Week 2 of school - much better!

School goes much better when I don't have persistent headaches! I had some headaches in the evening, so getting going in the morning was tough, but we did OK after that. I had a bad HA yesterday, but that was OK as far as school went because P took the kids to the Valley for a trip to the Children's Museum and the Planetarium.

We started C's new reading program this week. It is a comprehensive and multi-sensory program. We are starting with the very basics and learning all the letter sounds (again), but this time, he is reinforcing the learning the sounds with tactile sensations such as writing the letter in sand while saying the name and sound of the letter. There is a completely different set of physical activities to do for learning sight words. I'm optimistic that he will be more succesful with this type of program. We also have him set up to see a psychologist for evaluation for dyslexia or other learning problems.

L is finishing up her Fair projects. She got a second place ribbon last Saturday for showing her cat. We were very proud of her. She has a number of art and craft projects to show this week. The judging for her projects is Wednesday. Several of her friends are showing animals and their judging is Wednesday through Sunday. It is going to be a busy week. Since the kids are in 4-H, I think we are going to have to work at the food stand selling refreshments at least once this week. Our house is only 1 block from the fairgrounds, so I'm not sure how much sleep any of us are going to get this week!

This week, we are going to work on only math and language arts again. Next week, though, we start back with our full schedule of work. The kids try to complain, but they'll be fine. The neighbor kids start school at the same time. It will actually be kind of hard for our kids because C is done with his schoolwork by 3 in the afternoon, when his friend gets home from school. But, I imagine that his friend will have homework and won't be able to play all afternoon and evening like they do now. We'll have to see how things go.

In the meantime, we still have a few things in the storage unit that we need to get moved back here in the next week and a half. I don't think we have any more full boxes in here. The craft room just looks like a messy room now, although I still can't use my desk. Another week or so and I'll be done.

Well, off to get some lunch. More later.

What a first week of school

This was not exactly the way I wanted our first week to be. I had bad headaches every morning except Thursday. That doesn't do a lot for getting me moving in the morning! The kids got a little more difficult by the end of the week, as well. This has been the worst headache week in a really long time.

I had someone do an informal evaluation of C's reading this week. She agreed that his reading is very weak - he is at a 1.5 grade level - but she doesn't know a lot about dyslexia, and her recommendations were mostly to continue with what we have been doing. I'm still quite concerned about dyslexia, so I have scheduled an appointment with an educational psychologist in the Valley (in September). In the meantime, P and I have decided to "start over" with C's reading by using a multisensory phonics program. The program is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach which is used for dyslexics. So, whether he ends up with that diagnosis or not, I think we're using a common sense approach to getting him to learn to read.

The County Fair activities start tomorrow. L shows her cat in the morning. The cat has not been all that impressed with her harness and leash. We'll have to see what she thinks about being shown tomorrow. The kids have 1 1/2 weeks to finish the rest of their projects.

P's last day of work was today. I have a list of stuff that needs to be done around the house, so I'm not arguing. He is also starting a program through the University to become credentialled to teach high school. He will start classes on Sept. 5. He will be able to take classes full time so that next fall, he will be ready for student teaching! He should be ready to work as a teacher in January or February 2008!

Our small group has been studying the book of James. I have also been reading an individual study as well. Today's study was on the last portion of James 4. In it, James admonishes us to remember that we may make our plans, but God always has the last word. I was certainly reminded of that this week. I made plans for schoolwork each day, but the day's activities were affected by my headaches. It is good for me to plan, but I will continue to always pray over my plans. The psalmist reminds us to always give over our plans to the Lord: Ps 37:5-6 Commit your way to the LORD;trust in him and he will do this: 6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

A New School Year

Well, we started school today. The kids told me they were bored one time too many, so we started school. They weren't bored today!

Unfortunately, I woke up at 4:30am with an impressive migraine - EEK! The good news is that I hadn't scheduled a lot of stuff to do, so we were able to get it all done. I have been cataloguing all of our educational CD-ROMS, videos, and DVDs, so I can give them work to do when I have a bad headache. But, today went pretty well, and I'm encouraged. The "real" schoolbooks are actually still in boxes. I did math drill sheets and dictation from Harry Potter and stuff like that today.

We're also working out who does what jobs around the house. I'm not sure how we're going to work out who does dishes on what night. We still have to see what the dance, AWANA, worship team, and Junior High schedules look like.

P and I spent Saturday really organizing and unpacking boxes. The craft room is now just a messy room and not a major disaster site! The school room is completely organized, except for not having the bookshelves filled. We have 6 unopened boxes of books in the living room right now along with a bunch of boxes and several shelves of stuff in a storage unit. A good bit of that stuff is going to have to go right to Goodwill. There is no way we have room for it here. But, the school books are somewhere in all that!

C read for me today. I was hoping that in the couple of months that we haven't done formal reading that he might have made some developmental gains. Unfortunately, things have gotten no better. He can read simple three letter words by themselves most of the time. He can get them all the time if they are paired with pictures. But, he had real problems reading a simple story. On one page, he read the word "fall" without trouble, but he had no clue what the same word was on the next page. He could get the "f" sound, but nothing else. He read the word "into" as "in". Even when I pointed it out to him, he still could not see that he was missing half the word! His eyesight can't be that much of an issue: these words were very large on a computer screen. He asks for help when he can't differentiate a "b" from a "d". The issues he is having in reading right now are not that clearcut. The good news is that a friend who is a reading specialist is supposed to come in a week or two to help me decide what the next step is. Clearly, we need some new directions. I think I'm going to try some letter blocks tomorrow and see if that helps him at all.

