Autumn leaves are Falling

 The leaves are starting to change colors and fall.  The air is getting cooler.  Autumn has finally arrived.  I'm hungry for foods made of pumpkin and apples.  Why do I feel that way in the fall?  I have no idea...after all, with modern food we can eat these foods year round.

We are settled, mostly, into school routines now.  Zach and Micah getting the bus every day.  Janae taking care of her own schedule of school and work.  Mark cooperating beautifully for his tutor and not so beautifully with me.  JH loves to do some pre-reading with me when Mark does his work.  He's learning to sing the ABC song and even if he is child #7, I still enjoy the thrill of a child learning new things.

While Randy is typically home on the weekends, this weekend he wasn't.  The weekend went pretty well for us and he got to enjoy riding bike in another state.

This morning I went to give JH a bath before church.  The faucet handle came off in my hand!  I ended up having to turn off the water for the entire house as the shower/tub did not have shut off valves.  I highly recommend them!  Anyway, my friend's husband is a plumber by profession and came and took care of it this afternoon.  I was so thankful. 

Yesterday I was excited to find a book by one of my favorite authors, Agatha Christie, available for free with Kindle Unlimited.  So I enjoyed reading Sparkling Cyanide this afternoon.

Tonight we made Funnel Cakes.  I had a mix in my cupboard for a rather long time and finally made them.  This year all of our local fairs were canceled so we missed some of those things that we typically enjoyed.

I'm excited that I have very few appointments/meetings this week!  Zach does have some soccer games at school so perhaps I'll get to one of them.  I'd like to do some fall clean-up work in my flowerbeds.  The marigolds are still blooming their hearts out so it's hard for me to pull them, but I'll be glad next spring if I bother to clean up this fall.  :-) 

Have a lovely day!

~Karen

School 2020-2021

 As I mentioned in my previous post, our schooling is currently on Plan B.

So, for those of you who are curious as to what we are doing, here's the basic plan (off the top of my head, not necessarily exclusive to this):

Janae: 

*    History & English - Notgrass World History + Grammar

*    Math - Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 + Dave Ramsey Foundations High School Math (co-op)

*    Science - Environmental Science (Co-op)

*    Foreign Language - Rosetta Stone Spanish + Spanish @ Co-op

*    Digital Photography (Art)

*    Phys Ed (Biking +)

Zach & Micah - Local Private School

Mark:

*    English/Language Arts - Continue Working with Tutor

*    Math - Developmental Math

*    History - Focus on United States Geography + Wonders of the World @ Co-Op

*    Science - Daily Worksheets, Abeka Health

*    Cooking - 2 classes @ co-op

*    Phys Ed, Art, Music

John:

*    All About Reading - Pre Reading

*    Potty Training

**As always, subject to change...

August Ramblings

 Time marches on, pandemic or no pandemic.  It is dark now when I wake up, and getting darker earlier at night.  The days are (generally) not as humid...the longer nights keep the mornings just a bit cooler.

Here in our area school plans have needed to be very fluid.  We have moved on to Plan B.  Janae is homeschooling as planned.  Zach and Micah are going to our local private school as planned.  And I will homeschool Mark one more year rather than have him deal with masks and virtual schooling at the Public School.  He doesn't do well with either.  I'd like to think he'd eventually adjust, but I'm just not up for that battle...especially knowing how badly Zoom Speech Therapy went for him.  We are currently planning to attend a local homeschool co-op as well.  But we hold all things loosely as the past five months have taught us the reality of the words quoted in the book of James, "If the Lord wills, we will live, and do this or that."  Janae has started school already.  Zach and Micah start next week.  I will start Mark when they start.  He will resume meeting with his tutor in September.

Last week were able to enjoy our annual vacation to the beach.  We stayed at a different house this year and enjoyed being able to see the water or the inlet from the porch.  The beginning of the week was quite hot and humid, the end was on the rainy side.  We enjoyed spending time at the local state park beaches, kayaking on the inlet, and relaxing.

I am almost done reading "A Fight To Flourish" by Jennie Lusko.  I took a whole stack of books to the beach and read none of them.  So this week while waiting at appointments, I'm making a point to finish books that I had previously started, including this one.

