Trick or Treat

Almost 4pm. My kids are still out trick or treating - they started at 2pm. They went with a big group of our friends, so I'm not worried about them. It's actually kind of nice to have a quiet house. P and I handed out candy until about 30 minutes ago when we ran out of candy! I bought 4 huge bags from Sams, but we still used up all of it.

L decided to be Link from the Zelda games this year. She and I worked together (well, except for the hems - I did those myself) to make the tunic out of a lovely royal blue satin material. P crocheted her a royal blue cap to match and she also wore brown yoga pants and a brown belt. C was Ash from the Pokemon shows. He wore a white T-shirt, jeans, a blue vest, and a red baseball cap. Of course, this morning he told me that he needed his jeans patched because they have a hole (never an issue before) and because Ash has a patch in his jeans. So, I sewed on a patch before trick or treat hours. The red cap that he was supposed to wear was nowhere to be found, so P ran to Fleet Farm to pick one up.

It's very different living in town compared to living in the small suburb where we previously lived. We had lots of kids come by. We were handing out candy from 2-3:30 almost non-stop.

One of the couples that came by

OK. Something totally cool just happened (well, about an hour ago, but since I wrote the last paragraph). A kid knocked on the door and rang the doorbell three times. I went to the door and told him we were out of candy. He came back about a minute later, and, when I opened the door this time, he was there with his mom, whom I know from church and from working at the hospital (she's a nurse). She had an ice chest with her and told her that she was here to bless me. She had been praying and God told her to bring us some meat. They have a farm and have beef cattle and pigs. She had a roast, some bacon, some ground beef, and a ham!! We put it down in our freezer (except one of the packages of ground beef). I hadn't been praying specifically for meat, but I was planning our next trip to Sams, and this will definitely cut down our bill there! Isn't that great?!

Anyway, since then the kids have come home with their entire group (kids, teenagers, and adults). A couple of them came in to see the house, so we were busy with them. P has Revolution, a youth bible study group in about 45 minutes, so I'd better get some food going. My group isn't meeting tonight, so I'm free to clean house, pay bills, and set up school schedules. So, time to work!

October 23

It has been a long time since I posted anything. I had the window open twice to blog, but I ended up not starting because I had other stuff to do.

We continue to work with C on his reading. He has not had any problems that we can tell with being told he is dyslexic. He was pretty excited when he found out how many famous people were probably dyslexic. We went to a learning specialist who is going to work with him weekly for a while. She's also going to help me learn how to teach C to read. C has also decided to take dance class next semester since I read that dance helps dyslexic kids with their reading.

I have been undergoing several medication changes to help with my headaches. I had a whopping migraine today, but it is the first one in 6 days. I did have a bad headache 4 days ago, but it wasn't a migraine (no nausea, myalgias, etc.). The medication changes have been giving me more swelling than usual in my legs (I already had some edema from my Verapamil). I have also had terrible weight gain in the last several weeks. I know that part of it is from an increased appetite.

In any case, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online. I am on the Flex plan, where I monitor what I eat and work on controlling "points". I'm still supposed to get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily - EEK! I'm not a veggie eater (or a fruit eater, for that matter). I guess I'm going to have to make some changes. I'm also supposed to drink 6 glasses of water daily - that is really going to cut into my Diet Pepsi intake. My doctor will be happy; she only wants me to have 2 Diet Pepsis a day. I'm only on my second full day of Weight Watchers. In 3 days, I gained a pound. I hope things improve!!

L and I are sewing her Halloween costume this year. I'm not a great seamstress in the first place, and working with an 11 year old isn't easy. The good news is that the pattern is super-easy. We got a lot done on Saturday, but didn't get to work much yesterday. Today is her dance class, so we didn't do anything (besides, I have a migraine).

I know there's more going on, but I'm really wiped out from the headache and can't think of anything else. I'll write more later.

Dyslexia

Well, it's official: C has dyslexia. We aren't at all surprised. P and I have been working with him for the last 3 years on his reading, and he just hasn't caught on. The psychologist who did the testing said that he was "a delight" to work with and said that he worked hard during the testing. He has an above average IQ overall, but his reading scores were more than 2 standard deviations below his IQ.

