We're in our third year of this homeschooling adventure and are having a ball. What an honor to spend the days and nights with our wonderful children! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:34:00 -0500 Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:34:00 -0500 I don't get too much traffic over here so I've been focusing on my knitting blog over at xanga that gets more visitors.  Feel free to stop over! http://www.xanga.com/laurk   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/376981/ Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/376981/ I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day and updating her on what's going on with *J* and she remarked that I seem to be dealing with it much better this time.  Hmmm- I don't know if I'm dealing with it better, but differently.  I was so sad last time- I cried LOTS. This time I'm more angry and frustrated and while I do cry and be sad on ocassion I can hold myself together while talking about it- and where I wanted to talk about to anyone who would listen last time.  This time I don't.  I feel like a failure and that I obviously missed something the first time around if God would allow this to happen to another beautiful child of mine.  Yet at the same time I know that isn't true and I'm thankful for the life of each of my children.  And then I think how things have changed- and how I've taken my children's health for granted in the past and it takes something life shattering to make me thankful for the very fact that they are alive. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/359690/ Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/359690/ Things have been busy around here.  The children have swimming lessons and soccer that takes up a LOT of the day!  Today was especially busy and hard. We spent a good portion of the day at the ER again today.  *J* had a seizure this morning and would not come out of it.  Thankfully he did come out of it shortly after we arrived at the ER so they didn't need to use valium to bring him out.  But they had already started the iv part and they wanted to leave that in.  And he got very very agitated with that.  He would wake up all disoriented and yelling at someone for not letting him ride next, and various other things I'm assuming he was dreaming about.  The Dr we got was wonderful and didn't make me feel ridiculous for falling apart once we got there.  Needless to say we are starting him on medicene tomorrow.  BUT our ped came up and while talking to her I had mentioned him coughing (and all his seizures have started with coughing) and that I had given him a xopenex (similar to albuterol) treatment and she asked if he had a treatment around the time of his other seizures, and he had!  But of course since I didn't ever think of it as a connection I can't be 100% if it was before or after each seizure.  She didn't think it could be causing his seizures but it lower his threshold enough to have breakthrough seizures.  After checking it out online- it specifically said to not use or else use with caution in people with seizures!!  And it's not studied in children under 6 AND he was given the adult dose!!!  Thankfully we didn't give it to him often, but I'm still so mad to think that it could be bringing on his seizures.  And I'm mad at myself for not checking into xopenex more before I gave it to him!  And normally his seizures are brief- under 5 minutes, but I had used the nebulizer at around 3am since he was coughing so much- and this seizure was the longest and the worst he ever had.  May be a coincidence but it just seems too odd.  Our ped is supposed to talk to the neurologist about the connection , but in the meantime I'm certainly not u sing xopenex anymore. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/355942/ Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/355942/ is something I don't utilize enough with my children.  We are going out tonight to watch the fireworks and it'll be an extremely late night- so I made all three boys lay down (in seperate rooms, or else it wouldn't be quiet!) while I laid *N* down for her nap.  And now 3/4 of my children are sleeping!!!  I don't know the last time this happened.  And I'm so very glad and hopefully all the children will enjoy the evening more since they shouldn't be overtired.  My eight year old won't fall asleep of course- he hasn't taken a nap at all since he was 14 months.  And I should be using this time for *my* own neglected quiet time as well instead of poking around on the computer. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/350789/ Mon, 2 Jul 2007 13:18:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/350789/ Today is our 11th anniversary.  And as my husband tells me every year "more good than bad- lets take it another year"  What a goofball.  Anyhow we don't do presents anymore, but we generally do cards and 80% of the time I get flowers so all is good.  I found the perfect card this year- our family has been on those musical hallmark cards kick for the past year and I found one that played "Sweet Home Alabama" our song, but not our wedding song- that was Elvis and believe it or not they didn't have a single musical card with "can't help falling in love" out of there 200 cards!!  And Matt printed me up three pages on the importance of the number 11.  It was quite sweet and so him.  So many obscure facts about the number 11.  And a nice list of sports people who have/had the number 11. (he must've had a harder time with that one- finding people I've actually heard of before!)  The day is gorgeous and "delightful" as accuweather put it.  My mom is coming over later to watch the kids and we actually get to go out on a date!  I think they last time we went out alone was our last anniversary!  That's ok though.  Here's a picture from 11 years ago today.  There were no wonderful pictures of Matt and I, but lots of great ones with my daddy and grandparents- which I so appreciate.  There's been plenty of wonderful pictures of Matt and I since, so I guess I'd rather have great pictures with my parents and grandparents- two of which have now passed on. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/349359/ Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:36:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/349359/ Being the novice blogger that I am I somehow moved my side page to the bottem and I could not figure out how to move it back up.  So I had to reset the template and I figured since I'd be losing all my changes anyhow I may as well test out other templates.  Very few of them worked for what I had already posted- the blog area was VERY narrow and my posts were covered up by the side panel.  