Nov. 21, 2009 - DONE!!!!!
The room is done! There is even some furniture moved in already. It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less... The whole experience was great! The contractor was super GREAT! The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done. Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals. He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn ~ the leftovers of a business that had gone under. We got them for $1 a linear foot ... they retailed for over $5 a linear foot. They are perfect!! He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost. Let's put it this way. Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam. He did the job for $76 ~ the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper. The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be .... So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?
Yay! Well, this is all you are getting right now. The big reveal will be just after Christmas. This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the children's bedrooms. I'll show you all the rooms once we have curtains up and such.
In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room. We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it. My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project, and they have not held up as well as we would have expected. So for now we will paint this floor instead. We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week.
That is all for now!
Blessings,
Dawn
Nov. 20, 2009 - ~A DEAL OF A DEAL!
This year the Christmas card photos we will mail out will be FREE!
I followed the directions at moneysavingmom.com and found out this morning that my orders have shipped!
Here are my confirmation slip totals......
Order Summary:
Items - Qty. - Price
Photo Card, 5x7 - 50 - $ 39.50
Subtotal: $ 39.50
Shipping: $ 0.00
Tax: $ 0.00
Order Summary:
Items - Qty. - Price
Photo Card, 4x8 - 50 - $ 24.50
Subtotal: $ 24.50
Shipping: $ 0.00
Tax: $ 0.00
Order Total: $ 0.00
As you can see I had to place two separate orders, but I did not have to pay shipping. The first order of 50 cards was for 5X7 size and the second order of 50 cards is for 4X8 cards. It took me about 45 minutes to follow the directions and put the cards together. And my total saved.........drum roll please....... $64.00!
Merry Christmas!
Nov. 19, 2009 - THE QUILT IS DONE!!!!!
I'd been told a long time ago that things like weighted quilts or vests would be good investments for Jeremiah with his sensory issues. It was one of those things though that we just couldn't afford and well, if you know me, you know that I am not the kind of mom who sews all of her kids' clothes and weaves our home's rugs while spinning yarn from sheep's wool. Yeah, not me. My girlfriend Lucette on the other hand....well, that's a different story.
So for the last eight weeks now, Lucette and I have gotten together on Tuesday afternoons after Jerry's speech and OT and have been working on a quilt for Jerry. We started by asking Jerry what he liked. Big mistake! Jerry likes everything! The result? A quilt of many themes! There's Star Wars, Toy Story, Cars, Monsters, Inc., Nemo, Batman, Spiderman, Curious George, monster trucks, bugs, Clifford, construction trucks, Veggie Tales...you name it. It took a while to piece the different squares together and we weren't real sure how all of the different materials would look together, but in the end, they made the perfect quilt for Jerry.
Top of the Quilt
Bottom of the Quilt
Whole Quilt
Each week, Jerry would see our progress, flap excitedly watching us cut, sew, starch, iron, bind, pin, whew! nd then we would part until the next week, promising him we were getting closer to the take home date. And he was so very patient, considering!
Well, today he got his quilt...FINALLY! And he LOVES it. The center panel is monster trucks and Mrs. Lucette used stitching that looks like tires treads to stitch around the panel so it looks like a track on the back of the quilt. The back panel and binding are soft fleece for cuddling and, after all of the material, thread, and fleece, the quilt is perfect in weight.
Here's the patch Lucette put on the back of the quilt for that extra special personal touch.
And here is Jerry and his favorite quilting angel ever.
Thank you Mrs. Lucette, and not just for the quilt. Thanks for the many Tuesdays of fun, fellowship, and downtime with a great friend. Hmmm? What to make next?
Nov. 18, 2009 - ~Three brothers photo shoot
Have a coke and a smile!
Nov. 17, 2009 - A Reading Party for Goldilocks
What an amazing day we had today! Goldilocks has been struggling to learn to read for 2 years now. Most of the time, it seemed like we were spinning our wheels and making no progress. We have switched reading programs five times and tried all kinds of different games with very little improvement. Then today happened ... Goldilocks sat down for her lesson as usual and said she wanted her reading party today. I said that she had to finish the entire Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane (1st grade) to have her reading party. She said she was going to finish that book today and have her party. Mind you, she had only previously read the first page of the 193 page book when she sat down with me this morning!!! Over the next 2 1/2 hours she read the entire book!!!! All 193 pages!!! I would have never believed it was possible!!! This is the child who can take 40 minutes to write 3 sentences in her copywork book and has spent the better part of the year screaming, hiding and crying about reading 3 pages in a Bob Book. I switched her to Dick and Jane about a week ago. She seemed to like it more than other programs. Then I decided to start giving her hard boiled eggs and Kiwi each day (brain food) which is supposed to help with ADHD symptoms and improve a person's IQ. I can't say what happened differently today but AMEN!
