NOT "Just a Cold"!

So, after 36 hours of terrible throat pain, swollen lymph nodes, and ear pain, I decided to go see the PA in the clinic this morning. I mostly wanted help with all the inflammation in my throat - my uvula is swollen and I can really feel that sensation in my throat. I was thinking that a couple of days of a low-dose steroid might help things out. The PA (the wife of one of my former partners - they hired her after I left) took a good history and did a good exam and told me that it might be a virus, but my throat looked awful, and I didn't have a cough (something that usually comes with a virus and that both kids had), so she wanted to do a strep test. Indeed, it was positive - apparently, very strongly positive. So, now I'm on amoxicillin and we decided against trying any steroids. I'm using a steroid nose spray, so that may help some of the inflammation around the eustacian tubes. I was so convinced it was a virus, but the PA saw some signs that pointed to Strep. Not only that, she had an objective physical exam to help guide her, not just a list of symptoms. This is another example of how practicing medicine is an art and a science - practice by algorithm just won't work.

Movie Reviews:
Akeelah and the Bee - Wonderful movie! This movie is the story of a girl in a middle school in LA who is a good speller and loves words. She wins her school's first spelling bee and moves all the way up to the National Spelling Bee, where she ties for first place. There is very little negative about this movie. I believe it is rated PG because of some foul language by some minor characters. In addition, Akeelah's brother has friends in a gang, and her sister is an unwed mother. Akeelah deceives her mother about the spelling bee. She is allowed to continue in the spelling bee, but is punished for lying. The positives, though, far outweigh the negatives in this film. The wonder and power of words is displayed throughout the film. The spelling bee, and Akeelah's hard work in participating, brings together a community - her brother's friends who are probably gang members help her to practice her words, the family and community watches on TV, her teachers and a former university professor spend time with her to prepare her for the bee. At the end of the movie, Akeelah and another boy both demonstrate that they want to win the spelling bee honestly and not because their opponent has given less than their best effort. My final recommendation is that this is a great movie for the entire family, although kids probably need to be 7 or 8 to stay interested and follow the story.

The Magic Flute - Yes, this is the Mozart opera. The kids are doing the play "Of Mice and Mozart" this year for the homeschool play, so I had us watch Amadeus and I will have us do a little more research about Mozart and his music. After we watched Amadeus, L asked if we could watch The Magic Flute. She wanted to see it because it was written for the common people, not the nobility. Of course, it is sung in German, but we had subtitles. C was not terribly interested in the movie, so we only read the subtitles out loud when he asked. L and I really enjoyed the music. I have never thought of myself as an opera-lover, but I really liked listening to this music. It did help that the words were on the screen, so I didn't have to work to listen for them. The problem, though, was that the story got kind of convoluted, so we had trouble following at times. I think that Mozart composed this opera to a story that was known to the people of the day (if that is incorrect, please feel free to correct me, but it is the impression I got from Amadeus). It may have been easier for Mozart's contemporaries to understand, but we still had some trouble with it. In any case, the costumes and set were wonderful. The singing was amazing. Of course, the composition itself was magnificent. I can't imagine too many other 11 year olds wanting to see opera, but I would recommend The Magic Flute if they express an interest.

Amadeus - what can I say? The music of Mozart is simply amazing. The story of Salieri and Mozart is quite fictionalized, according to some other reading that we did later, but it provided an interesting framework for the movie. The kids didn't really like the movie, but they did learn a little about Mozart. I have ordered a documentary of Mozart's life from Netflix to compare with this movie.

Book Reviews:
Getting Things Done - by David Allen. I'm a sucker for books about organization. This one is really very good. His theme is that you need to get all the stuff you need to do out of your head and onto paper (or into the computer/PDA). Then, you need to manage your to-do lists and in-basket on a regular basis. This way, you don't have to worry about forgetting things or having stuff get lost in your to-do-lists.

A Charlotte Mason Education - by Catherine Levinson. I wanted to get a better idea about Charlotte Mason's ideas since they have become quite prevalent among homeschoolers. In addition, the curriculum we use, Sonlight, does use some Charlotte Mason ideas. Basically, though, the only idea that I find really useful from Charlotte Mason is narration. I agree that children should narrate back to us what we have read aloud to them or what they have read themselves. This is more effective than just asking questions, because it requires them to synthesize the information, not just parrot it back. So many of her other ideas, though, are very dated and/or should be used with just younger children. She recommends the use of nature notebooks for the majority of science education. The use of these notebooks is wonderful for biology and even some geology and other earth science things. However, there needs to be some systematic education in the other areas of science. Charlotte Mason also has very little to say about math except that concrete concepts should be taught before abstract concepts. Children should be able to see a reason for the math that they do. Overall, I have not found this to be a really helpful book. I was already doing narrations. Many of the other ideas and recommendations are either useful for children younger than mine or not adequate for a technological society like our own.