This farm one seems to work well and although it's a bit (ok a LOT) more subdued than I normally like I figured with our chickens and pigs it's fitting!  I'm not sure if my counter thingy is working but it never had very much to count so I guess it doesn't matter anyhow!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/348332/ Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:44:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/348332/ I can't believe I haven't posted pictures of the dress I knit (yes, knit if you can believe it!) for little sister.  It's the biggest thing I've ever completed and has inspired me to start a tank for myself.  It's a cute little watermelon dress knit out of lion brand cottonease (50%cotton 50% acrylic) so it's cool for summer and doesn't shrink in the wash.  Someone sent me a link to an adorable watermelon hat I want to make after I get finished (or bored) with my tank.  Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?!? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/347315/ Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/347315/ We've been trying to invite one family over a week and branch out to get to know some aquaintances bettter.   We invited another homescholing family with four children almost the same ages as our children.  It was SO much fun!   I never thought I'd say this, but it was so very incredibly beneficial to me to leave our church last year!  We were members and we didn't want to be considered "church hoppers" but it just was not a healthy place for me.  Early on I somehow got the label of boring and lame and for some insane reason felt I had to act that way- the good ole self fufilling prohecy for my education days. You tell a child they are no good and not going to amount to anything, they won't prove you wrong! (generally speaking of course)  So I spent almost five years being miserable and feeling left out.  Labels are very restricting things for people, I sure hope I can remember these feelings and  not unitentionally label others or my children!  But anyhow we began attending a church that met in the evenings and quite a few people I knew from high school attend and I was great fun in high school.  So they simply expected me to still be fun and suddenly I was able to be!  So I've been having great fun getting to know people- lots of it!!  I'm sure it will take me a while to totally be able to move out of my shell, but it's been so refreshing,  To clarify I'm sure no one from our other church would ever say anything negative about me, but it's just the actions- my "friends" would go somewhere and not even ask me "since I wouldn't go anyway"  just a whole bunch of little things that added up to a whole lot of hurt for me.  I can feel myself closing up whenever I spend time with people from the other church.  I hope it time I can truly get over it and enjoy spending time with them, especially since our neighbors attend the other church and I know she has a great heart- I just totally cringe sometimes.  This turned a bit long winded and is pretty personal for me- I'm not one to share too much personal stuff.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/346083/ Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:57:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/346083/ I signed up for a knitting virtual vacation swap.  Matt makes fun of me daily (jokingly of course) but it's been great fun so far!  Right now they have a BINGO game going that is proving quite addicting since you have to find the blog that corresponds with the location- much harder than it sounds!  It's filled but check it out anyhow.  If they do it again definately get in the three ladies heading it up are so incredibly creative.  I've never done a knitting swap like this, I've done a few seed swaps and a few other dishcloth swaps-very few went well but I have high hopes for this one! http://virtualvacationswap.blogspot.com/ That is what I've been spending my morning computer time on lately! =) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/345549/ Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/345549/ We went on a four day mini vacation to Boston last week, and had a blast (except for one part)  The city of Boston is SO beautiful, I love Quincy market and Faneuil Hall and could spend hours there- not with four kids though!  Here's two pictures from the first evening at Quincy Market, my oldest was brave enough to wear his Yankees hat in Red Sox territory!   I think I was most impressed with the people of Boston.  Never have I been in a city where people were friendlier!!  When we first got there we decided to use to train system and walked to the closest one.  Not being familiar with it at all (when we went 10 years they still used tokens!) we were a bit lost on what passes to get and if we'd need one for the children or not.  So I asked the man working and he was SO helpful- he got us the passes we needed and he even got ones for the older two boys so they could do it themselves.  Then after he got us all set, he chatted with us for about five minutes!  And when we got onto the train it was about 5pm so it was pretty full and there were so many gracious people who gave up their seats for the kids and myself.  I was so impressed!  There were even a few teenagers who let us have their seats.  We don't travel by mass transit very often, but we have been to NYC quite a few times and sadly very, very few people are willing to give up their seats.  So if you live in Boston, be proud of your city! We went to the Science Museum, which was a lot of fun.  And the kids had a blast on the playground that was right across from the hotel.  And since the hotel was Embassy Suites a cook to order breakfast was included and that was nice to leave for the day with a full stomach.  There were a group of History teachers from Utah staying at the hotel so we would talk to them a bit when we'd see them around.  The left the day before we did and one of the teachers was so nice and she gathered up all their  Go Boston cards (cards that would get you into various sites around Boston for free or reduced prices) and train passes and left them for us at the front desk.  We tried to go on a duck tour but they were all full for the day so we went to the aquarium instead.  It was nice that it was free since it was packed beyond belief!!  But I got some great pictures of the kids reflections while they were looking at the animals. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/340766/ Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lmwood/340766/