Category Archives: Family

Unschooling Voices #8 Up

Posted on April 1, 2007 | Leave a comment

No, it’s not April Fools . . . LOL! Neither is it April Fools that I’m actually posting. But wanted to let everyone know that Unschooling Voices is up again, and I have my unschooling to college posts there.

Everything goes well here, including it going very well for my oldest son out West as a full-time missionary. In fact, I told my hubby this morning that it is still somewhat unnerving for me that things are going so well for him after two and a half months. Maybe it’s that I miss being his counselor and knowing on a daily basis where his emotional cup is at.
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On the other hand, I’m so excited for him and the life he is carving out for himself on his own two feet in confidence. What more can a mother ask?

Catch Up: Birthdays, Conferences, and LWOS Post

Posted on March 3, 2007 | 5 comments

Yes, it’s been almost two months. So much to do, so little time! First, some birthdays came and went. My oldest turned 20 a few weeks ago, which means I have my first child in the twenty-something category. It was also the first birthday I didn’t get to spend with a child, as explained in my last post. But, my daughter and I had fun putting together our first “care package” for him with a few goodies. He e-mailed me telling me he received it and that he didn’t take long to “down the chocolate goods”. He was into Japanese cooking just before he left and had binged on some Japanese products before leaving, so I stuck a last package of udon noodles in the package. He commented that “the udon was a bit random, but appreciated.” Then he went on to put in a few more Japanese food product orders for next time. He continues to flourish on his mission, and is currently serving in his first location: North Salt Lake, UT.

Eli turned 16 yesterday and most of the family went to Cracker Barrel for his dinner outing. It can be hard and sad when your whole family can’t go to these types of things. Adam is just not at a place that he can tolerate that type of outing, so Abbey stayed home with him. She is such a gracious giver! On the other hand, she knows that she has a blessed life in being my traveling companion to conferences as well as much freedom in going wherever she wants when she needs to go. But, it’s still a choice to be amazing . . . and she is. Anyway, Eli wants to buy Rollercoaster Tycoon III – Wild as his gift.

And, speaking of conferences, Abbey, Eli and I just returned from the InHome Conference this past weekend, and we all had a blast! I still vote it as the best organized and most diverse inclusive conference I know of for both adult and children/teen workshops. Plus, we feel like such family among the organizers as we have attended and presented since 2000. I was invigorated and newly enthusiastic about some of my passions as I contemplated various things on my long drive home.

As always, my right-brained learner workshops were well-received. I presented a workshop on my Collaborative Learning Process for the first time that had mostly good reviews, with a few people who didn’t like it at all, which is always expected. It was my largest attended workshop this time, so there will always be someone who came and was expecting something different. Since this process has an unschooling “flavor”, and I didn’t write it up as such, some may have attended that don’t embrace that idea at all.

I became especially empassioned about the special needs arena after serving my second year on a special needs panel. I’m finally beyond frustrated about presenters who espouse the IEP/school process within special needs. I SO want to be a voice that shares another way . . . and, yes, to me, a superior way, than schools can provide our very different children. Around the discussion table after the conference, the organizers were eager to have me present next year at least one special needs workshop specific to autism, but they are open to me throwing in other ideas as well for another workshop.This technique delivers a long-lasting erection levitra 20 mg http://deeprootsmag.org/tag/placide-cappeau/ to make an intercourse satisfactory and happy love-making activity.

On a similar note, I was able to speak to the organizer of Rethinking Education in Texas, Barb, on my way down as a potential speaker at her conference on Labor Day weekend. We are now working out the details, and I shared my enthusiasm about special needs topics that I would love to showcase at her conference, as well as the well-received right-brainer topics, so we’ll see how it all works out . . . Sometimes, passion and purpose hurts

Last, my recent post is up at Life Without School called From Snakes to Unschooling that I had posted here last year. I added some attributes to it based on the comments here at my blog, so go check it out and see what comes to mind for you. I actually should have mentioned two lessons for mom from that story. The one I didn’t mention, and I may add it after it is off the front page, is that children will learn what they are interested in if you supply the materials and resources for them, and be available and attentive to their requests.

