Preparing our Curriculum

Now that my health seems to be back on track and seeing as I have a whole week before my new job starts, I've spent the past few days looking over preschool/kindergarten materials for Carolyn.  Looking at her skills, she's really already at a kindergarten level, so I want to take her skills further.  I don't want to buy a curriculum for a few reasons.  One major reason is that I don't to spend the money.  But another huge one is that I want to fit everything to Carolyn's learning style and desires.  She's a naturally curious kid, so I use that as a jumping off point.  I believe I've figure out my plan of attack for this next school year.

First, there are the set activities that Carolyn will be participating in.  Despite being asked to join team for gymnastics, we're 95% sure she won't be doing that.  Just don't want her to burn out on something she loves at only 4.  So Mondays will be gymnastics, the intro to beginner level for 1 hour.  Wednesdays will be story hour where they will use some Spanish.  And most likely Thursday, at least for fall, will be soccer.  After fall we will see about ice skating lessons and/or swimming lessons to take the place of soccer.  We'll see how she's doing and what she wants to do.  She's been asking a lot about dance, so if I can find her a program without a recital that starts after soccer is over, we'll consider it. 

That leaves us with Tuesday/Friday as our "free" days.  In the fall I am hoping to spend lots of time at parks.  Hopefully the weather can cooperate and we'll get out to a different park each day.  If we're feeling rundown or the weather is yucky, we'll hang around the house, go for a ramble in the neighborhood, or even work on a lesson.  I also want to get out to the children's museums and other community places geared towards the kids.  I need to start compiling a list, so if you're reading this and know of some, let me know.  So far on our list:
Round Lake Children's Museum
Treehouse in Lake Zurich
Monkey Joe's in Lake Zurich
Kohl Children's Museum
DuPage Children's Museum
Brookfield Zoo
Cosley Zoo (Wheaton)
Crystal Lake Nature Center
Lake County Nature Preserve
Moraine Hills Park

I also am hoping to pick places for us to visit once a month as a family on Saturdays.  In the fall I'd like to do apple picking again like we did last year.  But we may use some of the ideas above for weekend activities as well.  I'm a planner and I want to be sure we're engaging the kids as much as possible and not getting caught up in every day life such that we're not taking time to enjoy things.  On the other hand, I also intend to stay more on top of housework this year, although I suspect that will be fairly easy once I spend less time at the computer.

After all of that, I want to spend some time doing mini-lessons with Carolyn.  These I suspect will take 30 minutes or less and we will fit them in as time allows.  We may use mornings before heading off to activities, depending on wake up times and breakfast.  Or when Carolyn wakes from her nap we may begin to utilize that time more effectively, leaving me to work a little more in the evenings.  This is her last full year at home and I want to take advantage of it.  For math I'm going to work through the CSMP curriculum, although somewhat picking and choosing lessons.  I like the idea of a spiral math curriculum and how hands-on it is.  I will work to create number lines to post, likely in the basement, once our house if off the market.  I also found a good website that gives science ideas.  We are going to start with exploring the body and five sense.  This seems to make the most sense since both kids love playing with the doctor kit and are interested in how their bodies work.  After that we will move on to living things, since that's part of the K curriculum.  For writing/reading I find a cool idea that kind of puts that and art all together.  It's centered around nursery rhymes and the alphabet.  Carolyn is already very strong in letter recognition, but needs to work on rhyming, so this is perfect for her.  Each nursery rhyme is matched with a letter and an art project.  So we will also be doing more art this year, which I'm sure she'll love.  And the final thing for reading is little books that each introduce sight words for her.  In each book she'll need to cut out a sentence to paste with a picture and then write down the sentence.  I suspect we might just do the cut and paste at first and then go back for the writing later in the year.  But she'll enjoy making the books and we can begin to work on her reading.  I also want to do some social science things.  This is a bit trickier for her age group, as there isn't much out there.  But I've put together a list of topics we can explore.  I'm going to start with community helpers, although she already knows most of them, then start to expand outwards looking at our county, our state, our region, and then the other regions of the country.  I'm sure we'll talk about the election as is approaches as well.  I haven't decided how we'll choose what lesson to do each day.  Since I have 5 different "areas" to work on, I might put each one in a jar along with a computer day (she LOVES starfall) and have her pick one out until the jar is empty.  I think that'll be best for the first few weeks and then we can see where her interests are.