L did her first opinion paper this week. She wrote about why she likes cats. It is excellent for her age. She has a creative mind and uses words like a surgeon with her surgical instruments. Unfortunately, she doesn't like to write. We are going to do lots more writing with our notebooking that we start next week, and I hope that she can start to see how it really isn't all that hard! I'm also going to be better about letting her writing for history/geography/literature be graded on the content, not the mechanics. She will have plenty of opportunities to have the mechanics of her writing graded. I'm looking forward to our new "paradigm" of school. I know that my kids will do well with it - I just hope that they give it a chance early on so that we don't spend the first few weeks arguing over how to "do school".

I think I've written quite enough today. Now it's time for a nap, and then time for putting together next semester's notebooks. The nap sounds really good right now, though.

"Just a Cold"

When I was in practice, I saw lots of people (especially in the winter) with viral upper respiratory infections - i.e. "colds". I tried really hard, though, not to use the term "just a cold" because I wanted to validate their symptoms and not act as if they weren't really sick. Unfortunately, a number of people believed that they needed an antibiotic if they were "really" sick. I had to do a lot of teaching to convince people that a virus can make you just as sick, if not more so, than a bacteria. I also had to work to help them understand that it is quite uncommon to have an upper respiratory infection that is caused primarily by bacteria - usually, the virus causes the first illness and the bacteria come in and cause a secondary infection.

For the last two days, I have been able to really sympathize with how sick one can be with "just a cold". I started out with a sore throat, but progressed yesterday to fever, chills, post-nasal drip, muscle pain, and overall "yuckiness". I started feeling some better yesterday after the fever broke. Right now, I have a terrible sore throat with bilateral ear pain and swollen and tender lymph nodes. This is more than you wanted to know, I'm sure. The point is that I was reminded in a big way yesterday just how sick one can get from a "cold". Unfortunately, when the kids had this, they were sick for two weeks. I'm praying for a shorter course.

One of the funniest things that happened when the kids were sick was when I was on the phone with the doctor's office. Both kids had started wheezing, so I called the doctor's office to see about getting an albuterol inhaler for them. While I was talking to the nurse, both kids started saying very loudly in the background that they needed to go see the doctor. I got them to be quiet until I was done on the phone, but then turned to them and said, "And what do you think I am?" Their answer was that they wanted to see a "real" doctor because they were still soooo sick. Well, they are better now - all without a visit to the "real" doctor!

This was supposed to be our last week on Africa, but we haven't gotten nearly as much done as I wanted with everyone being sick, etc. But, we are starting Core 6 on Monday. We need to move on! I am going to get the everything organized today and tomorrow. I'm hoping my throat will be better on Monday so I can read. We are using The Story of the World for our history "spine" and I got the book on CD (unabridged), so I can have us listen to that. In any case, I'm looking forward to the change. We can pick up modern history of Africa as we do current events this year - I'll just make sure to have them do some current events reading about some of the countries that are in crisis. We have been reading a good book about three ancient African kingdoms, but I see that those will be covered in Core 6 this year (Core 6 is World History).

The kids aren't up yet. L asked me to get The Magic Flute from Netflix after we watched Amadeus. We started watching it, but only got through about 30 minutes (and I was working in the kitchen, so I couldn't see the subtitles). I think we're going to watch that today and I'll have the kids play some educational games. I also got Cry Freedom, but I don't think I'll try to get the kids to watch it today. It might hold L's attention, but I'm pretty sure that C will get bored. I'd like to get more information about apartheid "under our belts" before we try a movie like that otherwise, we'd never get to watch the movie - I'd just be answering background questions for them.

I'm knitting a little jacket and socks for our neighbor's new baby. I'm having a great time with it, and it is moving along quickly. It's very good for days like today when I'll be mostly sitting around.

Random musings at 1 am

So, why am I awake at 1am? Because I can't sleep. I took a nap today because I was so tired and felt so rotten, so now I can't sleep (but the headache seems a little better). I'm afraid I'm getting the kids' cold because I have developed a sore throat today. Talk about great timing.

During my insomnia I watched a show about North Korea while I was knitting. The show was on National Geographic if you want to see if you can catch it another time. I was very interested because they had a doctor (not sure what nationality, but looked Asian and spoke excellent English) who went there to do cataract surgery. The team had to take all their own equipment and a generator (because North Korean cities have frequent blackouts). In 10 days time, the surgeon did cataract surgery on 1000 people. What I thought was most interesting, though, was how the people reacted after the bandages were removed and they could see again. They didn't thank the doctor or the team that came to help. They bowed before pictures of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sun (I think I have the names right - they are the current and previous dictators of North Korea) and thanked "The Great Leader" for their recoveries. How crazy!! If they lived in a developed country, like South Korea, They would have doctors and facilities in the country for this kind of work. The surgeries weren't fancy - it was basic cataract surgery.