I’m going to try to get back on my blog wagon . . . I missed everyone, but I had to prioritize, as you all can understand, I know!

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Posted in Autism, Family, Homeschooling, Learning, My 2007 Conferences, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners

Changes Forever?

Posted on January 14, 2007 | 5 comments

My hubby and I are about to leave later today to bring our oldest, firstborn son out West to serve as a full-time missionary for two years in declaring the good news to those in the northern Utah, southern Idaho, and Star Valley, Wyoming areas that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. He will be a representative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we believe our church is set up in the same manner that Jesus Christ established His church when He was living upon the earth as a mortal. We have the same establishment such as prophets, aspostles, temples, the proper authority to act in God’s name through His Holy Priesthood, the sealing powers (as stated in Matthew), faith and works, baptism by immersion, repentance, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, etc. We believe that the Lord is the same today, yesterday and forever, which means that He has always had His people record words under His inspiration and that we have been blessed with another testament of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, and that He knows where all His people are. (We believe there is yet additional scripture if and when we are ready to receive it, by living up to what we already have.) The greatest news is that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Redeemer of the world. Our son is part of the great work in fulfilling the prophecy that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. This is one reason why there are missionaries from our church all over the world, including here in our own backyard!

Our son leaving for two years is both an exciting time for our family, and a sad one. I think back when my hubby and I were dating as seniors in high school. Upon graduation and after summer completed, I was to begin college about an hour away as he waited to serve his own mission (he ended up going to the Concepcion, Chile, South America mission). I would stay in the dorms at college Monday through Thursday, and come back for the long weekend until he left. My mother and sister were driving me there that first week, and we went to my future-hubby’s house to say good-bye.

As my mother pulled away with me in the car, my hubby and I began to cry. My mother declared, “Well, my goodness! It’s only four days! It’s as if you won’t see each other again.” My hubby and I locked eyes, and we knew it had nothing to do with the four day separation and everything to do that we both understood, without speaking any words, that our lives were about to change forever. It was time to enter the next phase of our lives. We were both excited and sad, just as we are now with our son. With our first child leaving home, we will no longer be the family that all lives under one roof as a parent/child dynamic. I suspect that it will never go back to that again.

I have such fond memories of our family-growing-up-together times as one whole unit. As a mother, it is easy to flash back to all the stages, some more favored in my mind than others. At the same time, I am eager to see and observe all that my son will learn and grow from this next stage of life for him. Eric is eager to learn how this experience will shape him. I know he has his own mixed feelings of being anxious and being sad, but ready.

It’s ironic that we were able to seal our two little boys, who are adopted, to us as a family in the Raleigh Temple a couple of weeks ago. We believe that the family unit continues into eternity; therefore, we are married for time and all eternity versus till death do you part. As part of this sealing, any children born to us after being sealed together in the temple for eternity as a couple are also automatically sealed to us as a family. If an adoption occurs, you must specifically seal them to us by going to the temple for that opportunity and blessing. So, for five years, we have operated as an “incomplete family”, but now we are once again a forever family. And now, we bid one adieu as he forges his own life away from us. It’s bittersweet, but we, too, are ready for all that it brings our family!
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It looks like it’s snowing, but it’s not, though it was bitter cold. We lost a lot of our pictures, and this is the one I found, and it ended up with splatters on it:

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Posted in Beginnings, Family

Happy Birthday to my Two Babies!

Posted on December 31, 2006 | 2 comments

Before 2007 comes, I want to acknowledge the birthdays of my two babies in 2006 that just went by during this holiday season.

