The Birdie Knot Dress

When I'm productive, I'm productive! Here's what I made in three hours on Saturday night. I've been in such a sewing mood. The dress I made for Romania's school auction got my juices flowing. I've found great fabric on etsy.com.

This is a layered knot dress (instead of buttons, the straps are knotted through buttonholes) and ruffled capri pants. The hardest part is choosing the fabrics and what goes where.

Vacation's Over

Although it was a nice few restful days, the turmoil is back. They had lots to share of what they did at the beach (and more importantly the things they got at the Dollar Store). But it's back to being stressed-out. On top of all the stress, I got sick. Really sick. I was really thinking it had completely missed me. Super-hero got really sick; and both boys had it in one form or another. Egypt kinda got stuffy but nothing too big.

Sunday afternoon I had a headache, but that's so normal. The only other thing was I was so completely tired. Not just tired I'm gonna take a nap. Tired I can't even walk. I rested and when I got up I felt no better. The pile of dirty clothes covers the entire upstairs hallway and I couldn't even get up to do it. Super-hero made dinner for the kids and I actually ate. But when I went to bed early (I was told to go to bed!) at 9.15, I lay in bed until 12.30 and hadn't slept at all. I just lay awake singing hymns in my head. Now hymns aren't normally bad, but I could not stop my mind from going and I think I may have slept an hour after moving downstairs to the couch after listening to my bed-mate snore.

By Monday I was throwing up whatever I ate and I only ate toast and ginger ale. The kids watched movies and the boys spent some time next door with the neighbor boys. I haven't felt this bad in a long time. Super-hero bought some Unisom for me and I actually slept last night, but woke up with a dry mouth and a little loopy from the sleep aid. Today was a little better. The boys went back to play next door, Egypt watched movies and played with play-doh and painted. I just lay on the bed and wondered how I was going to fix dinner.

The worst part is, when the boys were called home (and I warned Holland about this), they were told they would be eating dinner here and not going back. Then I was told that they had been invited to spend the night. Not only is this not a good idea for behavior reasons, I would never let the boys spend the night there because I just don't trust the situation between the two adults (who aren't married). This sent Holland into a tailspin. It was so not pretty to look at. We had upped one of his meds this past Sunday because he was getting so out of control. There was no other way, except hospitalization, to curb it. So on Sunday, he falls asleep on the way to church and I just let him sleep on the pew next to me during the whole service. He just could not handle the situation. We ate dinner, he took a bath and went to bed at 7.30.

And now I have to figure out how I'm gonna go grocery shopping with these three for my Bunco game on Friday. I so want to do something fun and normal again.

A Mini-Vacation

So things have been pretty hectic here, but I actually got a mini-vacation (or should I say "stay-cation). My parents took the boys to the beach for two days. They spent Wednesday night at their house so they could leave first thing in the morning. Egypt and I have had nice mom/daughter time together.

Yesterday I had a meeting to discuss getting technology assistance for Holland. Everything's about the meeting when you're on an IEP. "Let's have a meeting to plan a meeting." Basically I was told that even though the district already owns the software I want, there might be someone else that needs it more (????) Ok. I don't understand that at ALL. WEEEEEE need it! They're going to let us try it out, but my take is that they want the charter school to buy it. I'm ready to put it on a credit card and buy it because I'm tired of everyone dragging their feet. One of the members of the IEP team wanted to know my goals for using this software. "I want him to learn how to read and write" I said. I've been trying to teach him for 4 years and she's worried I'm expecting this software to solve all my problems. Well, I'm not that stupid. Give me some credit. I would think after 4 years and countless methods that she knew I wouldn't be expecting this software to solve everything. She kept bringing up other software that I knew wouldn't work (there's one she wants us to try that uses hand signals for the different sounds of speech). I've already told these people that he isn't a phonetic kid - he needs pictures to help him connect meaning to the jumble of letters he sees. The software I want has little pictures above each word and you can go from pictures to words or words to pictures.

