Mr. Inventor

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It's just the day after Christmas and it hasn't slowed down Holland. He was out inventing early this morning. My mom came by for breakfast (Egypt invited her) and snapped these pictures of him. I don't even know where he got that hand truck. Do we even own a hand truck? Mom said that she asked what the extension cord was for. He said it was his brake. He tied it to a tree.

Seriously. Discovery Channel hasn't found us yet? Forget balloon boy. Forget the White House crashers. Come find us. We're honest. We're hardworking. We don't try to fool the media. I need a budget for his experiments. He just came downstairs and showed me a boat he made for Egypt's little horses. I gave him a glue gun and some craft sticks for Christmas and he's built a bird house for gramma and now this boat.

Thank You Shriners

I took Egypt to her Shriners appointment last week. Super Hero had the day off (I really need to find another way to say that. He was home, unpaid....). So he stayed home with Holland while I drove up to OHSU. I've been up there so many times, you'd think it would be no big deal. Have you SEEN this place? It's huge. It should have its own zip code. I had directions for where to turn into the parking structure. They are actually not part of OHSU and if you park on their property, big trouble. I missed the parking garage the first time. It didn't even look like it was somewhere you could turn. The garage itself was something to behold. My van isn't long and obnoxious, but I could barely make the turns and there were cars parked alongside the ramp the way up.

But we were on time and filled out some more paperwork and waited with our beeper to be called. Everyone was so nice and after being seen by the pediatric rheumatologist, physical therapist and occupational therapist, they said anytime we need any services to just call! They didn't think she needed another injection at this point and to just watch for any stiffness or sore joints. The physical therapist gave us some pencil grips to help her hold her pencil correctly. And some ideas for exercises at home.

We're so thankful that God has given us access to these services for free until she's an adult.

Mmmm, Bread

If Holland hadn't stolen my camera, I could have taken a picture of the beautiful loaves of bread I've been slaving over for the past two days. Slaving, as in watching them rise, transferring to a clean bowl, putting in the refrigerator, letting rise again, kneading a bit, putting in two bread pans and baking. Whew. And they tasted pretty darn good to boot!

I bought this great book recommended by a friend. Her husband is a cooking fool (well, she is too, looking at all her Facebook status updates) and he's always making bread. I bought it on Amazon. It's called Crust and Crumb: Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers. The title alone should have scared the socks off me. I'm not a serious bread baker. I'm not even a serious baker. But I'm a serious eater, so I figured that I qualified in some way to buy this book. I read through some of the techniques in the front of the book, just to familiarize myself with the vocabulary. I had experience with bread making before - and not just throwing flour and yeast and water in a bread machine and flipping a switch. I actually learned to hand knead. Doesn't seem a like a big deal, but when your Kitchen Aid mixer starts to levitate on your counter, you'd better know how to knead or you'll be buying a new machine. I think it actually growled at me.

The recipe calls for a starter. Not too hard. A little hand kneading and throw it in a bowl for 5 hours. Then I even got to refrigerate it and forget about it until today. I realized that I should have cooked the brown rice before taking the starter out of the fridge to come to room temp. Oh well. Make a mental note of that for next time. The recipe calls for two different types of starters. My friend recommended doubling the recipe and using all of the same starter. Good thing. I think one starter is enough for a novice. The only thing I wasn't completely familiar with was testing to make sure the dough was ready for the final rise. There's a technique called a "windowpane" test. To make sure that the dough is the right consistency. If you've over-kneaded the dough, there's no way to add water or flour to fix it. Luckily, I never reached the point of no return - which the author recommends you throwing it out if you've achieved this feat. It actually stretched the right way. I even gave a bit to the kids to play with. They were fascinated by it. Punching it, kneading it, rolling it and Holland even snuck a bite.

The house smelled wonderful. Romania thought I was cooking pizza. Nah. That was probably just the provolone chicken I was baking while they were playing racquetball with Super Hero. My, my. What's with all this cooking and baking? I'll analyze that after I eat some more of the homemade almond roca sitting in my kitchen. Talk about cooking skills. Try bringing butter and brown sugar to a hard crack without a candy thermometer. Now that's some skills. Thanks, gramma for all those lessons on Little Grandma's Christmas suckers or I'd have no idea what that even meant.

Something's Missin'

Somethin's missin' alright. How about my digital camera, half a dozen rechargeable batteries, two night light chargers, and the phone cord. I have no idea what he did with this stuff. The other day, Holland opened a brand new package of No. 2 pencils and used packing tape and some printer paper to make a sail boat for his bath. It's hard not to be irritated. Sure. To you it's probably "fun" and "inventive". To me, it's just annoying to find projects assembled all over the house that use items that I need or destroy things that are still working. My house has become a science lab. Where's Bill Nye the Science Guy when you need him? Why isn't the Discovery Channel knocking on my door to document this? Maybe someday we'll harness his power for the greater good of mankind.

I'm So Flexible

That title makes me want to laugh out loud. This is just life now: Be flexible or go crazy. Super Hero's hours have been cut at work. We are finally feeling the effects of the bad economy. Just when you hear that things are picking up, his company is taking a hit. He lost 3 days of work last week and two this week. So I'm flexible. I work around him. Which isn't all that easy when you're trying to homeschool, clean house, do laundry, cook dinner, drive and drop off kids, deal with doctor appointments. I was hoping he'd see how busy I am and give me some slack. He has helped, but sometimes (and moms everywhere know this), it's more work to have them home, even if you think you'll get some help. It's too much 'splainin' (in the words of Ricky Ricardo).

Yesterday Super Hero took Holland to his OT appointment. That was such a big help, because it gave me time to work on sewing projects for this bazaar I'm doing tomorrow at Romania's school. But when they got home, I had to pop him back in the car, get Egypt, get schoolwork together, drive to my sister's, drop off Egypt, pick up my nephews, drive to their charter school for fencing and Holland's speech class. Then work on school work in a noisy room with a bunch of teenagers playing guitar. Then take my nephews home, come back home with Egypt and Holland for lunch and more homeschooling. Which, I have to say, is pretty much a lost cause after all that. Talk about being flexible. I was getting ready to do more school with Holland when Super Hero, who had been perusing Craigslist found some free stuff. Of course Holland wanted to tag along. (That's actually what's fun about homeschooling - being able to do things at a moment's notice). They drove up to Kelso, WA in hopes of getting a table and 4 chairs, a snowboard, snowboots, a new bike, a new tv and some other things. Of course, it being free, I didn't get my hopes up. So when they came home around dinner and Holland bounds in the house "look what we got!" I was ready for some big ticket item. It was a digital TV antenna. "Just like grandma's!". Seriously. That's what thrilled him. Oh. And a big bag of potting soil. Yup. Not kidding. They drove to Kelso from Oregon City for a tv antenna and a bag of potting soil. But it got them out of the house, let me do more sewing and spend some time with Egypt before retrieving Romania from the bus stop.

So, while we're on the topic of flexibility, here we are on Wednesday and I feel like we've done no school at all this week. I know that's not true, but sometimes it feels like we move at the speed of a snail going backwards. Super Hero had a dentist appointment this morning. So he offered to take Romania to the bus (third time this week!!). I didn't even shower until 10.30. Woohoo! And Holland didn't get out of bed until 9.45. We had a leisurely morning of spelling games online, reading and mopping the floor. This idea is all Holland. He decided (my inner skeptic came up with this) that it would be a lovely idea to mop the floor for mom. How do you discourage a 10 year-old that wants to mop your kitchen floor? "Oh shoot, honey. Don't mop the floor, we need to do school". This is his way of getting out of work.

And now that it's 12.30, I'd better eat lunch and get him back to work. Mariel of Redwall is waiting.

Good Report from the Rheumatologist

I took Egypt to see the rheumatologist on Thursday. It had only been a month since her last appointment, but we thought she might need another injection after only three months. We've been going to the physical therapist once a month and it seems to have helped stave off the need for another injection. There is no change in her range of motion for her knee and the thumb and jaw look the same too. That's such good news. I wasn't looking forward to taking her in again.

