Jon is going to meet with Carolyn's teacher via a phone call tomorrow to discuss what can be done for her at school. I have been listening to a lot of comments about boredom and how she wishes things were different lately. In preparation for the meeting, we wanted to be sure we're on the same page and know out options. So I went looking around the district website tonight. I found 2 things that are somewhat scary to me. First, all discussion of any accelerated/gifted math is gone. There is no discussion about any way to service kids that are above grade level for math. All criteria to qualify for the gifted program is now IQ and reading/language related. As the mother of a first grader that is grasping multiplication and division concepts, this is almost terrifying. We have emailed the person in charge to find out what is going on with the math. Second, I found the cut off scores for screening for the gifted program. They don't want to spend the money to administer an IQ test to every kid, so they use some of the MAP scores and CogAt. Well, they start taking the MAP in first grade. Carolyn took it this September, after having lived in the hotel for at least 2 weeks. And she scored 11 points shy of the cut-off. They look at the scores kids receive during the fall of their 3rd grade year. Her projected score for the end of first grade is in fact 3 points above the cut-off. But she's receiving no special services at all and from what we can tell, no differentiation. She scored 30pts above the district mean.
I'm feeling like a terrible parent tonight as I look at all of this. How could I have not realized what it meant when I saw these scores? How could I have not been pushing earlier this year to get her what she needed? Yes, we were living in the hotel, but I can only imagine how much higher those initial scores might have even been if we weren't at the time. I don't know what to do at this point.
God, this is in Your hands. We need Your guidance to show us what needs to be done for Carolyn to complete Your will in her life. Give Jon the words to express our concerns tomorrow. Show us what direction we need to move in next. You have given Carolyn some amazing talents and we want to ensure that nothing is wasted. Thank You for all of the wonderful blessings You have bestowed upon our family.
By eating healthy foods, including eliminating wheat and most grains, enjoying time outside without gadgets, and teaching our children about the world, we hope to raise our children to enjoy life and be free of physical maladies. Follow us on our journey towards general health and a sense of well being.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Week 1 complete!
Can you believe that today completes the first week of the year?! It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas. Of course, we did just take down the tree and decorations today. The living room feels so spacious without the tree. We haven't had the furniture in this configuration with the construction completed and no tree yet, so it's strange to have it gone. At the moment a stack of bins is in the tree's place until the temperature gets a level which carrying them out and unlocking the shed won't require thawing out afterwards. Even the fireplace seems barren without the garland, stockings, and nativity. But it's very nice to feel the extra space and I will no longer have to worry about James knocking over the tree riding his tricycle or Carolyn doing a cartwheel into the tree.
School was canceled today due to the cold. This is just crazy to me, I think we might have had 1 snow day in all my elementary/high school days combined. We'll be home again tomorrow as well. I anticipated having tomorrow off, so we spent the morning at the library and picked up craft sticks at Joann's this morning. Tomorrow morning we'll work on Carolyn's log cabin and James' farm as we complete their KWL sheets. They are enjoying learning about a topic chosen themselves and getting to make a project from it.
At the library I realized why Carolyn will always be ahead of grade level in math. Her brain works like mine and she wants to know things. The library has various puzzles set out to complete, mostly for toddlers. She sat down in front of a 6 piece police car puzzle just before we left and took 3 pieces out, then declared it was half a car. I asked her why she thought that. This led to a 5-10 minute discussion of fractions, wherein she moved puzzle pieces around and thought about how 2 pieces in is 2/6 or 1/3, 3 pieces in is 1/2 and 4 pieces in is 4/6 or 2/3. She did the division of 6/2 easily, really without realizing that is somewhat of an advanced concept. This may not be a normal discussion for a parent to have with a child, but she craves these sorts of interactions and initiates them herself. She would be an ideal candidate for unschooling. The pile of books we brought home from the library is awesome - she wants to know about pioneers, presidents, and some random archduke because she was interested in the name. Then she chose a pile of chapter books and picture books. During quiet time today she read 2 of the chapter books and a few others throughout other parts of the day. I'm looking forward to working with her tomorrow.
I have made 2 more new recipes this week. Monday was our typical standby of homemade pizza which we've enjoyed as leftovers for lunch the last 2 days. Tuesday we tried lemon chicken which does not seem to be a family favorite. James stated it was too sour and didn't eat much. So it likely won't be repeated for some time. Today I made beef and pumpkin stew which was really good, but Jon did not appreciate the pumpkin taste. I thought it was great, so I might try to tweak this by swapping the pumpkin with something else. I'm not typically a fan of stews, but this kind of hit the spot. Tomorrow we're doing an old favorite sweet potato hash. My body seems to definitely by adjusting to no sugar. I find that I have more energy and am sleeping a bit better. I can't wait to see this weekend if it's also leading to some weight loss. The pile of cookies on the counter does keep calling my name, but at this point I seem to be able to avoid them. This weekend I think it's all going to be thrown out since it's old anyway. Great to be getting good food in and starting to feel better!