Today is my first baby’s birthday, Alex, who just turned 12! This is a significant age in our church as he moves up into the youth program now. We celebrated yesterday by bringing him to a restaurant of his choice, and he wanted the waitresses to sing to him. They did and he was asked to stand up on his chair, so he felt that was “special”, although he said he was “a little bit embarrassed.” We were able to select a seat grouping where he sat right under a ceiling fan, which is one of his favorite things. We let him choose who of the siblings he wanted to go out to dinner with him. He chose Eric and Abbey and Eli declined. So, it was just four of us, but he enjoyed himself. The restaurant had “Kraft” macaroni and cheese, so he thought that was special, too. On the way home, he stopped and had me get him two orders of cheese breadsticks from Pizza Hut; one for him and one to share with his brother, Adam. He always remembers his brother 🙂

Alex is hard to buy presents for, so we’ve let him know that we’re planning something after we take his oldest brother out West to start his mission trip. Alex and Eli will then take over the basement area for their rooms/space (which they had also shared with Eric, who tended to be the one who “ruled” the area due to age), and now it will become theirs, so I have some surprises up my sleeve; a type of “extreme make-over bedroom”, as Alex loves that show 🙂 I’ll definitely have to come up with something unique to display his ceiling fan collection!

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Then, on Christmas Day, my other baby, Joseph, turned 6! These two really are like two babies of the family because of where they fall in their birth order within their birth families. I have two firstborns, too 🙂 We celebrated Joseph’s birthday on the Saturday before. He chose the restaurant that we all went to except Eric and Adam: Cracker Barrel. We wanted to have the limelight on Joseph, and Adam is so complex to accommodate right now, as well as his agitation toward his brother, Eric’s voice. So, Eric graciously offered to stay home with him, though Joseph tends to annoy him anyway.They were a part of the first expansion and they were first owned by Frederic McLaughlin who had made his fortune in the devensec.com (buy generic levitra) sales of coffee.

Joseph was pleased to order from a regular menu versus fast food. However, he wasn’t too thrilled with the time it takes sit-down restaurant food to arrive. We let the waitress know that it was his birthday, and they sang for him, and he felt special. After they finished, he ceremoniously said, “Thank you, thank you”, and waved to them. He ate about three bites from the dessert they treated him to, but that way, I got some chocolate out of it 🙂

Joseph tends to get overwhelmed by the limelight at times, so I tried hard to underplay the present opening time earlier in the day. Because I allow the birth parents to give him presents (that I pick up separately prior to the birthdays), he had four presents to open: one from each of them, one from us, and one from one set of grandparents (the other giving money). For birthdays in our family, usually it’s one or two presents for birthdays. Joseph handled the excess well, though, with my careful preparations. It was a good variety (as the birth parents usually ask me what he would like): a remote control Hummer (already left in the rain and waiting to see if it still works), a battery-operated baseball pitching machine (wonderful!), a small acoustic guitar (his favorite, and he holds it so naturally), and a vacuum that really sucks up things.

Happy birthday, Joseph!

2 Comments

Posted in Family

New Family Picture!

Posted on November 29, 2006 | 5 comments

My friend has been taking her family for photos to a place called Portrait Innovations for a few years and I liked how they looked. It seems to be a marriage between the professional photography and the mass-production of photography. The photographers take a bunch of different pictures “free-form” with their camera that can click two or three images at a time. They take any types of pictures you want . . . individuals, groups, subgroups, and in any position. At the end, you sit down and narrow down your choices within each area. You then determine how many of each you want, as well as creating several specialty pictures like groupings of several on a page, black and white, etc. They can also crop, do fade outs, and recenter. You take the photos with you before you leave!

For our large and unique family, it seemed to be the way to give it a go. Although our candid family photos have turned out extremely well, it’s always fun to try to do something in a studio. So, here’s the turn out:

So, here’s the backdrop stories. I’m fairly proud of the color scheme I put together. I can’t say that I have a talent in visual imagery or developed the fashion skills, whether it’s in clothing or decorating a home. So, I feel pleased with how the colors coordinate.

Getting Adam (far right) to not only cooperate, but to enjoy himself took quite a bit of pre-work. For instance, you are looking at a 15-clip haircut, done by yours truly. That’s right, he does not like haircuts for sensory reasons and finds the feel of it harsh. So, we negotiate how many clips I get to have. I usually get to have 50, which doesn’t go far, either. Every so often, when he is in a good sensory place, he actually lets me buzz cut his hair. (That has happened twice.) This time, he was not in a good place, so one 10-clip timeframe, and one 5-clip timeframe was allotted me. He had hair several inches below his ears and eyes before this look, so I think I did fairly well with my 15 clips!Do buy cheap levitra look at here now not store in the bathroom.