Next week is a full schedule - including going back to the orthotist. I misplaced Egypt's insert for her shoe. The problem is we keep switching it depending on which shoes or boots she wears. It's probably somewhere lost in a basket of clean laundry. But instead of trying to find the proverbial needle, I'm just going to have another one made. Too bad that insurance views this as a cosmetic thing or I'd get 3 or 4 of them.

Now I'm off to madly sew for a few hours. Super Hero took all three kids to the health club. Every Sunday there is a free racquetball class that the boys have been taking and love it. Then Egypt will swim with daddy and I'll get some more work done for Thursday's bazaar at school. Yesterday I got 10 child aprons sewn and 1 adult.

Cooking School

Today Holland wanted to make homemade french fries. And of course, I was all for that. He got the bag of potatoes from the garage and asked if he could peel them. Of course - I assumed it would be his job. I told him to put them in cold water after peeling so they wouldn't turn brown. I left the kitchen to do something else and when I came back, this is what I found. Of course before I got mad at him, I took a picture. He peeled 20 potatoes! Hey -now we can put him to work on those Thanksgiving potatoes. It took several hours to actually cook them all. I'm crazy and cook them twice. They're nice and soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Potato perfection.

Speech Therapy. Finally.

Yesterday I met with Holland's IEP team. A meeting was called when I told them I wanted to drop speech services. Too complicated, but basically it was scheduling conflict and too many activities (meaning doctor appointments!) for Holland. Last year we had the speech person come to our house and it worked out great. This year the speech person gave me times she was available, but they conflicted with our school schedule and the fact that I don't want to leave the house everyday.

After having a private speech therapist evaluate him, I decided 20 minutes a week was not worth the hassle and there were many other things I couldn't drop.

I was all ready for disagreements to this, so I came prepared with the report from the private speech therapist and also my monthly schedule for the last two months. The open times were again presented (nothing had changed from our last conversation. I still couldn't do it). I explained that I was caring for two children with heavy medical needs and could not be leaving the house any more or drag all three with me to some grade school just because she serviced other students there. Finally, the director of the school suggested dropping Fencing. I haven't wanted to do this. I want him to follow through with something. He really is not liking it, but if we stopped everything just because he was frustrated, he wouldn't learn anything. The speech lady had an open time during his class. Since he's not enjoying fencing, I'm pulling him out and he'll do speech for the first 20-25 minutes. Then I'll find something for us to do while we wait for my nephews to finish the fencing class.

So, it's a pretty good compromise. I won't have to drive anywhere else and he can get free services (although I don't know how much good they'll do).

The Mother of All Inventions

When I'm not being irritated by Holland's inventions, I am impressed by his creativity. I don't know how he comes up with the contraptions he does. He usually takes things apart to make new things. His recent projects have included a motor of a fan hooked up to be a weed eater. He's built a luge out of a giant box and a couple of skateboards. He's used his sister's outdoor car, a large golf umbrella a skateboard and some other odds and ends from the garage and built something to ride on that he could actually steer. It's hard not to get annoyed by all this building, especially when he takes things apart that are not broken. I give him lots of opportunities to build (I let him take apart a washing machine for pete's sake!). Finally last night, he built something that I think is my favorite invention so far.

I was getting ready for bed and as is my routine went in to check on all the kids. You know, making sure no one was hanging off a bed or had fallen asleep with a gameboy stuck to their face. I walked into Holland's room and ran into a piece of string tied to his doorknob and was immediately hit with a foam dart. This ingenious inventor had rigged some of my sewing thread to his doorknob and attached it to his dresser and when it was tripped, it fired this foam dart. He asked me in the morning if I liked his trap. I told him I thought it was brilliant. That's when he told me it was actually for his sister!

Now if we could just harness this power for good.....

Yea for the OT

Another busy day. Today we had Holland's OT appointment after fencing. We did this last week and it was a disaster. He was literally bouncing off the walls by the time we got to the OT. He could not pay attention and his body was bumping into everything. He is really not wanting to do fencing. It's hard to know how far to push him. He refuses everything we offer. On Mondays I pick up Romania from the bus stop and we drive up to meet Super Hero in Portland. Holland goes with him and I take Romania to handbell practice. He kept crying saying he didn't want to go and wanted me to page dad and tell him I said it was okay not to go play at the club. I told him that Mondays were his night with dad and I didn't care what they did, but I was still dropping him off. I emailed dad and told him this. He needed to figure out what to do - I didn't care if they sat in the parking lot - just don't involve me. So getting him to do fencing has not been fun. He has working memory deficits that make it difficult for him to remember a sequence of things. He is also not very aware of what his body is doing and as a result got yelled at two weeks ago in fencing class for being a bit out of control. He did not want to go today, but I said we were still picking up his cousins and he needed to at least try. The first 30 minutes of the class are spent warming up. The kids play games and today the instructor asked which parents wanted to play against the kids. Everyone just sat there, so I jumped down off the stage and joined for a game of dodgeball with 20 kids. Eventually some other parents joined and it was fun. My legs still hurt from that. I consider it my exercise for the week.

After returning my nephews to their house and picking up Egypt, we drove straight up to Portland for the OT session. I was worried that it would be a repeat of last week. He fell asleep in the car ride up. Never a good sign. But he seemed alert when we went in and had many things to share with Camille. I sat in for the first 20 minutes and he did an awesome job listening and trying out the exercises. Some of them are very difficult for him because they require some upper body strength. He didn't complain once and each time Camille asked him to do it again, he did. I left for a bit to talk to the speech path about possible services and to ask her opinion of how to deal with this school situation. She has never worked in the school system but we talked with a PT who has been in public school and told me that I needed to lay out the reasons why it wouldn't work and them tell them "these are the circumstances that I will accept your services." I loved that. I want her to come with me! They keep saying ' oh you're in charge. Whatever the parent wants, it's your decision.' That's a bunch of hooey. What happens when you disagree with them is they bring in a table full of people all on their side and you show up bombarded with reasons why you need to listen to them. The wording she gave me was perfect for retaining control of Holland's education. If they're not going to provide speech by coming to our house, then I'm not going to accept their services. I would love to not have to pay for something, but it doesn't look like we'll make any improvements because the school speech path is only looking at the incorrect way he's making the words and not the underlying problem.

So say a little prayer on Thursday when I go in to face all the big wigs of the school district. After all, I'm just a mom who has no idea what the best thing for her son is (insert sarcasm if you didn't already).

3 Month Eye Check

I took Egypt to her 3 month eye check today. There was no real noticeable vision change (in my estimation, she missed about half of the pictures/letters). Doctor said we could wait three months or get glasses right now. Egypt was so excited and of course wanted to go pick out pink frames! I told her we would look, but probably not buy. When I got up to the window to schedule the next appointment, the woman says "that will be $44 please." I told her I already paid the co-pay. She told me that my insurance viewed the need for glasses as a 'medical' condition. Um. Hello? How is needing glasses not a vision reason? They are billing the need for glasses from the JRA, which in their eyes is a medical condition. I doubt that the JRA caused the near-sightedness, so it's not right that they bill it under medical instead of vision. She went back and asked the doctor if they could change it and he dropped the fee.

Then, since I only had Egypt with me, we drove to Costco and picked out two frames, which was cheaper than the FRAMES ONLY at the eye clinic! Crazy. She was a little sad leaving without the glasses. She was expecting to be able to walk out of there with new glasses. She informed me two weeks was way too long to wait.

I also had a bit of good news arrive in the mail the other day. About a month ago I applied for care through the local Shriner's Hospital. They do orthopedic care, burn care, spinal cord rehab and cleft lip/palate care. I got a letter saying that my application had been approved and our appointment is scheduled for mid-December. I really hope that they will be able to help us out. Holland's care is costing so much and Egypt's physical therapy, cortisone injections and shoe lifts are getting costly as well. Now I just have to call all her caregivers and ask that they send over her records.