P gave his 2 week notice at his job last week. He will be meeting this week with a professor of a program that gets people with bachelor's degrees in math and science the education they need to be able to teach high school. This is pretty exciting for him. He will probably not need to take any math classes, but should be able to go right to education method classes. He's hoping that he can actually be working within 1 1 /2 to 2 years. In any case, it's pretty exciting for him.

Well, I'm off to try out more of my kids' math software and figure out what works for them and what doesn't. Tomorrow we're doing school at the coffee shop!

Walking the cat

Today we took a walk with L's cat, Sophie. You're reading this and thinking, "You can't walk a cat." Well, you are right. I thought that we probably wouldn't get too far on the walk, but it wouldn't hurt to try. Besides, I believe in choosing your battles, and I was not interested in arguing with L about whether or not to take the cat on the walk. As you can imagine, the cat was not interested in actually walking. She did what she always does when L takes her outside (which is pretty often since L is getting her ready for the fair) and sniffed around then rolled around to try to get her harness off. When a car came by, she bolted for the street - thankfully, the leash was pretty short. So, it was a short walk today. Tomorrow will be a walk or bike ride to the library, so Sophie will stay at home with Silver and Sassy - inside, where they belong.

If I hear one more time "I'm bored" from my children, I think I'll scream!! How can kids who have imagination friends galore and who can go to space with pillows and K'Nex get bored? It is clearly time for school to start. The problem is that I'm not ready for school to start - the school books are still in the storage unit. I have started giving the kids chores when they tell me they're bored, so I don't have to hear them complain too often, but they're clearly ready for some more structure to their days.

So, tomorrow we are going to the library to make sure we have the library books we need for Monday. Monday morning, we will start school, whether we have "school" books or not. Both kids have 4-H projects that need work, so that will keep us busy. I have decided to have L do a good bit of dictation this year to help with her writing - handwriting, punctuation, spelling, etc. I'll start with passages from her Harry Potter books and move to her "regular" school books when we get there. L also needs to work on her division facts, so we've got math to keep her busy. C is ready to work on subtraction facts. He also needs to learn to tell time and do clock math as well as a general review of time - from seconds up to centuries. I haven't had him tested for dyslexia yet, but I am going to get going with some multisensory reading and phonics work. I've found some free stuff on the internet that includes computer stuff as well as printouts for writing practice. I think this will keep them busy for a couple hours a day for the next week or two.

I have had a couple of bad headache weeks. In the midst of this, I am learning to have some backup dinner plans ready. I don't like to buy a lot of prepared food since I know how to and like to cook. But, I have decided that keeping some frozen pasta, chicken nuggets, barbeque beef, etc. around for P to cook if I'm not having a good day is a lot cheaper and makes for a happier family than always having sandwiches or cheap pizza. I'm also finding that taking a break in the middle of the afternoon helps with being able to cook dinner.

We are still unpacking boxes. This unpacking process is painfully slow. I'm hoping that we can get a good bit done this weekend. I'm more productive when P is home because we motivate each other. So, a couple more weeks, and we should have it all done . . . I hope . . . maybe . . .

We Found the Toaster!

Yep! We found the toaster! The crazy thing is that it wasn't in the storage unit or the garage. It was in a box on a desk in the guest/craft room. The box also had the arepa maker - arepas are corn flour and water breakfast bread-type things that we had in Venezuela, so P got me a Sunbeam arepa maker so we don't have to fry ours on the stove with lots of oil. But, of course, all of the other things that we kept saying were "with the toaster" were not, actually, with the toaster. Bummer.

Well, it's Sunday night and I still have dishes to do. And more boxes to open. Maybe some of the stuff that wasn't "with the toaster" will be there.

Wishing I Was at Camp

We've been home from camp for a week now. The verdict is in: I liked camp better. IIt was so nice to not have to think about what to have for dinner or where the kids are or whether the laundry is done. But, now we're back to real life.

My disability insurance company is paying benefits right now under "reservation of rights", but they want more information before they make a final determination. They asked me to keep a headache diary for 2 weeks. They sent me a form to fill out. It is 2 pages - one page for each week. Each day gets one line - requesting information about that day's headache. They still don't get it. I don't have one headache a day. I wake up almost every day with a headache which usually gets worse, depending on my activity, the weather, etc. I started the diary yesterday and used an entire page for one day. Yesterday, unfortunately, was one of the really awful headache days. I woke up at 5:30 with a bad headache that was up to a 9/10 by the time I got downstairs to get my meds. I stayed on the sofa until about 1pm. Anyway, I made 12 copies of the headache diary, so I can use one page for each day. Maybe we can come to a meeting of the minds.

On Thursday, my kids decided to become inventors in the basement. The good news is that I have already taken all the give-away stuff to Goodwill, so they weren't mixing give-away stuff with keep stuff. Between the miscellaneous stuff in the basement and their imaginations, they became very well attired spies. There were devices to allow them to climb buildings and see things. C was quite interested in blowing things up. The good news is that L was very interested in force fields, so that the house didn't blow up (nor did the cats!). The kids were showing their inventions to a friend later in the afternoon when the funniest thing happened. C was doing all the steps to ignite one of his inventions when all of the sudden, he said, "Uh oh." and looked up to the ceiling very seriously. I said, in all seriousness, "Did you put a hole in my house?" He kept looking at the ceiling and deadpanned, "Uh, yeah." Those kids are the funniest things. Of course, my basement is fine, except for being messy.

