August has ended in an absolutely crazy manner!
Two weeks ago we enjoyed a lovely week long vacation at the beach. Fun with friends, fun playing at the beach...and then I got sick. Randy had been very sick the beginning of the month for about a week. The day before we left for home, I came down with whatever virus or flu it was and was sick for about a week as well! My daughter did an amazing job of keeping our household running while I was down and Randy was on the truck.
As I was starting to recover, school started (last Thursday)! Two of my kids went off to our local private school. Three of them officially started homeschooling. Thankfully I had previously organized things so I could get them started as well!
Saturday morning, Zach woke up having an obvious allergic reaction. It did not really respond well to the meds and he was even worse on Sunday. So Sunday afternoon we took a quick trip to the Quick Care and he got a shot of something (a steroid?) and a prescription for Prednisone. So this week he continues to take Benedryl and Pepcid and Prednisone. He is finally looking better.
Sunday night was our annual picnic with my mom's side of the family. While there, my daughter came up to me and told me she was sick. So she has been down with this illness all of this week. One of our other sons came down with it as well. 4 Down, 5 to go (but let's hope they stay healthy and don't get it!). All of last week and this week appointments are moved to next week...previously empty but now stacked full!
Tomorrow the kids have a half day of school (and then off on Monday for Labor Day). Baby has a visit with his family followed by a Doctor visit (rescheduled because I was sick). Randy and Josiah both have dentist appointments. Our pigs are going to the butcher. It should be a crazy in-and-out, coming-and-going sort of day!
Back to Zach. We have done the allergy thing before with both Randy and Mark. This time I am going to try the Chiropractor route. We had our first appointment this week. They suggested he avoid a lot of foods and that his inflammation is through the roof. I don't know how chiropractors work. They seem a bit crazy. But I've heard good things about this and after trying the medical route unsuccessfully with 2 members of our family, it's worth a shot.
I did call the allergist as well...because I do want to be a good mom. :-) They are scheduling in November, December and January and do not have those schedules yet. They will call me when they can schedule me. I've been through this before. They will do skin prick testing. If anything shows up, they will tell him to avoid it. (For both Randy and Mark the results were inconclusive even though they were obviously reacting to something!) And we will get a prescription for an Epi-Pen.
In the meantime, we will try the Chiropractor's suggestions...should be interesting getting a strong-willed 10-year-old boy to give up favorite foods! It is interesting, though, that some of the "avoid" foods were ones he already was "picky" about. Perhaps he knew that those foods didn't work for him, even if he couldn't explain it to us?!
While this looks to be a difficult challenge, I can truly say that God has prepared me. I'm familiar with allergies because of Randy's challenges in that area (He no longer has these issues.) I'm familiar with food issues and modified diets because of Mark's gastrointestinal issues (and friends' with similar challenges). Because of that, in the past year I've bought several cookbooks and read a lot about the "Trim Healthy Mama" diet and similar diets that are supposedly good for kids with ADHD and/or Autism. I even have many of these foods in my cupboards. So I'm prepared. I don't really like it and it seems overwhelming, but I can't say it's either terribly unexpected (I've always thought there were underlying systemic issues in this child, but didn't know where to start) or undo-able...
In the meantime...I'd welcome any prayers on behalf of all of us!
Enjoy your day!
~Karen
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Sunday, August 6, 2017
And it is August!
I really don't know where the time goes. Really!
So. August. August is freezing and canning. August is a trip to the beach to wrap up the summer. August is school starting again. I am not ready for school to start. No, I love having my kids home. I may not love all their crazy shenanigans though! Now, to be fair, when school does start I will enjoy the quieter moments, but overall I enjoy our crazy family life.
Speaking of school, this year I have 5 students. My oldest graduated so he is finished. I plan to homeschool the 10th grader, 4th grader, and 3rd grader (age-wise. Developmental delays and learning challenges put him on more of a 1st grade level though). Our 2nd grader and 7th grader will continue attending our local Mennonite school.
For those of you who are homeschooling and curious about these things, this is roughly what we are doing in the curriculum department. **always subject to change as the year goes along as needed. **all subjects studied may not be listed (because I'm going off of memory, not actually looking!) :-)
10th Grade
So. August. August is freezing and canning. August is a trip to the beach to wrap up the summer. August is school starting again. I am not ready for school to start. No, I love having my kids home. I may not love all their crazy shenanigans though! Now, to be fair, when school does start I will enjoy the quieter moments, but overall I enjoy our crazy family life.
Speaking of school, this year I have 5 students. My oldest graduated so he is finished. I plan to homeschool the 10th grader, 4th grader, and 3rd grader (age-wise. Developmental delays and learning challenges put him on more of a 1st grade level though). Our 2nd grader and 7th grader will continue attending our local Mennonite school.