School was canceled today due to the cold. This is just crazy to me, I think we might have had 1 snow day in all my elementary/high school days combined. We'll be home again tomorrow as well. I anticipated having tomorrow off, so we spent the morning at the library and picked up craft sticks at Joann's this morning. Tomorrow morning we'll work on Carolyn's log cabin and James' farm as we complete their KWL sheets. They are enjoying learning about a topic chosen themselves and getting to make a project from it.
At the library I realized why Carolyn will always be ahead of grade level in math. Her brain works like mine and she wants to know things. The library has various puzzles set out to complete, mostly for toddlers. She sat down in front of a 6 piece police car puzzle just before we left and took 3 pieces out, then declared it was half a car. I asked her why she thought that. This led to a 5-10 minute discussion of fractions, wherein she moved puzzle pieces around and thought about how 2 pieces in is 2/6 or 1/3, 3 pieces in is 1/2 and 4 pieces in is 4/6 or 2/3. She did the division of 6/2 easily, really without realizing that is somewhat of an advanced concept. This may not be a normal discussion for a parent to have with a child, but she craves these sorts of interactions and initiates them herself. She would be an ideal candidate for unschooling. The pile of books we brought home from the library is awesome - she wants to know about pioneers, presidents, and some random archduke because she was interested in the name. Then she chose a pile of chapter books and picture books. During quiet time today she read 2 of the chapter books and a few others throughout other parts of the day. I'm looking forward to working with her tomorrow.
I have made 2 more new recipes this week. Monday was our typical standby of homemade pizza which we've enjoyed as leftovers for lunch the last 2 days. Tuesday we tried lemon chicken which does not seem to be a family favorite. James stated it was too sour and didn't eat much. So it likely won't be repeated for some time. Today I made beef and pumpkin stew which was really good, but Jon did not appreciate the pumpkin taste. I thought it was great, so I might try to tweak this by swapping the pumpkin with something else. I'm not typically a fan of stews, but this kind of hit the spot. Tomorrow we're doing an old favorite sweet potato hash. My body seems to definitely by adjusting to no sugar. I find that I have more energy and am sleeping a bit better. I can't wait to see this weekend if it's also leading to some weight loss. The pile of cookies on the counter does keep calling my name, but at this point I seem to be able to avoid them. This weekend I think it's all going to be thrown out since it's old anyway. Great to be getting good food in and starting to feel better!
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Enjoying my kitchen!
We have been home with a fully functioning kitchen for about a month now. With the holidays officially over, I am excited to get back into my kitchen and try some new recipes. We seem to get caught in eating the same 7-10 things over and over since I'm too tired on Friday nights when to find new ideas and make a list. So a few days ago I sat down and figured out meals for the next several weeks, tricky only due to gymnastics Tues/Thurs and art class on Mondays. Since we eat so early I have to do quick to cook or crockpot meals on these days. But Sunday and Wednesday I can cook whatever I want. If things get too stressful I might even switch our leftover night to Thursday and cook on Fridays.
I pulled recipes from a list of Whole 30 approved meals. I'm not doing a Whole 30 as that is really restrictive and our budget won't allow for it. But it's great to have these guaranteed gluten free meals. So tonight's main course is Crispy Buffalo Chicken Fingers. The kids enjoyed helping to crush up the pork rinds and this took about 20 minutes to get into the oven. I did simply cut up chicken breasts instead of buying chicken strips. Looking forward to a new taste. To accompany tonight I made potato fries - baked in the oven for 30 minutes at the same time as the chicken and frozen broccoli. Looking forward to a yummy new taste made from known ingredients. Hopefully the kids will be a fan.
I also made Energy Balls last night. I plan to send these in Carolyn's lunch as a "dessert" and use them as a quick breakfast when needed. Both kids tried and approved them today. Next time I think I might swap out the flax seed for gelatin. I wonder if that would work? It would certainly up the amount of protein in these, something I always seem to be looking to get more of with the kids.
I'm looking forward to trying some snack recipes for the kids as we go into this year. If I can find a combination of things that need to be baked and that don't we'll have some good things throughout the year, regardless of the weather.
Off to try dinner!