So, what now? P and I are trying to educate ourselves as much as possible about dyslexia. The psychologist also said he may end up being diagnosed with a writing disorder sometime in the future. It's too early to tell right now. She also recommended that we continue our current reading curriculum (since we're actually seeing some progress), but also recommended that we look into supplementing it with something through the school district or privately. There is a private group of teachers who opened up a center to help kids with LD, but it is in the city (30 minutes away). I am probably going to call them about getting a consultation and see what they would recommend we do at home. The school district is a possibility, especially since we live just a couple of blocks from the school. My concern there is that some of the teachers (even LD teachers) are not up on the latest research. I really don't want to invest several hours a week on something that isn't useful.

Things otherwise are OK. I was going to blog Monday night, but Blogger wouldn't let me on - it said I needed to sign in, but my password wouldn't work. I was about to email them to get them to send me the right password or give me another one, but then it let me in today. I don't know what's up.

My headaches are pretty status quo. I think the intensity is down some, but the migraines are still quite frequent. The daily headaches seemed to really improve with my current meds, but they have now come back. I'm able to manage since I'm not working. I had a migraine today, so we really cut back on the schoolwork and housework. Of course, we have to make it up eventually. The dishes are finally washed, but the laundry just didn't get done tonight. I have a teenage friend who comes over to clean every week (courtesy of P's mom!), so I need her to get in here tomorrow or Friday.

It's supposed to be cold, rainy, and snowy tomorrow. I want to go to a medical lecture in the morning, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be brave enough to venture out!

Sophie (our youngest cat) has taken to crying outside of L's bedroom door at night. She wants to sleep in the room with L, but L doesn't want her to. L wants to keep her bedroom door closed all night, but if Sophie's in there, she wants to be let out in the wee hours of the morning and wakes L up. Right now, she makes it hard for L to sleep because she cries outside the door. I've already brought her downstairs once tonight. I hope she takes the hint - but she's a cat, so the odds are not good.

Well, I'm pretty wiped out. I'm going to sit and watch MASH and knit. It's a great combination!

Monday - again

I didn't think that days of the week would matter so much now that I'm not working, but it turns out that the day of the week is probably even more important now. When I was working, I learned to make myself feel that I was never "off work" unless I was out of town or signed out for a special occasion. That way, it was never a big deal (theoretically) if I was called to deliver a baby at night or on the weekend. And, I was on call during the weekend about every 6th week.

But now, I look forward to weekends more than I used to. Days with full homeschool schedules are very taxing. Not only is there the physical stuff about trying to keep the laundry moving and the kitchen clean, but there is the emotional work of trying to keep the kids on task and helping when they run in to trouble.

Mondays are especially difficult. I worry about my kids' intellect sometimes when they get up on Monday morning and act like they have nothing to do in life but play video games. They seem truly suprised when I tell them to eat breakfast and do their chores so we can do school. It's like the first day of school after a long vacation and they are perplexed by the whole concept. But, we eventually get moving, and they do their chores without too much trouble, and we eventually start school.

L has dance classes on Monday evenings, too. I love to take her because I love to watch the dance classes. By the time we get home Monday night, though, we're both pretty beat. P takes C to AWANA on Monday nights and then P finds an empty room at church to do his reading for Tuesday. He spends the entire day Tuesday and Thursday at school (college). He spends a good bit of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the middle school or high school, observing the math teachers.

The good news is that Tuesday is a pretty quiet day for us. I hope I can go grocery shopping. I had a migraine today, but it was pretty mild (I think it's my new meds working!). Hopefully, all will go well tomorrow and I can get groceries purchased and, perhaps, some laundry done.

I introduced a new concept into our school today - grades. We had always shied away from doing that until high school because we feel like we can evaluate our kids by our daily interactions with them. Grades are not very helpful for the teacher in homeschooling, to my mind. But, L has been doing her work so quickly (so she can play or go to the library) that she has not been very careful, so I want to impress upon her the importance of doing work well instead of doing it quickly (or doing both, if possible). I was worried that the concept of grades would be very distressing to her, but she took to it pretty quickly. She was also happy because the first several items that I graded were done very well, so she got A's. C has been asking me to grade his work, as well. He doesn't do much written work except math, but I was happy to grade his math. (He does writing in his new reading program, but I don't grade it.) I'm not sure how things are going to be tomorrow, though. L's math was not up to her usual work. Not only did I not give her good grades, but I'm making her go back and redo the ones she missed. I'm afraid there may be "wailing and gnashing of teeth" around here tomorrow!

