Savannah & the Mole: Elimination Day

We have been trying to get Savannah into a local dermatologist for over half a year now.  Frustration!  First, you have to go a primary care physician for a referral.  From there you have to find a dermatologist that is on your insurance plan.  That sounds simple enough since there are about six listed: except, when you call each one they all say the same thing, "We are not currently taking patients."  The other option is to just set up a surgical removal with a local pediatric surgeon.  For personal reasons we were not willing to do that with the surgeon in our area.  I have tried to figure out what to do but kept coming up with no solution... until Sierra needed to see a dermatologist and they immediately referred her to UTMB Galveston.  When I called I told them I had had difficulty getting my oldest daughter in to a dermatologist and they said they would just go ahead and see her, also.  Simple!  Done.  

So, we arrived for her appointment two days later... TWO DAYS... after months of trying to get her in locally UTMB Galveston was able to see her two days later.  I was thrilled.  Ok, back to what I was saying... we arrived and very quickly called back for her consultation.  The doctor said that any mole like hers with the changes and fluids coming out of it should be removed.  So, we were thinking we would have to come back but no.  And, then we were thinking they would move her across the hall to a surgical area or something like that.  No, within about a minute the doctor had a syringe in her hand and was coming toward Savannah.  Yes, me and all the other four children were sitting there watching it all.  I held Savannah's hand and covered her face with my hands because I knew she did not want to see it removed.   The local anesthesia (shot) was administered at the site and we watched as it turned it white as the medicine went into the skin.  The doctor pulled out a flexible flat razor bald and bent it like a scoop and sliced that mole right off and covered it with a bandaid.  Done.  While we all watch.  No notice.  No warning.  Just done.  Savannah was shocked to say the least.

Honestly, we are so happy it is done, but my poor girl just kept repeating over the next day how she just did not know they were about to remove it right then.  Slightly traumatized, but done.  That mole was eliminated!!!  And, the best part... we got the test results back and it was BENIGN!  No cancer.... because I will be honest that was a very suspicious mole and there is skin cancer in the family history.  I can not begin to express how thankful and blessed we feel. 

Sierra & Lyme's Disease: Part 4

Well, we made the trip to UTMB in Galveston to have Sierra checked out. This actually ended up being an opportunity to get my oldest daughter, Savannah, in also to be seen for a mole that we have been trying to get her seen for for months.  I will write a separate post about that, so that I can focus on Sierra for this post. 

We did not get a diagnosis for Sierra but what we did get was assurance that this rash is NOT:

• Lyme's disease -- Although, she did test positive for three markers of Lyme's back in January and go through the first treatment for it this rash is not characteristic of Lyme's.  It has also come to my attention that having three markers for Lyme's is not always confirmation that Lyme's is truly present.  Maybe it was.  Maybe it wasn't.  We took the treatment of antibiotics and have since gotten the negative test results so I have no regrets about that.  I would rather be safe than sorry later. 
• Lupus -- This rash is also not characteristic of lupus.  What a relief!  They said the rash would be much different on the surface or it would be more of a deep tissue skin issue.  I don't claim to totally understand that but they are the dermatologists.  We only had pictures and our descriptions to go by so they could not give us total clarity, though. 

What they said it COULD be:

• An allergy to past medications -- I don't really feel this is likely to be the case since we rarely do meds and Sierra was not sick or receiving meds during these times.  They assured me that the meds could be in her system and the rash show up at times that she has not taken the meds.  I don't buy this completely.  Actually, I don't buy it at all BUT again they were only looking at photos on my iPhone and our description.
• A giant hickie of sorts -- Obviously, we are not talking about a kiss hickie (and they did not say the word "hickie") but rather the type of thing from a child sucking on a cup on their face.  We assured them this was not the case.  They seemed to think we could not be certain that she was not doing this to herself.  You could tell they did not believe us totally.  I could see this with a small child but with a twelve year old she is old enough to discuss this with. 

The OUTCOME:

•  They will but a note in her file, so if it flares up again we should call immediately and they will try to see Sierra right away.  Meanwhile, they wanted to treat her acne since she was there and set her up for a return visit in three months so we did that and she went home with instructions and meds for that issue which I am certain is a good thing, also.  
• I am not completely satisfied but I am satisfied that there is not BAD news.  We wait and we see.  Time will tell this story but I have not worries.  I am also suddenly getting lots of feedback from people that are telling me they have been through this very thing with food or food additive allergies.  Being that these are real personal experiences I honestly think this is probably what the issue is.  We may never pinpoint this but we will write down a food diary of the all items consumed if it flares up, again.  We will obviously not if she has taken meds near that time. 

Following our appointment we made a fun day of it in Galveston!  We headed over to the Rainforest Cafe for a ride on their jungle ride, picked up some more picnic foods at the local Kroger, and headed down to the beach below the seawall.  After getting nice and nasty we did a little exploring while driving and headed back across the ferry.  My two littles got too nasty at the beach to have proper clothing on so we could not go into public places so I drove around and talk to them about the hurricane damage from recent years and while doing that we stumbled upon Fort Travis.  It looked like nothing as we passed and curiosity got me, so I turned around and found a gem!  I am so glad I turned back because it is really a wonderful place.  In the future I will plan to have our beach picnics there and enjoy the history of all the old buildings that are still standing.  We later figured out a way to dress the littles in jackets and blankets so we could go in and enjoy a dinner at Denny's with the most "green" water ever... I was patient and kind having been a "green" waitress myself once.  Off topic completely, but they had an amazing salad that kept me on track with my THM journey, also.  I can't remember the name of it but it had chicken breast, bacon, cheese, and avocado.  I just had to take off the really weird potato chip sticks.  All in all, we had a great day!!

Those Weeks You Just Have To Laugh About

Yes, last week was just one of those weeks you just have to laugh about... or you might lose your mind.  