My stay-cation included running some errands yesterday and having a quiet day with Egypt reading on my bed, playing and doing an art project. Today I borrowed the cultural pass from the library to go to the Children's Museum in Portland. We haven't been there in about two years. The last time I took her, I had the boys with me and they complained the entire time (it really is too young a place for them, but what was I supposed to do?) So today it was just us and we had a great time. She shopped in the grocery store, brushed an aligator's teeth, floated ducks in a water bath and drew with a light on a tree trunk. We did a few errands on the way home and checked out some movies at the library.

Now I'm getting ready for the loudness to return. It's been so nice to have quiet here. Hopefully they had a good time at the beach even if it was cold.

Someone Dropped the Ball

Today I met with my ES for an IEP review. We meet three times a month, but four times a year we have to review Holland's goals and mark his progress. He has not been in a good mood lately which is making everything difficult. While we were waiting for the ES, I asked about the Co:Writer software that we're waiting for. The secretary said that she couldn't find the paperwork. When I asked my ES about it, she said we both signed it and she gave it to me to turn in. I do NOT remember it this way. I never turn in any of the paperwork for things I want ordered. I fill out the form, sign it and give it to my ES to order. So this whole time I've been waiting for what I thought was approval for the software and no one actually had the order form. I don't get this at all. I spoke with these two people several times about the process and was told we were waiting to get approval because if the school couldn't use the software on someone else, they may not want to order it for a single student.

People all around me are dropping the ball. I'm ready to cancel all the speech sessions we've been having. Well, I don't really need to do that because our speech person has been doing that for me. I had to move my entire schedule around because she couldn't meet on the two days per week we originally agreed upon. We finally worked out where she would come to our house for Holland's speech. On Thursday, the day of the speech session last week, she called saying she needed to reschedule for some reason. So we bumped it to Friday, which I didn't want to do because that left one day to shop for birthday presents for the boys. I agreed to it and Friday morning she calls and says she misjudged the time it would take her to drive to my house from her last appointment. She wanted to bump it an hour. I said no that I could do it 30 minutes later than she originally said. Luckily I had my mom coming over to watch the kids while I went out. But it just happened again today. It was Romania's first full day of Spring Break and I had a dr. appointment, a meeting with the ES and then Speech. I just listened to the machine as she left a message saying she needed to reschedule yet again. I haven't even called her back. I'm so tired of being bumped around and it really messes up Holland.

I need a vacation.

JRA for TMJ

I went to my first JRA informational meeting on Saturday. Two of the kids stayed and did crafts and pet an aligator in another room (I would love to have seen that!) while I listened to a doctor talk about the effects of arthritis and TMJ. He had amazing before and after pictures of patients with jaw problems. Basically if you have TMJ resulting from arthritis, there is mandibular hypomobility and loss of posterior face height. Several of the patients were from Guatamala and Ecuador, so obviously the chance of early detection and treatment is not as high as in the States. But it was scary to see what could happen - when the condyle erodes away, the chin disappears, the cheeks puff up and you cannot close your mouth without straining.

But I learned some new vocabulary in the process: ginglymodiarthrodial; condyle reconstruction surgery; and arthrocentesis. Don't ask me to explain them. We just hope we never have to deal with this!

Lost and Found

I didn't have time to post about our lost kitty until she was found. But it was a traumatic day, for sure! Romania has been out of school all week and I was doing light school with Holland. I hadn't seen Fancy all morning and asked the kids if they'd seen her. We looked in all the usual hiding spots, but couldn't find her. Finally around noon, I emailed super-hero and asked if he saw her before he left for work. Yes, he had. He had gone outside to put something in his car and she followed him out. Now, our cats are not outdoor cats, so I'm not sure why he even let her out. But, he didn't make sure that she followed him back in. She had been outside for about 6 hours before we realized she was missing. Oh. And it snowed in the morning. Indoor cat + snow + 6 hours = not good.

