Goodbye 2015

2015 has had its ups and downs. I hope that 2016 has more ups.

Challenges

• Last school year we had a lot of homework battles. Often we were not finishing up homework until 9 or 10 o'clock at night. 
• I was sick off and on from April through August. My collapsed gallbladder was removed in August, I have felt much better. 
• I messed up a tendon in my foot earlier this month, so I have been in a walking boot for the last three weeks. I don't recommend stepping on a hickory nut husk.
• We live in the black hole of crappy internet service. We have the fastest service in our area, that is reminiscent of dial up speeds. Faster internet service is in our area, but unfortunately has not made it to our neighborhood. I might just have to start calling once a month to inquire if they have gotten around to our neighborhood yet. They are going to LOVE me.

Blessings

• Pumpkin is in 3rd grade and Princess is in 1st grade. Time sure does fly!
• Princess had a good report at the eye doctor last January. We only have to go once a year instead of every three to six months. Yay!
• Pumpkin has a wonderful teacher this school year. She has been able to cut down on the tattling in the classroom, which has resulted in better behavior on his part.
• The kids favorite movie this year is Minions. 
• Pumpkin finally passed his first spelling test of the year this month. The teacher has reassured us that he will not be held back next school year in regards to spelling.
• In the spring, I celebrated 15 years at my work place.  
• A local autism support group was started in our community. It is good to be able to talk with other parents and educators that understand.
• Princess also has a great teacher. I volunteered to help with gingerbread house decorating a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed myself, which is rare when volunteering at school. Most parents shun me when they figure out who my son is because they just don't understand and we don't advertise that he has ADHD, ASD, and SPD. They just figure that we are terrible parents that don't care because of the behaviors they see or hear about from their children.
• I cut back my hours at work to be able to pick the kids up from school. Homework battles have decreased and we are finishing our homework faster. Yay!!!!!!
• We were able to save some money back to purchase a new laptop. Our desktop that we still use is ten years old. Now more than one family member can use the computer at a time. Which is a good thing since we use SpellingCity, MobyMax, Multiplication.com and Quizlet to do homework and study.
• Pumpkin learned to ride a bike without training wheels!
• We survived the school Christmas concert without incident.
• Pumpkin was able to attend a specialized camp over the summer that focused on social skills and utilized ABA therapy. We have noticed a difference this school year. Two thumbs up!
• Princess enjoys helping great grandma make pancakes in the mornings before school.
• We went and saw our first ever Christmas Day movie. We saw the newest Star Wars movie as a family. It was good, but I am not giving anything away for those who have not seen it yet.

Hubby and the kids with cut-outs from the Star Wars movies.

What we are looking forward to

• Hubby and I are looking forward to the last season of Downton Abbey.
• I am hoping that the kids take on more chores and household responsibilities this coming year. Our biggest challenge is keeping our rooms clean.
• We are going to be an aunt and uncle again. So far we have eight nieces and nephews.
• I hope to conquer some of the clutter in the house. I may have to enlist some help.

Well, gotta go! We are having a Hobbit movie marathon this evening. Currently, we are in the midst of watching the second movie. The third movie may need to wait until tomorrow.

Run For It

I meet myself coming and going quite a bit. I get myself turned around. I find myself upside down. Quite often I am overwhelmed. Life will get easier, right?

My sister got the front door painted lightening bug yellow a few weeks ago. She gave me a new wreath for my birthday, too. Isn't the combination pretty?

The kids have been playing in the leaves this weekend. Princess even sorted the leaves by color.

Last weekend, I carved the family's pumpkin. Somehow a deer bone is now sticking out from its mouth.

I won a free book a few weeks ago. It arrived last weekend: The Stress Cure: Praying Your Way to Personal Peace by Linda Evans Shepherd. Thank you Baker Publishing and Proverbs31. The book is fascinating and a down-to-earth. It centers on managing stress through prayer and scripture. I have only made it through three chapters so far, but I do enjoy the fact that information is related in easy to understand examples. Chapter Two was about being overwhelmed. That me, OVERWHELMED!

I have been taking some nature photography.

 

I have wrangled with the health insurance company about Pumpkin's specialist. Turns out that I was right and she is in-network. So the insurance company has five visits over the last year to correct. A sixty dollar co-pay is a big difference when it is a two hundred dollar (3) or five hundred dollar (2) per visit bill.