Speaking of appointments, this week we had a chiropractor appointment, two appointments to get teeth cleaned, and 1 orthodontic appointment (thankful that our dentist and orthodontist are one and the same!)  Tomorrow Micah has the option to meet his teacher and tour his classroom so I'm going to try to do that as well.

That's all for now...

Blessings...

~Karen

More Randomness

Random thoughts swirl through my head, popping up insidiously like weeds. Here are a few of them...there are many more...

• Masks and kids.  It's hard!  I try to avoid taking my kids anywhere.  Today I needed to take one for a physical.  While we were waiting for the doctor, he slid down the mask, picked his nose, bit his fingernail, and slid the mask back up.  I'm not sure that's going to help stop the spread of germs much...
• Homeschooling vs. schooling.  Yeah.  Part of me feels guilty.  I hear so many voices saying they are pulling their kids to homeschool, not making their kids wear masks all day.  I, who have homeschooled 1 or more children for the past 6? years was planning on sending all but 1 back to school.  I still am planning that way...but as I said, part of me feels guilty for saying that if there is school, my kids are going.  On the other hand, I know that I had my reasons for having them go back.  Those reasons didn't go away.  And I may end up withdrawing them and homeschooling them.  But at this point, I'm going to try and send them.  
• Faceshields.  I'm kind of intrigued by these.  I love that you can see people's faces!  I know they are not quite as "safe".  My daughter wears one to work.  She said it affects her hearing.  I never would've thought of that possibility.  I think we should be talking more about this option for kids and those working with kids.  Being able to see facial expressions affects us.  I have a son doing speech.  He and the therapist wear masks.  After years of being told that shaping our mouths is important, I wonder if this is helpful or if I should just stop doing speech.
• Books.  I'm reading as much as I can.
• Family update:  Randy is still working the same as always.  Josiah & Marisa are now married.  Autumn continues her job at market.  Janae is working 1 day a week and has started her 11th grade school year.  Zach, Mark, Micah, and John are just hanging out at home.  We try to go swimming a few times a week.  Pretty much normal life.  Mondays are tutoring.  Every other Tuesday is Speech.  Chiropractor every other Tuesday.  Summer School every Thursday.
• Sometimes I'm curious about how quarantining travelers for out of state will help.  After all, truck drivers don't quarantine and they travel through a lot of states...of course, that wouldn't be practical either.  Sometimes it feels like the quarantine rules vary depending on who you are and what job you do. and who you listen too...
• We had to cancel the TFC Truck Rally this year.  We did do a drive thru Chicken BBQ.  Different...but good in it's own way.
• Time marches on.  We are now into the second half of 2020.  Maybe I should start Christmas shopping?!  (Not really, I have birthdays for several people before I get to Christmas!)
• The flowers around my house are blooming profusely.  I love all the colors!

Enough random thoughts for now...

Blessings!

~Karen

Random Thoughts on a Windy Day

The wind is blowing here.  It is cool.  The sun is shining!

Today's randomness:

• Things are slowly moving back to more "normal."  In a couple of weeks we will resume tutoring for Mark.  We have resumed his speech therapy as well.
• School should have been ending on Friday.  And it is...for Janae.  Micah's school ended 2 Fridays ago so we ended for Zach and Mark as well.
• I'm grieving what I thought our summer would look like and attempting to figure out a plan for this year.  We've been going to the pool for years.  It will be different without that option.  Even normal things like grocery shopping are different, because I need to plan around when someone is here with the kids.  Taking a bunch of kids to a store with masks is rather a joke.
• Speaking of masks and kids, I took one along with me to Zach's chiropractor appointment this week.  Yeah, it reminded me of why I usually leave them home with Autumn!  Up, down, in, out...I guess it would get better with practice?  Maybe?  I will deal with needing to shop at different times or get a babysitter rather than deal with that.
• I just finished reading Jubal Sackett.
• I'm working on finishing grading Janae's schoolwork and getting her portfolio completed.  She still needs an evaluation because she is in high school.  The younger kids evaluations have been waived due to Covid-19.
• I never know whether to say "Covid-19" or "Corona" or "the virus" or....
• Our church is resuming services.  While I'm thrilled to be able to worship in person, I'm glad that we will continue to LiveStream so that if someone is not comfortable gathering or is in a high risk group, they can continue watching services at home.  To be fair, we were LiveStreaming before all of this so that part isn't actually different.