Right away Holland made three lost cat signs to hang around the neighborhood. We put two on mailboxes and then drove around calling for her. Several neighbor kids came over and looked in our backyard and past the fence where the tree fort is. No Fancy. I was positive that I would just have one kitty from now on. After the kids were in bed, I went out for a much needed break at Target. (great escape, huh? Shopping at Target!) When I came home, I stood outside and just listened for her. I called and heard some quiet meowing. I looked over and saw her come from behind the hydrangea bush. I still don't know if she wandered around or stayed in our yard and was just hiding. The kids of course were thrilled to see her. She was wet and muddy but very happy and hungry. I've decided to put them in the laundry room at night so there's no more escaping.

High School Reunion

Do you ever wonder if you are the same as you were in high school? Apparently I am. Last night I met with a friend from high school that I hadn't seen in 20 years! I didn't attend either reunion, but we found each other on Facebook. We decided to meet up at a restaurant and catch up on the last 20 years. I arrived a few minutes before she did and saw her through the glass doors and waved. She started to laugh and when she came in said, "I knew it was you! You have the same wave you did in high school!" We talked for about 3 hours and closed the restaurant. We didn't even noticed that the place had emptied out! If the internet had been around 20 years ago, we'd have had no problem staying in touch.

You know that song from "Sound of Music"; "How do you solve a problem like Maria"? This song should be about my daughter. Most of the time she's pretty cooperative. She loves to sing songs and play with the cats and do puzzles. But there are moments that I wonder who she is and what she did with the real Egypt. Today was no exception.

It was going to be a busy day. We had ceramics, then Egypt had an eye dr. appointment and then swimming lessons. Well, after doing a half page of his logic book, Holland fell asleep on the heating vent. I let him sleep and we missed ceramics. I debated getting him up; wondering if it was just his way of getting out of schoolwork. But I think he's not been sleeping well and it's affecting the rest of his day. We had already planned on my mom coming by to watch him while I went to Egypt's eye appointment. I couldn't remember if she was going to have eye drops at this one and it could take up to 2 hours if that was the case. After my mom dropped Holland home, we went straight up to swim lessons. Holland was a little sassy but then apologized and said he wanted to do a good job during his lesson. He ended up being only half the problem.

As soon as she got in the water, I knew that I'd be spending most of the lesson correcting Egypt and getting her back in the water. She refused to do any work for the instructor. I came downstairs and pulled her out of the water. We had some conversations about obeying and the consequences. She refused to get in the water. I took her in the bathroom for some more conversating. We had 5 "conversations" and she still refused to get in the water. I took her back to the pool, told the instructor I didn't know what to do (she's the only student in class - so we are getting private lessons without the cost). I asked what would happen if I threw her in. She said "go ahead". So I did. She came up sputtering a bit, but I can tell you that she obeyed the rest of the lesson (all twelve minutes by that time). I asked if I was the first person to do that and was reassured that I wasn't (whew, right?) I had to leave the deck area and went with another mom to get something to drink and clear my head.

When I went back in to get the two swimmers, I noticed Holland sitting on the concrete bench. I thought maybe he was sick (remember super-hero three days ago??). Not sick. Just refused to listen. Kept popping under water every time the instructor was talking. It was so frustrating to have them both behave that way. Kinda wish I could have thrown Holland into the pool as well.

I Hate Planning Parties

For some reason, I just can't get into planning a birthday party. The boys' birthdays are a day apart and I can never get up enough motivation to plan anything. Usually we do something lame, like go to a park. One year we didn't even make it to our own party. I had just invited my sister and her kids and I couldn't find the place I said to meet. It was really pathetic. They ended up partying without us.

The other big problem is having to clean the house. And not just for guests (if I get up enough energy for that), but for new toys/books/gadgets that will flood the house with two birthdays at a time. Part of me wants to completely empty their rooms. Purge. Oh wait. I've already done that with Holland. Several times. And it always finds its way back into his room. This last round of room-cleansing, some boxes did actually make it to the basement, but what was transferred to the garage, is now back in his room. I guess I'm just not looking forward to the chaos I feel when new things enter the house. Because I know that within hours, there will be parts and pieces and doodads leaving a trail around the house.