Monday:
It was "back to school" week after the holidays, so it already promised to be a little more of a struggle which was to be expected.  As expected my kids did have a hard time focusing on doing their work.  It is just hard to get back in the groove after several weeks off.  Temperatures dropped outdoors severely for our area and being that a huge part of our home is on blocks an only a small portion is on a slab that means when the temp drops we have to drain our pipes.  That is fine... we just made sure we had several pitchers of water ready for emergencies and went with it.  That, of course, means that showers and baths have to well planned or even skipped.  Skipping one is not too bad because when it is freezing cold no one is sweating and no one is getting dirty from playing outside either. 

The water stayed frozen until close to noon.  Wow!  Not the best thing.  No way to wash dishes or laundry.  That is okay.  I had laundry caught up pretty well and decided to just wait it out a few days to do more rather than stress about that.  Dishes could be done when we did have water during the warmer part of the day.  No big deal.  

My husband went to work on Monday feeling normal and came home feeling "not so good". 

Caden is excited about the ice he found!  Brrrrr cold!!!

Tuesday:
Water pipes drained for the freeze, again.   

The dishwasher quit working a few days before and we scheduled someone to come look at that for repairs.  This was our special splurge dishwasher.  It is a KitchenAid and our feeling is that with our large family we might not splurge on many things but this was something we wanted to get the best we could get.  Apparently, the best is not truly that great either and $900 later we probably should have just planned to buy a cheap one and have it replaced more often... or ditch the dishwasher completely.  So, at least, we bought the warranty plan. Anyway, we scheduled for the service technician to come out.  It really had not been working since before Thanksgiving well, so we were getting used to handwashing dishes.  No big deal.  He called that morning to confirm the appointment.  He would arrive shortly, we hung up the phone, then, I realized my water was off.  When he arrived I told him I was sorry that I had forgotten the water was off due to the freeze and he scheduled to come back that afternoon.  

My husband came home about and hour early around 4:PM which was not normal since it was the first day back to school for students.  He was a officially "not feeling good" and wanted to go to bed like right then.  My husband never sleeps... so this is a huge red flag that all is not well.

The dishwasher repairman came back, found the problem, ordered the parts, and planned to come back in one week.   

Sienna is enjoying the cold all bundled up in many layers.  Brrrr...

Meanwhile, throughout the day I noticed it was really cold in the house.  Of course, with temps in the teens you kind of expect that, right?  I turned the heat up and that seemed to do the trick to make us feel warmer.  After the dishwasher repairman left my husband crawled in bed.  I washed dishes, cooked dinner, and the usual stuff.  At some point after all that I walked into my little kids room and it was pretty cold.  Uh-oh, I knew instantly that something was not right.  The heat was blowing non-stop so this should mean that the room would be warm.  No, the AIR was blowing non-stop, but that AIR was not warm at all.  It was rather cool and the temp on the end of the house was around 60 degrees.  I stood on a chair and felt the air coming out of the vent to confirm my suspicions.  Not good.  Not good at all.  I immediately knew I had to turn that off and block off that end of the house.  Fortunately, we have two units so if you know what to do you can make due with the circumstances you have.  I grew up with relatives that always blocked off parts of their house so they could afford their bills.  I know that hanging quilts or blankets will do the trick.  I had to wake my husband to help me hang the quilts because it is just too heavy for me to do easily while trying to nail them up.  Also, the unit did not kick off like it should have so he had to go out to the breaker to switch off the breaker.  

 

Thankful raggedy old quilts that can still serve a purpose.  The top one was a store bought quilt I got at a yard sale many years ago for $10 that I have patched in the past and is in dire need of re-patching.  The bottom is a quilt my husband found on the side of the road that someone had lost.  It has served many useful years here.  The back has a sunset beach scenery on it while the other front of the quilt is a patchwork design of beautiful little triangles. Many people would have not have brought that quilt home but we just washed it and it has been a treasure here.  I often wonder about who might have lost this precious treasure and I wish they, at least, knew that it has been well loved.

Wednesday:
By this point my husband was simple "out of commission"... he was curled up in the bed in the fetal position most of the day.  The original plan for this day was that my oldest had a dental appointment early, so I had planned to take everyone to that appointment.  Instead, I decided that just the two of us would go and that would be so much better than getting everyone out in the freezing weather.  When I left everyone was up having a simple breakfast of cereal in the interest of making it easy.  All was well.  Three hours later I returned to my sick husband sitting in the recliner, my toddler saying, "I hungry." as she decided to try to solve this problem herself since Daddy clearly was not hearing her and it was just past lunch time.  I asked him if he had taken her potty to which he said he had not as she spilled an entire bag of cereal in the floor.  As I went to sweep up that huge mess she peed all over herself since I guess she heard me ask the potty question which apparently triggered her bladder to respond.  I called out for my husband to help her since I was cleaning up the floor... to which he did not move for few minutes.  In total frustration I told him how I knew he was sick but I had this same thing a couple weeks before and you still have to carry on and function to some degree.  While I feel bad for anyone that is sick there are some things that simple must still be done.  Fifteen minutes later I am cleaning up messes (the spill and the pee) and she is still begging for a snack even though I told him to make it simple and give her the peaches out of the refrigerator.  Sigh. 

Thursday:
I get up to find puddles of liquid around the stand up freezer.  Things are thawing out.  Not good.  Not good at all.  We realized the breaker to the heat must also be the breaker to the freezer, so we had to turn it back on.  Which meant that the freezer could work, but it also meant that we had cold air blowing through the house.  Not good.  But, at least, it was the day the repairman was coming for that.  And it was a warmer day, so as it became warmer outside I opened the doors and on both ends of the house and pulled back the quilts hoping the airflow through the house might warm it some.  That worked for a little while.  Then, the temp outside starting dropping a little.  But the repairman came and showed us another small breaker box under the heating unit that switched the unit off, as well.  He also surveyed the issue and said he would check to see if he could get the parts (since our unit is pretty old... ugh... ).  Fortunately, he was able to get the part and he ordered it.  That will be about $314.  Yeah, for after-holiday repairs needing to be done.  :(    But for real... yippee for not having to replace the unit, ... yet.  