This picture was taken when Goldilocks was on the last few pages. Kids were piled up everywhere to see her make it to being a READER!
Reading the last page!
Goldilocks with her book and certificate ....
Goldilocks had a confetti cake with strawberry frosting and a black sugar bunny in the corner!
Blessings,
Dawn
Nov. 17, 2009 - ~Sharing links so you'll be blessed too
Let me say something about my Lord..... He is good. That is not sufficient..... He is AWESOME! There, that's a little better 
Here's a lesson in threes...... For some encouraging words, please read the heart of one of my dearest friends. She writes honestly, from what she lives.....
Thoughts on Phil 2
and then Saturday I had the privilege of joining some other ladies in a lesson along the same lines as the above and below links. The transparency was absolutely refreshing! These ladies want to please the Lord and have successful families. Who doesn't? It was neat to watch the older rally around the younger in help w/o judgment.
My husband spoke a quote to me last week. A quote that has been meandering through my mind for days. It goes something like this: 'When there is too much sound doctrine and not enough Love there is division. When there is too much love, but not enough sound doctrine, there is confusion.' I could write a page in regards to this quote alone, have seen it lived out in lives and churches and have experienced it personally as well. God is good!
And for another link along these same lines go here:
GUILT GRACE AND GRATITUDE
You will NOT be sorry
Blessings to each today!
Nov. 16, 2009 - Charity ...
When I sit down and think in the quiet hours of the evening about what I want for my children, one of the things that always comes up is charity. I want my children to have charitable hearts for those less fortunate. I want them to be an active force in their communities when they are grown and to think of others and what they can do to serve them. The best way to train our children in this is to have them serve in their community now and see us serve in our community as well. Our children are so blessed. They have so much while others go without. In light of our children all getting separate rooms in a few weeks, it weighs on my mind all the more how important it is that they know how privileged they are and learn early to care for others.
So, I want to reaffirm how we teach our children to be charitable. In the past, we have done charity here and there and then heavily at Christmas time. There seems to be so many opportunities at Christmas time that it is very easy. However, how are we as parents showing our children that charity is one of our core values, if it is not at the forefront of our teachings? To me, when I turn them out into the world in just a few short years, my children's character is more important than their academic abilities. So we are going to put charity at the forefront of our teachings in the next year. Whether it be at home (with sibs) or out and about, it will be one of our driving themes.
To get this new idea started, we are going to pick a charity to focus on each month. For the month of November, we will be raising money for polar bears. This was easy to decide upon because we are studying the Arctic this month. The kids are very interested in polar bears and were sad to see how hard their lives have become due to the change in climate. (We watched the Disney movie, Earth, for our Sunday night movie night yesterday.) I was able to find a charity where we could make a tiny impact for $25. To make this come to life for the kids (instead of Mom writing a check), we are going to earn the money by cutting back in different ways at home.
- One night this week we will only eat rice for dinner. This will save us about $4.75 from the amount of an average dinner.
- The kids are going to put any change in the jar they find on the ground. I have one child who finds a penny or two almost every time we leave the house!
- We will skip the Blockbuster Sunday night movie and make do with the library to find our Sunday night movie. (We often do this anyway.)
Well, that will be a good start. The kids are excited (except Tom Sawyer about eating only rice for dinner -- ne never forgets to thank God for food during his evening prayers LOL). If you all have any great ideas of charities, leave them for me in comments. Just as we did last year, we will be doing a charity each week from Thanksgiving through the New year. I still am plotting those charities out.
Blessings,
Dawn
Nov. 16, 2009 - Social Stories Slump
Ok, I've known about social stories for quite some time now. I even made one for Jerry once using a great website tool that filled in all the blanks for me and even created a cartoon version of Jerry based on his skin tone, color of hair, and eye color, but I have to admit, I have not used these great little teaching tools to the extent to which they can and should be used, especially with a socially inept seven-year-old.
I think tonight I learned that it's time to bite the bullet and get those creative juices flowing. Shouldn't be hard, right. I'm a writer after all! Man is there a mental block on these stories for me though!
This evening, while outside playing, Jeremiah pushed a couple of bikes over that were parked in our yard and belonged to kids who were playing kickball with Jerry's siblings out front. I'm sure he was just trying to get their attention because he is always the spectator and never the player when it comes to kickball. He always runs the wrong way, skips bases, cries when he gets out...you know, a real game wrecker.
