Meandering Thoughts - Homeschool Blogger

My Dear Friend

Wed, 2 Jul 2008 07:39:00 -0500

My dear friend Julie always has such uplifting words for me! She is such a blessing. Thank-you Lord.

Today her blog has a wonderfully inspiring video and song by Steven Curtis Chapman. Please visit her and be greatly encouraged today!

Blessings,

Andrea

Baptismal Anniversary

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:07:00 -0500

Today we celebrated my dd9's Baptismal Anniversary. She is the type that likes any kind of attention (being 1 of 9 who wouldn't) so we tried to make it a special day. We took the kids to see the movie Wall-E. Very cute. Not many movies out these days that I can truly label "cute" but this one was. Then we came home to a special meal of her choice followed by our family ceremony to remember the day she was baptized.

Even though I started to write about our day I feel more like sharing about another thought that has been weighing on me. I know of a couple close to my age, the wife sadly died from cancer leaving 3 children behind. This was two years ago and now I have learned he is to remarry. I am so happy for him but this weighing in my heart continues. How easily replaced we are in this life. No matter how much impact we try to make while we are here, once we die we become replaceable. I understand grieving and how this needs to be in order to emotionally survive........but how sad that makes me feel.

How blessed I am to be celebrating the day my daughter was baptized!

Blogwebs

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:57:00 -0500

Well you know it has been a long time since you’ve last blogged when you have to have your password e-mailed to you! Yikes!

I have closed up our books officially for our 2007/08 school year. Posted marks on a transcript, cleaned out our book closet, organized and photocopied all I can for our TOG unit starting in August. Reorganized a few annoying things in my schoolroom and had lunch out with a friend. I now actually find myself with a few spare moments, although not uninterrupted, so I thought I’d dust off the blogwebs!

I can’t believe;

~ another school year has come and gone

~ that we are preparing to start our 3^rd year of Tapestry of Grace, before that I curriculum shopped every 6 months!

~ we only have 44 days left of summer break

~ my eldest is taking Driver’s Ed next week

~ my baby is already 5 months old

~ we are preparing for his baptism this Sunday and I have nothing done

~ my 2yr old is growing up into a little man

~ I keeping eating chocolate chip cookies yet I don’t lose any weight

~ that dirty laundry does not take a summer break

~ that my 6ds, who is deaf, really can hear with Cochlear Implants; amazing

Time to make the cookies! Gotta go.

Blessings,

Andrea

#9

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:04:00 -0600

Well it has been forever since I last blogged! We have exciting news as I am thrilled to share that little Kristopher joined our family on January 10th. Before we left the hospital we learned that he too is deaf and will devolop Ushers Syndrome the same as two of his siblings. We also have a new puppy, a Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff) so we have a lot of busy "new" going on right now. We are truly blessed.

Blessings to all,

Andrea

Raised Bed

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 21:44:00 -0500

For Mother's Day my husband and 2 eldest sons built me my first raised bed garden. We filled it full of topsoil and proceeded to fill it with lots of yummy little seedlings. Three weeks later everything looks beautiful. Looks too good, now I am starting to worry that our neighbors, the bunnies and deer will start noticing. Yikes, anyone have any ideas for keeping the little critters away?
Blessings,
Andrea

Isolation in deafness

Sun, 27 May 2007 06:47:00 -0500

Twelve years ago we were blessed with the birth of a beautiful baby girl. She was perfect! Six months later was learned that she was profoundly deaf. What did that mean? We knew nothing about deafness and what that entailed. Luckily we lived in a city that had a deaf school so we were quickly embraced by the Deaf community. We tried to educate ourselves about deafness and quickly learned that there were so many different choices it was exhausting. One big choice was method of communication. ASL, PSE, SEE, Cued, Oral.............Then there was the whole issue about "D" verses "d" in what kind of deaf you were. deaf with a lower case d meant that you we physically deaf, trying to fix something that is broken and your heart is with the hearing world. Deaf with a capital D meant that your hearing loss was not something to be fixed, yet embraced by an active Deaf Culture, pround to be Deaf! Well we quickly embraced "D"eaf and that became our way of life for seven years. Everything we did was Deaf. We had articles published in newspapers advocating Deaf Culture. We fought the government to keep Deaf Schools open, it was a way of life. Deaf people do not see their hearing loss as a handicap or disibility in any way (at least overtly). We did not presue cochlear implants beacuse the Deaf Community shunned them and looked down on people who used them. CI's stood for everythign we are opposed to.

