Sugar, Spice and Monkey Tales!

Learning to please MYSELF!

2011-09-19T09:13:00.005-05:00

I have finally realized what the most difficult thing about being married is and that is pleasing my husbands family. For years I , not him, have worked at creating relationships between us and them. I work really hard and go an extra mile to keep all of us in touch so the girls can have relationships with them. Tom would just assume it just be us, he has been hurt so much that he doesn't care either way but we both have different ideas about what family means. Somewhere along the line I have stopped being who I am or I hide who I am because some people with their snide comments over the years have made me ashamed to be me. But I have decided that I am no longer going to walk on a tightrope with anyone. I love my husbands family because they are family but they have to take me as I am if they want to continue to have relationships with MY family. Life is too short to try to be what everyone else wants you to be. I know I am a good person, a good mother and a good wife. THAT is ALL that matters. It doesn't matter if they think those things of me. I know where I stand with God and the people in this house.

It took me years to train myself to not care what my own family thinks of me, they are no different than my own extended family. The second I moved off to college my own extended family started telling everyone I was stuck up just for escaping and becoming college educated. Tom's family on the other hand could care less about my education, they blow it off like it never happened when I try to talk about it. Like recently at the family reunion when I mentioned that I had a degree in Business, the person I mentioned it to blew me off like it was nothing, like the idea of my being educated was laughable. It hurt my feelings tremendously because I had a lot of respect for the person who did it. I thought it was just me but Tom said he saw it too and even he got mad about it.

From now on, this is me, like it or leave it because I am done hiding it!

1. I am HONEST, sometimes, TOO HONEST. I like to express my feelings with written word because sometimes to express them in person deflates me. I am bi-Polar and sometimes my emotions come out in not so positive ways when the words flow out of my mouth. I am good at expressing myself via the written word. I have even been well paid to write and express myself and several of my poems have been published. Writing is how I do things!

2. I CURSE, I LOVE to curse. I don't do it in front of my kids but I do it. God doesn't care that I curse so you shouldn't either. Fuck, fuck, fuck.....See? My favorite word!

3. I have a bit of a dirty mind when it comes to a sense of humor. Sometimes my humor can be dry, sometimes childish, sometimes it's the humor of a dirty old man!

4. I love music and dancing which is why sometimes out of nowhere I break out into song and dance just for the hell of it!

5. I am a broken person, I was abused very badly growing up, I lost my best friend to suicide and I was raped as a teenager. I have spent my life dealing with those problems. Sometimes that scarred person shows through. Things that might not effect you WILL effect me. My emotions are a product of my existence. I do not live in my past but in the form of my emotions being heightened my past lives with me.

6. I am VERY religious! While I may not go to church as often as I should have I pray a thousand times a day. Sometimes people take it as talking to myself but really I am just having a deep discussion with the only person in my life who has ALWAYS been there and never failed me. I pray more often than anyone I know and my prayers aren't like most people's. I talk to God like he was in the room with me. Don't assume I am nuts if you see me taking to myself.

7. I am STRONG but at the same time I am weak. Strength only goes so far, sometimes my weakness over powers my strength. I hide my weakness but the truth is so much I pretend to not be bothered by really does bother me. But because I am strong I pretend it doesn't and I move forward.

8. I don't have the slightest clue how to express myself! I spend so much time thinking about what to say as not to turn people off that I forget how to talk. This leads to my not talking at all. I am not stuck up, pompous or any of the sort. I am just shy to no end in person, I feel awkward all the time. Unless I have had a few drinks in me then you might not want to be in my path to hear what I have to say. lol

All of the above is part of who I am. Negative traits or not I am not going to ignore me anymore! You take me with all of those problems (because God knows you have plenty of your own and he/I accept you! I can tell you right here that YOU are NOT perfect) or you can go your own way. Either way, nice to meet you!

Unschooling...The REAL thing?

2011-09-18T10:51:00.003-05:00

So this year I have been doing a lot of research on unschooling and during my research I have realized that there are 2 types of unschoolers. One type being unschoolers who leave it all to their kids, lazy parents who hide behind the premise of unschooling so they can sleep until 8am and go about their day normally. And the second type that try to make their day as unschool like as possible but still manage to fit in learning activities using every day life & events such as cooking to learn math and logic skills, reading as a family, alphabet as games, crafts as fun, etc... I was absolutely amazed that I found more blogs with parents who fit into the first type than the second. Children still need to be educated but them waking up, eating, reading in bed, going for a walk, coming home and watching cartoons & movies while you clean, then taking them out to the thrift store once a week is NOT education. You are teaching your kids NOTHING but how to sit around on their asses and become lazy and ignorant. How can any parent feel good with that kind of choice? Leaving a childs education up to their child? When you are homeschooling or unschooling you are taking on the job of caring for your children, part of caring for them is educating them!

Without the help of those lazy example A. parents we have decided that unschooling is for us and this is how I predict our days are going to go. Each day, every day 365 days a week. It is going to take us a while to get into the routine of every day living and learning but I think if I personally start off with a "life schedule" it will help ME to ease into including the girls in EVERYTHING that I do. Including all 3 of our girls in my activities is how I plan on unschooling, that includes making our weekends a daily part of our lives. On the weekend we do so much as a family, play games, read, go out, bake. Instead of the weekend these will become daily activities!

Here is an example of how I intend on our unschool day going:

Wake up @ 7am and make/serve breakfast together
1 hour of TV time, educational TV while eating breakfast
Color, play with legos or play with play-dough together.
Choose what we are making for lunch/dinner and take out meat for dinner
Clean up the house, helping each other in each area of the house.
Go play outside or go for a walk, using this time to learn about nature, etc...
Come inside, make/eat lunch. Read bible stories while we have lunch.
Watch our learn to read DVD's then read a book.
Bake a cake or our bread for the day
Play a learning game together.
30 minute nap for girls while mommy has a few minutes. ;-)
Craft something from one of our craft books.
Play dress up with the girls.
Start dinner & let the girls set the table.
Eat dinner
Watch a family movie or have free play.
Read a book
Go to bed
Wake up and do it all again!

Of course some days we will fit in activities such as the Zoo, museums and other outings. But this is what I hope our typical day will be like. Just us spending time together and using that time to learn. I hope to use our everyday activities to fit in everything from logic skills to math skills. I know it is going to be a challenge at first. We normally do things together but never to the extent of doing EVERYTHING together. Of course they will have their time to play by themselves so I can have some peace of mind and alone time but you get the just of it. Wish us luck!

Happy Birthday Miriam!

2011-09-13T21:43:00.006-05:00

7 years ago yesterday a dream that I never thought to dream because according to many professionals was never possible came true. 7 years ago my oldest daughter, my salvation was born and I became a mother. Many Dr’s before her had told me how near impossible it would be for me to carry a child to term without complications which would most likely lead to a miscarriage. My Miriam and each of my girls have proven all of those DR’s wrong and the words of DR. Wilkerson, the wonderful man who delivered my first and second beautiful angels “Sometimes, Dr’s don’t know everything” became the truest thing I had ever heard. He had no explanation as to why I was able to carry a child, even less of an explanation as to how I managed to carry two but I did and the blessings I have experienced have been immeasurable. Of course, none of my pregnancies have been ideal, with all 3 complications were evident from the start. Miriam being the absolute most difficult pregnancy of all. The first few months of her existence inside of me was a barrel of miscarriage scares, near miscarrying with her several times. The entire 9 months I spent my life in and out of the hospital, always ending up on an IV because I was so deathly ill I could not hold down one drop of real food. Some days, I couldn’t hold down water and she herself had a heart murmur that was monitored closely. The murmur affected her a great deal during labor and after 17 hours of horrific labor with no pain medication I was told there would be a change in my birthing plan because she was dying. I couldn’t imagine a world that didn’t include the baby who had been torturing me for almost 10 months so I did everything I could. I was rushed into an emergency C-section for complications that insured I would never give birth to a child any other way. My Miriam was born with severe jaundice, she was so orange she looked almost burnt. She in no way resembled a child that came from the body of one of the palest Irish women in the world! She wouldn’t eat, so they had to force feed her and she didn’t live outside of a box for 2 weeks. When she was finally allowed to go home it was not without a room of equipment because she was still severely jaundiced never eating more than 2 ounces a DAY. 2 days after she came home, she stopped eating again, her jaundice got worse and she had to be returned to the hospital where she stayed for another 2 weeks. It was a crazy time for Tom and I not knowing if our child was going to starve to death. Eventually though, she made it home and we began to have a chance to enjoy the cries of a baby around the house. Everyone had always told us how much a baby cries, Miriam however almost never cried. It was kind of nice having such a quiet child in the house, we got so used to the quiet that it would throw us out of whack when we would go out in public and she would go insane. Any loud noise would make her cry a cry so loud and so long that it was near unbearable. Eventually we just stopped taking her out and became homebodies, something we still are to this day. Of course 3 months later we would be told that she was blind, 6 months later that she had Septo Optic Dysphasia and Pan Hypopituitarism, years later we would be told her hearing was the most sensitive hearing ever recorded by DR’s at Dell Children’s hospital. It took 4 years to understand why she would go insane in public places. And 6 years into her little life we would have confirmation of another demon called Autism. Miriam’s diagnosis took longer than most children with severe Autism because Septo Optic Dysplasia demonstrates similar symptoms for the first 5 years or so of life. As odd as it is though, we were kind of relieved to finally have answers so that we could tackle it dead on. Through all of this craziness the birth of such a child changed us in ways we could never have imagined before. Where patience was low, it became high, where life was foggy, it became clear, where hope was lost, it became found and where Love was not understood, it became the most easily understood thing in the world. So many parents who have disabled children beat themselves up and often become fearful of ever having another child. Tom and I don’t feel that way. The birth of Miriam was the most amazing thing that ever happened to either of us and so was all that came with her. No parent dreams of such news about their child but we embraced it regardless. Miriam is so special, her smiles is brighter than any smile I have ever seen in my life and it was only logical that despite the 50/50 chance we would have another child like her we were not going to give up our God given right to give children to this world. If God wanted another child with the same issues Miriam had, so be it! When people use the term special needs, all I hear is special and that is what Miriam is. Who would we be to deny the world of one more person forever free of violence, hate, bigotry and physical judgment. Miriam is as God wants us all to be, she is innocent, she is his as he intends her to be, perfect! What a blessing it is to have her.

Happy 7th Birthday my beautiful Miriam Monkey, mommy and daddy wouldn't change one second of those 7 years!

Pictures of Miriam at only 1/2 a day old and a day after we brought her home the first time.

Is there change on our horizon? Wisconsin bound?

2011-09-13T16:29:00.001-05:00

So recently Tom has begin telephone interviews for an amazing job opportunity at one of the biggest industrial machine companies in the world. We never imagined an opportunity like this one would arise but it has and with it comes the possibility of some tough & crucial decisions. The biggest being leaving everything we know here in Texas , including out family, which ALL live in Texas and traveling cross country to Wisconsin. He has had 2 interviews with a recruiter for the company so far and is getting ready to have his third with the head of HR for the actual company. If she approves him as being qualified, which is probable or he wouldn’t have gotten this far in the interview process they will fly him out (at their FULL expense) for an actual weld test. The weld test will then be the deciding factor in whether or not we move. I have all the faith in my husband, especially since he is very experienced and they are giving him a full day to practice. A part of me thinks the concept of abandoning everything should scare me but the only thing that scares me is trying to figure out how we are going to manage to pack everything. Do we keep it all or get rid of some of it and replace it later? That is ALL that scares me and Tom pretty much feels the same way. It isn’t that we don’t love our family, it is just that when a chance of a lifetime comes knocking at your door, you don’t just turn away from it, you embrace it! This is not the first time either of us has grabbed hold of a chance and held on for dear life. It is just the first chance we did it with children but not even that scares me.

I have researched Wisconsin and from what I have read they have TONS of job opportunities for Tom should we get there and this job not work out, they have an excellent school system, an insane amount of services for the blind and my daughter would never again have a seizure because she got “too hot”. We would have rain, white Christmas’s and a chance to enjoy life outside. Here in Texas we never get out because Miriam will be seized after an hour of the blazing Texas heat. When it comes down to it, the only thing that is worth staying for is family but family is also the reason to leave. As parents it is our responsibility to make the best choices for our children. Something about the idea of living in Wisconsin excites me right down to the fact that I am a packers fan , my favorite sport is HOCKEY and I LOVE cold weather. LOVE IT! I sleep with a fan in my face in the winter time here in Texas because it isn’t cold enough for me. And Tom, well, he has always said he hates it here in Texas. He tried to leave it years ago but couldn’t manage to stay away. I have a feeling, if we left, we would be gone forever, only to return once a year. Once a year is about how often we see our family anyway so we really won’t be missing out much. And when it comes down to finances, well, the company is paying for us to relocate so we won’t spend a dime!

If there is anyone reading this who lives in Wisconsin, tell me why or why not we shouldn’t make this move? Sell me!

The hardest thing!

2011-09-07T23:33:00.002-05:00

Besides the loud fits from frustration, self affliction of pain and the fact we can't go out in public without fear of a meltdown do you know what the hardest thing about having a blind autistic 6 year old is? BIRTHDAY AND CHRISTMAS SHOPPING! Not only do we have to contend with the fact that she is positively 100 percent blind to no end but we have to deal with the sensory issues of Autism as well. We can't buy her normal toys, they have to make noise or be textured in some way. But they can't be too loud and they can't be too much of a certain texture. We can't just buy something we "think" she might like, we have to buy something we KNOW she WILL like. Not liking something could end in said item being tossed across the room followed by a fall to the floor screaming fit if the texture upsets her sensitive touch or if the noise level was annoyingly loud to her. What is loud to her, is probably not loud at all to us and vice versa. With a child like Miriam there is no end to the chaos that ensues when out shopping. As her mother I literally go through moods. I start off with dread, followed by a renewed sense of assurance as I find a single item and end in tears because that single item is usually the only item I find. I feel like a bad mother, that I am not trying hard enough and at the same time I am angry for my child because I feel like she has gotten a totally bum deal. Most of the time I don't feel that way at all, just two times a year. I want her to be able to enjoy things like Barbie Dolls, Dora, Strawberry Shortcake and an easy bake oven. Before I became the mother of a blind child I always told my self that I would never raise commercialized children. I would never give into the branded toys and clothes but now I see the joy in those things. I see what something as simple as a Dora doll does for my other girls because I see how little it does for Miriam. I would give ANYTHING for her to say "I want a Sponge bob toy for my birthday!" because not only would she be easier to shop for but because I could see the pleasure on her face when she got it. Almost 7 birthdays and not once has my baby gotten excited about a present, not once has she even gotten excited to get one!

And before anyone tells me , I KNOW there are special stores out there to buy toys for blind children, places to buy toys for autistic children as well but we cannot afford to pay 100 bucks for a rag doll or 60 bucks for wooden blocks. And sometimes we don't have the finances in advance to hunt for hours on end online to have it here in time for her birthday. Christmas is a little bit easier because we do turn to online resources but it is still hard. Not only are most of the items we get expensive but she can't use many of the items for blind people, braille for instance is of no interest to her and as hard as it is for this mom to admit she will probably never know how to read it because the Autism will keep her from it. Autism was a very tough pill to swallow. I was the first person in the school yelling at her VI telling her my baby was going to grow out of her behavior just as many children with Septo Optic Dysplasia do . She looked at me like I was an idiot, undermining me the whole way but I stuck to my guns. I am not ashamed to admit that I was wrong so despite some of my families denial I shop for gifts to appease her autistic side as well as her blind side. Miriam is not a little bit autistic, she is severely autistic and that makes it even harder.

With all that said, this year I bought Miriam two sets of metal spoons in various sizes and a metal cake pan. Will she think I am insane, no, she will think it's the best gift on the face of the earth. She already sneaks spoons into her room and would walk around the house all day with one if I let her. Spoons and die cast meal cars are the two things Miriam loves best these days. The pan was something I went out on a limb on but I have no doubt that pan will be better than any old Barbie doll in her eyes. At the end of the day, after all is said and done, after I have cried my tears for my daughter she will end up showing me that in life it is the little things that truly matter. People have been saying it for years , the person who said it first must have had a disabled child because before I had Miriam, I NEVER understood exactly what that saying could mean.

Hawaiian Meat Balls

2011-08-28T14:31:00.004-05:00

Hawaiian Meat Balls

MEATBALLS:

2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup plain bread crumbs
2/3 cup evaporated milk
zest of a small orange
1/2 small onion (grated with zester)
1 1/4 tsp seasoning salt
2 dashes black pepper
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 dashes ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/3 cup flour
3 tbs BUTTER FLAVORED shortening

DIRECTIONS:
1. Melt butter shortening in a large skillet on medium heat...
2. While oil is coming to frying temperature mix all ingredients together well except for flour and shortening.
3. Shape into meatballs (will make about 40 medium size meatballs)
4. Evenly roll each meat ball in the flour then place in the pan to brown on each side.
5. Remove from the pan and place the meat balls into a large baking dish or casserole pan.
6. Top with sweet and sour sauce, giving the pan a little shake to cover the meatballs evenly and bake uncovered for about 30 - 40 minutes.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 20 OZ can of pineapple chunks
5 tbs corn starch
1/2 cup vinegar
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs juice of an orange (fresh from the orange you zested)
1 tbs soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 green pepper (cut into bite size chunks)
1 4z can Pimentos , drained
2 dashes ground ginger

DIRECTIONS:

1. Drain juice from the pineapple into a measuring cup. Set aside the pineapple.
2. Add water to juice to make exactly 1 cup of liquid.
3. In saute pan over medium heat blend cornstarch into the juice until the cornstarch has dissolved.
4. Add vinegar, lemon juice, orange juice, brown sugar and soy cause.
5. Simmer, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes.
6. Add pineapple , green pepper & pimento. Simmer for another 3 minutes until the fruit/ veggies are well infused.
7. Use as according to directions above.

These are great served over rice as a main course or as an appetizer! They even taste great cold!

The Love Dare Day 1

2011-08-28T02:35:00.004-05:00

THE LOVE DARE
DAY 1
Patience

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:2 NIV

10:28 am I think today's dare is going to prove to be one of my most difficult yet. I have a little issue with anger and can tend to lean on the side of VERY impatient. There are moments where even the little things drive me crazy. Like this morning when I woke up to find he had already eaten both slices of the left over pizza without a moments thought to save one for me as I would have done for him. I am not a selfish person and selfishness is a big part of husbands personality. In 8 years I have never heard him say to me "hey honey, do you want this?". But I guess that is where acceptance comes in. If I haven't heard it in 8 years then perhaps I should stop expecting to hear it. I managed to ignore it, but I am not yet sure if that was because he isn't here & I lost my phone or because I was actually successful at holding my tongue..lol

Must remember:

"He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick tempered exalts folly" Proverbs 14:29

2:31 am So it seems this day wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. There were moments throughout the day where I felt myself becoming quick to anger or annoyed but I managed to hold myself together and brush it off. At the end of the day I actually feel good having a day without the usual marital drama (or the unusual). It was nice just sitting together without any animosity, hopefully I can pull it off again tomorrow!

"Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger" James 1:19

Art credit: Patience by Carol Knudsen

Earthquakes and Dares...

2011-08-26T10:57:00.006-05:00

Over the past 8 years Tom and I have had our share of problems, many have been very serious, some trivial, all challenging in their own way. Through everything we have always managed to overcome. Considering the severity of some of the trials God has paved our path with that is saying a lot. I am not going to go into the trials we have survived together , that isn't the point of this post, the point is that it has shaken us regardless of our getting past them. Marriage is like an earthquake, an earthquake shows up out of nowhere, sometimes on a quiet night or a beautifully perfect day, it shakes the earth with all of it's might forever leaving a mark in one way or another. Be it destroyed buildings, stolen lives or just a few cracks that weren't there before. The damage is all up to the severity of the earthquake. However, it is possible, no matter how severe the damage to overcome the quake but in the worst cases it takes a lot of physical and mental work. I personally believe marriage is EXACTLY the same way. As with an earthquake you don't just run from the trials , in the rubble is your home and everyone deserves the comforts of home despite the damage. If you had a damaged home in an earthquake you would either rebuild with those you love or move on WITH those you love. You wouldn't assess the damage then leave your family on the roadside while you searched for greener pastures. You would gather them up and go through it all together, becoming stronger in the end having overcome the obstacle put in your path as a unit instead of alone. While Tom and I have gone through our trials together we HAVE grown stronger in many ways. But just like after an earthquake there is still damage, damage that will forever be present. You won't necessarily be able to fill ALL of the cracks in the earth but you can work as hard as you can to fill each and everyone. That is what you do in marriage each and every day , even when you aren't trying. Marriage is WORK but in the midst of all the work it also needs nurturing, something we tend to forget is necessary during the rebuilding process. Working on things does NOT always mean to nurture! And THAT is where Tom and I have gone wrong. We work so hard at "making it work" with "moving forward" and "forgiveness" that we have forgotten to nurture one another and in the end we aren't looking as great on the inside. We work so hard on rebuilding the exterior that we didn't leave any room for decorations!