I had the opportunity to attend an ADHD & Special Needs training last week. I have gleaned some information that I can use with Pumpkin. I need to find the time to really sit down and read over all of the handouts. The speaker was very nice, informative, and engaging.

A few weeks ago we took Princess to a neuro-opthomologist in a neighboring town. We were sent by our eye doctor for a second opinion. Good news! Her eyes are healthy and there are no underlying causes for her atypically vision problems. Her glasses are within the acceptable range for what she needs right now. We were referred back to our eye doctor for a 6-month January check-up.

Pumpkin went grocery shopping with me this afternoon. He decided to ride in the cart. Then he strategically stacked and built structures with the groceries as they went into the cart. Gotta love the quirks of autism at times.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Don't forget Spotlight Sunday is tomorrow!

Saturdays

I like Saturdays. Saturdays are laid back. Saturdays are typically the day of the week with the least amount of stress. A day to sleep-in, to relax a bit, and best of all NO homework.

Instead of sleeping in this morning, Pumpkin was up at the crack of dawn. He definitely did not have a volume control. I may need to take him to the doctor and make sure that his ear are okay. He has always been our stealth infection child in the past. Pumpkin kept himself busy exploring the kitchen cabinets and pulling out materials for some unknown creation. I found straws, duct tape, and a toilet paper tube abandoned on the great room floor.

I did not tackle any laundry today. Darn the luck! But Grandma, the kids, and I went to a few stores and grab some groceries. I cooked the kids macaroni and cheese for lunch by request. We used the last box of Phineas & Ferb macaroni and cheese, so we will have to use trial and error from this point on. Pumpkin can tell if it is not to his liking and will remember for the next time, shunning it forever. The joys of sensory processing disorder. I have learned the hard way when I attempt to switch the butter to another brand- his smell, taste, and sight are very fine tuned.

Princess decided to do my hair this afternoon. She placed twelve hair clips in my hair. Six in rainbow order on one side of my head and another six in rainbow order on the opposite side. Then she decorated her hair with nine hair clips. Little girls are quite interesting at this age.

I cooked a hot dinner for the first time since last weekend. It is hard to cook during the week with our homework hurtles. We either have leftovers, grab something out, or daddy makes cheese toasties. Pumpkin needs someone with him the entire time while working on homework. The homework table that I designated in the kitchen lasted for about a month. Right now his preferred place to do homework is in the sun room.  We need to figure out the key to unlocking the autism for dummies handbook soon before I lose my mind. Earlier this week Pumpkin flipped out when Uncle B, a close friend, dropped by to visit for a few minutes. Pumpkin jumped up and closed the curtains and was screaming that the Uncle B could not come into the house. So hubby and I chatted with Uncle B outside. When I asked Pumpkin about it later, he said that he did not want Uncle B seeing him doing his homework. Ack! It has to get better, right?

Anyway, this evening I baked a whole chicken in the guardian service seasoned with real butter and a fresh lemon. I also cooked frozen peas and made egg noddles with jarred alfredo sauce. We had sliced French bread, then I made grandma's sugar pies for dessert. 

It will be my turn for family dinner night this week. I am going to make cheese soup. It is always better the next day, so I will make a batch up tomorrow to cure in the refrigerator. I will figured out the rest of the meal later. Well better get moving on to the next thing on my to-do list.

Playing in the Rain

We had a nice rain shower earlier.  

The kiddos enjoyed playing in it. 

This is what summer is about!

May The Lego Be With You

The kids love new The LEGO Movie.  They like the action.  I like seeing the different Lego designs.  I also like the message that it is good to be different, to be unique and to be creative.

Of course, the song "Everything is Awesome!" is addicting.

We love to play with Legos afterwards.

Pumpkin's creation

Princess's creation

Pumpkin loves to destroy his creation before wandering off and Princess likes to preserve her creation.

We do have our own Lord Business in the house- Hubby.  After the kids go to bed he "follows" the directions to rebuild Pumpkin's Lego gatehouse.

The adventures never end!

Time Flies

April is almost over.  Where has the time gone?

