Posted in Homeschooling
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We had the pleasure of going to our local art museum today and taking a homeschool art class. I have been meaning to try this class with my littles all school year and finally made it. There were 12 kids in our age group and the docent was excellent. She took us around the art museum to look at a large variety of paintings with the theme of lines. It was interesting to see all the different ways lines are used in art. After about 40 minutes of touring the museum, we moved into the art studio. The kids were given aprons and told that they were going to make prints with the theme of lines! What fun.
First they made lined patterns on their printing foam. The teacher told us that one could use the foam from an egg carton and get the same affect.
Next, they painted the print with printing paint.
Then, they used a roller to press down the template onto the paper.
How cool is that! They were able to go back over and over again with different colors and make really creative prints.
The kids' finished products! From top to bottom, Tom Sawyer's, which he named Random Lights (he's the one who has never waivered from wanting to become an artist); middle one is Little Red Ridinghood's wonderful organic shapes; and the bottom was created by Goldilocks. I am so pleased with this program. They were able to use high quality art supplies, and the teacher was really nice. On the registration form, it had asked how to best teach each child. I had written about the kids' special needs and what would make it easier for them (example~extra paper towels for sensory boy and repeated directions for FASD girl). The teacher had obviously read the registration sheet and followed through with helping my kiddos. Very impressive! I can't wait for next month's program! Blessings, Dawn |
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Please join My Heart's Desire in her weekly wrap-up.
The weather outside has been frightful for days and we are feeling cabin fever around here. Our Five In A Row group was canceled due to everything frozen that can fall out of the sky on Friday. I think we saw sleet, hail, snow and freezing rain all within any given hour of the day. We are having some wild weather indeed. Now, I have to try and reschedule the Five In A Row group, but the forecast looks crazy for next week as well. OY!! On the Homefront I got to do some stockpile shopping at our local grocery store. They had lots of dairy and nitrate free lunchmeat on super sale (more than 50% off). It is nice to have a full fridge. I am struggling a bit with the kids' chore charts. I revamped them in January, and they do not seem to be working out as well as the previous lists. However, I wanted to train each child in a different task and get on top of maintaining bedrooms. The bedrooms are working well but the other chores need some more thought. In the Schoolroom Oh boy, Tom Sawyer was in heaven compared to having a sick teacher/mommy last week. We got several projects done and really got into our study of space. We kicked off our science unit on space by watching Apollo 13. The kids loved it and learned more than I thought they would from the movie. (FYI~There was a shower scene that I had forgotten about that raised some eyebrows and questions out of one little one. They don't really show anything, but you are aware that a man and woman are in the shower at the same time.) We continued by reading some library books about Apollo 13 and making moon rocks out of homemade glitter playdough. We also learned about constellations and made up some of our own. The kids really liked both projects. We also worked on lots of projects to go along with Snowflake Bentley, but I will save that for a different post. Math, language arts and reading were done in a bit more unschooling style this week. They all got done but it was more games and workbooks that the kids could do on their own. Tom Sawyer's yearly tests results came back this week. He did very well. He came out at or above grade level in all subjects accept spelling. He was only a few months behind in spelling. Funny, his tester suggested that I make him a spelling dictionary similar to what Charlotte Mason suggests. That very thought has been on my To Do List for the last few weeks. I guess I better get to it. It is such a relief that he is doing so well.
In the Way of Parenting Things are going well with the kids saying "thank you" and "my pleasure" to each other. I still have to prompt them lots of the time, but I am seeing improvement. Goldilocks is still holding steady. I am back to trying to balance my desires for my children with their actual abilities. Merging and molding their disabilities together can be so hard at times. I do keep seeing progress and must remind myself that child training takes LOTS OF TIME. As a Wife Between illness and dh's work schedule, we have fallen off the rule that we must be in our bedroom at 9:30 every night. The idea behind this theory was that we would be in the same room so that, even if he was finishing up ironing (yes, he really likes to iron!) and I was looking over the next day's lesson plans, we would be able to chat about life beyond childrearing. We both have mentioned missing this time together, so we will make sure that it is put back on track next week. Family Time We are working on having calmer evenings as a family together. There has been way too much boisterous hide and seek and Nerf gun wars in the house with someone getting hurt or feeling cheated. My kiddos just can not take that much wildness, even though they crave it. Playing card games has been the most popular replacement to the noisy, out of control games. The kids all learned how to play Apples to Apples this week. The girls have to be on a team with a parent, but Tom Sawyer can hold his own with his own cards. Timothy keeps beating us since he is a walking encyclopedia. I think we played this game 3 nights this week for up to an hour each time.