For those of you who are homeschooling and curious about these things, this is roughly what we are doing in the curriculum department. **always subject to change as the year goes along as needed. **all subjects studied may not be listed (because I'm going off of memory, not actually looking!) :-)
10th Grade
- Teaching Textbooks Geometry
- Progeny Press Literature & Writing + Grammar
- Astronomy
- Ancient World History, World Geography
- Home Economics - Cooking - Traditional Mennonite Cooking (using books including Mennonite Girls Can Cook and The Mennonite Cookbook)
- Photography
- Switched-on-Schoolhouse Office Applications II
- Music - Violin
- Physical Education
4th Grade
- Teaching Textbooks Level 4
- Progeny Press Literature
- BJU Spelling
- Grammar
- Daily Handwriting - Traditional Cursive
- Science - Apologia Botany, Daily Science
- Story of the World - Ancient History (Geography included)
- Cooking - Cookies (at Homeschool Co-Op)
- Other: Physical Education, Music
- Draw-Write-Now (Handwriting, Art, Social Studies)
- Typingclub.com
3rd Grade - Special Ed
- Language Arts: All About Reading, All About Spelling, Daily Handwriting (Printing)
- Math - Math U See - Complete Alpha & begin Beta, complete if possible.
- Science - Daily Science
- History - Daily Geography, Social Studies - Famous People in a historical context
- Time4Learning.com (Language Arts, Math, Science)
- Draw-Write-Now (Art, Handwriting, Social Studies)
- Other: Physical Education, Music
- Occupational and Speech Therapy
- We may also do some work with the Five In A Row program which teaches lessons in social studies, science, language arts, math, and art through literature.
We may also do some special units based around holidays. Each of the students will also be taking some of their classes through our local homeschool co-op (I'm trying a different one this year).
I hope to take a field trip to Hershey this year (Chocolate World, Hershey Story, possibly auto museum). We may also do a field trip to the Ephrata Cloister and/or the Hans Herr House. We'll see...
This is my fourth year homeschooling. The first year I homeschooled 1 student and had 1 preschooler (age 4-5), The 2nd Year I homeschooled 1 student and had a kindergartner home part of the time. Last year I thought I was homeschooling 2 students with no preschoolers, but a baby arrived in our home mid-September changing those plans a tad bit. This will be the first time I'm homeschooling with with a toddler and (2) Elementary students. Should be interesting! I'm sure we'll get into the swing of things after a week or two!
Actually, all of the homeschooled kids have already started dabbling with this year's school work and I (think I) have everything ready for the first week.
Now that I've typed all of this I'm actually starting to get excited for the school year! :-)
Enjoy your day!
~Karen
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Food!
Apples - Making Applesauce
Peaches - Canning and making jelly
Beans - cleaning, prepping and freezing
Corn - Husking, Blanching, Cutting, Freezing
That's what's been consuming my life the past week or two! Last year I took a break and did almost nothing in the canning/freezing department. I used up all the extras from previous years (well, there are still pickles down there) and planned to start over this year. The past few years have been stressful and challenging, but this year I have enough energy to try again. I'm doing small amounts at a time (although this week's pushing the small amount thing) to keep it manageable for myself. And whatever I get completed, is what I have. No goals to have any specific amounts. If I run out during the year, I run out. I can reevaluate and adjust next year according to our schedule, our needs, and my energy levels.
Today I'm planning on doing the last of my beans (green & wax). The bushes would've kept producing for awhile, but I'm ready to wrap this up. So yesterday afternoon the girls and I pulled out the plants and stripped the beans off of them (my favorite way to pick beans by the way). Today I will clean and blanch them for freezing.
Enjoy your day!
Peaches - Canning and making jelly
Beans - cleaning, prepping and freezing
Corn - Husking, Blanching, Cutting, Freezing
That's what's been consuming my life the past week or two! Last year I took a break and did almost nothing in the canning/freezing department. I used up all the extras from previous years (well, there are still pickles down there) and planned to start over this year. The past few years have been stressful and challenging, but this year I have enough energy to try again. I'm doing small amounts at a time (although this week's pushing the small amount thing) to keep it manageable for myself. And whatever I get completed, is what I have. No goals to have any specific amounts. If I run out during the year, I run out. I can reevaluate and adjust next year according to our schedule, our needs, and my energy levels.
Today I'm planning on doing the last of my beans (green & wax). The bushes would've kept producing for awhile, but I'm ready to wrap this up. So yesterday afternoon the girls and I pulled out the plants and stripped the beans off of them (my favorite way to pick beans by the way). Today I will clean and blanch them for freezing.
Enjoy your day!
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