Wearing new clothes is both a sensory thing, but more importantly, a routine thing. He wears navy blue sweat pants every day. He has done this for several years now. He wears tan dress slacks for church, with a white shirt, untucked. He has actually become a little more flexible if it is something new. So, first, I had to get him prepared for “the picture store” several days in advance, and I let him know that he is going to put on “picture clothes”. When he saw the tan pants, he was alright, but when he saw the blue shirt coming, he declared, “White shirt!” I said, “White shirt is for church; blue shirt is for pictures.” He quickly relented. I then went for the sweater, and he declared, “No sweater!” I replied, “Sweater is for the picture store, and when you’re done, you can take off sweater.” He again, relented! Yeah! Don’t let me tell you how hard it is to have him buy new shoes!

Then, for the actual entering and waiting in the store was another whole process. First, we arrived early and he and I walked up and down the storefronts, peeking inside, preparing himself for what it looks like, but having the freedom and space to find his own time. Prior to arriving, our oldest son, Eric, agreed to not speak the entire time while in the store. Adam cannot stand the sound of his voice, and screams and gets aggressive everytime he does. It’s been going on for a year or two. It’s difficult for everyone, especially Eric, but he willingly agreed. Abbey brought the Game Boy Advance in order to play some games for him to entertain him during the wait. When the time came to enter, Adam came in eagerly, walked around the inside for a while checking out everyone in action, and then spied an empty changing room. Ah, a little tranquility amongst the chaos. Abbey went in with him for a while to sit. She then helped him take a chair in the main waiting room and played Game Boy for him. They looked so sweet together.

Abbey is already prepared to be an awesome mother and future unschooler. She has already developed the ability to do what is right for her family and not worry about what others think or “typical rules” for locations. For instance, I mentioned that we might want to help him transition from the changing room if someone will need it, and she simply said, “You know what, they can use the bathroom. Adam’s needs are important, too.” That’s my girl!

The final element involved was being patient with each transition to various photo areas, asking short increments of time from him and then letting him wander around, when larger chunks of wait time in between shoots occurred, someone took him outside to walk around, or in the dressing room, or Abbey did another Game Boy spurt with him. Finally, Adam knew that the cumulative reward was getting to go to McDonald’s playground and eat and play there. He enjoys that environment.

I stayed behind to pick out pictures and wait for the print-outs, and my valiant and awesome hubby, along with supportive older children, took the crew to McDonald’s without me. And all went well! Overall, it was an enjoyable family moment 🙂

5 Comments

Posted in Autism, Family

Thanksgiving Weekend

Posted on November 26, 2006 | 2 comments

Our family was going to pack up and go to Michigan for Thanksgiving and stay with my sister at her house, have Thanksgiving with my hubby’s family on Thursday, and with my family on Friday. We were to leave on Wednesday. It takes a good long day, about 12-13 hours, to drive there. Tuesday night, we decided we just haven’t had time to connect as an immediate family for so long, we would stay home and do just that.

So, Wednesday, I went out for a turkey and decided I needed to buy a fresh one obviously. Well, it was SO good and tender, even the white meat. We had my hubby’s parents over and they were happy that we decided to stay behind so they had someone to supper with. My father-in-law actually stated, half joking but also it appears seriously, “Did you know you’re my favorite daughter-in-law?” after eating several dishes he enjoyed immensely 🙂 and my sending some home with him.

Anyway, all morning, as the dinner cooked on Thursday, the whole family helped clean the kitchen thoroughly. Do you know how dirty a kitchen can become with nine people living in it every day, all day? I consider myself a “lived in” cleaner, but when you get really thorough, you realize how much dirt is there where you don’t look! It felt good to clean out some areas that were awful, like the walk-in pantry and some of the drawers.