I need some motivation.

"I want to sell this rock"

That's right. Holland wants to sell a rock. A neighbor boy convinced him that this was worth at least $100 and he's insisting that I list it on ebay. I told him nobody would want to buy a rock, but he begs to differ. I checked on ebay and the only rocks like this that were selling (and they were hardly selling) were those pretty Thunder Eggs, all smooth and polished. Ever since I started listing clothes to sell on ebay, the boys have been bugging me to sell their stuff so they could earn some money. I decided to list it on Craigslist instead, so I wouldn't have to deal with far off places or the listing fees. We had no takers. Not even one person was interested. So I can't imagine that listing a rock will get much response either. I just can't convince him that listing a rock makes no sense. I'm still convinced that his curiosity will benefit him somehow in his adult life. Maybe he'll come up with some new show for the Discovery Channel.

He has the crud

I usually don't like to write about the bodily functions of my family, but last night was a doozy. Super-hero was up all nite puking in the bathroom. The reason I share this is because it totally disturbed my sleep! I know. I know. I'm so callous. But when you have to take care of three kids and get them off to school and you have a sick adult (a man no less) on your hands, it's hard to function on no sleep. I had locked Holland's door last night, something I haven't done in a long time. But he's getting up very early and wandering around the house again. The other morning I found milk on the counter, cocoa mix in the sink and food out of the pantry. Then he ends up sleeping on the couch with the fireplace on and the heat cranked up to 80. So, I must lock his door so he doesn't sweat us to death.

This morning I'm taking a shower after listening to puking all night. I have to get Romania to the bus hub and then get back for a few moments of school before heading off to Portland for a chiropractor appointment for me. All of a sudden I hear pounding. That's when I remembered I locked the door. Even if super-hero hadn't been sick, there's nothing he could have done about the pounding, what with not being able to hear and all. So, I ended my shower prematurely and ran downt he hall in a towel to let the cat out of the bag. He had wet the bed. Or more precisely the floor. I swear we should just get rid of his bed. He never sleeps on it. He ends up on his floor, my floor, the couch downstairs. Apparently it's not cozy enough. So the night he decides to sleep on the floor and be cozy (that makes perfect sense, right?) he has an accident. So, I'm rushing him down to my shower to get cleaned up and it's then that super-hero decides he needs water very badly and starts grumbling. This is the perfect situation where cloning would be beneficial. No one in my family seems to understand that there is just one of me and four of them. Everyone feels I'm ignoring him (and believe me, sometimes I wish I could!)

But we all survived the day and they are all in bed. I doubt they all brushed their teeth, but hopefully they all went to the bathroom!

Updates and New News

Well, Holland is exempt from the State Assessments. I'm so glad he doesn't have to be put through that torture. He was in tears when I was trying to prep him for it. The Charter School didn't check his IEP, which stated the exemption and there will be other ways for him to be tested and the results reported. The good news is, I've ordered the Co:Writer software. I had enough money left in this year's allotment and decided it was the best way for me to test it without actually spending my own money. Only bad part is I have to give it back at the end of this school year. Anything that's consumable (workbooks, art supplies, calendars, or anything that can be written in) we get to keep. Everything else has to be returned that can be reused. I'm sad we have to give back our bird feeder, but it was $25 bucks I didn't want to spend! I'm hoping that we can somehow get this software written into his IEP for OT and speech purposes and maybe somehow get the school district to pay for it. I can't wait to see how it works and hopefully the success it will bring to Holland's writing.

The new news is that I took Egypt in for a re-check on her knee. She's been complaining quite a bit. I haven't noticed that it was locking up, but thought we should go in. It has been 8 months since her first injection and we really should have gone in before now. The doctor said there are so many subtleties to this disease that he really should see her every 4 months. He checked all her fingers, the way her arms moved, both legs and her jaw. I didn't realize that the jaw could be affected. There's going to be a parent chat on the effects of arthritis on the jaw in a couple weeks through this parent support group. There is this amazing bunch of parents who created this support group here in Portland. Everything they do is free. We attended our first activity last year - a family picnic that was lots of fun. They have these informative meetings every couple of months and they provide activities for the kids in another room while the adults listen to the speaker. They are also having their first annual family camp next year. It's fully funded - we pay nothing! It's a three day camp that includes accommodations, food and fun. I'm so excited!

