A School Year in Review - Many Praises!

(Grab yourself a cup of coffee - this is a long one!)

Whew! Just 4 more weeks of school left before summer break and before we wrap up Lily's first year of school. In a lot of ways it has flown by. In a lot of other ways it has painfully dragged on. This year we faced a lot of challenges (and we continue to face some) that has tried to drag us down, slow our momentum, block our way. But we are prevailing in this first year of homeschool (with the help of a God-sent co-op program).

The year started off with Lily getting glasses just before school began. Her vision was worse than 20/400 in both eyes - that's beyond legally blind! And after a few months into school, and a few months into wearing her glasses, her vision strengthened to 20/70 with her glasses - still legally blind (considered low vision) but strong enough for her to succeed in school with no visual impairment aids. My little girl is a trooper! Now her vision with her glasses is 20/25 in both eyes. Dr. G is striving for 20/20 or better and he tells me we will get there by the time she is age 10-12 years old and that's without glasses. Praise Jesus that Lily's vision problem is completely correctable!

Just two months into school my pregnancy with Charlotte turned risky with threats of pre-term labor. I was sidelined many days with contractions coming 4-6 times an hour. When those occured I had to lay down and rest and hope they calmed down. School was placed on the back burner on many days. I was on medication and restricted activity to control the contractions. Praise Jesus that the pregnancy went full term and Charlotte is a happy, healthy, little girl!

And then a week before Christmas, Lily fell and broke her arm. This involved an overnight stay in the hospital and surgery the next morning to place pins in her arm and install a cast. She wore her cast for 3 weeks. During that time she struggled to bathe, dress herself, get comfy in bed to sleep, do school work, and many other things. We lost even more time doing school. Despite this hurdle, praise Jesus that Lily was able to keep up with her learning and continued to grow in her knowledge of math, reading, writing, science and social studies!

Just a few weeks ago Lily faced another hurdle when we were instructed to place drops in Lily's eyes to dilate them 3 days before her next eye exam. I don't know the exact reason this is needed, but Dr. G gave the orders and we followed them. Unfortunately, dilated eyes become very blurry and especially with vision up close. This added another challenge with school work. Her vision remained blurry for at least a week following her eye exam. We made some accommodations to help Lily see her school work. At home I wrote all her lessons very large on a dry erase board. We skipped handwriting lessons that week because it was a huge frustration for her. It was apparent that she couldn't see the lines on her handwriting paper. For her days at school, I transposed all the problems on her worksheets onto plain white paper with a very large, bold Sharpie marker. Her teacher said it really seemed to help her. Praise Jesus we got through that week and Lily even got a cute new pair of purple glasses with a new lower prescription (+6.50 instead of +7.50 as before).

During this school year, and even before then, we have observed Lily having problems with certain things. These problems have become more pronounced with the added expectations of having to learn to read and write and remember facts and processes. Her teacher at River's Edge is noticing and now even the room moms are noticing what we've observed for many months now. After being strongly advised by our pediatrician, we took Lily to be evaluated. The results are not complete yet because we still lack a language/auditory evaluation, but the preliminary results are pointing to dyslexia or some sort of auditory processing disorder. We praise Jesus for placing in our path the most fabulous, experienced, intuitive, knowledgeable, kind-hearted Occupational Therapist this side of the Mississippi! Her name is Mrs. Kathy. She explained that these initial evaluations are a process of elimination. Lily scored on a 5-year-old level for visual integration and a 4-year-old level for visual-motor integration. She is 6 years old. The language/auditory eval next week will help us get a fuller picture of what could be causing the delays. Kathy is familiar with Lily's history since she worked with her 3 years ago when she was going through feeding therapy and occupational therapy due to sensory processing disorder. Kathy observed that Lily could use a little bit more help in maturing the nervous system in regards to the vestibular system. Sensory therapy is an amazing thing! If you've never dealt with this sort of thing, it will blow your mind how complex the brain and nervous system are and how certain activities can greatly affect a child whose nervous system lags behind in development. I cannot explain it, but I'm so grateful to God for placing the right people in our path who have a very deep and thorough understanding of this and who have devoted their lives to helping "sensory" children. We praise Jesus that we will be on top of these issues before they cause major frustration and delays in Lily's abilities at school!