I listened to Clay Aiken’s Christmas CD that he put out last year, I think. There is one song on it that I absolutely LOVE. It’s track 6, with the repeated words, Mary, Did you Know? so that could be what it is called. Anyway, he has a beautiful voice for touching Christmas songs like that one and O Holy Night.Buy Kamagra tablets for ED has turned out to be simple now inferable from the different medications generic viagra online and supplements.

Finally, three of the boys are especially having difficult times with relationships in the home. I was going to start an “intervention” with them starting Monday after returning from the trip, but decided to start right then and there. I decided I needed to be more “present” with them in particular with all of their interactions. Some need to be reminded that they have the skills to choose a better interaction pattern. The other two need me to be there more quickly to teach them better interaction skills to help them get what they need, learn compassion for others, as well as turn a corner in being the one in control of their emotions instead of the other way around. So far, that first day was the hardest, but when they saw that every interaction was going to be held up to the microscope, they all quickly became more aware of their reactions and patterns and started to take more emotional responsibility for their interactions already.

So, I begin the season of peace trying to recapture it in our home. Off to a good start 🙂

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Posted in Family

Sleep

Posted on November 9, 2006 | 3 comments

Sleep has been heavy on my mind. That tends to happen when you feel you are not receiving enough of it. I know I could sacrifice some personal time to get what I need, but I find that I’m not often strong enough to discipline myself in that way. So, the big question is: How long can a 41 year old woman of seven keep on ticking with minimal sleep? 🙂

Five years ago, when my oldest son turned 14, he was eager to participate in a program through our church called early morning Seminary. High school students aged 14 to 18 are offered a scripture study class, held before school starts, to start their day off with the Spirit as well as positive fellowship as well as learning Truth to equip them with the armor of God before entering Satan’s den. Okay, so I added the last part about Satan’s den, although it is said to combat the evil influences our youth so often face on a daily basis . . . which is in the school environment . . . so I call it as I see it.

So, as inspiration would have it, I was asked to be one of the teachers when he started five years ago. I taught for two years before being asked to move on to other responsibilities. We met at 5:55 a.m. at the church building, learned together for 50 minutes, so left at 6:45 a.m. where youth from at least three school districts made their way to their daily grind after being uplifted, hopefully. That began my early morning schedule, and I’m NOT a morning person. It was an activity that was a love-hate relationship because I received enormous spiritual/emotional blessings from learning from the scriptures on a daily basis in that manner, but the physical sacrifices were palpable.

My oldest was able to do well because he could come home to sleep. Schooled youth didn’t have that privilege, and neither did I, as the other children awoke at regular intervals and needed me. However, for that timeframe, I ended up working in regular naps in the afternoon in order to survive the physical aspect. Well, last year, I was appointed again to teach Seminary. This time, it would be in my home with my two children (my second and third now, Abbey and Eli) as well as another youth who lived nearby. We arranged the time according to the schooled youth’s schedule and was able to start at 6:40 a.m. and go until 7:30 a.m. where his school started at 8:00 a.m. This has worked much better for all of us. Abbey rarely goes back to bed, although Eli regularly does. This timeframe has made it so that I rarely need a nap. By the end of the week, though, periodically, if my sleep schedule has been significantly off, I grab a nap in the later afternoon.

Alright, so if it was just this, it might not be too bad. However, not only am I a night owl, but most of the family is as well. On top of that, autism dwells here. One of the common attributes of someone with autism is that they can often have inconsistent sleep rhythms. I have recently discovered that it may be because they do not produce a sufficient level of melatonin, which is a sleep regulator. Adam is my son who is significantly affected with autism. His sleep patterns haven’t always been horrible, but different nonetheless. However, around 11-12 years old, his sleep patterns shifted as puberty approached. At one time, I decided to let him sleep as his body dictated (his autism affects his logic/awareness insomuch that he wouldn’t choose to go to sleep for health reasons justified by his mental faculties). Anyway, he actually did have a pattern . . . 18 hours awake, 12 asleep. Since this adds up to a 30 hour day, naturally, he would cycle through being awake all night if allowed to let his body dictate his sleep patterns. So, I worked together with him to see what could work for everyone. I was not comfortable having him awake without someone being aware of his activities. For a while, I found having him go to sleep at 2:00 a.m. and awake at 12:00 noon could work. I was able to stay awake until 2:00 a.m. with him and then was able to sleep until about 8:00 a.m. It was during this timeframe that I was not teaching the early morning seminary class, and the two attending were able to drive themselves.In short the inability to have intercourse by male accomplice is called erectile issue or male impotency !! There can be various purposes for the male patients & indeed it is a standard one for acquisition de viagra devensec.com jelly.