And that leaves me to the bottom line of this post. Some of you might have heard of a little movie called Fireproof, some of you might have also heard of it's companion book called "The Love Dare". For the next 40 days, starting tomorrow I am going to be taking the challenge of The Love dare in an effort to nurture this marriage. I miss my husband so very much, I miss the long nights we would spend talking to one another & planning our lives. I miss the way he would smile at me out of the blue, I miss the way him simply walking across the room would make me pause. I still love him as I know he loves me, it is simply that we no longer love ourselves because nether one of us have put any effort into each other. It is amazing how when you are "together" you end up relying on each other to get through the day because you become one as a whole. But the past several years we have been too busy with the children, our home & mending fences that we together have become TOO separated in our togetherness. It as if we were two sides of a live oyster being pried open with a jagged knife. Anyone who knows how hard it is to open a seized oyster should know what I am talking about. We try with all of our might to keep our halves together but that knife just keeps trying to pull us apart. Unlike an oyster however we still have our will in the end.

Over the next 40 days I will be using this family journal to document the challenge of the Love dare. I don't know exactly what it is supposed to do but I have faith that whatever it is, it will work. It is time to start filling in the earth so we can find the together in our togetherness.

To homeschool or not to homeschool?!!

2011-08-22T10:28:00.002-05:00

Since we decided to home-school Miriam last year it had always been up in the air about whether or not we were going to home-school Georgia and Sophia as well. We knew that no matter what we DID NOT want our kids in your typical public school setting. Not because we feel we are too good for public school but because we feel EVERYONE is too good for public school as it stands today. Classrooms are always so full leaving children without the fulfilling educational experience they NEED to thrive, so many teachers have given up because their hand are tied so tightly. The public school system itself has become overrun with officials who have political aspirations more so than people who have a desire to educate. And schools are simply TOO dangerous, I don't trust the education system to take care of my kids! We looked in to private school options and then we started looking into charter schools. Eventually the search led to a particular charter school which incorporates the Arts into a very strict education plan. I spent much of my youth in the world of the arts and I KNOW all too well what being a part of it can do to your self esteem, confidence and self worth and my children being a part of that experience has my wheels turning with excitement. After discussing it with Tom we decided that next year for Georgia's first year of Kindergarten we are going to enroll her. She is such a spirited child and I know with all of my heart that this is the kind of educational experience she would LOVE. The thing we love about charter schools is that the enrollment is limited which means "if" our kids got in they would have the type of one on one kids need in school. I LOVE the idea of having a public education "experience" on paper. Friends, rewards, homework, school activities, PTA, dances, sports...all things I want our kids to be a part of. It's the politics of it all that I hate. There is NO ROOM for politics when it comes to educating our children and creating productive intelligent citizens. When you have politics and education, education gets lost in the greediness of the race. I know no matter what we will never make this choice for Miriam but with her the ball game is completely different. Schools, none of them, are equipped to deal with an Autistic blind child, something we learned the hard way. She NEEDS one on one education. Actually the thought of it being just she and I eventually kind of excites me. I have a feeling it will be like opening the door to an entirely new world for her.

A FRESH new year and a FRESH new UNschool!

2011-08-18T16:52:00.007-05:00

It’s that time again, time to wake up early and get back into the rhythm of education.

Last year, our first year at home schooling we decided a typical classroom environment would suit us. I wanted Georgia to truly feel like she was in “school” because I felt I was denying her something Miriam had a chance to experience. This year I decided, I don’t want to do that , a “classroom” is purely mental and since I don’t intend on my kids ever being a part of a public education system they don’t need anything resembling a classroom. I want us to focus more on hands on education, free of worksheets, free of the stress of an academic system that puts too much stress on our kids. Lets face it, Miriam will be never be a child who will sit down and fill out a math problem on paper, she won’t ever learn to color in the lines and she certainly isn’t going to be able to see a logic worksheet. Miriam is not only blind but she is very much autistic, she can and will learn as she has shown us she can do but she isn’t going to do it by the book. She CAN’T do it by the book. I don’t see any point in wasting printer ink when I can be teaching her with things in the home that she can actually touch, feel and relate to.

I want to do things like taking my children into the kitchen to bake and cook our meals together, we can use food to teach all kinds of things from logic to math. I want to take them outside the house and let them learn everything they need to know by experience not by just reading about it in a book. I want them to learn how to read because we do it together as a family not because I am shoving flashcards in their faces. I want them to learn logic and math using things in our home not by using a different worksheet. How often in real life will they be handed a lady bug and told to count the dots? Last year I spent a lot of my time printing out worksheets, building weekly curriculum, keeping track of tests and numbers. It interfered in valuable family time together and I honestly feel limiting things like worksheets will help bring us together. It will also help me to teach our kids even better social skills by interacting in a hands on setting.

We will only be doing partial UN-schooling however, which for us means 4 days a week of 99% UN-schooling. Each day we will still be working on our phonics reading program for about half an hour and one day a week we will “play school”. We no longer have a classroom, I got rid of it and turned it into a play room but I did bring some of their classroom equipment/supplies into the living room where they will be utilized on Friday each week. We will do everything you would do in real school including worksheets and flashcards. We will utilize it to pull everything we learned the previous 4 days together. It is a chance for our mainstream children to physically see what they have learned and be physically rewarded for their work with stars and stickers like any other home school or classroom.

Here are a few things we want to focus on each week this year,

Cooking / Baking together
Silly play
Alphabet
Phonics reading
Number & counting
Out door fun
Logic activity
Educational Toy learning
Arts & Crafts
Music appreciation
Reading together
Spiritual education
Meditation/Relaxation time
Hands on Science
Exercise - Physical play
Health education

And much much more! This of course doesn’t include the one on one education we will need to give Miriam by herself such as speech and tactile activities.

In all I think it will be fun coming up with new activities we can do together to really push the aspects of UN-schooling. I want our entire day to be educational from the second we wake-up to the moment we go to bed. Television is going to end up being VERY limited as we find things we can do together instead such as board games and puzzles. Tom and I are both going to be working this together instead of just me taking the reigns. He can really teach the girls what it means to work with their hands with building projects and such. Someday when they are much older he can teach him his own craft. Needless to say, I am so excited about this coming school year!!!

Freebies Galore!

2011-08-11T12:19:00.009-05:00

I just had the desire to share with our readers all of the amazing freebie offers that came my way today. ENJOY! If you have a freebie to share add it to the comments section and I will update this list with it later with thanks.
FREE MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS
"SAILING" magazine
"SPIN" Music Magazine (I love this one!)

SAMPLES
PRILOSEC
QUIT TEA (a smokers aid)
SPLENDA Essentials
STAPLES LABELS (must go to store)
NESTLE Frozen Cup
PAPA Johns Cheese Pizza w/ purchase
Jericho Skin care
JOHN FREDA
FIBER CHOICE
HUGGIES Snug and DRY
DOVE haircare
POISE
TENA Wipes
POST IT's
Purina Pro plan cat food
Natural Nibbles Dog treats
Shout Swipes

POTTY TRAINING:
Potty training DVD
Free potty training tools:

And last but not least, if you haven't signed up for swagbucks yet, this is the time to do it. I have been a member for only a few weeks and have already managed 8 Amazon gift cards by putting in a little work surfing the net, taking surveys, playing games and watching TV. You can trade your swagbucks in for a WIDE variety of items , including cash if you have a Paypal account. If you like free stuff, you will love swagbucks!

JOIN SWAGBUCKS TODAY!!!

Life is worth living!

2011-08-10T16:58:00.005-05:00

Since I was first diagnosed with having cancer cells on my cervix I found myself in a downward mental spiral and it has been really hard picking myself back up again. A part of me really wanted to take the reigns and live my life to the fullest and another part of me was so defeated it didn't know what to do. I think in the end I fell somewhere in between living and not knowing what to do which just caused me to be seriously depressed. And considering I have suffered from Manic depression (IE: Bi-Polar disorder) most of my life the depression hit REALLY hard. I found myself not having anything positive to say, thinking horrible thoughts and just wanting to give up at times. I felt like I didn't have much support, friends who I thought were my real friends failed me and my family at times seemed so neutral. For a while I wasn't sure what I expected out of anyone until I started thinking about it and realized that I wanted someone to be PISSED OFF with me. I didn't want anyone to treat me like a delicate flower out of water, I wanted someone to not only listen to me yell but to yell with me. I didn't really get that, I got just the opposite, sometimes i got people who didn't seem to care at all like my brother who just shook it off saying "Oh well, nothing I can do about it!". Even though, I had supportive people, people who genuinely cared about whether I lived or died I still felt so alone.

Today I am starting to get myself pulled back together even though finances have kept me from going back for my follow up which I REALLY need to do within the next 2 weeks. I am finding myself smiling more and saying/thinking more positively. I know without a doubt that I do have many great blessings from a husband who loves me to children who always smile to a steady income. God is with me, he provides me strength even when I don't feel like he is providing said strength. This trial has showed me that he does love me and no matter what he is always going to stand by my side.

He has even blessed my husband in the past week, prompting him to go to his first A.A. meeting. I am proud that he made that choice on his own without any prompting. I really think opening up about it to our family and our readers helped him to see how much it was hurting us. The pay off was not only stepping into the light of realization but it also brought him some pretty good business contacts as he has been trying to find a second job to help us get back on our feet and closer to family. Which is something we realized we really needed going through the trial of my being sick. I pray with all of my heart that he continues to move forward with his choice to attend A.A. as it will do wonders for our families well being in the future.

Sometimes it takes a trial or two to make you appreciate the life you have. I certainly appreciate the one I have even though it is a little bit chaotic and dysfunctional at times. But then again, whose life isn't? Living and being happy isn't about having a smile on your face 24 hours a day, it is what it comes down to at that last second of the day when you lay your head on your pillow. If your last thought is of something wonderful, like your husband , your children , God or even just the big beautiful sky above then you KNOW your life is worth living. If your last thought is of anything negative all it takes is to change the last thought to something positive. I am confident that we ALL have something beautiful to think about before we end our day.

Our Growing girls!

2011-08-03T20:08:00.006-05:00

We got the girls growth charts today and for the most part we are very happy with the results!

Miriam 6 years old

Average height for her age is 41 inches/ weight 46.2 pounds

Miriam is 45 1/4 inches & 43 pounds. Putting her in the 16th & 18th percentiles.

Not bad for a girl they said would stop growing by age 4 without growth hormone. We stopped giving her HGH because every strain made her deathly sick, which is actually quite common with HGH. She was sick 6 months out of the year, throwing up, white as a sheet which I believe caused her seizures to escalate! I am confident we made the right choice. I would rather her be short than not enjoy life.

Georgia 4 years old

Average height for her age is 37 inches/ weight 35.2 pounds

Georgia is 41 3/4 inches & 38 pounds. Putting her in the 80th & 37th percentiles.

As for Georgia, she might be considered chunky for her age BUT she is also taller than the average 6 year old which means her weight is just right. :-)

Sophia 2 years old

Average height for her age is 30 inches/ weight 28.4 pounds

Sophia is 34 1/2 inches & 43 pounds. Putting her in the 18th & 3rd percentiles.

My Sophia monkey might be a little twig but she eats like a horse and is tall like her daddy!

______________________________________________________

UPDATE on Miriam: I am so happy with Miriam. Not only did she lose her first tooth today BUT she has been asking to go potty and actually doing so when she gets there. This is such a giant leap for our world. The thought of having a pull up free house is now realized!

She has also been communicating like crazy. Tom accidentally bumped her head on the wall after putting her down out of his lap where she was sitting. She rubbed her head and laughed. I said "geeze daddy, don't knock her brains out...Miriam tell him not to knock your brains out" (not expecting her to say it) and she said to him "daddy, don't knock my brains out!" I praised her for saying something new and she got so excited for that praise that she told him twice..lol

We have also been playing a musical "game" of sorts. She sits in my laugh and says something. Whatever she says I have to sing it in music form she then has to repeat it EXACTLY as I sang it with melody. She has been really doing great, not only cooperating but she stays very in tune with the things I sing back to her. She likes this game so much that she actually comes up to me to initiate it.

I am so proud and am so giddy to get back to school this year. I have lots of wonderful things planned for her, the other girls and our classroom.

Living with alcoholism: What is the question?

2011-08-01T19:23:00.007-05:00

My husband and I fell in love at first site, we saw each other across the room, our eyes met and eventually we floated together like twin clouds. It was magic and it was wonderful, a story dreams are made of…sort of. The fact is that no a matter what kind of fairy tale you are reading or how beautiful the story, NONE of the fairy tales you will ever read take place where we met. Typically they take place in a castle or some beautiful land not in a crowded, loud and smelly BAR. Meeting in a bar should have been my first clue that my husband enjoyed the drink, especially since he was drinking alone but I fell so hard it wasn't something I wanted to think about. But eventually my lack of thought and the evil veil called love got the best of me. He spent the greater part of my first pregnancy drinking, coming home at 6 & 7am , not being there for me when I needed him most. But I stuck it out because I loved him, it was a fairy tale and fairy tales always have a happy ending. But then I got pregnant again, during that pregnancy things were a bit crazy, his drinking once again got the best of him and it put a terrible rift between us that was near impossible to fix. But somehow, Georgia was born and we saw our way with love once again. When I got pregnant with Sophia he had stopped drinking but a few months into the pregnancy some old friends came into the picture and the booze started flying threw the house once again. Our relationship was put on the back burner and the baby and children became his second priority over alcohol. I was rather thankful when my church came back into our lives. He openly accepted the missionaries into our home, he began lessons and stopped drinking and smoking for a year. Our family was so happy, we were finally together, I could trust him again after numerous indiscretions, we were a family. I finally thought my fairy tale was starting to be read but I was wrong because soon the people who had helped destroy the last bit of sobriety marched back into our lives and he fell off the wagon once again. I eventually left the church , mostly because I was ashamed of his behavior and because I actually felt as if I was undeserving of God with a husband who was so adamantly Godless. I felt like his demons were my demons and someone possessed by demons had no place in the kingdom of heaven. He has spent the last year and a half drinking, thankfully he stopped drinking hard liquor which made him mean and forgetful but the hard beer he has been drinking is almost as bad.

They say when you are married it is for better or for worse but there has got to be a point where the worst calls for “enough”. Every-time I need him, when the kids get sick, the day before I have surgery for cancer, the day before we go on family trips and have lots to do, the days when Miriam’s temperature spikes to 104 degrees which is the first sign of seizures, the days we have family plans or simply the days I want to enjoy his company he shows up to the house wasted which makes him useless. I feel like all of the difficult times I am forced to go through alone and it is starting to suffocate me. I see my children growing up in the same home I had growing up, a father who puts drinking first above all else. He knows how I feel about alcohol but he has quit so much, lied so much about so much that I don’t so much think I am capable of loving him anymore. Mainly because , the man I love is hidden behind a giant beer can. His eyes change, he walks different, he speaks differently and he is simply unavailable to us all. I cannot talk to him anymore about anything because no matter what it is it will serve as an excuse for him to get drunk. I have tried in the past to discuss these matters with his family but all they ever say to me, especially his mother is “he doesn’t ever sound drunk when he calls me” even though I can guarantee them that he has been drunk more than HALF of the times he has called them in the 8 years we have been together.

I love my husband a great deal but I am getting tired. With all of the health issues I am having now I feel as if I don’t deserve this anymore. I don’t deserve to be alone even though my supposed partner is sitting with the neighbor putting them back or DRIVING with booze on his way home which he thinks is OK because he is on the “backroads”. It is not OK, not at all! A DWI nearly killed our family once before, what makes him think another one wouldn’t shatter us? But I guess that is the problem, not only does he NOT think but he doesn’t care to think.

What am I supposed to do? Can I continue to pretend I live in a happy home when I live with a husband who needs help but doesn’t care enough about the people that love him to get that help? He is the father of 3 beautiful girls if those girls are not enough to make him quit hurting us what is? All I know is that my days are filled with fear, anger, hurt, betrayal, distrust and just plain unknowing. I wish his family would help me, I wish they would talk to him, help him, reach out to him but they want to pretend it is not happening even though it runs deep within their family. Even though it was some of them that caused the hurt that got him here. How do you help an alcoholic that doesn’t want help? How do you help an alcoholic who is also a pathological liar? Answer is, you don’t! And if the answer is “you don’t” you have to ask yourself a different question which is “how do you help YOU.” The only answer I find when I ask myself that question is summed up by one word “Leave”. But "leave" isn't always the advice you "want" to take even though it is the advice you should take and the only advice that keeps your kids safe.

This post is my "coming out of the closet" of sorts. I am tired of pretending that it isn't a major problem. It is a HUGE problem and it is killing us in every way. So many people would like me to just shut up about it, keep my mouth shut but I am done keeping my mouth shut. I need help and speaking out is the first choice I am making to find my way to normalcy. I Jenna Bramlett am married to an alcoholic!

The swag and I...!

2011-07-28T17:35:00.004-05:00

So today I gave in and signed up for swagbucks. My sister in law has been using it for sometime now, she is always redeeming her bucks for amazon gift cards and as I decided I want a Kindle those would come in handy. SO far I am finding the website really easy to use, I have earned 163 today alone and though I have a long time to go until my goal nothing beats free and easy. All I have to do is watch videos, play games & surf the net. I do those things anyway, why not get paid for it???!!!

If anyone would like to join and check it out, you can help me out by using the following link to join the site. You put me one step closer to my kindle which with all the health problems I have been having I cannot afford to buy and you get freebies for yourself. Just click the ad below and be on your way to easy earning, they have tons of different ways to spend your swag bucks!

Feeling unworthy of love or care!

2011-07-28T00:02:00.005-05:00

I don't normally use the family blog as a place to complain about my life or my husband but I feel almost as if the walls are closing in on me because I feel so uncared for by my husband. I have shared these feelings with him but all he does is scoff at me and vanish into the bedroom. One week ago today I had a pretty decent amount of surgery, I had part of my cervix removed, cancer lasered from my body, a D&C and 2 more things that I can't even remember at the moment. I have wanted to and tried to sit back and take it easy as I am bleeding quite a bit from the procedure and in a moderate amount of pain from my back, to my stomach, to my legs but I have failed miserably. After the surgery I came home and went to bed, the next day , even though my husband went to work and my kids were running crazy I laid about on the couch. Those first 2 days my husband did a few things to help, it was easy since neighbors and friends were bringing our meals. The first 2 days of any surgery I have ever had have been "my rest days" as it seems 2 days is the amount of time it takes me to get better in the eyes of my husband. 2 days is the amount of days that help STOPS, dead stops unless I ask him, sometimes not even asking helps and we get into an argument. This was the same behavior after all of my C-sections as well. 2 days, 2 days and no matter what the extent of the surgery I am perfect again. Of course this is nowhere near true, I should be with my feet on a pillow relaxing as we speak but no, I am doing no such thing. Right now, at midnight I am doing laundry, laundry he dropped "off" in the laundry room an hour ago. Laundry I thought he was going to wash himself until I asked "did you forget to turn on the washer" and he said "no, I just left it for you to do later.". At that moment, minutes after a scab fell out and blood started pouring out of my body my jaw dropped and I almost broke down into tears. It occurred to me that I have become NOTHING but the person who does his laundry, his dishes, cooks his meals an cleans his house. I am no longer a human being with feelings who is hurting and fighting, I am a paid employee with no benefits and we are no longer partners. Have we ever been real partners? I am so disturbed right now that I can't even remember when we were. I know some of you are thinking "I wouldn't have done it" but alas he is the bread winner and he has a job interview tomorrow so he needed clean clothes. I rather enjoy food in my kids bellies and having a roof over their heads (and mine!). So after he gave a childish "Oh fine, fine, I will just do it, I only have to be up at 4am, 3 hours of sleep is fine" (yeah, I have to be up early to care for our CHILDREN but that doesn't matter I guess) to avoid the argument, because I am hurting and don't have one in me, I did it. I honestly do not know what it would take to get my husband to be more of a partner than some sexist pig who seems to think I will live forever. We just recently went through a month of thinking I might be dying from cancer and that didn't even phase him, will anything? I love my husband, he has so many other redeeming qualities, I know he loves me but I am starting to wonder if he actually loves "me" or if he just loves the idea of having me around because he thinks I won't ever leave. All I can say is that this isn't the first marriage boat I have taken. I met the last straw once before and after all we have gone through the past few years (some insane stuff!) it seems to me the last straw might be coming around for another visit. I fight daily to forgive because that is what my father would want, but my father in heaven would also want my husband to take care of me when I needed him to....right?

