Sensory Evaluation

A few weeks ago I took Jacob to ENABLE for a sensory evaluation. Let me explain - I have long suspected that he has "sensory issues", but have never been able to figure out what that means or what to do about it. But I came across some discussion on The Well Trained Mind boards about Sensory Input Disorder or SDI that exactly described Jacob. When I asked, several moms told me to go read The Out of Sync Child.

After reading the book, I didn't have any doubt that Jacob has some sensory seeking issues that need help. I was excited to find out that our insurance would cover an evaluation and some therapy through ENABLE. I feel relieved that we are finally getting a sensible answer to the "What is wrong with him?" question, but immensely frustrated that it has taken so many years to get the answer (he is 9 now).

Here are some things of interest from the evaluation:

Muscle Tone: Low
Strength: Large muscles, such as core and limbs are strong, but small muscles such as intrinsic hand muscles seem to be poor.
Reflex: The Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR) was tested, and Jacob appears to have positive TLR reflex. The rest were not formally assessed.

Jacob would benefit from having scheduled 5 minute proprioceptive experiences every 2 hours in order to increase body awareness, motor planning and to learn when the appropriate time is to apply these in his daily routine.
He tended to perform balance activities with awkwardness and would fall often. Jacob would usually leap, jump or tumble to enter and exit the ball bath and other equipment.
Jacobs inability to process verbal commands from others at times may be part related to periods of over-stimulation... Overstimulation typically looks like a child "on a sugar high" who can't pay attention or follow directions, extremely verbal, disorganized physically/mentally, and is going extremely fast during or between activities. When he is at a "just right" arousal level, it is not difficult for Jacob to follow directions as demonstrated at times during the evaluation.
PERCEPTUAL PROCESSING: MOTOR
Balance and coordination: Fair

Praxis: Good with gross motor, Fair with fine motor

Fine Motor Coordination/Dexterity: Fair

Visual Motor Integration: Poor

The summary is followed by recommendations that include weekly therapy, incorporating a sensory diet routine and vestibular activities, and a long list of expensive stuff we can/should buy. The one thing I would love to spring for is the swing that requires 10' ceilings, and ours are only 8'. He loved that swing, and the therapist said it makes sense with his vision problems that he would love the darkness of the cocoon.

Anyway, I am happy to have some answers. Jacob is excited about going to therapy. He loved the sensory room. I suppose it will start soon after we get back from vacation.

Being Persistent

I know you are wondering if I have managed to resolve my laundry situation, so here is an update for you.

I noticed today that my utility sink was empty (the water had all drained) so I decided to try to figure out what its problem is. I disassembled a coat hanger and manuvered it down the drain hoping to snag some nasty hair ball to no avail. I have noticed that everytime the water drains, the sink is left with a gritty, dirty, gross coating all over it which leads me to believe that the drain pipe is just plain yucky and that is the root of the problem. However, I can't take the drain apart because the strainer thing is cemented into the cement sink and the drain line out is also cemented... The design of this OLD sink also leads me to believe that snaking would be tricky.

I hadn't done any laundry since my trip to the laundry mat and we are getting ready to go camping for the weekend. Imagining what the Mount Dirty Clothes will look like by Monday morning sparked a new determination in me.

I grabbed a pair of (Todd's) grandma's old pants (may she rest in peace, although I'm sure she would be rolling in her grave if she knew that her pants were being used to clean out my sink) I scooped out all the nasty sludgy stuff. I then scrapped the sink (with the coat hanger) and put the whole filthy mess in the garbage.

I put a load of laundry in the washing machine. Then I stood there and watched the sink fill. Todd had tried plunging to no avail, but I thought if I plunge while it is filling maybe it will help it go down a little quicker so I can get more than one load done today. For almost the entire wash cycle I plunged. And still, the sink filled with water - first one side then the other.

It then occurred to me - this drain has two holes. The plunger won't form a seal unless I can close the other hole! But I was unable to figure out a way to close up the hole. I gave up for a while and went to work on packing for our trip. But I hate to loose and the stupid drain was beating me! I went back down with one of Cadence's socks and stuffed it into the other drain, grabbed my plunger and went to work. All of the sudden I could hear gurgle noises in the main drain line behind me - this was exciting, so plunged a little harder and a little faster. I pulled up the plunger and viola! I have never seen that sink drain so fast.

I was so excited I wanted shout, "I did it" (I did it, I did it, yeah! - think Dora) But my kids already think I'm weird so I decided I would quietly come upstairs and write about my victory.

Chistians What?

About a month ago I followed a link on a blog I read to get free copies of a couple of books. The only condition was that you post reviews on your own blog when you finished the books. I love books, and I love free stuff. To top it off, I had been hearing things about one of the books and was thinking about buying it. I have since finished Red Letters by Tom Davis (the book I really wanted to get) but am considering reading it a second time before I post - I want to really digest the stuff...

Anyway, I got an email from the author Tom Davis yesterday about an article he wrote for beliefnet. It is called "Why Christians S**k". I couldn't figure that out...I was thinking "seek" and I must have to read the article to figure out in what context "seek" is a bad word. Now, maybe you are smarter than me, but just in case your not, the word is SUCK. "Why Christians Suck" is almost like an introduction to the thinking behind Red Letters. And he's right, Christians do suck! Whether you are a "Christian" or not you should read the article and then make an effort to not suck.

Laundry

Today, I had to go to the Laundry Mat. Yuck! I'm not sure how anyone can do that on a regular basis. Our utility sink that receives the water from our washing machine is suffering from a serious clog. Draino didn't help and neither did Todd with his plunger. After I do a load of laundry, it takes at least two days for the water to drain out.

When I explained to Todd that I think the whole sink needs to be replaced since I can currently only do one load of laundry every three days he said, "That sounds just about right. What's the problem?" Seriously, one load every three days and the dirty laundry really would take over the house!

The only good thing about the laundry mat is that you can do massive amounts of laundry in a short amount of time. I only brought two loads, and only washed, but the way I operate it would have taken a lot more than a half hour to do those two loads at home. If I can't see the washing machine I tend to forget that the clothes need to come out of it. That is another plus for the laundry mat isn't it? I probably wouldn't forget to do the laundry if I was trapped in a hot little building filled with nothing but washers and dryers. But I do forget to clean when I am trapped in house filled with piles and piles of crap (not real crap, just stuff that is like crap) so maybe there is no hope for me....

OOL

This weekend the kids were swimming in their little kiddie pool in the back yard when Jacob came in yelling that Cadence had peed in the pool. Todd called her in and made her get changed and let her know that this behavior isn't okay. She kept insisting that she had not peed in the pool, but Cadence frequently denies her impish behavior... The boys were confident that she really had peed, and as Cadence was being reprimanded for this stunt, Jacob came in to ask "So, can we get back in the pool?" Ummm, NO! Seriously, sometimes he makes me wonder.

It occurred to me to ask Jacob, "How do you know she peed in the pool?" To which he replied, "She said she did!" "Well, did you see pee come out?" "No, but she said she did." Anyway, we finally realized she was pretending to pee in the pool while dumping water out - she was actually innocent (for once).

Summer Reading

Aside from being my anniversary (which I remembered all by myself), July 1 kicked off our summer reading program. Jacob always gets excited about it, but this summer is extra exciting because Gabriel signed up too. They are supposed to be in kindergarten, but since we homeschool I can do whatever I want right? And he definitely reads better than most kindergartners.