Update: Two thumbs up by me and Jon. The kids think it's a bit spicy. Hopefully with some more exposure to spicier foods they'll not be quite so impacted. They did eat it by dipping in ketchup though, which they seem to do with most meat. Which reminds me that I should really get around to making my own ketchup to get the sugar out. We also discovered that we like the fries cooked at 400 much more than the usual 350. This produced a nice, crispy outside and soft inside. Hopefully this good meal will help this nausea and dizziness to go away.
I pulled recipes from a list of Whole 30 approved meals. I'm not doing a Whole 30 as that is really restrictive and our budget won't allow for it. But it's great to have these guaranteed gluten free meals. So tonight's main course is Crispy Buffalo Chicken Fingers. The kids enjoyed helping to crush up the pork rinds and this took about 20 minutes to get into the oven. I did simply cut up chicken breasts instead of buying chicken strips. Looking forward to a new taste. To accompany tonight I made potato fries - baked in the oven for 30 minutes at the same time as the chicken and frozen broccoli. Looking forward to a yummy new taste made from known ingredients. Hopefully the kids will be a fan.
I also made Energy Balls last night. I plan to send these in Carolyn's lunch as a "dessert" and use them as a quick breakfast when needed. Both kids tried and approved them today. Next time I think I might swap out the flax seed for gelatin. I wonder if that would work? It would certainly up the amount of protein in these, something I always seem to be looking to get more of with the kids.
I'm looking forward to trying some snack recipes for the kids as we go into this year. If I can find a combination of things that need to be baked and that don't we'll have some good things throughout the year, regardless of the weather.
Off to try dinner!
Update: Two thumbs up by me and Jon. The kids think it's a bit spicy. Hopefully with some more exposure to spicier foods they'll not be quite so impacted. They did eat it by dipping in ketchup though, which they seem to do with most meat. Which reminds me that I should really get around to making my own ketchup to get the sugar out. We also discovered that we like the fries cooked at 400 much more than the usual 350. This produced a nice, crispy outside and soft inside. Hopefully this good meal will help this nausea and dizziness to go away.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Happy New Year!
So begins 2015. So many promising possibilities as we head into a new year. Everything with the house is nearly done and it is becoming evident how we have been strangely blessed through the whole situation. We met some amazing people while living in the hotel and became aware of how wonderfully resilient our children are. We have also been blessed financially, paying off our equity loan and at the moment not having to take anything back out. This is truly amazing to me, since there was over $8k on the loan in September. God has truly blessed our family, even if life was tough for 3 months. By trusting in Him and working hard we have truly come out on the other side stronger than before.
Most set new years resolutions as they enter the new year. I have a few things I'm setting my sights on and I think are attainable.
1. Read the Bible every day. I have been requesting some books about praying for my children and started making progress on this last week. I have been reading daily devotionals for a couple months now. Today I signed up through www.biblestudytools.com to send me some themed passages to read each day. The goal is to read through the entire Bible in 1 year. I'm going to try and do this in the morning, but will commit to read before bed each night when the morning doesn't work.
2. Get healthy. With all the junk food we were forced to eat this Fall and sugar I've had since baking for Christmas, I feel sick. I have a lot of pain in seemingly random parts of my body. The good news is that my daily headaches have subsided since being home, This month I am going to avoid added sugars to detox and see if I can shed some weight and feel better. I'm thinking I might even make an appointment this summer to start a relationship with a doctor.
Here we go, ready for the new year! Trusting in God to guide us down the right paths in this new year.
Most set new years resolutions as they enter the new year. I have a few things I'm setting my sights on and I think are attainable.
1. Read the Bible every day. I have been requesting some books about praying for my children and started making progress on this last week. I have been reading daily devotionals for a couple months now. Today I signed up through www.biblestudytools.com to send me some themed passages to read each day. The goal is to read through the entire Bible in 1 year. I'm going to try and do this in the morning, but will commit to read before bed each night when the morning doesn't work.
2. Get healthy. With all the junk food we were forced to eat this Fall and sugar I've had since baking for Christmas, I feel sick. I have a lot of pain in seemingly random parts of my body. The good news is that my daily headaches have subsided since being home, This month I am going to avoid added sugars to detox and see if I can shed some weight and feel better. I'm thinking I might even make an appointment this summer to start a relationship with a doctor.
Here we go, ready for the new year! Trusting in God to guide us down the right paths in this new year.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Missing Mom
We had a wonderful few days of Christmas celebrations. I finished up baking on Christmas Eve. My dad and Patty joined us for birthday cake, mass, and dinner. We put out cookies and milk for Santa, wrapped presents and set everything out. The kids loved everything they received, with a yo-yo making the top 3 for James. It's so funny what they end up liking the most. Everyone is enjoying the used Wii, the sports games are a big hit. Christmas day was great with Jon's parents and some friends over. We enjoyed mostly just relaxing and chatting. It was a different Christmas day, but it was really nice.