I think this is the day we also realized we had a big rabbit problem... their pipes had frozen and since all their cages were covered with tarps no one noticed this when they checked on the rabbits.  Each day my older two girls were going out to break up the ice in the water for all the animals.  All of our animals are set up with feed containers that will last about 3 days, so there was no need to raise the tarps.  The water is a 5 gallon bucket that is suspended in the air hanging from a tree branch and it is piped into all the rabbit cages (10) and each cage has nipplers for the rabbits to drink from.  The pipes burst.  And either by dehydration or wetness from the pipes we had a dead rabbit, also.  Not good.  Miracle our miracle rabbit that was from our first litter of babies was the one that died.  She had a rough little life, but was the sweetest rabbit.  It was a sad moment.  She was dropped twice as a newborn and never fully recovered the damage.  She was blind and deaf and was prone to ear mites for some reason.  She could not birth babies due to her mental abilities... ummmm... no details, but she could not see to know what she was doing when cleaning her babies, so it did not end well, so we were not able to use her as a breeder rabbit.  Basically, we kept her strictly as a pet out of mercy.    

Sierra is somewhat bundled up... with no jacket... these kids!!!  Honestly, they would try to go barefoot and naked if they could get away with it even when it is freezing outside.  Brrr.....

Thursday night (I think) the phone rings with some weird recording from Sears about rescheduling our repair service.  I only heard part of that message, so I was not sure what the recording said.  Sigh.  I miss the days of real people on the other end of the phone.  

Husband goes to Minor Care, gets tested for flu and strep (negative), but gets Tamiflu as a precaution since people have been dying in our area from flu.  He is still really sick which continues the whole weekend.  

Long story short (maybe... and I can't remember days anymore... ha!):
Monday comes and the dishwasher repairmen does not arrive on time... in fact, not at all.  Apparently, I missed something on that recording.  I called and was told there was another part coming and it is now schedule for repair for the 20th.  Parts have all arrived here.  Yippee!  There is hope.  

The heater repairmen came back with the part he had ordered, needed another part, got it, installed it, and left.  Two hours later.  No heat.  Not AIR blowing at all.  Called them back.  He came back.  Found the issue and we have heat!!!  Yippee!  

Husband improves some, goes to work on Monday out of necessity.  Returns well enough to, at least, take the two to basketball practice that need to go.  

These are the weeks you really have to laugh about to maintain sanity, right?...

No Suds On Tomatoes!

Whatever you do... DO NOT get the bright idea like yours truly to spray your tomato plants and other plants down with diluted dish liquid. 

If there has been a sick child in your home with a temp of over 103 find a way to make a store run for the proper pest control solution. 

If you feel like a sickness is coming on for yourself and do not want to go to the store, do it anyway. 

If you do not want to dress appropriately to drive to the store do it anyway.  Change those ratty clothes and brush your nappy hair and go!  I mean really I could have just put on some shoes that would cover my dirty tired toes instead of worrying about what people would think if they saw those dirty toes.  Who really cares if they don't know that I spent the day in my garden and building nesting boxes for the new chicken yard we SPENT THE WHOLE DAY building.  In hindsight I wish I had just suffered the shame.

Nope!  I got a bright idea... I thought I remembered people doing this before.  I know I remember this tip, but alas I think it must have been a tip to use on shrubbery.  {sigh}  You see... I took an empty spray bottle and poured in about a 1/2 cup of dish liquid and slowly filled it the rest of the way with water.  To mix it I gently turned the bottle over and oever until it was mixed.  I thought I was a genius!  LOL!  Oh... it is so NOT funny now!  My thought was that these caterpillars (oak worms) that were all over my tomato plants would not like the soap and would go away.  They did!!!  Yeah, that worked!!! 

Oh.... but the awful thing that is left behind is my withering plants.  I think I blocked my plants from breathing.  And while I was spraying my tomato plants I sprayed everything else in that garden bed for fear the caterpillars would just move to the next thing. 

I have three varities of bean plants in that bed that now have ashen colored leaves that were once thriving and bright green. 

My bell pepper row has now lost all of it's leaves.  I do hold out some hope because the tops hav a new leaf sticking out of each one.  Sad... like a little flag raised saying, "We surrender!  Don't spray us again!"  Poor things are fighting to live. 

My tomato plants that range in size from 1' tall to 3' tall (most are 3') are the biggest mess.  Awe!  I can not believe the hard work that went into this little garden.  They are all withering, ashen, and yellowing.  I did spray this whole garden down really good yesterday to see if it will wash the soap away.  Time will tell.  And I forgot and left the water on so the ground go super saturated, so maybe that will help.  They look like they COULD survive.  I am still hopeful.  All is not lost... I have learned my lesson!!

And my bumper crop seedlings (bell pepper and tomato) that I have out on my deck.... well, I spray those, too.  Yes, they are ashen as well and the bell pepper plants are naked (no leaves).  And some of my container plantings I did the same to.  Yes, my gorgeous basil that is almost a foot tall that I grew from seed... now ashen colored.  My dill that I grew from seed that my dear friend said was hard to grow.  Well, it was doing well and I was very proud of my efforts.  It is about 7 inches tall... now it looks a little dry.  I have learned! 

And I want to warn you.  Don't do what I did!!!

Fortunately, I was over ambitious with my gardening and I have another garden with peas and cucumbers and such that I did not spray since it is well away from the tomato plants.  And I have another garden waiting for me to be well enough to feel like working in this week that I am going to fill with seeds.  Now, I might be adding tomatoes and bell peppers there as well.  It is late in the season, but I was planning to experiment with bumper crop plantings anyway.  I am not happy about it all, but it a learning experience. 