It has been hot as h*ll here, and I am being literal! The highs have been in the mid to upper 90s. It is forecast to be 100 tomorrow and 98 on Tuesday. Talk about living in the Great White North! We are fortunate to have central air conditioning, but it really only works downstairs. We have one air conditioning vent upstairs and one old fashioned grate. Early in the week, we had the kids start sleeping in the basement (thankfully, they didn't meet any bugs, because we have our fair share), P sleeping in the guest/craft room (which is a disaster), and me sleeping on the sofa (which is fine because I've had headaches). Finally, P decided it was time to get a room AC for upstairs. The plan was to put it in L's room and leave all the bedroom doors open to share the cool air (although it would also have to cool the landing and stairwell). I was concerned that they wouldn't have any more ACs in the city. But, Home Depot had just gotten a shipment. The AC to cool the entire upstairs was going to be $500, but 3 small room ACs were $130 each (and wouldn't cool the landing/stairwell). So, we got the 3 room ACs. P has 2 of them set up and running now, but the third one, Cs room, has to wait because we don't have the wiring to run 3 ACs. The upstairs still has old wiring, but we have a friend who can help P redo it this fall to bring it into the 21st century. In the meantime, Cs room is quite comfortable with running Ls AC and keeping the closet doors between their rooms open and running a fan over the grate moving the warm air out. Sounds complicated, but it works.

The house is still something of a wreck. The headaches have been really bad this week, but the fatigue has been even worse. I have some friends who have volunteered to help. I have a natural aversion to getting help. I think it's not helped by the years in medical school and medicine where we worked through anything. But, I'm going to have to take some help or I'm just not going to get stuff done some weeks.

I have been trying to avoid thinking about schooling. How am I going to get that done with the stuff I can't even handle now? Last night, though, I did come up with an idea on how to at least start a plan. I need to get the house somewhat organized - at least find the schoolbooks! - and not be trying to empty boxes while starting schooling. Then, I need to make a plan that organizes things based on importance. It looks like some weeks we may just scrape through. Other weeks, we may be able to get a lot of stuff done. I need to have a plan going into this about what is most important for the children to learn (not what is important to check off - my real issue - I like to see things checked off!). The kids are also able to help around the house more than they have been, but it needs to be done in a routine, not capriciously. C did dishes for me yesterday and L did other cleaning (we had small group last night). I am also learning to lower my standards.

I am hoping that a friend of mine may be able to come over soon and evaluate Chris for dyslexia. The more I watch him try to read, the more concerned I am. He really is not putting things together like he should. I read a book about dyslexia that was wonderful in helping me understand the problem, but told me nothing about teaching him to read as a parent. It was clearly written for parents of children in school - it told parents how to make sure that the school was using a good program. I need better info, but I'm hoping my friend can help me. I would prefer to wait for her input instead of trying more internet searches and looking through more books. Can you tell I'm getting frustrated?

Well, more later. I'm home from church with another headache. I'm going to go vegetate on the sofa for a while.

Home from Camp

We're home! P and I got home Saturday night, but I haven't gotten a chance to blog until tonight. And, now, I have a migraine, so it will be short.

We had a blast at family camp - of course! P's mom was with us this year which was fun. She enjoyed the activities, but also indulged in her new hobby/small business - making DVD recordings of pretty much everything that went on.

Last night, there was a major storm. We are forecast for more storms today and the pressure is falling - hence the headache and muscle pain. EEK! The kids played with the neighbor kids, though, which was nice. It's good to get to know the neighborhood.

I'll write more later. Right now, I'm going to lie on the sofa and try to convince my head not to hurt.

It's with the toaster!

We are still unpacking all of our boxes and trying to find the necessities of life. One thing that frustrates me is that we can't find the toaster! We have just about everything else that we need in the kitchen, but no toaster. The other day, we were looking for something and couldn't imagine where it could be, and P said "It must be with the toaster." So now, whenever we can't find anything, we say, "It's with the toaster."

Our small group was going to study the book of James this summer, but we have had such trouble getting everyone together that we haven't gotten very far. I have been reading a study myself called, "Growing Slowly Wise". I have been meditating recently on the first several verses about developing perseverance and asking for wisdom. James 1:2-6 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. The author quotes Oswald Chambers: "To choose suffering makes no sense at all; to choose God's will in the midst of our suffering makes all the sense in the world." The author encourages us to continue in obedience despite the circumstances. "The only fatal flaw, as C.S. Lewis said, is to give up." This has given me much to think about over the last couple of days.

I have recently read some very good books. Eragon by Christopher Paolini is a fantasy novel that bears resemblence to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. What is truly amazing is that this novel was written by a 15 year old! In any case, no matter the age of the author, it stands alone as a very entertaining fantasy novel. The first few chapters had the potential to be slow, but they caught my attention pretty quickly. I did feel, at times, like the cliffhangers were getting to be a little much - I wanted to know what was going on sooner than the author wanted to disclose. By the end, though, I was satisfied. The novel does not completely end. There is a sequel that I am going to have to read. There are still too many unanswered questions.

The Secret Life of Bees is a wonderful novel about relationships among women in the South. There are plenty of quirky characters and interesting plot to keep one reading. The story is set in 1960s South Carolina, so there are racial tensions, as well. (On a side note, I keep reading novels set in the South with quirky characters who are so much like my own Southern family and think, "How did they know about my family?" I have since come to the conclusion that my family is really not all that strange - everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line is part of a quirky family!) I absolutely loved reading this book and I highly recommend it for your reading entertainment.

Now, here's the caveat. Do not even think about reading this book for any religious or spiritual content. The characters in the book have their own form of worship that is probably best described as "goddess worship" or "worship of the sacred feminine" or something like that. I have done some reading about this author and found that she has left her Christian faith and is delving now into Gnosticism and "the sacred feminine". So, you won't find those words in her novel, but you will find those ideas. So, the book is a great read - have fun. But know what is in there.

I am currently reading My Antonia by Willa Cather. I love it so far - I'm about halfway through. I'll let you know more about it later.