My only concern was whether or not they would give my little man a library card (you sign in online with your card number to record reading). I didn't think he could do it, but Gabe wrote his first and last name on that little white strip on the back of the card - my four year old has his own library card! The librarian thought we should take him out for ice cream to celebrate, but we made due with the free movies at Carousel.

The only problem with the summer reading program is that now I can't get the boys to stop reading. Seriously, Jacob polished off 3 chapter books in one day. And Gabe? He got out a big stack of "Henry and Mudge" books - he was all excited when he realized that it was a series...he read all (5 or 6 I think) of them at quiet time. We had to go back to the library after we picked Todd up so the boys could claim prizes and get more books.

And of course Jacob is upset that Gabe is going to win the contest because I won't let Jacob read the really easy books like "Junie B. Jones" or little picture books. When I made the rule, I didn't anticipate Gabe reading as quickly as he did. So I got Gabe some books from "the big boy chapter book room" hopefully they can hold his interest and take a little longer to read!

8 Years!

It was eight years ago today that Todd and I were married! I am not a sentimental person (in fact I have forgotten our anniversary at least twice) but I have been reflecting a lot over this anniversary. It feels really good say "Look how far we've come." And it doesn't have to be our anniversary for me to look at Todd and say "I really am one lucky woman."

There have been lots of ups and downs, and we often say that it feels like we've gone through about 20 years of marriage in eight years. The first 4 or 5 were like being in a pressure cooker...In 5 years we lived in 6 different places, Todd held 4 very different jobs, we attended 5 different churches (two of which, it turns out, bear a strong resemblance to a cult) went through 4 pregnancies (the first two were miscarriages) and and a period of what was beginning to look a lot like infertility. And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of it all.

At one point, we sought some counseling and the counselor asked us about our Myers-Brigs personalities. Todd explained that he is INFP and I am ESTJ - we are complete opposites (although I was right on the fence between I-introvert and E-extrovert.) The counselor just kind of looked at us for a second and said "Wow, its amazing that you guys are still married!" Apparently, the fact that it sometimes feels like our personalities aren't compatible is backed by scientific research :)

The other day I was telling Todd how I see our anniversary as a pretty amazing thing. Most of my college friends didn't think we would last 5 years, and sometimes it felt like they were right. Todd agreed with me when I said that were it not for the grace of God, we would not still be married. We are both pretty darn stubborn, and I am pretty selfish, too! If God hadn't given us the strength and the wisdom to work through it all we likely would have thrown in the towel. I don't know how people do it without Jesus. NOT to say it isn't worth it, but dang, sometimes its hard.

Promotion

We have been having an eventful week, to say the least. One of the big deals this week is Todd's job. A few weeks ago at work he got the impression that their were going to be lots of changes and it could positively affect him. However, he had no idea what it would really be like or even if it was guaranteed to be a good change. But this week he started in his new role as Operations Liaison and he is really happy to be in the position. He will be maintaining some of his old duties (statistics type stuff) but he will be taking on lots of new stuff too. It is sure to challenge him and stretch him.

It is really exciting to see him in this new role, because I think that it will highlight his strengths and help him develop more leadership skills at work. Of course, he told me that I got the promotion too because I will have to deal with him working some overnight shifts and things like that. He needs to present at all major Mission functions, and I suppose a good wife would be right there beside her husband with the perfectly behaved children (smiling all the while!). But what about my pay increase?

Todd, I love you and I am very proud of you. You are a wonderful husband and father. I am blessed to have you by my side and looking forward to the things God will do with us in the future.

How to Find a Good Wife

This morning at breakfast, Gabriel and Cadence were talking about growing up. Gabriel said to Cadence, "Well I already know one way to find out if a wife will be a good wife or a bad wife." Now that was a statement that perked my interest... at least once when I have discussed growing up with Gabe, he has expressed concern about finding a wife. I told him how he should make sure he finds a good woman who loves God, loves him and will be a good helper and friend to him. But that was a long time ago, and I was wondering what piece of that conversation he had remembered...

As I listened carefully, Gabriel went on to share his knowledge with his sister: "If a wife has a mean face, she is a bad wife. But if she has a smile then she is good. That is one way I know to tell if she is good or bad." So if you want to be a good wife, go smile at your husband! (who knows where that could lead...)

Science

I decided that doing science over the summer is one of the best ideas ever. We are done with third grade, so we have lots of time to focus on science. I have found that Jacob is more likely to ask questions (and explore the answers) and he really enjoyed making a lapbook. When we have several subjects a day on our plate, he gets this "lets get all the school work done so can play" attitude no matter how I schedule breaks and playtime throughout the day.

The only problem is Gabriel...he really likes doing science with us most days. He is retaining and understanding (most not all things) better than Jacob. I have no idea how to curb the jealousy that my nine year old must feel toward his four year old brother. I keep hoping that he just won't notice, as he seems incapable of reading people and generally oblivious. But when Gabe knows the answer and Jake doesn't he notices.

Just a few minuets ago, Cadence asked Gabriel to read a book about moths to her. He was reading it and then he brought her over to the school wall to show her our picture of a pupa. "See number three, Cadence? That is what a pupa looks like." Both boys seem to feel that it is their duty to educate their little sister, but it was especially funny to watch Gabe give her a science lesson.

Berries!

*

It is the day my children have been anxiously waiting for....they have been daily checking the garden, looking for bright red berries. They were thuroghly dissapointed when their first discoveries turned out to be green on the bottom. "We have to wait a few more days." I told them. Every day more red appeared in the garden. And then today, right at lunch time, I found three berries fit to eat! These three berries were quickly consumed, with each of the boys yelling "I want the biggest one" so I gave the biggest one to their sister :)

Last year, something ate all but a few of the berries out of the garden. Hopefully this year we (and by we I do not mean me, as I do not eat berries) will get to enjoy many more of them in the coming weeks!

*These berries were harmed during the writing of this blog

Did I say I was excited?

Because now I'm not so sure...Yesterday Jacob decided to write a letter to our local Christian radio station for a contest. Gabriel wanted to write a letter too, but Gabriel isn't old enough to win a week at camp. He was upset about being too young and insisting that he could write a letter, so I told him that he could go ahead and write to the lady but he wouldn't be able to enter the contest.

A few minutes later, Gabe brought me a letter that said "I want too go to teh ranc when I am littl." I told that was really good, and that I would send it later - but reinforced that he was not old enough to win the contest. I continued on with dinner preparations until Jacob came in announcing that Gabriel had written a mean letter. Now, I had just read his letter and thought that it was perfectly nice... "Leave him alone, there is nothing wrong with his letter" I said to Jacob. But Jacob insisted, "He said it says he will kill the lady, and it does - I just read it."

I called for the letter, which Gabriel brought to me again. And sure enough, it had been edited to include "or I will kill you"! I stood there, somewhere between horrified and very amused wondering how to proceed. I explained to Gabriel how unkind it was to say such things. His defense was that he wanted to go and the lady deserves to die if she doesn't let him (perfectly logical in his mind)... I guess he was trying to use strong language to sway the argument in his favor. But I insisted that he write a different letter as I would not send the death threat. He quickly complied and came back something to the effect of "Let me go to the ranch when I am little so I don't kill you." Much better, right?

After another lengthy explanation about the use of threats to manipulate a situation (not to mention the wrongness of killing!!!) an acceptable, yet still a little demanding, letter was drafted and signed. I guess now that he sees writing as useful and valuable he has fully embraced it. Maybe he has a future as a speech writer for a terrorist organization....

I'm so excited!