I don't know what to do but I do know that I wish everyone would quit telling me to let others do for me or to just let it all be. 1. There is NOBODY to do for me. 2. When you have a disabled child with a HORRIBLE immune system who is blind and will trip over crap in the floor filth is NOT an option.

PS. This is what my house looks like right now. Dishes/food still on the table, piles of dishes and filthy counters in the kitchen, piles of laundry in the laundry room (including more in our room) and crap thrown all over the living room floor/furniture. It isn't HORRIBLE but after breakfast, it will be! By the way, I even made his lunch, couldn't even get him to put his own meal into Tupperware!

Love and Relaxation; My life with food!

2011-07-27T08:16:00.012-05:00

"Sit back , relax and let someone else cook for you"

Those words have never quite sit right in my stomach. Possibly due to the fact that I am a little bit anal about the food that I eat but mostly due to the fact that I absolutely LOVE to cook. And I mean anything, I love to bake, fry, grill, boil, broil, saute and just about anything else that gets my food creativity flowing. Cooking is one of the only things in life short of sleep that actually RELAXES me and it always surprises me to hear that anyone could think this thing I love so much was stressful enough that in the event of a life crisis I should let someone else do it to take stress off. If I weren't cooking or baking something chances are you will find me twiddling my thumbs in a corner somewhere bored to tears. Sure I do other stuff but most of the stuff I do is enveloped by cooking. If I am on the computer or watching TV, I probably have something cooking in the crock pot, coming to a boil, simmering in a pot or baking in the oven. If I leave the house at the very least it is either to BUY food to cook or to EAT at a restaurant where I know they would give food as much love as I like to give it. Food is my $100.00 per hour therapy only for that $100.00 I get a whole WEEKS worth of therapy. In fact when I look back on the choices in my life the one and only choice I would ever change has to do with food and that is my education. Instead of going to business and fashion school in Los Angeles I would have gone to culinary school in San Francisco to share my love of food with the world and I KNOW I would have been damn good at it. One day I hope to open my own restaurant or bakery, a dream I have had my entire life. My husband Tom said to me once that he has never seen anyone associate their life with food as I do. Every experience I have had in my life is immortalized with food. I can tell you what something tasted like that I ate 10 , 20 years ago. I can tell you the most delicious French food I ever ate was at Eurochow in Westwood, Ca , the best thing on the menu was the Filet Mignon in which it's peppery goodness melted in your mouth like butter and the Walnut Shrimp that were the size of my hand had a crunch like nothing I ever experienced before. The best Cajun meal I ever had was at Killer Shrimp in Los Angeles and the best burger I have ever eaten I made myself. I can tell you what is in just about any food without anyone giving me an ingredient list. Killer Shrimp has long come and gone but in a matter of minutes I managed to replicate their original shrimp dish for those nights where the memory of that meal overwhelms me to the point that I MUST have it. Food makes me happy, it is my talent, my nourishment, food is my best friend, someone who has never in my life let me down. Cooking doesn't stress me out, people stress me out but when you put raw food in front of me and say "cook for the people" , people suddenly become less stressful. I love my food and my food loves me, I will never part with it and nobody can ever convince me that making food better is anything but my solace!

Now, time to go throw those cinnamon rolls that have been rising for the last hour into the oven. :)

PLEASE VOTE for my 9 year old niece??!!!

2011-07-25T20:10:00.002-05:00

My 9 year old niece who is a super reader and an excellent hard working honor roll student has entered a contest to win a book and a small scholarship. We would all LOVE it if you would help her in an effort to win a contest which ENDS TODAY. If all of my readers vote, she might have a chance. And if you feel the need to help her out even more, please post the link in your blog, twitter or facebook and ask your friends to vote for her as well. THANK YOU!!!

PLEASE VOTE & share if you can!!!!

Mission Disaster Play Room!

2011-07-25T18:25:00.006-05:00

I have had it! When we decided to let the girls cohabitate in a single bedroom for Miriam's safety from toys we cleared all the toys that were broken, that weren't played with or were just old away. Since then not only has the toy supply been replenished (even though we made them trade toys for Christmas to give to kids who needed them) but the room has turned into an even bigger disaster than the bedroom ever was. When we created the playroom we naturally thought it would be nice to have a few of those neat plastic toy boxes with lids. We never expected that these expensive "kid proof" boxes were utterly useless as the lids don't stay on and are bulky as heck. We could have achieved the same effect, though not nearly as "kid cute" with a few $4.00 plastic bins. Which is just what I did when I reached my breaking point today.

The Disaster Zone

After going through the toys and ridding the room of 2 garbage bags full I decided each girl got a box of toys, not including sporting goods & dress up clothes. I labeled each box & it's matching lid with pictures of either the girl the box belonged to or the contents of the box and created new play room rules, or shall I say additions to our rules.

Playroom Rules

1. ONE book off the shelf per girl at one time.
2. NO TOYS from the pay room in ANY other part of the house.
3. Only the box that belongs to the person actually IN the playroom can be opened. You can ONLY open your own box.
4. If you leave the playroom pick up yours toys and put your lid back on.
6. REGARDLESS of whose box a toy came from ALL toys are community property as long as the person whose box is opened remains in the room. YOU MUST SHARE!
7. If someone leaves the room but you are playing with a toy from the other persons box either A. Give them one of your toys to make room in your box for the toy. or B. Give it to them to put in their box and play with something else.
8. Sporting goods & play clothes may be opened by anyone.

Playroom transformation...

So far the girls are following the rules. We still had the "ONE book" & "no toys in the play room leave the play room" rules. They have a play area in the living room with a few toys & books so they aren't exactly going to suffer at the hand of "toylessness" because of it. We will see how long this lasts but I plan to stick to my guns and force these new rules which once learned should be a cake walk. I am by no means a stickler for super clean but I want to be and this is a start!

The Simple Life & Tortilla's

2011-07-25T12:56:00.006-05:00

Lately I have been on a real kick to simplify our lives by making everything we eat from scratch. Some people might say that would make life more difficult but I maintain than saving over $100.00 per week on groceries, producing only 1/4 of the trash we did previously and having less food to GRAB and Go enabling us to have non diet weight loss HAS simplified things. We make our own breads, cookies, cakes (not using mix), dish soap, laundry soap, butter and much more. We even shop late night for meat section bargains (grocery stores mark down meat by nearly half after 10pm!). Living like this took our grocery bill from $200.00 a week to about $80.00 a week with one week at $150.00 (stock up week, we buy much in bulk) bringing our grocery bill to only $340.00 a month for a savings of 460.00 a month. We do not eat anything processed but breakfast cereal and the occasional "treat" on treat day which is Friday. Sunday is my baking day in which I bake our goods for the week which I freeze. Our bodies feel better, my stress is down from all of the baking and it seems our family is a little happier.

I am constantly looking for areas where we can simplify things and that includes new EASY recipes. One recipe I have found is multi-use and can be used daily if wanted. The recipe is for easy tortillas but I have found that you can either roll it out paper thin for the best tortilla you will ever eat or you can roll it out thicker for an excellent flat bread. It bakes well too! Tonight I will be whipping this little recipe up for some yummy garlic/parsley bread cooked in butter on the stove top. Here is the recipe, following the recipe you will find some of my use ideas for this dough! The recipe makes about 8 8-6 inch tortillas, I usually double up. Enjoy!

EASY Tortilla's/flat bread

2 Cups Flour
1 - 1 1/2 TSP baking powder (more powder , more rise when cooking)
1 TSP Salt
2 TSP oil
3/4 cup luke warm milk

* Sift your flour and milk into a large mixing bowl.
* In separate bowl (or measure cup) milk, salt & oil to your milk.
* With mixer on low speed slowly add milk mixture to flour, mix until smooth.
* Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes.
* Divide dough and roll into balls (or use a press).
* Let the bread balls rest for another 15 minutes.
* Meanwhile, warm your pan on low-Med. heat coated with cooking spray, oil or butter.
* While pan is warming on a lightly floured surface roll or pat out a ball to the desired size then place in the pan and cook until browned on each side.

You should have plenty of time in between bread to roll out another ball. You will need to add a bit more oil, butter or spray to your pan between each piece.

NOTE: Flavor ideas:

Cinnamon sugar tortillas (when each is finished roll in a mixture of cinnamon/sugar)
Cinnamon raisin flat bread (add raisins to your dough, then do the same as above)
Garlic/Parmesan (add a touch of garlic to the dough, then brush with either a mixture of garlic, parm, butter or olive oil.)
Cheddar/ Jalapeno flat bread (add chopped/drained jalapenos and a cup of cheddar to your batter.)

These are just a few of my ideas, I am sure you can come of with some amazing ideas of your own. Feel free to share the ones you come up with in the comments section so we can all try them! :-)

PS. Make your own and you will NEVER turn back to those packaged brands!

Worlds BEST Oatmeal cookies...

2011-07-22T14:14:00.005-05:00

My whole life Oatmeal cookies have been a cookie I either liked or I hated. Every Oatmeal cookie is so different, often too dry & flavorless or too cakey. It is so hard to find the perfect Oatmeal cookie. But here I am to tell you that I have indeed found the perfect oatmeal cookie. A cookie that stands on it's own with no additives such as raisins or chocolate chips. It is buttery, sweet but not too sweet, fluffy in the middle but lacy around the edges. This is possibly the most dainty but tasty oatmeal cookie in the world! Enjoy!

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup margarine, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a mixing bowl with mixer on Medium speed, cream together butter/margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar.
3. Add eggs one at a time.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
6. Mix in oats.
7. Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.
8. Shape the dough into balls (about the size of walnuts) & place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
9. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar (lightly wet fork to hold sugar).
10. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
11. Let cool for about 1 minute on cookie sheet then move to rack to cool.

NOTE: Using margarine AND butter makes the difference in these cookies. Do not skip this step! Feel free to add nuts, raisins or chocolate chips but these cookies are DELICIOUS alone.

Recovering...

2011-07-21T13:04:00.000-05:00

The last few days have been a real eye opening experience as I recover from having cancer removed from my body. For about a month I was a nervous wreck fearing I might not live long enough to see my daughters grow up after my DR. found cancer sitting on my cervix waiting to attack. Tuesday I went into the hospital, had the cancer lesions removed, part of my cervix removed, video shot of my insides to see if anything was affected, had polyps removed and had a D&C which was a must thanks to a recent miscarriage. It was a "fun" few hours (of deep rest under sedation...lol) but in the end I kind of have a new appreciation for my life. My daughters smiles seem so much brighter and the air I breath feels so much cleaner going into my lungs. I hate that it took such a life scare to get me to appreciate everything as much as I should have already but at the same time, how many of us fully appreciate life as we are living it? I am glad to be here, with my family and I am so thankful the last few months are over. For the most part....

Butter / buttermilk making 101

2011-07-18T14:53:00.014-05:00

I have always wanted to attempt to make my own butter but always thought I needed a churn. Little did I know that I could easily accomplish this task using nothing but a lidded jar and a little elbow grease. Today I decided to share this adventure with my 4 year old Georgia and it certainly made for a wonderful memory!

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE BUTTER & BUTTERMILK:

What you will need:
*Heavy Cream (or heavy whipping cream, at least a pint)
*Jar with lid
*paper towels
*Covered butter container
*Measuring cup (easy pour)

Steps:

1. Pour Cream into Jar and place lid on tight.

2. Start shaking container. (will take about 12-15 minutes)

Time lapse:
After 4 minutes...turns into whipped cream.

After 7 minutes...turns into STIFF cream or consistency of whipped butter.

After 9 minutes... Starts to curdle (IE: clump, beginning stage of separation)

After 11 minutes....Separation occurs (IE: Butter separates from milk creating butter and buttermilk.)

After 12 minutes...75% separated.

3. At 75% separation carefully pour buttermilk into the measuring cup. (I have found straining at this point to make the final stage go faster. I use a measuring cup because I like to know how much milk I have.)

4. Place lid back on and shake another 1-2 minutes.

When done it will look like this,

5. Careful drain remaining buttermilk into the measuring cup.

6. Place a few paper towels down and dump out the butter on top of them. LIGHTLY pat top of butter to remove extra moisture.

7. Place butter in storage dish.

8. OPTIONAL: add a pinch of salt & stir.

9. STRAIN buttermilk into a serving dish or storage container of choice. (the milk makes an excellent creamer but is also delicious to drink or use in recipes. I plan on using mine for cornbread and fried chicken...YUM!)

10. Taste your efforts! Mmmmmm.... ;-)

This butter is a delicious and cheaper alternative to butter plus you get buttermilk which is also pretty costly. The butter is creamier and tastier than anything bought i a store and the homemade buttermilk lacks the sour quality of any store brand as it is thinner (but still thick) and sweeter , it is considered "traditional farm" buttermilk. Each pint gives you "about" a pound of butter and about a cup of milk.

Price breakdown: (I would normally buy cream by the quart but they were out, saving me an extra 1.00)

A pint of cream cost me 1.78
Cost of butter per pound is an average of 2.98 + Pint of buttermilk 1.98 (*2 cups)
Savings $ 2.19

NOTE: For an easier method you can use a food processor or blender but it seems to me nothing is more fun than shaking your way to butter with your children! I should also note that you may find whole cream even cheaper if you contact your local dairy farm and buy it straight from the source. You will probably have to buy a bit more than normal but butter freezes well and this buttermilk can be used as regular milk. :-)

ENJOY!

Rewarding? in all honesty....REALLY?

2011-07-15T21:14:00.006-05:00

I was reading a blog post from a friend of a friend who is a part time step mom to a severely autistic child. She refers to her life as "mother" of said autistic child as "rewarding". Though I can say that I have learned a lot from my daughter who is blind and autistic I cannot claim to feel rewarded. It is hard to feel rewarded when my day consists of non-stop raging fits triggered by ANYTHING and everything, seeing her injure herself (she bites herself), watching her spin herself in circles until she pukes or praying that today isn't one of those days where she uses her own poo as a paintbrush! All of the moms of autistic kids I know look like they are half a second from pulling their hair out most of the time. But like I said, I have been taught a thing or two, I have been taught patience 10 fold, taught never to take a hug or smile for granted and that I should STAY ALERT to the contents of pull ups. Hearing someone go on and on about "rewards" makes me wonder what they are doing that they never have to deal with any of the things I or all of the other mom's I know have to deal with. At the same time, I feel a little insulted that she sums being an autistic mom up to only the good things which with an autistic child really are few and far between (about 25% of the day). Where is she the other 75% of the time? If you are going to claim to be a real "autistic mom" you shouldn't sugar coat it, we moms need to stick together and give GOOD information, not misleading information. No...rewarding isn't the description I would use to describe my life as an Autistic mom. Stressful, frustrating, thankful that it isn't worse and that my child is one of the "smilers" is more like it. But honestly, I don't feel rewarded about having an Autistic child in particular though I do feel rewarded to have a child in general! In fact, I feel MORE than rewarded by that, I feel down right blessed but I feel the same way about my non autistic children as well. Then again, I never hear her bragging about her other stepchild, I guess having one of the "normal" ones is a little boring to her exciting autistic momdom!

Cancer, motorcycles and hugs..oh my!

2011-07-13T15:38:00.004-05:00

It is always so long between blog posts. Things are always so hectic around the house these days and the present moment is no exception. Between raising 3 girls we have recently been given a few trials from the Lord that we are currently working through. I was recently diagnosed with cancer on my cervical wall. I have been going to and from appointments having things done and to get the results from those various things. Thankfully the cancer has not spread and can be removed , that will be happening on the 18th. I will be going in to have a LEEP procedure to remove the cancer and a part of my cervix, at that time I will be having polyps removed from my ovaries which apparently has been the culprit behind crippling pains I have been having the past 2 years. This has been a frightening ordeal but I am thankful to have been able to make it through it with my head still attached to my shoulders.

To top that off Toms father was in a horrible motorcycle accident over past holiday weekend. He was thrown from his motorcycle and ran over by a car. He is now in the hospital fighting the greatest fight of his life with broken bones pretty much head to toe. The Lord was with him however because he had no severe internal injuries, all fractures and breaks. Of course that is severe but it could have been much much worse. He is currently doing better having been moved to his own room out of ICU. He has a long road of surgeries and physical therapy but we are confident he will overcome this trial.

The girls however are all doing fantastic! We were complimented recently from the leader of Miriam's Sunday school class. We had not been to that particular church this year and after a class with Miriam she was amazed and asked us "What have you been doing with Miriam because she was amazing in class, she spoke, played and was very cooporative." I told them we had removed her from school and began teaching her at home. The leader said to us "Well, whatever you are doing at home...DON'T STOP because she is amazing!". I think perhaps having her here with us all the time we don't really notice 100% of the changes in her so it was nice to have our choice validated. But then again, Miriam herself validates it each and every day! Just the other day we brought home a small puppy, Miriam has always been so annoyed by pets but we noticed that she actually enjoyed a small dog a friend of ours had so when the chance to bring home a small dog was presented to us we jumped on it. We let her pet the dog and to our amazement she laughed , giggled and called it "doggy". But when I put it in her lap she calmly pushed the doggy away and said to me "I can't handle this anymore." That was Miriam's way of saying I want to pet the dog but my lap is a bit too close...lol I too am amazed at how much speech and physical activity we have managed to get from her from playing with dogs , to asking to play with her dolls or cars, to asking her sister "Georgia or Sophia wanna play?", to asking if she can take a bath or a shower. She has come such a long way! It is nice getting to see her play with her sisters and actually play with toys. We have been blessed!

Georgia and Sophia are growing like crazy and are such a mess. Georgia still loves to learn and her care for others is truly amazing. I have never seen a child worry so much when someone isn't feeling well. She literally pets all of us when we are sick, she is wonderful! Sophia is Georgia's shadow and Miriam's favorite. There isn't a time I don't see Sophia giving her big sister Miriam hugs, she even climbs into bed with her at night if she gets scared. Sophia is a handful right now as she goes through the terrible 2's, I think perhaps she has combined the 2's and the 3's. But as did Georgia I have faith she will grow out of them even though I do not look forward to the next 2 years!

Miriam update!

2011-02-13T09:15:00.002-06:00

I couldn't be happier with the progress our Miriam has been making these days. Besides the fact she is starting to "initiate" play with her sisters, she has been requesting things like playing outside "want to play outside" but her sentences and requests are getting longer. Here is a list of conversations that are not the result of parroting (IE: hearing the answers before hand then responding. She is starting to understand cause and effect in conversations in that when she is asked something she is supposed to answer it. Not only that but she is actually comprehending the questions and connecting them with an answer that is appropriate to the question.

1. What is your name? MY NAME IS MIRIAM!
2. Miriam, where do you live? I LIVE IN TEXAS!
3. Miriam, how old are you? I AM 6 YEARS OLD!
4. Miriam what do you want? I want some cookies or chips.

Besides questions like the ones above where she answered questions she has also been initiating and responding to conversation. For instance...

Miriam: "Mommeeee, I want some pizza!" Me: Miriam, you want some pizza? Then Miriam grabbed my face , found my ears then in my ear she said loudly in a very miss smarty pants tone "GOOD GOD, That's a what I said...PIZZA!"

We have also been noticing that she is comprehending and laughing at Jokes on television and has even been telling her own jokes. For instance she decided to make a play on words which she found so hilarious, at the same time we realized she is noticing similarity between words which leads me to believe a breakthrough beyond breakthroughs is on it's way and despite what others have told us she might end up being able to read. In the car one day she started saying "daddy" over and over again, we couldn't for the life of us figure out why she was doing it until she finally said "daddy like day day a play on dada" When she discovered this new word and found her "day day" answered to it she laughed at the top of her lungs, something she does to this day. She thinks calling Tom "day day" instead of "daddy" absolutely hysterical. Though she does still call him "daddy" she will randomly decide when she had his attention to call him "day day". We find this interesting because Georgia, who is 3 has been going around calling by the names of her favorite cartoon characters, something I found out is normal for a 3 year old. Miriam is pretty much doing the same thing now.