And so we live... and learn... not all is lost as long as we can gain some knowledge.  The best lessons in life are usually the hard ones!  ;)

Easter Pic 2012

I can't say this is the best Easter pic we have ever taken, but they are all there and that is what matters the most.  Savannah (11), Sienna (1), Sierra (8), Sahara (3), & Caden (5)

I took the older two girls shopping for dresses with all the little ones in tow on our dentist day.  Whoa!  That was crazy!  But we came up with two dresses and we all agreed we could live with these dresses and end the shopping spree.  Let's just say that Caden and Sahara spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e and they were very restless after being gone all day.  I normally will not choose a sleeveless spaghetti strap dress, but these were very well fitted around the arms and chest area and were ankle length.  I think they still fit the "modest" category for us and with the Texas heat, so I decided they did not have to wear a shrug.  I was excited to realize when I got home that Sahara had a hand-me-down dress of Sierra's that coordinated and Sienna had a new dress that she got for her birthday that also coordinated.  On another outing I was able to find a lime shirt for Caden to wear with pants he had.  The two older girls were already in need of Spring/Summer shoes to wear with dresses and we made a late night run and found a solution to that issue.  Yeah!  All had outfits without a huge ordeal or huge expense. 

 And I just want to share this pic of Sienna on her first Easter egg hunt.  She basically crawled to her egg because she was too excited to walk.  She had to get out of that Easter dress that was making it hard for her to crawl, so she is wearing some comfy play clothes that she can get messy in. I just love the look of deep thought on her face here.  She actually did eat some boiled egg, which was a huge surprise to me since she absolutely will not eat scrambled eggs. 

 And here are some of our beautiful peeled hard boiled eggs.  I just love to see how much of dye transfers onto the actual inside egg.  So pretty!

And Savannah is being very silly like she is going to take a bite out of the butter.  And we don't usually have such pretty butter, but this was one of our purchases from our dairy farm field trip.  Look close at the beautiful flower.  I just love that! 

I was actually sick on Easter this year, but did not realize it until after church.  I was very weak and feverish, so I did not quite accomplish my plans for our Easter day celebrations.  That's okay, though.  I got to spend it with my little family.

Weekly Wrap-Up... Hehehe! (Scheduling Our Year & Random)

Okay... well, this is a bit of a joke because we did not have a school week this week.  At the beginning of our school year I sat down with a calendar and wrote in all the details that I already new about.  Then, I sat back and looked at it.  If we had more than one day in week that had outside commitments I put a little "x" out in the margin by that week.  The rest of the weeks got a little week number out by those.  Right away I noticed that this week my husband would be home for Labor Day and I knew that we would have our first week of co-op this Friday (today).  Also, I knew there was a short appointment that would require us to break away on Wednesday morning and I do not like even short disruptions in the day.  This week got one of my little "x" marks.  And that equals no school for us! 

So, what we did do this week was stay busy... sometimes busy doing nothing.  But I guarantee you that busy doing nothing is still busy here.  No matter how lazy you feel there is always someone that needs something done for them or there is a spill or other small disaster going on.  Ahhh.. and I must not forget... someone has to flush the toilets and I seem to be the official toilet flusher.  ;)  But I want tell you too much detail about all that. 

Monday was spent playing with friends that came over (and skipping Sierra's soccer practice because I think spending time with out of town friends is important) and then, spending time with more friends that dropped by.  I think I did laundry or something that morning, but that is all a blur.

Tuesday was spent lazing around and making that Apple/Pear Pie.

Wednesday was spent doing appointments... and that was pretty much it.  I had the one little quick appointment and then, I had to call the pediatrician about a rash that Sahara has had for over a month.  She has been to the doctors three times now for this rash.  It was one of those mystery rashes that just was not going away on her inner thighs.  She saw her actual doctor this time and he diagnosed it completely different... eczema.  And it seems he diagnosed it right because it looks better.  And that is a huge victory!  And I need to remember to send out a praise request to my Sunday School class about this one.  After all that appointment business we rushed home to hurry the kids off to church.   Errrrrkkkk.... (the sound of squealling brakes).... I forgot about half our day and this was the good stuff.  I intended to surprise the kids with lunch out someplace because I have never taken all five of them to eat alone.  I had considered Pizza Hut buffet, Chik-Fil-A, or McDonald's (ughhh McD's) and I was going to even get them kid's meals!!!.  Oh happy day!  See... we do not allow kid's meals.  First of all, we only drink water most of the time, especially when dining out.  Second, I do not like my kids lusting after toys and not eating their food.  Lastly, it is just too expensive and I can feed them way cheaper for about half the cost.  Well, I ended up wasting some of the day away and losing track of time.  That gave us 20 minutes to dine.  That eliminated Pizza Hut.  And I really wanted to take them to CFA... not McD's.  I told them that I would take them to CFA if they were super good and super fast.  And they were... and so I promised to bring them back to play in the playground.  And that is what we did.  It was nice.  I think I could move in there... they played... I sat.... I even ordered ice cream of which they shared with me... and we ordered more for them to eat on the way home.  Then, it was rush home to quickly eat a simple meal and take them to church. 

Thursday was a lot of laundry and a going through the family closet some.  What fun.  Not... When done somewhat we emerged with two boxes of clothes to get rid of.  And those will be going to help fire victims in Bastrop, Texas.  I still need to get that laundry put away....

Friday it was off to the first day of co-op and to the park.  We meet lots of new people and we got to see our old friends.  Yeah!  We came home and chilled... really...to cool off... kids played the Wii and we all sat around and ate ice cream out of the container.  Yes, because we are gross like that and I am a bad influence on my kids.  ;)  After that it was time to get serious in a lighthearted way.  A childhood friend of mine is now a co-worker of my husbands and she is taking chemo for breast cancer.  They caught it early and did a masectomy and now are doing the chemo...and her hair is falling out in clumps.  So, a couple days ago Cody offered to help her shave her head.  And today she decided she wanted to.  They arrived and she looked a little nervous, but good.  I asked her how SHE wanted to do this... behind closed doors or in the open?... her shave it, Cody, or me?... Pics or no pics?.... all those "little" details... And then, we just did it the way she wanted.  And she went home to her husband with the help of a friend.  We ordered pizza and rented a kid movie and that is how the week went..... and now I am going to bed.