Gabriel is writing his name! All by himself! He just did it twice and it looked pretty good! I have not really pushed writing with him yet, since is just barely 4. And until a week or two ago he seemed more or less opposed to the idea of writing. I didn't really know what to do because it was obvious to me that he possessed the skills to write - he just didn't want to do it. And isn't that okay, because he is so young? But on the other hand, he is reading on at least a 2nd grade level and grasping most (if not all) kindergarten concepts.



I kept going back and forth on whether or not to push him. I have a 1st grade phonics book that Jake brought home from public school with most of the pages intact. I have been giving Gabe one or two pages from it each day. This gives him a little bit of writing at a time and he enjoys the work (beginning sounds and end sounds). I haven't made a big deal about how to form the letters on the work he does by himself. But I usually help him write his name the right way.



On one of his pages yesterday he was supposed to draw a picture and write a sentence telling about the picture. I told him to draw the picture, but not worry about the sentence. He drew and wrote. His sentence wasn't written on the lines, but I could clearly read "with Jon and my brother" (brother was spelled wrong, but I could tell what it said!)

Learning to observe

We launched into science yesterday! And the first thing we are learning is how to observe. Well, I guess before that Jacob has to learn to keep the words "observation" and "hypothesis" straight, cause it will be confusing for everybody if I tell him to observe something and he is trying to form a hypothesis about it...

Since our work load is very light right now, I decided to take the kids to Beaver Lake this morning for some observing in the woods. It is a beautiful day, but as soon as we stepped into the woods it was cold! There was a very cool breeze blowing off the lake, and even though I brought jackets that made it a little hard for the kids to enjoy themselves. We walked through one and half trails despite the cold.

We learned how wild grapes can cause clearings in the woods and why that is an important part of the wooded community. The kids were very excited when they found one of those clearings on their own. Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals - Jacob blames that on the big noisy group of kids who were there on a field trip. He was more than a little irritated that those kids didn't know how to be quiet. Imagine, Jacob mad at someone for making noise!

What did you do?

To commemorate Memorial Day? How did you remember the sacrifices of those who gave their lives for our freedom? We went to see Prince Caspian. We originally planned to do that tomorrow (Todd took it off), but realized that it might be easier done today. As we were pulling into the mall, I thought about it. I felt disappointed in myself for reducing the day to just another day off. My own father fought in Vietnam and later died from injuries sustained in the war. I want to remember. I want to teach my children to remember.

Regardless of how one feels about the conflicts our country has engaged in, we owe our freedom to men and women who were willing to die for it. After naps, we sat down with the kids and looked at some books that I bought recently (on a discount shelf at Border's). They offer the history of our various wars in pictures. We talked about what the soldiers would have been thinking or feeling and what life would have been like for them. We looked at the piles of causalities from the Civil War, and the men burying their dead the day after a battle. So, we remembered and stopped to appreciate the freedoms that we have.

We finished!

Today we finished our "core" (Sunlight Condensed World History) curriculum! We ended world history with a very brief overview of WWII. I'm thinking it would be appropriate to talk about Memorial Day tomorrow. We also finished Language 3 (ABeka) today. Jacob supposedly knows how to diagram a sentence and indentify basic parts of speech now (although Gabe has a better grasp on nouns and verbs than Jake does...)

I think we will do 4th grade science over the summer since I am always bad abut getting science done. Jacob is so happy to be done!

Monday Blahs

First off, let me mention that Super Todd found the math book! When Jake was cleaning his room he was making piles that go other places (garbage, downstairs, etc) but decided to keep the piles separate by putting them in bags. Then we were having company and someone took the bags off the bedroom floor and stuck them in the closet. The math book was in one of those bags and daddy was smart enough to figure that out (I think he may have been the one to put said bag in closet).

I seem to have a case of the Monday blahs. Or maybe just the general blahs. I feel like I need a few more days of weekend, I really want to get out and do something fun. That doesn't make any sense to me since in the last week we have gone out to eat, gone on a field trip to Fort Stanwix and gone to the movies - Horton Hears a Who. I feel like I need a vacation!!! It isn't that I mind homeschooling, I've been enjoying that a lot lately.





Perhaps I am feeling bored and purposeless now that my class is done. I'm reading three different books right now (Some of My Best Friends are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers, Finding God at Harvard, and Bonhoffer's Letters and Papers from Prison), but I find that reading for the sake of reading isn't stimulating enough. I need a project or a purpose.





We're headed to library shortly to look for books about Abe Lincoln - Gabe announced at dinner the other day "When I grow up to be president, I want to be Abraham Lincoln!" He figured since Mr. Lincoln is dead, his identity is free for the taking. When we explained he will have to be president Gabriel Young and he can't be President Lincoln he settled on getting books out to read about his favorite president so that he can learn to be good president someday too. (He decided he would like to be president when he was about 2 and Todd explained to him about someone who was "running for office")


Ladies and gentlemen, your future president...

and lets not leave out his big brother...
These are pictures from their AWANA awards ceremony last weekend(Jacob is in a borrowed shirt)

Where did it go?

I need to vent...I am so sick of asking "Where did it go?" I could scream (and perhaps I already have). A few weeks ago Jacob lost his AWANA shirt, which caused lots of stress 'cause he was supposed to have for the awards night last weekend. It still hasn't turned up. Around the same time he also lost his ruler which is also still missing. Last week, the math book up and disapeared. Seven days and several hunts later, no sign of said book! Where the @#$% is this stuff going? It isn't just that he can't find it (with his less than excellent finding skills) Todd and I searched the whole house more than once and the stuff is gone.

I thought maybe he lost the math book on purpose, but he enjoys math WAY more than he enjoys looking for stuff he lost. He is getting pretty sick of looking but I am way past sick of having missing stuff. I'm starting to think I will need to buy another math book.

Mother's Day Music

My family all came over to my house for a Mother's Day get together. It was nice to have my sister and her family up for the weekend. After dinner, one of the dads started trying to make the glasses sing. And once they got it to happen, everyone wanted to join in. It probably provided a half hour of entertainment. It was a fun evening. we broke out the Wii after we finished making music, and I finally got to beat up my big sister.

Just when I managed to calm him down...

It seems that a good nights sleep was just what Jacob needed today. We were going through our morning work with the greatest of ease (except for the usual 2 or 3 trips to timeout for inappropriate, animal like behavior before we really settle into working), he totally rocked his subtraction time test today, clocking in at 4min 20sec for 100 problems. He was focused throughout math and history. He enjoyed our new spelling program (Spelling Power) a lot.

Other than the fact that Cadence took a Sharpie to the walls upstairs, I was thinking this is a pretty good day. And if your wondering, the Sharpie people are serious when they those markers are PERMANENT. I have found a few ways to get it off the wall, but they all seem to take my sunshiny yellow paint off with the marker.

The kids wanted to eat lunch outside, and I agreed to it in spite of the fact that it is a little on the cool side today. Gabe and Cadence were nearly done with their sandwiches when I came to the realization that eating outside today was not the best of ideas. Jacob had been in time out and so he had not started eating yet. And I'm thinking "Great! He managed the stress of the bike thief and the accident fairly well, but how is going to respond when I tell him that he can't eat his lunch outside cuz there is a black bear on the loose in Geddes?"

Yeah, seriously. My neighbor of questionable character shared this info with me, and I thought he pulling my leg. But it is all over the news. The 6' bear was spotted almost 3 miles from my house. We'll see how Jake does on his Lang. test today well craining his neck to see look out the window for a black bear...