Watching something like this is exactly what is needed to help us remember the freedom that we have in our country, not to mention our incredible standard of living. (North Korea lost about 3 million people due to famine in the 1990s - despite lots of outside aid.) It is also a stark reminder to pray for Christians in North Korea. This show did not discuss persecution of Christians, but it was very clear that the population is expected to worship the "Great Leader". That can't bode well for Christians. So, I will intensify my prayers for the unreached peoples of the world.

On a similar note, my sister in law gave me an excellent book called, "Voices of the Faithful" by Beth Moore. It is organized into daily stories from missionaries around the world. Some are amazing stories of miracles to protect the missionaries. Others show how God uses seemingly bad circumstances for our good. Others show the Gospel at work in transforming people's lives. I highly recommend this.

We have started doing evening Bible reading in addition to our morning Bible study. We started it because I have been doing things like The Case for Faith for kids and Money Matters for Teens along with Bible reading. Now, at night, we read The Daily Bible for Kids which has a portion of Scripture along with some questions for discussion (which we may or may not use). Next week, when we start Core 6, we will start their Bible curriculum, which looks to be excellent. It is a 36 week survey of the Bible. The first couple of chapters are about the canon and the organization of the Bible. Then, after that, they go through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. I think it is going to be great. We also work on C's Awana during the day. We have started doing it together which gives L another chance to review those verses (since she's too old for Awana).

What occurred to me today was the verse Deuteronomy 6:4-8 4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." I realized that we are now reading Scripture and talking about God's commands and plan for our lives "when we lie down and when we get up". The two verses that follow this talk about binding them to our foreheads and tying them on our hands - where the Orthodox Jews take the command for making phylacteries. In any case, this Scripture in Deuteronomy is so important in reminding us to teach our children about the Lord. It says to "impress" these commandments on our children. Taking them to Sunday School isn't enough. We are commanded to make sure our kids are exposed to Scripture. What they do with it is between them and God, but as long as they live with us, we are required to continue to study Scripture with our families.

Well, I think I'm finally tired enough to sleep. More later.

I Love Homeschooling

The week has been a mix of good and bad in the schooling department. The kids have taken a while to get back into the swing of doing schoolwork every day. I've been trying the "less is more" approach to school - spending less time on assignments, but doing things to get more out of the time we have. By the end of the week, though, things were going much better. For one thing, I have changed the rule that the kids each get one hour of "media" per day. I have made it so that they have to earn any media they get. I have also gotten much more firm about presenting a good attitude about school and chores.

The result has been that the end of the week was really pretty good as far as school goes. On Friday, I was having trouble getting our reading (Bible, history, and geography) done because the kids kept asking questions and getting off on "rabbit trails". They were showing significant ability to synthesize information by bringing their own experiences to bear on the conversation. So, I didn't mind that it took a little longer. P sold me (in "eduspeak") that I was teaching the children instead of teaching the subject. In addition, L finished writing the main part of her first opinion paper - without fussing about it.

One of the most interesting things that happened yesterday occurred when P was reading to us out of a "fun book" - that is, a book unrelated to school. We have been reading The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series because L has really gotten into them. They are about owls, and L has learned quite a bit about owls from doing lots of internet searches. She did her science fair project on owls, but really didn't need to do much more research because she had been reading so much about owls. In any case, there is a situation in the book we were reading where one of the bad owls tried to pose as the mother (believed to be dead) of one of the good owls. The story gets a little complex from there. This led us, though, to a discussion of recognizing falsehood from truth. The good owl eventually did recognize that the bad owl was not her mother because of subtle differences. We talked about being able tell truth from falsehood theologically by knowing the Bible and having a real relationship with Jesus. P gave a good example of how the Jehovah's Witness mistranslate John 1:1. Their translation states: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was a god and the word was with God." The actual translation is "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God." L recognized the difference and had some understanding of how dramatically that changes one's understanding of the nature of God. After another chapter, P brought up to the kids how it becomes easier to sin, the more that you do it. P taught them the phrase "the searing of the conscience" and reminded them about the importance of a relationship with God and consistent obedience.

Don't get me wrong - these were not all lectures from the parents to the kids. We would ask some leading questions and the kids kept the conversation going. This is the part of homeschooling that I love. It is also the most important part of homeschooling. No matter what educational option we choose, P and I are responsible for making sure that our children are well-trained in spiritual matters. While the other stuff has it's place, P and I want our children to know Jesus and learn to obey him as early as possible in their lives.

We have survived the two winter storms we have had this week. Overall, we got a foot of snow. The temperatures have moderated some, though, so we aren't freezing. Thursday, though, we were supposed to get a lot of ice, so P and I made sure we knew where the candles, flashlights, and kerosene heater were. I've never been without power when it's really cold. When I was growing up in Florida, we would lose power in a storm, but we could open up the doors and windows after the storm had passed. Up here, it would get pretty chilly if the heater wasn't working. That being said, we have a kerosene heater for emergencies, and several of our neighbors have fireplaces.