Well, I need to go stick something in the oven for supper...

Blessings!

~Karen

May Randomness

Whether under a "stay at home" order or during regular life, time marches on.  The days just aren't nearly as hectic right now.  In my pre-Corona life I frequently had 5-10 appointments a week...now, we've been at 1 a week (chiropractor).  I found myself a bit excited yesterday that I actually have 5 appointments this week!  Granted, 2 of them are virtual, but still!  It feels more "normal."  :-)

On to the random thoughts:

• 5 appointments this week - (2) chiropractor appointments, (1) Zoom support group, (1) Zoom Speech Therapy, and (1) Tupperware Open House by appointment only.
• Books - I'm reading "Everything I want to Do is Illegal" by Joel Salatin.  I've contemplated taking photos of my books and posting them for everyone missing the library.  I could put books out on my porch for people to pick up...haven't done that yet though...
• Cabin - This past weekend our family went to the cabin!  It was lovely to be "stuck at home" in a different location. 

• Summer Plans - Everything open to change it seems.  The verses in James 4 about how we should say "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that" seem appropriate!

Well, kids are clamoring to use this computer...

Have a lovely day!

Karen

Staying Home

I've been thinking that I should have been blogging or journaling our experiences during this period of staying at home for future reference.  But what do I say?  We stay at home.  I cook, I do laundry, I help the kids with their school work.  We rarely go anywhere, we just see each other.  While I see some people getting projects done, for myself, I bounce between being busy taking care of the normal household work and having little motivation because "there's always tomorrow".  The days stretch out with very little to look forward to other than more of the same.  We watch church on Sundays...and it's good...but it's not the same as actually being physically with others.  Zoom can help bridge gaps, but there's still something different when you're not in person.

Anyway, it's mostly been good.  The kids are doing better than I expected they would.  We have a loose rhythm to our days.  Monday-Friday we do school, laundry, cook, straighten up the house.  On Fridays I take Micah's school work to school and pick up his next week's worth of work.  Then we stop at the grocery store to get what we need.  Saturdays we do chores and clean.  Sunday mornings we watch church.   We are blessed with space to run on our own property so I haven't taken the kids out to go hiking or anything (yet).

Last weekend Randy finished the new bed he made for us out of cedar.  It's beautiful and our room now has this subtle cedar scent which is lovely!  He and the kids also worked on the flower beds and getting them weeded and mulched.  Sunday we celebrated Easter.  All the kids were here for lunch.  We hunted Easter Eggs as well.

As much as I had longed for time at home and less appointments, I'm finding it rather monotonous.  But I truly think it is more the idea that I "can't" go anywhere than that I actually want to go anywhere.  I'm used to doing what needs done (like groceries) during the day at my convenience instead of having to plan it around when Randy is home to stay with the kids.  It's working out though, even if it's not my preference.  Maybe I'm even saving money without the kids influencing my spending?!

I'm enjoying watching the world turn green around me.  The grass in the pasture is growing lush and thick.  The dandelions are sunny spots in the lawn.  The daffodils have been blooming and now the tulips are as well.  The flowering trees are losing their blossoms and turning green.  It's a beautiful world around me.  If I need to be stuck somewhere, I'm glad that I can be stuck at home.  💓

Blessings,
~Karen

Weeks...

I see that I have not posted since mid February.  February-beginning of March was busy as normal.  Our lives revolved around tutoring, other appointments, and homeschooling.  All that changed with the coming of the Corona Virus/CoVid-19.  It truly is rather hard for me to believe how much has changed in the past few weeks...and yet how much stayed the same.  Part of me debated about even blogging.  But I finally decided I should write it all down for the sake of remembering in the future.