Well, everyone else is in bed. I'm not really tired - probably because I napped from 7-9am today even though I was up at 5am with a migraine. Well, I'd better try and sleep. More later. Tomorrow's my birthday - 39 years!!

Home again - but in a different house

It's been a good long while since my last post. Since then, C and I have taken a trip down South for a family reunion while L went to camp. Poor P had to stay home the whole time and work. Ah, well, he gets vacation next week when we all go to family camp up North.

This is the first time to come home from a trip to this house. While I was gone, P moved some more stuff from the other house and got some more unpacking and organizing done, so this house doesn't even look the same as when I left. But, it's a good thing. We are gradually making this house feel like home.

C and I left the last Tuesday in June to take a train trip down South to Mississippi to visit my parents and to go to a family reunion. I planned some activities for C to do on the train, knowing that he would probably get bored. Well, it only took 2 hours (out of 16 hours on the the train) for C to realize that travelling by train is really not all it's cracked up to be. We slept in our seats that night, so the next morning, C spent a good bit of time going back and forth between the club car and our seats. It was mostly just entertainment for him.

But, once we were at Grams and Grandpa's trailer, things changed. C and Grandpa went fishing twice. What a great time that was! The second time, though, they went with C's cousin, who is only 4 years old. Grandpa was helping the cousin with getting a cricket on the hook and getting started fishing when C caught a fish. Well, I was sitting on the bank of the pond and taking pictures when this happened, but it looked like C needed some help to get the fish off the hook because Grandpa was busy. So, I unhooked the fish and let it go (we weren't fishing for dinner) and rebaited the hook. I would like to say that I have done my "wiggly creature" duty for the decade, but L likes to pick up insects and other wiggly things, so I'm not sure I'm out of the woods yet. But, for that day, I was grateful that my Uncle Bill showed up to help out C for the rest of the fishing session (Uncle Bill and I did have a short, philosophical discussion on the best way to hook crickets - through the abdomen (my preference) or behind the head (his preference) - I conceded, though, because I prefer to not hook crickets at all).

My brother and sister-in-law came over for the family reunion - they're the ones with the 4 year old son. C and his cousin had fun playing, but it was mostly fun playing each others toys. C liked his cousin's Leapster, but his cousin liked C's GameBoy Advance.

My college roommate was visiting her parents over the weekend, so she came to visit us on Sunday (it was only 1 1/2 hour drive). We were both a little distressed, though, that, when she called Sunday afternoon for directions, her dad and my dad ended up on the phone getting the directions straight - it was just like we were in college - and we're almost 40!! In any case, D and her husband and 4 boys all came over for the afternoon. They joined us for a cookout, as well. It is really hard to believe that it was 20 years ago that we lived together and hadn't even met our husbands yet. But, now, our kids are growing up and we are growing older (and, maybe, wiser).

While C and I were doing our visiting down South, L was at camp up North. This was her first year at Girls Camp. Previously, she has been at kids' camp, which has been co-ed and at the main camp. This year, she was at the more isolated section of camp, and it was just girls. She had a blast. She assures me that she took 2 showers (one of them was required)!! L talked to me some about the studies that they did. They do really good teaching at camp.

C and I got home on Wednesday so that he would be home in time for the baseball tounament. His first game was not until Friday, thankfully. His team won the first game at 4pm, so they played again at 9pm. They lost the 9pm game, but they played again this morning at 10:30am and won that game, so they got the bronze medal for their level!! C was soooooo proud. It was exciting.

The last few bits of our furniture got moved in today. We also got our new refrigerator today. We won't have the ice maker working for a week or two, but so far, so good.

We have an accepted offer on our other house, but it has a contingency of their selling their other house. Another couple put in another offer, and we countered, and they accepted. The first couple has until Monday to remove the contingency from their offer. If they can't do that, then we can take the second offer, which is a better offer and will close sooner (also better). Either way, our other house is sold.

P's mom is coming on Wednesday for a visit. She will be here a couple of days, and then we all go to family camp. Family camp is the most relaxing week of the year for all of us. The food is good, the Bible teaching is solid and interesting, the people are fun, the kids are taken care of. What more could we ask for?

Well, that's enough of a book for now. Pretty much just facts today. I haven't been thinking much today, have I? More later.

We sold the house - we hope!

We had an offer on our house again last week, but it was too low for us to consider. Well, they eventually agreed to our price. We hope that this will all work out - after our last experience, we know that an accepted offer doesn't always mean the end of the road. We are continuing to pray for all to go well.

I am trying to get everything ready for me and C to leave to go to a family reunion. C came downstairs three times tonight saying he couldn't sleep because he was too excited about the trip. He is very excited because we are traveling by train tomorrow. I agree that it is going to be fun. I enjoyed our last Amtrak trip (5 years ago), so I think this should be good for the two of us.

L leaves for camp while C and I are gone to the family reunion. I am not going to see her for 2 weeks - wow! She has a blast at camp, though. I'm sure she'll love it again this year. P is going to have to help her pack this year - he's already nervous about it.

Well, I'd better get off to bed. I haven't packed our clothes yet, but I can get those done in the morning. The other stuff is ready to go. We can't check our baggage on the train (we're getting off at one of the smaller stops), so we're packing light. I need to get a little sleep tonight!

Caterpie is now "Butterfree"

I looked at Caterpie last night and he was still in his chrysalis, but there were more gold dots on the crysalis. This morning, he had completely broken free of the chrysalis. L took him outside and let him dry his wings on a stick. Now he is free!! And his name is changed to Butterfree!

I found my socks yesterday!! This may not sound all that important, but I was running out of socks and I like to wear tennis shoes. P knew where they were all the time, but he is usually at work when I am looking for stuff like that.