Adventures in Kellyland

What a crazy couple of days we have had! Todd's bike got stolen in the middle of the day, but a few hours later he saw a kid ride right past our house on it - so he chased him. We were a little surprised by how young the perp was (he looked to be 12 at the most) and Todd was moved to have compassion on him. He talked the kid into giving the bike back and gave him a ride back to our house - he was going to take the kid to the Thrifty Shopper to buy him a bike of his own. But I was concerned that we could end up in trouble if we stuck this kid in our van and took him to Liverpool unbenownst to his parents. So I told Todd to call the parents. Talk of parents made the kid scared and he took off running. That made me mad, so I ran after him - for over a mile. Every so often he would stop and hide then I would find him, and he would sit there and wait till I was close before he started to run again. Twice I had given up and turned around to go home when he stood out in plain sight and yelled to me that I couldn't get him. All said and done, I talked to the cops 5 times and we never found the kid, but Todd got his bike back.

There was some discussion when I got home, because Todd felt like I was second-guessing his approach (he thought I was just mad and wanted the kid to be in trouble) but I explained that I was concerned about staying "above reproach" and the cop agreed that Todd could have gotten in a lot of trouble in a situation like that. But Todd (and I) had been hoping to give this kid some sort of positive interaction with adults who care, and the kid just couldn't accept that.

Today I was still thinking a lot about that kid and what Todd and I learned about communicating with (and trusting) each other. I went to the credit union to make our van payment and as I was leaving, I wrecked our van. I was turning left when a pickup truck appeared out of nowhere coming straight at me. I know the guy was going fast, but I must have just not seen him coming... The kids were terrified, but they are all okay, as am I (but my back is hurting a little). This makes two accidents in as many months for us. I didn't get ticketed, and neither did Todd, but we have a suspicious feeling that our insurance rates will skyrocket soon.

And now it 6:30 and I am frustrated with Jacob who is frustrated with math. I know that he can't remember how to borrow because he doesn't process stress well, but somehow that doesn't make it any less stressful for me. I wanted to drop it, but I'm always afraid that he will figure out he can act like he doesn't know anything to get out of doing his work. I had him take a little break and then come back to it (for the 3rd time!!!) and hopefully he will get it right this time.

April Birthdays

I have been meaning to post these pictures all week, but I have been more or less consumed with my term paper, which I finished yesterday - 3 whole hours before I had to hand it in! It isn't that I waited until the last minuet to get started, the paper was half done weeks ago. It is just that I write best under pressure so once I knew what I wanted to write about I stopped writing until the end was very near.




But now that monkey is off my back. And here are a few pictures from Jacob and Cadence's birthdays. This year was the first time Jacob wanted his own birthday party (their birthdays are only 5 days apart). I don't know why he didn't want a princess cake!




I gave Jacob a choice between having a "themed" party with family and taking a friend to Chuck E. Cheese (the trip to Chuck E. Cheese cost a little less than the TMNT cake). He decided to take his friend to Chuck E. Cheese, but his friend ended up sick, so the family went to Chuck E. Cheese. A few days later he went and played laser tag with his friend. One thing that I learned was NEVER go to Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday afternoon. That place was a madhouse - we usually go at weird times (since I make up my own schedule) like Tuesday morning when all the kids are in school. He wanted chocolate cake with fudge frosting, and we had Grandma and Nate over to have cake with us.





Aside from some cool presents, he got $100 for his birthday. He has been planing for months to take the family out to dinner when he could afford it. He wanted to take us to Old Country Barfett (his favorite restaurant) but they recently went out of business. His second choice was Friendly's. I tried and tried to talk him out of it, but that just made him mad. I suggested cheaper places, places we had coupons for, just take everyone for ice cream. But he was insistent - he didn't care if it wiped him out (after savings, tithe, and putting money away for his trip with Dad in the fall). So he put up over $40 to take us all out to dinner. He has a very sweet and generous heart!

Cadence wanted a princess cake, but every day she wanted a princess. The day I bought the candle, it was Cinderella. Grandma and Nate came over again, and Cadence had a great time eating pizza (her all time favorite food) and opening her presents. For some reason, we have a lot more pictures of her than we do of Jacob. She was very excited to get a guitar from Bobby and Nanny, and she also enjoyed all of her presents that had anything to do with princesses. Thankfully, the Disney Princesses have replaced Gollum. Each morning I have to play "guess which princess name Cadence will answer to today." Giselle from Enchanted is probably her favorite. She is totally obsessed with that movie. Todd tells her "Your my best Giselle" and she tells Todd "Your my best Robert!" (the handsome man Giselle falls in love with).

Home Stretch

Over the weekend I finished my report for the 3rd quarter of school. The end is in sight. I think that in 6 weeks we will be done with everything (except math and spelling because we will do those over the summer). I am thinking that we might spend lots of time at the MOST over the summer since I just bought an annual pass and maybe we will study and report on some of the exhibits there.

For the most part, Jacob has progressed really well this quarter. But then there are days like today...He couldn't remember how to count past 79 today and all through math it was like he had no concept of anything. Maybe he just needs a day off...the school kids are all off this week, but I have found in the past that taking a whole week off of school makes my next week really hard.

Gabriel is doing really well too. Of course I don't have to report on him for two more years, but I do stop and reflect on where he is when I do Jake's report. Yesterday he picked out a book to read to my niece, Nicole (who happened to pop in for a surprise visit). He picked out Goodnight Moon and I said "that is an easy book" - Nicole thought I was nuts...until he read it and several more books to her!

Expelled

I am so excited about this movie!!! Check it out. You gotta love Ben Stein.

Point, Gabriel.

Yesterday I took my kids to the library to get out new books. On average, we have about 30 books out at a time and most of the librarians know me by name. So going to the library is normally nothing to write about. But yesterday was different. It has been a long time coming, but yesterday I really felt like I lost my first argument with Gabriel - in the basement of the Solvay Library.

One of the books he picked out was a chapter book - a Junie B. Jones book to be exact. I told him that he could not get it because it was too hard for him. "No its not" he said. "Yes it is, you aren't really big enough to read that book," I told him. "Yes I am!" he insisted. He was determined, but I was more determined (I thought). So I said, "Okay, open it up and read some of it to me." And then he did. He read the first page without any trouble. At that point, there was nothing left for me to do. Gabriel checked out his first chapter book. Gabriel finally won an argument with me (I'm not sure his father has even accomplished that one:) I can't even imagine trying to reason with him in ten years! Of course, he will probably be in law school by then...

My Apologetics

No, not my apologies. I'm not sorry about anything, especially not my faith. I am nearing the end of a course in apologetics being offered at a local church. I jumped at the opportunity to take this class for several reasons (including but not limited to "I have to get out of this house!") and boy am I glad I did it. The first several weeks I was thinking that maybe it was a mistake because it felt like I wasn't really gleaning anything new. It felt too much like a community education class (which is essentially what it is) and just wasn't heady enough for me. I have recently come the realization that I am nerd. I love to stick my nose deep in a book, or several books. I look forward to writing a research paper. Basically, I love to learn - it is one of my favorite things to do.

People often ask "What is apologetics?" or if they know what it is, "Why is it called apologetics?"

So here it is for you, a definition. My interest in apologetics stems from my interest in church history. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I know that I became interested in Martin Luther in 9th grade and wrote a paper about him for English that year. I continue to be intrigued by the question "how did the church go from Acts 2 to the the church of the 16th century?" So anyways, my academic interest in the church was further peaked when I heard Ravi Zacharias on the radio several years ago. I am consistently frustrated and embarrassed by Christians who don't have any idea what they believe or why they believe it. So I have set out to educate myself...