A COMPLETE Week! Started Expedition Earth: PART 1 (The Concussion)

Well, it is with great relief that I can say that we finished a complete week of our new curriculum, Expedition Earth.  I was all set to start this curriculum the previous week and had stayed up into some crazy, obscene, long hours of the night the weekend before to get everything ready.  On that Monday we jumped in... or rather, I did.... but the kids did not... they had already experienced the boredom of the three weeks prior with our other curriculum and let's just say they were resistant and cranky... I did not go well.  We got enough ready to move on to day two and had gotten up that morning and gotten off to a good start.  Most of our core subjects were done and I think the two older girls only had math to do.  I was feeling like it was going to be a better day and then, we went out to feed the animals since it had not been done at the correct time.  Caden was inside watching TV and the rest of us went out.  Sahara and Sierra tired of our animal duties and went back inside.  Shortly after, Sierra opened the back door and said that Sahara was hurt and had fallen.  I honestly did not take it serious until I got to the door and saw Sahara trying to stand and walk and stumbling around.  I took her in my arms and tried to calm her, but she was just crying and groaning.  I tried the usual tricks to see if she would "forget".  It was just not happening, but she was not screaming hysterically.  That was odd in itself.  Cody called and I told him I was dealing with a head trauma, but even then I did not take it too seriously.  I thought she would cry a little and be okay.  She was starting to fall asleep and I tried to keep her awake, but she drifted out.  I lay her in my bed and then, nurse the baby who also fell asleep.  I put her in the bed away from Sahara and checked on Sahara, again.  She was fine.. or seemed so.  A few minutes later I her rousing and crying and I went to her quickly.  I got her up carried her to the living room couch to keep from waking Sienna.  She began throwing up.  That's when I knew this was not just a little bump on the head.  Called the pediatrician.  They said to take her in.  Called Cody.  He came.  Long story short... it got scary... She was disoriented, dozing in and out, slurred speech, hard to understand, made little sense, was abnormally quiet.  Five hours later and CT scan later she was clear of major injuries and it was determined that she had a concussion and could go home. 

For this reason we only did core subjects the rest of the week and stopped with Expedition Earth, so my focus could be more on watching Sahara closely.  I am happy to say that she is doing well and we managed to complete a full school week this week.  Yeah!  

What Have We Been Up To?

Little Sienna is already three weeks old.  Time is flying by already.  A lot has happened... or rather not happened around here.  ;)  I stilll plan to post about c-section recovery, but I had to delay due to a stomach virus that we all got (Savannah & Sienna did NOT get it).  And now... well, some other virus has hit some of us.  Yesterday I had chills and fever and all the aches that go with that.  Today was better.  Thank God!!!  It's a little crazy here.   

A Glimpse of our Last Two School Weeks

The week before this past one was Spring Break for my husband's school, but the whole family was sick so we stayed home. For Savannah we did 3rd grade Math some and did some light reading. For Sierra we did light reading, a bit of phonics like games and discussing words, and just mostly played when we were feeling up to it. Our biggest venture out was a trip to the Sno Cone stand once. There was a bigger plan, but life happens and we are still recouping from a virus after two weeks.

This past week I had planned to jump back into MFW Adventures, but that did not happen and I just am not going to worry about it. It may take us two years to do this little one year program, but I am more concerned with enjoying it than just getting it done. "Just getting it done" was my focus for a while and I have learned that there is no benefit from that. We are all quite excited to start the state studies and bird study, though. I'll shoot for starting that this coming week. We will be more prepared that way anyway. For Savannah (3rd) we did our Spelling (Rod & Staff) with double lessons. We did a "Review week" lesson and a normal week lesson at the same time. I was confident in Savannah's ability to handle two weeks of study at a time, so I did not feel this was too much for her. She aced her end of week test with a 100. The normal week lesson was with words like cutting and other -ing words and adding suffixes (-ing, -ed, -en). We did four days of math lessons and speed drills (and I still don't get why she is suddenly liking these, but I will go with it... Hehehehe!). We do "math extras", which includes using "wrap ups" and other math toys or flashcards, as well as, writing mulitiplication facts. I hear that using math songs for skip counting works well, but I have failed at implementing it so far. Maybe we will do it sometime. I also, want to start using math games online, etc. more as we just purchased two more computers as part of our school expenditures. We have saved money by borrowing some of our curriculum that has made this possible. God supplies all our needs!! Since Savannah did double lessons in Spelling I only had her do one day of handwriting practice. A normal spelling lesson consists of 16 spelling words (3 review) and the review week consists of five weeks of words (13 words each) totalling 65 words. She had only previously missed one of the 65 words so her testing consisted of the 16 words from the normal list and the one previously missed word. She made a 100. And by the way I "grade like so... all correct = 100... any missed = -1 (etc.). I don't give number grades. I have no concern for grade numbers and I would only move on to the next thing if she really knows the information. I like a Content Mastery approach and a focus on actually learning. I don't want my kids simply memorizing information for a test. Anyway, back to the handwriting... She did one day of writing her spelling words (the 16) in cursive. We usually do one day of a Bible verse, two days of the spelling words, one day of family names , and one day of other random words/sentences/verse. As long as she is writing I do not care what as long as it fills a page and is dated and signed. I had a handwriting curriculum this year for both my girls, but found it to be monotonious..... write " j j j j ..." ... we skipped all that and grabbed the old style writing paper and did what comes naturally. Much more enjoyable! Savannah read library books and some of our books. That was reading!

