Crocheting for the Fun of it

Sometimes some hobbies come to us later in life. I can definitely say without a doubt that the crochet bug has hit me hard. I remember as a young girl learning from my grandmother and mother how to make simple single chains and single crochets. It never really had extended beyond that because for one reason or another I think my mother thought we'd learn it all through osmosis.

Sadly, I never got the chance to really learn what I wished I could have from my mother. She was so talented, so crafty. She could decorate homes, create some of the most beautiful crafts, make wedding cakes, sew , crochet. You name it my mother could do it. Between my mother and grandmother I never wore a store bought dress when I was a baby. I never wore a store bought Halloween costume, ever, and my prom dress was made by my grandmother.  My grandmother made all her children's brides dresses  ( she had 7 children ) and brides maids dresses.  So as you can see I had the crafty gene all along. It was just hidden for quite some time though it came out from time to time in our homeschool work.

 It wasn't until last year when another mom ,from one of the support groups I'm on through Facebook, that I caught the crochet bug. I marveled at this lady's  creations and I knew I wanted to do that too. I had a few H hooks and a few balls of yarn around the house that I had used with Girl Scouts and crafts before hand. So I thought, I'll go on Youtube ( thank you Youtube) and see if I couldn't find how to crochet videos on it. To my surprise I sure did. Lots and lots of them. From there I taught myself so much more and I created my first hat.  It wasn't fancy. It wasn't cute. It was just a hat and it was pink.

Not half bad. Right? Especially from someone who really never crocheted anything like that. Only just single crochet scarves.  So my girls went around wearing it like it was the best gift I ever gave them.
After I caught the bug  I continued on. Once I mastered that and a few other little hats,  the next challenge was my Minion Hat.
It has since become my greatest seller ... along with the owl hat . Since last year I've made countless number of hats for children , adults and even American Girl Dolls. 

                                                                         Minion Hat

                                                      American Girl Doll Minion Hat

                                                         

          I even challenged myself by making a sweater, bootie and hat set too for a family member



My next challenge has become making head coverings. There are many little girls that love to wear them on spring days at least around here. We see them often with the Amish girls so its not a foreign concept.  We know there are Catholics that wear head coverings to church ,though our parish does not take part in wearing veils.I find I enjoy the challenge of being able to crochet and create them.  This is my first head covering for little girls to wear. My youngest loves wearing it , even to go outside and play in.

 These were made from a pattern that I adapted a little to fit my daughter's head. The original pattern was to fit a smaller child.  I do plan on making them in white and black and maybe add some roses at the top. I know these are different, but I love all things different and that's what makes them Simply Cute. That is what we decided to call our little crochet business. Simply Cute- by Tracy

The crochet bug has hit hard my friends. Even my daughters have taken up to crocheting and making some of their own little creations too. Sometimes I catch them crocheting when they are actually supposed to be doing school work. Sometimes they put it down and don't touch it for weeks and sometimes I find balls of yarn with half started chains that I know weren't my own doing. 
                                               

Now if I could just mix crocheting with exercising. There has to be a way to do it, there really has got to be. Its so easy to find yourself just sitting, and sitting and sitting while you crochet.  So if anyone out there has any ideas on how to keep from being so sedentary with the hobby, feel free to share.

Eleven things you shouldn't or should say to a parent with a child with VACTERL

One thing is for certain. VACTERL is rare. Its becoming more common , but still indeed is rare.
With statistics like 1 in 250,000 live births , give or take ( its truly impossible to know) , of children being born with multiple birth defects. You may go through your entire life not knowing a child like a our Maggie girl.  Heck, most doctors will go their entire career not ever laying eyes on a child with VACTERL.  What is VACTERL you say?   In a nut shell its a group of random birth defects. That truly is saying it in a nut shell. Yet , VACTERL, is so much more.  Many of you will meet a child born with a heart defect, or a spinal issue, or kidney problem. Many will never meet a child with spinal issues, heart issues. anal , kidney and limb issues, or even tracheal or esophageal issues all rolled up into one fancy little package.

 But what if you do meet a family with a child like our Maggie? Who was born with the V, A, C, R and L of VACTERL( by the way the word is an acroynm that stands for vertebral, anal, cardiac, tracheal, esophageal, renal and limb.. phew that's a mouthful, right? )
I know we've ran the gamut of questions, well meaning advice and sayings the past 7 years.  I think we've just about heard it all. Sometimes we don't mind answering, or talking about it. Sometimes we do.  Sometimes we'd much rather not hear cliche's about how we must of been so special as to have a child with something that no one has really heard of. Sometimes we honestly much not rather hear all the well meaning advice, though we know how well meaning it maybe, because sometimes we just can't fix something like we wish we could.  Sometimes we just hear words that should have never come out of another person's mouth to begin with.