Blessings, Dawn |
From the Heart
Posted in the big teen
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After 19 years of asking, waiting, and wondering, a soft-spoken neurologist finally gave us a missing piece to the puzzle in my son's brain. For years we have heard phrases like "Dandy Walker Cyst," "This brain is a train wreck", "Institutionalize him", "Microcephaly," "Maybe it's VCFS," "Severely brain damaged", "He won't survive and if he does he will be retarded". But no one ever told us the information that has been sitting on the MRI scans done on Timothy at the age of 19 days. Yes, folks, 19 DAYS OF AGE!!! HE WILL BE 20 YEARS OLD IN APRIL We have seen at least 7 other neurologists over the years, and none of them gave us the information that was sitting right there on those scans all these years!!!! I don't know why. Surely they recognized the severity of the hypoxia. It's just they never told us about it. "Put him in an institution" was easier than taking the time to show us what horrible shape his brain is in. No one took the almost two hours to sit down and explain this "new" information to us. Not until this doctor.... Ahhh, I am ahead of myself. I will back up a bit. On our never-ending quest to find Timothy more help, we decided to try the new board certified neurologist in town. Timothy's geneticist has unsuccessfully pursued for years the possibility that Timothy has VCFS, as Tim has many, many symptoms of VCFS (Velo-Cardio Facial Syndrome) but doesn't test for it with chromosomes and also wanted him evaluated by this new neurologist. He said he was giving people answers and help that they had never recieved before. We gathered all of his medical records and the one set of MRI scans that were done on Timothy's brain when he was 19 days old. It is the only MRI that he has ever or will ever have, because a pacemaker was implanted soon after the first MRI. People with pacemakers can not have MRIs. The neurologist asked us loads of questions and looked at the scans. He said everyone was complicating the waters looking for a syndrome or genetic condition. He agreed that he had microcephaly and a "significant" Dandy Walker Cyst which explains a host of Timothy's learning, emotional and medical health problems. And he may very well have VCFS. However, he said the biggest issue was that he had HYPOXIC ISCHEMIC ENCEPHALOPATHY (HIE). Basically, these really fancy words mean a severe lack of oxygen and blood to the brain and central nervous system either during pregnancy or in some cases during the first months after birth. (It can also happen after a heart attack.) He said the scans showed a severe case, and he did not know how Timothy had survived. He had only looked at scans this bad of babies who had already died and he had been called in to make the diagnosis. Now that we know what to look for in the scans, it is shocking to compare his scans to that of a normal infant's brain. Since Tim had three heart attacks after the MRI was done and during the first few months after he was born, the neurologist said that Timothy's brain probably actually looks worse than it was in the MRI. The neurologist said his brain was "screaming out" HIE!! Also, this patient, kindly neurologist said he absolutely could not understand why Timothy didn't have very severe cerebral palsy. I explained to him about all the early childhood intervention that was started when Tim was less than 2 weeks old, and he said that maybe, just maybe, that helped. One thing is for sure, Tim is a miracle. So all this time, it may have been just a bum pregnancy or delivery that caused a host of the problems my ds lives with now. (The Dandy Walker Cyst is something different and was not caused by the pregnancy.) I experienced a very difficult pregnancy and delivery with him. I feel no guilt, though. I did everything the doctors told me to do and never ate or drank anything wrong (not even a soda), never used nail polish or hair spray or anything I thought had chemicals in it, but it just wasn't enough. I was bedridden, laying on my left side for weeks and then hospitalized for two months to try to keep the pregnancy viable. I know that he would have had significant problems even if he had only had the Dandy Walker Cyst. Many babies born with a Dandy Walker Cyst die in infancy. I feel a renewed sense of gratitude that we were blessed with this child. Doctors have told me many times that he is a miracle and that God must have a special purpose for him. We sure are happy to have him and think he has changed the course of our family several times. He even saved his little brother's life once. Unfortunately, the doctor did not have any great advice for us. He could not figure out how he was doing as well as he is doing. Boy, have we heard that a million times. But, I guess when only a very small percentage of these kids live, there isn't much research to go on. The doctor told us to keep doing what we are doing. Stimulate, stimulate, stimulate the brain through more and more experiences. Tim can not grow anymore brain cells, but he can grow pathways between cells for the rest of his life. So that is what we will do....That and keep praying and thanking God for all that he has done in our son's life. We are so blessed. Blessings, Dawn
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Come join the weekly wrap-up at My Heart's Desire.
