that back for them. They were all asleep during the rising water which I was very thankful for. I fear it would have really scared them.

This week we are trying to get back to normal. My son Noah has the chicken pox so he'll have no outside therapy this week. That is a bummer for him but its nice to have him home all the time too.

I'll close reminding all of us to be thankful for what we have. We are so blessed in this country. Thank you Lord for using all situations for your glory and good.

Blessings - Janelle

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Well its been a while since I posted on this blog. Our computer crashed about 2 weeks ago and I have been recovering ever since. I had a backup but it wasn't very current. I lost about a years worth of pictures, the beginning of a home organizer and a book I was writing, and lots of other documents. It was a big loss, but I'm the only one to blame. I know better than to not have a current backup. We even got a portable CD drive as ours won't write for some reason. We just hadn't hooked it up. Oh well.

We are considering buying a new computer now. Ours is ancient in computer age (6 years), and we now are facing the dilema that software we want won't work on our old system. We're just looking at this point and I'm praying for a Christmas bonus to cover the cost. I'm hoping to hold my husband out till the Thanksgiving sales - we'll see! He'd like to get one ASAP, but I want the cash first. I guess he has lost his gazelle intensity a bit with being out of debt, but he is confident we will see a Christmas bonus. I want to see that cash, then we'll talk. Sometimes its hard to let your husband make those decisions but hey, he makes the money!

Besides that we've added 4 new kittens to our home. Kittens are so fun and when you get them in pairs they entertain themselves and us nicely. The girls each have a kitty station with food, water and box to maintain daily. They are doing a great job at that. Fortunately these kittens were already box trained when we got them so they have been of little inconveience. They are growing quickly, so I need to take the time to get pictures of my kids holding one each before they get any larger.

I don't think I've ever talked about animals and therapy. At one time I wanted my son to take horseback riding lessons for therapy. We ended up not being able to swing it financially, but still I love the idea of using animals as therapy for kids. My son Noah is not as fascinated with the kittens as he was with our old dog, but still I have seen some cute moments with him and the cats.

Beyond that school is going well. Noah is moving along nicely and we are pretty sure he is reading short words now. A great accomplishment for him.

Well its Friday, which means art for school, cleaning for the weekend and grocery shopping! Have a great weekend and don't forget to set your clocks back!

Janelle

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Wow what a job. The last two weeks have been extremely busy for me. It was two weeks ago yesterday that we discovered my oldest daughter had lice. My oh my. What I have learned about these little creatures in the last two weeks has been amazing. The good news is we are now lice free! I still have about 10 laundry sacks of items to wash in the garage, but slowly we are catching up. I hope to have the laundry caught up by next week when we begin school.

All of our washing, scrubbing, picking through heads and on and on has put a slump on our end of summer projects. The big one being the painting and reoganizing of our bedroom. I'm still hoping we can do it in September, as it really needs it!

Another big change in the last two weeks was my husband switching employers. He is now in his last week at his old employer and will begin at his new one next week. All in all it'll be a good thing for our family - he'll be home a lot more and not working any or hardly any overtime. The money will be missed, but we need him home more than we need the money.

One thing I wanted to share about lice in case you have the unfortunate event to ever go through that. Buy a Robi-comb. I heard about it at this site: http://nolice.blogspot.com/

This is a great site to visit if you ever get lice. This mom has been there and done that, and has learned a great deal. From her I learned about the Robi-comb. We got ours from Wal-Mart and it prevented other family members from being infested with lice (including me!). We are now using it every-other day as a precaution and will go to once a week by next week, and will use it once a week from here on out. Believe me it is worth every penny! I think we paid $22 at Wal-Mart for it.

We start school a week from today! Like everyone else, I'm busy getting ready for that. Though today will be consumed with cleaning as yesterday I had a lazy day and have to make up for it today.

Happy week everyone! I hope to update more now that life is calming down a bit.

Janelle

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I just love this site: http://largefamilylogistics.net/

This is the site for learning how to run the large family. I don't consider our family large with only 6 of us, but by some standards that is large. I hope our family will expand some in the years to come, but in the meantime, I glean a lot of good information and encouragement from this site.