 So here are 11 things I can think of that I'm sure many  families with VACTERL, and even for those with children born with any type of special need can agree upon.

1.  Don't say :  Did you know before she/he was born? 

I will tell you , most families have no clue. Though medical technology is catching up where doctors can pick up major defects. It still has a ways to go. Not to mention since most doctors and sonographers have never seen VACTERL , they miss it and just have no idea of what they are looking at.  That was our case. The signs were there, just no one had any idea.  Not to mention just asking that question makes a parent feel like if they knew they would have been able to change the outcome. I know in our experience we had some people believe that we knew and kept it from everyone. Not the case at all.  If a parent is fortunate enough to know , they are fortunate as they have time to prepare. 

Do say:  How is your child doing today?

2.  Do not say :  You'd never know she/he has VACTERL. Just look at how great she/he looks! 

Though we know these are well meaning words. Know that they hurt.  Our children can go through as little as three operations to over hundreds of operations throughout their lifetime.  They all go through so many procedures that we as parents literally lose count and can't even write them all down on paper. We literally have to keep a file of their medical history in our homes and make resume's to give to new doctors that we constantly add to their list.  Children with VACTERL will go through more operations than the average human being ever will in their first few years of life. Our daughter, to date, has had 15 major operations. This does not count being put under for MRI's, cystoscopies, scopes, and other procedures she has had.   
As well meaning as it is, and as much as we want our VACTERL children to be and look normal. The words seem to cut like a knife through the heart. VACTERL parents know all of the hours, days, weeks and years spent in hospitals. We literally adopt hospital staff as our family we spend so much time in them.  We literally know how much our children have suffered going through surgeries that would make most adults cringe.  We know of the scars under their clothes that have proved this. Not to mention we know of all of the little kid accidents , or sickness they've had that is just part of every day child life on top of their VACTERL.   We as parents work hard at keeping them looking well. We know. 

Do say : She/He is adorable. Or even better : She /He is amazing!!

3.  Don't say : "God doesn't give you anything you can't handle. " " Everything happens for a reason."  

The worst thing you can do is use a cliche.  Unless you're a parent with VACTERL you truly have no idea what it is like. Here you have a child with  something no one  knows nothing about. Most doctors have never even heard of it. As a parent you are responsible for learning this 'monster' and teaching and training medical staff and the public. VACTERL is  not common like Autism, or Cerebral Palsy or any others you may have heard of. So as soon as you open your mouth and say the word VACTERL most people will look at you like you have 100 heads and are spitting out fire.  
Saying this minimizes how the parents feel, as if  only they should be handling this, and no one else needs to.  While its very tempting to put a positive spin on something that the family is going through , its just not the best. Many parents are still sifting through all of the chaos that it can cause because they don't know everything they are dealing with. Even after that baby turns into a child, and even into  a young adult, the family still has to deal with VACTERL. It never goes away.  Over time we learn to live our new normal, but its not best to instruct us into doing so. 

Do say : I am hear to talk to or a shoulder to lean on if you need me. 

4.  Don't say :  I know what your going through. " My friend's cousin's neighbor has a son with  (  insert a birth defect ) . 

Though again well meaning. Its not the same as actually experiencing it first hand.  Not to mention our children are born with several birth defects.  So its all a vicious cycle for them. One things causes another thing , causes another thing , and it goes round and round.  Its human nature to try and want to be sympathetic. We all want to relate to one another and have that one right thing to say to make everything all better. In fact , it does the opposite because you aren't living their life and going through what they are going through.  Its one thing to say " My niece was born with spina bifida" , but don't include that with," I know what your going through." Unless you  have a child born with VACTERL , you truly don't. 

Do say :  " Wow, I don't know what you are going through right now but if you want to talk about it I'm here. 

5. Don't say : " Do you have other children with VACTERL or health problems?" 

Most families will have only one child with VACTERL Association.  It is extremely rare to have two children with VACTERL. On very, very rare occasions VACTERL is passed down to other children or family members.  There is only one VACTERL that is hereditary and that is VACTERL - H ( the H stands for hydrocephalus).    Sometimes some family members might have had one issue . For instance my 2nd daughter was born with kidney reflux. It was very mild as well as being tongue tied, and had seizures from the time she was 9 months old to the age of 3( my 2nd is going to be 15 yrs old) . Maggie was born with kidney reflux but her issues were far more severe and she was also born tongue tied on top of everything and, again her tongue tie was more severe.  Thankfully Maggie has not had seizures.  Other then that my other children are truly completely healthy.  I know a family who has 8 children and out of her eight, only one was born with VACTERL. 

Do say : Do you have other children? 
You would say this of a typical family. Why not a family with a  child with VACTERL? 