I am thinking, thinking, thinking about kindness and helpfulness among siblings... I found out that the Duggar shows can be watched on Youtube (we don't have cable). I have gone a bit "Duggar crazy" this past week. The thing that really stands out to me with the Duggars is the way the siblings help each other and are so kind to each other in words and actions. I look around me and see room for improvement in my own home. I have a few plans to put into action to start us on a better path. On the Homefront Yeah, we got to stay home a lot more this week than last. However, illness struck early on and is slowly moving through the family. We have kept the house afloat but not a whole lot more. We got 8 inches of snow last night so the kids are having a blast. I think they were outside for the first time today at around 8 am. And now power outages!! Hurray! In the Schoolroom I adapted our lessons mid-week when it became obvious that we were going to be under the weather. We did lots of snuggling and reading of library books and made a good dent in our teatime book, The Railway Children. Tom Sawyer is really hoping that we are on the mend and back to our normal routine by Monday. I think I heard, "I'm bored" or "When is science or art?" from him at least 50 times on Friday alone. Tom Sawyer has now memorized 4 little songs on the piano and read his first chapter book! At least they got lots of P.E. in the snow today... In the Way of Parenting So back to my obsession with the Duggars and how to bring more kindness and teamwork into my home. I am starting with words. When a child does something for another child, the child who was shown a kindness is to say "thank you" (no matter how small the kindness). The child who received the thank you is to say "my pleasure". We are on day two of this and so far it is almost 100% prompted by me, but I see happiness in their faces over the thank you's. It is always nice to feel appreciated. We will see how this goes. Secondly, the extra nurturing with miss Goldilocks seems to be holding her much more steady. She usually goes downhill real quickly when I am sick (even with a simple cold). She does not like to see any weakness in her Mommy, and it make her behavior go out the window. This week she has stayed the course of pretty good behavior. YEAH!!! As a Wife It was a nice week with hubby home from work on time most days. We are looking forward to our once a month date night next week. I need to start thinking about where to go. It is my turn to plan the evening this time. We so often go out to dinner followed by drooling at the local bookstore. I would like to do something different this time. Maybe bowling or ????? Anyone have any ideas for somewhat cheap and fun dates? Family Time Lots of snuggling and watching the Duggars together this week. Do you see a theme here? LOL! We did brave the great outdoors today to have some fun sledding and making ice/snow forts.
Charades has become an absolute favorite game around here. My kids' creativity is amazing. They really think up some clever things to do. They are also getting so good at UNO that they are beating my husband and myself on a regular basis! Blessings, Dawn
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Posted in Homeschooling
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The news says a big snow storm is heading our way. It should be here in about 6 hours! Usually, I am very excited about snow, since we do not see it very often. However, it is supposed to start during rush hour when my dh is coming home and most of us our sick. We are fighting a nasty cold and some of us even have fevers. We will run our day like this~
Around and around like that until we get to the afternoon where there will be a 2 hour nap time! I can't wait for nap time.... Blessings, Dawn |
The thought of sledding is making my head hurt! Since the weather man is predicting up to a foot of snow and possible widespread power outages, I feel like there is lots of work I should be doing to prepare. I really should make some food that needs no heat source and catch the laundry up (our laundry room is unheated and the pipes often freeze in storms like these). Also, the yard should be prepared, car moved out from under the tree so falling branches don't crush it, and the sleds found. To add to my worries, the one child who is not showing any signs of illness is the one who needs to be supervised at all times. So, I am adapting our day to get through it and handle the extra workload with lots of rest for mom and the little sickies. Posted in Homeschooling
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I bet you can't guess where we do circle time? We do circle time on the upstairs stairwell landing and in the stairwell ... Sounds like a funny place, huh?! It works great for us. I was trying to get all of the posters in the house in one place and started putting them in the stairwell. Then I thought it would be a great place for our weather tree. Since the weather tree is part of circle time, we decided to move our calendar and routine chart to that location as well. So each morning after morning chores are complete, the kids gather on the top stair landing.