Before I go into Sierra's I want to tell you our schedule. Sick people just don't care..... we rested... we played when we felt like it and sometime in the late afternoon we would start some schooling. I usually started with Sierra this week and let Savannah start her independent work in Spelling or Math. We did school outside, on the couch, in the school area.... whatever felt good at the moment... sick people take a lot to motivate... especially, when it is Momma. Most of our school took place after Daddy arrived home and after dinner. It worked quite well and I would highly recommend it for those that are struggling with juggling all that life offers. I actually plan to use this "schedule" more often. I think it may be the key to getting some of our chaos in order. I can spend my days focusing on guiding my kids to help with chores and our attitudes first and foremost. We can prepare for dinner ahead of time and get more laundry done, etc. The stress of that getting lost in the shuffle greatly governs our day. With that front and center I think the schooling will just fall right into place in a more relaxed way.... even if it is in the evenings. The reality is that we can still do all our school in the same amount of time we used to do on just evening homework. I am seeing that it does not matter what time of the day we do our school. It should just be part of our life whenever it works good to do it.

And on to Sierra's... we started our "Goat Gg Week" in MFW Kindergarten. I actually want to get a bit "caught up" on where we are in lessons, so I look at the coming weeks and see that there are three weeks related to farming (Goats, Cows, Horses). I thought I would combine the Goat week with the Cows, but we were feeling too puney. Monday I finished up some unfinished work from our Insect week and did a little more preparing for the farming weeks. I have really had Sierra do more reading than the lessons call for, so I was happy to see that in the Goat week this week they finally add the first sight word (the). Sierra already knew it, so that was easy and confirmed we are on the right direction with her. She is the first on that I have had to teach to read, so it is really nerve racking sometimes.... but exciting!!! She is doing great! We did an animal matching file folder game and did some animal matching with a wooden hide-n-seek type puzzle that I have. I made some extra animals to go with it. We also used it to sing Old McDonald. I had each of the girls pick five animals and we hide them in the puzzle. As we sang we opened the little doors to see what animal was there and did each one and it's sound. For future reference 10 animals is way to long of a song when you are coughing your head off. ;) We mostly read books this week and worked through the MFW Reading Plan (I leave out some things that Sierra knows well) and did the worksheets. She did great and I am so gald that the worksheets are finally adding sentences for the child to read. The one thing I think this program is really missing..... and I say this lightly because I know it is meant to be a slow and easy approach to teaching reading and I am thankful for that.... I think it is missing little phonics readers. I have found with Sierra that the key to teaching her to read has been to put little phonics readers in her hands. Once she sees she can sound out some of these words phonetically she gets quite excited. I think it is great to write little nonsense story sentences using the words that you are focus on and let the child read those. And example off the top of my head is:

The cat is fat.

The cat is in a hat.

The cat is on a mat.

The cat sat.

The cat sat on the mat.

The cat is red.

The hat is red.

The mat is red.

I don't think we did any crafts... ooops! They did not miss it. Anyway, that was our week! Gotta run to church, again! Later!

PANIC !!!!

Caden had a 104.0 temp at 3:00 PM and I am working it down. I just checked him (3:30 PM) and it is down to 103.7, so I am happy to see the numbers going down.

Do you panic when the kids are sick and the temps run high? I don't. And strangely I think that somehow that is when it all comes into perspective to me. It's the seriousness that calms in a strange way. It's in that moment that everything stops and I focus only on what is important. I'm talking about temps here, but I am also talking about the various trials in our lives. It is in the toughest of times that we define ourselves. Your either going to panic and make a huge mess of it or your going to come to that calm place where you can draw strength and get through it.

Sometimes we find that calm easily. Other times we have to work hard at it.

Be intentional... Be purposeful.... work hard to find the calm.

Does it sound like I am experienced in this? Is that intimidating to you? Do NOT be intimidated because this is a huge struggle for me and therefore, very easy to write about! ;) I could write a book on homeschool panic, but I am learning to calm myself down, step back, focus on the big picture, the important things. I have to work on this from moment to breathing moment... seriously! If I can do it, you can to! Let's do it.

Sickness!

How do you stay on track when there is sickness in the home?

All was well... so we thought. The last four weeks have been filled with stomach viruses and crusty noses at our house. The week after Christmas we were on the road travelling and realized that four out of six of us had a stomach virus. We survived that and once we were well we attended a birthday party. The party throwers failed to mention that they had a stomach virus. Guess what? No surprise... we got it... five out of six of us. This weekend we went to church, but laid low... no big ventures out. We went out to eat last night... and I'm glad we got out the house for a bit because we did not realize a virus was coming. ;) All the kids were put to bed and we were getting ready to drift off to dreamland ourselves. Suddenly, we heard screams from Caden. I think his head was hurting and his fave was bright read and hot. It was obvious, but the thermometer confirmed our suspicions.... 102.3. My husband gave him some tea and I gave him Motrin. Within thirty minutes he drifted off to sleep and I continued to sit with him. I never go to sleep until I see a drop in fever. Suddenly, Caden started talking in his sleep.... so sweet... until the puke began. Oh, thank God for my husband who came running to help!!

So.... How do you stay on track when there is sickness in the home? We are always having someone sick here... so frustrating... ;) (trying to smile through it)

Let the "Adventures" Begin... And "K" (MFW)

Name Art

Pics first, and then you can read about it all...

Savannah, Caden, and Sierra making their Jello for dessert prep.

Sierra being silly with her Red, White, & Blue dessert.... She played with it, but wouldn't eat it even though she thoroughly enjoyed being silly with it and making it.

More of the sillies.... Sierra thought it was hilarious to give her dessert "the bunny ears".


... and more of the sillies... Sierra had band-aid stickers all over her face when her daddy came home from work. On the table you can see they are working on their forever long coloring of the U.S. map. Notice how silly their daddy is! I can't imagine why the kids are so silly, can you!!?

Seriously, I did not realize until this moment how silly they were being and that I uploaded all silly pics! They said this experiment was stinky. I thought they were referring to the eggs... and where just acting silly. They were saying the salt water was stinky... strange children!

And here we have a non-silly pic... because my kids are NOT in it! ;) This is our egg experiment on density. VERY interesting! I might just graduate from elementary school myself!!