6.   Don't say : Don't you think you've put her/him through enough surgeries/treatments? Why try to change him or her?  Won't they just grow out of it? 

I think if I charged people a dime for each time we've heard one of those statements I think I'd be a very rich mom.  I cannot tell you how many times people have asked me if Maggie was going to grow out of something?  The last two years Maggie has  went through major, major reconstructive  surgery that will leave her having to catheterize for the rest of her life and have enemas. She will always have to, no matter how much we'd love for her to 'grow out of it'. She will never grow out of her VACTERL. There will always be something that crops up , even when we get something else ' taken care of' . For instance we learned last year she has something called Left Ventricle Non Compaction Cardiomyopathy ( heart defect). We had no idea until last year that she even had this though we saw several cardiologists here at home. Going to Cincinnati, we were in the right place at the right time. Honestly,  with VACTERL its just always something.  And we don't love to sit in doctors offices, we don't like to spend our days away from our other children in hospitals, or traveling to other states to go to other hospitals. We don't live our lives putting our child through another surgery when we'd much rather watch them go outside and play and when we just want to live life.   Some surgeries our children face can be elective and its up to us as their parent to make a decision if its going to 'change' our child.  Each family has to make their own decision as to what is right for them. So please don't try and make those decisions for them or guilt them into making a different decision that may not be right for the child or family. 

Do say:  I've heard of ,or been doing research on a particular surgery. If you'd like I can share that info with you. Or say nothing at all.

7. Don't say:  Why don't you try this treatment, new diet etc?  This might fix things. 

As much as we'd love for a certain diet or new treatment that is holistic in nature to fix things. Sadly there isn't. I am very pro holistic when the time calls for it, but I know it will never fix things for Maggie. I know if she gets a sore throat we can try apple cider vinegar and some honey to see if it does the trick, but we could never use something totally holistic with her should she get a urinary tract infection (though we can use something holistic to try and prevent them).   What works for one child may never work for the next. Children born with VACTERL  are as unique as a snowflake. No two children are the same. Trust me , most parents with children with VACTERL are researching the right place, and the right doctor to take their child to give them the best outcome in life.  No two children get the same type of treatment when it comes to their doctors either. They were born with birth defects , so they are not the average child or adult when it comes to their health. 

Do Say:  What kind of treatment plan or surgeries do they have that will help? 

 Don't offer unsolicited advice unless you and the parent are talking about the treatment plan and/or surgeries. 

8. Don't say:  Its such a burden to have to drive my kids to soccer practice, or take them to gymnastics or ballet.  

What we wouldn't give for our VACTERL kids to always be able to do everyday things.  Our children with kidney, spinal, heart ,  and tracheal esophageal problems cannot play contact sports, or sports that over exert  them.  Kidney kids cannot take the chance of having their kidneys harmed by the smack of a soccer ball, or the tackle of another child in football.  Heart children cannot over exert themselves. Our children are limited in the things that they can do depending on the defects they were born with. Though we as parents treat them as they can do anything they put their mind to. We also know they truly have limitations. I know Maggie cannot play soccer, she  may never be a gymnast due to her limitations with her spine.  But we don't take those things for granted , not at all. We would love to see our kids soar even more than they already do.  What many of us wouldn't give to be able to take our children out to these events and watch them play.  We dream.

Do say :  Can I  offer to help drive you to a doctors appointment or therapy today? Or how about a regular play date?
 We always appreciate the help having someone drive us to an appointment. Sometimes its just great to have someone along for them.  Our kids love to play too and have fun.

9. Don't say : You should really make time for yourself.  You need to relax. 

Guess what? Our primary job is to take care of our children. We don't get a break. Very few are lucky to get respite services. It wasn't until Maggie was about 5 that my husband and I literally had our first break.  We weren't fortunate enough to have someone offer to watch Maggie for a little bit, and respite services were not available in our area. Parents do need the break to re energize  themselves, but we cannot just walk out the door. Its not as simple as hiring a baby sitter as many people are very scared to care for a child with multiple medical problems if they are not familiar with doing so. 
Not to mention the first few years  seem like a whirlwind until we learn to live with our new normal.  So take the time to help these families. Don't make empty promises. Don't tell them to ask you when they need help. Give them the help that they need during that time because they will never ask you. If you tell them to let you know , all it does is give you a way out not to help.  Be direct, even if its to watch the baby for an hour so mom can get some rest.  Or take other siblings out to play, or just make a dinner and bring it over.  Step up and be there. Even if you don't know what to say.   Just say " You guys look tired. I will come over today and watch the baby for an hour so you can rest." Or I plan to go to the park today with my kids. I'll be over in a bit to pick your children up so they can go along with us.   And actually do it.   Parents of special needs children go on one speed and never stop. We don't take the time to stop for ourselves because we feel we are in charge of caring for this special little person who needs us more than ever. We are their caregiver from the moment we bring them home. So we have very little to no time to think about ourselves.