My expectation for an apologetics class was that it would consistently challenge my intellect and help me to expand my understanding of Christianity while improving my ability to defend what I believe. What I absolutely did not expect, was to have challenge after challenge posed to my heart. Our teacher's theme is reminiscent of a concept that his father (a salesman) taught him as a boy " you can win the argument but lose the sale". He has stated over and over again in a hundred different ways that if our defense of Christianity is not rooted in love we will never be able to win anyone.

This week we examined some of Francis Schaeffer's ideas including the one that we are not just called to interact with the world but to impact it. This goes hand in hand with what Jordan has been preaching (it is basically the whole idea behind our church). How do we impact the world? There were a few different points that were covered, but this one really challenges me: "The principle of the practice of an observable love and oneness among all true Christians regardless of who and where they are" It is also referred to as "The Mark of the Christian" which Jesus laid out in John 13:34-35 "Love one another".

I know lots of people (I think especially of a few different pastor's kids) who have been completely turned off by the lack of love that they experienced in the church. How often does the church embrace God's holiness (outwardly requiring everyone to live by some or all of the standards God has given us) and reject God's love? Conversely, many of the mainstream churches today are all about God's love (tolerance) to the point where they have put His holiness on a shelf. Holiness without love produces a harsh gospel, and love without holiness produces a weak gospel. The challenge, for those who desire to be set apart, is to demonstrate God's holiness and love simultaneously. I think that if we can teach whole groups of people to really live by that standard, there will be great impact on the world around us.

On the Subject of Holiday Pictures

I realized that the Easter pictures were not the only thing trapped in the camera. I don't think I had ever even looked at the pictures from Christmas.

This one made me chuckle. I always tell Cadence that God must have needed a laugh the day he thought her up....

And what could possibly be harder than trying to take a decent picture of three kids?

Oh, I know, lets add the worlds most obstinate dog, Tasha! Great, now everybody howl!!!!

Holiday Pics

It took me almost a week to free them from my camera, but here are a few pics of the kids from Easter. People at church get a kick out the way our kids love to dress up. The boys almost always wear ties to church, and of course Cadence wants the prettiest, frilliest dress in the closet every day.

We had a nice, quiet Easter which makes it easy to focus on the things that matter - Jesus and family. We did a little egg hunt in the yard (the kids LOVE that part of Easter). I didn't manage to get a picture of Jacob looking for eggs because (even though I hid his a LOT better) he didn't need much help finding his eggs. I cooked a ham for dinner and my mom and Nate stopped by with some dessert.

Notice the hole in our fence in the picture with Cadence? That is from our neighbors having a New Years Eve bonfire! I guess they were running out of wood...

And I leave you with this - a picture of three of my favorite people in all the world. I wish you could see Jacob's outfit better, the boys both had black suits and matching ties (different color shirts). Todd even wore a suit to church so he could match too! Do you know how hard it is to get all three kids to look at the camera? I don't - because I don't think I've ever managed. I believe that it may be impossible.

And tell me, have you ever seen an uglier couch? It was $17 at the Rescue Mission (after Todd's discount, of course!)

School is fun!

I am just about done ordering books and materials for the next school year, and I can hardly contain my excitement! We will being doing Sonlight's Core 3 - American History Part 1, and we love history. I have put a lot of thought into what to do with Gabriel next year (having just turned 4 is reading the ABeka 1st grade readers, excelling at most K math concepts, and is an all around smarty pants). I decided that I will require him to participate in Jacob's "core" activities- that means he will listen to our history, Bible and read-aloud stuff. I'm sure he will keep reading everything in site, but I have (or can get from the library) all the grade 2 Sonlight readers for him, and we will most likely do those on our own schedule.

Math was what I struggled with the most...to start him in a formal math program or not? I decided not. From glancing over the Saxon math placement test it appears he would place in 1st grade now, but I'm not ready for that level of commitment with him. So I will teach him the things I know he needs work on (money, telling time to 1/4 hour, subtraction, patterns) and maybe when he is 5 we will do Saxon 2, maybe.

Not that I'm complaining, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of resources for gifted preschoolers - a lot of what I found on-line was parents saying "Maybe I shouldn't let my 3 year learn to read 'cause I don't want him to be bored in school..."

Only 10 weeks left of Core this year, 2 weeks of math (Jacob will start right in on 54 though) and not too much lang. It's funny how I'm really craving a good long break and at the same time all excited about next year. Does anybody have any tips on getting a wiggly boy to memorize multiplication facts?

Winter Break

Everything worked out okay, even if it did take a little bit of work and some name dropping. I remembered that we have rental coverage on our insurance policy, but Allstate said we couldn't pick up a rental car until our car went into the shop. And we couldn't take our car into the shop until the shop had the parts in. And they told us we had to go to their estimator in Liverpool on Saturday afternoon and we couldn't get anything sooner.

I called my brother-in-law who used be a manager at a big body shop and he said to take the car right to that shop and tell them that Roger said hi. I also called my agent and let him know "I'm not in good hands with... your insurance company." The agent said to go ahead and see what the body shop (who is a direct repair shop) could do for me. When they found out who my brother-in-law was they took a hard look at the van and found it undrivable, which meant I had to leave it right then and a few minuets later I drove off in a rental.

So Sunday morning we got the kids ready and piled them into our rental car. They thought we were taking Todd to church for worship practice (although I think Jacob suspected something different). After about 2 and 1/2 hours of driving Cadence said "Are we going to church? Where are we going?" To which Todd just replied "Watch" and pointed out the window. After another hour Gabe finally said "Are we almost to church? Can I take my new toy in with me when we get there?" I was cracking up, I couldn't believe he still thought we were going to church! Then, when we stopped to go potty Gabe looked at the building and said "Is this our new church?" At which point I chastised Todd for taking a wrong turn and making us miss church :)

When we pulled into Splash Lagoon, the kids were really excited. We had a great time on Sunday, even though the place was packed. I don't have any pics to show for it because the camera batteries aren't holding a charge. Sunday night Cadence got croup and then I woke up really sore Monday morning so we only stayed a few hours on Monday before heading home. But overall it was really fun!

Crash!

Todd got in an accident on the way to work this morning. He is worrying that it will affect our ability to surprise the kids this weekend (we are a one car family) - he says the van looks pretty bad, but it sounds like it is just mainly the bumper. He is pretty upset. Maybe I'll rent a car for the weekend or something, but I'm sure he'll worry about spending that money when we have a detectable to pay and our insurance may go up. (Although I think we have accident forgiveness with Allstate, so I'm not sure what that will look like.)

I would just like to take this opportunity to point out that everybody (at least everybody that is a man with the last name Young) says I drive like a maniac, but Todd has now scrapped the van up at the mall and torn the bumper off. The only harm I have caused it is a little scraping on the bottom of the bumper when I pull the nose of the van over the concrete things in the parking lot.

So sick of sickies!

Last week there were 2 different stomach bugs running rampant through our house. Everybody except me got hit with one of them, Gabriel got both of them and Jacob may have had both of them too. In fact, Todd was going to take me a really romantic date Friday night but Gabe threw up while I was picking up the babysitter! But by Sunday everyone was healthy...until today.



Cadence was complaining about her tummy and wouldn't eat breakfast. It turns out she has a pretty good fever. I taught math and history today with her laying in my arms (like a little baby) and sometime in the middle of math functions she fell asleep. Her ever loving brothers prepared the couch for her so that I could lay her down. Then when she woke up Gabe brought her a choice of stuffed animals and read to her until she fell back asleep. It was quite possibly the sweetest thing that I have ever seen, but I didn't get to the camera in time to get a picture of it.