(Little Red Ridinghood is sick and couldn't muster up a smile this morning.)
The first thing we do each circle time is go over the routine for the day. I love the system I came up with last year. We can move the little velcro cards around according to what we will be doing on any given day. Next we go over our calendar skills and family rules. Our family rules are~
(Under our calendar is our people timeline). Next we record that day's predicted weather on the weather tree. We just started this New Year's Day and are really enjoying it so far.
Once we are done with the weather tree, we review one of our posters. We either review the world map, U.S. map, continent map, geography terms, solar system chart or the Pledge of Allegiance.
Lastly, we review one of our books. Right now we are doing a book on families around the world. It is interesting to see how others live. The kids then find that family's country and continent. Before this book, we reviewed safety cards and next we will be doing a book on body language.
It is amazing how much we can get done in about 20 minutes time. So do you do circle time? What does it look like in your house? Blessings, Dawn |
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My heart's desire does this really fun wrap-up each week. I am joining in for the first time.
I am thinking about what more our family can do for Haiti. It is just crushing to know the horrors that are happening to the people there. Additionally, Goldilocks's doctor wants her to start a medication that I am really not thrilled about. I understand his reasoning, but I don't like the possible side effects. I guess we will reluctantly give it a trial run. On the Homefront It doesn't seem like I was home much this past week. I think we drove about 160 miles this past week with 89 miles being on one day. I really want to get control of the doctor/therapy appointments so that there is only one or two a week. Weeks like this past one makes that desire seem impossible. However, I did manage to stay on top of the laundry, bathrooms and kitchen. The kids are doing a great job keeping their rooms up. I am surprising them with nickels some days if their rooms are really clean, but the catch is that they don't know what day they may get surprised with a nickel. In the Schoolroom Even though we were not home much this week, we made it through 90% of our lessons. The only subject that was not touched was art. Our books and the lesson plans I had prepared on Botticelli are missing. Go figure! I have started teaching all three littles the piano. Tom Sawyer likes it the best and has been learning a little bit here and there from me for a year or so. The girls are not so sure about it but sit for my very short lessons. We are starting the Middle Ages and I am really excited about some of the projects I have planned. Much to my surprise, all of the kids are really enjoying Latin and are starting to retain vocabulary.
In the Way of Parenting I am trying to work very hard on the nurturing piece of parenting with my Goldilocks. With her special issues (RAD/FASD), she often really resists being nurtured. I am afraid I have developed a habit of not being very affectionate toward her since it makes her uncomfortable. However, the last two months her behavoir has slid futher and further downhill. I woke up convicted one morning that what I needed to do was gently but forcefully bring the nurturing piece to the forefront of my parenting. So for the last week, each morning I have taken 20 to 40 minutes to have one-on-one time with her. I try to paint her nails, rub her back, put lotion on her hands, clip her toenails (whatever she will let me do peacefully). She has made a drastic shift in attitude. I hope this will prove to be the next piece to the puzzle in helping her heal. As a Wife I have had to bite my tongue this week about my husband working late every night. I know his promotion is a blessing and that his work ethic is what got him there, but I am really struggling with the change in our routine. Hopefully, he will have the job down and organized in the next few weeks. They are terribly understaffed in this new department so it may take some time. We are making the most of our weekends together as a family and wife/husband. Family Time We went to an Inflatable Indoor Playground this weekend, since it has drizzled both days. Everyone had a great time. Daddy really got into it. We are also adding in a game night each week. We played charades this week. The kids really loved playing this game for the first time and were very creative.