So here are my random thoughts for today:

• Both everything and nothing changed.
• Randy continues to work as normal.  We are nervous about this as he has an underlying health condition that affects his lungs (sarcoidosis).  But not working means no money.  No money creates it's own set of issues.  So he is working.  As a truck driver, he's alone in his truck, but is washing his hands as much as possible and using lots of hand sanitizer when he needs to pump fuel/use truck stops.
• My life is so strange without the normal appointment schedule.  The first week when things were just starting to shut down I got in 4 final appointments.  Now we are down to a weekly chiropractor appointment.  We do still hope to do our psychotherapy and psychiatric appointments via video, but haven't had one yet.  Next week we get to try that.
• I am trying hard to keep our schedule as normal as possible.  Micah's school is sending home daily assignments now which helps.  Homeschooling helps too.  Our live revolves around homeschooling and housework.  I'm glad that we have a large yard for the boys to go outside and get out some of their energy and I sure will be happy when the weather warms up just a tad bit more.
• Our kids still have their jobs but their hours got shortened.
• I realized that had we not decided to have Autumn graduate a year early, we would have all of the Senior stress...so in a way I'm thankful that it worked out the way it did.
• We had to cancel our annual TFC Global dinner concert...hard but necessary.  700 people is rather to much.
• I'm glad I had decided to get Disney+.  It's been helpful to have more options right now.
• The cooking NEVER ends.  Neither do the dishes.  Or the laundry.  (But that's all normal...)
• I've been going to the grocery store and shopping strictly off of my list.  This usually comes back to haunt me in the long run as eventually I need a lot of groceries!
• I'm thankful that we have meat in our freezer.
• Speaking of the grocery store and all the admonitions to have only 1 person and 1 cart, I can only say that is easier said than done when you have a large family + children that can't be left home alone.
• Walking through the store is a bit of a mind-blowing experience.  I am fascinated by what is out of stock and what is fully stocked.
• While our income has remained unchanged (at least for now), I'm caught between "spend money to help out the local businesses" and "don't spend money in case of economic collapse".  yeah.
• I'm thankful for online shopping.  Yes, I know many people believe that we should not shop for any unnecessary items right now and that people have vastly different ideas of what is necessary.  
• Boys grow quickly.
• I now know that I should have birthday gifts purchased 6 months in advance "just in case" and the next size of jeans waiting "just in case".
• I don't think I've tackled any of my projects yet because homeschooling, laundry, cooking and lack of motivation get first priority.
• Our new flock of chickens started laying eggs at the perfect time.
• I appreciate our church live-streaming their service.  It's nice to see familiar faces.
• I continue to read everything and anything as I'm able.  

Well, I hear beds creaking so my boys are starting to wake up...gotta run!

Blessings!

~Karen

Dreary Days

Winter has been rather dreary here...not terribly cold but not warm.  Hardly any snow, but damp.  I think I read that we've only had 10 sunny days since the beginning of the year.

I see that I last posted on January 3rd.  At the time, I had all sorts of posts rolling around in my head.  Now I can't remember any of them.  I do seem to remember wanting to post on my "Word of the Year" for 2020 which is Faithful.  Maybe I'll do that yet.

Life continues to roll along.  This week Autumn got her wisdom teeth removed.  I'm strongly considering sending the boys all to school next year and resuming my original plan of only homeschooling high school, so I've started talking to schools about doing evaluations and what not to see about making that happen.  Part of me feels like I "should" feel guilty about sending them back to school as if I failed.  Part of me feels relieved at the thought of having some extra time to things around here that need done.  Another part of me feels some trepidation at having to once again deal with high anxiety over homework every evening.  But I never really felt "called" to homeschool like some people.  It's just something I evaluated every year and did what seemed best per child per year...so I'm okay with however it works out for next year.  We will see how this develops as we continue, but so far it has changed one thing...I'm not looking at curriculum for next year!  I will need to do this for Janae, but she's my third high school student so I pretty much know what I do for them.

In the spectrum of large family living, I'm frequently thinking of what style of dress I want for my oldest son's wedding...while simultaneously gradually potty-training the youngest son.

