Back to Blogging

My intention has been to get back to blogging for quite some time.  I enjoy blogging.  I've come up with one reason or another as to why I don't.  I don't have the time or I don't want to put up a post without pictures or any number of reasons.  

I think that I need a place to put out what I want, to say what I need to, to share what is going on around here.  

We live a complicated and interesting life.  Homeschooling 4 of the 5 kids.  3 kids have special needs, all on the Autism spectrum in some varying degree.  3 year old twins that I'm pretty sure are already smarter than I am.  Trying to make an honest go of this whole small business thing.

I often wonder if I'm really made for doing all of this.  Whether I'm a good enough parent.  Whether I truly have the talent to be sewing for a living.  Whether I truly have anything to offer with the sword fighting rennie group we are in.  I wonder if I can actually teach these kids enough to go to college and succeed as adults.  

I admit that there are days when I look around me and wonder what the hell am I doing?  Why don't I just send the kids off to a regular school, pop the twins into daycare and go find a job.  Then I realize that I'd be working to pay for daycare.  I remember that my kids didn't excel in a regular school, that they were either singled out or just passed over.  

Motivation is lacking for me many days of the week, many hours of the day even.  I am trying a new mantra in this new year - get off your duff.  I figure if I can at least do that very first step the rest of it will come along, eventually.  Ever hear that phrase fake it til you make it?  That's what I'm going for here.  I may not want to do it, but I'll do it anyway.  It's a life skill I'm trying to teach the kids, I should be able to do it just like I expect them to.  Seems like the right thing to do after all.

Well I'm off to do something.  Everyone have a great Thursday.  Call it get off your duff Thursday if you need to.

Thought Filled Thursday

I've been thinking a lot lately about this guy I know.

He's a sweet guy.

A caring guy.

A loving guy.

He's smart.

He's a great dad.

He's a funny guy.

He makes great pancakes

He plays a great guitar

He thinks I'm sexy

He loves me and it doesn't get any better than that

Thought Filled Thursday

Here is the new Thought Filled Thursday!  


First off, a giveaway!  Not mine, but one that I've come across!  This game sounds SO COOL!!!  I know that James would love to play it, possibly for hours!  She's talking about Time Engineers.  This is the facebook page for the software developer company, Software Kids.  Go to Notes From A Homeschooling Mom  to find out how you can enter.  She's only doing it for another couple of hours, so get in under the wire!  


I have been cleaning the office a lot lately.  It's amazing how calming and comfortable it is in here now!  The craft table is great in here!  Once I have it all of the way clean, I'll take pics to share!  


While I've been cleaning, I've been streaming How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.  I know there are some people who are dissatisfied with Netflix, but I love the service.  I pay just under $24 a month to get 3 dvd's at a time and unlimited streaming. The kids love it, I love it, Jason loves it, we all love it!  Considering that we don't have satellite or cable, it's a great way to watch t.v. and movies.  I love how I can control what the kids are watching.  


Sewing.  I really need to be doing more sewing.  The MERCS are going to be at the Detroit Institute of Arts on January 20, 21, and 22 performing!  If you are in the area, come check us out!  Jason and I are trying to make arrangements for the kids so he and I can go out for the weekend with them!  Back to the sewing, I'm working on the gambesons for the fighters.  


So I am hoping that this post will work for you guys for the Thought Filled Thursday!  I know there are a lot of links to follow, but they are worth it, I swear!  Have a great weekend everyone! 

Thought Filled Thursday

Now I'm not saying these will be deep and amazing thoughts, but I'm hoping that by starting a weekly post I'll get back into the habit of posting and maybe do even more of it.  I know many bloggers that have a random thought day post.  I think Thursdays fit for me.

The Beatles. They're great. The group itself is no longer. The music lives on for an eternity. Yellow Submarine is a fav around here. Jason has the action figures that were made based on the cartoon. One of Izzy's most favorite movies is Yellow Submarine. All of the kids love the album.

Abbey Road in LEGOs. Now that's cool. Almost as cool as my kid named Abbey after this very album.

More Beatles in LEGO. Still can't get much cooler than that. This looks a lot like the sets from "Help" and "Ed Sullivan Show".
My man Johnny, looking suave and relaxed and oh so sexy. Yummy. And all kinds of other adjectives, most of them related to food or eating.

Almost nothing sexier than a man laughing. Have a pic of him laughing with his kids, that'll trump it. When it's Johnny, all bets are off.

Miss Piggy. Loved her as a kid. She has a new movie out, along with all the other Muppets. Took the kids to see it on Thanksgiving. It's just as good as it sounds. 


There's my thoughts for this Thursday. If you don't hear from me before then, I'll see you all at the same bat time on the same bat channel next Thursday. Have a great weekend and beginning of next week.

Win a Kindle!

I'm not giving it away, sorry I just don't have those kind of resources. However, Freely Educate is! Head on over to their page at http://freelyeducate.com and enter to win! I really don't think I'll win, but it's worth a try, right? I love this site, they always offer some amazing resources and ideas. Check them out, it's free to browse and they try to find free or low cost materials for homeschoolers, or those who supplement their kids' educations. What more could you ask for?

In Need of a New Title Photo

Yeah, that one is a bit dated, don't you think?  I am thinking a new layout too.  I wonder if I can remember how to adjust the width of the text box to allow for my photos.  I want something brighter, maybe a little easier to read.  