P piled up a bunch of snow in the back yard that the kids have used for sledding and snowboarding. The hill is only about 4 feet high, not like our big, long hill at our previous house. But, it gives them something to do in the snow.

L and I made creamy garlic and onion soup yesterday. It is just delicious!! The kids change every month from helping me with kitchen work or laundry. L is now helping in the kitchen, while C is helping with laundry. They both prefer kitchen work over laundry. I make them set the table and put away dishes and other unpleasant duties, but they get to cook, which they both love. L is ready to learn menu planning as well. I suppose I should actually do some menu planning ;-) I found a chart on the internet giving laundry instructions. They had it in a form that I could modify, so I changed it up to fit our situation and taped it up in the basement to help the kids remember how to do the settings for the different loads.

C is at the AWANA games today. L and I were supposed to go, but I woke up with a raging migraine this am. I had one earlier this week, but it wasn't real bad. This one, though, has been pretty unpleasant, so P took C to the games and got another parent to agree to bring him home. P has a meeting at church this afternooon. It was supposed to be Thursday night, but the storm cancelled pretty much everything.

Well, next week is our last week on Africa. We are working on African history. I want them to have some understanding of European colonization and the process of decolonization. But, we are pretty ready for Core 6. We are going to be starting notebooking then. We will also be using The Story of the World on CD, so I will have a little break from reading. I have also decided that we are going to do composer pages to go with the songs they are learning in piano lessons.

I have been prolific today, but now I'm pretty wiped out. I'm off to take a nap or do some scrapbooking. Let's see how much energy I have.

Winter - again, finally

Well, we have a Winter Wonderland outside again! We got about 4 inches of snow last night. We were supposed to go to the homeschool science fair this morning, but L is still just not feeling well. She was going to try to go, but her cough just won't quit. P and I took the board up to the church hall last night, but her paper, owl pellets, and owl calls (on her dad's Palm) are still here. Unfortunately, her board by itself does not really tell about her project. She really needed to be there to talk to the judges. But, P and I are the ones who really have to evaluate her project and we are pleased with her work. So, we'll stay home today while the children cough.

I'm getting the hang of the CPAP finally. I have slept well the last 2 nights with it. Last night, it didn't even take long for me to fall asleep (which has been a source of frustration for me). I'm still having headaches, and I'm not sure if they're really improved any yet. Everything gets very confused when the kids are sick. I hope they're all better by Monday. We've lost a full week of "regular" school and I'd like to catch up. Like the consummate homeschooler, though, I'm not calling the week a total loss. We have been reading books out loud. We have also been learning to give each other a lot of grace - we've all needed it with this week!

The Great White North - really?

It got to 55 degrees today - in February! We've had a 3 day warm spurt so most of the snow is melted, and what isn't melted gets icy on the top in the morning. I wouldn't object so much if it were actually spring. As it is, the weather forecast calls for cooling and we will have lows in the single digits again by Tuesday. Tonight, we are forecast to have rain - February!!

My CPAP is still requiring some adjustment. P woke me up this morning because I had taken it off and I wasn't breathing well. Last night, I spent about 30 minutes adjusting everything and then couldn't sleep for an hour (despite being really tired to begin with). If I can't get things working the way that I want by next week, I'm going to ask about a mask.

My kids are still recovering. L had a high fever last night, but seems to be improved today. She still has a really bad sore throat (not surprising, given the redness and rawness of her throat). C has been doing a bunch of coughing today. L has missed 2 days of art class. She isn't too worried because she can always go in after school to finish projects. I hope that she improves enough tonight so that she can finish her science fair project by Friday afternoon - we set up on Friday night and the fair is on Saturday.

One of the most exciting things that is happening is that Core 6 from Sonlight comes tomorrow or Friday. We have less than a month left to finish Core 5 (Eastern Hemisphere with an emphasis on the least evangelized cultures), and we're excited to see what we will be studying in Core 6. The Core includes Bible/history/geography/social sciences. We got the new science book in the mail today. We are going to use Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day (referring to the days of Creation). The science book encourages the use of notebooking - recording whatever one learns in a notebook. The kids haven't been doing much notebooking, but L appears to be interested in it. It will be a little more challenging with C because of his dyslexia, but I think we can make it work. I'm hoping we can use notebooking with all of our subjects because it sounds like a great way to synthesize what they have learned.

More about the CPAP

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

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

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

My new machine

I had a sleep study last night because of my headaches and because I snore (my husband says that the snoring has gotten worse over the last year and a half). And, it turns out that I have obstructive sleep apnea. They sent me home with a nice, new CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine to use at night when I'm sleeping.