Another thing she can officially do for herself as of this morning is put on her pull up. I have been noticing her pull up coming off during the day and ending up back on backwards or inside out. I wasn't sure if it was her doing it , as she tends to do things when she doesn't notice anyone paying attention, or if it was one of her sisters who used to not only pull of theirs but hers. So one day I opened up the pull up , sat Miriam down and ordered her to "put your pull up by yourself Miriam." Less than a minute later she was sliding it over her butt by herself. This gives me hope that potty training is going to happen sooner than later.

One more interesting thing she has been doing is playing with initiating toy play. She still plays with a lot of them not quite as intended but she IS seeking out toys and playing with them. Her favorite toys as of late are little metal cars and rubber duckies. She actually asks for rubber duckies if she cannot find one herself.

Every little thing Miriam does confirms the fact that homeschooling was the way to go with her. She has become more sociable and active than I ever could have imagined her becoming had she still been in school. If I knew how I would go out and tell everyone whose child is blind and autistic to pull their child out of school right away and to take the home school approach. I wish schools understood what I have found in the past few months, that blind children NEED one on one. I think if more schools understood that fact they would be a lot more supportive and helpful when it came to teaching special needs children at home. I am sure there are other special children who could benefit from the same environment. All I know is that you CANNOT properly teach a child who suffers from blindness and autism in a sighted school. Public education facilities simply do not have the funding or the training to handle such special needs. Not to mention the fact that most special needs educators are inadequately trained in dealing with the blind. I thank the Lord every day that he led me to this decision and made it possible!

Miriam Update

2011-01-23T17:05:00.003-06:00

I had to write up a post to update on our little Miriam! Lately she has been speaking so much, cracking jokes and just being active with the world a little bit more than normal.

Lately at meal time instead of saying the basics, things like "more and want ice cream" she has been saying things like "Miriam want some more food (ice cream, etc.) or my favorite part she can distinguish dinner from lunch for instance when she REALLY REALLY enjoy's the meal she says "Miriam wants some more dinner/lunch/breakfast." If she wants a drink she says WHAT she wants in the form of a sentence instead of just "drink or some more", she says "I want some water" or "I wanna drink of water" or "Miriam want some tea, ice tea" (we don't let her have tea, not sure who ever did that she knows what it is!). Sometimes she says I want to play with sisters or Miriam want play dough" She actually PLAYS with toys now, presses buttons on her own, etc... She also drinks from a regular cup now without a straw and can scoop her own food with a spoon or fork but we have to kind of "order" her to do it. Since we had that breakthrough she has been very stubborn about using her utensils. Not sure why, maybe testing boundaries, who knows! We have been noticing her counting more and we are starting to think she is counting words, like counting how many numbers you can count within a word. It has taken me a while to realize what it is she is doing but she will say a word but before she does she counts out loud. Like when she asks for ice tea, before she asks she counts really fast 12345 then shouts ICE TEA. I had Tom say ice tea on the phone while he was at work while I counted 12345 and it was perfect. Miriam thought it was hilarious and she started doing it with me. It is the oddest thing I have ever seen, I know Autistic kids can have an obsession with numbers but this is such a weird "skill" to have that I don't know what to make of it. All I know is that counting out loud is something she likes to do. I used to count with her when she got frustrated and started hurting herself (which she still does), maybe it calms her?

Anyway, this is just some of the latest newbies Miriam is showing off. Everyday is like Christmas when she does or says something new. Every parent looks forward to their kids taking their first steps, walking, talking and developing like normal children. We parents of special needs children have a lifetime of the excitement of the first steps. They aren't always fun to wait for but when the day comes we cherish every second.

Georgia going bye bye!

2011-01-23T16:32:00.001-06:00

I have been trying to get Georgia, my 3 year old, to clean her room since 9 o-clock this morning. I finally just told her "Georgia, either get your room clean or you are going straight to bed after dinner" to which she says "NO, I'M NOT CLEANING MY ROOM I RUNNING AWAY!" I was about to argue when I realized how sick of arguing with her I was so I gave in with "Fine, fine, run away, good bye Georgia". To which she says "FINE, I running away! I gunna go get my stuff!" I look at her on the brink of hysterical laughter and say "well, what yah going to take with you?" She says "I gunna take my buzz lightyear and Broby!" She stomps away and I hear from her room "where in the heck is my Dora backpack!" at this point I break down into said hysterical laughter. Georgia marches out of her room with her Broby doll and her Buzz light year (minus a Dora backpack) . I say to her, "well, so long Georgia is was great knowing you!". She goes to the door, puts her hand on the knob, pauses and says "Mommy, can you drive us?" *insert more hysterical laughter here* I say as I laugh "oh no, you're running away you have to do that all on your own!" She stands by the door for about 5 minutes then comes and says to me with her toys in her arms "mommy, I don't think I want to run away n ee mor."

I need to vent!

2011-01-11T10:49:00.005-06:00

2 years ago we were told about a procedure being done in China that could help our daughter see the world. A procedure that has helped hundreds of SOD children suffering with blindness over the past few years (just about all who had it done). When we found out how much it cost and that insurance covered none of it we started fund-raising. In the process of fund-raising we encountered disaster after disaster and we raised no more than 1300.00 out of the 60,000 we needed. We got a very limited amount of help, people we hardly knew from church donated time to make us baked goods and help with a bake sale, an auctioneer we had never met volunteered for an auction (only 1 person showed up due to the local newspaper Taylor News failing us and not helping to get the word out, sad since the Taylor Lions Club president was an employee, he ignored us and their cause is to help the blind!!!) and we had 2 family members donate money , one donating some time to help make fliers. We couldn't get anyone to tell anyone about the fund-raising cause, help us do fundraisers in their areas (and we know people who KNOW PEOPLE), post the website to Facebook/Myspace (maybe 10 people did this for us out of the 100's of friends we had), NOTHING. Heck we could hardly get anyone we knew to join the FB page we created for Miriam, we def. couldn't get them to share it with friends. For the longest time I felt like killing myself, that is what fund-raising did to me. It made me wish my daughter had a different mother, someone who might actually be able to get the job done. A mother people gave a damn about to give a damn about her, a mom with better friends and family. She is an angel and it is impossible for people not to love her so I knew the problem was not her, it had to be me. After the mess of failures and a miscarriage I gave up. I took it as a sign from God that this was not meant to be even though I couldn't imagine how he would have told us about it if it wasn't. Ignoring that I resigned myself that my child would be blind forever. I decided that if I could not help her I would walk, run, strut, dance, sing and play in whatever cause for the cure for blindness I could find. I would help a cure for her to come to the United States so we would not have to travel to a dangerous foreign country to get this revolutionary procedure (a country whose medical advances is FAR superior to ours might I add) and so we would not have to rely on the "kindness" of others. In an effort to follow through with my commitment to my daughter I started a team for the 2011 San Antonio Vision walk. I have been on the phone all morning trying to find people to join our team and walk with us. A commitment months away giving anyone enough time to prepare but what do I get "oh no, I just can't commit to that". How is it NOBODY seems to give a damn about our child? I know this walk does not directly affect her but it does help other children and it does help blindness. Regardless of the illness it cures it IS a step in the right direction for Miriam. For every cure discovered a new scientist is open to find a cure for something else. I am trying to see the big picture here, why isn't anyone willing to put aside their selfishness and help? So many other parents have been able to raise money for their children and for these kind of causes so this baffles me. Is this really a testament as to the type of people we surround ourselves with?

Now I have to say, I don't feel "entitled" to anything. I have busted my ass for everything I have in life and I expect the same from my children. But I do expect a little bit of compassion from people who claim to love and care about us. Some of those people we have gone out on a limb for so many times it makes our heads spin. Trust me, my head is spinning just thinking about how much money we have loaned, how many couches have been slept on, houses lived in, food eaten, rides given, FB causes shared, etc... I expected nothing for the things we did, heck I have never even brought up the help we gave to people until this blog post, the moment I hit my limit! But it would be nice if for once they would say, hey, lets help THEM for change! When fund-raising for Miriam I never once asked my or Tom's family for money (or our friends). I asked them to share and help with time. I asked my mother in law to pass fliers in her area, a place we used to live, all I got was "no, I don't think so, I can't do that". I asked my brother to ask if he could put some fliers up at the convenience store he worked at, again "no, I can't do that, I already know they won't let me"...HOW DID YOU KNOW? We asked a close friend if they could spread the word around their college campus "I would if I had any time". Asked my mom who is a truck driver if she could pass out cards and fliers at her rest stops but she didn't even want to talk about it. This was the response from almost everyone we knew when we asked for a little bit of time. Some of the time we asked for took less than half a second to tell someone a web address. I would do every bit of this and more for all of these people and they know it. It frustrates me so much, I just want to scream!

I am to the point where I am just not going to bother anymore because all of this is not only killing my faith in God and people in general but it is killing whatever faith I might have had in myself. I just feel like such a failure. Why would God trust me with one of his special children? Look at the horrible job I am doing!

And for the record, I honestly don't care about alienating the people around me, they alienated me years ago! I am tired of holding it all in.

Autism Woes...

2011-01-04T20:55:00.003-06:00

I am not sure why but for the longest time I thought to myself that if only we "knew" why Miriam was like she was that I would somehow be able to cope with it a little bit better. We got past all of the fits that everyone said was caused by the Septo Optic Dysplasia, they were crazy, maddening and headache inducing but we got through them so why is it these "new" fits are making me insane? I know I am not supposed to admit I am going crazy but I am not exactly someone who keeps everything bottled up, they are making me NUTS! It seems once she hit the big 6 everything changed. Her fits are absolutely astronomical, sometimes she throws fits just to throw them while screaming "stop throwing a fit" over and over and over again. We used to be able to sit in a restaurant and have a semi pleasant time but not anymore. The second we walk through the door of an eating establishment she goes mad with waterworks. The funny thing is , she isn't even crying REAL tears! It is the most fake display of emotion I have ever seen in my life. She cries and talks REALLY loud. We went out a few days before Christmas and literally had to leave because she spoke at the top of her lungs. Screamed she wanted "ice tea" about 100 times before she got the tea, screamed at me to shut up, hush up, etc and did the "stop throwing a fit" time and time again. It was fine while we were sitting in an empty restaurant but once people started coming there was no way we were sticking around. We did get somewhat of a break at our New Years breakfast the other day. Once she started her door tears I took her straight to the bathroom where we stayed until she calmed down. I thought for sure it wasn't going to work because I took her out and the second we left I had to turn around and take her right back. After a few minutes she quieted and actually stayed that way all through dinner. The funny thing is, at breakfast she was the most quiet she has ever been, quiet as a mouse with her tea and her french fries (about all she will eat these days) and this was the day someone chose to say something to me. The lady sitting next to us must have been "waiting" for the opportunity to say something because the moment Tom left for the ens room she leaned over and said "You know, I raised 4 girls, they were all mean just like yours, they abandoned me and are still mean, that is your future" then Tom came back and she immediately shut up. I wanted to kick, scream, tell that woman what an idiot she was, (if I was younger maybe even punch her lights out..lol) and that my kids weren't mean. Heck my other 2 hadn't made a sound since we had gotten there other than telling us what they wanted to eat. It is people like her that make it hard on these kids, why so many parents keep their children locked in the house. Well, I got news for that lady and anyone else out there, my child WILL NOT be some miserable recluse and we will beat this Autism thing. I don't know how but we will do it, I know there is no cure but people push the limits of Autism everyday. I just wish I knew why now, why is it the ugly head of Autism is making it's grand appearance at such a full force now? I know it has always been Autism, not just the SOD that caused her strange behavior but it has never been so bad before. I always dreamed of the day the endocrinologists always told me about though, the day they said everything would fall into place for her. The day she would start moving towards normal as far as her mind went. I got over the idea of her never being able to see my face in a conversation but I am having trouble with the fact that conversation might never come. I think the Autism has now become harder than the blindness, harder than the medications, harder than any of it. I just want to talk to my baby, have her understand me and have her talk back. The one blessing I try to find in it all is that not only can she tell me the things she wants to a point but she can smile when so many autistic children cannot. I don't think I could handle never getting to see that perfect smile of hers. My beautiful perfect Miriam who might never be able to have a full conversation with me but will always be able to tell me she loves me just by the joy on her face. I guess in the end, that smile is what all of us special needs moms and dads are working towards. What any parent works for!

Holidays, diets & craziness OH MY!

2010-12-29T10:57:00.004-06:00

I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog. Things have been crazy lately, between homeschooling, moving and the holidays I sometimes don't know whether I am coming or going. On top of that with the move Miriam's schedule is all messed up and her mood swings & meltdowns are at an all time high. After the first of the year we plan on getting back into a routine. Only this time it is going to be a 100% daily routine. We will also be putting Miriam on the gluten/casein free Autism diet. As she gets older the autism seems to be getting worse. I don't know if it is because as she gets older she needs more so her inability to communicate well is making her more frustrated or that she just needs an even more structured routine. All I do know is that we need to do everything possible to try and make her world more comfortable (and ours as well). As far as education though, she is improving greatly. one of my favorite things is that she joins in our class songs and even requests her own with a real structured request instead of parroting a title. I also think country life agrees with her. It is quiet and she has plenty of room to run around outside and play without fear of running into something. And she does play, she plays hard. Whenever we have outdoor time she runs , dances and bounces her way around the yard, laughing and singing all the way. She also has a bit more freedom in the layout of our new house. The space is a bit bigger so she has less to be weary of. (now if only I could get her sisters to keep their room clean..lol) As far as Georgia and Sophia, they could not be happier with the situation. They have neighbors that love them and give them attention (the feeling is mutual) , they have a yard full of play toys, 3 dogs to play with, children who visit on occasion (neighbors grandbabies) and a brand new classroom.

This Christmas was also a fun one for everybody. My mother, who I don't particularly get along finally came for a visit. She stays for almost 4 days and the girls had an absolutely blast. Georgia and Sophia have never "really" met her (Georgia has physically but she was 6 months old so she has no memory). They enjoyed there time with grandma tremendously and cried like crazy when she left. The visit turned out to be a blessing in disguise because she and I were able to lay our cards out on the table and we manage to come to an understanding about each others lives. For the first time in my life she accepted responsibility for abandoning me as a child and forcing to be raised by an alcoholic. She finally sat down and listened to all I had to go through without making it all about her. It led to a sincere apology and to her telling me she was proud of me for the life I made for myself and told me I had wonderful beautiful children. Those words are all I have ever wanted, I didn't get them from my father but I am thankful to have heard them from her. And I hope it is the start of a new relationship, one where we can actually be a mother and a daughter, together instead of separately.

Anyway, I hope I will get to come online more to update. I am going to be FINALLY starting back to school next month after Sophia's birthday so busy is about to climb up 10 fold. But maybe posting will bring some release. It should be interesting between homeschooling, going TO school myself and running a household. But I guess it will be good prep for when I get a job from home.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year will be full of love and luck!

(not many pics, I didn't take many, things were NUTS)

Getting it together!

2010-09-29T21:35:00.006-05:00

I am so bad about getting everything I need to do done in one day. And I am talking about the basics here, from not having a hectic shower in the morning to getting to bed at a decent hour. A while ago I made myself a small little task chart to help me keep chores done. This was a chart for myself and myself only and it worked great. But as time went on, I think due to nobody else doing their part I just fell off the page and went back into my same old unorganized daily routine. At the time I made the chart I did not realize that EVERYONE in this house was unorganized!

Now that I am trying to get in better shape and lose weight I decided that it was time we all bucked up and got our stuff together. It was time to go to bed at a good time, wake up at a good time and get all of our chores done but not just done, done DAILY. No more saying , well, maybe tomorrow. One thing I know is that if I am going to change my eating habits the rest has to change as well. Chaos leads to bad eating choices for me and that cannot happen anymore. I am 112 pounds overweight because of this crazy home we created. It is all going to stop from the organization to the kids who think they can scream all day long. My kids are generally well behaved but we have one kid going into the wild 2's and another who just started the crazy 3's, it's a madhouse here these days! I cannot even talk on the phone without scolding someone for something. What this craziness means for me: I get stressed - I eat, I see clutter - I eat, I hear yelling - I eat, I eat, eat, eat, eat! WE need an entire lifestyle change from head to toe , inside and out.

Which is why I decided to make a daily Schedule for ALL of us. I color coded the chart and put it on the fridge. Tom is blue, I am red and the girls are in pink. Of course Tom doesn't have much on there because he is gone at work most of the day and the weekends will be slightly different. Kind of like, instead of school Saturday I will be alone in the room putting together lesson plans for the ENTIRE week coming instead of doing them daily until the wee hours of the morning like I do now. And the girls will be focusing on CLEANING their bedroom and it is also time to teach them how to wipe down their bathroom counters and potty. We all need to be active members of this house from now on. We have too many plans for the future to be so unorganized.

On another note, please remember to follow my weightloss blog & if you know anyone on a weight loss path please send them my way. I could totally use all the support I can get and I try to post things that will help others as well. This 112 pounds is going to be one looooooong journey. I post healthy but yummy recipes daily so all have some benefit. :)

Tuesday Hops!

2010-09-28T19:40:00.000-05:00

Worksheets

2010-09-28T13:19:00.004-05:00

Here are a few worksheets I made that I have been meaning to share. On the counting worksheets I use puff paint and add dots to the items that need counting. Works great!

This is the template we used for our tree arts and craft activity. We cut out the tree, pasted it onto construction paper then used ripped construction paper to fill in the tree with color. It was a great tactile/sensory activity.

Follow my new weight loss blog!

2010-09-25T17:38:00.004-05:00

Hi all, I know I have not posted in a few days, believe me I do have several recipes I am dying to share but I have been so busy. I wanted to let everyone know really quick though that I have a new weight loss blog and would love it if you would all stop by to show your support and to follow me on my journey.

The Purposely Losing Mama!

It only has one post but starting tomorrow I will be adding my first healthy recipe. I might even be updating our meal plan later on. So stop by, if anything you will get some really great recipes out of the deal. Be sure to leave a comment and say hello. ;-)

Chocolate Tuesday Blog Hop #2

2010-09-20T22:30:00.014-05:00

It's that time again, time to share in the delicious pleasure that is chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! This chocolate Tuesday I made for you my very own recipe "Truffle Fudge". It is rich, smooth and oh so easy to make!

Truffle Fudge

1 15 oz can - sweetened condensed milk. (or 1 cup of homemade)
2 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs Cocoa powder
1/2 tbs butter
dash of cinnamon

Optional topping:
cocoa
powdered sugar

1. Lightly Butter a small square pan and set aside.
2. Place all ingredients (except topping) in a double broiler on medium heat. Stirring non stop until smooth and thick.
3. Pour out of broiler into buttered pan.
4. Place chocolate in fridge to chill.
5. Mix an equal amount of powdered sugar and cocoa together in a small bowl (just a few TBS of each).
6. Once firm remove from fridge and lightly dust the top with sugar & cocoa.
7. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Hint: Line the pan in plastic wrap then butter the wrap. You can then pull the wrap and chocolate out of the pan with ease once it is set!

IDEA: For some crunch add crushed nuts to the top of the truffle fudge. Adding the nuts to the top instead of into the chocolate once in the pan will keep the nice creamy truffle like texture.

Want to join our Chocolate Tuesday Blog Hop?

It is oh so simple and just takes a few easy steps!

1. Friend our blog (I will friend you back if you leave a comment).

2. Grab our chocolate Tuesday button for your chocolate Tuesday post which links back to us.

3. Either share the official Chocolate Tuesday recipe above, your favorite Chocolate recipe or your favorite chocolate related memory. It is up to you!

4. Post the link to your CHOCOLATE TUESDAY recipe in the linky!

Cheater's Jambalaya & Southern cornbread

2010-09-20T21:33:00.000-05:00

Very seldom I make a dish that is not 100% homemade, this Jambalaya recipe is one of those dishes. Jambalaya is one of those foods that takes time, I am a mother of 3 kids, one is disabled, time is not something I have much of. So in my need to cure my Jambalaya addiction I took a box Of Zatarain's and turned it into Jambalaya yummy goodness. Thus was our tasty dinner this evening!

