More about the CPAP

Well, I used my CPAP machine for about half the night last night. I don't recall taking it off, but I vaguely remember seeing that the clock said 3am and that I didn't have it on. It took a long while to get to sleep with it on last night. I woke up with terrible sinus pain (which is sometimes how a migraine starts) so I don't know if I'm trying to get used to the CPAP or if I had a migraine. I was sleepy today, so I took a nap with the CPAP and did much better with it. We'll see how tonight goes. One concern that I do have is that the tubing and mask are all supposed to be cleaned daily (according to the manufacturer's info) or every 2-3 days (according to the home health company). Either way, it's several minutes of work that needs to be done. The home health company recommended that I cover the tubing with fleece or something similar for insulation. I agreed that this was important since the tubing goes from the machine, along the window, and then to my mask. Last night, I found some purple fleece and made a nice little cover for the tubing (that is easy to take on and off - important since it has to be cleaned so often). I think it's very cute - I was very glad that my sewing machine stays set up for just such emergencies.

C has been very sick since last night. He had a bit of a sore throat yesterday morning, which I didn't worry about. He felt well enough to go to the bowling party yesterday afternoon, but developed a fever, cough, and runny nose in the evening. He has had the symptoms all day today. He really looks sick. I called the clinic about whether or not to have him tested for influenza and we decided against it. In this area, rimantidine-resistance is very common among the influenza virus, so they use Tamiflu. However, there are now concerns about Tamiflu causing delirium and there have been cases of kids trying to hurt themselves while on Tamiflu. So, I'm pretty sure he's got influenza, but we're going to wait it out. One of the other homeschool moms whose kids were at the bowling party sent out an email today that her kids were diagnosed with influenza today. I'm not sure that they gave it to C, and C may have given it to her kids - what a mess! C is sleeping in the living room tonight with me so that P can get some sleep tonight. He has to be at church at 7am.

I ordered our next year's curriculum this week!! We use Sonlight for the Core subjects (history/geography/etc.) and for language arts (I've decided that the workbooks take too much time and aren't a really great fit for L). We are going to be using Apologia Elementary Science - we're going to start with "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day of Creation". I'm also planning on implementing notebooking with the kids. The science curriculum is built around notebooking. I'm going to have the kids start keeping notebooks for their other subjects, as well. We've started some of that already: I have them keeping a vocabulary list from our study of Africa. I would add some map work, but that is covered in another resource. The notebooking concept is going to require some adjustment in how we think about doing schoolwork. I want them to start to expand their thinking on a topic - do more than just what we've read together - instead of just "doing the minimum" to get by. I'm already starting to pray for the kids' response to this as well as my own attitude. I'm pretty excited about the new Core - we are going to spend 2 years studying World History (and, necessarily, geography, politics, sociology, etc.). The science curriculum is intended to cover one school year. After that, I will probably have L do the Apologia General Science and have C do the elementary Astronomy or "Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day of Creation". P laughs at my planning so far in the future. I know that things are very likely to change, but I want to always be looking ahead so that I can be prepared.