Just a little bit of what we have been up to:

• I chased butterflies.
• Princess and I got our hair cut.
• Pumpkin's class performed a play.
• We had a family adventure to the City Museum.
• Princess rocked her kindergarten screening.
• The yearly ant invasion continues.
• Spring wildflowers have finally arrived.
• Pumpkin finally received an evaluation through the local special education district.
• We had Easter fun.
• We have figured out our summer game plan. 

 sliding fun

Easter kiddos

egg rolling

trout lily

 butterfly

 

Chicken Licken play

jelly fungi

grandma and I

~ sometimes I just feel like a giant! ;-)

Life In These Four Walls

We are kicking back and relaxing this morning.  Hopefully in an hour we may venture out to the library.  I was able to get my grocery shopping done last night.  We had chocolate crumble muffins for breakfast and I had mint hot chocolate.  Yum!  It has been a while since I have cooked a breakfast besides Pop Tarts for the kids.  It is always rush, rush, rush in the mornings.

The kids snuggled in my bed this morning with a Lalaloopsy movie while I snuck to my secret hiding place and inventoried what I had for each child for their upcoming birthdays.  I have realize that I need to even out the presents still.  Just a couple more presents for Princess and I will be done.  Maybe hubby and I can find someone to watch the kids this evening, so we can have dinner together and finish birthday shopping.  Sometime today I need to figure out when we will have their birthday party and who to send invitations to.  Next weekend is definitely too short of notice, so most likely we will plan for the weekend after that.

Right now the kids are watching Epic.  We would be watching PBS kids, but with all of the wind today that station is not coming in too well on the television.  Pumpkin is trying to build an elaborate Hot Wheel track out of the couch cushions, pillows, and other various objects like a stool, laundry basket, boxes, and more.  Princess is working on getting dressed and snuggling with her Specs Read-A-Lot Lalaloopsy silly hair doll.

Pumpkin is recovery well from his surgery on Monday morning.  He had the remain ear tube removed.  The doctor also found a cyst in association with the tube so that has been removed too.  He goes back in two months for a recheck to see if the hole in the ear drum has closed.  Monday afternoon you would of never known that he had had surgery that morning by the way that he was bouncing off the walls.  Never boring in our household.

I have heard from the special education administrator that I contacted a few weeks ago in regards to Pumpkin getting an education evaluation.  After talking to her supervisor, we are being transferred to another administrator that works more with parochial schools.  So hopefully I will hear the new person in the next few weeks.  I hope to make some progress soon.  Kind of tired of feeling like we are always in a holding pattern.

I talk with the childhood behavior pediatrician yesterday and she has recommended that Pumpkin have an autism panel.  It will be about a two month process to actually get to the appointment date, but hopefully it will answer more questions.  I really like this doctor and she has talked to me multiple times on the phone and answered any questions that I have.  In this day and age you are lucky to just get past talking to the nurse.  Anyway, most likely we as parent and probably his teacher will have more paperwork, surveys, and evaluations to complete prior to the appointment.  The doctor said that the appointment will be an all day thing, so hopefully I can manage to schedule it on a day off from school.  We will meet with a speech therapist, then a childhood occupational therapist, then our doctor who is specialized in autism, and finally a educational psychologist.  Then everyone will have a break for lunch.  All four doctor will reconvene and share notes and thoughts.  Then our doctor and probably the educational psychologist will sit down with us and share their finding and thoughts.  The main purpose of the panel is to help distinguish what aspects of our son's behavior are caused by ADHD and what might be caused by high functioning autism.  Once we have the information it will be easier for us, the school, and the doctor to determine what are the best methods and treatments to help our child succeed academically and socially.  I am going to hate to see how much this is going to cost.  I know that we have met our $2,500 deductible on Pumpkin with the surgery he had.  So maybe that will be in our favor for all of the other appointments that we will have this year.

Pumpkin is struggling at school, but his teacher is working with us to see how we can modify things to help him improve.  Right now math is the largest hurdle.  We are working on Touch Math, which works perfect for 1-5 but 6-9 is confusing to him.  He did get 100% on his spelling test yesterday.  YAY!!!!  That has not happened since September.  He enjoys listening to the Junie B Jones books so we got him the collection through Scholastic to see if it would help to entice him to read more.  He picked up one of the books that we have read in the past and told me all about it, but yet he cannot get a single question right when he takes the computerized AR test at school on the book.  I talked with him about trying to read the books today and he told me that the words were too small.  Ugh!  We will have to figure out a solution to that problem.