I felt so bad for her that I was compelled to burn a cd of show tunes for her to listen to while she lays there all pathetic. She loves "Do a deer" or "the song from the frog movie" as she calls it - her favorite part in the Sound of Music involved the kids and a frog. After all the good Sound of music songs there was still lots of space on the disc so I added some stuff from My Fair Lady. Right now she is yelling to me about how much she likes the song about the English "Why Can't the English?" This is her laying on the couch, listening to her cd and occasionally nibbling on a Ritz cracker.





I just hope that everyone is healthy by this weekend, as we have an exciting surprise planned for them Sunday morning!

It has been a while

I know, I know... it has been 2 and a half months since I wrote anything. My list of excuses is long and includes computer problems that account for several weeks of my lameness. More honestly though, I have been in a funk and sometimes those "lows" are hard to work through. Thank God for Todd - he like my rock when it feels like my emotions and circumstances beyond my control are swirling all around me.

I consider myself, for the most part, a pretty level headed gal. I'm not one of those women who allows emotions to rule my life. I tend to make decisions based on facts (more like a typical man - and Todd tends to go on feeling, more like a typical woman) and take things in stride. But since a bout with post-partum depression after Cadence (almost 3 years ago) I have become aware of "lows" and "not lows" - sort of like bi-polar, but there aren't really "highs", just normals and lows.

It seems that what is most likely to drive me into a low is feeling like I lack purpose, or realizing that I what I thought was a great vision for my life (or our family) isn't going to pan out. For "Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Prov. 29:18) When I set a course in my mind I throw everything I have into making it happen, and when I begin to feel like all my investments have been in vain I "become demoralized" (NAB translation of perish).

We always thought that Syracuse was not our forever home as much at it was the place we grew up, even though we have never lived anywhere else. And with that in my mind, I felt like I could live with the fact that various other aspects of my life weren't "right" - if we didn't feel like we were at the "right" church, and I haven't found the "right" niche for myself etc.... But now Todd really likes his job, and as we find ourselves with fewer and fewer ties to this god-forsaken city we feel more and more like we belong here. Todd's family has all moved south, in 2 weeks my sister's family moves to PA, and we have very few people in Syracuse who we would count as friends. Yet, now, all of the sudden - it feels like it is where we belong.

So now it seems that I find myself faced with - myself! Needless to say, that is depressing :) Seriously though, I believe that good things are happening. It's just hard for me to process sometimes.

We are in the process of trying to discern what church is the best place for our family, and are leaning heavily towards Missio (currently called Summit Church, but changing soon). I hesitate because I have no idea what kind of roll I will be able to play there - I'll do anything but nursery, and they don't seem like they need me anywhere right now. Todd is playing lead there (that is how we ended up there - Jeremy Cali called and said they needed a guitar player) and the kids seem like to this church better than any other we've been involved in. And there is a very dear family that would account for at least 2 of our friends that have just decided to become a part of the church.

My sister is leaving. My sister is leaving. Did I mention that my sister is leaving? That just makes me sad. I think I'll be making lots of trips to Erie! My kids can't wait to go visit the ranch and meet a real cowboy.

Speaking of my kids, they are all doing great. Sometime in the next 60 days (I hope) Jacob will be one step closer to being all ours! His biological father tells me that his lawyer has the new surrender drawn up - now if he can just sign it and have his lawyer send it my lawyer, we'll be all set. 45 days after it is signed, David's rights to Jacob will be gone, then Todd can adopt him. YEAHHH!!!!

Homeschooling Four: The socially adept homeschooler

I was browsing the blogging world today and I came across this little tidbit. It cites some interesting research on socialization and such. And it makes me happy that I homeschool! I know, of course that the research can be tainted to achieve any results you want, but I do believe that parents are key in socialization and most of what kids learn in school about the subject isn't very good
Homeschooling Four: The socially adept homeschooler

Oh Christmas Tree

It is that time of year again. The time I dread. The time when the kids start asking "When are we going to get a Christmas tree mommy?" I dislike the Christmas season in general, but I really hate the whole Christmas tree ordeal. You see, in our seven years of marriage Christmas trees are probably responsible for more fights - I mean discussions than any other thing. Every year it is something different.

The first year the big thing was when do we get our tree - Todd's family always waited until a day or two before Christmas while my family put up our tree right after Thanksgiving. Then there is the fight over how many lights need to be on the tree - he didn't see why it needs more than one or two strands, while I believe that there is a mathematical formula, something like 50 lights per foot. One year when we went to Arnold's tree farm where every tree was $10, and none of them were very attractive. Anyway we found an acceptable tree and brought it home. We decorated the tree and the next night it fell over. We bought a new stand, redecorated the tree and still it tipped. I seem to recall that next we used twine to tie the tree in the standing position, but that didn't work for long either. I don't remember who was mad at who over what, but that was a stressful year that resulted in two Christmas trees and a lot of broken ornaments.

We have had various disagreements about where to put the tree, which decorations are ugly, and what constitutes tackiness in regard to a Christmas tree. So this year I was seriously thinking that we shouldn't have a Christmas tree. Todd agreed that was a good idea, but it was apparent that the kids would never go along with this. And since Jacob is still not the sole property of Todd and me, yesterday was looking like the only day to go get a tree before Christmas.

After what seemed like a mile of walking (probably felt like a marathon to the kids) we found a tree that made us all happy. And by "us all" I mean me. I kept telling Todd that I would not pick the tree, I wanted someone else to do it. But he refused to come home with a tree that didn't make me happy. As we walked and walked, and he pointed to tree after tree I said "no, no, no, sure if you think so, that one looks good, yup" but he insisted that I find a tree that I liked - he saw right through "that one looks good and yup". Maybe it is from growing up with a fake tree, maybe it is just because in my own little way I am a perfectionist (Todd would point out that this fact is evidenced by the fact that I am married to him - perfection!) but I expect to find a perfectly shaped tree with no bare spots. I was ready to settle and pick out a less than perfect tree when we found one I really liked.

Do you know what the most exciting thing about this tree is? It was only $20!!! We cut it down dragged it back and got it tied on top of the van all without incident. It is now standing (straight) in our dinning room where it will get decorated later today.

Getting Creative

Yesterday Jacob finished one of his reading books, which means he had to write a book summary. Jacob hates to write book summaries. I make him do it (most of the time) anyway because I know I don't do enough writing with him, and the kid needs to learn to write correctly. But yesterday as I was looking over the instructor's guide to see what his book was about I decided to approach this assignment a little differently....

The story was about a little cat that was searching for a good home. I had Jake write an essay about what makes a good home - for a cat and then for a boy. He started out doing his usual complaining and trying to cut corners, but then as he was getting into the assignment he said "I like this a lot better than what I usually do - summaries are boring and this is kind of fun". That made me pretty excited - I thought of something fun!!!!!

I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner to find a more interesting way to approach book summaries, maybe it is because I lack imagination and creative genius. Whatever the reason, I will strive to be a little more creative when it comes to writing assignments. It seems that a little creativity goes a long way! I have held back from creative writing because Well Trained Mind says not to start it till 4th grade, and I personally hate anything with the word creative in it. Plus there is the pull between just letting him write (without correcting every little mistake), allowing him to re-enforce bad habits and correcting his writing so much that is discourages him.

Here is Jacob's take on what makes a good home (with a little help from mom like don't start all your sentences with AND).