Cheater's Beef & Sausage Jambalaya

Ingredients:

1 Family Size box of Zatarain's Jambalaya mix
1 pound hamburger meat (not lean)
1 pound cooked Garlic sausage (sliced)
1 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tbs onion powder
1 large onion diced
2 tbs bacon grease (the grease from 2 strips of bacon put in the microwave to cook off)
1/2 tbs black pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cups water

1. Add bacon grease, peppers and onions to a large skillet on med. heat. Cook Onions/peppers until tender.
2. Add hamburger and mash with a potato masher until cooked through (works better if mashed fine).
3. Add all other ingredients except sausage then bring to a boil.
4. Place sausage on top of mixture, cover and reduce heat.
5. About half way through cooking stir the sausage into the rice and recover with the lid.
6. Cook until rice is tender.

Serve with Southern Cornbread recipe below!

Southern Cornbread

Ingredients:
2 cups cornmeal
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tbs sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup margarine, melted
4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup Vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl mix together all ingredients.
3. Coat a 12 inch cast iron skillet in Oleo then heat for about 5 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and sprinkle a very light layer of cornmeal into the bottom of the pan.
5. Pour the cornbread batter into the skillet and cook in a preheated 375 degree oven until brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Changes , Changes, everywhere!

2010-09-20T11:18:00.003-05:00

Today we made a BIG decision for our family which seems to be a trend with us. Our goal for the past 6 months has been to get to Oregon next year but financially and job wise that is looking more and more impossible. Our goal is still to eventually move our kids to Oregon but we feel it is going to take us longer to achieve that goal. In the meantime we have decided to leave the small towns and move to my hometown which is Austin.

Reasons:

1. Tom is very happy in his job and there have even been talks about a promotion. Tom has never been this happy working for a company before and we both see him being there for a very long time. He will still be the same distance to work.

2. There are homeschool Co-ops and groups in Austin, TONS of them that we could join. And I REALLY want to be involved in a group homeschooling environment.

3. There are so many more opportunities for socialization in Austin. The parks always have other children to play with, there are events and there are places like Gymboree to take the girls to.

4. There are more job opportunities for me to work in the evenings. It is my goal to get a job while the girls are sleeping. I am an insomniac which I have been since I was 13 years old. I do not sleep much and am usually just wasting time alone on the computer. It would be nice to utilize that time better & have some extra money coming in to SAVE for our Oregon move.

5. There are more things for us to do as a FAMILY in Austin.

6. I know Austin very well because I grew up in Austin.

7. There is a decent public transportation system which means no matter what our vehicle situation the girls and I would always have a way about town.

8. The city is blind safe with beep lights and braille throughout. And because it is home to the largest school for the blind in the US people are used to seeing blind people about town.

We plan on moving within the next couple months. Starting this weekend Tom is going to work on getting his truck mobile. It has been inoperable for a while, it will be running and inspected in the next few weeks. Once that is done we are going start looking for a place. The one thing we know is that we want is 3 bedrooms with some kind of storage (or a garage) and we would like to live in South Austin. Tom says he always dreamed of living near the hike trail so we are going to shoot for the Barton Springs area. The nice thing about moving is that Tom's work hours are perfect to avoid traffic. He has to be at work by 6am and leaves at 2:30 so the commute traffic wise is not going to be a big deal. The commute will be the exact same amount of time he drives here.

So, in 2 months we will be living back in my hometown and will be city folk again. It seems kind of weird to think about it because I have not been a city girl since I left Los Angeles 8 years ago. And who knows, maybe we will end up enjoying city life so much we stay in Texas. Tom really wants his own shop and I want my own restaurant/thrift store, maybe we will be business owners as well. You never know, time can only tell.

All I do know is the second we step foot in Austin I am joining the Daughters of the republic. My great great grandfather Sion Bostick's picture stands in the capital of Texas, my family were some of the first colonist in Texas AND Austin, with land given to them by my great great grandfathers friend the infamous Stephen F. Austin himself. My grandfather was one of only 6 men who were sent to capture and imprison Santa Ana during the Revolution. They helped make Texas and Austin what it is and I plan on making sure everyone knows who my children are so they can have a better life than my lazy parents gave me. I want my girls to know the great men they came from. I should have joined sooner but I thought we were moving and I don't join things like this unless I give it all I have to give.

Austin, here we come!

Review: Morgan's Wonderland for the Blind

2010-09-19T15:29:00.006-05:00

This weekend we had the pleasure of taking our family, including our blind 6 year old to a wonderful theme park which opened this year called Morgan's Wonderland.

The park was inspired by a young women by the name of Morgan Hartman who has a severe cognitive delay, at 16 years old Morgan was already an incredible 6 foot 4 inches tall! Her father and local real estate developer Gordan Hartman wanted to build a park dedicated to the world of Special needs. A park where all children can come together and enjoy all the amenities of theme parks and local parks, where a disability does not call for a challenge, where we can all be as one in the world. Fund-raising for the park began in 2007 when Morgan was only 16 years old with total completion in 2010 the park opened it's doors to the world of Special needs.

The park is situated on 8 acres which includes a lake, train, off road vehicle ride, Beautiful wheel chair accessible Carousel, wheel chair accessible playscapes , swings for all special needs including wheelchair swings, fishing (you can't keep the fish) and various other Sensory related activities.

Come with us on as we review every inch of this park through the eyes of a blind child!

LOCATION:
The park is conveniently located off of Interstate 35 a main highway going through most of Texas. The only downfall is that the street is new and is not yet available on GPS and online maps. In order to get accurate directions you must call or visit the websites map. You also must be prepared for park TRAFFIC, not because the park is packed but because the park shares it's location with "Star Field" a local soccer complex.

PARKING:
There is tons of parking for Morgan's wonderland and even though the park shares the lot with Star Field they do have their own designated parking. If you call ahead you can reserve up front handicap parking. However there is plenty of handicap parking available within close walking range without making a reservation.

ENTRY
Upon entry my family was greeted by nice, warm, welcoming people. A nice lady even opened the door for us! The person at the counter asked my mommy about our reservations then put special band on each of our wrists. I did have to ask them to take mine off my arm, you see blind people are sometimes pretty sensitive when it comes to their hands and since I also have sensory integration disorder the band made me very uncomfortable. But they were very nice about it and put it on my ankle which was perfect! The lady then explained that we all must wear the bands because they are VERY special. If any of us were lost we could swipe the bands in front of one of several "location stations" throughout the park. Upon swiping we would be greeted by name and shown actual pictures of where our lost loved ones were located making it super easy to find them!

ATTRACTIONS:

Butterfly playground:

The Butterfly playground is an AMAZING covered playground which is named such because it is built in the shape of a butterfly. It is designed with double wheelchair ramps, textured & regular slides, musical play, tactile play, a wobble boat, spin seats, climbing equipment, various teeter totters and a really cool spinning swing.

Pros: The park is really amazing with all the tactile and sensory equipment. I especially loved playing on all the different size teeter totters, the spinning swing, the wobble boat and the rolling slide. And because the park was covered it was cool and didn't get hot like the playgrounds at home which means I didn't have to worry so much about getting burned by burning hot playground equipment.!

Cons: I would have liked to have played tic tac toe with my sister when she asked me to play. You see they have a tick tac toe game built into the park equipment which for most kids would be loads of fun. But for me because the game is not textured and has no braille I couldn't see it to play. I also wish they had more than ONE spin swing. Other than that, this was the perfect park!

Carousel:

A few feet away from butterfly park sits one of the most amazing carousels ever made. It is 100% custom with seating for all special needs. There are seats for wheelchairs, regular animals and animals with high backs. Each animal is complete with seat belts!

Pros: I loved everything about this carousel! I loved the animals, the up and down movement, the music playing overhead, the seat belts which made me feel safe and above all I love that they didn't make me get off. I got to ride again and again!

Cons: The only con is that it started raining before I had a chance to ride again. For safety they had to stop the ride.

Off Road Adventure:

A really neat off road vehicle ride which is wheelchair accessible.

Pros: I really love being able to drive a car for the first time in my life. It was so much fun turning the wheel!

Cons: About half way through the ride it got a little boring for me. The ride is very slow and long. A sighted child might enjoy it more because there are neat pictures and things to look at along the way. Because I am blind there is nothing to see. The ride might benefit from moving a little faster and/or having some ups and downs along the way to make it more fun for visually impaired people.

Swing areas:

There are 2 swing area at Morgan's wonderland. There are specialty swings for wheelchairs and other special needs as well as regular and baby swings. I love everything about the swing areas, especially being able to swing with my sisters on the tire swings which are my favorite swings at the park.

Event Center and / Gymnasium

A full indoor sports gym which seconds as a banquet hall with a full size kitchen.

I didn't get to enjoy the gym this visit because they were setting up for a benefit event. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to go play with my family because I was very much looking forward to it!

Waterworks:

A beautifully constructed interactive water play station.

Pros: This was my second favorite attraction at Morgan's wonderland. Playing in water is one of my favorite activities and this was the most fun I have ever had doing that. There were all sorts of buttons and levers to push to make water shoot out in so many different ways. I could even hear the water flowing which was really neat!

Cons: I really wish there was a special place where I could have put my feet in the water. I so desperately wanted to climb into the pools of water. Maybe building a wading area with mini waterfalls and water shoots might be a nice addition in the future? Blind people really love feeling things like water with their feet!

Amphitheater:

Again, another attraction I did not get to experience as there was nothing scheduled for our day. I would have really liked hearing a play or some music. Perhaps when the amphitheater is not being used Morgan's wonderland can open it up to the visitors to put on their own plays or maybe have some fun kids music playing so that we can enjoy the stage and sing along?

Music Garden:
A beautiful garden complete with 9 different fun instruments to play!

Pros: Music is my favorite thing in the entire world so this was the perfect place for me to create my very own music. So many different instruments from xylophone's to drums!

Cons: There was one instrument that was way too high for me to reach. I don't know what it was called but I sure would have liked to have played it!

Sand Circle:

A sand circle with several different sand stations designed to fit wheelchairs.

Pros: It was messy and I love messy!

Cons: I would have loved to have found neat textures in the sand, it would have made it even more fun.

Wonderland Express Train:

A 1930's locomotive train complete with wheelchair access which travels around the lake.

Pros: How can I not love being on a train. I especially loved it when the conductor blew the whistle!

Cons: The trip was a little boring at times with the conductor pointing out various areas of the park for everyone to look at. I sure wish he would have taken the blind into consideration and described them a little bit more or maybe incorporated some music into the ride so that blind people could get something more out of it than just a train ride.

Sensory Village:

The Sensory village is a group of various buildings that provide various Sensory activities.

I really didn't enjoy much of the Sensory village because it is VERY sight oriented. There is a room full of light play, a place to create your own car on a computer, a pretend grocery store, a stable with a few horses made out of textured materials and a place to watch and be on TV. The only thing that I could get anything out of was the horses. I cannot see the lights, the TV's or the computers and shopping for play groceries isn't very interesting to me. I felt pretty left out as my sisters played.

There are a few things that would have made Sensory village more enjoyable like perhaps a music room with music playing, a wind tunnel or a place to bounce like an in ground trampoline, a tactile wall with different things to feel or even a bounce house.

Pirate Island:

A wheelchair accessible pirate themed island with a playground.

Pros: I loved playing on the play equipment!

Cons: The playground equipment was the same as the butterfly park, it would have been nice to have had a different experience. There were some neat statues that my sisters enjoyed , other than feeling them I didn't get much out of it. I would have LOVED to have had a few buttons to press for each statue , perhaps the pirate & parrot could have spoke to me or the pirate chest could have "creaked" open when a button was pressed.

Fishing Wharf:

A lake-view pier where you can go fishing , play with remote control boats and shoot water cannons.

Pros: I really loved feeling the wind blow through the covered pier!

Cons: This was another attraction I could not enjoy. Fishing is simply not an enjoyable pass time for me as a blind child, I cannot see to shoot the water cannons at the target and I have no idea what is going on as I maneuver the boats.

Maybe Morgans wonderland could add different sounds to each boat (so there was no confusion which one belonged to who) and bells to the targets so I could tell if I was hitting something?

Garden Sanctuary:

A beautifully decorated garden with beautiful statues.

The only thing I could have done in this garden I could not do which was touch the statues. There was a garden rule to stay off the landscaping and since the statues are part of the landscape I didn't get to see them. I would have liked to have heard some soft music while I felt the statues my mother was describing to me.

REFRESHMENTS:
While there is no place for hot food @ Morgans wonderland they do have various vending machines around the park as well as a small store at the entrance. At the store you can purchase drinks, snacks and various sandwiches. We were pretty impressed at the quality of the sandwiches besides the fact that the peanut butter and jelly was very dry. My daddy's burrito, my moms foccacia with Turkey and my ham and cheese were restaurant quality and very tasty.

Where to eat: There are many different picnic areas throughout the park to enjoy your lunch. All picnic tables have room for wheelchairs. The chairs at the tables are a bit far from the tables and a bit high for small children to reach.

You can also reserve various pavilions around the park for large parties. But we enjoyed having our lunch at Picnic place because it has a swing area for us to play at while mommy and daddy finished their lunch.

SUMMERY:
Overall I really loved my visit to Morgan's Wonderland. I only hope that the park can work a little harder to accommodate the interests of the blind as I do think they left us out when it came to the brainstorming for many of the attractions. There isn't enough braille throughout the park and I couldn't participate in half of the park attractions because there was simply nothing for me to do. But what I did enjoy is enough to bring me back again and again. Hopefully my mommy and daddy will take me for another visit again real soon. Maybe by then Morgan's Wonderland will be an even better place for blind children everywhere!

Thank you!!! Love Miriam :)

Note: Small pics from the Morgans wonderland website www.morganswonderland.com.

Our trip to Morgan's Wonderland!

2010-09-19T14:28:00.006-05:00

Yesterday our family had the pleasure of taking our 3 daughters to a beautiful and wonderful new special needs based theme park in San Antonio, TX called Morgan's wonderland. We didn't know what o expect but we were so happy with what we got. Miriam and her sisters loved every second at the park, they played, rode rides and Miriam exclaimed to us for the first time in her life "I am having fun!". She tells us all the time when she is happy but has never used the words fun so we take that to mean she was literally having the time of her little life! I am going to be doing a review from the eyes of a blind child a little later. For now , please enjoy the pictures from our very own adventures in Wonderland! :)

SEE MORE PICS!
(right click to open in a new tab!)

World's BEST buttermilk pie!

2010-09-18T00:53:00.005-05:00

We are going out of town tomorrow morning to take our girls to the Special needs theme park Morgans wonderland and I wanted to leave you all with a little bit for culinary inspiration. My FAVORITE recipe for buttermilk pie, my own..lol!

Buttermilk Pie

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup butter (REAL butter)
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 brick cream cheese
* 1 9 inch unbaked pie crust (see crust recipe below!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Blend in the flour, eggs, buttermilk, cream-cheese and vanilla until smooth.
3.Pour filling into pie shell.
4.Sprinkle top with nutmeg.
5. Bake until golden brown and toothpick pulls clean. (about an hour)

Butter Pie crust

Ingredients:

* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 tbs Sugar
* 1/2 cup cold butter - diced
* 1/4 cup ice water

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt.
2. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. A TBS @ a time stir in water until mixture forms a ball.
4. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
5. Roll out when needed and add to 9 inch pie plate.

Have a great Saturday, God Bless!

PS. Don't forget to like our new FB page via the FB button in the top right sidebar! :)

Recipe: Sweetened Condensed Milk

2010-09-17T14:26:00.002-05:00

This is not only a recipe and a money saver post but it is one of the main ingredients in our next Chocolate Tuesday recipe which will be posted Monday night for your chocolaty Tuesday enjoyment!

Sweetened condensed milk can get expensive so here is a foul proof way to make your own which means more money to double up on those yummy recipes that require this sweet and tasty milk! Now you REALLY can say "homemade". ;-)

Homemade Sweetened Condensed milk

Ingredients
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup dry milk powder
3 tablespoons butter

Heat water in the microwave until steaming hot.
Add remaining ingredients into a large bowl, add hot water and carefully whisk or blend until smooth.
Store in air tight container until you are ready to use.

HINT: Want to make it especially yummy? Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla to the milk for a light vanilla flavor!

This milk is great in recipes, tea and even coffee. Enjoy!

55 Fine Motor Activities

2010-09-17T11:15:00.007-05:00

My oldest daughter Miriam has some serious issues with fine motor skills as do many blind children and others with various special needs. Throughout the years we have been doing all kinds of activities with her, ideas we came up with on our own, ideas we found online or ideas we were showed by someone else. Next weeks blog focus is going to be on sensory and motor skills and the various activities we can do as parents to help our children with their sensory and motor issues. I decided to go ahead and kick off the week early with my list of "fine" Motor activities which work great for not only blind but other children as well.

55 Fine Motor Activities

1. Threading beads/noodles with string or shoestrings

2. Rolling newspaper into screws
3. Putting golf tee's into the pegs pf a peg board
4. Using peg board games
5. Sewing on embroidery canvas
6. Sewing fabrics
7. Screwing screws into wood with a screwdriver (pre-drill holes)
8. Make and playing with finger puppets
9. Roll Chinese balls or shooter marbles in each hand and between fingers
10. Shred paper or newspaper
11. Play the game of Jacks

12. Use tweezers or chop sticks tied off with a rubber band to pick up small items such as rice or noodles
13. Rolling/tearing play-doh or clay
14. Tying & untying shoes or shoe activities

15. Buckling & unbuckling belts
16. Cutting with scissors (fabric, paper, etc...)
17. Drawing, painting & coloring (you can buy raised line coloring pages or make your own with puff paint)
18. Unbuttoning buttons & snaps
19. Opening and closing various objects
20. Playing instruments such as a piano or guitar.

21. Spinning coins on a table.
22. Spinning "tops".

23. Doing puzzles
24. Using theraputty
25. Pop bubble wrap
26. Rolling on large balls
27. Using a Hula Hoop
28. Stacking random objects (cans, coins, blocks, etc...)

29. Screw and unscrew nuts and bolts
30. Uncap jars
31. Stick small items in play-doh for your child to remove
32. Using a a spoon move various objects from one space to another. (marbles are great for this)
33. Unlock doors with keys
34. Pencil sharpening with a hand sharpener
35. Put clothespins on a box, heavy paper or line
36. Use a stapler & remove staples with remover
37. Use wikki sticks or play-doh to make ABC's letters and numbers.

38. Do rub drawings of various items around your house or outside
39. Sorting textured fabrics or shapes
40. Cooking (kids love to bake / cook, let them help prepare)
41. Pre drill holes in wood and have your child hammer in nails
42. Making hole cards with a hole punch and threading them.

43. Rolling up paper
44. Making paper airplanes
45. Dropping coins into glass soda bottles
46. Using a brailler (they gotta learn somehow)
47. Turning the pages of a book.
48. Pulling/tugging stretchy fabric of all kinds.
49. Pulling up grass. (my daughter loves feeling and smelling grass)
50. Planting seeds in pots.
51. Rolling a ball.
52. Shooting Marbles into a cup.

53. Brushing hair.
53. Washing hair (the entire process)
54. Roll a marble through a side ways towel tube and try to keep it inside.
55. Tying & untying knots in rope.

On the same note I found this wonderful website that has so many wonderful toys for the mobility challenged child. They have beading toys, sewing toys, stacking toys, toys galore! And the prices are very affordable! Blueberry Forest Toys

PS. We have a new facebook page, come check it out and "Like" us! Sugar, Spice & Monkey Tales! Or you can just click the "like" button for our facebook page in the right sidebar at the top of our blog. :)

Steak and potatoes! Y to the ummo!

2010-09-16T20:24:00.004-05:00

Tonight we had a rarity in the Bramlett house, yummy USDA Prime choice Ribeye Steaks cooked to medium rare perfection. In so many households the steak handling is left up to the men, to some homes the steak tending is a sacred duty of "MAN". But in our home(not to brag) the perfect steak is made by WOman! My love of steak comes from my first trip to the greatest steakhouse in the world Ruth's Chris, the first time I had their pan fried butter drenched T-bone it became my life's mission to only serve steak perfection. This is why all of my steaks are served drowned in butter for the final 3 minutes of cooking. I get as anal about my steaks as I get about my fried chicken, testing the oil, timing every second and removing from the pan just before it is done to cook the rest of the way in it's own juice. I never use a fork to turn, only a plastic pair of tongs to preserve the integrity of the meat and I NEVER walk away from the steaks. Once the steak is in the skillet my family knows to STAY AWAY. In 10 years I am thrilled to say I have never overcooked a good steak! I love to cook , my kitchen is my little Oasis away from the world and the days we have steak of this quality my Oasis becomes my own private island complete with cocktails.