Do say : " I can come over tomorrow and help clean."" I plan on making a dinner for you tomorrow , what is your favorite food?""  I can take your 'other children' out for a play date or out to the park."" I can watch the baby or your other child so you can get some rest."

  Think of it, we probably need it. 

10. Don't say:  How's the marriage going? 

One thing is for certain is that learning to live with a child with VACTERL or any child with special needs is that it can be very stressful.  As you learn to live your new normal you find that that some parents are not able to handle the stresses that come with it. There could have been problems with the marriage before hand. Or new problems may emerge when the child becomes the center of attention. Statistics show that 80% of marriages of families with children with special needs fail. That's a sad statistic. Whether its any more or any less with families with VACTERL , its not known. What is known is that a marriage can only stand if its strong. And it can't be strong without a little help. 

Do say : I would like  to babysit so you both can go out and have some time together? I'll be over in an hour. 

Its hard enough to navigate the confusing world of VACTERL. Just a little less stress, even if its for a little while is like a gift in itself. 

11.  Don't say : What caused the VACTERL? 

Guess what? If we could answer that question we gladly would. No one knows. Though there is a study right now that a doctor that had currently worked with the NIH started, not much is still showing up as far as what could be or what did cause it in the first place. What information we do know is that its not hereditary, its not genetic ( in most cases) and it was absolutely nothing we did when we were pregnant.  As parents with children with VACTERL we try to figure it out, sometimes we feel guilty that it could have been something we ate, something we didn't eat, a medicine we could have taken, a health problem we had, or something in the water or environment.  In few cases VACTERL could have been caused, such as women with diabetes tend to have more of an occurrence, or someone may have taken a medication that could have caused VACTERL , but  for the vast majority of parents, its actually random and had nothing to do with any of those reasons.   So we will never be able to give you an answer until its actually figured out. If it will be at all. 

What can you say?  Nothing. 
Even if you feel the need to ask. Don't.  Parents already feel guilty and they are always trying to search for why, since there is no answer to why.  The question can really begin to make the parent feel guilt. Something they don't need on top of everything else. 




So there you have it folks. I'm sure there is more that can be added to this list, but this is a starter.  These are things I can think of off of the top of my head. Now its up to the public to read, learn and listen.  
Know that if you have the honor to meet or know of a family with a child with VACTERL Association. Everyone can benefit. Know that there are the right things to say and the not  so right things to say.  The most important thing of all is that you can be there for them when they need it the most.

The Homeschooling Vortex

Who hasn't heard of the Polar Vortex?  You know ,its  that crazy cold that we had the pleasure of getting from our neighboring friends from the north. The Polar Vortex has  shut down interstates and towns, kept school children from leaving their schools in the south.  Made your furnace work over time because it was so cold out that your house just couldn't stay warm . Yes, that Polar Vortex.
                                               

 Living closer to Canada we've had the 'pleasure' of having temperatures dip into the negative numbers, having air so dry that you become numb from being zapped by static electricity so often.  Yet, this event pretty much happens just about every winter that I've been alive. Its just been given a different name.  I mean hearing the same phrase " its a cold  winter" over and over every year gets old. Its time to spice it up and give winter a new name. Polar Vortex sounds catchy to me.

So now that we know that the Polar Vortex truly does happen every year ( I mean really when isn't it cold and snowing in winter?)  there is another event that happens every year , right around the same time the Polar Vortex seems to circle around and its called : The Homeschooling Vortex.

I bet all  of the school supplies I have in my home that you will never hear about this on the news.  What is the Homeschooling Vortex you say?  Its the time of the year when the sparkle of Christmas is over. That  time of the year when we marvel when we see that golden orb in the sky,  that we call the sun, only a handful of times. Its that time of the year its so cold that you can't send your children outside when they are driving themselves and us crazy.  The Homeschooling Vortex can come in other names : Such as the Vortex of Misery, The Vortex of Wanting to throw our children into public school, and the Vortex of Shame.
Admit it, we all start the year looking just like this picture. The magical first day glow. Being a 10 yr veteran of homeschooling the one thing I find is most first time homeschoolers, and even some veteran homeschoolers think we are all  going to start our year, and end our year like this:

The sad reality is there are stages to the Homeschooling Vortex. We may start out like the picture above. Everyone is happy, ready and willing to learn. Sifting through their crisp new school books,checking out the newly cleaned and decorated school room(if you have one) , and those happy smiling faces for the camera when we dress them up and make them hold a sign of what their age and grade is for the year ( admit it, you do it and if you haven't yet, you will).
  Isn't this a cute face?