On a side note, I called Holland's case manager for his IEP. I told her I needed to drop the speech goals. The times the speech person has available either don't work, or use up too much time (2 1/2 hours for a 20 minute appointment. Drive time, plus waiting until Romania gets out of school to drive him home). The case manager is calling a meeting to discuss the "inconvenient scheduling times". I told her that I do plenty of inconvenient things, but it's not just about the scheduling issue. There are too many transitions in Holland's school days. He has weekly doctor appointments, monthly doctor appointments, two outside the home classes, Egypt's doctor appointments, and oh yeah, actual school! We have to meet with our Educational Specialist once a week and then the added speech on top of that. Not only am I feeling overwhelmed with the schedule we're on, but I'm dealing with so many behavior issues right now. I think I'm going to type up my schedule for the next three months so this case manager can see that it's not just about me saying this is too much trouble. If she could only walk in my shoes for a week, I'm sure she'd sing a different tune. Maybe I'll just tell her to read my blog.

We Have Lift-Off

It was another busy Monday here. I feel like we're on a moving treadmill all day long. After dropping Romania at the bus stop and hurrying home to get ready for our weekly ES meeting, I got a call from Holland's school OT. She wanted to stop by to install some software for us. If you know anything about this software, you know that it took me about 8 months to actually track it down and get the school OT last year to install it on our computer. She always had an excuse of why it wasn't going to work out. Then the hard drive on our computer gave out and we lost all our CD installed software. So, gone was the Clicker 5. I mentioned at the annual IEP review that I would like to have it again and this morning she called wanting to come over. She knew we had our weekly meeting. She even changed the day she was working because Tuesdays and Wednesdays didn't work for us (how's that for accommodating?).

While we met with our ES, Ming Ming installed Clicker 5 and then showed me quickly how to navigate around to get started. She even offered to come over any time I needed help or wanted help with Holland's work. Such a change from last year's non-helpful OT.

After doing a bit of school, we left for Egypt's appointment with the orthotist. We barely got away with a shoe insert. She could have done a 1/2" insert, but then we would have to get an insert actually in the sole. They sand down the shoe and add the needed height. It starts at $90 a shoe and it would only be in one of her shoes. Plus she would grow out of them so fast. Insurance doesn't pay for this. They consider it cosmetic. Holland's inserts were covered because they are for his flat feet. I'm not sure how an uneven leg is considered cosmetic, but for now, we don't have to get the more expensive insert. Plus, now I have to get rid of all her cute shoes. Some of them are too shallow and she'll just walk out of the shoe.

We came home and did another paltry 30 minutes of school and then it was off to pick up Romania from the bus stop. We came home, I finished getting dinner ready, but we didn't have time to eat it (tired yet?) because I had to drop Romania off for handbell practice. Then I huffed on over to Bi-Mart to gets some Rx's and cat food. Egypt and Holland were just bouncing off the walls. Sometimes I just want to tie them together and string 'em along. It's just exhausting having kids with you while you're trying to run errands. I was hoping to pop into Goodwill and look for some jeans for the boys, but there was no way I was going anywhere else. Thankfully, Super Hero was home and he went to pick up Romania from handbells.

Tuesday looks to be even more tiring. Holland has his OT appointment in Portland; we have fencing class and I'm debating on whether I'll show up for speech or not. I'm going to have a speech evaluation for him at the same place where we do OT. I just don't think 20 minutes a week is enough and since we're already up there, might as well.

It's 6.52 and I feel like going to bed right now. Maybe nobody will miss me if I sneak off and lock my door. Yeah, right.

I Need a Personal Assistant

My life has become so complicated that I am now taking resumes for a personal assistant. The pay is what you'd expect - nothing! I'm having a hard time figuring out what I have to drop in order to continue being a sane person. I did not start out the school year thinking that having Holland take two classes would put such a snag in everyday life. But now I have to add a weekly occupational therapy appointment for him and a weekly physical therapy appointment for Egypt. She will need another cortisone injection and she has trouble gripping a pencil because of her affected thumb. She needs some intervention so her joints don't freeze up. Luckily I can do these two appointments at the same time. But it means driving into Portland and that sucks time from the already limited schooling time.

Tuesdays Holland takes Fencing class and I drop Egypt at my sister's house and take her two oldest boys to the class. I got a call from the Speech Path and we are trying to figure out when she will do the 20 minutes of speech that's on his IEP. Sheesh. Really? Only 20 minutes? Why bother? I'm trying to decide if I want to drag Egypt with me to another school building and sit in the office while Holland has his speech. And this could happen when Romania has no school on Fridays. I am thinking about driving out to Springwater, letting Holland have his speech session and work in Romania's class. But in order to make it to Egypt's new handchimes class (did you see the video? She just LOVES it!), I would have to leave Springwater before school is out.

I'm running out of daylight hours to do everything. None of this scheduling dilemma takes into consideration all the trouble I'm having keeping Holland on task. He argues about absolutely everything. Keeping him focused is near impossible. You'd think I was asking him to walk on hot coals when I ask him to write something. All he wants to do is sit and listen to me read. We are reading "Mattimeo" out loud. It's the third book in the Redwall series. We read history out loud and he draws while I read. I read all his science out loud. Do you see a pattern? I'm exhausted and feel like I accomplish nada on a daily basis. How's that for feeling motivated? I'm beginning to think that someone else can do a better job. Romania complains almost daily that he doesn't like school and wants to come home. I ignore Egypt all day long. I do NOTHING with her. People are freaking out that I don't have her in preschool. That's just what I need. One more place to drive to. I just shoo her out of the school room and once in a while let her sit on the floor and try to attend to two kids. Holland gets so distracted and can't do anything on his own. If I try to help Egypt, he walks off or sits and complains that I'm not helping him.

If you want to feel real good about yourself, homeschool a kid with special needs. That'll put you in your place.

Handchimes class

Romania did a handbells camp this summer. He loved it so much, we are now doing a Monday night class. The instructor asked how old Egypt was. I said she'd be 5 in a few weeks. She invited her to join a hand chimes class for younger kids. Here she is (Holland decided to try it too - he's in the green shirt)

A Busy Bee and the Rheumatologist

Today is a very hectic day. After I dropped Romania at the bus stop, I came home to drop Holland with my mom and take Egypt to her rheumatology appointment. Holland has a ceramics class on Thursdays, so my mom took him there and I drove to Emanuel for Egypt's appointment. After lunch, I have Holland's annual review IEP meeting, pick up Romania, then drive up to Portland for another doctor's appointment at 5. I'm tired just typing that all!

Egypt's rheumatologist said that she has two more joints affected. He checks the affected joint each appointment, but also checks non-affected, because it can happen fairly quickly. He noticed a slight deviation in her jaw. He measured how far she can open her mouth - which was good - but her jaw deviates to the left. There is no swelling so far, but we have to come back in 2 months (instead of 3) to check it again. I went to an information meeting one time and saw the horrible things that arthritis in the jaw could do to a person's face. I'm totally freaked out by that. She also has a thumb affected. He actually thinks it may have been affected before and he didn't see it. But the way it moves makes him think that it's not a recently affected joint. So we are now looking at the possibility of polyarticular JRA because of the smaller joints involved. She was diagnosed with pauciarticular JRA because of the larger joint and only being one. If a child has bigger joints involved, it's more likely that it will stay pauciarticular. But now that she has smaller joints affected, the diagnoses has changed.

We also have to look into getting lifts for her shoes. Her right leg is growing faster and each time we go in, there is a bigger discrepancy in the difference of length. Now there is over a centimeter. He's afraid if we don't address this, she will continue to keep her right leg bent to compensate for the length difference.

Almost a Life-Changing Day

Every day I pick Romania up from the bus hub. It's actually my old high school building. I park the van and then Egypt and Holland and I get out and wait on the sidewalk. I parked the van on the opposite side of where the bus actually stops. When Romania got off the bus, I took Egypt's hand to cross the street and turned to Holland to tell him we were leaving. I assumed he was behind me on the right and I walked across with Egypt and Romania. When I was crossing, I saw a city bus half a block away and just continued on to the van. When I got there, I realized Holland had not come with us. He was talking to a boy in the doorway of another parked van. I decided not to call him, because I was afraid in doing that, he would run across the street. Just as the city bus is coming down the block we're in, Holland sees that we've crossed the street and starts to run toward us! I yelled and yelled for him to stop. I play it over and over in my head. If I had not seen him, he would have gotten run over. The bus driver barely had time to stop. I waved him to cross and he just yelled at me that I didn't yell "bus!". This just reinforces his inability to think before he acts. God was watching out for him yesterday for sure!