I am still trying to wrap my head around everything.  I am glad that we are finally starting to understand our son's quirks.  It could be so much worse.  I keep reminding myself that I survived my mom losing her battle to cancer, survived losing two family members just a month apart, survived my dad's bone marrow transplants, survived family alcoholism, and survived many more hurdles.  I am so tired of dealing with the continuous hurdles of life, but I can survive this.  There may not be an easy fix.  There may not be a cure.  But, my son should live a long and healthy life.

I worry though.  I worry that Princess will not always get the attention that she needs.  I worry that both kids will get teased at school by their peers.  I worry that we are not doing enough to help Pumpkin succeed at school.  I worry about what the future holds.  I try to not plan ahead, because nothing ever turns out the way that I plan.  Believe me there are so things in life that I definitely would not have planned.  I know, it makes us the person that we are today.  Struggles strengthen us and fortify us.  God is always with us and picks us up when we fall.  It is just frustrating to see how easy it is for others when it seems like our world is a constant struggle.

I know for me, I need to work on finding myself again.  I feel like I do for everyone else all of the time.  My Energizer Bunny wears me out on a daily basis.  I have lost my love for cooking along the way.  It is always fast and rushed, so we can get on with perpetual homework.  Cleaning usually has to wait until the weekends because there is no time during the week.  Then when the weekend comes, I do not want to clean.  I just want to relax and unwind.  My only escape from the world right now is reading. 

Well back to reality and the monkeys.  I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Eye See You!

Princess finally got her new glasses yesterday afternoon.  We received her new prescription on November 25.  It then took 31 days to find frames her size.  Then it was another week and a half for her new glasses to arrive.  But FINALLY on January 7 we got the glasses!

Her eyeglass size is 39-17-110.  Say what???  The first number is the eye size which is the length across the front of the glasses, the second number is the bridge size which is the distance between the two lenses, and the last number is the temple size which is the length of the piece that goes back and over the ear.   These numbers are measured in millimeters.  Around here the smallest eye size frames that they carry is 44.  So needless to say, it took a while and a lot of time to order frames into the local shops.  Then they had to be tried on to see if they would fit or not.  We also decided to stray away from the cable temples that her first pair of glasses had.  She will start kindergarten in the fall and I figured regular temples would be best especially if she still has the glasses in first grade.  

Princess was a bit picky when it came to choose the glasses.  She definitely knew what she wanted.  "Too square."  "Too round."  "Hurts my ears."  "Hurts my nose."  "Not pink or purple."  We ended up with oval dusty rose colored frames.  The dusty rose has a lavender tint to it, so they appear more purple than pink.  Very lovely frames!

Her old prescription was:
OD: -5.25 sph, -1.50 cyl, 110 axis
OS: -5.50 sph, -2.00 cyl, 070 axis

Her new prescription is:

OD: -5.00 sph, -1.50 cyl x 110 axis

OS: -6.50 sph, -1.00 cyl x 035 axis

Princess was quite happy to show off her new glasses last night at family dinner night and today at preschool.  She is really happy with her new glasses!  Whew, good thing!  A mother's work is never done!

Fall Family Woodland Adventure

A couple weekends ago we took a hike through the forest and prairie of a local conservation area.  The kids had a lot of fun and they found a lot of leaves, seeds, and twigs.

Pumpkin seemed to be the most entranced by sycamore bark that was rolled into tubes strewed across the dry creek bed of a ford.  Princess enjoyed all of the pretty leaves.  A few nights before the hike we had a hard frost so in areas the ground was carpeted with green paw-paw leaves.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins

Today may of been one of the last warm days of the season.  Tonight the first frost is predicted.  So we took the kids outdoors this afternoon for our annual painting pumpkins with tempera paint.  

We do not have as many pumpkins this year as in years past, so we will forgo carving a pumpkin this year.  We do have plenty of gourds on the other hand.  It was the squash of choice by the kiddos when we visited the pumpkin patch last week.  We usually opt for painting because 1) the pumpkins last longer and 2) Pumpkin wants his pumpkin to last until after his birthday in February.  He is a pumpkin fanatic!  