I have had bad migraines the last two days. We have had really unpleasant weather, which was a major trigger. I was really bummed because I didn't get any unpacking or organizing done.

Well, off to get everyone ready for the trips the next week. C and I are off to a family reunion and L is off to camp.

The House is OURS!!!

We closed today on the new house (OK, the 75 year old house, but new to use). At about 12:30pm, it officially became our house. Home ownership is not new to us - in fact, we now own two homes. But, it is exciting that we own the house that we fell in love with.

We actually have an offer on the other house, as well. That is also exciting. The only problem is that the offer was too low to even consider. We have countered with the lowest price that we can accept. It is a reasonable price for that neighborhood and that house (and perhaps even a bit low). This is really not a good time to be trying to sell an upper middle class type home. I'm glad we're not trying to sell one of the "McMansion" type homes - the large (5,000 square feet or more) homes that take up the entire lot in neighborhoods where the houses are all pretty similar. I read in the Wall Street Journal that those homes are getting harder to sell, and that the sellers are really having to accept much lower prices these days. An acquaintance of ours sold her home within just a week or two, but it was priced about $100k lower (more like the home we just bought). We will keep praying for the house to sell at a decent price.

Otherwise, P and I were able to go out and celebrate our closing. The weather is wonderful, so we went to a restaurant with huge windows and enjoyed the view. We had ice cream at an outdoor ice cream shop after dinner. Unfortunately, I have a migraine tonight. It's manageable as long as I don't do much, so I've been getting pictures together for my and C's trip to the family reunion next week.

P and I have been talking about something I thought I would never have considered - a cell phone for the kids. I have thought that a cell phone for kids was the height of unnecessary luxury and just asking for trouble. Why do children need cell phones? It seems like the ultimate in parents getting out of their parental duties of watching out for their kids.

Well, I'm starting to reconsider. We were living in a subdivision (in a rather small town) where my kids could only ride bikes and scooters in the subdivision. I had to drive them to any parks or stores. Now, we live on Main Street in a smaller town and the kids can walk or ride bikes to the convenience store or the playground at the elementary school. It's a little further of a walk or ride, but they can also go to the grocery store or the big park with the swimming pool (with lifeguards). So, we're in a smaller town, but the kids have more opportunity. I don't have much problem with them riding or walking short distances, but I do get concerned when they go longer distances. Right now, they have to go together if they go more than 3 or 4 blocks. We have 2 way radios, but they're bulky, and I'm not sure how far they'll reach in town. So, now P and I are considering adding another cell phone to our account. They have phones that you can only put three numbers on so kids can't call all their friends. I'm not concerned about them calling every one - I can check the statement on-line. If they use it in a way that they shouldn't then they just can't leave the house at all. But, the kids are pretty good, and they're not to the teen years when they might want to do that kind of stuff anyway. I'm just a little concerned about safety. I would like them to be able to call me if they need help when they are so far away.

Life is so different than when we were kids. We would ride bikes 3 or 4 miles away and not worry about it. Mom and Dad just wanted to know our general whereabouts. Well, we'll pray about it and check how much it costs and whether it's worth it.

I've got two new knitting projects going. I'm making my husband a new guitar strap. I don't really like the one pattern I've seen, so I'm making one up as I go. I'm also making a blanket - mostly I'm learning new stitches with some nice natural wool and I'll eventually put the squares together for a blanket.

Tonight, though, I'll enjoy the first night in the new house that we own!

Settling In

We have been sleeping in our new home for the last five nights. It is so much different than our previous home, mostly in positive ways, but not always. Everyone is used to sleeping with our doors closed, but the second floor in this house has only one heating and cooling vent, and it is in our room. So, now, we all sleep with our doors open to let air circulate.

The house is a good bit smaller. The piano and TV are in the same room now. We also have the Nintendo set up on the main TV since the basement is too small to set up an extra TV for Nintendo. The basement is already pretty crowded, and we don't have P's woodworking stuff in there yet. The good news is that about half of what is there now is going to be sold in a yard sale. I am a born organizer, but even I'm a little intimidated by what needs to be done down there to get ready for a yard sale!

The bathroom was a real challenge to get cleaned. We had a bunch of duplicate (and triplicate and quadruplicate, etc.) stuff. I have found 10 or 15 unused or minimally used toothbrushes. I have no idea how we got all these. Some have dentist names on them, others don't. I'm going to sterilize them in boiling water, then we'll never have to buy another tooth brush. We also have enough toothpaste to last about 10 years.

One problem with only one bathroom is that it is on the main floor and we sleep upstairs. I was coming downstairs last night and lost my balance. I didn't fall, but I caught myself and twisted my knee and hip a little. We also have a toilet in the basement. It sits there all by itself - but, I'm sure it will be useful!

We're working hard to get the rest of the stuff moved and organized. It's going to be fun!

Moved!! - mostly

We are mostly moved in to our new house! Friday night, several other women came over and helped finish cleaning and then moving the first of the boxes in. The seller had a cleaning service come in and clean, so the house itself just needed to have the cabinets wiped out - that was nice. But the basement was a disaster! The stuff was all moved out, but the floors were all dusty and dirty, and there were cobwebs in every corner and on every beam. It took vacuuming, sweeping, and then mopping, but it is now clean! And, after the cleaning it got, I would have been OK to eat off those floors!

Saturday was the real moving day. We had about 14 or 16 people helping with the move. They got most of our stuff from the house (not including the storage shed) into this house. They took from about 3 to 8pm. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. Unfortunately, it was a hot day - temps near 90. We had lots of water, lemonade, and sodas for everyone. The stairs here are pretty narrow, so the guys didn't hesitate to take beds apart to get them upstairs and then put the back together. We are blessed to have friends with such diverse abilities.