Some Great Websites

As a homeschooler, you're always on the lookout for good curriculum, fun and interesting websites and of course, good deals. I belong to a homeschooling co-op. It was free to sign up and they offer great discounts on curriculum, website memberships, field trip info, conference schedules and of course, freebies. My favorite.

Today I was going through their website because I wanted to find a deal on a membership for BrainPop. Romania's class has been using BrainPopJr. at school and I've been debating whether I should get it or not. I found a discount link and also found some great websites for free curriculum, games and interactive websites. Here are a few of the ones I bookmarked.

A Game A Day has brainteasers, word games, trivia and crosswords to challenge your knowledge, problem solving and critical thinking.

Story Online is a website that has people from the Screen Actors Guild reading books. There are activities and lesson ideas for each book. Holland and I listened to "Enemy Pie" read by Camryn Manheim. It was cute.

Xpeditions is from National Geographic. Lesson plans, maps, interactive fun, and xpedition hall - an interactive "museum".

Alder Plantetarium has great links to astronomy activities, showcases current exhibits, shows a current moon status and has a neat activity to chart the stars in your area and send in your results. They also have free podcasts to find out what celestial and man-made objects may be in your night sky and recent solar activity. These are only a few of the countless activities you can find on this website. One of my favorite so far and great since we are studying astronomy this year!

Parent Child Education gives tips, advice and activities for almost anything you could need. The very first page caught my attention because it shows how to teach a child to hold a pencil properly. I wish I had found this before Holland got used to his grip. They are mostly language based activities and videos to teach how to tie your shoes, put on a coat, letter-sound games and I saw a couple papier mache crafts.

Chess Kids is a website that - you guessed it - teaches kids to play chess! There is a beginner level that you can challenge a virtual opponent at the end of your lessons; there is an "Improvers" section that teaches famous moves and strategies. They say there are 3 years' worth of free lessons (refers to how long it would take in a school setting).

Have fun exploring all these great websites. And better yet - sign up for Homeschool Buyer's Co-Op and you can see for yourself all the great resources that are just a click away.

Busy Weekend

Do you ever feel like you've had a really busy weekend and then can't remember what you did that kept you busy? That's what I feel like this weekend. We did a lot, but I feel like we didn't DO anything. On Saturday while I was returning books to the library, I realized that the city was having a Fire/Safety Awareness day. So I came back home and got the kids and Super-Hero to come down so we could take a close-up look at some fire trucks. They got to ride a fire truck that Oregon City had used in 1947 and we also got a ride in the back of a police car. Those seats are not comfortable and I can't imagine anyone over 5'10" fitting in there! We bumped into some people from Romania's school and got some free ice cream.

On Sunday after church, Super-Hero took the boys to a birthday party and I packed up my serger that wasn't threading properly to have it looked at. After getting it fixed, I drove to a fabric store just to buy some good thread and $65 worth of fabric later, realized I hadn't even purchased the thread. I cannot just walk into a fabric store without buying something for a project.

Then around 5.30 I got a call from the gal who fixed our computer. She did an awesome job - getting rid of a virus, saving all my files to DVD's and CD's, installing new anti-spyware software and a virus protection program and even gave me a hard drive when I got scammed from someone on Craigslist. When she was leaving from working on it the first time, Holland showed her his setup in the garage with our old computer. I have no idea what was wrong with it, but he had somehow hooked it up and got the screen to come up. No working mouse, so he just clicked until he got what he wanted. He asked if she had any spare parts (luckily got a laugh from her on that one!) and she offered to take it home and tinker with it. Tonight she called and wanted to bring it by at 7. She said she couldn't fix it, so she was giving us an old Gateway she had! We also didn't have a working mouse, speakers and the DVD player was broken. She must have some fabulous stockpile of stuff! Holland was in complete heaven and I told her she would be his favorite person in the world now. You should have seen his eyes pop when she hooked up everything. She didn't even know if her speakers worked, but Holland even knew where some extra cords were in the garage. We got it to work and installed a couple games. I can't believe we have another working TV in the house. Now the kids will not bug me while I'm on the computer. She even told him if he ever wanted to take apart a computer that he needed to call her and she would help him. She didn't want him to do it by himself.

Right before she left, she said Holland asked if she wanted to trade something for the metal detector she had in her car. Never the shy one.

I'm In a Quotable Kind of Mood

So I've been pouring over websites all afternoon. I should be cleaning the schoolroom or doing laundry or reading to the kids. But I just can't get past this speech that Obama will be giving (and most schools viewing) on Tuesday when students return to school. I'm dumbfounded as to why the parents aren't even being given the choice to participate. Even more curious is why show it during the school day? Since when did Obama become School Superintendant? I emailed our school principal and asked if they were participating. If so, we'd like to opt out and if that was a problem, we'd be coming to school late. Not surprisingly, they are feeding this to the kids, complete with lesson plans from the government. Wow. Just wow. So here are some things to ponder as you send your kids back to school:

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” George Washington

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill

“When governments fear the people there is liberty.

When the people fear the government there is tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

A government powerful enough to do anything FOR you, is a government powerful enough to do anything TO you

"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." - Ronald Reagan

We Were Bound For Some Excitement

I guess things had been slowing down so we needed something to jump start our boredom. That boredom was interrupted by my sister calling to tell my our dad had had a stroke. On Tuesday afternoon, my mom had to call 911 when she realized my dad was experiencing a stroke right in front of her. She gave him aspirin while on the phone with 911. Paramedics came out and transported him to a hospital. I emailed super-hero and he came home as quickly as possible. I wanted to just drive over there, but I had all three kids and he told me to wait for him. So I sat in the car with all three kids strapped in and waited. Then when he got home, I didn't think I would be able to drive slower than 80 mph, so I asked him to drive. He can't win of course, because I complained the whole way there that he was driving too slow. Whenever I feel he's poking along at an unacceptable speed, I say "pretend we're on our way to an OSU football game". I always think that's going to work, but he doesn't find it funny.

They did an MRI and determined it was a stroke and the neurologist said there was a three hour window of opportunity for administering a certain medicine. There were risks involved (how can there not be?) and dad agreed to have the drug. They said his speech should improve, but we still haven't seen that. My cousin in CA is a speech therapist for stroke patients, so I called her up and got some great advice and heads-up on things we should be expecting from the SLP. By Tuesday night he was moved to the ICU and removed the oxygen tubes. He seemed very coherent, just unable to speak. He understood when you talked to him (of course, he's lost a lot of hearing from his years in a paper mill) just was unable to answer. We even tried letting him write something, but being without his glasses and his right hand so weak, it was illegible. When I saw him on Wednesday, he was sitting up and eating a bit of dinner.

He'll probably be there one more night and then we're off on another adventure and seeing how his speech comes back and physically what he's able to do. We're so thankful for God's protection that he wasn't driving at the time and that mom caught it so quick.

Mmmmmm Peaches!

I am so excited about my peaches. It's because last year I missed out and I couldn't make myself buy canned peaches from Costco. It's like eating rubber food. I got 21 quarts out of the 72 pounds we picked. Of course the kids and I ate at least a dozen before I canned. They were so good that I didn't mind. I really wanted to make it back to the orchard but just didn't get it done this week. But come winter we'll be enjoying fresh peaches while the rest of the non-canning population eats rubber peaches from Costco. Good luck with that.

Alpenrose Dairy and some Peach Pickin' Time

For a couple days Super-Hero has been bugging me about what to do this weekend. Frankly, I didn't want to do anything! He offered the beach. And you say to yourself "Are you crazy? He's willing to take you to the beach and you don't want to go?" And my answer, this time, is no. Because it's all about the packing. You see, we wouldn't go to the beach and stay the night. We would leave early morning (after I've fixed breakfast for everyone) and head off to the beach. The kids would play, we might fly a kite, dig some holes to China and then eat the lunch I had to bring for all five of us. And not forget that 90% of what I would bring would not be gluten free for Holland. Then we'd get wet, have no place dry to go change and then we would leave and maybe get taken to McDonald's on our way out of town.