Well, my kitchen and dining room are clean, there's a floor in my living room, and the rest of the family is in bed. Sounds like a perfect time to sit and read or knit.

Scratch that - in the time between typing the last paragraph and hitting the "publish" button, both kids came downstairs. L can't sleep because it's too hot, but she won't change from her satiny PJs into a T-shirt. She won't turn on her window unit AC because she's afraid that more ladybugs will come inside. C says his legs are sore, and he just needs a hug. Even after the hug, he was still not interested in going back to his room. He finally decided he'd try sleeping again. So, now I'm going to try the reading or knitting thing. We'll see how it goes;-)

The New Oven

Bright and early Monday morning, I went to our local Sears store to buy a range and have it delivered to the house. P and I were anticipating that we would have to do microwave and grill cooking for a week or so since it takes a while to get things delivered. Well, I walked in and saw that the sales person was a previous patient of mine - someone that I liked. I also saw that they had the range I want right out in front. Beside the perfect white range, they also had a bisque range (the color I wanted) that was $100 off because there is a dent in the side. The dent is definitely visible, but won't be noticed when I get some appliance paint on there. Not only did I get it for $100 less than they were asking for the perfect one, but they delivered it about 4 hours later! Talk about good timing and God's providence.

Our Fiddler on the Roof unit is going pretty well. We made Star of David yesterday with pin and threads wrapped around the pins. L did very well and had lots of fun. It was a stretch for C, though. But, he did what he could and made a very passable project. I have lots of reading scheduled, so I try to space that out through the day.

C's reading is coming along nicely. The program that we are using requires a lot of work on both of our parts, but it seems to be working. C had his dyslexia testing done Monday and we will see the doctor for results in a week or two.

Well, it's breakfast time, so I'll write more later.

Burning down the house - almost

I was cooking ground beef this evening to make tacos before our small group. Our stove is "temperamental" and the front burner that I was using only does High and Low - it doesn't seem to have an in-between setting. While I was cooking the meat, I suddenly realized that there was a lot of smoke from the stove element itself. I pulled the pan away and flames started coming up from the center of the burner! It wasn't burning because of anything related to the cooking except that it got too hot. Well, I pulled out the fire extinguisher and yelled for P. I was still trying to sort out how to make the fire extinguisher work, so P took it, pulled the pin, and sprayed the fire. So, the fire is all gone, but our house is filled with smoke. It is 59 degrees outside, but we have downstairs windows open with fans blowing the smoke out. At least the smoke alarm quit ringing!

So it's Subway for dinner. I'll drain the ground beef and cook it another day. I was hoping to get a new stove for Christmas, but it looks like I can get it sooner. I'm a little wary of the whole thing right now. I hope we can get some of the smoke smell out before our small group comes (it's only one other couple right now, but I don't really want anyone having burning eyes or smoke smelling clothes.

September 22

It's the end of a long week. This homeschooling thing is pretty tough. We try to be flexible to work around my headaches and scheduling issues, but still run into problems. I had an appointment Tuesday, which was an all-day event, so the kids were at a friends house. L did all of her work that day, but C didn't do much at all. L is finishing her study of Russia, and C is working on the Renaissance. We made frescoes with plaster of Paris and watercolor paint. The kids had a great time and they learned something about Renaissance art.

I am working on a couple of knitting projects, one of which is a sweater for me. The problem is that my size 7 needles are too short to cast on 97 stitches. So, I can't really start until I get some needles. But, I did my gauge swatch so I know what I need.

L is taking art class at the middle school. Originally, it was T, Th, and every other F. Her teacher recommended that she also come for the M, W, and every other F class since they're doing different projects. L loves it and is doing a good job. I'm glad we found someone to teach her art finally.

I went to a Dr. at Marshfield. He was pleasant, but didn't really have any new recommendations except to consider adding an anti-depressant. So, I'm on a new anti-seizure medication and I've also started the anti-depressant tonight. I have a headache now, but it's pretty well controlled. I think it's the bad weather.