We look forward to summer break! I foresee lots of outdoor adventures and some lazy days (for the kids that is. I'm way too busy with 4 kids to relax). I was making small talk with the wife of our co-op's administrator today, Mrs. Moe. She spoke such truth, and I'm certain she didn't even know it was what I needed today. As she was walking away she said, "the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). This verse has resounded in my heart and soul all day as I have struggled with a mixture of thoughts and emotions about our first year of homeschool. Some of these thoughts and emotions are from the deceiver himself, some are from my weak sin-nature, and some are from the heart of a mom. I praise Jesus for surrounding us with amazing people who bring encouragement, understanding, and words of Truth at just the right time!

Pretty Blue Nursing Dress

I'm working on losing about 25-30 pounds, thanks to Charlotte. Only kidding! It was my fault for putting on more weight than I should've during pregnancy number four. I've decided it was because I'm no spring chicken anymore and the metabolism isn't what it used to be. Nonetheless, I'm left with 25-30 pounds to lose and I'm hoping to do it before my bro-ham's wedding in June. If I reach my goal of 25 pounds then I am going to allow myself to purchase a new nursing dress that I found and really adore. I hope to buy a size SMALL. Since I'm only 5' 2" that should be a very realistic goal. The challenge is to cut out enough calories to lose weight, but not too many that it jeopardizes my milk production. I definitely don't want Charlotte to go hungry! Therefore, I have to be careful to get enough calories but focus on healthy ones. So, I've made two changes to my diet:

1) Eat whole foods such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and lean meat like chicken and fish. I eat 4-5 times a day since I get hungry often from nursing. For breakfast I eat a scrambled egg and 2 pieces of whole grain toast with a glass of skim milk. Then I make a smoothie (more about that in a minute) around 11 a.m. For lunch I've eaten a variety of things, such as, a salad or buckwheat soba noodles with snow peas, carrots, and red pepper seasoned with a bit of soy sauce. For dinner we eat a big variety of things. This week we had a new recipe called Sweet-Potato and Black-Bean Chili garnished with a tablespoon of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh chopped cilantro. It was yummy! Other nights we've had a strawberry and spinach salad with chicken, walnuts and feta cheese. That's BJ's favorite. Some other favorites amongst our family include roasted chicken and steamed green beans or baked salmon with mashed sweet potatoes.

2) This second change to my diet has boosted my nutrient intake. I've started using Visalus nutritional shakes (or smoothies as I like to call them), which is mainly soy and whey protein that you mix with skim milk and fruit or a bunch of other choices like peanut butter and unsweetened cocoa. Wow! This stuff is so yummy. And, it helps to boost my protein intake since it has 20+ grams of protein per smoothie and contains 5+ grams of fiber, plus a whole slew of other great nutrients like A, B, E, and D vitamins, calcium, potassium, folate, niacin, and so many more.

With these small changes that I've made over the past 2 weeks, I've already lost 5 pounds. I've had more energy from eating more nutritious foods that my body must've been craving. Plus, I feel better about sharing those nutrients with Charlotte.

I've tried to walk or run at least 3-5 times per week to boost the fat burn and to get a break from kiddos, breathe some fresh air and clear my head.

I hope to hit my goal if I lose about 2 pounds per week.

Free Gifts at CottonBabies.com

Griffin is beginning to outgrow his size medium gDiaper covers, which come in sizes small, medium or large. No fear, Charlotte is waiting in the wings for his outgrown dipes. But, I was left with a delimma - do I purchase the next size up or do I purchase a one-size cover, such as GroVia or Flip? I decided to go with a one-size so that Charlotte and Griffin can share when needed. I chose the Flip Diapering System because it is a lot like gDiapers with the inserts and waterproof cover that can be used over and over. A little while ago I ordered one Flip diaper with one of their Stay-dry inserts to give it a trial run. I like them as well as the gDiapers and the inserts from the gDiapers can be used with Flip and visa-versa. Today I went online to Cotton Babies' website (they are the peeps who make BumGenius, Flip, and EconoBum) to order more Flip and they are running a special where you get a free gift of a pack of disposable inserts (great for traveling and no time to stop and do laundry), and when you spend $100 on their site you get free BabyLegs. I wanted to share this info with other moms in case you were looking into purchasing cloth diapers, specifically Flip, EconoBum or BumGenius because now would be a good time to buy from CottonBabies.com and get some free stuff.