What Makes a Good Home

by Jacob

In The Last Little Cat by Meindert DeJong the little cat thought a good home would be warm and have friends. And she also thought there would be a nice warm bowl of milk. I think a nice warm home for a boy would have nice furniture and games and toys to play with. It should have decorations. It would be nice to have a big yard to play in. Running watter and lots of food to eat are important. It would be nice to have a bed and a t.v. Electricity to give light and a solid structure are especially important.

Today

Today Todd went back to work after a 5 day weekend. Today the dog vomited on the carpet while I was in the shower. Today the dog ran away (again). Today the dog came home (I didn't chase her) covered in some animal's poop less than an hour before we had to leave for a doctors appointment. Today Cadence pooped all over the bathroom floor, down the back of her pants and made a trail through the hallway because she couldn't hold it anymore.

All of this before noon! As I was cleaning up the poop, I thought - why couldn't this day have happened yesterday when Todd was home to help deal with it? What did I do to deserve - but my conscience would not let me finish that thought. Because I was asking what I had done to deserve being stuck cleaning poop on the floor and I realized that "what I deserve" is much worse than cleaning poop off the floor, and what I have is far beyond a pile of poo. I have a cute little house that is warm and safe. I am married to a man that adores me and the 3 beautiful, intelligent children that we have. We do not know hunger, we have running water, and on and on the list goes, culminating with "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions." Eph. 2:4-5

So I am thankful for today in all of its chaos as it serves to remind me of the grace and mercy of God as he has given me much, much more than I ever deserved!

No Greater Joy

"No Greater Joy" is the name of a parenting magazine and ministry that I enjoy. In their latest issue I came across this article. It made me laugh, and I thought it was worth sharing. The article is written by Michael Pearl, who along with his wife wrote the book To Train Up a Child several years ago. There are a few of their ideas that I don't agree with (they believe King James is the only true version of the Bible) but they have a lot of great insights on building relationships with your kids and training them while they are young. Subscription to the magazine is free, or you can read more at www.nogreaterjoy.org

Don't send a grandpa to do a mother's work
By: Michael Pearl

"Either I have forgotten what it is like to be solely responsible for a two-year-old, or I have gotten out of shape—both physically and mentally.

My daughter Shoshanna left Jeremiah with Debi and me for the afternoon. Somehow, Deb had to go somewhere right before lunch, and I ended up with Jeremiah. No problem. I can handle kids. I prepared a good dinner, but he didn’t want to eat anything except beans and cantaloupe.
Kids take a nap after eating, right? So he selected a book, and we sat in the rocking chair as I read the “exciting” story. I finished reading, and he still showed no signs of getting sleepy, but after having five children and watching my wife, I knew just what to do. I took him to our bedroom, and we lay down together. My plans were that as soon as he got to sleep, I would go back to work.
He kept fidgeting until he got bored, and then he started in on me. He climbed on me and jumped up and down like a bull rider. I bucked him off and told him in my most commanding voice, “Go to sleep.” Instead, he grabbed my nose and tried to unscrew it. My mother had it permanently attached, and it didn’t come loose, but it was not his fault. I knocked his hand away and rapped him on the head with a knuckle before whining my protest. He lay still for a minute, and then out of nowhere, he hit me with a pillow and let out his inherited rebel yell. I was under assault, so I grabbed a pillow and held it tight over my head so he couldn’t hit me with his. He was still for a minute, and then I felt additional pillows being piled on top of the one already covering my head. He then threw the covers over the pile of well-placed pillows and pressed his body down on the top. He was trying to smother me to death! I ran out of air real fast and had to come up gasping. He rolled off the pile, but managed to bore his little finger into my belly button as he passed by. I catapulted him to the other side of the bed and commenced complaining strongly. He thought it was quite an achievement and complimented himself with a triumphant dance in the middle of the king-size bed.
Finally, I had had enough, so I searched into my past and found my scariest voice, commanded him in no uncertain terms that his mother expected him to take a nap, and that he was going to take a nap if we had to stay there all afternoon. He got quiet for the first time. Under my pile of protective pillows, I grinned my victory. A couple minutes passed, and I realized I had won, and I did it without having to read To Train Up A Child!
I was thinking, “In a minute he will be asleep, and I will be able to get up and go back to . . .” I heard a yell coming from somewhere far away, and I struggled to consciousness. I had been asleep! He put me to sleep!I jumped up and staggered to the kitchen. He was standing in the middle of the floor with his legs spread apart, pointing to a pile . . . no, two piles . . . no, four or five piles . . . and a number of spears of brown, stinky, cantaloupe and beans poopoo—on my kitchen floor! He was whining and complaining and explaining why he could not go to the bathroom, because he couldn’t undo the buttons on his pants. He was very unhappy with himself, and he blamed me for sleeping when I was supposed to be babysitting. At least, that’s the way I interpreted his jabber.
I picked up the miserable little fellow, holding him at arm’s length to avoid contamination. I regretted getting rid of that old 1950s bio suit last year. When I tried to put him into the tub, clothes and all, he began to resist. I later found out that he doesn’t like to be in the tub. To hold on to him and get him undressed, I had to change my grip several times. You guessed it, I got contaminated. I didn’t know whether to take my clothes off and get in the tub with him or to try to clean him up first. At the thought of sharing a tub with him, a premonition of impending disaster came over me. So I stripped him and washed him from head to foot—three times—him hollering the whole time. I knew he was going to tell bad things about me when the women showed up.
I then cleaned up the kitchen floor, but since I didn’t have a change of clothes for him, I wrapped him in a towel and sat down to hold him until he went to sleep. He never did go to sleep. When the ladies returned, I handed him off to his mother and told them that I never could get him to take a nap. Shoshanna said, “Oh, I fed him and gave him a nap before I brought him over.” Then from the kitchen I heard my wife ask, “What is this brown stuff on the floor?” Over my shoulder, as I was heading out the door, I said, “See you girls later. So long, poop head.”
To all mothers of two-year-olds, you have my deepest respect."

Halloween

Monday night we carved our pumpkins. Gabriel and Cadence both quickly decided that scooping guts out of pumpkins is gross, and they didn't want to do it. Jacob, on the other hand, seemed to really enjoy it and he wanted to scoop everyone's pumpkin. We made an executive decision not to roast the pumpkin seeds, since Todd and I both have childhood memories of our moms making the pumpkin seeds and us really not liking them.

As Halloween was drawing near, the kids watched Lord of the Rings. Cadence fell in love with Gollum, and wanted to be nothing else for Halloween. Gabriel got on that bandwagon and was going back and forth between a hobbit and Legolas. I wanted him to be a hobbit because I always call him my little hobbit. He used have curls, he is short, and he likes to eat 8 meals a day - just like a hobbit. But, I was sad to discover that they do not make Gollum costumes for children... Furthermore, there were no Lord of the Rings costumes to be found in Syracuse and to buy them online would run me about $40 each after shipping.

Todd in all his wisdom was able to convince Cadence to be the fighting princess in Lord of the Rings. Gabriel settled on Legolas, and Jacob agreed to go along with the theme and be Aragorn. I made Cadence's dress and Jacob's costume. For Gabriel I found a used costume on ebay that included the Legolas wig.