However, when I went back to teaching, I had to figure out this sleep pattern again. Plus, the timing eventually caught up with me from before. I finally decided to look into over the counter melatonin for Adam as well. Before, even when I got him to lay in bed at 2:00 a.m., it could take him up to two hours to fall asleep, which meant I wasn’t fully asleep until after that time. With the melatonin, he is asleep within 15 minutes! Now, I am able to get Adam to sleep around 12:30 a.m. and he gets up around 10:00-11:00 a.m. Sometimes I go to sleep, if I’m being self-disciplined, around 10:00 p.m. and set the alarm for 12:30 a.m., get Adam to sleep, go back to sleep, and wake up at 6:00 a.m. Oftentimes, it seems I just stay up until 12:30 a.m. and go to sleep when I can and get the mere five hours sleep.

Lastly, put on top of that my hubby is having to commute a minimum of one hour one way to work each day, and is not able to get home typically until 7:00 p.m., which is really different for our family, we like to get some family time as well as couple time. The other children vary in their sleep patterns as well. William and Joseph are put to bed around 8:00-9:30 a.m., whenever it works for whichever parent is doing the routine. Alex is pushing and pushing the envelope with his sleep schedule whereas he’s been known to be up until 1:00-2:00 a.m. Not good. I’m starting to wonder if he has the same sleep differences as Adam, as he also lives with autism. Eli and Abbey are actually the most “normal” of the family for self-initiated sleep schedules. Because they both attend early morning seminary, they usually go to bed at about 11:00 p.m. Sometimes, they go as early as 10:00 a.m. Eric also suffers with sleep pattern differences that are greater than your typical right-brained learner trait of being a night owl. He also may have some melatonin differences insomuch that he started to take it to help alleviate the one-two hour timeframe it takes for him to fall asleep, and that usually wasn’t until 2:00-3:00 a.m.

So, there you have it. Sleep patterns have such a huge impact on individual rhythms and family rhythms. When individuals have sleep differences and/or sleep issues, it can take its toll on the entire family. I find that when we have all worked together to figure out what can work for each person to minimize the impact on others, our family life is much more productive, inter-relative, and predictable. I’m just wondering if the best that I can work out is still going to be difficult for my poor body and mind . . .

3 Comments

Posted in Family, Right-Brained/Visual-spatial Learners

Trying to Get Back in the Blog Saddle

Posted on November 2, 2006 | 2 comments

I started this blog to be able to share some of the insights I’ve gained through homeschooling my children, a place to put some of the stories that I tell over and over again, a place to put resources that I have gathered to share with others, and a place to act as a journal (I’ve still yet to print it all off . . . that will be a chore if I wait too much longer). I was doing so well for the first months, but then I just can’t seem to find a good balance for this fall. I’m being pulled in all directions, it seems.

My daughter, Abbey, just started a blog here called Wet Paw Creek. She’s SUCH an awesome daughter . . . I hope you all have fun getting to know her! She has every intention of homeschooling her children because she can’t imagine life without being home and learning based on her passions. She may be sharing some of her short stories as well. She is very clever, if I do say so myself 🙂

I reconsidered having the person work with William that I thought seemed like she would do a good job. Her name is Christy, and I decided to just focus on getting her up and going with William, and then we’ll decide if working with Adam will fit right now. I’m excited about what we’ve accomplished in how she will interact and learn with William. I think, after several years now, that I figured out how to do it and keep him excited, interested, focused, and happy. Having a clean slate with Christy helped me move in the direction that I thought was just right for him.

