Viruses and more

My computer has 2 viruses on it.  Thankfully the software Roger has installed has kept it from doing damage.  What it is doing is making it very slooooooooow!!!  In addition to being slow, I'm typically stopped multiple time in the midst of typing and besides being frustrating, it really slows me down.  It's been like this for over a week and is making work on the computer - like blogging and reading and emails - very slow.  So, I'm behind.

The more - I'm also having camera troubles.  I accidentally deleted all of our photos from the week-end.  *sigh*  I'm hoping that Roger will be able to recover them - but he isn't sure.  I know I still have the memories, but with the state of my memory some days, that isn't comforting.  LOL

We spent the week -end in VA with our friends and I'll hopefully share more - with  photos - soon.

Just a little glimpse of what's going on here.  More fun stuff soon I hope.  :-)

Blessings,

Leslie

Just a little note to let you know what is going on around here. 

Praying and Remembering

Two years ago, a little girl entered our family and we were forever changed.  Learning that she had Down syndrome was a shock and hearing that she had heart defects was difficult.  The early days were hard, but we were surrounded by family and friends that reached out to love and support us in so many ways and medical and professional staff that showed us how to care for her.  Those dark days were ones in which we saw God's hands at work in so many lives - all touched by a tiny, sick little girl. 

We watched her struggle - heart failure, feeding difficulties, sickness and feeding tubes.  We have also watched her succeed - crawling, walking and learning to eat.  We have had numerous people help in these successes from doctors to therapists, from family to friends, from encouragers to prayer warriors.  All have made a huge impact.

I have learned so much about God in watching Eliana.  I've been blessed in ways I never could have imagined when I sat scared and alone in a hospital room while my baby girl was in the NICU.  This was not a journey I wanted to take because I was afraid.  I'm so glad that God knew better.  We would have missed out on so much!  Eliana is a gift, a blessing, and a delight.

Children like Eliana in other parts of the world don't have the same opportunities that she does.  The conditions are grim and heartbreaking.  These children need someone to love them, to pray for them and to help them. 

I wanted to share again about Reece's Rainbowm a wonderful organization which helps facilitate the adoption of children with Down syndrome from other countries.  We have been sponsoring children there and praying for them too. 

One of the little girls there has drawn my heart.  I pray for all of the children in general and very specifically for this beautiful little girl named Tonya.   

Her time is running out.  She is due to be transferred to a mental institution when she turns 4 - this summer.  Will you please join me in praying for her?  Will you also pray about what God would have you to do?  There are lots of ways to help an orphan.   You can pray, sponsor a child, sponsor a family that has made a commitment to a child or you can go yourself and bring a child into your family. 

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." (James 1:27)

Another mom, Meredith, has written about her children and the conditions into which they were born and lived their early lives.  Please go read what she has to say - it is very moving.  I know I was in tears after reading it.

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do.  God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act"  Proverbs 24:12 

I know that God loves each of these children just as He does you and I.  I know that He is there with them.  I pray that these children and those that care for them would also know how much He loves them.  I pray that God would move our hearts to follow His will.  It is hard sometimes to know what His will is for our lives.  I know that He wants to guide us and that we will be blessed in following His path for our lives. 

Praying as we celebrate Easter that we would know the joy of His resurrection, the amazing gift of His sacrifice and the blessing of His abundant love.

Blessings,

Leslie

Eating Success!

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but for me, having a child with special needs has opened up a whole new world.  There are so many things that I've taken for granted - for myself and my children.  The many things that children learn so effortlessly.  Things like eating and talking and even pointing with their finger.  All of these things are skills that we have worked on teaching Eliana.  I'm so thankful that someone has figured how to do this and that I have people helping me to teach Eliana.

Today's milestone may seem small - and for most children it probably would be.  For Eliana, it was a neat milestone.  I was reflecting recently on her eating and how far she has come.  Just recently she seems to be tolerating textures better and her oral muscles seem stronger.  Part of having Down syndrome is low muscle tone.  This includes the muscles in the mouth which affect speech and feeding.  The tongue is also a muscle which lacks tone and is why sometimes it is harder for children with Ds to learn to keep their tongues in their mouths.  So many little details that I took for granted before loving someone with Down syndrome.

Anyway, back to today.  During Eliana's speech therapy, we had been working on oral motor exercises.  We were going to give her some food to eat and then noticed that her lip was bleeding.  We didn't want the food to irriate her mouth (and give her a bad food experience) so we passed on the food.  A little while later, Eliana signed "eat".  She then walked over to a low cabinet and pulled out a plate and a bowl.  She then set these on the table and crawled up into a chair.