Anyway, two of the kids took the incident with a grain of salt and shrugged the knocked- over bikes off...never even left the game. One boy, however, charged Jerry full on and shoved him...HARD! He slid and went down face first in the road, suffering a scraped ankle, a scraped elbow, skinned hands, and very hurt feelings.
I feel for him, but I can see the other kid's side too, though John did talk to the perpetrator about it never being ok to touch someone else and how, in this case, "tattling" would have been the best solution.
I think I actually felt sorrier for my other children, especially Jonathan, my oldest. He came into the house sobbing and angry immediately after the incident. He went to the kitchen where I was preparing dinner, laid his head in his arms on the counter and just sobbed about how unfair it was that the other kids bullied Jeremiah the way they do. A bit of an exaggeration, as it was just one boy...today anyway, but I felt so bad for Jonathan. He has tried to explain Jerry's Asperger's and behavior to the neighborhood kids, and some sympathize (hence, the two that ignored Jerry knocking their bikes over). But some of the kids make fun or retaliate just the same. Guess I need social stories for them too, huh?
It's a character building exercise for Jonathan too, but I, as mom, should be the one to explain Jerry to the neighbors, not Jonathan. I'm not sure how to go about that either. Do I print up flyers for everyone? That just feels wierd, like I'm informing them of some convicted felon living in their midst. I guess I hoped that Jerry would somehow just magically fit in and seem no different to everyone than the other neighborhood kids. Delusional, I know.
So HELP! I am calling all friends out their, personal ones who know my family and Jerry and virtual supporters who have journeyed with our family through this blog. If you have any social stories you can share, ideas on how to present them, templates, whatever...I need you! I do have access to the site that helps me make the customized social stories that I mentioned above, but there is a fee and we just don't have the funds right now. Any ideas on how to educate the neighbors would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks all. My e-mail is johntara10@gmail.com or you can just comment to this entry.
Nov. 16, 2009 - ~You're eating what?!
I decided to add some sprouted wheat berries for our newest smoothie creation. It took me a few days to sprout the wheat berries. I then added them to our ingredients for the fruit smoothies for our lunch yesterday.
Sprouted wheat berries taste like healthy candy. I;m not kidding. We use the prairie gold wheat for making bread and sprouting, I think the stronger variety would have a much stronger taste. In the past I have sprouted my wheat for salads and for snacking, but yesterday I sprouted for the smoothie....YUM!
Here's a photo of the sprouted wheat berries, a handful of spinach, a cup of apple juice, and 1-2 cups water. After this, I added a bunch of mixed frozen fruit, half a banana, and a goodly amount of honey (3-5 TB). And on the second batch I added Just barley since I forgot that ingredient on the first batch. I usually add barley and a little spirulina..... and they almost always come back for seconds......
Sprouting unlocks the nutrients and makes them readily available. On top of that you're not cooking your grain either, so you're eating a living food instead of a cooked up dead food. Wheat berries are CHEAP when purchased by the bucket through a co-op group and there is a multitude of ways grains can be prepared. YUM....YUM.....YUM!
Nov. 13, 2009 - A Glimpse of Our Week ...
Wow! This week has flown by. With all of the distractions the house is presenting right now, plus a flood in the basement and dear Goldilocks having a major meltdown and needing to leave home for a two day respite with her one-on-one therapeutic worker, the week had its downs. Still, we got loads of living and learning done. So, here is some glimpses of our week, in no particular order.
Apple pie making and tasting...
A dreamed for and saved for first violin. Little Red Ridinghood saved up her allowance and bought it herself. This is the Strike a Chord violin, and it is much nicer than I expected. It plays 18 classical songs that the child can listen to and then play by rubbing the bow across the violin. It plays the song at the speed of the childs bowing. It also can be turned off for the child to just play the scales. Very cool! (Notice the paint in little ones hair)...
Writing on the wall, literally. This counts for handwriting and spelling, right?
A nature walk to see the latest flood. This park is less than a mile from our home. Our city is in the process of doing a wonderful job of turning much of the flood zone into wetland parks. There is a little bit of everything for everybody ~ playgrounds, picnic areas, hockey and volleyball courts, walking trails, dog park, nature trails, decks over the river to fish from and much more in the works. When the river leaves her banks, the park fills with water and there is minimal loss and damages.
Goldilocks returned home much happier and calmer ~ ready to be a family member once again.
The kids are working on creating an arctic book, using their Draw Write Now book #4.
Lunch out and play date with some friends ...
and tea time, painting walls, chores, reading lessons, painting walls, furniture moving, movie watching and painting walls. Just a few more hours of painting and I should be in the clear. At least with painting the walls that is ~ lots of furniture to still refinish and paint for Little Red Ridinghood's Christmas gift .
Blessings,
Dawn
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