Well, then we we blessed by the birth of a sweet little boy (baby #6) who we discovered in the hospital, was profoundly deaf as well. Our hearts were still "D"eaf. Yet the Lord worked on us and brought us to the relization that we needed to research all options for this child as we did with our first deaf child. So cochlear implants slowly became a real option for this child and at 17 months he was implanted.

Without getting into a 10 page story of trials and tribulatioins our family has endured with deafness I will get back to the point. My second deaf child is being reaised hearing throught the gift of modern technology. My first deaf child is twelve now and still functioning as deaf. DEAFNESS IS A HANDICAP! We let people convience us differnetly years ago but now life daily proves otherwise. I believe the isolation is creates to be one of the most disibilitating handicaps possible. My daughter is not deformed or in a wheel chair so she looks like she fits right in, so much so that people will start talking to her without realizing the difference. Of course they think she is just a rude kid when she does not respond.

This post was created out of a recent frustrating situation. Our state homeschool conference assured us that an interpreter would be present for my daughter. Of course things did not work out smoothly and the interpreter was not secured for the weekend. A volunteer helped for a few sessions and other than that my daughter was once again relying on others in isolation. It was very upsetting for me, as the parent of a disabled child I feel like I have failed at providing for her. Continuously that wknd I was told "I am sorry" for the lack of providing an interpreter. The attitude and emotion associated with the phrase was like I was being told "I am sorry you can't get a reservation in this restaurant." So we choose to go down the road to another place to eat. It does not work like that, my daughter has no other options, when people say "I am sorry" what they are really saying is "your daughter cannot be a part of the homeschool conference this year, sorry you came all this way but you may as well go home."

Just to twist the knife, we could not even get closed captions on the TV in the hotel we were staying in! We had two hotel employees try for an hour with no avail. Deafness is a handicap!

Blessings in Frustration,

Andrea

Live Blogging the NC Homeschool Conference

Thu, 24 May 2007 05:41:00 -0500

I just wanted to let those of you who have been wanting to know me better than I'll be live blogging at the NCHE conference this weekend: NCHE Conference Blog

Blessings,
Andrea

Marriage Encounter

Mon, 9 Oct 2006 11:16:00 -0500

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My husband and I are getting ready to present a World Wide Marriage Encounter weekend. We experienced our first weekend back in 1998 and were blessed by a wonderful life giving experience. We became a presenting couple soon after and have presented over 10 weekends. On our journey of faith we need to take time to re-examine the attitudes and behaviors that shape our decision-making processes. I invite you to take a keen look at your understanding of the sacrament of marriage. Divorce, as presented in today�s television shows and movies, is often seen as the first resort when a relationship is in trouble. In this view, marriage is depicted as something that is as easily thrown away as a small piece of trash. If we believe that Jesus Christ is at the foundation of every sacramental marriage, then today�s worldview is simply turned on its head.

Lentil Stew

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:05:00 -0500

Tonight we pretended that we were nomads from the Old Testament. We have been studying about Abraham and Sarah so we made some lentil stew with Ibex goat meat (hamburger) for supper. We sat outside in the desert (dirt) and ate off of our transportable tables (napkins). We had unleavened bread (tortillas) to accompany our meal. It was a perfect supplement to our TOG curriculum week 6! It helped us to appreciate modern day conveniences.

Blessings,

Andrea

New House

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 18:30:00 -0500

We are building our new house on the word of the Lord, literally and figuratively. Once the framing went up we grabbed our Bibles and started writing. Everyone wrote their favorite passages in the rooms that were appropriate to them. We wrote on the floor boards and the 2x4's, with perminant marker in hand, if it was smooth enough, we wrote upon it! Well, the dry wall is up and the paint is on but we still know what strenght the words below provide. He is our foundation and we will stand strong. We actually designed our house with an archetechict and it is so cool to watch the one demintional line come to life in 3-D with the walls going up. Now we are at the stage of decision, decision, decision! What color, what shape, what size! Stressful and fun all rolled into one. Kind of like eating chocolate!

Have a blessed day today!

Andrea