Tonight's dinner we had said steak with homemade garlic cheddar potatoes with bacon ,Southern biscuits and tender veggies cooked in broth with a few pats of butter.

Recipe:

Cheesy Garlic Potatoes w/ bacon

5 - 6 large potatoes - diced
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
1 slice of bacon cooked
1 tbs garlic powder
3 tbs butter
milk
1 14oz can Veggie broth
1 14 oz can chicken broth
salt
pepper

1. Add potatoes to large sauce pan and cover with both cans of broth. If needed add just enough water to cover the potatoes.
2. Cook bacon in skillet until it is crispy, let cool then crush into bits.
3. Once potatoes are falling apart tender drain then return to hot pan over hot (but off) burner so the cheese melts well.
4. Add cheese, butter, garlic then mash or mix well.
5. Once mashed add milk until potatoes reach desired consistency.
6. Fold in bacon then salt/pepper to taste.

Grandma's Easy southern biscuits

3 cups self-rising flour
½ cup shortening or lard
1 cup milk
melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Sift the flour into a medium bowl.
3. Add the shortening to the flour in bits and cut into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Form a well in the center of the flour and add the milk.
5. Stir the milk into the flour with a fork until mixed.
6. Turn out onto a floured surface.
7. Knead gently several times then roll to 1/2 an inch thickness.
8. Cut into 2 inch rounds with a biscuit cutter. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.
8. Lightly brush butter onto the top & bottom of each biscuit. (emphasis on lightly , sometimes it is easier to use clean finger tips)
10. Bake until golden brown, about 13 minutes. Serve hot.

Fridays's Blog Hops!

2010-09-16T18:30:00.007-05:00

Change is always good!

2010-09-16T16:34:00.002-05:00

I have decided to make a few changes to this blog of ours after a new addition to the Cutest Blog on the block background selections. I just LOVE the new monkey backgrounds so I swiped and edited to make it my own. Once again cutest blog on the block is one of my favorite blog background sites! Our blog now has a new look, feel, pics and even a new siggy! I hope you love it as much as my family does!

Review: Snuggle Exhilarations Black Rasberry & Hydrangea

2010-09-16T10:35:00.005-05:00

I just had to break out with a review of this heavenly scented fabric softner. Snuggle exhilarations Black raspberry and Hydrangea the newest scent in the snuggle fabric softener family. We all know that Snuggle on it's own is a wonderful softener for your clothes, my review is about this wonderful combination of scents. It reminds me of a cross between old books and that "smell" a grandmother's house had as a child. That all to familiar smell that offers us comfort and contentment. I attribute this wonderful old fashioned smell to the wonderful dreams I had last night as I drifted away with the scent passing through my nose and straight into my heart. I dreamed I was at my grandmother's house once more , I was going through her garage and in her garage was every childhood toy, every book, everything that I loved when I was little. I opened box after box recognizing first this scent that jumped out of each one. It was such a pleasant dream remembering my youth.

In the bottle you do not know what to think, it smells sweet with a hint of floral but this "old fashioned" smell is what you end up with when you pull your fabrics out of the dryer and I am in love! I purchased this heavenly scent on clearance and I went back for more. I just hope it was on clearance due to a change of label because I cannot see myself ever buying another scent as long as I live. It is just perfect! Snuggle, thanks for the memories!

Vera Wang Shoe giveaway!

2010-09-16T00:10:00.008-05:00

I love Vera Wang, she was the designer that inspired my 2 year stint in fashion school. In fact it was this very love of Vera Wang that inspired the wedding dress designs that sealed the deal with FIDM to let me through their doors many moons ago. That is why I am so excited to bring to you this amazing giveaway!

I have in my hands a brand new & HOT size 8 1/2 pair of Vera Wang T-strap pumps that are sure to add a little hop in your step this fall and I am giving them away to one of my blog followers. They are from Vera Wang's line of affordable fashions called Simply Vera and in my opinion are a must have for those sexy nights out on the town. Retail value: $69.99

Rules to Enter: (US ONLY)

ONE Entry:

1. Follow this blog (you don't have to be a "new" follower).
2. Post about this giveaway on your blog with a link using the Sugar , spice & Monkey Tales button in the right side bar.
3. Leave a comment with a link to your post.

Extra Entries:

4. Tweet about this giveaway. (comment with your Twitter link)
5. Share this post on your FB.

All extra entries will count only as One each. We have so few followers we want to keep things as fair as possible. Winner will be announced on September 30th!

Note: NOT a sponsored giveaway!

My first Blog award!

2010-09-15T21:10:00.003-05:00

I was so honored today when I received and email from Sarah @ Jamarah Crafty Creations letting me know that she was awarding me a "Lovely Blog Award".

Thank you so much for reading my blog, I really am touched!

Rules for accepting the award:

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2. Pay it forward to 15 other bloggers that you have newly discovered.

3. Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.

On that note here is a list of 15 amazing blogs that I look forward to reading daily! Enjoy getting to know them. :-)

1. Five In Training for Him
2. Life with My Giggly Girls
3. Mama to 3 Blessings
4. Our Front Porch Swing
5. Pioneer Beauty
6. Special connection homeschool
7. Special Needs Homeschool
8. The Accidental Homeschooler
9. The Supermom Blues
10. Training them up
11. Training 6 hearts for him
12. Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
13. Apron Senorita
14. Homeschooling a Texas Tornado
15. Bonafide Mama

Blog Hop Thursday!

2010-09-15T19:00:00.003-05:00

Today's blog hops!

REVIEW: Vertical Mega Bubbles Generator

2010-09-15T16:50:00.005-05:00

So this weekend was my blind daughters 6th birthday and she LOVES bubbles so much that we decided to purchase a bubble machine. We ended up going with the Infinite bubble Vertical Mega Bubbles Generator which we found half off at Wal-Mart. The promise of this machine is to "Make thousands of bubbles of all sizes in minutes!".

After the 10 minutes it took to unpackage and set up we found this product to be very deceptive. Not only did it take HALF the 32 oz bubble solution but it barely made any bubbles! Sure it can make thousands of bubbles in "minutes" but it doesn't tell you exactly how many minutes! We waited out "patiently" the 5 minutes set up time to find that bubbles were shot straight up into the air at about 1 - 3 bubbles at a time to pop within seconds. They never made their way near our children! In the hour we kept the machine running Miriam never had a chance at the bubbles as they never got close enough to her to play with them before they popped. Our sighted children just sat by waiting as the next bubble would pop out of the machine just in hope to pop one. This machine is a total dud with horrible reviews all over the internet. I wish I had come home and read the reviews before I purchased but I was hypnotized by the 15.00 clearance price! Next time I will try to remember that on occasion items are on clearance because they simply aren't worth owning!

BOTTOM LINE: Doesn't come close to expectations. If this is your only bubble machine option reconsider and purchase the cheap 1.00 4 pack of wand bubbles. Your kids will thank you for it!

Blog Hop Wednesday #2

2010-09-15T00:43:00.002-05:00

Moroccan Tagine

2010-09-14T20:10:00.009-05:00

Want a delicious super easy kid friendly one pot dish? You MUST try this! There was none left after a few extra helpings of this delicious Moroccan stew!

Moroccan Tagine

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil (or any oil really)
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves cut into bite size chunks & seasoned with salt/pepper
1 onion - chopped
3 cloves minced garlic
1 small butternut squash or 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas) drained
1 carrot - chopped and peeled
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes - do not drain
1 14 ounce can (or 2 cups) vegetable broth
1 tbs sugar
Juice of small lemon
1 tsp salt
1 1/8 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 dash's of cayenne pepper
1 dash of black pepper
chopped fresh Parsley

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet, add your chicken, onion, and minced garlic, cook until browned.
2. Then add your squash or sweet potatoes, garbanzo beans, carrots, un-drained tomatoes, veggie broth, sugar, lemon juice , coriander, cayenne pepper & garlic powder to your pan.
3. Cook until veggies are nice and tender, about half an hour depending on which veggie you chose.
4. Top with fresh parsley.

NOTE: We use sweet potatoes in our home because butternut squash can never be found. When stores do have it , it is expensive. The potatoes never cost more than 2 bucks and the kids LOVE them. Can be made without meat.

Side Suggestion: We like ours served over couscous with a side of Naan.

Feel free to share the recipe! :) All recipes I post are created by me unless I say otherwise.

Eclectic Tuesday #1

2010-09-14T14:31:00.008-05:00

We had our first Eclectic Tuesday today and while it was not completely "fit free" it was a productive day!

On Today's schedule:

For Alphabet Focus:

We practiced writing the Letters A & B by using finger paints.

Then we worked on an ABC matching worksheet.

Reading Circle:
We started off reading The Berenstain's "A" book which is a family favorite. A little money savings hint should you want to buy it, this book is for sale on Amazon for ONE CENT!. Can't beat a penny book!

Then we read a story from our favorite Children's bible Story book simply titled "Children's Bible Stories from the Old Testament by Golden Book. This is an oldie but goodie. We just love the beautiful illustrations. The stories are short , to the point yet simple enough for children to understand them. Want to buy this classic for your kids? Once again Amazon has it for ONE CENT!

GYM

Today we SHOOK OUR sillies out! Click here to shake out your sillies!

Numbers & Counting
Today we counted to 20 using leggo's. We would pick out 5 leggo's at a time stacking them then we would count the total we had stacked until we got to 20 leggos.

We also worked on a worksheet for the numbers 1 & 2.

Arts & Crafts

Today we focused on fall decorating and veining a fall leaf.

We cut the leaves out then colored them. Then using jewelry string we glued on veins. Miriam loved feeling the finished product!

Concepts & Shapes joined Activity

We decided to join our concepts and Shapes activity today. We used playdough to create different shapes in all sorts of different sizes. We worked on 'long, longer, longest', 'smallest, smaller, small' & 'big, bigger, biggest'.

Now I think I need a nap! Where's my pillow?

As always feel free to use the worksheets!

Happy 6th Birthday Miriam!

2010-09-13T23:58:00.005-05:00

Today was my oldest child's birthday, Miriam turned 6 years old today at 7:23 pm! It was a fun, exciting yet somewhat heartbreaking day for me. It was the day we said goodbye to the "T's", the day my little girl is officially no longer a toddler. She is now a perfect and beautiful "young girl". How did my baby get to be 6 years old? Everything we have been through with her has made life go by so quickly we barely had a chance to blink twice. I guess I should rejoice in the fact life is moving by so quickly, perhaps that means life is not actually so bad for us. Which honestly despite our set backs and challenges as a family with a blind child life is actually pretty good. I love my life and I adore my family it is just hard seeing that "6" on the birthday card. (BTW: Thank you Olga, we love you so much for always thinking of and showing love to our babies on their birthdays :)

But I AM very happy and most importantly according to Miriam herself she is happy. I was so proud to hear her say this as she was sitting eating her 4 favorite foods at dinner when I mentioned to Tom that it looked liked she was enjoying the meal. She said in a sweet conversational certain voice "I AM happy" then continued on her merry way scarfing down her pinto beans with jowl, green beans, corn bread and french fries. And yes this odd combination is in fact all of my daughters favorite foods! I relate the beans to the fact we were very low income when I was pregnant and we ate tons of beans, so many in fact that I refused to eat them for years until I discovered the lovely flavor jowl added to a pot of southern made beans! The first time she ate a bowl of beans was the first time she ate a whole meal without having a meltdown.

After dinner we set up the swimming pool in the garage (it was about to storm) so the girls could enjoy a good swim and burn off dinner to make room for the cake festival of sweets awaiting them.

After swimming we had to do things backwards which meant presents first. Miriam gets REALLY messy with her cake eating and since it was near bedtime we did not want to have to change into new clothes. This was the first year Miriam actually showed interest in unwrapping her own presents. I decorated with paper and a variety of textured fabric, she especially loved the black velvet. It was also the first year she actually explored her presents!

As you can tell we are a Geranimals household. Almost all of their toys are centered on some sort of sensory stimulation and we love them. Their foam blocks are textured, the "Monkey" in the box has 4 different textured sides as well as music, and Geranimals activity box is filled to the brim with all sorts of stimulating activities. The other toy in the picture is the "Krinkles" Learn and play school, another perfect toy for the blind. The Disney doll you see actually sings "A dream is a wish your heart makes."

Now normally I would be baking and decorating away all day long making my girls the cake of their dreams but the past few years every cake I slaved over made one or all of my kiddos sick. It seems they have an allergy to cake dye so now we have to go simple. This means no more pretty colorful cakes made by mommy! I know I could have gone simple all on my own but I am NOT a simple girl when it comes to baking. I feel almost as if I am cheating not going nuts on the cake decorating so instead we just went out and bought a cake. I figured with homeschooling this year and my limited amount of time the cake could take the direction of "buy it now" with no need for forgiveness. I also know some of you are thinking to yourself, does it really matter if a blind kid has a "pretty" cake to which I have to say "YES, yes it does!". I am a firm believer that if something that should be pretty is not pretty it will show in the flavor. It is all about the love, the more love, the better it tastes and my baby can definitely feel the love! lol

Anywho, ;-) We got her the cake of her dreams a white, butter-cream filled cake with a mountain of chocolate fudge lava on top.

She had asked for an ice cream cake but we had to hunt late and the stores were out of ice cream cakes by the time I went shopping. So this was my choice and along with rocky road ice cream, Klondike bars and Hershey chocolate there was no need for some crummy old ice cream cake.

As you can see from the cake pictures all of the girls has an insanely good time and the cake/ice cream extravaganza was a major hit. It was a nightmare to clean up but well worth every minute!

Happy Birthday my Miriam Monkey!

Southern Chicken Gumbo

2010-09-13T13:40:00.003-05:00

Today's full meal deal!

I meant to post this delicious recipe this weekend as it was our Saturday dinner but time was NOT on my side. It is a family recipe but this is my first time ever making it myself. Enjoy!

Southern Chicken Gumbo

2 15 0z cans Stewed Tomatoes
3 large chicken breast
4 cups chicken broth
16 oz bag Frozen Okra (fresh about 4 cups)
2 tbs fresh parsley
3 tbs dried onion
1 small diced onion
juice of small lemon
1 1/2 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tbs pepper
5 drops Louisiana hot sauce
2 tbs Tony Chacheres Seasoning
1 up water
1 bay leaf
1/2 tbs celery salt
1 slice smoked bacon
Corn starch to thicken

In large pot add oil and cook chicken until cooked through, remove then set aside and dice when cool enough to handle.

In the same pot cook your bacon until crunchy. Remove, cool then crumble.

Add all other ingredients to the pot followed by the chicken and bacon. Let cook about half an hour then use a rue of corn starch and water to thicken. Once thickened remove from heat and serve over rice.

NOTE: A lot of cornstarch goes a long way so add the mixture to your gumbo a little at a time until it reached the consistency you desire.

Jalapeno Cheese Cornbread

1 cup all-purpose flour
3 chopped canned jalapeno peppers
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup cooked corn (make sure it is not wet)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. fold in Jalapeno's, corn & Cheese. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Music monday #1

2010-09-13T12:53:00.009-05:00

We had our first ever Music Monday which we made short because today is Miriam's 6th birthday and we have some fun to plan! Although today's school day was rockin fun! Here is what was on today's Music Monday agenda!

For ABC learning we went back over the letters A & B in song using flashcards and actual alphabet songs I found online @ DLTK KIDS.

We sang:
The Letter "A" Rhyme
A Marching Army Ant
The Apple Man, "Bear"
Buzzing around the room
Bouncy Blue Balloon. (we found this song elsewhere, I forgot to mark it but the song is as follows)

Lyrics to "A Bouncy Blue Balloon"

(tune of "If you're happy and you know it")

Oh, I wish I was a bouncy blue balloon.
Oh, I wish I was a bouncy blue balloon.
Oh, I'd float into the air,
Then I'd *POP* without a care.
Oh, I wish I was a bouncy blue balloon.

For Georgia I made some matching flash cards with the songs pasted to the back and for Miriam we used foam alphabet letters. (feel free to use the cards)

For our reading circle we had a great time singing the books Itsy Bitsy Little Spider & Twinkle Twinkly Little star by Kate Toms. The girls LOVE having these two books read in song, they are beautiful and sweet stories of beloved classics.

For our counting and numbers lesson we sang the "Boom Boom Song" which you can find the words to here as well as a clip sample. Along with the song we played the drums then we counted music beats for various instruments up to 20. Once finished we would pass the instruments yelling "PASS" in song so everyone got a turn at each instrument.

For arts and crafts we had loads of fun making our own "Quarter Machine Maracas" in which we used the small "eggs" from quarter toy machines, rice, beans, bells and Popsicle sticks to make our special musical instruments which Georgia deemed "The best arts/crafts ever!".

During our concepts lesson we cranked up "Greg and Steve" who both happen to provide our children's FAVORITE kids friendly music. Greg and Steve have been a favorite of Miriam's since her OT introduced her to them at just 6 months old. If you have never shared Greg and Steve with your little ones they come with high praise from the Bramletts! Most of their songs are interactive so you get more than just exciting music!

We concluded the day singing Circles go Round and Round as we played with the foam sand shapes we made a while ago.

I think incorporating Music in our Mondays took away the "Monday Blues" because there was not one grump in the house. Even Sophia managed to stay most of the day without going down for her nap. Hooray for Music Monday!

Explaining to children about death?

2010-09-13T00:33:00.006-05:00

How do you explain to a 3 year old about death? How do you explain to them about the resting places of people they never met in real life to know they are now gone? These are questions I was happy to avoid for many years. In a small way I was happy to not know the location of my father and grandmother's grave yard. But recently I have been regretting not pushing harder to find out. My extended family has always been jealous of the relationship I had with my grandmother. We were very close and she loved me like her own child, to me she was my mother. When I left for college some years ago it was let known how much they loathed me. I was accused of abandonment (how does a 17 year old abandon their mother and father for college, isn't that what we are supposed to do?), accused of being spoiled and of not caring about my grandmother. When the fact is that my grandmother was the best women I have ever known and I loved her dearly. She protected me from an abusive father and raised me as her own, how could I not love her? Even so when I moved back and wanted to visit my grandmother (and father who had died some years later) they would all skate around my questions of the cemetery location and name. I just let it go after a while because I had small children who wouldn't understand anyway. But recently my guilt over being back 2 years without a visit began to take it's toll so I went on a hunt and eventually found then without the help of my family.

Today was the day we all went as a family to visit these people I loved. Because Miriam mentally cannot understand and Sophia is just a baby still I took it upon myself to explain to Georgia. I explained that we were going to a place where people who have gone to visit Jesus go to rest. I explained we were going to visit "my" grandma and "my" daddy. I told her where we were going was the home of their bodies but their hearts and all that made them love was in Heaven. In all her innocence she declared how very much she wanted to "go visit grandma's house". I had failed at my description and she simply didn't get it so I relied on the thought that once we arrived and she saw she would understand. I even took pictures with me so she could see who was resting where.

On the way to the cemetery we stopped off and picked up some flowers. Georgia was so happy to give grandma flowers. All she could say was that "grandma is going to really really love flowers mommy." Every time she said thi9s a small tear came to my eye as I thought how very much my grandmother would have loved to have met my beautiful girls. She and my father (who I loved no matter how he treated me) would have adored them beyond anything they could have ever imagined.

When we got to the cemetery I was surprised to hear Georgia explain "where home!" as she usually does when we go someplace but to me a cemetery really isn't a "place" as a child would imagine. We all piled out of the car and my little Georgia took my hand as I gathered up my grandmother's flowers first. Again she exclaimed "I really do think grandma is going to love those flowers mommy" which once again brought a tear to my eye. I was so worried about how she was going to react once we reached the plot. To my surprise once we got there she got down in the dirt next to me as I explained "this is my grandma's home now, her body lives here" and helped me clear the dirt and grass from her headstone. She never questioned it as I dug a hole (she helped) to put the flowers in. She even picked her own flowers to place on the grave. I was amazed that she seemed to know exactly what I meant in a way I never thought she could have. Maybe her way of knowing was on a deeper level than mine. Her assurance the whole trip about the flowers brought a new perspective to my heart that maybe she really did KNOW that my grandmother really did love that we got her flowers.

Georgia placing flowers she picked herself on my grandmothers grave.