The seller had left a bunch of stuff on the street for the trash service to pick up tomorrow morning. He included an old mattress and box springs. They aren't in great shape, but they're not completely trashed. We also had a twin size mattress and box springs that were going in our downstairs bedroom for a guest bedroom/craft room. Well, I told them to put one set of box springs and mattress in the craft room. Then, about 30 minutes later they came in with another set. I told them to put it in the craft room, but then went in and realized that there were two sets. L's room already had her twin mattress on her bunk bed. I decided not to worry about it until later. After everyone had left, I looked outside and realized that the seller's mattress and box spring were gone from the street. My husband and I got a real laugh out of it! We really don't want a second set. We may hold on to the second set and put it in our yard sale so that someone can use it instead of it going to the dump. Of course, a lot of people have already gone through the the trash on the road. If we put the mattress and box spring out, it might be gone by morning.

The house is definitely smaller than our other home. P and my bedroom fits our bed and cedar chest. We used to also have a large antique radio, a desk, and a treadmill, and the room still felt large. The kids rooms are also pretty small. We are having to do some serious furniture rearrangement. We haven't run into any real problems with size, though. The kids used to always want to be on the parents' computer so they could play computer but still be near everyone else. Their computer is right near the living room, so they are still right in the middle of downstairs.

The kids seem to be handling the change really well so far. They seemed to have dealt with all their general "I don't want to move" "It's so far away" "I like this house" over the last couple of months, so now they get to enjoy exploring the new house.

I was worried about the cats and the move. I was planning on putting them in a bedroom or in one of the large closets for the day (the closets in the eaves of the house are huge). Well, I needn't have worried. I put the cats in the basement in their boxes and then opened the boxes. Sassy and Sophie came slowly out of their boxes and we showed them their food and litter boxes. Over the next several hours, they came upstairs and carefully explored the house. Silver, on the other hand, would have none of that. She stayed safely in her kennel. I brought her out once to show her the litter box, but she went back to the kennel. She didn't come out until sometime yesterday. During the move, Silver stayed in her kennel. We got a little worried because we couldn't find Sassy or Sophie, but we figured if we hadn't seen them at all, that they probably hadn't been brave enough to get underfoot and escape. We found them hiding out in the back of a closet. The good news, is that they all seem to be acting somewhat normally today.

We had an Open House Saturday morning before the move with a separate showing before the Open House. The people who requested the showing also requested another showing Sunday morning, so P vacuumed the carpet one last time after the stuff was moved out. They are still interested, so we are hopeful that they may make an offer!

Hopefully, we can get the rest of the stuff moved in over the next week. I can take a month or so to get it all organized and get ready for a massive yard sale!!

Dance, Sunburns, Swimming, Baseball

Yesterday and today have been migraine days - ugh! But, we have muddled through and done pretty well. I took a friend's kids along with mine to a movie at the library yesterday afternoon. Afterwards, I offered to pay them $5 each for an hour worth of work. All of them except C took me up on it. I got 3 clean bathrooms, 5 vacuumed floors, and a kitchen of clean cabinet fronts for $25. That's a pretty good deal, considering that I spent the morning lying on the sofa instead of doing the cleaning that I wanted to do.

L had her first Irish dance class of the summer yesterday. She really enjoyed it. There are only 4 girls in the class altogether. One of the other girls is L's age and has been taking dance as long as L has. The other two girls are about 5 or 6 years old. This looks like it is their first time to dance. The teacher did a very nice job of working with the older girls and then having them practice while she worked with the younger girls and so on. They did try a few things with all 4 of them, like a pinwheel. L is having fun and getting to dance - it seems like it will be a successful three weeks.

We had a showing today - that is why I paid the kids to clean house for me. I still had a headache when I got up this morning, but it wasn't as bad as yesterday. The kids and I managed to get things pretty straightened up. However, I realized when we got home this afternoon, that I had left the vacuum cleaner right in the foyer. The cord wasn't even rolled up! Well, it turned out that the vacuum cleaner wasn't even the issue for the people who saw it. They didn't like the floor plan and they don't like all the blue in the kitchen - my kitchen has a blue counter and blue and white wallpaper - you can't just repaint. Well, we'll pray about the open house on Saturday.

During the showing, the kids and I went to Sears and purchased appliances for the new house. It really didn't take very long and wasn't very hard. I had already done a lot of research online and knew pretty much what I wanted. So, everything is purchased, and it will be delivered next week.

The kids and I went to the beach this afternoon. A friend of mine came with four of her daughters, which made my kids really happy. Both my kids and I got sunburns. I was really suprised about the kids. They rarely get sunburned because they have their dad's Italian skin, but we were out for several hours today. I was derelict in my duty as a mother - I won't forget the sunscreen next time. It was pretty cool today - only 72 degrees - but the kids didn't think the water was too cold, and the sun made it feel warmer.

C had a baseball game later in the afternoon today. It turned windy and downright cool - closer to 68 degrees. His team won 10-7, and C got one base hit and did a pretty decent job of fielding. He is learning more every game. C is very much a "leader" on his baseball team. When it is time to get started, he starts calling all the other players into the dugout. At the change of innings, he is continually cheering his team "Let's show them what we're made of!" "Come on, Rivercats! Let's get some hits!" What is really cool is that he is always so positive to his teammates. He tells them that they made a good try if they struck out or that it was a good hit even if they were thrown out. It's neat to see him grow up and step out into this type of role.

Time for me to go to bed. Hopefully, a good night's rest will get rid of this headache for good. We're hoping to move this weekend. The current owner of the house has had to work extra this week, so he's having a hard time getting everything out of the house. We may have to adjust our plans around that. But, we'll make it work. In the meantime, sleepytime for me.