Cadence may have agreed to be a princess for Halloween, but she still loves Gollum. Often when Todd and I call her, she doesn't answer the first time and after two or three times she will say "I'm not Cadence, I'm Gollum." So we say "Gollum, come here" and she runs right over. She plays Gollum all the time. Several mornings she had taken off her pajamas and run around the house naked before I had a chance to get her dressed- I thought this was because she likes to be naked. When I try to dress her she tells me "Gollum doesn't wear clothes" which is true. See, just a loin cloth...So I assumed this her way of trying to stay naked as long as possible. But the other day I caught her taking the pajamas. I asked her to wait because I couldn't get her dressed right then. She said "Gollum doesn't wear pajamas!" And she doesn't fuss about wearing underwear, "Gollum does wear underwear." I have decided that it isn't so much about being naked as it is about embracing the role of Gollum. Naked Gollum uses pillows for her house too - I'm not sure how this relates to the movie, but she does it every day.

Reading Lesson

I've been struggling with how to teach Gabriel long vowels because most of the first grade reading books won't hold his interest (he may have the brains of a 5 year old, but I guess his attention span is more like that of a normal 3 year old). By the time the books get to long vowels, the stories are pretty long and everything I have tried has black and white pictures. So I am improvising right now, taking word lists from a set of books I have, and writing some of the sentences from the stories on the white board.

Gabriel really enjoys working on the white board, especially when he gets to erase things. Then, after we have done several word lists and sentences, I let him draw a picture on the board for one of my sentences. Today's sentence was "Ray will take a nap." Gabe set to work illustrating the picture, and he was whispering "This is his head. This is his stuffed animal. These are his eyes." I thought it was funny that he was whispering, so I whispered to Gabe, "You have to be quiet so Ray can take his nap." He looked at me and whispered back "Ray isn't real you know." He just cracks me up!

Fraggles Rock!!

When I saw Fraggle Rock on Netflix, I had to rent it - for the kids. When we put it in I said to Todd, "We are probably going to think - why did we ever like this show?" But 20 years later, the fraggles did not disappoint. Neither one of us could remember there being so much music in the show, but it was all so well done!

We let them watch one episode the first night and they begged for more all day the next day. When we let them watch it again, Cadence said "I like the bagels".

Dueling Dukey

Let me start by saying that the word "dukey" has recently been revived in my vocabulary. I don't remember how it happened - it may have come from a movie or something. But I think it is a funny word, and I have been using a lot. This bothers my boy genius who says "Mom, can you just call it poop?"

So, last week Jacob came home from his father's house informing us that his sisters had been sick, and the step-mom was throwing up the night Jacob was there. He was worried about getting sick, and rightly so because he tends to bring home all kinds of stuff from their house. And the next night it hit him. Wouldn't you think that by age 8 you would be able to puke into the garbage can without getting it all over the carpet every time? Well, Jake can't. The night of vomiting was followed by several days of diarrhea.

Then Cadence got it and shared it with her beloved daddy. Todd hasn't thrown up but has been feeling sick all week. Then yesterday, it hit me. Last night we were trying to watch our favorite night of television, but we ended up playing "dueling dukey" while we watched TV. We only have one toilet (unless you count the training potty) and we were taking turns running upstairs saying "tell me what I missed". Thankfully our stomachs were on a slightly different schedule. In the 2 hours of television that we watched, I don't think that we watched more than 25 minuets of it together.

So thank you, David, for bringing my son into your germ infested house once again! We are waiting for him to come up with $150 to pay his lawyer to redraft the surrender document so that we can get this adoption moving. The way he operates, that will probably take months...

Get them to the ranch

I think I have mentioned before that my sister, Cathy, and her family are in the process of moving to PA to pursue full time ministry at Miracle Mountain Ranch. They are actively looking for churches to speak at as they seek support (both financial and prayer). So far, they have traveled to Maine and various places throughout New York. So, if you are interested, or have a possible church connection for them, they would appreciate it. The ranch is a really neat place, and provides some great opportunities for young adults who might not want a traditional college education - you can earn an accredited associates degree in 1 calander year, while doing lots of hands on learing and character development. So here are excerpts from their current newsletter...

"We have been very busy the past two months. It is hard to believe that two months have gone by since we sent our first newsletter. Yet, it is also incredible what God has done in that short amount of time. It has been a blessing to see Him provide in many ways.
As we mentioned in our last letter. We hoped to move to the ranch at the beginning of September. Unfortunately, we have not been able to move yet. The last step that needs to take place is for our house in Syracuse to sell. We have a buyer who is very interested but the gentlemen works locally with the United Auto Worker’s Union and the union contract is in negotiations. He does not want to commit to purchasing a home until that is resolved. We had another couple look at the house yesterday. Lord willing, we will be free from the mortgage soon and be able to move.
In the meantime, Roger has been able to continue working with Kurt Peschka. It has been a real blessing to work for someone who is willing to be flexible. His flexibility has allowed us to work at the ranch a few times and travel to speak and share about our new work. We are grateful that the Lord has provided employment in this time of transition....

The day after graduation we headed to Maine for a series of meetings. Roger was able to preach at a few churches and present our new work. We were able to stay with Roger’s uncle Eric and his family. We always have a great time with them. We even got to do some sight seeing with them and Grandma Look.During our visits and meetings several churches and individuals mentioned they would be praying for us and they would consider helping us with financial support. We are so thankful for the many gifts and words of prayer and encouragement. PRAISE the LORD!! We have really enjoyed the opportunity to make new friends and to share about the ranch and the GOOD News of the gospel with some who have never heard of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

Please continue to pray:
· That we will have more opportunities to share the GOOD NEWS
· For our home to sell and for more financial support (we are currently at 55% of our total need)
· Praise for the gifts and support (both prayer and financial) that many have given already.
Even as we await the sale of our home we are hoping to be able to spend some more time at the ranch getting to know this year’s apprentices and helping with projects. We are also looking for more opportunities to share the ministry with churches and individuals. Please feel free to contact us if you would like more information or would like to be added to the Miracle Mountain Ranch mailing list."

They can be reached at rpiger at aol dot com.

4 and 1!

Coach Kelly managed to orchestrate another win Saturday morning, guaranteeing that the "Green Snakes" will finish above .500 this season. We didn't deserve the win this time - and I felt a little guilty as I stacked my team (putting my 3 best players in at forward all at the same time) in the fourth quarter with us down 1 - 0. "It's not about winning, it's about having fun!" that's what we are supposed to tell the kids. And the other team had moved the ball down the field and passed effectively the whole game. I can't seem to get my kids to work together - and last week Todd overheard one kid complain to another "coach is putting us both in, but she said we have to pass it."

I enjoy coaching, but I think I would enjoy it more with older kids, or maybe if I had an assistant at practices. I inevitably lose control about 3/4 of the way through practice and on game day they are all begging to play midfielder or goal keeper the entire game. The concept of team seems to be above the heads of these 6,7 and 8 year olds. The gap in skills and maturity between a 6 year old and an 8 year old is another part of what makes it hard to run practices. Either the drills are over the heads of the little ones or they are boring to the big ones - it's tricky to find a balance. But I had a great conversation with the losing coach after Saturday's game, and he gave me a few new ideas.

We play a lot of our games at Velasko Road, which was Faith Heritage's home field back in the day, and as I was warming my team up I thought "I would have made it as a keeper if we had used these goals - I don't even have to jump to touch the cross bar"

So, my team doesn't totally suck and most of them seem to be having fun most of the time. But really, deep down in my heart, it is really about winning!

Fundrasing

My niece Nicole is raising money to go to Jacksonville with her AWANA club. They are doing a "book party" and each order hips seperate ($4 shipping), so if anybody wants any Pampered Chef, follow the link www.pamperedchef.biz/lauriemitchell to browse the catalouge and contact me if you want anything!