Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Restoring Health : Can you help?

Last month I was taking my general suppliments as usual, walking and jogging 3-5 miles a day and felt good. Healthy and happy, resting well at night. Then somehow a bad cold hit and I didnt feel like exercise.. often it is good to rest a couple days and that was my original intent. Then kids brought one germ after the other and today (a month later) I ended up in the ER with really bad chest pain, trouble breathing, extreme headache ext . I was warned its not pneumonia...yet ... and given a shot of steriods and another shot of even stronger antibiotics along with an rx for a z-pack.

My bronchitis is Not viral but from strep and I have heart issues so I will be finishing the antibiotics.
Question is besides probiotics which Im currently taking 3 times a day but not 2 hours before or 4 hours after the antibiotics... what are Your other go to's?

Friday, December 9, 2011

Go to your room! and other parenting fallacies.

Ive been surprised by the number of people who seem offended when they find out that I feel like sending my youngest to her room is wrong and innefective as discipline. So I thought Id try to explain why I feel this way.
First, its NOT that Im always against sending a child to their room.  Half an hour with a book in a quiet room can be a huge blessing for an overwhelmed child.
This particular child though has a huge issue with being told no. She is stubborn to the core and would spend 3 straight hours arguing with you if she thought she might finally get her way.
Mom can J come over? No mam J's mom and I haven't made any arrangements and your brother is sick. " oh well I could go over there" " what if she happens to walk over here" why not? well what if? and on and on and on.
This usually progresses to me forbidding her to utter another word on the subject for the rest of the day, and sadly, it often progresses from there.
So why not just send her to her room , get her out of my hair and not have to listen to it? Well I tried it a few times and it seemed much easier. I must admit it makes me so angry to have to go through this over and over again and I really DON'T want to deal with it.
After just a few times of go to your room I saw the ugly consequence for this particular child. Her sense of entitlement increased. She became more angry at me for not letting her do what she wanted,. The longer she stayed the more sullen and pouty she became and anything I tried to tell her when she came out just bounced right back at me.
When I keep her with me I can guide her, model correct responses, and help her work to control her emotions. When she still has work to do but I see she is trying , I can immediatly praise that effort.  Thats my goal because Id rather be less comfortable now than to have a young adult who can't keep a job because she dosen't have any respect for authority and cannot graciously accept that in life , more often than you'd like, the answer is no.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Literature based curriculum users ...I want to hear from you !

What does it look like with more than one child esp if they are several grades apart?

Sonlight or TOG ? or something completely different?

How do you teach a kid to write well if you are not a skilled writer? ( seen my blog? yup uh huh that would be me :D )

 Why do you like this style of curriculum?

What advice would you give to make getting started easier?

Be honest :) is there anything you find difficult or don't like?

What do you grade if you need to provide a grade report or proof of work ?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, subject to their own husbands`titus2:5

Is it just me ? If find myself once again in this position where Im totally overwhelmed. Ive been doing things away from home and often doing so to help others out. Helping others is by no means bad but I get home and find myself overwhelmed by the mess.

When I keep things on schedule and picked up Im calm. The day flows better and Im at peace but when the dirty dishes sit in the sink, laundry is piled high , and so on I seriously can't think straight. I'm gripy and tend to shut down.

The thing is my husband and children don't seem to share this "anxiety chip" that makes larger explosions the worse the house is.

So I want to know...what's it like at your house? Did god design us this way? or is it completely different for you?

Monday, March 21, 2011

Book Adventure

I found a link for Courtney that gives tests over books then awards point that can be traded in on small prizes. I hesitated on whether or not post the link because I'm not overly thrilled about awarding kids for (or bribing kids into) reading. If you give kids good books with real story lines reading becomes the reward.

A child of mine specifically asked for AR tests. Knowing this child well and seeing that her head is constantly buried in a book regardless of points given I decided to use it as another tool at my disposal to test comprehension.

There are a few prizes you can have mailed after your child collects a certain number of points which could have some value with a really reluctant reader :)

http://bookadventure.com/

First swim of the season

Wouldn't it be kewl if this post has a picture? Well, it dosen't but one day soon I'll actually get pictures and post them.

I got a new camera. I brought it to the hotel with me. We all got ready to go swimming and I left it up in the room. Mr. Hyper boy was already 1. In a strange new place 2. Dressed and ready to go swimming 3. Had the pool in sight.

He has a very hard time understanding we are coming right back. I wanted him and the girls to have a good time and I knew if I drug him out of the pool area and back upstairs for the camera I'd be in for quite a tantrum.

I did not want to deal with a screaming 9 year old dropping to the floor in the middle of hotel halls :) Therefore, our first swim of the season is picture free.

Babycakes improved on her swimming skills and will be swimming more the last 9 weeks of school for her P.E. credit. Spunky monkey met a little friend and had a great time diving for coins. Mr Hyper just amazed me with his progress in just an hour! In the past he has always spent most of the time just sitting on the side of the pool then clinging to me so badly I needed a crowbar to pry him off. I can't figure it out though because this is the same child that has gone running into our pond, would take 5 baths a day if I let him and would likely go right into the lake behind our house if given a chance. He has absolutely 0 fear of water everywhere except swimming pools.
Yesterday I let him spend about 10 minutes sitting at the side of the pool. He needs that time to really asses his surroundings and get comfortable. Once he seemed to relax a bit I brought him in the pool to bounce and play motor boat a bit.
Then I got him to let go of me and hang on to the side alone for a minute. It helped build confidence in him and gave me a chance to work with the girls. Once I took him off the side he was happily willing to just hold onto my hands instead of my entire body using both his arms and legs. He kicked his legs, blew bubbles for me and squealed with delight.

At the end we got in the hot tub for a few minutes to warm up. Mr. Hyper laid his head on my shoulder and almost fell asleep.

Oh yea! Me thinks we will be going swimming a LOT this year ;)

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Little heathen bodies all over my house.

Today Ive taken deep breaths while waiting at the doctor with my son and little 4 year old C. We had to wait a very long time to get seen but wait we must as N had a very high fever....which dosen't mix well with his seizure disorder. During this time I hear no less than 130 times from MR C " I want to watch Toy Story 3" . Breathe, redirect , move on.

Off to pick up the twins. Now these little guys have downs but don't let that fool you...they are clever. I got such sweet smiles as they climbed in my car ready to go home with me. The sweetness was short lived. They fed cheese crackers to my carpet soon after we got home and took juice in the living room and spilled it. It's a good thing they are great at helping clean up :)

N was done with being calm and patient for the day so it was time to hit H in the car.  What on earth do you do when one is hitting another in the back? If I keep pulling over I will never get there.


On to big K and C. I must brag they are huge helpers but there was worry about not being able to get K's mom on the phone and I worried with them. At least untill A decided to attach to me like velcro.

A , along with N and C have the flu. A however did not want to accept the fact that despite everything I had tried she still did not feel one bit better. I failed miserably in my reaction to this child who demanded more sympathy than I had the strength and patience to give.

Now I look around at all 7 of their sweet sleeping faces and I love them all over again. I hope they feel the same way in the morning.