June 12

Monday night - it was quite a busy day. Moving day is Saturday, so I got all the utilities set up today. Lots of phone calls. We also got scheduled for a showing on Wednesday, so house cleaning got moved up in priority. I mopped the kitchen floor and did some vacuuming tonight. The kids are getting a little stressed about the move. C did not want to sleep in his room tonight. He says that he is scared about the move. P and I talked and prayed with him, but managed to get him back to his room. He hasn't slept with us in several weeks, and we'd like to keep it that way.

C is only 8 years old, but he is asking some pretty tough questions for his age. Last night, he started talking about whether or not God is real. He is a little young to start developing abstract thought, for one thing. L has not asked too many questions about faith. It comes up on occasion, but usually when we are studying Scripture in her schoolwork or when the family is talking about something related to faith. C is much more likely to bring up issues of faith on his own. The discussion about the existence of God was pretty interesting. We talked about several different ways to think about why God exists and then talked about faith and what it means to believe. I think lots of it went over his head right now, but I'm sure there will be lots of conversations in the future.

Caterpee update - Caterpee is now over an inch long!! This is from his initial size of just a few millimeters. He can go through an entire milkweed leaf in less than a day. He has shed his skin at least once - it was really cool to look at the old skin. L is really enjoying her new pet. Thankfully the cats have not noticed that Caterpee is alive and tried to eat him.

Tomorrow is a 4H meeting at a sheep farm. Sounds like a lot of fun. But, then we have to be at the dance studio by 5:30 for L's Irish class. She has 6 classes in 3 weeks and is really looking forward to it. Well, off to bed for me. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Moving and Caterpree updates

We are moving along with the purchase of the "new" house (actually much older than our current home). The good news is that we can go ahead and close on it because our financial stuff worked out. Someone else put an offer on it, so we have to be able to go ahead with closing or we would lose it. I'm glad we can go ahead with buying it because I really like the house. P and I have prayed a lot about it, and we really believe this is the house for us. We will still have this house, but we're hoping that getting the furniture out and getting the carpets clean will help it sell. We also have an open house next weekend.

I was doing a laundry marathon today, but I pulled a muscle in my low back while taking laundry out of the dryer. So, I have a backache and a migraine tonight. What a combination! Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow, because we need to go to Sam's Club. I'm looking forward to taking P, since he's never been. I'm figuring we can make a really romantic date out of it. Romance in the aisles of Sam's - I must really need sleep!

Caterpee update - he has grown to at least twice his size. He eats an entire leaf in a day. L has been good about keeping his little bottle cleaned out and keeping him supplied with fresh leaves. He's really pretty cute, but I can't say he has much personality yet.

Well, I'm going to try to sleep now. More later.

Bits and Pieces

C went to see L's dance recital on Sunday afternoon. He had a wonderful comment after her more difficult dance: "All I have to say is that, in my opinion, that is some impressive jumping." I absolutely agree with him. L's easier class did a number of sotee's in first and second positions and some sotee arabesques, but her more difficult class did things that I can't name and that are much more difficult. One of them involves starting in fifth position and then jumping and landing forward of where they started, but in fifth position again. They also did jete's (leaps) across the floor. L has really learned quite a lot this year. Not only can she do these new steps, but her body is straight and her arms are wherever they are supposed to be. It is quite a feat to get it all together.

L caught a caterpillar today. His/her name is "Caterpee". We tend to call it a him, but there's really no way to know for sure. You can't exactly check between the legs! Anyway, it's a monarch caterpillar. She caught one a few years ago, but she was so sure it wasn't a monarch because it didn't have the right color stripes. Well, it made a chrysallis right before family camp, and since we didn't know what kind of caterpillar it was, we took it to camp. Nothing happened at camp, but the day after we got back, the monarch came out of it's chrysallis. I have beautiful pictures of that. It was a truly amazing sight!!

Well, it appears that Caterpee is also a monarch, so we are looking forward to watching him grow over the next month or so. L is very good about making sure he has plenty of leaves to eat. He eats quite a lot. C commented how much he already ate and pooped in just one day. But, that's his job. All he is supposed to do right now is to grow and get ready to make his chrysallis. He appears to be doing that well. L is very good about feeding Caterpee. Things are going to be a little stressful, though, with the move. I hope she can find milkweed easily in our new neighborhood. And, she is going to be at camp for a week. Most of that time, P will be home alone since C and I will be at a family reunion. L will have to make a reminder so P will keep Caterpee well fed.

We had two sets of thunderstorms come through today. Because of that (I tend to get bad headaches with storms), P and I decided that we will have our anniversary celebration on Thursday. It turns out that since I treated my headache preemptively, I didn't have a really severe headache tonight. We did, however, get to see a beautiful, complete rainbow in the sky after the first set of storms. It was just beautiful. What a reminder that, even when things are looking dark, God promises to take care of us.

When I became a stay at home Mom, there were a few things in our routine that I wanted to change. I wanted my kids to eat sandwiches at lunchtime more often and to eat ramen noodles for lunch less often. I really don't like that they eat ramen very often because it isn't very nutritious. P let them have it quite often because it is easy and cheap. When they ate sandwiches they would also have chips. I rarely let the kids have chips, which is something they don't like about my being home.

Well, I have surrendered on the ramen battle! Let the kids eat ramen every day at lunch. Is it really going to kill them? I seriously doubt it. My concession is that they have ramen noodles. My requirement, though, is that they also eat a fruit and a veggie. So, they had ramen with grapes and carrots today. The ramen is really cheap. At Sams Club, I get 36 packets for $6. It's hard to beat that!