None of this was surprising to me.  She likes to imitate and play and I thought this was what she was doing.  Well, we decided to offer her the food I had gotten out earlier - "pirate booty".  It's similar to popcorn, but has more of a "melt in your mouth" consistency like cheese puffs.  To my surprise, she picked one up and put it in her mouth.

For those that haven't been reading about Eliana's journey, here's a little background to put things in perspective.  Eliana was 10+ months old before she was able to eat without the aid of a feeding tube.  She is still eating foods mashed and we are trying to teach her to bite foods by putting them in her mouth (when she'll let me!) and asking her to bite.  She still has huge oral aversions (from the feeding tube) and often does not want things near her mouth.

Oh, and she has *never* asked for food.  She has at times wanted food someone else was eating, but never initiated it.  This was big for a little girl.

She continued eating and eating the snack.  Almost stuffing her mouth at times.  (I won't share that picture.)  She didn't throw her food onto the floor, she ate it.

This feels like the first step on a long journey where I can see a glimpse of the light.  She is getting it.  It's been slow, but she is getting it.  My little girl is going to learn how to eat. 

Blessings,

Leslie

Easter Fun in our Workboxes

We've been having fun this week - with school and also in adding in some Easter things.  Part of the fun was going shopping on Sunday with two of my dear friends.  We were all looking for craft supplies for our workboxes.  We hit the jackpot at the dollar store and also at the dollar bins at Michaels.  Go check it out if you haven't already.

I put this in my 13yos box.

This was to make fabric covered eggs.  You can find the directions at the V and Co.  (Thanks Vickie for sharing this with me!)  They were very cute - but it was a little trickier than it looks to get those smooth ends.  Still a pretty centerpiece for our table. 

We also found inspiration at the Crafty Crow for Easter Egg Suncatchers.  All you need is contact paper and a variety of craft supplies.  We used paper, feathers and sequins.  It was easy and fun. 

We used an egg shaped pattern and taped it to the table.  Next I taped a square of contact paper on top of the egg - sticky side up!  The egg is just a guide for the child to use for decorating.  The child can then decorate the egg using sequins, ribbon, paper, feathers, etc.  When finished, lay another piece of contact paper on top and then cut out in an egg shape.  We hung ours in the window in the kitchen.

My friend Jen LINK shared an auditory discrimination activity that we enjoyed doing. 

Get 12 (or however many you want!) plastic Easter eggs.  Fill 2 with some beans, 2 with rice, 2 with a rock, 2 with something else, etc.

 

The child shakes the eggs and tries to find 2 that sound the same.  It's basically an auditory discrimination activity...good for pre-reading (they are being trained to hear differences in sounds) and fun because you have little instruments and Easter eggs.  :)

Tomorrow we are doing the Resurrection Eggs.  I split up the pieces into the younger boys boxes and think they'll enjoy that.  We are also doing some watercolor egg paintings using this pattern.  I have some sweetart candies (chicks, bunnies and ducks) to give out as motivators.  (It worked really well here today.  lol )

Next week we'll be working on these finger puppets.   Aren't they cute?

We are also reading the Easter story in a 40 day devotional called Journey to the Cross.  This book is wonderful!  It gives lots of background information that helps to give the story so much depth.  It has also helped me to understand and appreciate the Easter story with new eyes each year we have read it.  I know it is too late for this year, but maybe you can look for it now and have it on hand for next year.

That's all for now.  It's late and morning always come so early.  lol

Blessings,

Leslie

Night of the Moonjellies

We've been rowing Night of the Moonjellies this week.  It's such a fun book!  I have an autographed copy that I got signed at a Five in a Row conference about 7 years ago.  Mark Shasha, the author, attended and signed our copy with our children's names in it.  Well, our children at that time.  Daniel was quite miffed that his name is not in the book.  I tried to explain that it was before he was born, but he wasn't very satisfied with that answer.  lol

My boys are very excited about having a restaurant of our own.  Isaiah said that we would have to invite everyone we knew so that it would be crowded like the one in the book.

We talked some about running a restaurant.  I asked them some questions about what it would be like to have their own business.  I had to share the answers that Isaiah gave. 

Where would your business be located?

Next to the beach (just like in the book)

If you owned a business what would be your responsibilities?

Counting up the money and doing the register.

What is the name of your restaurant?

Golden Food

If you owned your own restaurant, what would you need to be?  (I was thinking character trait here.)

The boss.