So back to Egypt. Basically I waited too long for the recheck. When we first saw the doctor, he measured how flat her leg could be pressed down. He wrote in his chart a -5. The first injection got the leg to go all the way flat. But yesterday, he measured and it was at a -2. Not good, but not bad. She doesn't have much, if any fluid on her knee. But there is bony growth that makes her knee look swollen and the arthritis is causing her right leg to grow faster. He showed me and I could totally see how her right leg was longer. We are supposed to come back in 3 months, or sooner if I notice any changes. He said I may not notice a big limp, but I need to watch for the little changes. She may not even complain about pain and it could still stiffen up.

I Need a Secretary

Apparently one person can't do it all. And it's not because I'm not trying. I got a call from Holland's charter school saying we never signed up for the statewide Writing assessment. It is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Luckily Holland's speech session got canceled. We drove over to the school and he had about a 30 minute session. I just felt horrible. He is so not prepared to do the kind of writing they are expecting. I tried to prep him right before we left and he just ended up throwing his pencil and ran off crying. We were very blessed to have a proctor who was very understanding. He has accomodations written into his IEP, so we are spreading out the testing over several days and he is one-on-one with the proctor.

And let's complicate things even more. I drove Romania to school this morning. I wanted to hand-deliver his immunization records. As soon as I walked into the building, the Principal said, "oh, people have been talking about you. They heard you know sign and want you to teach a class." If this doesn't give me a mental breakdown, I don't know what will. How do I answer that? "I'm sorry. I have no time to help you out. I'm busy schooling Holland, driving to doctor appointments, going to swim lessons, meeting for speech, attending a ceramics class. Somewhere in there I manage to feed everyone and wash clothes every now and then." How do I explain to people that I'm overwhelmed and cannot add one more thing without sounding like I'm making excuses? Let me know if you've figured that one out.

A Day In The Life

Today was a packed schedule, from the moment I fell out of bed (just kidding). After dropping Romania at the bus stop, we had about an hour of schoolwork before heading off to ceramics class. Then it was home again for more school, lunch and then swim lessons. I had to remember to pack clothes for after swim, snacks for after swim and after my chiropractic appointment. Yes, today was the only day I could fit in an appointment. I even had to get my mom involved. She had to pick up Romania from the bus stop. By some miracle, I remembered to throw some chicken in the crockpot so when I came home from being gone all afternoon, and before I had to get Romania to basketball practice, we actually would have something to eat. Things are getting so complicated. Do you ever feel like your head is going to explode?

The rest of my week looks no better:
Tuesday - Holland's appointment with his therapist; school; speech in afternoon; pick up Romania
Wednesday - school; swim; pick up Romania; another dr. appointment
Thursday - HIGHday co-op; meeting with ES; speech; pick up Romania; Romania's bb practice
Friday - Romania has no school, but we'll be doing school anyway all day.

Now that doesn't look like a whole lot on paper (internet, whatever), but you have to figure in drive time; allow time for arguments, not being able to find clothes/shoes/socks/bag/lunch, rescuing a cat locked in a closet, finding gross dirty clothes under someone's bed; and the 2 classroom sets of Valentine's that we have to make (Romania's school is "environmentally friendly" and they like you to make them. Does printing them count?) And I always seem to run out of things that have to be replaced right away (dish soap, laundry soap, pullups, deoderant). Why does that happen? Is there some law of Murphy's that says you have to run out of laundry soap when no one has any clean clothes left? I would love to be able to pull something dirty out of the laundry room and make them wear it, but I'm not kidding, there's just no way that clothes smelling like that wouldn't offend (or scare) someone.