The next stage of acceptance that the Homeschool Vortex is beginning is the stage where it starts to look like this:

This level  of the Homeschooling Vortex can inevitably begin and last for quite some time. It starts with , "She's looking at me!", " This is to hard!" with tears, stomping , and  yelling included. You can also hear other things such as , " I hate school!" , " I don't want to!"  , " You can't make me!", " I'm tired," and the teenaged " When am I ever going to use any of this in my life?" Your wonderful little student may procrastinate with assignments. They may not do them at all.  You find yourself yelling at them, yelling at their father, and ultimately yelling at yourself.

The third stage of the Homeschooling Vortex that sometimes creeps up into the second level or just slides into third: is the stage of doubt. This level looks something like this: When we are sitting down at the table with our child while they are crying for the fifth time that week that they still don't get adding fractions , or that algebra problem that is just giving them fits and you can't figure it out either. This little voice in your head says to you, "  Hmm, I wonder if putting them in public/private school would be better? I bet someone else can do a much better job than I can."  " I bet if I just put them there true homeostasis will return to my home,  and the Homeschooling Vortex will just disappear and we'll look like that family in the first picture again." 
" I bet if I put Junior in public school he'll do his homework and quit giving me a hard time." That will show them!
The question is:  Will that make it all better?  The answer to that is most likely , no.
Each and every family is different. I always say that homeschooling isn't for everyone. Homeschooling , like all other things in life is a choice. One that we are thankful for because its what works for us. I know though its not for every family.

 The question though you should be asking yourself before you do take a leap such as throwing them into public/private school   is, " Have I done everything I possibly could before I chose to do this?"  We did have a few year stint where my children did attend private school.  It was a good little school with caring teachers. It just wasn't for us , it didn't solve the issues we really had, and it was more stressful than what I was dealing with at home. It did make my girls more thankful for being homeschooled and they have no want to go back to a brick and mortar school for their formative years ( college is a different beast).
 We still have our days where I get " I can't do this , I don't understand that, I don't like math, I'll never get this." and it goes on and on.  So I can't be the one to give you a magical answer as to if this   level of the Homeschool Vortex should win in your home or not.  What I can tell you is  though that there ARE things you can do to defeat the beast before going that route.  I bet I would get a lot of responses from people who thought sending their children to school would break the beast only to find out it made it grow larger than it was in the first place.
This level of the Homeschool Vortex like I said can last a while but once you get past it you will get back to your happy place.

How can you get past the Vortex of putting -my -children- in -public- school- because- I- think- that's the- answer- to- all- my- problems?

The first thing you need to do is STOP!  Yes, I said stop. Stop everything. Put the books down, put the worksheets away. Get off the computer. Whatever it is that you are doing now , stop.

The next step is: to think.  What is it that is causing the tears, the arguments, the misery? Is your teenager putting off a writing assignment that was due a month ago? Are you yelling at your child to get their work done ,and spend all day doing it, and finally when they do, it takes them two minutes to finish?  Or you just have shouting matches to get the work done and it just doesn't? 
Then its time to change up what you are doing. Period  There is no two ways around it. If you are determined not to allow the Homeschool Vortex  to suck you and your family up.The only way to defeat the monster is by change.  If you want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then this is the best way to go about it.

First thing to do is take all those textbooks and shelf them, put them in a box. Anywhere but on a table or in a school room. If textbooks and worksheets send your children into tears, and sends them crying from the hills. Please put them away.  Now your saying, " Now what?"  Go the the library or your own book shelf and get out a good book. I'm not talking about Dear Dumb Diary book, but a good book. Classical literature. Whether its the Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown,or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Cuddle up on the couch , in their bed, on the floor, and just read. Read to them whether they are 6 years old, 10 years old, or 16 years old.  My oldest just turned 16 this year and she still loves to listen to me read out loud.
 Then if you particularly liked the book be adventurous and do a Unit Study.

Which leads me to Unit Studies. Is your son just balking at another worksheet page? Find out what he likes. If you have daughters like I do. Find out what they enjoy. Maybe a Unit Study that incorporates cooking or  Do they like to fix things? It would be a great time to pull up a Unit Study on different occupations that require you to fix things(carpentry, janitor etc).

Have an older student that has a writing assignment due? Then have them write about something THEY want to talk about. Have them pick a subject THEY know about. If your son enjoys fixing cars, then have him write a descriptive paragraph on how to fix a motor. If he likes to build things have him right  and essay on building materials.  If you have a daughter or son that loves to cook  have him look up information on what he or she needs to do to start up their own restaurant. Do they love a certain style of music? Have them write about the history of how their music began. If your young ones are frustrated with writing. Pull out some books and have them copy sentences. Copywork is an excellent way to learn sentence structure , and how to write. 