Normally, I wouldn't mind doing that, but Friday when the idea was put on the table, I just couldn't wrap my tired little brain around more planning and fidgeting with food that would have to be properly stored while traveling. It just did not appeal to me. My kind of trip to the beach would be one small night spent somewhere, getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise. Sitting on the beach late at night knowing you have a warm room to go back to and could tuck the kids into bed and read a book and be refreshed for the drive home. When we get to the beach for the day, I end up driving most of the way because super hero here can't stay awake for more than 45 minutes while he's driving. I pack those No-Doze pills in our glove compartment, but he'd rather slap himself on the cheeks to keep awake. Or roll down the window for some fresh air. Or let me drive. Which wouldn't be bad, except 5 minutes after I've taken the wheel, two things have happened: 1 - he's fallen asleep. 2- someone is arguing with someone else in the back seat. Or touched someone or looked at someone sideways. So now I'm trying to drive and tell everyone they need to shush because I'm distracted and don't want to crash.

So, that's why I'm not in the mood for the beach. But I was in the mood to go check out a fundraiser at Alpenrose Dairy in Portland. I had never been up there, but Super-Hero had played Little League baseball up there a couple times. There were cute kid's activities (face painting, a real live camel, tossing games for prizes, catching rubber ducks, pitching contest, a bouncy house and of course food.) All the food was free. And after you filled your tummy with a delicious burger and ice cold coke, you could wait in line for free ice cream! It doesn't get much better than that.

What gets better now is that I'm talking to my mom asking if she made it to the rummage sale (she's the one who told me about it). We had a good laugh. She, my dad and sister's family all came up and we were all there about the same time, just never ran into each other. I found out they were heading towards Hillsboro to pick peaches. I missed peaches last year due to husband interference :-) He just doesn't understand that it's something I've done for years; something that makes me feel good and productive; saves us money by canning; and gives the kids a wonderful memory of picking peaches in an orchard. I convince him to go. In his mind "it's sooooo far!" Well, we're more than half way there right now! Let's do it. The peaches weren't completely ripe which is good and bad. They shouldn't bruise as easily as ripened peaches and we wouldn't have to come straight home to can peaches that could spoil in a day or two.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to can with a missing part of my canning paraphanalia. It seems Holland has absconded with the metal insert for lifting the cans out and keeping them directly off the heat while bathing. He seems to be doing a lot of this lately (gosh, big surprise there!) I was talking with my sister on the phone tonight and my cordless went dead. I ran over to the only phone with a cord in the house and picked it up. No dial tone. I looked to make sure the curly cord was pushed in all the way and waited for it to click. Nothing. Then I noticed that the phone jack is completely empty and there is no phone jack cord anywhere around. Another experiment somewhere in the house is enjoying the use of that phone cord.

A Good Laugh

I found the funniest blog. It must have been because I can get so annoyed at my super-hero husband and needed a good laugh. What amazed me is this blogger has only been blogging since July 30th of this year and already has 14,000 hits! What?!? I've been blogging over a year and really, nobody is interested in my boring life? She and her husband are newlyweds. Maybe that's why it's so funny. She's already annoyed and they've only been married since March. But go check out her blog. It's called "My Husband is Annoying." Pretty fitting, huh? I thought blogging about all the crazy things my kids do would keep people coming back for more, but apparently I need a husband that speaks in an Irish brogue and wears the same sweater over and over. Just 5 minutes ago I realized the mouse I was using on my computer was not the mouse that was there yesterday. Holland has been in the garage reorganizing boxes and he actually set up our old computer, booted it up (where is there an outlet in that place?) and had done a switch-a-roo with my mouse. He gave me the old decrepid mouse with the roller ball that doesn't work. I made him switch it back because I didn't know how.

Oh, I wanted to add, while I was writing this, the blog hits on "my husband is annoying" went up by a thousand. My hero.

Here's To Your Health

My favorite speaker at the Camp JAM was the Naturopath doctor from Portland. He had a really cool name, too. Tyler Keliiheleua. He talked about how diet can affect a child with an autoimmune disease and since I have two kids that fit that bill, I perked right up.

Here are some common inflammatory foods to avoid: refind sugar; refined wheat; pasteurized dairy; grain fed animal meat; vegetable oil. Some of these are obvious to avoid for just being unhealthy, but I never thought of foods being a cause of inflammation. He also said chew your food 32 times! Yes, that's right. It should basically be liquid by the time you swallow it. I've tried this and it's weird to chew that long. But it also aids in digestion because your stomach acids don't have to work as hard to break down foods. You're also supposed to drink less (or not at all) during dinner. This also hampers the acids from breaking down food and keeps it in your system too long. He suggested drinking a glass of water with 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (which I ran and bought at Trader Joe's today) 5-10 minutes before your biggest meal. People with autoimmune diseases have trouble breaking down proteins especially and the cider vinegar is supposed to get those juices flowing.

Some common foods that reduce inflammation are: wild cold water fish; organic spices like ginger and turmeric; leafy greens; Extra Virgin Olive Oil; lemon; cilantro and parsley; garlic; water; dark berries; herbal tea; flax seed/oil; and walnut (and walnut oil). He said he would email out some smoothie recipes that used some of these things. I'm curious how he's gonna make a leafy green smoothie that my kid will drink.

The healthy oils are: walnut oil; flaxseed; coconut; grape seed; extra virgin olive oil. He listed the bad oils and I asked about Canola. He said he didn't include it because it falls somewhere in the middle. You don't have to cut it out entirely, but the good oils should be used more often anyway.

The last thing he mentioned that I found interesting were Probiotics. I've been giving Holland that in a pill form, but he was talking about something that was a live culture and had to be kept in the fridge, so that's something I'm going to have to investigate more.

So there are my tips on how to have a healthy gastrointestinal system. Don't forget your fiber!

Camp JAM

We got back from Camp JAM (Juvenile Arthritis Matters) yesterday and I'm still downloading pictures to share from our amazing time there. The time and effort (and volunteer hours!) that went into planning this is mind-boggling. When we arrived, they had our main meeting room decked out in a Hawaiian theme. We got our cabin keys, a map and "treasure hunt" and had our picture taken and each child got to pick out a brand new backpack. After having a little snack, we used our treasure hunt clues to find different areas of the camp. At several stops the kids got to pick out a treat. At one stop we got new water bottles; at another they got Leis. It was a great way to find our way around. After unloading everything (we had to use a wheelbarrow to get our things to the cabin) we met back in the dining room for dinner. Hamburgers, potato salad, fresh veggies. Our first meeting was at 7 and all the counselors, staff and volunteers were introduced.

Then the most amazing thing happened. They introduced an older couple who had donated money to make this camp possible. They had all the kids affected with JRA come up to the stage and as each one walked across, they handed the woman a flower. After all the kids were on the stage, each child was presented with a gift bag filled with a handmade quilt that ONE WOMAN made! I think half the moms were crying or ready to cry! Each quilt was different. Each quilt suited the child's age and gender. I was so amazed. I'll have to get a good picture of the quilt and post it. All the pictures I took were indoors and it was dark, so not very good focus.

On Saturday the kids were grouped by age/grade and went with counselors while the parents were in meetings. Our morning session was "okay" because I spent most of it interpreting for super-hero. I didn't think that our sessions would be that involved. This one was on stress and the one on Sunday was so much better. They brought in a naturopath doctor and he talked about anti-inflammatory foods and what foods are best for people with autoimmune disease (which actually benefits 2 of my children!) Saturday afternoon we got family free time and the boys got to go fishing; did archery; rockclimbing; had sno cones; watched part of a movie and Romania played shuffleboard! While super-hero did that with the boys, I went with Egypt to a bouncy house then took her swimming and we met up for the sno cones. The day was jam packed with fun. After dinner on Saturday, we had a talent show that all three kids participated in. Romania sand (or rather recited) "The Alphabet of Nations" song; Egypt sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Holland balanced a pen on his nose and then the audience started singing "Take me out to the ball game". After singing songs around a campfire and eating s'mores (see how much we did??), they brought in a woman who was a fire dancer. She had these small bowls that she lit from the firepit and swung them around. It was totally dark and was the coolest thing. She said she practiced over a year with beanbags before trying it with fire.