It's Just Too Stressful

I thought I would be able to handle it. I thought I wouldn't get upset. But apparently, watching my son, the mini-NBA player in a basketball game for 7 year-olds, makes me a wreck. I seriously got irritated every time one of the opposing players knocked the ball out of his hand; or stole it while he was dribbling or made him miss a basket. And it didn't help that super-hero dad forgot to bring the strap for his glasses so he had to play without them. He dribbled so close to the floor I wasn't sure if it was because he couldn't see or he didn't want anyone to take the ball.

I told super-hero that I was a non-contact sport kinda gal. I play tennis. I could do badmitten. But forget basketball. Someone in my space would make me want to knock 'em down. They don't keep score for games in this age group. And they're pretty lax on the traveling calls. I just don't know if I can enjoy myself because I just tense up when he's playing. After the game I asked if he had fun. "Yes. Can I play the computer?" Well, there you have it. The attention span of a 7 year-old.

Like Links in a Chain

It's amazing how things all come together. I have not been teaching in a school since Holland was born. But I've kept in contact with several of my co-workers. One in particular was actually my boss at the school. Over the years she's sent me great websites with information about education and just been a great resource for all the complexities of this journey of teaching a child with learning deficits.

I emailed her a copy of a writing that Holland did. It was unprompted, but it was about birds which we have been studying for a couple weeks. If you remember the bird sanctuary he built on our deck, that was the inspiration for his writing. Basically, it's unreadable. I had to send along an interpretation of it. And several of the "sentences" Holland wasn't even sure what he had written when I asked about it. After seeing this, my friend offered to drive up to my house (she lives over an hour and a half away!) and chat face-to-face to see if she could offer any more help. Holland had a speech and language evaluation several months ago and I showed her a copy of that. Many of the suggestions she had were very similar or the same as this evaluation. I showed her the drawings and writings we do for any reading we do; the picture dictionary and the general curriculum we're using.

Then she told me about this computer software called "Co-Writer". We went to the website and I've gotta say it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. The software uses "intelligent word predictor", a built-in ability of the computer to recognize phonetic and invented spelling patterns. It has a very extensive dictionary and all the possible spellings of a word. So when a child is typing, the software will predict what the next word will be and the student can roll over the word to hear it. I looked at before and after writings and the difference is phenomenal. Some of the students had legible handwriting, but spelling, punctuation, spacing problems were common among all of the samples. Then they had a sample of what that same student did with Co-Writer. Not only was spelling improved almost 100% in every case, but the students wrote more and added more details.

I want this software! Only problem is it costs $245. I don't have $245 just lying around. But I've talked with several people on his IEP team to see about getting the software added to curriculum the district has for special needs students. The wheels are in motion. Hopefully (sooner than later) we will have this software and I can't wait to see what kind of writing Holland produces!

It's Sports Season Again

Romania just started basketball last week. He's had about three practices and on Saturday played his first game. He was bouncing all over the court, hopping back to the opposite side whenever the direction of the ball changed. It was fun and funny to watch. He made 2 baskets and had several assists (according to Super-Hero; I wasn't counting!) They practice twice a week, which isn't bad, but Thursday's practices are at 7 and for us that's kinda late because he gets home after 8.

Holland and Egypt are swimming twice a week, which is great excercise for Holland, but I practically have to bribe him every time we go. He just hates it, but you'd never know it once he gets in the pool. He basically gets a one-on-one lesson. After being in the same level for about 2 years, I asked if they had special considerations for kids with disabilities. They said yes they did and so the second session of lessons he's had his own teacher. He's made some good progress, but he still has trouble with the rhythm of kicking. He ends up just flailing around. Hopefully in the next couple of sessions he'll progress enough to move up. Me? I get to sit for 30 minutes and do nothing. Aaaaaahh.

I Can Name That Tune in Three Notes

"He-ey kids, of all the rest, these are the Books we love the BEST! We can sing them one by one. Come on kids let's have some fun! Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy..."