We also bought her a "journal" that has a blank area on the top 1/3 of the page, with lines below.  Right now she's pretty much just coloring in it.  But I'm hoping as the year goes on we can use it as more of a journal and she can draw a picture and then write some words or dictate to me what she'd like to say.  For now she's drawing and then telling her "story" to use.  It's super cute and I love how she's showing her understanding of books in this way.

I'm really looking forward to getting started with all of this, but we will wait until Jon heads back to work.  For now I continue to prepare everything and we enjoy our time as a family.  I continue to worry about Carolyn being bored in school when she starts, but I want to help her to advance this next year as well.  It's amazing to watch how both kids are so interested in learning and books.  And I love that tv/videos/computers are such a minimal part of our life.  I know that will likely change as the kids get older, but it's awesome for now. 

Embracing the Unexpected

If you had asked me where life would be 6 months ago, it would have been really different than how things are going.  I definitely would have had Jon in a new job and probably would have had our house sold.  But God works in very mysterious ways at times.  Rather than the expected, I'm embracing the unexpected.  There's a somewhat short list, but very impactful none-the-less.  Started with a promotion to Senior Mentor April 1.  This lead to a little more work, easily meeting monthly income goals without having to tutor.  Then I was contacted to tutor in person and paid a fairly high amount, leading to us able to stockpile some cash for activities this summer.  A few weeks ago, Jon saw information about reinstating a lapsed certificate just by paying the fees.  I had looked into this last fall when I realized I could teach online, but found out I would have to take 9 graduate level hours to get my certificate back.  With this brief window of opportunity, I paid about $65 and have a valid certificate for 4 years.  And then I found positings for teaching with k12.com, physics and math both needed.  Figuring it was a long shot, I put up my info and sat back and waited.  We went on vacation and enjoyed our summer.  Then I received an email asking for my certificate, which I cobbled together without a paper copy, and waited again.  Last Sunday I got impatient and emailed asking the timeline for the position.  I was told Monday morning they were hoping to have the person start late July.  I came home from the zoo to a request for an interview on Tuesday!  Luckily the hours worked with my schedule working hours and we set up a time.  After about 30 minutes, I was offered the position.  This seems like a fantastic opportunity that could lead to a lower stress level for me.  In the meantime, there is also a track position posted at ZB.  Jon has applied for it and was told he will be interviewed when the time comes.  So it looks like we've been giving quite a few opportunities to be prosperous this next year, albeit not anything we had anticipated.  Who knows where life will lead, but things are looking up for now.  Amazing how God provides and it you're willing to follow along you can get everything you need.  I'm interested to see how everything fits together over the next few months.

I'm not sure what's going on with my health.  After a month of being completely exhausted, the last week hasn't been so terrible.  I worked out yesterday and it felt good.  I was definitely tired as the day went on, but not even exhausted when I layed down for bed at 9.  Definitely a good sign.  Amazingly, I am also not even sore today.  So I don't know what to make of any of this.  But I've decided to kind of try to push through.  I will nap when I need to, but workout on the days as planned, as long as my muscles aren't too sore.  And hopefully by this fall my body will be in a good, energetic state so I can work 2 part time jobs and be the mom the kids need me to be.  Next month I will start piecing together Carolyn's preschool program!

When I look at everything around me, I am truly amazed at how blessed I am.  A wonderful husband, 2 beautiful, amazing kids, a safe home, and the opportunity to spend a lot of time together.  Thank God for putting all of this together.