Sunday's session with the Naturopath was so informational. That was almost my favorite part of the camp (sno cones might be a close second). After packing up our cabin, we met one last time for goodbyes and each camper got a special "JRA" pin. The kids are already looking forward to next year.

World's Weirdest Cat

Actually both of my cats are weird. LuLu will walk right up to a new person in my house and get right in her face. She even walked on someone's shoulders that was sitting on my couch. LuLu also likes to bite my ankles when she wants to be fed. Fancy has been kinda quiet. She'll wait for LuLu to finish choosing which bowl she's gonna eat from before chowing down. They both like to chase each other which is still evidenced at night when we forget to shut them in the bathroom. The other night at probably 3 in the morning, I heard them running up the stairs and all of a sudden, they were racing over our sleeping bodies. That's the only time they do it - when we're lying in bed asleep. Fancy also likes to chase little Beanie Babies. Egypt has this small rabbit and we throw it and that dumb cat chases it like she's a dog. We started throwing it over my bed to watch her race over it.

But the weirdest thing that Fancy did was find a mitten and tear it up. That wouldn't be weird, except when she started chewing on this very nice mitten last winter, I put it in Egypt's drawer so she wouldn't destroy it anymore. The other day I noticed that the mitten had found its way out of her drawer and was on my floor. Not wanting it to be mangled further, I put it in a wooden box with little wooden drawers in my room. There's 6 drawers about the size to hold CD's. Yesterday I found it on my floor again. I thought one of the kids was probably going through my things again and just shoved it back in the drawer. Well, this afternoon, there it is AGAIN on the floor! I looked at the wooden drawers and there was the mitten drawer pulled open! That crazy cat could smell that mitten and opened the drawer. Makes me want to put a hidden camera to the drawers and see if she does it again. You'd think catnip was rubbed all over this thing.

The kids really want a dog. Now I can say we have our dog.

Our Week at the Lake

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Fish

Click on the screen to feed my fish

We Live For Danger

I believe my family will single-handedly support all the ER and urgent care doctors in our area until our kids have grown and moved out of the house. They can send me a nice fat thank-you with a check for helping them out. If you haven't guessed it yet, we had another incident here. This time with Holland. I guess it was about his turn in the rotation.

I let the boys have a neighbor friend over to play in the back. They were all about the Bionicles and having a war. Boys. Whatever. I really hate to let Egypt go out with them because it just means that I have to ignore all my inside jobs. The bothersome ones like cooking, cleaning, reading blogs. She usually just bothers them and then they get mad at her. Today seemed fine. That should have been my first clue, huh? She and Romania were jumping on the trampoline and Holland and his friend were swining on the zip line. All of a sudden, blood-curdling scream. I ran to the kitchen window to see Holland racing up the steps with blood on his head and hand where he was holding it. What now???

Egypt has an affinity for rocks. She's collecting, sorting, moving them. And she for some reason threw one at Holland and hit him in the head. It was a huge rock, too! He had a nice size gash with lots of blood. I got my sister and neighbor involved and after lots of debate, decided to take him to Urgent Care rather than the ER or do something myself that would cause an infection. I am unhappy to report that the old geezer did NOTHING! I'm not kidding. He looked at it and I'm sure was thinking what is this woman doing bringing him in? What is the big DEAL? He said the only reason to do stitches was if it was gaping or wouldn't stop bleeding. I really didn't think they would do stitches, but I thought they'd super glue it. He said "no, super glue is never necessary." What? I told him my nephew had his head super-glued and he poo-poohed that. Then being the uncomfortable, overprotective mom trying not to look dumb, I told him about how Egypt had her hair tied over her gash from falling off Holland's bed. He called that, ready? "parlor tricks". I just didn't even know what to say. He said head wounds always heal beautifully. Well, that may be, but he didn't even clean it. He just sent us on our way. It's still bleeding just a little so I'm just going to clean it with a bit of water and put some Neosporin on it.

Printables

I've been scouring the internet for help with meal planning, grocery lists and cleaning schedules trying to get my house and life in order. I used to print lists from organizedhome.com or get cleaning tips from flylady.net (shine your sink!) but just wasn't finding what I wanted. The pages weren't the full size of the page and it bothered me that it wasted so much ink to print that. Then I found this great website called WorkingMom.com. Finally a site that was helpful. I was able to print off a customized grocery list just by checking boxes and the things that weren't on the list were easily added and grouped. What I liked was it had a master list of things. You check a box or add to a box at the end of that category and magically it prints out just the items you wanted. Other lists I've found just had a huge master list that you couldn't edit and my eyes went all blurry looking at all the items that I didn't need but were still listed. I still like OrganizedHome.com, they have a great idea for a household notebook that I might implement, but for a printable grocery list, try the workingmom site.

She's Square!

How does a child measure 43" and weigh 43 pounds at the same time? I took Egypt for her follow-up to the cortisone injection and when she was weighed and measured, I just had to laugh. She's like a square. I think she's above 75th percentile for height, but not sure about weight.

I was able to leave the boys with my sister for the appointment. It just makes it sooooo much easier not to have to take everyone. The room is small, and there's just too much temptation to be flittin' around the room. He said her knee looks fine and also checked her jaw again. I'm real nervous about that one. I feel like it could sneak up so fast because it's such a subtle difference he's looking for. All's well and so we have another appointment in three months.

A 4th to Remember

Wish I could say it was going to be a good memory! Every year we go to my in-law's cabin for the 4th of July weekend. When we didn't have kids, we'd spend the night. There was more room when it was just 8 adults and 6 kids. When our three came along, it just got too crowded. We just planned on going up Saturday so the kids could swim and Holland could fish. It was supposed to be in the 90's, so it was perfect for a lake swim.

I, however, get cranky when it's hot. And there's no air conditioning in the cabin. And I get cranky when it's hot. Did I already say that? Yep. It was hot. I was down on the dock for awhile, pulling Egypt in and out of the water in her "hoop" (inner tube) and watching Holland desperately trying to catch a sturgeon off the dock and seeing Romania fly off the boathouse roof into the water. Things seemed to be going along fine until the crawdad races. Yup - they have crawdad races every 4th of July. The kids catch the crawdads, name them and then put them inside a circle underneath a plastic cake lid. The first to reach the edge of the circle is the winner and moves on to the next round. There was a bit of a problem with our craws. Holland caught about 8 of them and chose the three that our kids would use. He put them in his tackle box and brought them up to the cabin. Unfortunately, he didn't close the lid and they all got out. So about 15 minutes before the races, we were all scouring the deck looking for these guys. Only one was found - Holland's. The other two didn't seem that upset. Usually people have extras that they bring up. Sure enough, through some wheeling and dealing, both Egypt and Romania got their own crawdads. They named them "Sticky" (Egypt's), "Fire" (Romania's) and "Hunter" (Holland's). Then through some awful twist of fate, Sticky and Fire raced each other. Fire won and went on to race again. In another cruel twist of fate, Fire and Hunter raced each other, which had the potential of having a nasty outcome. I was standing on the edge cheering them both on and Holland kept moving inside the circle. He was all tense and moody and every time I touched him he jerked away and yelled at me (real fun when you're in a crowd of people). Finally, I pulled back on his shoulders to move him out of the circle and he kicked me in the shin.

This was not going to be a good day.

Without going in to all the awful details of slingshots, exploding children and missed dinners, we left at 6 and didn't even get to enjoy the potluck for the adults or the pizza for the kids. One thing they need to plan better is they always have the adult potluck at the same time as the kid's dinner. There's no way we can leave the kids by themselves so we have to trade off going to eat. But we didn't even get to do that. We came home, had sandwiches and cereal and I put all three kids to bed, not even caring that they didn't see fireworks.