I am in the middle of some big projects here at home, so for the next few weeks my blogging will probably be sporadic. We have some painting projects ahead and I'm excited to get them done.

Enjoy browsing the Large Family Logistics site!

Janelle

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I had a comment from someone asking what makes me musical. My blogger name is musicalmom1998. So in answer to her and to tell an interesting story about my college days, I'll pass the information along.

I majored in music performance and audio engineering in college. I graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Now if you know of this college you know its a very liberal, hippie school. No grades, no majors - you get the drift. You can either take this freedom, find a focus and wow can you go with it or you can skate along and accomplish nothing and come out with a B.A. in the end. For me, I did a bit of both.

So yes, I have a B.A. from the queen hippie feminist school. I am none of those things - okay at times, I'm the queen but I'm not the hippie feminist anymore. I'm bought with the blood of Jesus, and believe it or not, God use that liberal education to get me saved. It's that using evil for good thing. (but that my bloggers, is another long story).

Anyhow I spent most of my days at Evergreen goofing off in the recording and electronic media studios. I really had no idea what I was doing, which is why I didn't continue in that field after college. Even so I had a good time and made some good memories.

While there I improved in my saxophone playing. After college I really improved on my flute, guitar, piano and vocal skills. I now help to lead worship in our church, in small groups and am currently, finally, after many years, getting the music together to cut a CD. I'm hoping to start recording the summer of '07. It will be a worship CD.

So with all that said I must share what came in the mail today. Upon looking through my mail I pull out my Evergreen Express Alumni magazine. Hey, the guy on the front looks familiar - Oh MY!! Its DAN! Okay, now who is Dan?! An old college chum. Nothing more than that, just a good old friend I worked with in the recording studios and one great drummer. Well it turns out the entire theme of this alumni edition is on the audio and music shakers that have come out of Evergreen. Flipping through the pages I read up on about 8 old Alumi, four of which I worked with at Evergreen. These are great people who are now composing music for video games, software, own recording studios, and work in the engineering field. It was so neat to sit and 'catch up' with some old buddies. How fascinating!

All of this reading up on their accomplishments got me thinking. Am I where I thought I would be when I graduated from college some 14 years ago? Um, no. Not at ALL! I thought I'd be a record producer or engineer, not a stay at home, homeschooling, conservative mom! No, not at all what I thought.

Am I happy with the choices I've made? No doubt. I wouldn't change a thing. Would I still like to spend more time doing music, creating and performing? Of course! But everything in good time. I'm just estatic to finally after so long to be getting a CD together. That in itself is a good thing. And, its a God thing. I'm into the God thing. I'd rather be in His will, die knowing I was on the path, then to pass on with great worldly accomplishments and never know Him.

So that is what is musical in me.

Janelle

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Yesterday was our hottest day of the year to date. My thermometer read 94 degrees at one point. For us here in Western Washington that is unbelieveably hot. Too hot.

After church we had a nice day playing games with my brothers family. Then we spent the evening laying on the couch waiting for it to cool off. Our kids played outside, swinging and having a jolly time while we sufferred. Only one of our kids complained about the heat the entire day.

What is it that happens between childhood and adulthood that makes you hate the heat? Is it the extra pounds on us that keeps us warmer, like big bears, so that when it warms up a bit we turn into couch potatoes? Or is it the fact that we have absolutely no control over the temperature so we learn to hate it? I certainly don't know but I can tell you this, today I am taking major precautions to keep this house cool.

We have an old house. Its pushing 100 years old, and though we love its quirkyness and its potential, we also dislike how it heats up like an oven in the evenings. We've learned how to deal with it a bit, mainly by not being here between 6pm and 9:30pm. Since that is not always an option we've learned what windows to open, what curtains to shut, where to put the fans, etc. Still it only makes it bearable. Its simply no fun.

Even with all of this complaining, I must say that the summer gives me the opportunity to do one of my favorite things. Okay, well two. First, it allows me to plant things and watch them grow. I do enjoy that. Maybe not the weed pulling so much, but the growing aspect is a plus. Second, I enjoy watching my kids play in the backyard while I sit on my lounge chair. I get reading in, paperwork done and just enjoy them.