I haven't taken a lot of photos of our week (shame on me, I know).  Here is one of the lessons on listing the foods in the story.

Sometime after Easter, we'll plan our restaurant and I'll definitely have pictures then!

Blessings,

Leslie

Field Trip to New Market Battlefield

The week-end before last, we went to visit our sweet friends in VA.  We had planned to go to the homeschool day at New Market Battlefield State Historic Site.  As the day got closer, the predictions for rain kept going up - to 70 percent.  *sigh*  The Dads decided to stay home with the little ones and Catherine and I took the older children and hoped for the best. 

As we were driving there, it started to sprinkle, but though the day remained overcast and dreary, it was also mostly dry!  Yeah!  Thank you God for a small blessing. 

We had a blast!  Have I mentioned how much I enjoy living history?  The people at this site did an awesome job!

We started out in learning about soldiers in a hands-on manner.  The children enlisted.  They were asked how some got around the age requirement of 18 and I was surprised that Joshua knew the answer.  You could write "18" on a piece of paper and stand on it.  When asked if you were over 18, you could technically say that you were.

After enlisting, they had more to learn.  Such as putting up a tent.

Digging a hole for a latrine.

Getting rations.  We learned about the various types of foods the soldiers ate.  One that surprised me was hearing that canned oysters were a treat. 

They learned a little about the "discipline" that some soldiers received.

Next, were rifle drills.  Some were very serious about this.

They looked at some of the tents.  One even had a make-shift fireplace.  They wrote a letter home.  And dressed in clothes of the time period.  

As we were experiencing all of this, Joshua (9) kept saying that this was the best field trip ever.  As we were walking to the next area, Joshua fell in the mud.  As he got up and then walked with me, he again exclaimed what a great day this was, even while his pants were wet and muddy.  :-)  Gotta love a happiness that is not dampened by wetness or mud!

The children played several games.  One was a ball toss into various hoops placed at a distance.  You got more points for getting the ball in the hoop the farther the hoop was from you.

They also played ring toss.

The last game was a type of bowling.  The reenactors were wonderful, helpful and interesting.  It made several of us long to do this.  We had begun to pursue this prior to Eliana's birth and then let it go.  It may be time to consider it again.

We toured the home.  The family that lived in this home, was in the basement while the battle raged around them.  Can you imagine?  The horrors of war can seem so distant, and while there, it was easier to imagine how it could be in your own back yard.  Literally.

We saw a wonderfully done movie about the "Field of Lost Shoes".  So named because so many of the soldiers lost their shoes in the muddy field while running across it.  We learned about acts of bravery and also kindness.  We learned about Moses Ezekiel.  A soldier that went back to find a friend and stayed with him for 2 days before he died.  He went on to become a very famous artist and was even knighted by the King of Italy.  We saw one of his sculptures in the museum.  It was of Thomas Jefferson.

As we toured the museum, we learned about individuals and their stories.  We learned about the war and it's toll on our country.  It was well done on a topic that is difficult.  This beautiful stained glass window was made to represent the battle.

We also toured the battleground.

Found a beautiful scenic overlook and even an old trough in the woods that had been a place where a spring bubbled up.

The children did some crafts - made harmonicas, flags and quilts.  There were games and dancing to round off the day. 

I have so many more pictures (about 240) that it was hard to choose which ones to share.  We had so much fun!  I highly recommend this site if you are ever in the area.  It was well worth the trip!  Call in advance to arrange programming if you are interested. 

Blessings,

Leslie

Planning and being spontaneous - both are good!

We had a full day - filled with fun in our workboxes.  Isaiah was excited to see the Monopoly Jr math book I bought for him last night.  The planning for our day is helping us all so very much.  So much more gets down and the fun isn't left out!

Eliana had speech therapy today and is doing well.  The progress is slow, but she is trying to say various things.  Most of her speech is just the beginning sounds or syllables.  For example, "da" for dog.  She is just so much fun - and so very cute.  Here's a picture of her from earlier in the week.  It just has to make you smile.

We also had our science lab today.  We meet with friends and the older boys work on Chemistry while the older girls work on Rainbow Science.  They are also doing chemistry at the moment too.  When they finished, I was looking for a lesson from our Beyond FIAR to do with them.  I obviously hadn't planned anything and was just winging it.  I was stumped as to something in our current chapter and then I looked back at things I wanted to cover, but hadn't yet. 

Here's where the spontaneous came in.  An idea popped into my head and then we just ran with it.  Here's a hint - can you guess what we did?