P and C went to the high school football game tonight. They just got home, so it's reading and bedtime.

September 22

It's the end of a long week. This homeschooling thing is pretty tough. We try to be flexible to work around my headaches and scheduling issues, but still run into problems. I had an appointment Tuesday, which was an all-day event, so the kids were at a friends house. L did all of her work that day, but C didn't do much at all. L is finishing her study of Russia, and C is working on the Renaissance. We made frescoes with plaster of Paris and watercolor paint. The kids had a great time and they learned something about Renaissance art.

I am working on a couple of knitting projects, one of which is a sweater for me. The problem is that my size 7 needles are too short to cast on 97 stitches. So, I can't really start until I get some needles. But, I did my gauge swatch so I know what I need.

L is taking art class at the middle school. Originally, it was T, Th, and every other F. Her teacher recommended that she also come for the M, W, and every other F class since they're doing different projects. L loves it and is doing a good job. I'm glad we found someone to teach her art finally.

I went to a Dr. at Marshfield. He was pleasant, but didn't really have any new recommendations except to consider adding an anti-depressant. So, I'm on a new anti-seizure medication and I've also started the anti-depressant tonight. I have a headache now, but it's pretty well controlled. I think it's the bad weather.

P and C went to the high school football game tonight. They just got home, so it's reading and bedtime.

September 16

P is off taking his Praxis Math test. This is the test that he needs to pass in order to teach math. He will need to take a more general test later just to teach. If he doesn't pass this test, he can use it to figure out if he needs to take any math classes before he takes it again. His classes have been going well. The only problem now is that he stays on campus all day on Tuesday and Thursday. The good thing is that he gets all his studying done that day and that he is now signed up for the tutoring service. The bad thing is that he has one class at 8am and the next one at 5:30pm, so it's a long wait. But, it doesn't make sense to come home because of the gas involved.

L and C have been doing pretty well in schoolwork. We do have our bumps in the road and I'm having to work with them about making sure all the work gets done. I'm really excited about C's reading. He is reading much better, although he still has some trouble with the vowels in the middle of words. I'm really excited that he can write simple sentences. He has some special techniques that he has learned with his reading program to help him along like "sentence pounding" and "finger tapping". Sounds a little strange at first, but really works for him. Whether he's dyslexic or not, we certainly are seeing some improvement in his reading. L is improving quite a bit in art. The influence of a different art teacher is amazing. C is doing a lot more drawing these days, so I think I may add some art to his days as well. They are both doing Spanish on the computer with good results. The neighbor kids are bilingual, so maybe they can help L and C with their vocabulary and usage.

We have been watching Fiddler on the Roof because L has been studying Russia. There is a ton of stuff in that movie that I want the kids to learn, but we don't have nearly enough time to cover. I have decided that we're going to take a week off of Sonlight and do Fiddler on the Roof the week of September 25. L already knows a lot about Russia, but Chris doesn't, so I'll have him do some stuff to learn about the country and it's history. I would like L to learn about the history of the late 19th and early 20th century, especially the rise of Marxism and socialism. She's really not old enough to understand all the political, philosophical, and sociological ramifications, but I think she's old enough to study the history and start to engage those ideas. Perchik, in the movie, is a revolutionary, and I would like her to understand what that means. I want to spend a significant amount of time learning about Judaism and it's festivals, etc. From a historical perspective, the kids really are going to learn a lot about pogroms and persecution of the Jews. But, I want to follow that up with a discussion of Zionism and the formation of the state of Israel. They don't need to get into all the political ins and outs, but they need to learn about when and how the nation of Israel came about (something I didn't learn until I was an adult). So, I may be crazy to try this, but I think it will be a fun and educational week.

My disability insurance company is stalling again. This time, they are considering an independent medical evaluation. I am going to see another neurologist next week (not for an IME, just for another opinion about the migraines). I have weaned off my Topamax (almost completely) and my acute headache meds (although I had a migraine today that I treated - I use acute headache meds twice a week, three times if I'm desperate). My PCP and I have a plan to start another anti-seizure medication unless this neurologist has other recommendations. I'm really frustrated about the insurance. Every roadblock makes me feel like they think I'm lying. And I'm not. I'm certainly not in a position to return to work full-time, but I would be thrilled to be able to go back to part-time work. So, we'll see what happens.