Today was mostly a day of recovery, the kids played with their new things and I tried to figure out what to do with some of my retirement accounts. But this afternoon we started some of the cleaning out that needs to be done. During this I pulled everything out of the overflowing magazine rack that holds the kids' drawing stuff. I asked them to go through everything (they aren't done yet). Carolyn did a great job looking through things and deciding what she wants to keep.
While Carolyn was going through the large pile, she came across the speech a good friend made at mom's funeral. Just reading the first few words I knew it was from Marianne. Tears filled my eyes without even reading it. I set it to the side and finished working on the pile in front of me. Then I sat down to read it through and reminisce on the wonderful relationship they had. I was reminded of my wonderful mother and saddened that she can't be here to watch my children grow up. I was reminded of some of the great friendships my mom developed and part of me longs to develop some of those types of relationships. Now that the kids are growing it should get easier. Mostly today, I miss my mom. Much of the holiday season is filled with memories of her as I bake the same things she baked (with tweaks to make them gluten free) and the house is filled even more with reminders of her. I know she's watching us from heaven and I know she is so proud of her grandchildren. But it's still hard that I can't call her on the phone, that I can't give her a hug, that James and Carolyn will never feel her warm embrace.
And then there's reality of my own unknown future. As we near a new year, I see some challenges with my own health that lie ahead. The headaches that plagued me this fall have gone away, which is excellent. But the dizziness is still strong and I can't figure out how to get rid of it. I have to work this year to not only lose the weight I was working on in August, but the extra weight from 3 months of restaurant food. Hopefully that can relieve the joint aches and the dizziness. I'll go low sugar again starting next Thursday. And hopefully I'll see the changes I need. Thinking about my mom always reminds me of how young she was and I was when she passed away. Of course, if I make it to 57 James would be 30 since I just have the 2 kids and we started young. But I would still miss a lot. Maybe if I can lose a good amount of this weight I'll even head into the doctor this summer to start a relationship back up. For now I need to take things into my own hands and do what I know needs to be done to start feeling better. The first step is to start getting better sleep. So off to bed I will be in a short bit.
I love you, Mom. Thanks for watching over us.
Today was mostly a day of recovery, the kids played with their new things and I tried to figure out what to do with some of my retirement accounts. But this afternoon we started some of the cleaning out that needs to be done. During this I pulled everything out of the overflowing magazine rack that holds the kids' drawing stuff. I asked them to go through everything (they aren't done yet). Carolyn did a great job looking through things and deciding what she wants to keep.
While Carolyn was going through the large pile, she came across the speech a good friend made at mom's funeral. Just reading the first few words I knew it was from Marianne. Tears filled my eyes without even reading it. I set it to the side and finished working on the pile in front of me. Then I sat down to read it through and reminisce on the wonderful relationship they had. I was reminded of my wonderful mother and saddened that she can't be here to watch my children grow up. I was reminded of some of the great friendships my mom developed and part of me longs to develop some of those types of relationships. Now that the kids are growing it should get easier. Mostly today, I miss my mom. Much of the holiday season is filled with memories of her as I bake the same things she baked (with tweaks to make them gluten free) and the house is filled even more with reminders of her. I know she's watching us from heaven and I know she is so proud of her grandchildren. But it's still hard that I can't call her on the phone, that I can't give her a hug, that James and Carolyn will never feel her warm embrace.
And then there's reality of my own unknown future. As we near a new year, I see some challenges with my own health that lie ahead. The headaches that plagued me this fall have gone away, which is excellent. But the dizziness is still strong and I can't figure out how to get rid of it. I have to work this year to not only lose the weight I was working on in August, but the extra weight from 3 months of restaurant food. Hopefully that can relieve the joint aches and the dizziness. I'll go low sugar again starting next Thursday. And hopefully I'll see the changes I need. Thinking about my mom always reminds me of how young she was and I was when she passed away. Of course, if I make it to 57 James would be 30 since I just have the 2 kids and we started young. But I would still miss a lot. Maybe if I can lose a good amount of this weight I'll even head into the doctor this summer to start a relationship back up. For now I need to take things into my own hands and do what I know needs to be done to start feeling better. The first step is to start getting better sleep. So off to bed I will be in a short bit.