Can you see my husband underneath the children? Blessings, Dawn
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Posted in SOTW
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A few days ago, we held our Viking funeral to finish up our studies on the Vikings with SOTW. The kids made a man out of a wooden clothespin. Little Red Ridinghood painted the man all in blue. Yes, it was the Celts that went into battle painted blue, not the Vikings, but she wanted to paint him blue. The kids really had fun with this project. Hey, it is always fun if it involves fire, right?! That is the way the boys think anyway.
I am going to set SOTW aside for our study of the Middle Ages. I feel like the book is not meaty/interesting enough to really hold the kids' attention for this time period. I know loads about the Middle Ages and look forward to diving into a nice unit study. Happy learning! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Outdoor Challenge
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This week's outdoor challenge was to go back and look at the tree we are following this year. Our tree (an Oak) had many brown leaves still on it. We were really surprised to see leaves still on it considering all of the high winds we get around here. The kids studied their Fall drawings and added Winter drawings in their nature journals. They also did some bark rubbings. We are going to go back with a pruning shear and get a branch that we can put into water and try to get the buds to bloom.
The stairs were so slippery and still covered with ice. You really cannot see how blue the ice was in these pictures. It was really neat to see. On this same adventure, we also went to our local fish hatchery. It was so much fun to feed the trout and learn about their life cycle. If we had brought more quarters for fish food, the kids could have stayed there all day.
Little Red Ridinghood fed one fish pellet at a time. She would carefully pick out a special fish and try to feed it. Not an easy feat when there are hundreds of trout trying to get one fish pellet. Blessings, Dawn *The color is caused by the absorption of both red and yellow light (leaving light at the blue end of the visible light spectrum). From the surface, snow and ice present a uniformly white face. This is because almost all of the visible light striking the snow or ice surface is reflected back, without any preference for a single color within the visible spectrum. The situation is different for light that is not reflected, but penetrates or is transmitted into the snow. As this light travels into the snow or ice, the ice grains scatter a large amount of light. If the light is to travel over any distance it must survive many such scattering events. In other words, it must keep scattering and not be absorbed. If it is only a centimeter thick, all the light makes it through; if it is a meter thick, mostly blue light makes it through, and that is what we see.
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Posted in Reflections and Blessings
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In the wake of the horrible earthquake in Haiti, our family wanted to do something to help. But, I did not just want me to write a check and then tell the children that we had helped. I have stated before that one of our main goals is to teach our children to be charitable toward their fellow beings so I really wanted them to be part of this giving process. We are loaded down with medical/therapy appointments right now, and the kids are too young to work for local organizations that are heading out. So what to do? I was standing in my kitchen thinking about what to do and realized that even though it was almost grocery shopping day, we were not down to crumbs like we often are. There were lots of varieties of flour, 4 pounds of carrots, a little bit of meat (about 1.5 pounds) and a bag of organic potatoes (please, it is essential to eat only organic potatoes or those you grow yourself), several cans of beans, 4 gluten-free muffin mixes, 2 bags of rice cakes, 3 pounds of frozen fruit and a host of miscellaneous items. My dh and I decided that we would try to get by on what we had and spend only $30 for groceries this week. We usually spend about $100 per week for our family of six. Our grocery shopping runs from Thursday to Thursday. We will send the remainder of our grocery money to Samaritan's Purse or Partners in Health is the best way I could think of to help the kids FEEL that they were giving. My children eat lots of fruit and LOVE vegetables, but fruit is especially expensive this time of year. Yes, they will probably complain a little bit, but they are so blessed to have all that they have. I am sure that we will have many teachable moments in the coming week. I expect that our week will have very few desserts; we will probably run out of fresh fruit by mid week; and there will be almost no meat with meals. Did you hear my husband and Timothy groan on that last one? ALMOST NO MEAT!!! I am also going to use this opportunity to learn some of Clara's cooking techniques. Have you watched any of Depression Cooking with Clara on Youtube? I love her show. We had Peppers and Eggs for lunch today. Yummy!!! e="3" face="Comic Sans MS"> This is what I bought today for $22 from our dent and scratch store. They carry organic produce and and meat from local farmers as well as dent and scratch items.