A couple of days ago, I wanted to go for a walk with the kids. They didn't really want to go, but I told them they had to. We finally decided to go on the trail by the river, but then the kids wanted to ride bikes. So, we decided to ride bikes. I ride my bike every few weeks, but not for very long distances and not off-road (although it is an on-road/off-road bike). The trail we went on is generally packed dirt, but there are some sections that had recently added dirt, so it wasn't packed and the recent rain had made it mud. Several areas were deep enough mud that we had to walk our bikes. I didn't like going up the hills, but I really enjoyed when I got to coast down a nice gentle hill. I got to the top of one hill and was very ready to coast down, but the kids said that I needed to get off my bike and walk down the next hill. Indeed, had I ridden down that steep hill right toward the river, I would have likely ended up right in the river. The trail is much faster riding than walking, but I was seriously sore at the end of the ride. What a mess we were! Both kids and I had mud all over our shoes and on the bottom of our pants. We had a blast, though! And I'm looking forward to doing it again.

School News

We have been busy with lots of school stuff recently. P and I took C to an educational psychologist about having him tested for dyslexia. We are going to have the testing itself done sometime in the next month or two.

In the meantime, C's reading has picked up significantly. We are using a reading program based on the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching kids with dyslexia how to read. It is a multi-sensory approach, so it's also good if we just hadn't figured out his learning style yet. He has learned about 15 phonemes so far. He reads words with the phonemes he knows very well. His reading is much more fluent and confident. He is also working on some sight words. The program is pretty intense. We work for about 30 minutes every day; this includes review of what he's learned, learning new phonemes and/or sight words, writing and spelling practice, and reading short books. I'm very happy with how he is doing.

I have been reading about learning styles and watching L and C over the last couple of weeks. L is definitely an auditory and kinesthetic learner. She also learns pretty well visually. Basically, she remembers a large amount of what she sees, hears, or reads. C is not a good auditory learner, though. He is a much better kinesthetic learner. We use a curriculum that is very literature intense, though, which makes it more challenging to make sure he is learning. We do a lot of reading aloud, but C is not picking up the information just from hearing it. So, I'm realizing that we need to add some activities to help him learn. We started making a mural of the ocean, coral reef, and an estuary. Just in making the main part of the drawing, we reviewed the geography of oceans. Later this week, we will review all about the organisms we've read about when we draw or paste pictures of fish and other animals in the correct places in the mural. C was able to process the importance of the plankton in the surface portion of the water because of the need for sunshine when he colored the shallow part of the water blue-green. Unfortunately, this is going to require a little more effort on my part. But, I have realized that C and L have some areas where their curricula intersect, so I may be able to do some things with them together.

L started dance class this week. She is taking ballet again - the same class as last year, but with a different teacher. There are only three of them in the class this year. L enjoys ballet, especially now that she is up to a level that she can really perform some of the moves well. The class is a full hour, though, so she gets pretty tired. She gets a 45 minute break and then has a tap class. She hasn't had tap in several years, so she's having to do a little bit of catch-up, but she's doing fine.

L is also taking art class at the local middle school. She started just taking every Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Friday with one of the 6th grade art classes. She is enjoying the work, even though her teacher is expecting more out of her than I had been. Today, her teacher asked about having her also take the Monday, Wednesday, and opposite Friday class to get even more art exposure. L is thrilled. The school is 4 blocks from the house, so L rides her bike unless the weather is bad. I'm pleased that she is taking the extra responsibility of making sure she is ready and out the door on time.

P is in school as well in the Valley. He is taking three classes this semester, in addition to making sure he gets 30 hours of classroom observation. Two of the math teachers at the local middle and high school are happy to have him come in for his observation. He is happy to be able to do that so close to home (especially with gas so expensive and he already has to drive 60 miles round trip three times per week for his own classes).