Play educational games. You can find them online and purchase them. I know I've collected some through out the years. Whether its a card game working on math facts, or a board game . They break up the craziness of textbooks. If you don't own any. Make one up of your own. There are free file folder games online that you can google. If you own board games make up flash cards, or cards with questions and answers and just play the board game but make a rule that they can only move their piece if they answer the question correctly. 

Are your children the arts and crafts type? Lapbooking or notebooking all the way! There are tons of websites where you can find free printable lapbooks and notebookpages.com has tons of freebies.  For your older children, have them create a poster about a subject they are learning.

If all four of your walls are driving you up them. Get out of the house!! Go the library, go to a museum, go to a homeschool co op class. Anything is better than being cooped up in the house.  Just that change in environment can change attitudes and liven everyone up.

When does the Homeschool Vortex lift?  When three things happen.
 1. When there are smiling faces,
 2. Better attitudes
 3. And  spring comes back
   Will the Vortex then magically disappear and never come back?  No,then, and only then, will the Homeschooling Vortex have passed, and you will learn to conquer it for the upcoming years ahead. As long as you homeschool the vortex never completely goes away, but the suggestions can make it more manageable when it does rear its ugly head.

 In my ten years of homeschooling we've had better years than others. Sometimes, like the weather the vortex comes, and sometimes it stays away for a year. Homeschooling is not easy. We all have good days and not so good days. In the end YOU have to decide whether you want to defeat the Homeschooling Vortex and not let it defeat you.

Oh my, how did this happen?  I am now a mom to a 16 year old? No way!  I certainly do not feel like a mom to a 16 year old.  M is now old enough to get a job, drive a car. Well, right now she's just worried about getting her school work done and getting through these next four years of high school. They are going to go by very fast and my baby will be all grown up.  How time has flown. 

M is doing well in her studies , she's doing well with her Chemistry course and really likes it. She says she wants to take an advanced chemistry course next year. I'm hoping to make that happen for her. We're trudging through math. Algebra 1 is NOT the same as when I was in school. Not at all so we're both just barely making by with it. I'm hoping to find some more resources to help her get through the class with at least some understanding of it.  I've been looking at the Life of Fred books to see if it could explain the math more , so it gives some meaning to it for her so she knows why she has to take it. 

How I miss those early days of when the girls were little , and when we first started homeschooling. We had so much fun, we still do , but there is no one left to save curriculum for or to look forward to the next little person.  So for now I just savor life and enjoy the girls the best I can before they are all grown and moved away. Sniff, sniff. 

Oh my goodness how time has flown. Its been almost a full year since I last wrote on our blog. Life certainly got very busy for us and I feel bad that I've neglected our homeschool blog. It had been one constant in our life.

I guess I will fast forward our life a little bit and recap what I've missed blogging so far. 
First in March of this year  , 2013, we moved. After living where we lived , in an apartment for 11 yrs , we upgraded and finally have a home of our own. We had lots of ' fun' moving in. Of course thinking the end of March would be safe we actually ended up moving in a snow storm. I guess it made it a lot more interesting to move in sub zero temperatures with slippery snow.

 We love our new home, and wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.  While getting comfortable we also added a cat. Her name is Sara. The girls named her Sara. I'm not sure if she likes her new name but she adopted us and she is now happily living wi
th us. Yes, Sara is a girl cat, and yes, daddy is now outnumbered 6 to 1 in our house. Poor Dad.   We aren't sure where the cat came from. We did ask around making sure she didn't belong to anyone so we think she was maybe thrown out onto the street. I will say she is plumping up nicely because when we found her she was all skin and bones.

Then after finally getting settled in we were , yet, again , dealing with another surgery. Last year Maggie had a big surgery to fix some issues she was having and we were gone for two months in the summer. This time we had to wait until September for this surgery. She had a bladder augmentation and we were prepared to stay a while only to find Miss Maggie did super fantastic and we weren't gone as long as we thought we were going to be.  Which was awesome. Though we did come away with a new diagnosis with Maggie's heart of Left Ventricular Non Compression ( say that three times fast! ) . Its where the muscle fibers of the heart did not compress down like they should have during development in the womb. With this we have to trek back to Cincinnati in the summer to have the whole family checked out as it can be a hereditary thing. We're praying its not and no one else has this other than just Maggie.

I'll of course be posting more about Left Ventricular Non Compression as we learn more about it. As for now Maggie's heart is pumping well and is still strong. Which is good. She just has a Still's Murmur which was picked up before her PICC line placement which we didn't know she still had. It just was more pronounced when she laid down and that's why it hasn't been picked up in quite some time. Everytime she's gone for a physical she has always been sitting up. When she sits up they can barely detect it.

So while we are finishing our journey with the bladder stuff , we are beginning a new journey with heart issues.