My husband's only request was that we stick with our plan of eating 75% organically and mostly gluten free. Everything here is organic except the red pepper. The remaining $8 will be spent on organic peanut butter and yeast to make bread. We will only give a tiny bit of homemade bread to Tom Sawyer, who is the one we notice has the most trouble with gluten. He seems ok if he only has a little bit of gluten 3 times a week. I know groaning about this amount of food is really silly when you think of the Haitians who have been surviving on MUD cookies for the last couple years, but we are spoiled. I'll let you know how we did. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Outdoor Challenge
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The Outdoor Challenges are back at Barbara's. Hop on over and try one of them out. We went on a nature winter walk this weekend with Daddy. It took some bravery since it was only 21 degrees outside (not including the wind chill). Brrrrr!!! While on our walk, we decided to try to find some cattails to see what they looked like during the winter time. We went to our local wetland park. The kids were so excited to see iced over bodies of water (even if it was 9 inch deep wetlands~lol). Before long they were walking on the ice with Daddy in the lead.
They were all fluffy and the seeds were blowing away in the wind. My most impulsive child picked one of the cattails, so of course we had to take it home and study it.
When we got home we explored our cattail in more detail. That one impulsive child (again) encouraged our study by pulling some of the fuzz out of the cattail. Before long we had it floating all through the air. What a scientific mess! Blessings, Dawn |
They found dog and bird tracks in the snow. They had fun taking pictures of the tracks.
After a bit of looking, we found the cattails. The kids checked their nature journals and were surprised to see how much they had changed. 
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Here are two more rooms in our five bedroom makeover. If you missed the first two rooms you can go here. Unfortunately, none of the photos of Timothy's room came out well. I am not sure what went wrong. Anyway, my 19 year old son really did not want his room in the reveal. So, I will leave his room out. Goldilocks was the only one who did not switch rooms during this big room rotation. It was important to us that she get something special in her room so that she felt part of the transition. I was so excited when I found this vanity at a thrift store.
Cute, huh? Well, it opens up to reveal a cute chair that my Mother found at a different thrift store and decorated to match the mirror that she also found and painted. The drawers are filled with fabrics and ribbons so Goldilocks may decorate her horses.
My Mom also took an old matelasse coverlet and dyed it purple. It came out much nicer than we could have imagined, as it was her first try at dying fabrics. As you can see, Goldilocks' bedroom is painted 2 walls in purple and 2 walls in pink, per her request.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Parents' Bedroom We moved back to the master bedroom. Ahhh! The space in our new room is fantastic. My Mother gave us an unfinished wood sleigh bed for Christmas (which dh stained a beautiful honey maple), and my in-laws gave us some deep pocket sheets. Since my Mom now feels like an experienced dyer, she took our fading yellow matelasse coverlet and dyed it yellow to brighten it up. It all feels so calm in my room now.
I still need to paint the baseboard on the wall. We did the same curtain treatment to our closet as was done to Little Red Ridinghood's closet.
Here is one of my favorite new things. My Mother (once again) found several radiator covers on the side of the road. Two of them fit perfectly, and the others can probably be adjusted. My dh painted it to match the wall, and it looks great. You know the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure".
Well, that is all, folks.... I have some homeschooling posts floating around in my brain. Hopefully, I will get one of them up this weekend. It seems like I have been ignoring homeschooling lately on this blog. It really is still happening, and I look forward to getting back to posting about it. Blessings, Dawn |
She also got a new rug and curtains since her shades were in terrible repair.
My Mom also gave me this sweet little rocking chair. It is perfect to sit in when I want to do a little light reading. 
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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We tend to start out each New Year with a bang. A few years ago, the car needed huge repairs just days into the new year and last year the water heater died on New Year's eve. It has kind of become a habit to wait and see what is going to break down before using our Christmas money on something fun. This year we thought that a big chunk of money was going to go to the bathtub that needs refinishing. That is still a priority since we fear it is leaching lead. No one is allowed to have a bath or shower in that bathroom until it is resolved and the tub man comes out today to give us an estimate. However, as in years past, The House let us know what IT needs, too. Last night fire shot out from behind the stove. I screamed for dh and the electrical system tripped and put the fire out on it's own. Thank the Lord!!! However, the wall behind it is burned. The electrician is laying a new line to the stove as I type. All should be safe again in just a few minutes. We are so blessed that the fire went out on its own, no one was standing at the stove, the stove was on it's own line so that it did not spread thoughout our electic wiring and that we were home to get help right away.