This is Savannah's bracelet. Notice the little cross charm to remind them that God guided us in choosing their names.

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NOTE: I wrote this post at the end of last week & have not had time to add the pics to it. We are no longer sick... yippeeeee!! ;)

I'm not so sure about that last schedule just, yet. I am starting to think that that finding order may not happen for awhile with my sickly kiddos. And yes, they are sick, again. I say it that way because everyone was fever free as of Monday, so we are having some (Caden & Sahara) with a relapse or possibly a sinus infection... or a different virus. This week was supposed to be our first week using My Father's World Kindergarten and Adventures In My Father's World. I knew at the beginning of the week that we were fever free, but we still had some kiddos that were feeling pretty rough... and a Momma needing more time to prepare and needing rest. :) With all that in mind, I made the decision that we would just wait until next week to begin with My Father's World.

... That was until.... Monday and Tuesday came and went... and I realized how bored the kids were with "just being". I was letting them lay around and rest or move around playing as they felt up to it. They never said they were bored, but it was obvious they were feeling better and needing more to occupy their day. I decided that we would just jump in and start My Father's World K and Adventures and see what we could do. I already knew that next week will likely not be a full schooling week, so I was thinking that we might accomplish one week in that two week time period. So this is what we have done this week:

My Father's World Kindergarten
I found it very helpful to make my self a "daily cheat sheet" for the activities, so I would not need to look at what the book says to do next (nothing fancy... just a handwritten posty note):
1-->Read the days Creation verse
-- Child Retells
-- Briefly Discuss
2-->Cut / Color the Creation # & Glue Up
-- Play "I Spy" for the #
3-->ABC Chart & "ABC Song"
-- Point as you sing
4-->Teach the Letters of the Day using ABC Game Cards
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
5-->ABC Chart & Button Games
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
6-->ABC Chart & Shuffled ABC Cards for letter name recognition
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
7-->Creation Book Page (Art)
8-->Music
--"This Is My Father's World"
(Note: We have already done a similar study of Creation for K this year using A Beka, so I am thinking I will double time this portion as I see fit without losing the "lessons". Also, some of the Alphabet and Numbers learning games are just too simple for Sierra, so we are going add difficulty.)

9/30/09 Wed = Week 1, Day 1 & 2 (double lesson sessions)
We followed the 8 Step plan above and we did two lesson sessions. I read the verse and we discussed it. As they do the Creation # and the Creation Day art page we are continually discussing the verses further, so that works out well. We really do not do too much of the "I Spy the #" game because Sierra has known her numbers for a couple of years. The focus for her with the numbers is ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd....). We are doing Steps 3 through 6 to reinforce what Sierra already knows and to test the ABCs that she is still stumbling with (t, g, h, m, n). We add our own hand motions to the music, so they really focus on what they are singing about and not just memorizing the words. For snacks today we had Oreo cookies to represent that God divided the light from the darkness on day one. Thank you to all you MFW bloggers out there for that tip. We also had water to drink to represent that God divided the water above and below the sky on day two (and having water was easy).
10/1/09 Thu = Week 1, Day 3 & 4 (double lesson sessions)
It went pretty much the same as the previous day. Again, we doubled up and did two days sessions. We included fresh apples and oranges in our lunch to represent the fruit that God created for us to enjoy.
10/2/09 Fri = Week 1, Day 5 (one lesson session)

Pretty much the same, again. We slowed down to one session today, because this momma is tired from the two little ones having fever, again. I also thought the Day 5 lesson could stand to get a little more attention. We spent more time with the art portions.

Note: Caden participated in some of this with us, but the little guy was feeling yucky and has a very short attention span. He did enjoy some art, but was much happier to lay in bed mostly in the bedroom next to us.

<---- I will post some pics for this next week when we have finished the Creation Week lesson.--->

Adventures In My Father's World

I am really getting into my little posty note "cheat sheets"! I tend to re-read things over and over as if I am going to miss something, so making myself a little mini-outline on a posty note is working well for me.

9/30/09 Wed thru 10/2/09 Fri = Week 1

This week I am going to journal "Adventures" a little differently than I did "K". We were working with a 3 day time frame, but we did get most of it squeezed in. I rearranged some of the activities to suit our crazy week (i.e. staying up to write the kid's a letter happened later in the week rather than at the beginning).

We talked about Savannah and Sierra's names, but this is a discussion that we have had often in our home. There is no Biblical significance in our choosing our children's first names, so this was something I really had to think hard on how to adapt for my children. Also, I have written a lot to my children in their baby books and I write in a journal occassionally for each of my children. I did not really feel I need to repeat the same information in this letter. I do like the idea of presenting them with a letter from Momma, though. So, I started the letter like the book's example and adding to it:

"When you meet someone new, one of the first things you learn is their name. Everyone has a name and names are very special. Names have meanings. Some parents choose their child's name strictly for the meaning and some parrents choose a name for other reasons. Either way, I believe God leads us in naming our children and He guides us in choosing just the right name. This is what I wrote in your baby book about your name....."