Jason has been blogging a lot lately and it got me to thinking, why the hell don't I?  I used to do it all the time but now it seems like I can't be bothered with the effort of it.  


My brother set it up so the laptop and the tower can "talk" to each other.  I wonder if I could use photoshop on my laptop without needing to install it by simply accessing it on the tower and opening it that way?  That would be kick ass if that were the case.  


This summer has been crazy weird and fun.  I joined up with a bunch of rennie sword fighting odd balls and it has been a great time.  I've done a bit of photography with them and I started another blog for some of those photos.  Unfortunately, the tower died before I could edit the photos and do the first post!  Now it's back up and running so I'm hoping that in this next week I'll get them up there for everyone to take a look at.  Sadly the laptop is in the shop, the hard drive took a nose dive.  Thankfully, it's covered by my kick ass warranty!  I have to order the reboot discs from Dell, but that shouldn't cost more than $50 (I'm hoping it's less than that) and Best Buy will do all of the reinstalling.  I'm going to give them the disc for the printer and have them do that as well just so I don't have to go through all of that again.  Jack tells me he can set it up so I can I can use the laptop to tell the tower to print something for me.  When I have him come set the network back up I'm going to ask him to set that up too.


We bought our house!  We've lived here 4 years and I am SOOOO happy we are never going to have to move again!  Jason's parents helped us out with the financing part, and we are VERY grateful for that!  We couldn't have become homeowners if it wasn't for them.  I wanted to mail Jason's mom some scones when we signed the papers, but Jason told me that they probably wouldn't ship well and to just wait to make them until we see them again.


Izzy is back in school for the year.  His IEP went pretty well.  Stacey, our family case worker, rocks the fucking kazbah!  She was there for the IEP, along with Mary Beth, who is another person who works closely with our family.  It made me feel better to not walk into the room by myself.  It always feels so overwhelming when doing that.  Thankfully his teachers are familiar with me and they know that I know my kid and I don't back down when it comes to doing what I feel is best for him, what living with him for the past 5 years has taught me is best for him.


James is doing pretty well.  His medications have helped him find some stability, and he has a great therapist.  Jayda - we are in the beginning process for her.  She sees the psych on the 26th.  I have a really good idea of what is going on with her, and thankfully, this guy (the same guy James sees) knows me and listens to me and honestly and actually considers what I'm saying and recognizes the value that my words and input have.  It can be hard to find a professional, especially a psychiatric one, that does that.


The twins are 2.  Yeah, that drives home the point of the title picture being outdated, doesn't it?  I have some photos from this past spring when Kati was here visiting.  I could use those I think.  


Well, I suppose that is all for right now.  I'll try to get back and blog some more within the week.  Maybe even post some recent-ish pictures.  Prayers and blessings everyone.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend.


Oh, as an afterthought, I've just started using this new blogger interface, so if things get a little wonky, that's why!

You Ever Look Around

and realize that what your child has accomplished is HUGE even though other children his/her age accomplished that YEARS ago? Yeah? Then you have a special needs child and you know exactly where I'm coming from. No? Then you have no clue as to what the hell I'm talking about.

Being that I am raising SN and NT (neurotypical) kids, I see the differences every day. The twins are doing things that Izzy never did (and honestly STILL doesn't do).

Today was one of those accomplishment kind of days. Well, for one thing at least. Izzy let me cut his hair. Yep, that's it. Cut his hair. Well, more accurately, trimmed it. He didn't scream. He didn't shove me away. Admittedly, it didn't take very long, all of 2 minutes. I made sure of that. And I talked to him, asked him if I could do it. He had his iPad to help distract himself. He brushed at the fallen hair, probably because it itched.

This is HUGE. Now I will be able to trim his hair as it gets longer and keep him from getting a mullet as the top grows out. And for all of you that think "What's so big about a hair cut?" You have NT kids and have NO idea. That's what's so big about it.

I belong to this board, it's one of those message boards. It's private. We share, a lot. All of us have kids that were born around the same time as Izzy. There are many days where I don't share a thing. Most of them just don't get it. They have children who are going into a regular kindergarten class next year. Their kids can talk. Their kids are toilet trained. Their kids don't need special services or receive disability payments. None of them are learning sign language just they can hope to be able to talk and understand their child. Honestly, there are many days where I feel like I should leave the board. I feel like the outsider, looking in on all of these "perfect" children and it reminds me daily of where Izzy "should" be, where he "could" be.

I joke about how he'll end up with a really talkative wife because he won't try to get a word in. Or what kind of job he'll get as an adult. The true reality of it is that those things may not happen, in fact it is far more likely that they won't instead of thinking they'll be part of his life process.

I see this bright good looking kid who is burried in his own head. Where his 2 year old siblings can speak more than he can, where they can make themselves understood better than he can. Where they'll be toilet trained and on to learning "typical" stuff long before he seems to.

Izzy loves his puzzles. He's learning to count with them. He has one that requires him to put the pieces in by numerical order and he can do it through 10. He has another that requires him to do it alphabetically, and it doesn't always start with A, and he can do that too. He knows quite a few more signs than any of us do. I find I have to look up what he's doing just so I know what he's talking about.

All of this to simply say, today is a haircut. Tomorrow is...well I don't know, I'll have to wait and see. However I'm sure it's going to be HUGE, even if someone else's kid did it years ago.