NOTHING LIKE ADDING A BIT OF SIZZLE TO YOUR WEEK! Dawn |
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I did this meme last year and it was fun. I think I will do it again. If you decide to do it, let me know and I will come see yours. You take the first sentence from the first entry of each month of 2009 and a picture from that month. The picture does not need to go with the sentence. It should be from the same month. January Sometimes living with a special needs child is so hard!
February I looked out the window this morning, hoping for major snow.
March An amazing event has taken place in our home this past week.
(Goldilocks got the Flu and slept without meds.) April Everyone has talents that help them stand out in his or her family.
May Today is "Gotcha Day" for my ds, Tom Sawyer.
June My dd performed in her dance recital this past weekend.
July I buy some books brand new and some books used.
August One of our main goals this year is everyone becoming a good reader.
September Can a gluten-free, mostly dairy-free, organic meat, locally grown fruit/veggie family of six eat for $75 a week??? ... without Mom going crazy and dh or the teenager starving???
October After much thought and prayer over the last year, we have decided that our current home is the "forever" home.
November We keep moving on in construction.
December It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Well, there is our year in review. It was a very exciting year. I hope this next year finds all of you blessed and at peace. Blessings, Dawn |
(The parting of the Red Sea)
Posted in Homeschooling
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There is a great giveaway going on over at Ordinary Life Magic for those of you that love Janice VanCleave and her science books. But hurry, there is only one more day to enter. I decided to try out a fun science experiment on meteorites with the kids to kick off our studies on astronomy. I used a Janice VanCleave experiment which can be found in her book, Help! My Science Project is Due Tomorrow. I found it in an old Practical Homeschooling magazine. The goal was to show the kids how a meteorite impacts the earth. The kids put 8 cups of cornmeal mix into a shoebox. Then they made clay balls about the size of a walnut.
We measured the cornmeal depth with a toothpick and marked it. Then they held their "meteors" and dropped them into the cornmeal.
Then they measured and marked their toothpicks to see how deep a crater the "meteorite" made. They did this over and over again. (Yes, dd is still in her sleeper! They were so excited to do an experiement during school break that they raced straight down without dressing! LOL....)
The kids had so much fun. Did you notice that I called the ball a meteor when It was being dropped and a meteorite when it had already hit the ground? That is because the space rock is called a meteoroid when it is in space, a meteor when it is falling through the earth's atmosphere and a meteorite once it has hit the ground. Cool, huh? Tom Sawyer (7) stretched the project farther, of course... He decided to build a forest out of toothpicks to see how the meteorites would destroy a forest. He had an unexpected result.
He tried it 4 times with the same results. Maybe, the clay ball would do something different if it was dry. He suggested we set the ball on fire and try again. However, I am just not that cool of a Mom today. Poor boy! Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in RAD FASD and Goldilocks Journey
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Wow! Goldilocks is nine already.... In keeping with tradition, here is a list of nine words to describe Goldilocks. I like this exercise, and it is an especially nice reminder of the good times with my most difficult child. Living with a child that is dealing with serious mental illness and developmental issues is very exhausting and often the days seem way too long. However, there are bright parts in almost every day, and it is good to remember Goldilock's more positive character traits. The following list describes Goldilocks on her emotionally healthy days.
Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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I promised I would show you all the new rooms after Christmas. Well, that day has come. We decorated the kids's rooms this year for Christmas in lieu of toys. The first room up for show and tell is Tom Sawyer's room. He got the brand new room. It is an attic type room that is small but just perfect for him. It is very quiet and has one wide, bright window. He wanted the room painted two colors of green. It came out great. His room really shows his personality with a little boy's toy area and a very serious artist area. (He spent about 6 hours of Christmas Day working with his new art supplies.)