I'm going on strike next year and we are staying home. No more stressful days spent with people who don't understand us.

EEG

Last night I had to keep Holland awake two hours later than normal and then wake him up two hours earlier than normal. He had a "sleep-deprived" EEG at Emanuel this morning. I got less sleep than he did and I was ready to fall asleep during the test. We got there at 8.20 and checked in and then were told that we weren't expected until 10, but they would do their best to get to us as soon as possible. Well, I couldn't keep him awake. He fell asleep on my shoulder, drooled and snored for 45 minutes. The tech came and got us about 9.45 and it took about 15 minutes to mark his head, clean it and attach the probes.

He was hoping for Holland to stay awake for part and sleep for part. He asked him to blink about 10 times in a row and then he had to breathe like he was blowing out candles for 3 minutes straight! I could tell he got dizzy and since he was so tired, he sometimes forgot to blow. We had to remind him to breathe! Then he put this strobe light over his head and explained that he would be flashing the light and to just keep his eyes closed and relax. At first the strobes were slow. It would blink about 10 times and then stop and then start again a bit faster. That happened about 8 times and by the end, he was laying there just smiling. It made me sick to see it blink that fast and it looked like he enjoyed it. Crazy. Maybe I should put a strobe light in his bedroom and that would calm him down!

For the next part of the test, he was just supposed to lay there and hopefully fall back asleep. He struggled for a bit because after seeing the strobe and breathing hard, he was more awake. He did fall back asleep and it was interesting to watch all 22 probes on the computer screen. If he snored, a few of them kind of perked up and the tech would bring up a box and type in "yawn". He also moved a bit and a few fell off and had to be reattched, but he didn't wake up until the end. After his head was cleaned he tried to sell the technician some rocks he had in his pockets. He looked like he belonged on a dude ranch. His pockets were stuffed with rocks organized into little plastic baggies and loose rocks in the other pocket. He told the guy "50 cents a bag. Want one?"

Happy Adoption Day!

Ten years ago today, we signed papers that completed our adoption of Hunter. I was looking for a picture of us at the courthouse with the judge, but can't find it. That was before digital pictures, so who knows where the hard copy is. But he's three months here, the same age when we finalized.

Every year we celebrate his Adoption Day with a special treat. He can choose something fun to do or a special gift. One year we went to Bullwinkle's to play and this year he saw a skateboard marked 60% off (gotta love Fred Meyer's clearance sales!) I think the first couple years when he was really young, we just went to parks and I got him books. I think I was going to do that every year - a book. But as is typical with me, I start a good plan and never finish it. (See yesterday's post for evidence of that).

Workboxes

Here I go with another attempt at being organized. Don't you do that? You start something thinking it will help you simplify things and then it's either too complicated or you forget to do it. That's me - I forget to do it. I have notebooks with behavior charts; cards for chores or a calendar for schoolwork. Hopefully this time, this method will stick.

My sister found something on a Yahoo homeschooling group about something called "Workboxes" based on Sue Patrick's book. The idea is neat - you organize all your child's work into plastic bins and when they're done, they just proceed to the next task. Great. But my house is not that big and I don't have a separate area that I feel I could dedicate to that many boxes. I'd start to feel like we were a warehouse. So this mom came up with a brilliant idea of putting all the work into one plastic box and she put hanging file folders inside. The blogger on Ruby Slippers School posted her idea and had great pictures to show how she did it. Each time the child finishes a task, s/he puts up the velcro picture and moves on to the next file. This has helped greatly in answering that tired old question, "how much more school are we doing?" and I can point to their box and they can see what's left. Since I am doing more light school during the summer, I wanted to add some chores that they could do as well. I haven't made a separate system for that yet, but they so need some consistency in that department. That might be in the works. But I laminated pictures of certain chores they needed to do once they finished so many files of work. (this link shows you what it looks like, but I found it at walmart for $25 and on amazon it's $40!) And I stuck trampoline breaks, or playing outside or reading with me in there, too! We used it for the first time last week and it worked so well. They got done with their work quicker, Egypt has her own art projects to do and then we were able to plan out other things like going to the park or a cooking project in the afternoon. We took the week off this week for Vacation Bible School, but plan to start it up again next week. Gotta keep those brains fresh!

A Memorable 40th

Who would think that I would be in the ER - again - on my 40th birthday? Or that I would have a migraine to go along with that? Super-Hero took the kids to church so they wouldn't miss out on their new classes. But during Sunday School, Holland told his teacher he wasn't feeling well and he was shaking all over. They came home and then my mom called and told me to have super-hero bring the kids over so I could rest. She called later to see how I was doing (still had the migraine. Hadn't heard from the on-call dr. for medicine). She told me that Holland was shaking really bad and complaining of things crawling on him. This wasn't the first time I'd seen that. He has woken in the middle of the night screaming that bugs and spiders are in his room or are crawling all over him. I reassure him that there's nothing there, but he doesn't believe me.

So we went to the ER to have him checked out. They did blood work and all his levels were within normal range. The ER doctor called our physician to ask what to do. We ended up reducing the dose on one medicine and omitting another medicine altogether. He thought maybe the two were interacting and causing the trembling and hallucinations he was experiencing. Last week I had made an appointment with this doctor to discuss his current doses and see if we needed to change anything. He is, afterall, 10 and hitting the age when hormones are going to kick in. After speaking with him and examining Hunter, he believed he was having seizures. The word didn't even stick when he said it. I didn't understand. I thought the medicines he is taking were reacting, but he said after talking and looking back on his history of meds that the medicines were not the cause. They actually could have been preventing the seizures. It turns out that two of the medicines he's been on to treat Bipolar were actually anti-seizure medications. So if he in fact is having seizures, the medicines were actually helping to prevent them.

He faxed in a request for an EEG up at Emanuel (it's like a second home now) and I made an appointment as soon as we got home. July 2nd. 10:15. It will be what is called a "sleep-deprived" EEG. They want to monitor brain activity and the best way is on less sleep. I'm thankful that we got an appointment so quickly and Holland will be happy that there's no poking involved.

Speaking of poking, I almost forgot one of the best things that happened last night in the ER. If you follow my blog at all, you know that my mom pays Holland $5 every time he has blood work done. In the beginning it was me and about 4 nurses trying to hold him down to draw blood. It was awful. My mom had the brilliant idea of paying him each time to see if he would calm down. Since money is his "love language", it worked like a charm! So we're sitting in the ER room and the doctor said they were going to do some blood work and he got this look of terror in his eyes. He was already upset and jumpy and hearing the words "blood work" did not go over well. He asked gramma if she would pay him for having the blood work and she said yes. She gave him the $5 and he asked since he was in the hospital if he could have another $5 afterwards. She didn't have it on her, but assured him that he would get the money. When our phlebotomist came in (not a nurse, a phlebotomist!) and she heard the story of the payment plan, she took $5 out of her pocket and gave it to Holland! He had the biggest grin on his face. He'll never forget getting 5 dollars from the "grandma" at the hospital!

Hard Work Finally Pays Off

It's been about 9 months since starting the gluten-free lifestyle for Holland. So many recipe experiments gone bad and some successes. He had a blood recheck for his gluten levels to determine if they're still low. We want to be able to introduce gluten-free oats (he lived on oatmeal before being diagnosed). I got a call from the doctor's office yesterday and it finally feels like all my hard work has paid off. When we started, his levels were in the 120's; the first blood level check he was at 31, so a huge drop. Now he's at 19! We're going to try oats again and hopefully his levels will stay low enough for him to tolerate it. He's worked so hard - put up with all the bad tasting gluten-free food. Now he can eat a big bowl of oatmeal that will be doctored up with brown sugar and cinnamon!

I'm turning the big 4-0 this year. On Sunday, my mom surprised me with a concert to see Andre' Rieu. She made a little crossword puzzle that was supposed to give me clues to figure it out. After finding parking and making our way up to the nosebleed section, we got to enjoy the wonderful orchestra and tenors. All the gals wore these amazing dresses, but it was so hard to see anything, even with the big screens. You just didn't feel connected to the performers. Then during intermission, an usher came up and asked if we were together (we were sitting in two rows). I asked if he was going to let us move down closer. There were so many seats even in the two sections below us. He then gave us tickets to the floor! We got to sit in row 9 for the rest of the concert. It was amazing to be up that close and see the costumes. We even had balloons fall on us towards to end. It was a great early birthday gift.