In the end the only difficult thing was when we couldn't find my fathers grave to place flowers because of terrible upkeep. We searched the location, which I knew well endlessly but the markers were long gone. We called friends and family to search neighboring plots for names that might be an indication but the numbers were so off from the names it was near impossible. In the end we used the information we had and found the closest unmarked grave, a grave with only a rock resting on top to place the red roses. I will be placing a call to the city tomorrow morning for some answers. The strangest thing was upon investigation we found that another person shares the exact same plot number with my father. A baby born on the day of my birth who died at a mere 7 years old. I hope this is just a type-0 if not it is so very sad on all fronts!

I must have cried for a good 15 minutes as my husband comforted me before we headed on our way home. Once back in that car we found we had been searching for my father for 2 hours , how could time fly so quickly? I know one thing is for sure, I need to figure out how to afford a grave marker for my father. I just did some research and it is amazing what they charge for a rock. It should be a crime!

Meet me on Monday

2010-09-12T21:58:00.000-05:00

1. What is your favorite pasta dish?
Cheese Tortellini...YUMMO!

2. What is the last thing you do before going to bed?
I tuck in my Monkeys.

3. How many nights a week do you go out to eat?
Once or twice a week.

4. Are you an avid book reader?
I love to read but don't have much time lately. Mostly I read to the kids.

5. Would you rather have x-ray vision or bionic hearing?
Hearing, if it got annoying I could shove in some plugs!

Princess Miriam Monkey, our budding "child"!

2010-09-11T00:37:00.015-05:00

Today was day number one on the Miriam birthday train! This is the day we revealed Miriam's first birthday present and celebration which was a trip to her favorite indoor playroom called The Hoppin Hippo. Only this was the first time daddy got to join us and I think that made all the difference because Miriam is the very definition of "daddy's girl". I am not sure if it was because Tom was there, because homeschooling is making that much of a difference or a little bit of both but Miriam was once again a completely different child. I was on the verge of crying for joy most of the time in fact I am pretty sure I did manage a tear of two. She was all over the place, making her own choices of where she wanted to play. With no help she climbed into bounce houses, into ball pits, climbed slides and ladders and (this is my favorite) she even made a friend! Miriam literally for the first time EVER played with another child other than her sisters, she even used his name "Owen". Typically she is a loner but things are changing faster than I could ever imagine and WE love it! Today I saw (pardon the tears falling right now) a "child" for the first time since giving birth to my beautiful angel. Of course I always saw a child by definition but it is the first time I have seen in her a child living life LIKE a child. I have dreamed of this day for 6 years, the day where she smiles and interacts with other children like a child should. Where she actually "plays" on equipment and with toys instead of having us play "with" or "for" her. And what I mean by that is that other times when we have gone she typically rolls and bounces on her tummy. When she stands up to bounce it is because I went in and stood her up or held her hand when she bounced on her feet. She never took the initiative to do either on her own. I had to put her in the house and I had to take her out. This time she was searching for the exit or a slide to leave on her own and that is such an amazing thing! The ONLY toy she ever behaved like this with was her trampoline or her bounce horse but to me that doesn't count because that is in the comfort of her home and she does tons of stuff at home that she wouldn't dare do in public. My little Angel grew out of an unexplainable stage today and became a child. There are not enough words to express to anyone how happy Tom and I both are.

After 3 hours of hoppin Tom took us all out to our favorite Chinese restaurant Bien Hoa. We relaxed, we ate and came home to some cookies and SpongeBob before bed. I cannot wait until next Saturday for Miriam to see her REAL birthday outing! Morgan's Wonderland here we come!

Enjoy the slideshow. There were WAY too many I loved to post directly. :-)

Homeschool Hop link all fixed!

2010-09-10T15:00:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to update everyone that the broken homeschool hop button is now fixed and ready to go. Somehow a forward slash snuck it's evil little way into the HTML where it didn't belong. Sneaky little slashes!

Anyway, if you are a homeschooler feel free to join the blog hop and join up with whatever blogs look interesting to you. I love the idea of homeschoolers sharing and am really enjoying getting to know and learn from all my new blog buddies! Your ideas and suggestions are invaluable to me!

God Bless!

Homeschool Themes!

2010-09-09T21:25:00.006-05:00

I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to go about making our days more than just routine in format but routine in content. I want each day to be something different and instead of "just" a normal "school" day I want the various days to be something to look forward to so I have came up with homeschool themes for each of our school days. Not only do I think this will help to shake things up a bit but it will also help the girls learn their days of the week. Here are the themes I have come up with.

1. Music Monday! A day to teach with music. Be it an entire day of singing our lessons to an entire day of incorporating instruments into the learning we will learn our ABC's and 123's to music!

2. Eclectic Tuesday. A day to incorporate ALL of our weekly themes into the lessons.

3. Worksheet Wednesday. This one is simple, worksheets, worksheets and more worksheets!

4.Lego Thursday! Learning with lego's is always fun so why not learn our shapes, letters, numbers and counting with them!

5.Play-doh Friday! Yes, you got it, a day of play-doh fun! There is nothing we cannot learn by using play-doh because we can make anything with it!

I am so excited to start using our new themes. Our first day will be tomorrow. I have no doubts there will be any complaints about Play-Doh Friday..lol We'll see how it goes!

PS. Anyone is welcome to join us on our theme days. I would love to see how everyone incorporates the themes. :D

Monkey Tales Homeschool Blog Hop!

2010-09-09T14:15:00.012-05:00

Are you a homeschooler who would love to have more readers to not only share your experiences but to learn from? If so Join our new homeschool hop! I made it for purely selfish reasons of course as this is my first year and I REALLY need ideas. Your blogs keep my days going so thanks in advance for joining the hop!

Rules:

1. "Follow" the host blog Sugar, Spice & Monkey Tales.
2. Post our banner with a link to our homeschool hop in a post on your blog.
3. Add the link to the post to the hop below.
4. Choose the blogs you want to follow and follow them.
5. Be sure to leave a comment for each blog you follow so they know you followed.
6. Follow back all homeschool blogs who follow you from the hop.

Pass the taters please!

2010-09-09T12:55:00.005-05:00

I LOVE family "style" dinners! I was raised to believe a family sat down together for dinner no matter what. We would all gather to the table, with the food ready to be served in their own separate dishes in front of us. We would pass the food around taking just what we wanted. When we wanted seconds it was customary to say please and thank you. I loved listening to my parents have conversations about their day while we ate. It was one of the only times during our long days growing up that our family was actually at peace with each other. Most of the other times it was a war zone. Given this fact I really want my girls to experience the "pass the potatoes" dinner routine.

Of course we have dinner together every night around our kitchen table. But family "style" is so much different from dishing it out in the kitchen. Family style dinners promote manners and memories, both being so important to adolescence.

Last night we had our first "real" family style dinner. We try to have family style meals during the holidays and we have had family style meals when people come over but we have never done it just for us. Miriam is a grabby girl, she doesn't realize a plate full of meatloaf is not "her" meatloaf, Georgia and Sophia were just too small to get it, so they would grab as well. But last night it seems they are all old enough to understand because our dinner went GREAT. I made BBQ Swiss stuffed meatloaf (my husband will not eat traditional meat loaf) with garlic mashed potatoes , stewed greens and sweet rolls. It was delicious and we enjoyed every minute of it! I also enjoyed hearing Georgia say "more greens please!" Between the "please" and the fact she was asking for greens made this family dinner worth the wait! From now on, all dinners will be family "Style"!

Want to see the grub? I tried to take pics of the girls but as usual my camera didn't want to work. Boy do I need a new camera!

Our table set and ready for us to dig in!

BBQ Swiss stuffed meatloaf...YUMMO! Everything is better stuffed with cheese!

Garlic Mashed potatoes & yummy Southern style Stewed Greens!

And what good southern mommy would leave out the bread?

You Say, I say! The Blind Etiquette Guide

2010-09-08T21:26:00.018-05:00

I am about to address some of the weird, annoying , insensitive & mundane questions/comments I am haunted with on a day to day basis about my blind daughter and myself as a parent. You might be surprised that some of us are not as "sensitive" as you think. Stay tuned after the You Say, I say session for a few rules of etiquette brought to you by my blind daughter Miriam!

You Say, I Say!

1.You Say: "HEY, WATCH IT, ARE YOU BLIND?!" while we are out shopping and some mindless person bumps you with their cart, when you remember I am there you suddenly "freeze" as you give me a pitiful look..

I SAY "It's a figure of speech, I GET IT! But remember how easy it is for the answer to that question to be "Yes, yes I am!"

2.You say: to my child "DID YOU SEE THAT?!" followed by a lengthy guilty apology.

I Say: "Cut the apology and describe to her what you saw so she can get an image in her head and YES she WILL see it!"

3. You Say: "Awwww, she is sleeping!" when you see me in the grocery store.

I SAY "Have you ever seen a child sleeping sitting straight up in a shopping cart or walking down an isle?"

Blind children often have their eyes half closed due to the fact there is no stimulation to keep them open. There is no reason to open your eyes if there is nothing to see.

4. You Say "Wow, your daughter has such beautiful eyes!" only to take it back with an "Oh , I shouldn't have said that!" after finding out she is blind.

I Say "Why yes she does have beautiful eyes. And you know what, they aren't cracked down the middle and she doesn't have pink eye. Pointing out my child's positive features is not going to insult either one of us!"

5. You Say: "I'm so sorry!" after hearing the news my daughter is blind.

I Say: "Why? There is nothing wrong with her!" Blindness is not some fatal disease. My child can do everything yours can do it just takes a little bit more effort.

6. You Say: "I hope it didn't bother you that I didn't invite your kids to my kids party. I just thought it would be so boring for your blind child!" when I over hear you had a birthday party for your little one.

I Say: "Gee thanks for being so insensitive! All of my children LOVE parties, even the blind one. After all she IS a kid just like all the rest!" pfft

7. You Say: "Does she have one of those sticks?"

I say: "No, but she does have one of those CANES."

8. You Say: "I could never do what you do, I don't know how you do it!"

I say: "You do what you have to do. You don't love your child any less just because their eyes don't work."

9. You say: "You should get a second opinion because I KNOW she just looked at me!"

I say: "Gee, I never thought of that! Actually she has not only had a second, but a third and a fourth. She didn't see you, we accept it and wish you would as well."

For the record, constant "revelations" that you think our kid looked you dead in the eye does not help our emotional well being. When we have to convince someone who doesn't even know us that our child is STILL blind it hurts. Do you honestly think we wouldn't love to have our child look into our eyes?

10. You say: "So she is blind, at least her other senses are more advanced than everyone else's, I bet she uses more of them."

I say: "No actually they are just like yours. She just has to rely on them more than you do, hence she becomes an expert at using them. She isn't a dog, she cannot sniff out the bad guy or hunt down a fox & she can't hear 10 miles away."

11. You say: "so she is legally blind right."

I say: "Yes she is legally blind but unlike most "legally blind" people she is totally blind."

12. You say: "Is she going to have to read braille"

I say: "Since that is the only way she will ever be able to read a book since she is BLIND then Yes she will have to learn braille!"

Now for a few "rules" and suggestions from Miriam "Blind and Perfect!":

1. I am not deaf, I am blind. Please do not shout!

2. When I get my guide dog (not until I am at least 16) please do not pet him/her. He is not my pet, he is my companion.

3. Don't touch my cane. It is my eyes, you wouldn't want me to poke at your eyes would you?

4. I have a name and do not understand "Hey you" or "Over here" when out in public. As far as I am concerned you could be talking to anyone.

5. I am blind but I am a person first. Please treat me as a human being.

6. You don't have to say things like "can you tell her" to someone else instead of talking to me. Unless you are speaking a foreign language I understand everything you say.

7. If you are guiding me along, don't just leave me standing there. Imagine you were floating in open darkness all alone. How would you feel?

8. I use ALL words and am not going to be insulted when you say "see" , "watch" or some other like word. I use the same words everyday!

9. I don't mind being called blind. I am blind, it happens!

10. When I come to visit you, please say SOMETHING. Don't just yell "come in" then just assume I know where you are.

11. Do not just come grab me if you think I need help. If you want to help, ASK ME FIRST. You wouldn't be too happy if I came up and grabbed you out of the blue!

12. If I am talking to you and you "wander off" I am going to be upset if I am left to talk to myself. Please tell me when you leave, I am not crazy and would rather others not think I am!

13. If you are going to lead me please don't grab my arm. I would appreciate it if you let me lightly hold your arm. It is a lot easier & safer that way for both of us.

14. If you see that I am about to do something that endangers me, please TELL ME CALMLY. And don't mumble or yell, please be clear or I might get hurt!

15. I can play just like any other child. Especially with toys that are musical, talkative, textured and/or scented. But I like all kinds!

16. If you invite me over please pick up your floor in advance. I can usually feel or sense large objects but I have a hard time with small things in my path and my cane might not help me see them.

Always remember that a person is a person no matter what their needs are. Chances are they just want to fit in and not be treated like they have the plague (nor do their parents). Always remember that a cane or a guide dog is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength. If the blind can handle who they are you should be able to handle it as well!

May God bless you with new understanding!

Imprints of the heart.

2010-09-08T01:42:00.005-05:00

In life we often encounter people who leave a small imprint on our lives, if we are lucky we meet that person or people who define who we are and leave an imprint so large it walks with you for the rest of your existence on this earth. Sometimes the imprint can be bad, sometimes it can be good but whatever it is they leave you it will be something that gives you your strength, character, soul and heart. They are the people we give our hearts to, the people we trust more than anything and the people who know us more than we know ourselves.

When I was 16 years old I met one of these rare people. He was not my boyfriend or anything of the sort, he was actually much older than I was with the heart of a teenager & the soul of an wise old man. And he was my friend age difference and all. He understood my heart song, the music that came from inside me which made me sad, happy or indifferent. He understood because we had the same kind of heart song and together the music we played went as perfect as the moon to the stars. To this day nobody has ever understood the songs played inside my head and my heart quite like he did.

This time of year I think about him a lot. I look at pictures stored in the back of my mind , pictures stored away to keep tears from falling. But this time of year when the wind blows, the rain falls and the air smells of the earth I remember his coming into and going of my life. It was this time of year more years ago that I care to think about that this person left this world due to a drug overdose. I cannot tell you how hard it was to know I would never be able to look into the face or share the comforts of our words ever again. He had the kindest heart, the sweetest demeanor and would have done anything for anyone. I can tell you in all certainty that nobody on this earth who did not have the chance to know him could ever meet someone like him. This post is dedicated to his memory and to the love and friendship given to me by him at a time in my life when I was miserable and desperately needed a friend. His imprint was great , I am the women I am today in part because of him. Honestly, I do not know how I would have survived my teen years without knowing him!

I just wish as I know most of his friends and family do that we knew him a little bit better.

I MISS YOU!

Wednesday Blog Hops!

2010-09-08T00:08:00.008-05:00

Jump on the train! Choo Choo! lol

Migraine's and Thank you's!

2010-09-07T20:22:00.008-05:00

Boy has this been one heck of a noisy, yucky, migraine inducing day! From the second Miriam got up this morning she has been belligerent beyond words. She didn't want to get up but I made her although she screamed the whole time until breakfast. Then the second we hit the classroom she had meltdown after meltdown until I couldn't take it anymore and sent her to bed. She didn't even eat her snack so I am sure she just isn't feeling well but it did not make for a positive experience. We did manage to get through most of our day together, her only missing our lego counting exercise and coloring our number of the week. But I managed to get her through most of the important stuff. We had enough counting mixed in with our other activities that she didn't miss anything as far as learning to count.

Since I tried to make today a "worksheet free" day we don't really have any worksheets for show. We played counting games, ABC games, concept games and incorporated our shape activity into arts and crafts. I know Georgia enjoyed herself even though I even think she was a bit under the weather because she sat half the time with her head on her shoulders yawning.

Here are a few pics of our very fun arts and craft activity in which we made 3-D shape art. Georgia did everything herself (except cut, we are still working on cutting a line) but Miriam did almost nothing because she refused hand over hand today. I did make her squeeze out the glue, drop the paper and pat the shapes down. I can handle a little bit of screaming, I just cannot handle the screaming WITH throwing which is what she started doing later in the day. I do not tolerate throwing things so she spent 6 minutes in timeout then went to lay down because the time out was worthless.

Later on in the day we ended up having a word war with Miriam. We have decided to play it tough with her when it comes to "manners". Georgia and Sophia have excellent manners, always saying please and thank you. We always "tried" to get Miriam to follow suit but she played dumb and pretended to not have a clue what we were talking about. And until recently when she started speaking more, really speaking, not parroting we bought it hook line and sinker (to a point). The past few weeks however she says things like "please" and "thank you" but only when she "wants" too. She even said to Tom earlier when he called on his way home that she would "see you in 10 minutes...or maybe 18 minutes.". There are so many other things we KNOW Miriam can do but is stubborn about (like almost everything) and because we know she can do them we MAKE her do them. Well at dinner when it was time for Ice cream I decided she WAS going to say thank you. When she refused I took the ice cream and sat for 5 minutes urging her to say "thank you" until she exposed the truth with a perfectly clear "I DON'T WANT TO!". In fact it was so perfect it didn't even sound like my kid who said it, for a brief moment the "loud, non verbal" Miriam vanished and opened our eyes to what we have thought for a long time. And that is the fact "SHE CAN" speak A LOT more then what she lets on. So I sat there with her another 15 minutes with her declaring "no" or "I'm not" until Tom started getting her dressed after having NO ICE CREAM. On the way to bed she walked over to me, climbed into my lap and said........"THANK YOU!" For the thank you, she got her Ice Cream. This is my child, belligerent to the end, but she can talk and she understands EVERYTHING!

fun

Chocolate Tuesday! How to eat & WIN a KIT KAT bar 101

2010-09-07T17:22:00.018-05:00

Do you love the Kit Kat bar by Reese candy as much as I do? If so might I suggest you learn the best possible way to eat that yummy chocolaty concoction? Doing so will turn your Kit Kat eating experience into one of ultimate indulgence which lasts 3 times as long!

1. Make sure your bar is at room temperature.
2. Break off one bar and slowly and carefully eat just the milky chocolate from around the 4 edges leaving the wafer with top/bottom chocolate in tact.
3. Savor the top layer.
4. Savor the bottom layer.
5. Now enjoy the oh so delicate lightly dusted in chocolate middle wafer.
6. Repeat if necessary!

Congratulations! For the first time in your life you have truly enjoyed a Kit Kat bar!

Now for the important stuff, FREE CHOCOLATE! Want to open up your mailbox to 8 free yummy .49oz bars of Kit Kat for your chocolate eating pleasure?

To enter:

1. "Follow" this blog.
2. Participate in Chocolate Friday by posting an "all about chocolate" blog.
3. Post our "Chocolate Thursday" avatar and link with details about this offer so your friends can join.
4. Post the link in a comment.

It's that easy! 3 Winners will be drawn Next Chocolate Tuesday!

(US Only)

Free Joyce Meyer Calendar!

2010-09-07T12:48:00.022-05:00

I just signed up for a free Joyce Meyer 2011 calendar which I am so excited to get. Joyce Meyer and her books are such magnificent works of inspiration. They offer hope, strength and encouragement all through the word of God.

To get your free calendar simply click on the link below and fill out the form. Your inspirational calendar should arrive in a few weeks. While supplies last!

Enjoy and God Bless!

A "not so simple" Woman's Daybook.

2010-09-06T23:34:00.008-05:00

Outside my window, I can see the dog sleeping peacefully on his stomach. Each time I look at him with his legs stretched out to the sky I wonder what is must be like to have such a simple and peaceful life like that dog. That all day long I can lay out in the sun staring up to God. Do you think dogs see something?

I am thinkingabout how I can manage to fit no worksheets into tomorrow. I want our day to be a day of learning and games. I want to spend the day smiling and laughing with my girls while still learning everything on our agenda.

I am thankful that our family was able to spend a perfect day together. A day free of arguments and full of happiness and joy.

From the Learning rooms this Monday, we went to the park with my husband who had the day off. We learned of nature on a beautiful hike, had a fun scavenger hunt and we got to watch the girls laugh and play on swings and slides.

From the kitchen, we had frozen pizza because the heat really got to me and a migraine was raging.

I am wearing , my favorite brown shirt with gold stitching and my favorite pair of green Capri's.

I am creating a curriculum for tomorrow.

I am going to hurry up and finish this so I can rest next to my husband and get a good nights sleep so my head is clear and ready for another day!

I am still reading "The Bible". From beginning to end, New and Old!

I am hoping, that my girls are resting peacefully and comfortably. (and to win the lottery but aren't we all? lol)

I am hearing , the clock tick next to me and wishing it wasn't so loud.

Around the house, it is a mess and full of folded laundry that needs to be put away.