As you can see Pumpkin & Princess had a lot of fun decorating their pumpkins.  We did take the pumpkin inside before the predicted frost and I am sure that they will move around the house as the holiday approaches. It is never boring in our household!  (Hahaha)

Vacation Days

This week has flown by and I only have one day left before returning to work.  Honestly, it would be nice to stay home with the kiddos.  I will miss morning time leisurely snuggles.  I will miss taking Pumpkin to and from school.  The kids have seem to have less behavior issues since they have spent time home with me.  Although, Princess has apparently started the tantrum stage.  She was crying and sulking in our bedroom earlier because Pumpkin was mopping the kitchen floor, not her.  But Pumpkin was mopping the kitchen floor because he had decided to make apple juice on the kitchen floor.  He gathered a large bowl, about six apples and the potato smasher for his unsupervised experiment.  It was not too successful and the floor was quite sticky. So we had to clean the floor. 

Anyway, during this vacation we checked quite a few things off our to-do-list: 

We took a drive north of our town, down an old rocky road to watch part of the meteor shower Sunday evening.  Since we were in the middle of no where, we were standing in the middle of the road watching the sky.  We saw the Milky Way (which we cannot see from out house), the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, the crescent moon, and a handful of shooting stars.  We let the kids lay on the hood of the car to watch the stars.  As we saw headlights in the distance, we scrambled into our car to be better protected.  A very old, old car drove by (maybe something from the 1920s or 1930s), then "Aaauuugah! Aaauuugah!"  Hubby and I burst into laughter!  Then the little car chugged off over a hill and we continued star gazing for a while longer.

On Monday the kids and I visited the children's museum.  The kids had a lot of fun.  

On Tuesday we went to the state fair.  Boy was it expensive.  A bottle of water was $3.00, that is absurd.  We did get to partake in some fair favorites: elephant ear, funnel cake, and lemon shake-up.  Yum!  Both kids got to milk a cow and we saw the Butter Cow.

On Wednesday, Pumpkin started the first grade.  We met his teacher on Monday.  Pumpkin and I went over the class expectations at least once a day every day this week since the meeting.  For example, one expectation is to be respectful of the teacher.  So I asked Pumpkin how he could be respectful and he said listen.  He was so nervous on Tuesday night that we prayed for him and his teacher and that has seemed to help.  So much so that he asked for the same thing the next night.  What a sweetie!   Anyway, I was so happy that first half day when he came out of the school to be picked up that he was not the child holding the teacher's hand.  Yay!  Oh, Wednesday afternoon and night we cleaned Pumpkin's room.  It is a miracle, I can see the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Thursday, Princess and I ran a few errands and she got a new pair of shoes.  We played with chalk outside and swung on the swing.  She passed out in the hallway about an hour before we were to pick Pumpkin up from school.

On Friday, Princess spent the day with great grandma and I completed a few volunteer hours as required by the school.  It was an enlightening experience and gave me some ideas that I can utilize when I return to work.

Today we visited the library and then went on our regular routine to the grocery store.  Princess wanted some Fancy Nancy books and I found a few Elephant and Piggie books for Pumpkin.  He was too busy playing with the train set to look for books today.  We even picked up a few Halloween and Christmas books too.

This week I have read the following books: 1) Daughter of Jerusalem by Joan Wolf.  It was really good and was a fictionalize journey of Mary of Magdalena that utilized facts from the Bible.  It really made me think about the miracle, awe, and uncertainty of the times when Jesus lived. I discovered Joan Wolf about a month ago and am impressed by her biblical fiction.  2) Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen Ed.D.  I only have three chapters left of the book.  It has some very interesting concepts and focuses on encouraging children not discouraging them.  I have applied a few of the concepts on the children and they do seem successful.  I have been reading this book for a while.  But once I decided to take notes restarting from the beginning, it has gone a lot smoother.  I have been reading one chapter a day during vacation.  3) A Reluctant Queen by Joan Wolf.  I just started this afternoon.  It is the fictional story of Esther based on the facts of the Bible.  It is definitely interested reading about the women of the Bible and getting a glimpse of what their lives may have been like.

Well things will start to get back to normal on Monday.  Pumpkin will be in school and hanging with great grandma before and after school.  Princess will start at her new daycare that has a preschool curriculum.  Daddy will be working and I will be working.  It has been nice to be on vacation and my batteries are recharged a touch.