I have become the typical homeschool mom. I am addicted to homeschool forums on the computer. When I'm not doing something with the kids, blogging, or having a headache, I'm probably on the forums. The forums have been really helpful, though. I have gotten great ideas on how to manage school when I have a bad migraine. I have gotten great advice on how to make our own frescoes - we're studying Michelangelo next week. We have already had one field trip to a local nature center. Everyone had fun. It was also nice to hear how well-behaved and well-educated the kids are (from the naturalists).

Well, I'm off to bed. It's another full day tomorrow.

They added an ocean!!!!

So, I figure that I'll be a pretty decent homeschooling parent since I love my kids and I'm pretty literate (12 years of post-high school education). But, imagine my suprise when, as I'm reading history with my son, I see on a map something labeled "Southern Ocean". What is the Southern Ocean? When I was in school, there were four oceans. When my kids were learning about oceans and continents with songs, there were four oceans. So, where did this Southern Ocean come from? I looked at the map: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, Southern. There was clearly one too many. So, I put a question to the other parents on the Sonlight forums (we use Sonlight curriculum) and another parent answered that she was told a couple of years ago on a field trip that they (whoever geographical types "they" may be) have decided that there is indeed a Southern Ocean. So, one more thing to add to my befuddled brain and try to teach my kids. EEK!

We have survived another week of school. Actually, we are doing pretty well. I had some headaches, but the kids and I are figuring out how to work around them. Next week will get a little more tricky when L's dance class and both kids' piano lessons start, but we'll sort it all out. C actually wrote 2 sentences that I dictated for him today. That's pretty cool for us, because he really has not been able to spell much at all. He did a wonderful job - and remembered capitalization and punctuation. He got a box of TicTacs for working so hard.

L does more advanced dictation, and has a more creative time with capitalization and punctuation. She has a habit of not capitalizing the first word of a sentence, but then will capitalize the first letter of a word in the middle of a sentence, sometimes the same letter - not a lot of rhyme or reason to her choices. She was having some real trouble with making her "t's" look like capitals when they aren't. Her comment was "Well, that's how I write". My response was, "You can't 'just write' however you feel like. There are rules to follow." She's not thrilled, but is slowly improving. She was very happy to finish her math book today because she really wanted a box of TicTacs like C got.

Well, not much going on here except school. The house is a mess because I did have a couple of headaches this week. I'm feeling a lot better on my non-migraine days since the rebound/chronic headache is much better (still not quite gone, but much better). I see a neurologist again in 2 weeks. Well, we're having a storm and the kids are down here because they're scared, so I'd better end this post. Besides, if the power goes out, it'll all be lost.

The headache continues . . .

I had a migraine last night which was incredibly frustrating. The good news is that some of the meds I'm allowed to take made me tired enough that I fell asleep until the migraine pretty much wore off. I still have a headache this morning, though. I emailed my doctor and she encouraged me to keep going. She told me to stick with all the healthy living stuff - eat your veggies, drink water, etc. C and I took a nice long walk on a trail by the river this morning (nice that we found it since we're living in town now).

Unfortunately, C is really very sad these days. I'm hoping that most of it is because he's had a little fever the last three days and now has a runny nose. When he gets with friends he plays and has a blast and has tons of energy. At home, he complains about being tired and not wanting to do anything. He actually has a friend right next door, so I'm not sure what's up. I hope he just needs a little more time for us to all get adjusted to life here.

C has been working hard on his reading and I'm seeing progress. He has a much better sense of how letters blend together and how words always get sounded out from left to right. He knows a few more sight words. He and I are both encouraged on that front.

One of P's friends gave us a bunch of venison. I cooked a roast the other day, but P and I were the only ones who really liked it. L loves beef cooked that way, but she thought the venison (which was falling apart) was too "tough" for her. C didn't even try it. P and L and I all like venison steaks. All 4 of us like ground venison for meatloaf. But, I don't think we have much ground venison. So, C and L are just going to have to make do when I make a roast, because I'm not going to waste perfectly good, free meat!