A New Blogger Friend

I wanted to direct your attention to some friends, the Ellis'. I am so excited for them as they traverse the adoption journey.

P.S. Thanks for all the uplifting messages left in the comments from "I need to know...". It is so helpful to know that I am not alone, especially on a day when I felt like an island unto myself. I spent some time in prayer and asked God for calmness of spirit, peace, and understanding of how to deal with each individual little-person living under our roof. He fulfilled my requests and today was much better. Love all my sister-mommies out there!

I need to know...

I need to know that I'm not alone. Today was tough. I am not going to lie. All four kiddos were especially rotten or demanding today. I won't go into all the details but generally they were all acting their ages: Lily (6), Schaeffer (3), Griffin (almost 2), and Charlotte (2 months). With days like today, I need to know I'm not the only one who...
...sometimes wants to throw in the towel and give up on this parenting thing.
...wonders if my voice is being heard over all the craziness in our home.
...has sat in the middle of the floor and cried out of frustration.
...lost my temper and raised my voice one too many times.
...locked my bedroom door and got into the shower just to drown out the demanding cries for just a few minutes.
...wonders how I'm going to start another morning with a happy positive attitude on only 4 hours of sleep.
...begs for just a 2 hour break that doesn't involve thinking, reading, correcting, or wiping.
...has forgotten to take photos of the fourth child and then has realized she is 2 months old already.
...is avoiding making any more appointments, promises, or anything else that would require a commitment of my time.
...is missing alone time with a neglected husband.
...feels guilty for not doing more today.
...hopes to read a good book again one day.
...is envious of people who tell me of their amazing "quiet times" with God and then feel guilty over my sin of envy.
...embraces any moment that brings me to my knees in prayer and then calls it a daily devotion.
...has researched how much a nanny costs.

Tools for Our Family

Last year we made a list of things we wanted for our growing family and began saving. And now we have just about procured them all thanks to a sizable tax refund (which really means we overpaid in 2010). The first on the list was a new dining room set (not my dining room pictured - I wish!). I need to finish getting my dining room in order and then I'll post some photos. I want to paint the room and hang more artwork.


Second on the list were these bad boys:

BJ really had to convince me that this would be a good purchase and worth the money. I have to agree with him now that I've used these for a few days. What would've normally been 7-10 separate loads of laundry in our older top-load machine, and probably 3 days of washing and drying, was 3 loads in the Samsung 5.0 front-loader. Just so you get an idea, BJ fit into this machine a set of queen-size sheets, pillow cases, queen-size fleece blanket, and a king-size quilt from our bed - all at one time! It completely fit inside this machine with a little room to spare. I am not kidding you! It's crazy how much stuff will fit inside this machine. And it's a lot more efficient because it uses about 15 gallons less per load than our older machine. Lovin' how this addition to our home has made my job a lot easier. Now if I can just find someone to help me fold all of the clean clothes that are laying around in the baskets.

And lastly, we want to put a freezer in our garage so that we can stock up better on food items and take advantage of good deals on bulk. We will be getting our freezer later this month. We hit a good deal when we purchased our washer and dryer. Lowe's was running a special with a tax refund gift card. When you make a purchase with a gift card during the specified time period, they would load 10% onto the card on March 18. So it works out that we get a freezer nearly free since the cost of a freezer is about 10% of the cost of the washer and dryer. Not to mention Lowe's matched a sales price on the washer and dryer when Best Buy was running a crazy good sale on them on President's Day. We saved over $500 for the set and will be getting a freezer out of the whole deal. I love a good deal!

In addition, and a surprise to me, BJ thought it was time to upgrade me to a MacBook Pro. Perhaps it was because I was whining and complaining about my PC. My PC was actually working fine, and it's almost like new, but after using his Mac that I got him for Christmas there is no comparison. I'm a Mac and won't turn Bac! I hope to learn how to use this fancy machine because Mac and PC do have their differences. After using a PC my entire life I'm going to have a huge learning curve but I'm already loving the intuitiveness and speed of the Mac.

Vacation Destination

You have to admit, East Tennessee is a beautiful place to live. To prove my point, check out Blackberry Farm. This would be a terrific vacation destination, or a great place for a romantic dinner date, if you don't want to wonder too far from home (if you live in East TN that is). This 4,200 acre estate is just up the road a piece in Walland. I want to go...please, please take me!