I went on to write the reason we liked each of their names and the story about how God gave their names to us. I also included various meanings/origins and a little personal story of some nicknames from their baby days. We wrote their names using a name art tracing technique and we made the name bracelets. We added a tiny little cross charm to their bracelets to remind them that God guided us in choosing their names. These little charms can be purchased at Wal-Mart (dz. for approx $3). I made and colored the timeline pieces ahead of time and we added the figures each day as we did our history. We started placing all our papers in their notebooks, but we still need to cutesy up the notebooks... we can do that throughout the year. I have already explained the Pledge to the kids, but it was nice to break it down a little more and reinforce what they have already learned. They really enjoyed making jello parfaits for dessert for lunch. I choose this version of the red, white, and blue snack idea because it would be so easy for the kids to completely make. We made the jello around 10:am and had it for lunch at noon. We did a lot of map tracking when we talked about the Vikings and Leif Ericsson. And on that topic... Boy, does it take a lot of time to color those maps!! I think I would have liked to have just colored the water and our individual state and then have the kids color the other states as they are studied later on. I am really liking the idea of reading the history lesson and having the kids use narration and dictation (Sierra just listened in on this part). My kids L~O~V~E sceince, so the egg experiment was a big hit... and I was pretty happy that this experiment did not involve anything but floating the egg. The girls were totally understanding this and predicting what would happen. Savannah knows that I check eggs in a glass of water to make sure they are not spoiled, if they are past the date on the carton. They will float if they are bad, so that was her first thought when we started the experiment and when the one egg was floating. It was fun to show her that that was not why it was floating by switching the two eggs. The same egg that was floating was now sinking and vice versa. ... and then, we stuck those eggs in fresh water and boiled them on the stove for dinner. ;) For the name thing I had planned to write the letters of their names on Ritz crackers with "squeeze cheese" and for a dessert write their names in marshmallow creme on graham crackers, but we just ran out of time (and energy ...and concern). :) I'll try to be better next week!

With all our sicklies this week there were some things that got totally left out, but all in all I think it went well for what we had to work with. The things that got total skipped were: 1)handwriting practice, but they do that when they write for other things; 2)Book Basket because I was not going to give the librarians and others the flu and we read some other stuff; 3)Nature Walk and Art, but we did drive around to yard sales on Saturday... does that count? No, well... we got more learning games, etc... so it's not all bad and we did get OUT of the house and had a chance to breathe fresh air!!! Works for me!!

Stay In, Stay Well

I am now advising you all to STAY HOME! Choose home... not because of the usual reasons that I would normally say this, but because this flu virus we have is horrid. And really we are doing fine, but come one.... Five out six is just c~r~a~z~y!! My husband is the only one that is well. And I might add that there is a reason why women are made to nurture.... Uh, guys are just not all that joyful about it... Anyway, it all started with Caden's sudden temp on Wednesday that hit 103.5 in the night. By the next day I really wasn't too worried, but took him in to get checked, just in case. He tested positive for the flu... and I have to tell you that the doctors offices are desperately packed out. We went home and much to my surprise Caden's temp suddenly jumped to 104.1! You also have to know that high fevers are common at our house, but when it gets this high we get a bit nervous. So, I got it down and shortly after that we his prescription for Tamiflu started in hopes that it will lessen the symptons. As a precaution all in home siblings four and under are also being started on Tamiflu, so Sahara got a prescription for it, as well. We had all been eagerly awaiting our Co-op meeting on Friday, but the flu would change that for us. The girls awaken to find out we could not go to Co-op, but were unusually not to concerned about missing... all I go was a simply version of their whining. Not normal.... soon it was obvious that they did not have it in them to whine... and thank God because I was not feeling to swift myself, which I thought was just a bit of exhaustion at first. Okay, you know where this is going, right?... by 9:am I realized Savannah and Sierra had fever.... by 11:am I realized I had fever and it was starting to hit me hard... I called text my husband while making calls... Our pediatrician could not see us at all because they were so overbooked. The local pediatrician in our town could not see us because of insurance issues and such which left us with the option to go to Minor Care. Oh my gosh!! It was crazy... not too many people at first, but after we got there it started to get busy.... during our four hour tour!! Eeeekk!!! They were handing out masks to the patients with flu-like symptoms and they had two emergencies happen while we were there. My husband said that one frantic mother brought her four year old daughter in that was lethargic and passing out and they loaded her up on a stretcher and rushed her to the hospital. I don't know what the other emergency was, but I am betting it was flu. Can I say this?... not to alarm anyone, but it is only September!!!! And whatever strand of flu this is ... well, who knows if it is the Swine flu or some other one, but it is bad. At the Minor Care visit the doc checked us all out and I looked at her and asked if she was going to check Savannah... She looked at me in a puzzled manner along with Savannah and they both assured me that she had checked Savannah out... I was too delirious! 8( For whatever reason it seems that I am getting delirious when I am running a temp... very odd. So, we all are on Tamiflu, etc. and taking lots of Motrin and Tylenol for fever and body aches. Today, Sahara started running a temp, but it seems to be milder for her so far. Tamiflu is supposed the lessen or prevent symptoms and I must say that I do believe it is. And you might wonder just why I am typing this post at 2:am. Well, that would be because I am listening to my baby scream from a nearby room because I can't nurse her!!! if you take the Tamiflu you have to stop breastfeeding! Add that to the craziness here!! Okay, so I am not planning to "stop" nursing her at this point. We are just taking a "pause".... I am pumping and discarding it for the next few days. Yes, I said discarding it... liquid gold in my eyes!!!... going down the drain!!! I have had to pour out 30 ounces so far!!! ARGGHHHHH!!! Hey, but on the upside I am keeping my mild supply going and we will be able to resume breastfeeding by Thursday morning.... or maybe Wednesday night... so, we will see what happens.... She may completely wean by then and may not want to, but I must say that my others have not screamed about it all when it has been time to wean. They have all fussed a bit, but we have when they seem to be ready to some degree. She is making it quite clear that she is not ready! And I knew that about her already! I have nursed my others for 13 months, 12 months, and 12 months, but with Sahara she is just so babyish and clingy and eager to be the baby that we had decided to just nurse her until she seemed to be giving it up on her own. This throws a major glitch in that plan, but ultimately I had to decide that I need to be as healthy as possible so that I can take care of them and so I do not get my kids sicker by keeping the flu bug alive in our home longer. Anyway, I am going to sleep now...the screaming is over for the time being, but I have this to say.... I did not realize how bad this flu issue is until now and having seen the problems it is causing in the doctor's offices. Do yourself a favor and be a house hermit. Stay home and stay well. I am not the type to advise that, but it really is necessary right now. Choose home!!! Stay away from everyone for a while... sounds weird, but trust me it is better than the flu! ;)