I asked the girls if they would be interested in learning about campfires.  We reviewed the types of campfires and then I asked them to go clean up the campsite/clearing in our backyard.  They got to work and cleared the area and made a place to build a fire.

I hadn't quite considered that it had poured yesterday and things were still quite wet.  Oh well, we went with it anyway.  It took some time and considerable tries to get the fire lit.  Some paper ended up helping with that as much of the wood was still damp.

Then we broke out the roasting sticks and got to work.

We all enjoyed them, though a couple of my kids modified theirs - one had no chocolate and one had no marshmellows.  We ALL had sticky fingers!  Even Eliana tried a little bit of the s'mores, though she preferred the plain graham crackers I think. 

I love that the FIAR lessons are flexible.  They work well if I plan and if I'm running on a whim.  I love that the lessons can often include the whole family.  I'm thankful that we were able to to make sweet memories today. 

Blessings,

Leslie

Pirates

Today was a field trip day for our FIAR group.  We had planned to do some classes for the younger children and a ropes/challenge course for the older kids.  The day loomed dreary though and the rain started early.  After talking, thinking and praying - a decision was made to cancel our outing.  We thought that more fun would be had in better weather.

After playing lots of phone tag, we regrouped and some of us went to the NC History Museum instead.  They have an exhibit on pirates and this seemed a fun way to spend a rainy day.  It was nice that it only cost $5 for adults and the children were free!

They had exhibits on the history of pirates, info on specific pirates, artifacts, a movie, books in a reading nook and more.  It is a well-done display. 

Eliana practiced walking on uneven surfaces on the "ships deck" in the display area.

The hit of the display area though was the children's area.  They had a boat that the children could play on, clothes for dressing up, a crow's nest to climb in, cannons to shoot at pirate ships, knots to tie, and computer quizzes to see how much you knew about pirates.  They kids had a blast here! 

My pirate-loving crew.

We spent a little bit of time in the gift shop.  It's really hard to pass up a good book!!!  I bought 2 on NC history and some maps from the Civil War (request from Joshua). 

Afterwards, we went to Mellow Mushroom for lunch.  It was a yummy way to end the outing.

I was able to go out this evening with a friend to a local homeschool store.  I spent most of my time in the used/consign section.  I found some deals.  Of course, I kept thinking of how these could be used in my boxes.  Here's a peek at what I bought. 

Between having a little bit of credit (from consigning) and a gift certificate I won at a local special needs conference, I only spent $22.  I'm planning on using a couple of them tomorrow. 

Blessings,

Leslie

All Those Secrets of the World - notebooks and cooking

We use notebooks to journal and to keep our work in.  My boys have loved doing this as we row our books.  One of the things that they have enjoyed is making a title page as we start a new book each week.  I ask them to draw something from the story - anything that they want.

We just finished All Those Secrets of the World and here are our "title pages".

A closer look at Joshua's page.

This is Isaiah's page.

We also LOVE the meals in the Five in a Row cookbook!!!  It's a great way to experience foods from a different culture or time period.  I think it's important for children to learn how to cook and this is a great way to tie it into schooling.  It's also a neat way to involve Roger in our week.  He sometimes helps to cook and it's a great conversation starter.

We enjoyed clam chowder and crab cakes to go along with this book.  YUM!

Just a little look at our week. 

Blessings,

Leslie

Misc photos

Want to post about our week-end - time with friends and an awesome field trip.  Will do that when I figure out which cords to plug back into the computer so I can download some pictures.  ;-)  Sad being so computer illiterate sometimes, isn't it? 

I wanted to share just a few random shots from this month.  All of my children love riding on the plasma car.  It's not surprising.  I think its fun too!  You make it go by moving the steering "wheel".  Even Eliana can do it!  We have a circular path around the center of our house which is often the path for the car. 

Eliana is such a good sport about being dressed up.  My children have been big fans of dress-up and pretend play and I guess she is just following their lead.

Eliana doesn't wear others shoes often - she barely keeps on her own shoes.  Even then, it's just if it is the one pair that she has not yet figured out how to unbuckle.  I love pictures of children in shoes that are way too big! 

One day when I walked upstairs, this was the sight that greeted me.  I had to stop myself from laughing out loud so I could go back down and get my camera!  This boy loves to read!!!

 I host a Mom's meeting for our FIAR (homeschool) group once a month.  Rebecca graciously made a dessert for us at one of them and I said she was hired for the rest of the meetings.  She has glady taken on this role and has made some lovely (and delicious!) things for us.  Here's a look at last month's goodies.

Praying this week is filled with sweet blessings for you and those you love.

Blessings,

Leslie