A little more than a year ago, I went for a sleep study, but I wasn't able to finish it because I got a migraine during the night and couldn't sleep. My husband had to come pick me up at 1am - and the hospital is 35 minutes away! So, I was a little apprehensive about going for this sleep study. The good news is that I didn't have a migraine during the study, but the bad news is that I had a migraine during the day before the study! But, I took my migraine meds and things stayed under control. I couldn't nap during the day (what I usually do when I have a migraine) so I was good and tired when they were ready for me to sleep.

During the sleep study, they monitored heart rate and rhythm, leg movement, brain waves, blood oxygen level, and air movement from my mouth and nose. I had sensors and wires everywhere! I didn't sleep well at all during the first part of the study, but I slept enough for them to see that I was having events where my breathing became extremely shallow. The tech said that I didn't stop breathing very often, though. Halfway through the night, the tech came and put a CPAP mask on me. I slept very well for the rest of the night. The CPAP provides a steady stream of air through my nose so that the tissue of my airway stays open and I breathe normally.

This morning (at 6:30am!!) the tech from the home health company was at the hosptital and taught me how to use the machine. Instead of a mask, I am using "nasal pillows" - a device that sits right under my nose and blows air. I still have straps around and over my head to keep the device in place. The machine heats and humidifies the air before it gets to the "nasal pillows". This is quite important up here with the nighttime temps that have been in the single digits this week. I took a nap this afternoon with the machine. I was so happy with the quiet and ease of use of the machine as well as how well I slept.

So, will this take away all the headaches and make me all better? The pulmonologist was doubtful about that. He thinks that I may get a 20% improvement or so. But, I'm keeping an open mind. God is in control of this whole situation. If He wants me to get better, that will be wonderful, but if He chooses for me to continue to have problems, that's OK too. "...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Phil 4:11-13. I can't really say that I've learned to be content, but rather that I'm learning to be content. I'm further down the road now than I was a year ago, and God is still teaching me a lot about contentment, fulfillment, and rest.

Colder than cold!!

I absolutely love living in "The Great White North", but it can get a little trying when it gets as cold as it has been the last week. The temperatures yesterday were so cold that the schools were all closed. But, with homeschooling, my kids still had to do schoolwork. Today, it has been above zero - believe it or not, I think that's almost warm! In any case, our home has been nice and warm.

I went to Houston last weekend for my college roommate's 40th birthday. It was a surprise for her that I was coming - and was she surprised!! I had a great time seeing her again. We went out and ate boiled crawfish (one of my favorite meals). Her husband had planned the entire weekend without her knowledge. There was a birthday party at a restaurant with his and her parents, friends, and some of her friends from high school. She knew about none of this! It was a blast!

Our family sat down last week and redid our chore lists for everyone. Previously, I had listed out what everyone needs to do and when. This didn't really seem to be working as well as I would have liked. So, this time, we worked together to list all the routine work that needs to be done and divided it up with each person volunteering for his/her favorite (or least offensive, at least) chores. I also have set it up so that one child helps me with the kitchen and the other with the laundry. We switch off who it is each month. Ideally, I would like to teach them to manage the laundry and to plan/cook/serve meals and clean up afterwards. Right now, I just want the basic housework to get done even if I'm not feeling well.

It has been a week and the kids seem to think that our system is working pretty well right now. I still have to remind the kids to get some stuff done. L was not too happy about having to help me with laundry because the basement is so cold right now. But, we're figuring it all out. I'm optimistic about it.

I got the kids signed up for dance for this semester. They love their classes, but I am having to drive to Point twice a week. L takes jazz (a new class for her) and tap on Monday and ballet on Tuesday. C takes jazz on Tuesday. Our carpoolling system for Tuesdays is a little complicated, but I think it will end up being OK. There are three families that are carpooling for Tuesdays.

P is taking a reading class this semester. It is a class to help him work with kids who may show up for his classes with poor reading skills. He is also glad to learn more about how kids learn to read, given C's dyslexia. But, P just got home from class, so I'm off to talk to him - he's been gone almost all day and evening! And, I'm going to sit in my rocker with my feet on my footwarmer and my hat on my head and be warm!!

Knitting update!

Knitting has been a wonderful pastime for me over the last couple of years. It is one of the few things that I can do when I have a headache. It is also wonderful for making gifts! I try to take pictures of all of my projects to put in a knitting journal that my mother-in-law gave me.

This is a sweater that I knitted for my mom. It was fun to learn to do the stitches that it involved. I learned basket-weave and bobbles. I also had to learn to rip out a section that was done poorly and redo it. The yarn is a basic acrylic that is a little heavier than worsted.

For Christmas presents for a number of young ladies this year, I made watches. I ordered the watch faces online (very reasonable - less than $5 each!) and made watchbands for them. This is a thin band with a small watch face. I also used some really big watch faces with thick watch bands. The yarn was different types of sock yarn. This picture shows a glittery blue yarn. I also made one of pink cotton sock yarn and several of self-striping wool sock yarn. I tried using some thicker yarns, but didn't like the results.

