Wednesday, November 30, 2005

JOY

Where has my joy gone? Lately I have been in a slump. The house is shabby, the children are whiny and push to the extreme, I am cranky and uninspired, our meals have come in prepackaged boxes. YUK, this is NOT the way our life should be. We need to get back to what is important, and it needs to start with me.

Things don't need to be perfect or even going great to experience Joy. Joy is not the same as happiness in the worldly sense, it isn't dependent on certain circumstances.
I choose Joy and it comes from my Father, my Savior, my Creator. What a miracle! Jesus has filled in the gap where I fall short. He came to MY rescue. I am a child of God, the Creator of everything, and he has a plan for me. I have every reason to rejoice! Things don't have to be running smoothly around here for me to rejoice, but maybe if I am obedient to God and rejoice in Him, rather than ourselves, things just might run smoother as a side effect.

OK, I am motivated! Thank You Lord! I am going to get off this computer and do all the things that need to get done so that we can have a timely dinner and get to AWANA tonight without being all harried in the process. Have a GREAT day!

Back to the mystery rash

Well, Aiden still has the hive-like bumps. The other dry skin type rash that started after the hive-type bumps has cleared up mostly using dove soap generic and cvs moisturizing cream (it's like a body butter with no scent or color).

We have also been trying Aiden on Lactaid for two weeks now, to see if that helps, to no avail. He is breaking out less frequently, but some decided to appear just this morning. How strange! I just can't figure it out.

Lady Jonine advised me that if he has a milk protein allergy the lactaid will not help as that has to do with milk sugar. I also stopped cooking with the whole wheat, however as I read more and more I am learning wheat is in most everything. I just get overwhelmed with the idea of bringing him to an allergist. He's such a tiny little guy. I'm not giving up and I am thankful this allergy, whatever it is, isn't a serious threat to his health. Like I told the doctor, I'm sure it can't be healthy, after all his body is having a reaction (The Dr.'s don't see it as a big problem); On the other hand, I'm glad it's not an emergency.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving! We sure had a lot to be thankful for this year. No matter who you are you have at least one thing to be grateful for: Jesus Christ, who gave up his life willingly to pay the debt for our sins. We are free to accept this gift, and be reconciled to God. I am praising God for saving me, my husband, and 13 y.o. daughter this spring and summer. It was especially nice to have our health insurance problems cleared up and able to get Mikey's meds right in the nick of time before starting the holiday. My mom and dad joined us for dinner, and each brought a dish, so it ended up being the easiest Thanksgiving ever for me. It's especially rare to have my mom, so that was extra nice. We also woke up to loads of snow Thanksgiving morning, huge fluffy flakes blanketing the whole area, so beautiful!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

I'm Excited!!

I am excited. Autumn was going to a perfectly good middle school for 2 years, and began the third and last year there this year. She has been a solid honor student for the entire time she has been at Fairview. Suddenly they decide since she lives out of their district (across the street, right on the dividing line actually) that she would have to transfer to the other middle school. Well, we enrolled her and she has been miserable ever since. She cries to go to school, apparently she got thrown into a team (there are 3 teams in the 8th grade and then 5 homeroom teams within that. All the kids in each homeroom, have classes together all day long in each class) In other words, she got thrown into a homeroom with a bunch of rough clique girls. They just sneered and made her miserable, without doing anything that could actually be considered harassment. My daughter started crying to go to school. She has not done that since Kindergarten, and she is in 8th grade!

My husband and I decided to do what we could do, I wasn't willing to send my daughter somewhere she would cry over and be sick over every single day. I wasn't willing to take my daughter's hard work and honor status and throw it out the window. I wasn't willing to allow my daughter's spirit to be crushed. We decided we would homeschool her for the remainder of the year if an agreement could not be reached between the parties.

Mike first went to her "new" school and talked to her guidance counselor. He said he doesn't see why she couldn't have just stayed at the other school, seeing she hates it so much, and that they have made exceptions before, especially in the middle of a school year AND for an honor student. Then Mike went to the other school and talked with the only person available-the vice principal. Later, he called to follow-up with the principal, the person in charge of making the decision and was told she was at the "new" school speaking to them about Autumn. She finally called Mike and explained that the "new" school would be willing to work with Autumn and find a way to make it work. (we are still amazed that the school would go thru so much effort to evict so to speak such a good student) Mike explained to her that we would do whatever it took, and go as far as it would take to get her back to her "old" school. He had already called the superintendant and left a message with him. The superintendant cooincidentally happened to be Autumn's last principal at the "old" school and knew what a good kid she was. Finally a decision we fought for was made and Autumn is being allowed entrance back into the "old" school. She will be re-enrolled on Monday, she just won't be extended transportation, which is fine by me. Autumn is just thrilled and I am happy and proud of Mike as well. I only hope she will be placed back in her old classes so she won't have missed too much!

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Our children in 2005



Wow, we haven't had a family or even semi-group picture taken since 1998! Mikey was only 5 months old in the first and last one, now he is 7 years and 5 months! It's such a lot of work trying to get 8 people looking decent and cooperating, but I'm glad we did it, even if it's not perfect and everyone isn't smiling. I don't know what we were thinking all of these years not trying.

Our first family portrait in 7 years!!

Sunday, November 13, 2005

The Dinner For Six Windup

Well, last night was the last of the three Dinner for Six fellowships. This one was held at our house, and we had a great time. For dinner we had my best scallop dish; a brocooli mushroom, shallot and roasted red pepper side dish, and some parmesan herbed sundried tomato quick bread I had made that morning. One couple brought a garden salad and one brough a chocolate cream pie for dessert. A little secret: I had also intended some herb roasted baby red potatoes, but when dinner was ready, they weren't. OOPS! I just turned off the oven and left em in there as if they didn't exist. I certainly wasn't about to serve them AFTER dinner...LOL!

The kids were very well behaved upstairs for about an hour and a half while we had dinner and conversed, then we allowed them to join us downstairs, quietly. We fed them earlier, before our dinner party. We also arranged for Autumn to keep them occupied upstairs. She is normally at her dad's on the weekend, but we paid her to come back home for the 4 hours. She's only 13, and already asking about getting a job. I am so against this. She needs to keep her mind on learning new things, and figuring herself out, and growing in the Lord. She doesn't need to take herself out from under our authority and under some guy who has no care for her ultimate good in a fast food joint, or what have you. She is still so impressionable. I figure between ourselves and her dad's friends, we can give her enough work. =)

Anyhow, back to the dinner: I'm so glad we signed up for this. I feel so warmed up to these other couples, and that is great. I think it's so important not to feel lost when joining a new church as we did this summer.