I’m not sure about moving on to Adam because it appears fall is not a good time for him emotionally. He is very edgey these days and prone to outbursts. In fact, just a few weeks ago, we ended up with the police at our door due to some renters at our neighbor’s house calling in regard to one of his meltdowns, that he sometimes takes outside . . . lots of screaming and pounding on doors. This is not the first time, so we took it all in stride, and the officer understood quickly. That in itself is promising. I was able to meet the woman in PA who began the crusade for educating first responders (through professional training workshops) about what autism looks like and how they should interact once they realize autism is involved. It looks like it’s working!Kamagra India, for example, is one such online thought about that online cialis store where you can get the same item for quite a bit less money.

Anyway, I hope to get back on my blog at least every other day, and just start writing to get myself in the groove again. When I create a post about important insights I’ve been thinking about, though, it takes a good bit of my time. But, I’m always happy when I find voice to our experiences. It also helps me sift through all the ideas into something coherent that helps me learn even more deeply, if that makes sense.

I’ll post soon . . .

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Posted in Family

Getting Started . . . Again

Posted on October 24, 2006 | 2 comments

I can’t believe October is almost done, and I have but a single post on my blog to show for it! We actually don’t do a lot of full out family vacations and/or overnight activities, so when we went away for the week to the beach mid-September, and then a few weeks later, we went to a homeschooling weekend camp trip at the beginning of October, it has thrown me completely off any type of rhythm. This week is the first time I feel a sense of finding my place again.

As indicative of my sidebar, I have two yahoo groups that I moderate that have been in existence for seven years and 1.5 years, respectively, so I feel a commitment to putting in some effort there to catch up and connect with my fellow listmates, some of whom have become great friends IRL! By the time I get around to working with my blog, the desire to write is gone, and I find it difficult to write if I don’t feel like it. So, instead, I have kept up on reading my fellow blogger’s posts and throw in my comments here and there, but otherwise, haven’t carved out the creative time I can devote to posting on my blog.

The last thing that has taken some of my attention away is a person was found to work with William through my state service organizations. Although I wasn’t sure I was ready to train someone, it was apparent she would be a good fit, and I felt I needed to give it a try. After a few days of training, I got the clever idea to have her also work with Adam as well. After a week and a half of training, my heart just isn’t in it to put in the appropriate level of training to get her at a place to know how to interact in a way that works for my children and our family while implementing the goals in a fun way utilizing their unique learning styles. So, I decided to follow my heart and let her know that I’m just not prepared to train her properly and that we need a break from outsider energy.Psychological Causes When no physical causes discount levitra bought this can lead to male dysfunction.

Now that all of that is decided, this week I’ve been able to find a new rhythm that works for all of us. Give me a couple weeks, and maybe I can share some of what’s happening and how it’s going. I just feel great about getting back into the groove of a chunk of time dedicated to my screen goals, and hopefully that will include a more consistent time back in my blog 🙂

2 Comments

Posted in Family

Beach Vacation

Posted on September 24, 2006 | 3 comments

Our family enjoyed a weeklong beach vacation at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with our great homeschooling family friends who invited us along to this annual get-away for their family. We have three sets of children who “match up” as friends: our daughters (16 and 17), our teen sons (13 and 15), and our little sons (5, 5, and 7). We moms have a WHOLE lot in common with homeschooling, foster care, cross-cultural adoption, special needs children, large families, and religious. That’s a whole lot in common that I have a hard time finding in the world. Even with all our similarities, the way we go about each of these can be quite different, but it works to bring in ideas versus limit us.

Our family had never taken a vacation to the beach before. In fact, sad to say, having lived in North Carolina now for six years, we’ve only taken day trips to the beach about three times. I wasn’t sure how my family would take to this type of vacation. We rented a condo . . . two bedrooms . . . nine people . . . LOL! Actually, though, the small space has its benefits . . . easier to keep clean, in my opinion!