In the meantime we've been trudging along with school. Sounds rough but its so.  We decided to go ahead and go back with Pacyber for this year due to the fact Maggie was going to have surgery and Daddy was going to be the main person doing the education. Not to mention the fact that we had like zero dollars to spend on curriculum  for the  girls because we've had to use it on medical travel.  To say its going well is an understatement.  Hannah is doing well with the virtual but she isn't loving it.  Marilyn decided to take on Chemistry and Algebra 1 this year and these are two very tough classes in our book. Either I've gotten dumber or school has gotten a lot harder.  Even I have a tough time with the work. Katie is struggling mightly with the virtual and self paced .  And Maggie likes it , me not so much because some of the curriculum is working for her and some not so much,, like the math.  She really needs something like Saxon math to make it sink in.  But we are getting through the year.  I figured it would be helpful for Marilyn because she is in high school this year and the subjects are getting tougher and we just didn't have the money to shell out on our own for private virtual or DVDS to get her through it. But its proving to be very frustrating because of how the tests are worded and how they test them on things that were never discussed in the virtual class or can't find in the book.   But we have to do what we have to do to comply with state law and the fact I don't have time to make my own curriculum for four children in four different grades.

Fast forward to today: October 31, 2013, Halloween Day. Our favorite time of the year. I know there are those out there that wonder. but we don't celebrate Halloween but we celebrate dressing up , having fun and getting some candy.  I can't wait to follow up with some pictures of the girls. They've all decided what they want to be and we're hoping the weather holds up. Its not supposed to be very good weather wise tonight. Which is a bummer because we rarely ever have nice weather for Halloween. Granted it is warm outside , its grey, windy and its going to be raining soon.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

It just so happened today that it was 12/12/12. How crazy is that. This event happens every one hundred years . So it will never again happen in our lifetime. It also happened to be the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Everything seemed to fall into place in what I wanted to do with the girls to learn and celebrate about this special day.
The first thing I had gotten them started on was coloring a color sheet of Our Lady. As they were doing that I thought, " What can I do with this project?"  I had seem many projects online for making the tilma with the image of Our Lady of Gudalupe, even some how to make flowers with tissue paper.
The first thing I learned is that finding paper bags is a pretty tough endeavor , not to mention I didn't have a vehicle to go and find any because dad took Marilyn out to do a little shopping.

So I found a really pretty coloring sheet that the girls really enjoyed coloring. I then decided to have them cut out the image they drew and paste it on some construction paper, preferably the bright Mexican colors and to be honest these were a perfect background for their colored pictures. Click this link to go to the coloring page.
Then next they picked out colors such as red, white, yellow, green to paste their picture onto with construction paper.
While we waited for it to dry , luck just had it that we had our Holy Heroes Glory Story come right in the mail today. Talk about fast shipping. I ordered it Monday and I received it today ( Wed).
They had an awesome offer of getting this audio CD free with only paying for shipping. It was well worth the money for the shipping cost. I can honestly say that for sure and the timing was just perfect too.

If you hurry tonight , you can still get this CD for free. It is the 1st in the Glory Stories collection with the story  of  Blessed Imelda Lambertini and St. Juan Diego.  You can also get the free coloring book download on their website that follows the CD story as well.  The girls definitely enjoyed this and I will definitely be getting more of these for them to listen to and to use for my Religious Ed class.  You can go to this link to order the Vol 1 Glory Story,, the offer ends tonight.  Even if you don't have the Glory Story you can easily read the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe here. 

After listening to the story , which I may add my 14 yr old wanted to sit and listen to it as well ( per her request) I thought of the beautiful roses that Juan carried to the Bishop to prove that Mary wanted this church built upon the hill in Mexico.  So I set out to search for some coloring pages that had roses on it and amazingly enough I found a really great coloring page by Crayola. It also lists the different colors of roses and what the colors mean. I told the girls they could color them the different colors, or color them all the same , it was up to them.  And they colored them and did a really great job. You can go to this link to print them out. 

In the end this is what our finished product looked like and they were very proud of what they did. I know the girls loved listening to the story of Juan Diego and learning more about Our Lady of Guadalupe. They learned even a simple person can carry the message of God and do great things. 

Their beautiful pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe turned out great! They were so proud of their work and after we were done taking our picture I hung them up in our living room to remind them of the story. I plan on doing this with my RE class this week as well.
We also wanted to have a Mexican dinner food, but it didn't pan out today because Daddy was more in the mood for spaghetti. So we will have to try it out tomorrow, but this is what we plan on having for dinner tomorrow.