This is our new favorite song. And I'm not just talking the kids. I love it! They are learning the Books of the Bible in Sunday School. I learned them when I was young, but have forgotten the song over the years. So unless I sing a ditty, I can't remember the order. (It's like knowing how many days in a month - I have to sing a song). So it turns out that Holland's Sunday School teacher loaned him a tape with the song on it. We play it every morning while we're waiting for Romania's bus to come to the bus hub. It's very addicting. I still get stuck with the last few books of the Old Testament. I'm hoping that having a song will help Holland to remember them. Memory is a funny thing. He could recall a detail from a book that I couldn't remember (we had just read the book yesterday!) when I was telling a friend about it. I stumbled and said "oh they turned into something but I can't remember." And Holland piped right up (didn't even know he was following the conversation) and said "Crows. They turned into crows."

Of course, he can also remember when I owe him money (I currently owe him $10), or that he could play with a friend on Friday, or that I promised to go to Fred Meyer. But for some unknown, unexplained reason, he can't remember to pick up all the tiny pieces of radio that he hammered with a crowbar. Yes, that's right. This is our latest "experiment". Taking things apart with a crowbar. But all the environmentalists would love him because he recycled the parts to make a robot and a battery operated vehicle of some sort.

The Birder

I'm blaming this one on Holland's Sunday School teacher. He came home with tiny, tiny seeds in his pocket, wanting to plant them. So I let him get a plastic container, put dirt in it and stick it in the window. He was a little too generous with the watering. And he's a little impatient with the waiting for the seeds to sprout. But within 3 days, our house (and deck and sections of my backyard) have been turned into an environmentally friendly, bird friendly, compost-lovin' sanctuary.

Here's a rundown of what he's accomplished in the last week of school. He planted the seeds from church; he did a potato and celery experiment with dad, which are still in the window; he's taken out food scraps 5 different times to the compost bin (he actually remembered an old apple in his room and took that out!); he collected dead leaves and a couple buckets of cut grass to the compost bin; he's gathered cut limbs from our Christmas tree and hauled them on the deck; he built a bird sanctuary on the deck, filled three bird feeders, scattered corn that the squirrels are too dumb to eat and called grampa to put in his order for a platform bird feeder. We are charting the birds we see in the yard because that's what we're studying in science right now. But as is typical for Holland, we've taken our learning to the extreme. I should say he's very passionate about what he does. He was trying to create a platform feeder out of 4 different objects from the garage and wanted to tear apart my birdbath in the front yard ("because it's chipped anyways").

I did order a platform feeder with some of the money from our Charter school annual budget and we are hoping to attract some woodpeckers and some other birds that like nuts and sunflower hearts. We are learning how to identify the birds by their physical characteristics. He's now looking more closely (literally) at the birds that come in and they're staying because of his little forest project. The birds hop around on the branches and dine on the food. I can't wait to put up a more varied selection and see what flies into our yard! Here are a couple pictures (taken through a window so we didn't scare the birds off) of Holland's bird sanctuary.

Pamela's Pancakes

This morning after dropping Romania at the bus stop, we came home and I made gluten-free pancakes for Egypt and Holland. I've been using a recipe that Super Hero's gramma made when he was growing up. Of course, it used regular flour. I had tried a couple different times to make the same recipe with my own blend of gluten-free flour, but they never tasted right.

Until I found Pamela. She's come up with some magical flour blend that make things taste normal. The mix is for pancakes and waffles and I've used it for brownies, muffins and now my own buttermilk pancake recipe. As a testament to how good they are, Holland downed 8 pancakes this morning. The most he's ever eaten has been maybe 4. And the great thing is this recipe makes a ton of pancakes. The recipe on the flour bag makes probably 6-8 pancakes. And the flour is not cheap - $15 for a 4 pound bag of it. Here is a picture of the plate of pancakes that were left over. Among the three of us, we probably ate 12-13 and this is how many were left! I was told my pancakes were better than any he's ever eaten in a restaurant. *sniff, sniff*