I estimated that William, Joseph, and Adam would LOVE the ocean. I was right. I guessed that Abbey and Eli would enjoy themselves because they had good friends to enjoy it with. I was right. I assumed that Alex, who hates the water and doesn’t know how to swim because of it at 11 years old, and Eric, who had no one to match up with and doesn’t have a strong interest in water/swimming/ocean, would tolerate it. They both did better than that!

I knew Alex was interested in “the babies” (my friend has two babies at 16 months and 12 months; one adopted, one by birth), and I had hoped that one of us would have ceiling fans in our condo (our friends did; ours didn’t), but I wasn’t sure if that would be enough for a whole week’s entertainment value. Well, not only did Alex enjoy those two aspects of the trip, but he went in the ocean on many occasions (with a life jacket I brought along) and really, really enjoyed it! (Maybe that’s my foot into encouraging him to try swimming again?)

Eric brought along his game systems and enjoyed the solitude of our long absences to the beach (which was right outside the doors of the condo . . . about 10 feet!). However, the last three nights, the five oldest children between the family (19, 17, 16, 15, and 13) played a Cranium game I picked up that I heard was a bunch of fun, and the bonding among the group occurred, which Eric enjoyed, as they continued staying up to around 1:00 a.m. each night either watching movies, going to a museum, etc., together.

A side benefit, that Stephanie of Throwing Marshmallows mentioned on my Homeschooling Creatively list, is that Adam’s consistent time thrashing against the ocean waves allowed him to fall asleep on his own initiative around 10:30 p.m. without the help of his melatonin the last three nights! Because of the effects of autism, Adam’s normal wake/sleep cycle is 18 hours awake/12 hours asleep, which equals 30 hours a day, which doesn’t happen (don’t we wish), so he could cycle all the way through the night every so often. It could also often take him 2-3 hours to fall asleep. Finally, I decided to try melatonin to help him, and oh boy, has it ever! It now only takes him about 15 minutes to fall asleep, and he goes to bed around midnight and awakens around 10:00 a.m., and it’s really working for us now. But, it was nice that the deep and intense sensory input that the waves created for him allowed him the same sleep benefit as the melatonin 🙂

My hubby, Weston, was only able to stay through to Monday afternoon before he had to high tail it back to work. (Not being salaried has its downside; the upside is the fantastic money that is earned as a consultant . . . we’ll endure the season, and, as my mother-in-law says, “make hay while the sun shines.”) Before he left, he had some great times in the ocean with the boys (and girl), but particularly the three who love the ocean. We also went to see Ripley’s Aquarium on Monday just before he left. Stupid me didn’t think to ask about a homeschool discount; whereas, my friend’s family did, and they got in later in the week for half price . . . grrrr. I guess it’s because we don’t go to these types of out-of-state activities often to think of it. Live and learn . . . and pass on the remembrance to all of you . . . always, always ask for a homeschooling discount.

All in all, it was really, really relaxing . . . more than I thought it would be. In fact, it was my intent to do a lot of “thinking” while I was there, but every time I tried to do that, I just drew a blank. My friend concurred that it was the same for her, but that’s why she enjoys it so much. She doesn’t usually start her new fall routines until after their annual beach trip . . . now I know why! We had about three weeks under our belt, and it was weird to stop that flow and go on this trip, but once there, it was worth it!

Interestingly, as soon as I stepped through the doors of our home, it was like the “go-go-go business mentality hat” just jumped right on my head. AND, it helped me really realize that I have almost a business mentality to the running of our home. In one sense, it has to be that way with seven children and four children with significant disabilities in order to meet all their needs and manage all that needs to be done, but I want to take some time to think about it and see if I can maintain some of the relaxed and “in the moment” mentality that we all enjoyed while there.

Pictures will be pending as I develop what little we took, as our digital camera (of only one year) seems to be on the blink.Milk is a reservoir of nutrients and forms generico viagra on line downtownsault.org an important ingredient of a balanced diet.

Abbey and Alyssa digging (with the two babies in the background):