So for today, with the estimate heat being in the 90's again, I plan to sit in my lounger once again. It'll be a good day - even if I can't stand the heat.

Janelle

PS - Have I told you how much I LOVE to get comments?! I've had a few comments lately and I just love them! Have a good day in your home!

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The normal birthday party at home is pretty straight-forward: cake, ice cream, presents, relatives and friends. This is basically what took place for our son's 5th birthday, with a few minor adjustments.

I like to throw parties. We like themes, fancy tables, lots of kids, etc. For Noah, we don't do much of that. He doesn't like a lot of folks coming over, gets too stimulated by lots of noise and party favors, and generally would rather just eat cake, open one gift and call it good. Even so the mom in me couldn't call that good enough, so we meet half way.

We have only folks over who Noah is comfortable with. That would be therapists, close relatives and maybe one family that he is around a lot. The party has to be short, so make the presents easy to open and not many is just fine.

By the time everyone got here, Noah was outside, swinging. When I told him to come in and eat some cake, he said "No cake mommy! Me swing!" So I had to carry him in. He was fine with it, and we got through the cake quickly. He did seem to enjoy that part of it. Soon after we moved onto the presents, which he didn't want to do but we got through them quickly.

So all in all it went fine. He didn't have a meltdown but by the time the last gift was opened he was off to the play room with his new scooter in hand. He was done with the social thing and wanted to be alone. Since its his party, I wasn't going to force him to interact. Ya gotta get something of what you want on your birthday, right?!

For his next birhday we may just go to one of those indoor bouncy playgrounds. He loves those and he can be there and choose to interact or not. Plus then I think all the other kids would have a lot more fun, as his parties are pretty short and sweet.

Janelle

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This week has been all about planting. Putting in clematis in the flower beds, more bedding plants, more seeds, plowing, finishing the veggie garden and figuring out what to do in the ramaining flower beds.

I have four flowerbeds that line up against my house that have contained the same one plant in all of them. I don't even know the name of it, but I know I never want to see it again! It was everywhere and I've almost done away with it.

Years ago the previous owners were big gardeners. There were flowers everywhere, and the garden was huge. As they grew older they couldn't keep up, so they let this one plant overgrow in all the beds. Icky.

Each year I  have taken one bed and redone it. I started by putting a new, long bed in the front of our fence at the front of our home. Its doing well now so I'd like to focus on some of these smaller existing beds.

I started out rototilling all of them. I've done this a few times now and my first goal is to kill off this ugly plant that was everywhere.

One of these beds is very long and narrow, so for this season I planted corn, sunflowers and pumpkins in it. I hope next year to start a rose garden in this section, as the light and soil is perfect for roses.

As for the other remaining beds, I'm not sure what to do. I'll probably just start throwing stuff in them and see how they turn out. That is how I usually garden - more of the country, throw it in and see what comes up style.

All of this planted has had me neglecting my home a bit and my online things. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get my house in order and slowly catch back up on line.

Have fun planting everyone!

Janelle

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Today its suppose to be 87 degress. Now for some of you southern and mid-west folks, that may seem normal. But for those of us natives here in wet Western Washington, who have webbed feet and parkas for year-round use, that is just plain HOT! Basically anything over 75 degrees is too hot. 75 is even a bit too hot for me but the rest of my family seems to like that temperature.

The other scary thing about it being 87 degrees today is that it is only May! We normally don't hit the high 80's till late June or early July. I personally think its a fluke and that trend won't continue. The rest of the week is suppose to be in the lower 70's, which is really nice for this time of year. I can handle that.

Enjoy your day - and if its a hot one, put on the sunblock!

Janelle

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Thank you Mrs. N for the comments on my last post and the subsequent links to some plans for camping kitchens. I really like the one design the best and will post the link here too. Check it out:

http://www.u-bild.com/projects-outdoor/213.htm

My husband likes this design a lot and I like that it not only gives me the storage and organization I'm looking for, but also gives me a work surface too.