This is one of my favorite projects! A friend gave me a knitting calendar with zillions of patterns. There are several patterns for wrist warmers (gauntlets as my daughter calls them). These have a shell-type pattern knitted into them, which was the first time that I knitted a pattern like this. The yarn is a fun, shimmery blue sock yarn which works great for this.

I'm currently working on a sweater for a friend and a sweater for myself. This summer and fall I need to make sweaters for the kids because the ones I did a few years ago are too small. I also have a guitar strap for my husband on the needles as well as a tie for him. I need to get back to work on the tie now that he is in the classroom regularly learning to teach. I am using 100% cotton sock yarn (self-striping) for the tie. The guitar strap is being done with some heavy duty yarn that is a little thinner than worsted. I'll put up pictures of those when they're done!

I really enjoy that knitting is portable. I am going to be taking kids to dance twice a week this semester, so it will be nice to have something to do with my hands while I watch them dance or chat with other parents. I want to make socks or slippers for the kids with some of my leftover worsted weight wool, and they are very easy projects to take with me.

P and the kids gave me some fat needles and a book with patterns. I am planning to cut some worn-out jeans and t-shirts into strips and try my hand at rag knitting. But, that may be in a few months. I still have to keep the house clean and school the kids!

If you like knitting, check out the Knitty website. I love their patterns! I also like to catch Knitty Gritty on DIY network when I get the chance.

More later. C has been on the Nintendo way too long. Time to get him to something vaguely constructive.

Warm and Snug

When I got up this am, it was -3 degrees F outside. But, inside our house it was 68 degrees F. Thanks you, Lord, for a good furnace!! When we bought this house, I was a little concerned about what winter would be like. This is a cute house, but it is probably 60 years old and has mostly original windows. But, the original windows all have storm windows on the outside, so we can keep the cold air at bay. Our upstairs is pretty chilly, though. One bedroom (mine and P's) has a heater vent, another has a grate in the floor to let heat up from the main floor, and the other bedroom (L's) has no source of heat. L refuses to keep her door open at night, though, because the cats come in and jump on her at night! Despite that, her room is not really freezing - she sleeps under a comforter and a sleeping bag.

We have a fuel oil furnace now, which took a little getting used to. The fuel oil company will come around and fill our tank every month or so. Our other house had natural gas so we didn't have to worry about a tank and all that.

We also have a sidewalk in front of out house now which has to be kept free of snow. There are a couple of inconveniences, though. Since we don't have an attached garage, we have to keep a path from the door to the garage clear. It is also a small garage and P hasn't gotten it clean enough to put the car in yet. The van will have to stay outside. Our trash cans are right outside the back door, but I still got pretty cold putting trash and recycling out into the cans.

Having a small house has required some significant changes for us. We have taken loads of stuff to Goodwill, but still have some storage issues. Our basement is finally pretty clear, but still needs to be organized.

I have been thinking lately about the whole issue of having so much "stuff". P and I read the book Margin by Dr. Richard Swenson a few years ago and were very convicted about having such overloaded lives. We got rid of a bunch of stuff then, but still had way too much for our lives right now. We have also had to learn to be careful about using our time. Not having so much stuff and having a smaller house will mean that we have to spend less time taking care of our stuff. I have realized that there are many shows on TV about organizing and cleaning out our houses. It seems that our society has gotten so stuff-overloaded that we can't even take care of it all!

I caught a little bit of Nanny 911 on TV last night when I was walking on the treadmill and was pretty appalled by what I saw - the family, not the nanny. One parent was looking for the kids to meet her needs for friendship while the other parent was not really paying attention to the kids. No wonder they were out of control! I think, though, that the underlying issue of overload may be at play here. The family was too overloaded (i.e. too tired and busy) to really relate to each other. I may hate my headaches, but they have forced us to deal with the excess stuff (material, time, emotional) in our lives.

Well, that's enough for being philosophic. I'm off to do some more knitting!

Science Experiment

My daughter has been really into owls lately because she is reading "The Guardians of Ga'hoole" series of books. We actually did a short unit on owls a month or so ago. But, we never got around to doing the owl pellets experiment. So, yesterday we took out the pellets (there were 3 in the pack I ordered) and all the supplies and went to work. C didn't want to do it at first, but once he got into it he liked it. He didn't make it through the whole dissection - he got through half of it and got bored. I finished his pellet. He did really well for an 8 year old. L got through the dissection, but put the bones in a bag that she will sort out later.

A little background: Owls eat their food whole and digest it in their stomachs and the rest of the GI tract. What can't be broken down in the stomach (hair, fur, bones, etc.) is stored in the gizzard and later regurgitated as a pellet. I got pellets from a scientific supply store so that they had been disinfected. We dissected them with forceps.