His Legos and Lincoln Logs are in drawers under his bed.
His artist area. He loves to do art and is really serious about it. My Mom found this great student desk at a thrift store for him to store art supplies and do his art work at.
This is his toy area for his big toys. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The next room to show and tell is Little Red Ridinghood's room. Her room is a nice sunny room that is made more so by her floors being painted antique white. They are proving hard to keep clean but look nice when freshly mopped. It is totally a girly room. You can tell that she is glad she doesn't share with a boy anymore. Her closet will be painted pink but is still the pumpkin color of her oldest brother whose room it used to be. And there is a pink shelf sitting on the bookcase that still needs to be hung.
The best part about the rooms is that they speak to the kids' desires but did not cost us that much. Most everything was either repurposed from other rooms, handed down from relatives, or found at thrift shops, especially Habitat for Humanity Store. In Little Red Ridinghood's room, I took several different pieces of furniture and painted them all the same color. It really pulled them all together. My Mom dyed an old matelasse cover the perfect pink. Also, Mom didn't have room for the wicker armoire in her house anymore, so we moved it to Little Red Ridinghood's room. It holds a lot of toys and the drawers serve as a chest of drawers for her clothing. Hopefully, I will be able to show you the next rooms in a few days. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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I think we are going to have that White Christmas I have dreamed of for years. Well, at least a slushy Christmas. LOL! We got at least 13 inches of snow and there is still plenty on the ground. It is supposed to warm up a bit today and will probably melt a bit away.
Here is the children's first full size snowman EVER! His name is "bicycle man" and he has sun dried tomatoes for eyes! How much more southern could he get. LOL!
The slide off the back deck.
Me in my Pillsbury Doh Boy coat. I finally know what I want for Christmas! Snow boots and more gloves. Notice~I have a sock on one hand. I want to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas....I hope you have a day filled with love, joy and peace. Blessings, Dawn |
Posted in Family Funnies and happenings
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WooHoo! My northern blood is doing the happy dance! It is snowing like crazy outside. About an hour ago, we measured 9 inches of snow in our backyard! This is AMAZING for our area!
The kids rushed through their schoolwork and chores this morning so that they could get outside right after lunch. I would like to say that they had a great time in the snow. However, there were many tears out of Goldilocks. She cried and cried about how cold the snow was, that the snow touched her and about how she didn't have the sled she wanted, and on and on. After about 10 minutes of melting down, she got used to the idea and started having fun. There was enough snow to sled for real and make two tiny snowmen. At the time we went out, there was about 2 inches.
The girls had loads of fun making snowmen.
Everyone loved sledding! I even got in a few runs.
We went out one more time when Daddy got home. By that time, it was about 6 inches. The sledding wasn't as good, but the snowball fights were great, with no tears this time. The one downside to this storm is the effect it is having on our Southern Grand Magnolia tree. It is dropping lots of branches because of the weight of the snow. It is considered one of the historic trees in our city because of its height and girth, and I am afraid we may need to get an arborist to take care of it when all is said and done. Several of the branches hit the minivan, but it seems okay.
Blessings, Dawn |
The weather man says we may get up to 12 inches! There is also snow forcasted for most of next week, including Christmas Eve. Dare I wish for a White Christmas?!?!? I think, if the snow keeps up for much longer, it will be more snow than I have seen in 10 years, which is when we moved to this area. 
Of Course, Tom Sawyer had to eat just a little bit of snow!
They finished off their time with a good old snowball fight, which caused more tears! Sigh...
Posted in Muffin Tin Monday
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I am happy to be getting back to Muffin Tin Monday. This week's theme is Christmas books. We read The Biggest Snowman Ever for our Muffin Tin Monday activity.
I decided that it would be fun for the kids to make marshmallow snowmen for their muffin tin treat. I only used what we had on hand. It would have been nicer to use white frosting. However, my southern children never see enough snow to cover the dirt so all snow gets muddy quick. The "mud" on the snowmen seemed normal to them. LOL!
Clockwise ~ Chocolate kisses, big marshmallows, toothpicks, sprinkles, frosting, mini-marshmallows.
Blessings, Dawn |