Salt and Spinach

After a wonderful vacation but still feeling exhausted, I tried something new this week.  Over the past month I have been adding more sea salt to my diet.  I have never been a big salt person in terms of adding in to food, and often would leave it out of recipes.  Through some research and thinking about my diet, I realized it is likely I was deficient in sodium because after removing grains (which are loaded with it), I had virtually none left.  So I put it on my eggs, salad, and cooked vegetables now, along with on potatoes.  Part of my research was into adrenal issues - adrenal fatigue and addison's disease.  It is quite possible that I am somewhere on this specturm - trouble losing weight, hair falling out, skin darkening, joint/muscle pain and weakness, low blood pressure, headaches, and the dizziness and extreme exhaustion. 
I have also made an effort to increase my carb load by being sure to have a starchy vegetable (potatoes) at least once a day.  Generally I've been having this at dinner.  I'm not sure if this is impacting me or not, but I wanted to try it.
And the final thing I did was add spinach.  One morning this week I didn't have spinach for breakfast and I was noticeably more tired before lunch.  Perhaps I need the vitamin A or C in there on top of my vitamin supplements?  Not sure, but if that's what it takes to have energy again, I'm certainly willing to do it.  I might even try making some smoothies for breakfast to change up how I'm eating it.  I've heard spinach with some berries can be really good.
So, yesterday I didn't nap because I was working.  We were also having a garage sale, so I did some lifting and moving around more.  I weeded the garden (what I think are weeds) and we went for our normal walk.  I didn't have my 5pm energy plummet and it didn't happen at 7pm either.  The walk wasn't completely draining and at 9:30 I decided to go to bed because it was late, not because I was struggling to keep my eyes open.  What an incredible difference!
I haven't lost any weight in the past month, but I have maintained and according to my scale lost body fat.  Considering I didn't work out at all, this is interesting.  Although I certainly did a lot of carrying and catching of 26-33lb children while on vacation (catch me Mommy!)  I'm thinking my body was doing some type of repair work though, hence the extreme exhaustion.  It will be interesting to see if I start to lose again from here.  I still fit into my old jeans too, this time on the first day of my cycle, which normally would not happen.  And on top of that, I haven't had ANY cramps!  How can that be, a person who used to need 500mg naprosyn in order to function normally?  Clearly my body is doing some type of restoring and on this end of the journey I'm all for it.

Adrenal Fatigue?

After a day with much researching, I think this may be my issue.  With our vacation coming up, there's not much that can be done right now.  But I happen to have magnesium and some other vitamins in the house that I see mentioned on many of the sites.  I also remember the cocktail of vitamins that Dr Hain had me try 3 years ago working at least a little for the dizziness.  I dismissed it at the time, but perhaps taking it for 2 months was just what my body needed at the time.  And then of course I got pregnant again and life took off.  So starting tonight I'm taking magnesium before bed as it's supposed to help with sleep, and everything else will be in the morning.  I'm also going to stop trying to do any sort of fasting and go back to eating snacks throughout the day.  Part of adrenal fatigue is the body's trouble with regulating blood glucose.  I also think that I may be eating too low carb.  So once we return from vacation I'm going to be sure to add in more safe starches to get closer to 100g/day, since I'm closer to 50g, if that, right now.  It feels good to have some idea of what direction to head in.  Hopefully by July I'll be feeling a little better.  For now I'm going to just sleep when I get tired and with my work slowing down that will be easier.

Here's to hoping that this works, because being this tired really sucks!