Both kids really enjoyed doing this. L did it as part of her science fair project, so she still needs to organize the bones and try to figure out what the owl had eaten. It was really a pretty fun project.

A New Year!

So, we are in to a new year. P and I both turn 40 this year. I never thought it would be that much of a milestone, but it really does feel different to be coming up to a new decade in life. P's birthday is before mine, so he will be 40 six months earlier than I will be!!

We spent Christmas with my parents and my brother and his wife and son. On the last night we were there, my brother's best friend from high school and his wife and daughter came over for dinner. It was really strange realizing that my brother, his friend, and I have known each other for almost 30 years. I still remember that I liked N more than any of my brother's other friends. He was the one who was nice to me!

But, now, we were all there with our spouses and kids. It was kind of strange to remember being in that same room 22 years ago when I was about to graduate from high school. And then, all the visits and get-togethers over the years. My parents have remodeled the house, though, so some things have changed. But the changes have all been superficial. We all look different, but we are, in many ways, the same people we were in high school despite our college degrees, extra weight, and receding hairlines!!

The kids are having a little bit of trouble getting back into the swing of things this year. We haven't started full schoolwork yet because P and I want to get some work done cleaning out the basement, etc. I'm not sure we're really ready to get going on Monday or if we're going to wait for a couple more days. It's pretty nice having P around the house this last week.

I had a wicked migraine on Thursday and ended up in my doctor's office for some shots. What a mess. I came home and slept, but then was so tired on Friday that I took an afternoon nap. It's hard to get anything done when you're sleeping all the time!!

Well, C has a friend here today. Two rambunctious boys in this house - EEK! Better go keep an eye on them!

Disabled

According to my disability insurance company's website, my claim is now "being paid" instead of in "initial review". So, I am officially disabled. I assume that the letter with all the info about the claim being paid will come within the next couple of days, but the website is pretty clear about what "being paid" means. Until now, I have been receiving benefits, but there has been this underlying fear that they would deny my claim and that we would have to do some serious re-evaluation of our family's life.

But, I'm not quite sure how I like the label of "disabled". I clearly can't work as a physician right now, but I have some underlying discomfort with being "disabled". In medical school, we all worked unless we were half-dead. It's hard to get past that expectation. I have a lovely migraine starting right now, so I think I'll go get my meds and go to bed.

Headache woes

I thought my new meds were helping, but I've had a headache for about a week - not real bad, but disruptive to life. It wasn't a migraine until yesterday, and it was pretty mild until today. I'm feeling better, but not headache-free yet.

The kids are sick with colds, too. The combination of mom with a migraine and sick kids makes for little "school" work getting done. Today we watched "Survivorman" on The Science Channel. Our current science book is about survival skills, so watching a guy who is staying for 7 days in the Central American jungle seemed to fit right in! This afternoon we watched "India: Kingdom of the Tiger". It was more about tigers than India, but still fit nicely in the India unit that we're doing. I'm having to reschedule all of the kids' table work, though. They have very little concentration when they're sick.

Last night, L's cat jumped off her bed and broke a decorative stand. L was very upset. I agreed that I would help her clean her room, but no one's been up to it today. We haven't really cleaned and organized the kids' rooms since we moved into this house. Maybe this weekend.

Christmas is a tough time of year this year. The kids and I miss our old house - there's not enough room in this house for all the Christmas decorations. I've given a few to Goodwill and the rest I will rotate by year. I've also made a point of not committing to anything. C and I are supposed to go to a homeschool Christmas party tomorrow am, but I think we may skip it. I would like to have a day without a headache before I go to a party! There are some things that I won't miss, though. One of them is the jazz singer who will be performing at our church next weekend. I'll miss a lot of things, but her concert last year was amazing and I don't want to miss it this year!

November 29

I haven't blogged in 3 weeks because I couldn't figure out how to sign in again. It turns out that I was supposed to be signing in with Blogger Beta and using my Google password - Eek!

Anyway, life around here is going pretty well. L and C both have colds so we are doing a movie day today. We are watching a movie about Buddha and one about India. India seems to be taking a long time, but I think it is just because we had an interruption for Thanksgiving. The kids seem to be doing OK with the same history/geography curriculum. I'm not as frazzled, at least.

I had my IME (independent medical exam) last week. It seemed to go OK. He seemed to agree that my disability claim is legitimate. That was nice because I was starting to feel like the insurance people think I'm lying. I would have preferred if he had suggested a treatment that might take away the headaches, but he just said that my current treatment seems reasonable.

I had a migraine on Thanksgiving morning - Yuck! P went to the store to get paper plates, cups, etc. and put in the turkey. I felt better enough by noon to make the gravy and veggies. Another family came to celebrate with us and we ended up having lots of fun.