Count Down to Christmas

This year we are being blessed by having such a mild winter. We've seen a few snow flakes but nothing measureable really , and nothing to speak about. So far in the Northwest its been raining, dreary , but not snowing. All I can say is 'Yay'!  So far we're saving a bundle on our electricity bill ( our main heating source) , we haven't had to buy snow tires, no scraping ice off the van windows and freezing to death while we wait for the heat to kick in when we have to drive somewhere.  Its been a very long time since we've had a winter that has been so mild. Now, with that said  I'm sure I just jinxed us into our next winter storm.

I think the only thing is we're having a tough time with is getting into the Christmas spirit since we're so used to having a million feet of snow on the ground.  So with that said we've been very glad that we've had things to do to prepare and get us into the Christmas spirit mood.

The very first thing we did was make our own Advent wreath. I had scoured the web and looked and looked and either they were overpriced or just not what I liked. So I decided to make one with things I had around the house, and bought some things I didn't have around the house, and voila' an Advent wreath. It literally turned out way better then I thought it was going to turn out.

Then our next adventure was on Dec 6th when we celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas.  Though I do have a book about the Saints our book didn't contain any pictures so I read this story and found another online to read to the girls. This was when I truly realized I didn't have any other books about dear old St. Nicholas in our home. So my next investment will be of some picture story books about the grand Saint.
But this was the book we read from:

I will admit it is my favorite book. I like the fact it gives children something to think about before you read into the life of the Saint. Though it doesn't give multiple stories of Saint Nicholas it shares one story about him.
Another thing we need to invest in is some movies. If anything my children enjoy watching a good movie and it usually drives the story home when the watch and see too.

We did read the story from the Book of Saints and I also read them a story from this website : Catholic Heroes of the Faith. That had several other stories as well that I had not heard of before until I read it.

After reading our stories we decided to have some Saint Nicholas fun and Maggie had lots of fun wearing her Saint Nicholas Miter. She actually is still wearing it two days later she really likes it that much.

If your wondering where we got this super cool hat to make just visit this link at Catholic Inspired.

We also had Kids Club at the school so I decided to use the party cupcake toppers that come from the same link and make some Saint Nicholas cupcakes.  These were actually my idea ( and not a Pinterest one) to make and they turned out super cute. So much so the kids at the school really enjoyed having Mrs. Reed's Saint Nicholas cupcakes. 

First I used a vanilla cake mix and made it according to box directions , after getting everything made I split the cake batter into two bowls and added some red food coloring to one. Carefully I put about a tablespoon or so in the cupcake papers and carefully added just a small drizzle of the red. Trust me when I say small. You don't need much and if you put to much in your cupcake will just turn all red.  I used one of my kabob sticks to swirl it. I first went back and forth deep into the mix to get it mixed in with the white, then carefully took the tip of my kabob stick (you could use a toothpick too) and swirled it ever so gently. I found if you immersed the stick that the batter would just stick and you wouldn't get those swirls. Definitely not like making soap swirls that's for sure. 

Next , put in the oven and follow the box directions for making cupcakes and viola' . Red and white cupcakes. As you can see the cupcake , second from the front left is what happens when you add to much of the other color. I really tried fixing that one with adding a little more white. But it didn't help to much and that cupcake ended up being the Kid's Club teacher's because it ended up being the biggest cupcake because I ended up putting more batter in it to try and fix it up. 

 After creating my fun cupcakes I took them over to the school because they have a HUGE kitchen , unlike our postage stamp kitchen I have and was able to move around more and have more room to manipulate the cupcakes for my next step. Not to mention its much easier to travel with unfrosted cupcakes then it is frosted.  So once we got over to the school I was able to lay out our next steps. I had my oldest take candy canes and beat them with the end of our screw driver I brought along with us. You need something very heavy to pound them into little bits like we needed from the cupcakes.  While she was doing that Katie helped open the cake decorating bag so I could scoop in the store bought frosting ( something I don't like doing but didn't have time to make my own before going over that day) and I piped on the frosting on top of the cupcakes. Then I sprinkled the candy cane bits onto the top, and added our St. Nicholas toppers and they turned out great, not to mention tasted amazing!!! They were a sure hit and I had kids coming up asking for more. Sadly the rule was one cupcake ( due to children having after school activities we didn't want them loading up on sweets).  When I got home I was finally able to try one and I had to agree. They tasted super duper great!  

I will say this , the candy cane for toppers doesn't last long. Amazingly enough it melts on top of the frosting. I found this out the next day when I went to snack on another. I'm not sure if it has to do with it being room temperature but if you let them sit out to long in a warm area the candy cane will melt. With that being said, they still tasted pretty darned good.  

Oh yes, and on another note, St. Nicholas stopped at our house and dropped off some pretty neat Angry Bird Match Box Cars to put in the girls' shoes. I didn't get a picture of it though because , me being me, I forgot to grab a picture.  Maybe I won't forget next year. 

So that was the way we spent our St. Nicholas Day this year. Looking forward to seeing how everyone else spent their's.