Let Summer Begin!

Yesterday was Romania's last day of school. I took him to the bus stop as usual, but then about 10.15, I packed up a picnic blanket and Holland and Egypt and headed out to the school for an afternoon of games, food and fun. The weather was kind of chilly when we first got there, but by the time the day was over, it was a little too warm. Plus there's no shade, so you're stuck being hot.

The kids did different games that the older kids put together and rotated from station to station. Then they had a BBQ that the local phone company hosted. They brought out big grills and guys to cook hamburgers and hot dogs. After lunch the kids got ice cream and we did a little cleaning in Romania's classroom. The kids got their yearbooks and signed them for each other. By the end of our 4 hours there, Holland was so wiped out. He wore totally the wrong clothes and was hot the entire time. When I said, "Can you believe it? You're not in 2nd grade anymore!" he answered, "that was a long time to be in 2nd grade."

But I already have stuff planned for this summer. We have two church camps we're attending; a week at the cabin and three days at a family camp for children with JRA. The kids are so excited about this. It's completely free and they have tons of activities lined up for the kids. I also get to work in doctor appointments and a little school. I know. Give them a break, right? Wrong! There's a couple reasons why I continue to do "light" school through the summer. First, Holland especially, needs to continue or he would lose too much by the start of 5th grade. Second, they would all kill each other and just sit and watch tv all day. In my next couple posts, I'm going to show you what I've done to make our school time easier, more organized and more fun for the kids.

Busy Day

Today was spent mostly at the hospital for two doctor appointments. I somehow managed to make an appointment with Holland's gastroenterologist and Egypt's rheumatologist on the same day. Even at different times! I never could have planned that so carefully if I had tried. After dropping Romania at the bus stop and then quickly gathering some distractions and snacks for the hospital, we drove up and had a valet park our van. I tell you. Whoever invented that was a genius. How easy is that? You drive up to a curb. A nice guy gives you a little ticket and goes and parks your car.

Holland's doctor was even on time. Just gotta give him more Miralax and some rice bran. He's not having stomach aches, but doc said he's still backed up. Ugh. He asked if Holland had any questions and he actually remembered that he might get to start eating oatmeal now. We have to get blood work done to see where his gluten levels are at. If they're still low, we can introduce real oatmeal - the catch is it has to be gluten free. Betch'a didn't know there was such a thing as gluten free oatmeal? Well, Bob's Red Mill has it. No fake oatmeal (none of those tasty Quaker packets). I don't even think those are real oats. Gluten free oatmeal actually looks like what real oatmeal should look like. The taste is a little different and it takes longer to cook, but we doctor it up with brown sugar and cinnamon.

So after seeing this doctor, we go back to the valet, get our van and drive over to the next office building (the main hospital) and I went one time around the parking garage, found no spots and then drove up to the next set of valets and handed over my car again. What's great about this is it's complimentary. We got another parking stub and walked into Diagnostics to wait until our check-in time. My parents met us there and my dad took Holland so he wouldn't be stuck at the hospital all afternoon. They ran some errands and got lunch. We got Egypt checked in and then the nurse got us to do all the vitals and talk about the procedure. I was sure she'd be more scared than last year because she was 3 1/2. The nurse let her pick the flavor for the mask (bubblegum) and then the doctor came in and I signed a bunch of forms and he talked about the risks. He was fairly certain it would just be the one joint, but she had been complaining of her left knee hurting, so he said he'd check that while she was out. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes. I was in the gift shop buying her some books when the doctor came in and said it was over. We got to go back to the room and be there when she woke up. She almost sat straight up and we had to lay her back down. She got a popsicle and a wagon ride to the car.

We have a follow up in four weeks to check the joint, but so far, it looks good. The doctor said "just a quiet afternoon" before she went in. Then he kinda laughed when he said this while watching her bounce around the room. It didn't take her long to want to run and play. She makes a horrible sick person. It's very deceiving :-)

Rheumatologist Today

I took Egypt to see her Rheumatologist today up at Emanuel. Our last appointment was three months ago and we are supposed to come in more often to check her mouth/jaw, finger joints and just to see how her knee is holding up. She was so goofy today. I'm glad that the doctor enjoys that. She wore this Horton Hears a Who elephant mask from a game she has. She kept making elephant sounds. Holland was not amused at all until she said something like "elephants make poop!" Then he started cracking up. It has been one year since her first injection and she will finally be needing her second injection next week. The doctor said he could only fit two fingers under her knee while trying to press it down and today he could fit his whole hand. She also continues to have a longer femur on her right leg and was actually bothered when he tried to bend her leg while she was laying on her tummy. She complains so little that it's surprising that her knee is so bent. I think she just keeps getting used to not being able to move it and doesn't complain about the pain. So we are scheduled for next Monday. Glad it's sooner than later.

Then on the way home, to top off the morning, I got a ticket for changing lanes in a construction zone. If you know Portland, it's one big construction zone. Super-Hero has a little sign at his office that says "There are two seasons in Oregon: Winter and construction". I didn't even know that there way anything going on. I only drive this road when I'm going up to the hospital. Totally felt like a trap (I saw two other people getting tickets at the exact same spot as me). There are no workers, no trucks, no signs of anything happening. Yup. Looks like construction to me. I emailed Super-Hero to drive over there tonight and look for those mysterious signs that I missed.

Busy Two Weeks

I haven't had time to post about anything the past week and a half. Super Hero had shoulder surgery on May 21st and I've barely had time to do anything except take care of him (drive him around), cook, clean and do school with Holland. The last post was about our jet boat ride on the Willamette and that was the day after (I post about the important things) his surgery. We totally needed a break and he just slept all day anyway. I realized how much I depended on him when he couldn't help out. Getting the kids dinner; getting them to bed; cleaning up at night. I'm totally exhausted and he's still pretty much out of commission. He has to have physical therapy every day for three weeks to make sure his shoulder doesn't freeze up again. And a few days I had to drive him (and bring everyone else in the process) because he was taking Percocet. You know what they say "do not operate heavy machinery". Crud. That means cars. So we'd pile in the car and drive dad to his appointment.

He went back to work on Thursday (which I thought was too early). He's still very sore, but he's itching to get going on some projects at work and felt he needed to get back. The day he had his post-op appointment, Holland had an appointment with a neurologist; Egypt had an eye doctor appointment and he also had a physical therapy appointment. That was one crazy day. We found out that Holland is getting migraines. We're supposed to try getting him more aerobic type exercise. I told the dr. he's really 'busy' but she said he needs more "sweat" activity. We did walk around a park only one day this week. But at least it was once. It's just too hard with Egypt in a jogger stroller. She wants to walk/run/play and Holland is complaining he's bored. He also might be getting the migraines from stress. Did you even know kids could get migraines from stress? I'll be sure to eliminate all that stress for him. Right after I do that for me. I had a migraine that lasted 16 hours one day. I literally felt I couldn't drive to pick up Romania from the bus stop. But who's gonna do it? So, you just suck it up and do what you gotta do.

So if you noticed that Egypt had an eye appointment the same day as Super Hero and Holland, you probably figured out I was a driver short for that. I had to get my mom to take her for her 3 month check up. This appointment takes a little longer because they dilate her eyes and look more closely for the infection that can result from the JRA. She's fine - just nearsighted which he said not to worry about until she's school-age.

So I am really tired from all this activity. All I want to do is sew. I have people that have asked me to sew them ruffle pants or make a head scarf - and I haven't had time to do it. I'm assuming people with jobs outside the home totally ignore their kids. How else would they do everything? As a tribute to trying to do it all (or just the laundry at least), I turned one of my good white T-shirts pink today. I save a whole load of red laundry to do together and forgot to pull out a white shirt that I wore under a red sweatshirt. See? One person just cannot do it all. But now I have a nice pink T-shirt to wear. I really didn't want a pink T-shirt.