Book reviews:
The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I couldn't finish it. I could blame my meds, but I have been reading tons of other stuff. I really tried to plough through it, but just couldn't do it. I felt like I was watching an old Bergman movie in slow motion. Somehow, I was supposed to understand the plot from all these stilted conversations, but I never got it. I finally gave up. I'm sure I will hear from some of you that if I had just plugged away a little more, I would have reached that nugget of gold that is Hemingway, but I just couldn't do it.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I can't believe that I never read this book in high school or college. Somewhere along the way, I developed this idea that it was a dark and foreboding book. It certainly has it's dark moments, but it is truly a wonderful book. I found it quite a page-turner. Bronte's writing does require something of an educated reader, I found. For example, I always wondered why we use the word "malignant" as and adjective, but never "benignant" but always "benign". Well, it has not always been this way; at least not in Bronte's world. She makes numerous Scriptural references that I was glad to be able to understand. I did read a one page description of the springtime beauty of England that required me to go to a dictionary several times. But, back to the story. C. Bronte has taken what could have been a plain and simple love story and added plot twists that not only hold the reader spellbound, but show the growth of the characters - emotionally and spiritually. I highly recommend it; but make sure you have a good week or two.

Well, now that I have finished Jane Eyre, I got the DVD from the library, so I am off to see how well the BBC interprets it for the screen.

Rebound Headache

This is the headache that you get when you use too many acute headache meds. Well, part of my headache problem is rebound headache. So, I started 2 days ago with not taking any acute medications and just taking my preventive meds. I am taking a long-acting NSAID and a long-acting benzo (short-term) along with an anti-nausea drug to help me get through it. Yesterday wasn't much fun, but today has been just awful. I've been up since 4:30 with the headache. I'll I've done is read, watch TV, and try to sleep. It's hard for me to sleep when the headache is really bad. But, it is calming down some now - why I'm able to blog - so I might try another nap.

I'm going to see another Neuro in a couple of weeks. That's why I'm dealing with the rebound headache now. I know that the first thing he'll say is to deal with the rebound headache and then come back. Well, I don't want to waste an office visit, so I'll get off the daily meds so we can see how often the migraines happen.

I was able to do schoolwork with the kids yesterday. P has them out somewhere today. They took math books, so I guess they'll get their math done. If I'm feeling OK this evening, I'll do language arts with the kids. We'll just have to see.

Well, that's what's up now. I'm off to try for another nap.

The headache saga continues

So I went to see my PCP (primary care physician) today to talk about my headaches. She was appropriately appalled about my medication use and my number of headaches. I was hoping (probably an unfounded hope) that my headaches would calm down some after we got moved and settled into our new home. Alas, that was not to be. I still have my 2-3 wicked migraines per week along with my daily headaches. So, we have decided to change my daily meds by tapering me off one seizure med and starting another - this is a long (6 week) process. In the meantime, she is trying to get me in to see a neurologist at the University - good luck! In any case, we now have a plan which always gives me security. After we make the change, I have to quit my acute headache meds, which will not be fun. I will likely have a bad week or so of headache when that happens, but we need to get my preventive meds changed before we try it. In the meantime, I still have tons of fatigue - from meds, but also from the headaches themselves. I was up at 5am with a headache. I didn't take a nap today, but I was just exhausted. I don't think it was from being up so early; I think it was from the headache itself. Even after the pain is gone, I feel so tired. I have been able to walk regularly, either to the library or grocery store or on the treadmill. The kids have been getting me out on my bike as well when I feel OK, so I've been able to get more active, which can't be a bad thing.

We do have other stuff happening. L was baptized yesterday at the church picnic and baptism. We were so excited. I grew up in churches that had baptistries, so we had baptisms on a regular basis. Not only does our church not have a baptistry, but it's so cold up here most of the year, that we can only baptize during the summer. It would be a brave soul indeed who would be willing to be baptized in the winter - and, what elder or pastor would they find to cut the hole in the ice and get in the water with them??!!

The Fair starts Wednesday. L has all of her projects finished. Tomorrow she has to place the labels on them. They are very strict about the exhibits being properly labeled and presented. L will be working the food booth during the day, and C will be helping to clean tables. I'm glad we live within walking distance. The kids will be with the rest of the 4-H group, so I can be in and out and not have to stay for the entire 6 hours that their group will be working the food booth. Now, L is trying to coordinate with her friends when they want to ride the rides. One of her friends has to pick a day when she isn't showing her animals, but the other friend has to come when her parents can bring her. The social life of a pre-teen!

Well, it's getting late, I'm tired, and I'm off to do some knitting before bed.

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.