We did Christmas decorations on Friday. The kids were adamant about getting the decorating done! The house does look nice, although it is pretty messy. The Christmas stuff is pretty, but takes up lots of space. I've also had to keep some stuff in boxes because this house is smaller than our previous. We're excited about Christmas, nonetheless!

The first snow!

It snowed today - and not just flurries! We have about 3 inches on the ground, but we are afraid that it won't last. The high temps in the next several days are supposed to be in the 40s. Well, the kids went outside today and played while it was snowing.

Our week in school did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. I have been letting the kids sleep till whenever they wanted and we started school around 10am or so. The problem is that we were having to do schoolwork until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, but the kids wanted to be done around 2. Well, I decided that we are going to do most of our school in the morning, so they will have to get up and moving more quickly than they would like. Besides, we have so many afternoon activities that interrupt our day that it doesn't make sense to count on having all afternoon. And, no one likes schooling till 8 at night.

Otherwise, I have been very happy with just doing Core 5 and not trying to get C's science and history reading in. We didn't do as much work on C's reading curriculum as I would like, but he is doing some reading on his own. He actually asked his dad if he (C) could read dad a book. He read Curious George without too much help! Mostly, we're thrilled that C wants to read. He used to just find it drudgery, but he is much happier with it now.

I am starting L with her new writing program on Monday. Pray for us. She does not like to write, although she is quite good when she finally gets around to it. But, her writing is that of a middle schooler, so she still has to do writing in school. She hasn't produced Pulitzer Prize winning material quite yet!!

I am knitting myself a sweater right now. It is a tunic-style and the yarn is such a nice, soft yarn that the sweater is going to be beautiful. I'm also working on some Christmas presents for some friends and family.

The Weight Watchers thing has been going fair. I didn't lose anything this week. I get very frustrated with being hungry. But, entering the foods in the computer has helped me quite a bit. I've been trying to walk on the treadmill frequently, but my knee has been giving me trouble. I've been working on some exercises for it, trying to stave off physical therapy, but I'm not sure it'll work. I'm giving it another week before I call my doctor again.

My teenage girls' group has been going really well. We're starting to form some bonds and get to know each other. They are a great group of girls.

Well, it's time to get Patrick to read to the kids. We're working on Around the World in 80 Days. We have all enjoyed it a lot, although it is definitely building the kids' vocabularies! More later.

Overwhelmed

The only word to describe this week is overwhelming. We use Sonlight curriculum and I have been trying to do Core 5 with L and Core 2 with C. In addition, I'm using an intensive phonics program with C, and he has once a week lessons with a learning specialist. So, I've been really frustrated in trying to get everything done this week, especially with a migraine on Wednesday. L has been giving me trouble about writing. So far, she has mostly been writing paragraphs, but it's time for her to start writing essays and research papers. Unfortunately, she is adamant that she does not need to use outlines. The last time she told me this, I told her that when she is a Nobel Laureate she can tell me that she doesn't need outlines. In the meantime, she has to learn how to outline and write papers. The good news is that Apologia now has a writing program for middle schoolers. It looks great - very non-threatening. L is already upset about it because it talks about learning to do outlines in the first chapter. Well, this may require much prayer, but I'm optimistic it will work.

I have decided on a total redo of our curriculum for the next 12 weeks (that's when we finish the Core(s)). I am going to have both kids doing Core 5. We will do the Eastern Hemisphere Explorer together (all three of us), which should be good because L really doesn't like doing it (it's answering lots of questions and doing activities about the countries that she's reading about). In addition, I'll be reading aloud everything, including science, except the readers. I'm also going to have L doing some of the reading aloud. That may allow us to work while I'm doing laundry, etc. In any case, I hope that this will lower some of the stress about school. L and C will still have their math curriculum to do on their own. C will continue his phonics and learning to read. L will continue her grammar, punctuation, spelling, as well as starting her writing program.

When we finish this Core, I am going to have them both do Core 6. I will, though, add in a good bit of stuff from Core 1 for C. Several moms on the Sonlight forums have done this successfully.

Our small group (from our church) is going through the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University. We started another course on money management a couple of weeks ago because our church has been working through the material. But, we found the DVDs to be very sleep inducing! So, we decided to do Dave Ramsey instead. The other couple in our group (yes, a very small group!) hasn't done either of these programs before, and they really like the Dave Ramsey stuff so far. It is far more entertaining than the other program!

C is doing very well in learning to read. He enjoys his supplemental reading help now that she told him that he gets points for doing a good job. At his last lesson, he was very focused for almost 45 minutes. The teacher also recommended that I have him do some reading that is above his reading level. I gave him "The Fire Cat" to read this week and couldn't get him to put it down. He only needs help with about 5% of the words. He still doesn't always try to sound them out, but it is improving.

Well, it's late on a Saturday night. I'm going to work a little more on getting the kids' lessons in the computer and then go to bed!

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.