I love you, Mom. Thanks for watching over us.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Taking Less for Granted
One of the things that I have definitely learned from this fall is to cherish everything around me a bit more. I am focusing on being more present with my family. I am choosing what activities are most important and enjoying just being so much more. After the stress of trying to control a 4 and 6 year old in a hotel for nearly 3 months, I find myself much calmer. We have a lot less chaos around here and everyone seems to be a bit calmer. I hope we can hold onto these feelings as we plunge back into life.
I have found myself a great deal more patient with the children. Partially because I realize how hard it was for them to be out of the house and their neighborhood for so long. And partially because I think this whole ordeal has made me more patient. I am now focusing more on God and how to show His love to those around us. Christmas is even going to look a bit different this year as we open our home to friends that don't have other family nearby. I am really looking forward to a relaxed celebration where we can all visit and celebrate God's love.
So as much as I hated living in a hotel for 3 months and the time we seemed to have lost while there, we have gained so much from this experience. I've always known that God works in mysterious ways and this is the most mysterious of all. But I know God is in control and all is good. I'm looking forward to 16 days to relax with my family starting Friday about 4pm.
Anyone that is looking for somewhere to be on Christmas, please let me know. We're happy to have anyone join us as long as we know before we buy the food.
I have found myself a great deal more patient with the children. Partially because I realize how hard it was for them to be out of the house and their neighborhood for so long. And partially because I think this whole ordeal has made me more patient. I am now focusing more on God and how to show His love to those around us. Christmas is even going to look a bit different this year as we open our home to friends that don't have other family nearby. I am really looking forward to a relaxed celebration where we can all visit and celebrate God's love.
So as much as I hated living in a hotel for 3 months and the time we seemed to have lost while there, we have gained so much from this experience. I've always known that God works in mysterious ways and this is the most mysterious of all. But I know God is in control and all is good. I'm looking forward to 16 days to relax with my family starting Friday about 4pm.
Anyone that is looking for somewhere to be on Christmas, please let me know. We're happy to have anyone join us as long as we know before we buy the food.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Home Sweet Home
Everything inside is complete! When we came home from James' soccer today all of our furniture was back in place, the carpet cleaned, and the floors mopped. I will have to really clean the kitchen floors, but we have our house back! I never thought I would be so happy to be sitting on my 20 year old couch. But it is wonderful to have our house to ourselves again.
I have noticed some things over the past 10 days that we've been home that we were taking for granted. Cooking dinner in our kitchen, while the kids could play. In the hotel they had to sit and wait for the food to be cooked, then sit to eat. Appetites are back up now that they just have to sit to eat. I am appreciative of knowing what is in my food (and what isn't). It is wonderful for everything to have its place again, so that fewer things get lost. James was riding his indoor tricycle around our big loop tonight and loving it. The kids have their freedom back, we no longer have to keep them quiet or get them to stop running around. We can relax in bed in the morning, especially on weekends. We can spend entire days in our pjs, but be comfortable and have space to move around. James having his own bed for naps has been wonderful. I am more productive with work and he is getting the rest he really needs. Both kids seem to be taking off physically and academically again. Carolyn was even promoted to the next level on the gymnastics preteam tonight! At times I complain about cooking for my family, but I just need to remember that it can be taken away in the blink of an eye.
I have been thinking about writing this post for a few days now but things have been incredibly busy. As I write it I know there was a lot more I wanted to say, but I'm exhausted from all of this. It will be wonderful to sleep in my own bed tonight without staring at the living room furniture shoved into our bedroom. And once I've settled again I will try this again.
I have noticed some things over the past 10 days that we've been home that we were taking for granted. Cooking dinner in our kitchen, while the kids could play. In the hotel they had to sit and wait for the food to be cooked, then sit to eat. Appetites are back up now that they just have to sit to eat. I am appreciative of knowing what is in my food (and what isn't). It is wonderful for everything to have its place again, so that fewer things get lost. James was riding his indoor tricycle around our big loop tonight and loving it. The kids have their freedom back, we no longer have to keep them quiet or get them to stop running around. We can relax in bed in the morning, especially on weekends. We can spend entire days in our pjs, but be comfortable and have space to move around. James having his own bed for naps has been wonderful. I am more productive with work and he is getting the rest he really needs. Both kids seem to be taking off physically and academically again. Carolyn was even promoted to the next level on the gymnastics preteam tonight! At times I complain about cooking for my family, but I just need to remember that it can be taken away in the blink of an eye.
I have been thinking about writing this post for a few days now but things have been incredibly busy. As I write it I know there was a lot more I wanted to say, but I'm exhausted from all of this. It will be wonderful to sleep in my own bed tonight without staring at the living room furniture shoved into our bedroom. And once I've settled again I will try this again.
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