One of my favorite things is lifting up my shirt just enough for my belly to touch my husbands back. Something about the skin of my stomach touching his back always makes me feel safe.

A few plans for the rest of the week: to purchase a birthday present for Miss Miriam who is going to be 6 years old, to buy an ice cream cake (her favorite) and celebrate Sunday evening as a family!

Here's a picture thought that I am sharing, it is a picture of my Miriam as a baby with her favorite toy. I cannot believe my Angel is going to be 6 years old next week.

Enjoying Nature!

2010-09-06T16:37:00.009-05:00

We were planning on going ahead with school today so that Tom who had the day off could sit in and see what we do during the day. I thought it would be a neat experience for the girls to have daddy sit in and help. BUT it was such beautiful day this Labor day Monday and we just could not see being cooped up inside when we could be out enjoying mother nature. After all the temp was under 90, the sun was shaded by light clouds and the wind was slightly blowing making for the perfect day! So we gathered the girls up and headed off to the park. This wasn't just any old park outing however, we went on a NATURE WALK! We explored trees and their many different leaves, the ground, birds, bugs and all nature had to offer. Of course we played on the swings and slide a bit as well but we had the most fun on our long excursion through the wilderness. Well, as "wilderness" as it can get in a city with 800,000 people..lol Miriam didn't participate much in our "hunt" , she was in such a foul mood. We tried to get her out of the wagon but her only interest was eating her apple and sitting on her bum. She just threw herself on the ground kicking and screaming until I just said "to heck with it" and just put her back in the wagon to huff and puff. Sometimes she can be absolutely IMPOSSIBLE!

But we did have an interesting thing happen, Miriam actually expressed herself at the playground which she never does. Short of asking for food or drink Miriam never says what she wants. However today while I was walking her up the steps to slide I asked her what she wanted to do to which she replied "I wanna play with Georgia". I was so happy to hear her say that and so was Georgia declaring to her little friend "let's play with sister"! And play she did, she tried to climb the rope with daddy, although she was too scared to go up more than a step or two and she climbed half way up the rock wall for me then back down again. These are such amazing turns of events and so unlike Miriam. This means we are groovin people, we are groovin along and head is it's makin way!

Our walk list consisted of things:
Big, small and smaller
eaten by bugs
that are dry
that are soft
that blooms
is pretty
shelled
triangular
round
flat
are bamboo
rough
feathers
with moss
velvety
pointy
fuzzy
have many
nutty
are different
that doesn't belong (this was a lesson in not littering)

After our walk we went out for a "healthy" lunch at Mcdonalds. After which we came home to put our findings in our "explore" journal. We had a great day today and learned so much! Today was proof that you don't need to be inside to learn about the world.

post signature

ABC Lapbook...FINALLY!

2010-09-06T00:22:00.011-05:00

I must say our first by definition lapbook was an "interesting" adventure. Mainly because of all the brailling involved. My husband pointed out that we were going to send our Perkins brailler into shock because I was using it so much and boy was he correct! I swear I heard a little wheeze when I put it away for the night.

Our first lapbook adventure took us through all the ups and downs of A's, B's, C's and their many many cousins. I paint, printed, cut, glued and folded until my hands were numb and my fingers were black from glue and ink. (which they still are) I know these things are supposed to be "easy" but with a blind child NOTHING is easy! I cannot just paste any old coloring page or ABC print out. It has to be special and literally "hands on". If she cannot feel it, I might as well not even bother to make her one and since I refuse to leave her out that is not an option. I sure hope she likes it!

A little description of our ABC lap-book. We have coloring alphabet cards, ABC wheel, ABC board game, ABC Bingo, dry erase ABC dot to dot and dry erase Name & Alphabet practice/tracing sheets. I did get a little intricate but I don't see the point in making a lap-book you use once. I wanted something we can use all throughout the year. This is that multi-use lap-book. I tried to make it interactive & fun for all of us and since Georgia loves playing games I decided to make and add a few. This is Miriam's lap-book, Georgia's is the same minus the braille and the fact the letter are going to be raised. (will get to that tomorrow)

And just incase anyone wants to use any of these activities or even all of them just click and print. (at least I think that will work..lol)

Oh and a little pointer on making certain things dry erase..a little bit of clear packing tape goes a long way! ;)

Leggo Adventures!

2010-09-05T09:31:00.003-05:00

Want to make a wonderful and fun learning lap book for your kids? Check out the blog Walking By The Way and download the amazing lesson plan for "Learning with Lego's". And be sure to visit Home-school Share for more exciting free lap book templates, designs and other classroom ideas!

Have a great Sunday! God Bless you all!

Extraordinary Measures (Spoiler Alert)

2010-09-04T22:50:00.006-05:00

Tonight I sat down with my husband to watch a movie I had seen before but he had not. I knew this was going to be a hard and sad experience for both of us because I knew what I went through emotionally the first time. But for some reason the second was even harder. Perhaps it was because I shared the company of someone who understood what I was feeling, someone who knows. All I know is that this movie made me cry the second time more than I have ever cried during a movie and I am not an easy to cry in a movie kind of girl. I am tough shelled, strong and can put up a front like nobody you have ever seen. This movie destroys all of my strengths and pulls my weakness to the surface.

For those of you who have never heard of this movie it stars Brendan Frasier and Harrison Ford. It is a movie about a family whose children suffer a rare fatal illness with no cure. It is a movie about faith and a family not willing to settle for clinical fate but fight for hope. Through all of their fighting they end up finding a "cure" for their children's illness. At least it is a cure for "some" of their children's illness, a cure that will give them a life expectancy of indefinite instead of a year or two.

For those of you who know us, you know how close my daughters illness is to a cure, at least the "blindness" part is. Some of you know of China and the incredible advances being done with Stem Cell therapy and how hard we fought but failed to get her there for the procedure. This was not a definite cure, no child has seen 100% or even 1/4 percent vision gain but almost all have seen some. Even a 1/8 vision gain would be a miracle to us.

Some of you might not realize that Miriam would still have seizures, we would still have that tiny bit of fear we might wake up one day and she not be on this earth due to the possibility of "sudden death" associated with the illness. You might not realize that we still risk her growth stopping before our eyes and her being a little person. There are so many "other" possibilities we deal with every day that even Beike Bio-tech in all their amazing glory could not cure. And oh how we long for a cure. A total cure that would give our baby a pituitary gland so she wouldn't have to take 7 medications/steroids a day (which eventually she will have to take, she takes 4 now) and an optic nerve so she could see. This family and the illness they fought are our hope. I have never in my life watched a movie that touched me as much as this one does. I keep their journey in my heart and know that no matter what the future brings I know there will always be a possibility that our baby can have a normal life. All it takes is the right mind, the right person to write down the perfect mathematical equation at the perfect time. A few sets of numbers that match our daughters genetic makeup and all our worries are gone. This is my hope, now watch the movie to find yours.

Worksheet Carnival!

2010-09-04T18:00:00.007-05:00

As everyone knows I make my own curriculum and because of such I find myself on an endless search of websites that provide fun and exciting worksheets that will keep my 3 & 5 year old interested. Along the way I have swiped pages from tons of sites searching every school night for more. I decided it was time to "collect" websites instead of endlessly searching for something new. Most of the sites I search for are for "kids" so not all of these websites are going to have something for everyone. I rated each site based on search-ability and content. IE: If it was a pain in the butt to search, things popped up in new browsers with every click or if they only had a page or two of worksheets they got a low star count. The sites with the highest star counts are most likely the sites I visit daily but all do have worthwhile FREE worksheets for you to use in your home-school. Enjoy!
1. The Homeschool Helper * * *
2. School Express * * * * *
3. Homeschool Living * *
4. Homeschool Math * * *
5. About.com's Homeschooling page * * * *
6. TLS Books * * * *
7. Parenting our kids * * *
8. ABC Teach * * * * *
9. Super Teacher Worksheets * * *
10. Beginning Reading * * *
11. EX Sheets * * * *
12. Free Phonic Worksheets * * *
13. Education.com * * * *
14. Shirleys preschool activities * *
15. Print Activities * * *
16. Kids Learning Station * * * * *
17. All Kids Network (sister site of Kids learning station) * * * *
18. Kiddy House * * *
19. Preschool Learners * *
20. English 4 kids * *
21. Disney Stationary * *
22. Ziggity Zoom * *
23. Brave Kid Games * *
24. ESL Castle * *
25. Handwriting for Kids * *
26. ESL Kids lab * *
27. Activity School bus * *
28. Black Dog *
29. Just Mommies * *
30. Homeschool Bin * *
31. Pre-K - 8 * * *
32. Printables 4 Kids * * *
33. Lucy Animals *
34. Child Development Blog *
35. Worksheets for Kids *
36. My Worksheets for Kids * *
37. Have fun Teaching * * *
38. Kids Activities Learning Games *
39. Early Children * *
40. Free printable * *
41. MES-English *
42. Teacher planet * *
43. Fun Fonix Make your own Worksheets * *
44. Worksheet Works (make your own) *
45. First School * *
46. Christian Preschool printables * *
47. Lil Bunny Hops *
48 . Activity Coloring Pages *
49. Learning Planet *
50. Under 5 * *
Care to Add to this list? Leave a comment!

Finding a homeschooling group?

2010-09-03T22:27:00.006-05:00

In our family it is VERY important to us to socialize our children. I was not socialized very well growing up and I know the value of socialization. I am not a social butterfly, I am not a socialite of any means. I am shy, have no clue how to talk to people and often just clam up to people. My husband on the other hand is the epitome of socialization. He could talk to anyone no matter who they were, how they were or what they looked like with such ease that I feel a twinge of jealousy sometimes. However he is in fact my shield. No matter where we go I know all I have to do is stand there and he will do all the talking.

Oh, I was raise by a strong women, I am very opinionated when it comes to handling household endeavors. I could chew out the electric company with the best of them, I can also type until my fingers fall off but when it comes to "personal relationships" I fall VERY short. Outside of my husband, I have no real friends, because I never know what to do or say. My awkwardness kills me every time!

I want...no I NEED my children to be just the opposite of me and the very vision of their father. I have my strengths, strength being one of them but socialization is my biggest weakness. This is why when we decided to home-school I KNEW we needed to be a part of a playgroup or home-school group. If we were still members of the LDS church this would not be a problem because a good half of the church seems to home-school. But we left the church with no intentions of going back just so our children could socialize. I believe strongly in my father in Heaven and I know that his intentions for me do not include going to any church lacking faith. And faith in the Mormon religion is something I do not have. It was their incredible socialization when you first become a member that lead me to them in the first place. It was so nice being accepted in a way I never had before. No, that is not an option. We now go to a small, intimate non denominational church which we love and we plan on keeping it that way.

So where do I look? I have looked on craigslist, homeschool.com, meetup.com and every other .com I can find. I have posted ads in search of a group but never had a response. I did find ONE group half an hour away I was willing to join but they were full with a waiting list a mile long. This waiting list told me that there are NO other groups near me. So , I decided to start my own group only I have no idea how to get the word out. I simply cannot afford to pay the ridiculous fee for meetup.com on the off chance it works. I posted an add on craigslist, homeschool.com, socialtoddler.com as well as various other locations. I even posted in the calendar section of our newspaper but they pick and choose which groups they are going to advertise so who knows if they will ever post it. All I do know is that it has been a few weeks and we have not had one social event. I do NOT want my kids to become "those" homeschoolers. You all know the ones I am talking about! Those kids who, well, are like ME.

So how did YOU do it? How did you manage to find your group? Did you start it yourself? If so , how long did it take to get another family to join you?

I admit it, I need help! This is not my idea of what I want homeschool life to be...

At least there was Jewelry!

2010-09-03T15:58:00.004-05:00

Today's school day was just plain icky! Everyone was yawning thanks to the dark rainy weather and although we very much needed that rain it did put a damper on our day. How come nobody warned me rainy days would be like this so I could have been prepared for how to handle rainy day lessons? I guess our day could have been worse though, there were no fits, only a few whines here and there, for the most part heads were on shoulders and mommy was declaring it a "SIT UP STRAIGHT" war. In the end however we got all of our lessons done, we learned a few things and ended up with some classy jewelry to boot. A school day is never a waste if it comes with jewels!

Of course the "jewelry" I am talking about is the macaroni jewelry we made during arts and crafts. I am so glad I finally found a use for the "Healthy Harvest" pasta that has been haunting our cabinet for almost a year. I purchased this stuff during a weight watchers stint and I hated it. It might taste like mushy cardboard but it makes for a perfect little hand made necklace!

The most awesome part of this activity besides the fact I have some pretty crafty little ones is that Miriam LOVED making the jewelry. Of course I had to help her string everything as you see in the picture. She had to hold the string and the bead/pasta, and I guided her hands to the right place. She would crack up laughing every time we put the pasta or bead through the string. I think she thought is was funny because the string that came through would tickle her hand. I don't care what it was she got out of it, I am just glad she liked it!

2010-09-03T14:14:00.004-05:00

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"HECK YEAH!"!

2010-09-02T14:29:00.010-05:00

This day was nothing but a series of awesome and amazing happenings resulting in a mommy cry of "HECK YEAH" over and over again. Days like this one are the reasons why homeschooling children is so rewarding. Once again both girls were receptive to being educated. Miriam who doesn't normally pay attention did everything she was asked. By the time our musical moment rolled around she was hot with learning and she was obviously ready for more! First I handed her a recorder, I put it in her hands had her move it to her lips and suddenly felt our day ending on a sour note because she went cold. But suddenly I had an idea, I put my mouth next to hers, we were cheek to cheek, put half of the recorder in her mouth and half in mine then I blew. I then put the recorder into her mouth and blew hard and long in her face. Suddenly Miriam got the idea and started blowing into the recorder all on her own. She was THRILLED and was eager to try out the harmonica which was even more successful than the recorder because without my even showing her she learned that if you breath the air back in after you blow you make a new sound. She played the harmonica for the entire musical moment. I can definitely see her learning to actually "play" the harmonica because I have never seen her so interested in an instrument before. This was HUGE!

Here are a few videos. The first being my favorite which is Miriam playing the harmonica. She is totally harmonizing and I love it!

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Besides various worksheets we also did some wonderful and fun activities today. First we played a game I call "Macaroni Dice". Last night I made some special dice using white electrical tape, 2 wooden blocks and my favorite item in the world, puff paint. I wrapped the wooden blocks in the tape and used the paint to make raised numbers and dots on each side. Each girl took turns throwing the dice and adding together the numbers by recognizing the number & counting the dots. After they added up their total they would count out the same amount of macaroni. The first person to collect 25 macaroni won.

We made Sheep using cotton, pipe cleaner, construction paper and craft eyes for Arts & Crafts. Georgia was so excited to make these sheep that she came inside from recess WILLINGLY. Which is rare for her because she is an outdoor girl.

For our "sensory/tactile stimulation" period we did scratch drawings in which we covered various objects with construction paper and colored over them with crayons to make imprints. The idea for this we got from a blog called Special Needs Homeschool. I just love reading this blog, you should check out the post for other wonderful sensory activity ideas.

And for our shape/color lesson we cut and colored foam shapes. Pictures of these will come later because I plan on using them to make our sand shapes.

Honestly, I am not sure I could have asked for much more from this day. I am absolutely beside myself at how great it went!

Homeschooling works!

2010-09-01T21:54:00.014-05:00

We had an EXCELLENT day today. School went very well with all kids willing to work and cooperate. Miriam tolerated hand over hand, she repeated the Letter "A" several times during our alphabet lesson and she loved today's counting worksheets. It was so exciting to teach her today because she was so receptive to learning. She didn't complain one single time!

I am sure some of you have read that on Miriam's worksheets I "raise" and "braille" everything right down to her name on the page using puff paint. But did you know that if a counting page has tiny pictures too small to trace I just dot the pictures and she counts the dots? This is an excellent way to learn how to count and get the most out of worksheets. Puff paint was one of the greatest things ever invented! Although given how much I use it I just wish it wasn't so pricey!

As for Georgia, she did not say "no" or "I can't do it" one single time. She traced, circled , drew lines and counted with ease. The funniest thing about the tracing part is that we didn't even have a tracing worksheet, she decided to trace the letters as they were written. I was so happy to see the big smile on her face every time I praised her for doing something correctly. She hates hearing "lets try again".

We worked on several worksheets including alphabet coloring, shape matching concepts and counting. But of course the favorite activities were making the A for alligator hats (which can be found on yesterdays site of the day) and TP tube bugs which we incorporated it into our shapes lesson. I am really going to have to do a tutorial for those bugs because they turned out so cute!

Today's Lessons:

And here is a random picture of Miriam picking and choosing her own Lego's during free time. Before we started school she would have gotten up and left the table with no interest in toys. We have tried hard over the years but I guess she just wasn't ready, now she is! She just loves those Lego's!

And here are the girls "talking crayons". Or shall I say Georgia was "talking" and Miriam was listening. Notice how attentive she is and can you see her exploring the crayon as Georgia talks about it?

If you don't have a special needs child you might not see how amazing today was for our family. But the advances Miriam has made in only a few weeks is incredible! She cannot stand to be touched, hates having her hands held down for any reason other than walking, has an attention span of a 3 year old and the frustration level of a 1 year old. All of these things is without a doubt being improved!

Later on in the day I took my little Sophia on a shopping trip to buy some items for school. We brought home some great items including Little Tikes Foam letters/numbers which we plan on making into sand letter/numbers and a Puzzle clock we got from Garanimals. Out of all of the learning cloclks I have seen this is one of the best that would work for Miriam and at only 10 bucks I jumped on it (at least half the price of others). I brought home the clock and used some puff paint to raise the numbers. By morning it will be ready to go! The thing I love is that the hands on the clock TICK as you move them which makes this the PERFECT learning clock for blind children. (once you raise the numbers anyway which is super easy to do)

I cannot wait for school tomorrow! I even purchased a few recorders and harmonicas for our music focus. The girls are going to love it!

Our first Lapbook...."sort of"

2010-08-31T17:06:00.012-05:00

I was wandering around Wal-Mart the other day and came across this really neat multi-page dry erase learning notebook. It had about 3 dry erase boards with pre-school activities on the front and back. I had every intention of purchasing said board until I decided to make my own as I tend to do with everything in life. I am someone who hates buying anything that is possible for me to do myself.So before I make the splurge I always come home and research the possibilities either in my head or online.

So what I ended up deciding, with a little help from the internet is to put a cheapo notebook, some laminate folders and a set of dry erase markers to good use. I purchased some cheap but cute 1.00 fabric, a .50 cents clearance princess folder for deco and came home to make Georgia's special book.

In total I spent spent 7.20 cents which was about .50 cents more than the book at Wal-Mart which is fine with me since it is custom and I can change the pages anytime I want which actually makes this invaluable. It is also fine with me because as it stands with this book Georgia has over 50 learning activities from the alphabet to concepts! Unlike what would end up happening with the pre-made book there is no way for her to get bored. Did I mention my book came with markers? ;-)

The price is as follows:

Binder: .75
Markers (with eraser on tip): $3.00
Laminate folders: 1.95
Fabric: 1.00
Folder: .50

I know this isn't your "classic" lapbook but it is the first thing of it's kind we have done. We do plan on making a classic folding lapbook but it is something I want to do with Georgia during her private learning time this Saturday. This is however something that is so easy to make anyone could do it. If you want to avoid the crafty part of the book you could just use the binder as is, purchase one with a clear folder & print off something or buy one with a print. I just did it this way because I know how much my kids love things with a personal touch. Georgia tends to be more drawn to something that fits her personality, it's a bonus if her name is on it.

The second Georgia saw the book she went nuts with joy. She was screaming "Mommy I just love princess and school class!". Then she sat down at her desk and started working hard. As soon as I left her to her own devices she started TRACING pictures. Tracing was one of the things she has been refusing to do in class. Don't you just love reverse psychology?

Site of the day!

2010-08-31T13:12:00.006-05:00

Everyday I am going to try to bring you a website which offer tools for Homeschoolers. There are thousands of sites out there with more coming online each day. If you have a website that has great FREE school tools you would like to serve up for our daily website focus be sure to leave a comment.

Now I know so many of you know and love the following website but as a new homeschooling mom I found it such a valuable resource to our needs especially since we do not purchase a curriculum.

Homeschool Express has an extensive collection of homeschool freebies including 16,000+ worksheets, funtime games, make worksheets, online math, activity fun worksheets and United States Units. This website is a must have for any homeschooling family. They also have thousands of for purchase E-Workbooks @ excellent and affordable prices.