I was reminded of a year when we were camping when our son Noah, who has autism, was around 2 years old. For those of you who are familiar with autism you will know that its not uncommon for autistic kids to have the free and flight syndrome. Our son was very much this way. Put him in an open space and he was out of there! Since he had no sense of danger, this was a bad combination to be running off. Thus, camping held some special challenges.

We didn't want to spend our trip chasing him all over the place, plus trying to care for an infant and two other little ones under 5. We had purchased a body harness for Noah that had a leash attachment in the back. Now I know to some of you that may sound aweful that we'd put our son on a leash, but I can tell you it saved his life a few times! We would put his harness on him when we were going places, and as soon as we got him out of his carseat we would attach the leash. He often went into a stroller at this age, but when he wasn't going to be confined in a stroller, the leash kept him safe. Many times once he was attached to his leash, he would try taking off on us. Some of these times we were in a busy parking lot or near a busy road, and if not for that leash, he may have seriously injured himself or even been killed. I, as a parent, will take the odd looks and the shaking heads of strangers who don't know better than take the chance of my son being hurt.

Now that we were going camping, we decided to modify our body harness and leash a bit. My husband added an extra long rope onto the leash and he made a rope runner in the campsite. This way, Noah could play in the sand, be in the shade, run some, play and have a great time without running off. Of course he wasn't on this all the time, but when he wasn't napping or playing with someone, or out with the family, he was on his leash. This allowed him to play and for me to care for the other three kids, make meals, and enjoy myself too while keeping him happy and safe. Sure, we got some looks from folks, but many said they wished they would have thought of that with their own kids, and their kids weren't special needs!

I'm not suggesting this to say you should do this with your own kids, but to suggest that with every problem or challenge there is a solution. You may not like the solution, but there is one. Staying home, cooped up in our house and not having a family vacation was not an option. Since hotels were way out of our price range, we had to make camping work for us. Our solution worked out so everyone could enjoy themselves!

Another great thing we started doing was that our main vacation is now still camping, but we rent a yurt. I know many campsites rent yurts or small cabins at a fraction of the cost of what a hotel would charge for a family of 6. Our yurt this year is running us $40 a night, but we get to sleep on beds, we have electricity, a small heater if we need it, and a door that locks. The locking door is really important to me with special needs kids. I need to make sure they don't wonder off in the middle of the night.

The only disadvantage to using yurts and cabins is you need to book your space way ahead of time. In Washington State, you can book up to 9 months beforehand. So we are thinking in the fall now of what we will be doing for the next summers vacation. Even so, it all works out.

Another note. If tent camping or in a cabin or a yurt, bring zip ties. They are not only good for securing ropes and things around your site, but they are good for looping through locks and zippers to keep your kids from getting out of your tent or cabin/yurt at night! Just have some scissors hidden away for the adults to cut through them when you need to get out.

Like I said, there is a solution. I encourage you with special kids to not limit yourselves to staying home. Go out and do the things that other families do with their typical kids. Yes, it will take more work. Yes, you may have to be creative in how you do it. Yes, you may not get to stay as long, but the interaction is great for your kids and for you! Don't limit yourself to your home. You can do church, parks, camping and vacations. You can go to the store. It may take time to make it work but it can work!

Happy camping! May God give you some creativity and solutions to your issues with your special needs kids.

Janelle

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I love Easter. The spring flowers, the kids in freshly pressed clothes, the fun and excitement of a family gathering. Of course I love this holiday the most of all because it is the celebration of Christ's dieing for our sins and his victory over death by rising from the grave on Easter morning.

This weekend we will make resurrection cookies with our kids. They are not really something to eat, but more of an object lesson in Christ's resurrection.

We also love doing the resurrection eggs, which depict the story of Christ's entry into Jerusalem to the cross, to the resurrection.

For some homemade how-to's on all of this and other Easter activities, check out this site. http://www.easyfunschool.com/IndexEaster.html

This is also a fun homeschool site with lots of ideas, but I was particurally impressed with their selection of Easter activities.

Well off to life! Have a wonderful Easter weekend! He is risen!

Janelle

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