We still have our sandwich days. The kids aren't always happy, but they deal with it. Whenever we picnic, I make sandwiches - we usually have chips when we picnic. I treat them with grilled cheese sometimes. We sometimes eat leftovers or other somewhat more exciting things. The kids like their ramen plain, though. So, I have given up on the ramen front. I've "given up" on a lot of things, but we're better off for it. The more I relax on the little stuff, the more time I have to really teach the kids the important stuff of life.

Well, it looks like the move to the new house is "on" again. We are looking at closing in the next two weeks. All of our financial ducks have lined up - Thank You, Lord! So, we may be trying to get moving pretty quickly here. That is just fine with me. I have been very frustrated with living in limbo. I am looking forward to setting up housekeeping in the new house. I know it is smaller and probably less convenient (laundry in the basement, no dishwasher, etc.), but I have felt so strongly that this is where God is taking us and I want to get there and meet our neighbors, etc.

Well, I think it's time to see if I can get some sleep. I promised the kids swimming tomorrow if I don't have too much of a headache.

Our Anniversary

What a weekend! I had an awful headache Saturday night and didn't sleep much, but I did go to L's Sunday afternoon dance recital and took C and one of L's other friends. The Sunday show was also just wonderful. I thought that L's classes did even better than Saturday night (perhaps because they weren't so tired from a whole day of practice!). During Saturday afternoon's rehearsals, the dance teachers were talking to the girls in a completely different language than I am used to. They used ballet words that were foreign to me. They no longer talked to the girls as "little girls". They are older girls who can hear that "this is wrong and this is how to change." The teachers are never harsh (one thing I like about this studio), but L and her friends are now old enough to be with the teachers who are very matter of fact and don't treat the girls as babies. What a change from a few years ago. The biggest change is in their maturity. The girls can hear correction without hearing condemnation. They are physically mature - they can dance 4:30 minutes (yes, it leaves them exhausted, but they can do it).

Yesterday, we put on some of the tapes of previous dance recitals. The first one was from 2001 - L's and her friends first recital with this studio. They were 5 and 6 years old, respectively. What babies they were!! But, how precious! Sometimes I want to go back to that age again. But, I love to see what my daughter is becoming. I want to stay right here and now. I want to enjoy her company and watch her grow and blossom into a beautiful young lady.

Today is my and P's fourteenth wedding anniversary. It's really hard to believe. I feels like it was yesterday sometimes, but forever sometimes. I can't even imagine my life without him anymore. We don't have any specific plans - I'll get a raging migraine if we do! Hopefully, we can go out to eat tonight.

I received verbal confirmation from my disability insurance company that my benefits start this month. This is good news. We may be able to go ahead and get into the smaller house and leave this house empty with the hope that it may sell more easily without use living here. It will also be easier on my head to not have to worry about keeping the house clean for showing - that is such an annoyance. In any case, the benefits certainly make life easier since I can't help with bringing in income.

We aren't doing any school because all the school books are packed. The kids and I are reading and watching some movies on rainy days (like today). Hopefully, we can swim tomorrow. In any case, I'm enjoying the relaxation of summer. I haven't gotten to do this since college.

Dance recital weekend

What a long day! Today was the first of the two day marathon of L's dance recital weekend. She took two ballet classes this year, so she has two dances to perform. She and P are also in both of the "Daddy-daughter" dances, too, so that makes another two dances, although the practice and performance requirements are far less! The dance school has a small Christmas show in a mall every year and a much larger spring Concert. The spring show is three performances, but most of the classes dance in two or three of the shows. I asked the school owner about this the second year L was dancing and was told that it is to help prepare the students for real life performance. Most of the time, they will be expected to perform more than once, and often, more than once a day. This makes for a very busy weekend when the kids are in more than one class, but it certainly teaches them about performance requirements. But, it makes for a long weekend. Today was dress rehearsal during the day and the first performance this evening. We are rather bleary-eyed.

The girls, of course, need to have their hair in a bun for ballet. This has always been a minor crisis because I am terrible with anything to do with hair and makeup. Until this year, the daughter of a friend could always do L's hair. She is the sister of L's best friend, but she is now living in Texas since she finished cosmetology school. So, I am now on my own. In these situations before, I have put L's hair in a braid and twisted it into something resembling a bun. I figured that plus lots of hair gel and hairspray should be passable.

Well, this year, I happened to come across directions for doing a ballet bun in the Sonlight forums (we use Sonlight curriculum). It was actually kind of funny because the person who gave the directions (along with two wonderful websites) is a friend of mine that I knew when I was in medical school who now lives in Texas who I found again on the Sonlight forums!! Anyway, this morning, I went back to that post (it took me about 10 minutes to find it) and studied up on how to do a ballet bun. I did L's hair and got it right the first time around. I was so incredibly proud of myself!! I took pictures of the bun and am planning a scrapbook page just about learning to make a bun! Another mom asked me to do her daughter's hair for ballet since she usually gets one of the older students to do it. So, I did it and showed her how I learned it. L's other friend needed her hair redone, so I did hers, too. And, it looked good. I feel like such an expert. I know this sounds silly - but I am feeling accomplished at my new skill. I tried to put a picture here, but Blogger and I aren't getting along, I guess.

The recital itself was, of course, wonderful. My daughter was beautiful and did a great job. It is amazing to watch all these kids grow up from little kindergartners who didn't know what to do with their arms and legs into young ladies and gentleman who are graceful and accomplished.

Two dances tonight were accompanied by live drums. One was a rather long modern dance improvisation session. It was a pleasure to watch, but was not very good on my head, which had already started to pound. So, I'm off to do some reading and then sleeping. There are two more shows tomorrow. I'm sure it will be a wonderful day!