SO TIRED

I am so tired I almost want to cry.  But that would take way too much energy.  Seriously, for the last 2 weeks I can barely keep my eyes open.  When I wake up in the morning my eyelids are super heavy.  Yet I wake up at night for seemingly on reason and have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep.  If I can resist napping in the afternoon, I am completely drained by 5.  If I give in and nap I'm done by 7.  I can't go on anymore like this, but I have no idea what to do.  Jon wants me to go back to the doctor.  But they couldn't find anything wrong last time, so why would now be any different?  I just want to live a normal existence without fighting my body every step of the way.  It's a good thing I don't have soccer tonight, because I doubt I could stay awake long enough to drive to the field.  I've been yawning while getting James ready for his nap, at 12:30!  I tried eating more food and carbs today, thinking maybe that was the issue.  Instead I just find myself full and exhausted.  The dizziness is horrible too, I can't take it anymore!  Has anyone else ever experienced this?  Thank God Jon is home right now, I don't know how I'd function without his help.

We're going on vacation Sunday and to the Sox game Saturday.  I am praying that I will have the energy to get through the game and then play with the kids at the beach and waterpark.  I've been looking forward to this vacation for several weeks, but now I'm afraid I won't enjoy it because I'll be so tired.

I have to find out what is going on!

Almost ready to show!

I've spent the past 2 weeks cleaning out the house.  We got rid of a lot of the junk that has accumulated since James was born.  I discovered we have TONS of toys.  But mostly everything is under control now.  I will be spending this next week cleaning what remains.  We're getting the deck done and the driveway resealed.  Hopefully we'll be able to sell for a doable price fairly quickly.  We're still praying that Jon can get the job at Fenwick.  It really could just be an amazing life for us.  We figure that if they can come in at $50k, we can make it work.  And that's not too crazy with his 5 years of experience, master's and lcsw.  Oh, how much simpler life could be.  There's some houses over there that we can look into once we get a savings built back up as well.  I just want to be able to walk places!

Life feels a little less stressful now that the house is cleaner.  The kids are enjoying having lots of space to run around in, especially as it's over 90 outside today.  What's amazing though is that we haven't had to turn the a/c on yet.  It is still under 80 in the house since we closed it up early this morning.  Tomorrow might be rough though since we won't get a good cool-off tonight.  But it's supposed to be 60 by Thursday, how crazy.

I'm interested to see where life will be by August.  We have a lot planned for June, but plan to relax in July.  We would love to get the house sold quickly and then start planning where we'll go.  Hopefully we'll know where we want to be headed in the next 2-3 weeks.  Ideally Jon can have an interview next week, then we go on vacation and sell the house.  We've been waiting for a break, maybe this will be it?  Certainly would be amazing, but it's all in God's hands at this point.

Another pound makes 12

I'm down 12lbs since I started this in January.  Not rapid weight loss, but slow and fairly steady hopefully means it'll stay off.  I don't feel deprived either, which I think is key.  This past week I've been indulging in dark chocolate a lot more frequently.  What's awesome is that just 1 square hits the spot whereas I ued to want 1/2-1 whole bar of milk chocolate - how crazy is that?  I think Jon is coming around a little more as well, enjoying eating more meat in place of the pasta.  Looking forward to this week's meals too as I thought about them: whole baked chicken (fries and fresh brocolli), meatloaf (mashed potato and frozen veg), steak (watermelon and veg), and sausage and peppers.  I've found that by eating a fairly high carb dinner I feel better overall, so I'll keep doing that.  I'm enjoying exercising more now as well since it's not so forced.  Looking forward to my body weight workout in an hour or so.  Can't wait until I can actually do a pull-up!  Losing weight will obviously make this easier too.

Lots of changes going on around here lately.  This biggest is that we've decided to officially try our house on the market.  I spent last week getting started on the house and have 2 more weeks to finish up.  So my goal is to have the house completely decluttered by Memorial Day so I can spend that week really cleaning everything.  The first floor is almost done, so I don't think it should be too hard.

Jon also has an interview on Tuesday.  It's a middle school, but would mean ~$5k raise, cheaper insurance, and if we can sell, cheaper rent closer to there.  It could be a pretty awesome set-up.  Looking like we have a few choices that could lighten financial stress if he can get out of Zion and we can sell.  We'll have to see what God has in store for us.  Surely something will work out!