In January we dropped OT and added weekly tutoring for one son.  He continues with ST as well.  We are working on adjusting meds for another son and resuming talk therapy as well.  We had taken a break after his last counselor unexpectedly quit.  We are in the midst of our winter semester of our home-school co-op.  I'm supervising/teaching Typing this time.  These things are necessary, but do take a lot of time and driving...I'm glad we bought a car so I don't have to take the big van everywhere.  :-)

Considering how many viruses have been around, we've been relatively healthy.  Four of the kids did get mildly sick and we've missed and canceled a few events/appointments, but still, it's been relatively mild compared to what I've been hearing from others. 

As always, I continue to read as much as I can sneak in.  But right now I'm blanking out on what I've read since I last posted.  I know I read "Detached" which was a fascinating story of a man who was diagnosed with RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder) written by him from his perspective.  I recently purchased "20 Life-Changing Choices Adoptees Need To Make" by Sherrie Eldridge.  I've been blessed by Sherrie's writings and am finally starting to add her books to my collection after years of wanting to do so.

Randy and I went out for the evening last Saturday night while our friends kept the kids.  It's always nice to get away for a few hours and be able to talk without interruption from anyone other than a waiter or cashier.  :-)

And my final random thoughts...I'm looking forward to warmer weather and spring flowers.  I've been thinking about Lent and whether I want to "give up" anything this year...but nothing has come to mind so far.  Fasnacht Day is late this year so I guess Easter is late as well.  It will probably snow in March since we haven't had much yet.

Blessings!
~Karen

Thoughts on 2020

Seems like just yesterday we were starting the year 2000...and now it's 20 years and 7 kids later!

Thinking about what's ahead in 2020 for us:

• Always the unknown...only God knows the future.  So even what I think, may be subject to change.  I frequently remind my children that Plans are not Promises...and Plans may change.
• One adult child plans to get married.
• One child will be turning 16 so we will be teaching that one to drive.
• We will once again decide for each child whether to homeschool or to send to school, and if homeschooling, decide upon the curriculum/choose classes.
• Potty Training!
• Laundry, cooking, cleaning, shopping...some things never really change
• Vacations...the details may change from year to year, but we always try to get away a bit a few times a year.  We are not planning on a long road trip this year.
• We once again anticipate going to the Together Called Retreat.
• Appointments...they are always with us...doctors, dentists, therapists, etc.
• Books...books are always with me as well.  :-)
• Lots of talk and fun with our kids
• And for some of my kids...TV/Movies...some people just seem to like them more than books.  :-)

What are you anticipating in 2020?!

Blessings!

~Karen

Book Review

It's been awhile...years, probably...since I've blogged about a book.  While Christmas shopping this year, I came across the book Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families by Gary Chapman and Jolene Philo.  This book shows how to integrate the 5 Love Languages in special needs families.

A few random thoughts from quickly reading this book:

• This short book covers loving your spouse and loving your children.
• I loved the point that in the time immediately following a diagnosis, parents need to receive love from outside sources as they are likely both to drained to receive love from each other.
• Great practical suggestions of how to tweak each love language for children with special needs
• Appreciated the stories of how other families used these techniques/modified love languages for their specific situations.
• Learned about ABLE, a savings program through the IRS to pay for future qualified expenses.
• Nice chapter on how to integrate love languages into an IEP or 504 and when communicating with professionals.
• I really liked that the authors acknowledged medical trauma.
• Special Needs children in this book covered children with physical and emotional special needs .including medical diagnoses as well as special needs related to adoption and abuse/neglect.
• The book includes love language quizzes for couples, singles, teens, and children.
• It discusses figuring out love languages for a nonverbal child.
• I admit that there is a part of me that read the stories of how other parents successfully used the love languages with their children/spouse and wished that I could be that parent/spouse...but I also know that I can start again every day.
• There is a great chapter on how the community surrounding the family can support the parents using the parents' love languages.  This helped me think about why some supportive actions are more meaningful to me while other actions are more meaningful to other friends.
• The authors encourage the parents to intentionally choose not to become isolated.
• The authors reference Dan Siegel and Karyn Purvis among others.  I appreciate these authors as well and have a greater trust for a book when it seems well researched.

I definitely recommend this book if you have special needs kids or have a family/friend with a special needs child.  (And I apologize for the inconsistent grammar through the bullet points.)

Happy 2020!

~Karen