We started the day off with a good breakfast - eggs in a nest, bacon, hash browns, juice, coffee.

Then Doug had Austin back the van up to the trailor and hitch it up. More and more Doug is having Austin take an active role in his day to day work. This is providing him with some awesome real life experience in practical living skills. I've seen a big boost in Austin's self-confidence since they have begun doing this.

Then we went over to our old house and loaded up the last load of random stuff that was left there and brought it back to the new (to us) house. It's so great to know that all the packing and moving is done. There's still quite a bit of unpacking to do but at least everything is over here.

Of the three kids Amanda has had the hardest time with this move. She always has a hard time with change and this time was no different. Even though she loves our new home, she has a hard time letting go of the old one. She took my phone and was going through the house taking pictures of each room. I was looking through them this evening and found this one she took of herself.

What a sad face.

She cheered up quite a bit though when we told her we were going to McDonalds as a treat since they did such a wonderful job and worked so hard today.

Now her friend CeCe is here for the night and they are watching the Disney channel. Doug is watching Avatar on him computer and I am blogging.

~ Rose ~



Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope everyone else did too.

Thaksgiving morning we picked up Doug's daughter and she joined us for a trip to Doug's parents home.

The girls were goofy, Austin slept, and Michael just enjoyed the ride. Michael does really well even though it's a fairly long ride - about and hour and a half. A couple times he did ask Doug if he could find Pawpaw's house. I always enjoy the chance to get out for awhile and this time I took a couple pictures of the scenery.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner prepared by Doug's mother. My favorite parts were the dressing, and the pumpkin pie. Oh, and the pink jello salad. I didn't get any pictures of the meal, I was too busy enjoying it.

The weather was nice and the kids had a lot of fun playing outside.

Amanda had the camara (actually my phone) part of the time and I found these pictures when she gave it back to me.

Can you tell she loves these boots?

And this is my favorite.

It was a great day.

Autism and Learning with Dolls

L, age 2 1/2, and in the process of being evaluated for autism ( all the signs are there), had a great time learning about body parts yesterday. He never really seemed to care before, at least not when we worked together. But yesterday he found a doll that made sounds and was fascinated.

I found it interesting that when the doll made laughing sounds he laughed as well, and when the doll made crying sounds he hugged it. So cute, and gave a little insight into his perceptions of emotions. As he played I would verbalize that the baby is laughing or baby is crying, baby is sad.

After he had sat near me and played with the doll for awhile he began to interact with me, so I started pointing out the dolls nose, ears, mouth, etc. I would point to the dolls nose and say "Dolls nose" and then tap his nose and say "L's nose." Then move on to ears, mouth, eyes, etc. He loved it. When we moved on to hands, feet, etc. he would double over laughing. For variety we would also point to my nose, my ears, and so on. We kept it light and playful,  laughed a lot and had a great time while grabbing a teachable moment and making the most of it.

Today went much more smoothly than yesterday although it was still very busy. I was just updating the log book and realized that over the course of the day 18 different children were here in childcare. Then with my own three added to the group it makes a total of 21 children ranging in age from 8 months to 12 years. As I write this at 8:45PM there are still four here. Two will be leaving around 10:30 and two are staying overnight.

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A friend stopped by this morning just to say "Hi" and brought along sausage biscuits from Hardees for both of us. It was such a positive way to start the day. Since it's hard for me to get out sometimes she occasionally just stops by just to chat.

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Doug took Austin and Michael to the child/youth program at church this evening. Austin's friend Tristan went along this time. This is my weekly break from Michael, who always does wonderful and charms everyone in church and then reverts back to the same oppositional behaviour as soon as he comes home. Although the last few days he's been quick to say he's sorry after an episode, often on his own.

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Micheal and I made homemade finger paint early this morning fully intending to use it today but somehow our plans kept being derailed and we never got it out. But we sure did have fun mixing the colors anyway.

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And that's about as exciting as it gets today. I'm hoping to hear something a little more definitive about the house tomorrow. Like I said before, I am not very good at this whole waiting thing.

This and That

• We have much more hope right now that  the house we are hoping to buy really will be ours. I'm not good at waiting for answers and it's been rough waiting since Thursday evening for them. But finally this evening we were able to talk to someone and it looks like it's going to happen. Not set in stone yet but hopefully heading that way. I'm excited again.
• I took this picture yesterday to commemorate the joy of seeing brother and sister getting along. Unfortunately it didn't carry over into today. I know they love each other but Wow! They can really argue!

• We are happy that two more new children joined our crew this week. Kansas is 7 years old and is here 2 -3 evenings a week and Jayden is 15months old and here 6 mornings a week.
• But I was sad when this morning, the very first morning that Jayden was here, he fell and bumped his head on the door frame resulting in a rather larger goose egg on his forehead. Why do these things always seem to happen on the first day?
• We had two children out sick today. I hope they feel better soon and we see them tomorrow.
• Our new history book The Story of the World Volume 1 finally arrived. We started it yesterday and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately our afternoon school session was interrupted so we didn't get to read any more of it today. We were able to get math, reading and Bible done before I had to call an end to schoolwork for the day because of very cranky babies. I had planned to include history and literature today as well but it just wasn't going to happen. But tomorrow is another day and should be a much easier one. I sure hope so anyway.
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• This afternoon a friend of ours from church came over and had Doug help him work on his truck. Michael enjoyed going out and "helping."
• And now I think it's time for me to go make sure I have things set up to run smoothly in the morning. First child is scheduled to be here at 5:15AM.

• We had a great service in church this morning. A visiting evangelist (whose name I simply cannot remember) brought the message. His opening question was "Are you famous in Hell?" He then went on to challenge us to be the kind of Christ followers who make Satan cringe because of the way we allow Jesus to work in our hearts and lives, allowing His Light and Love to shine to those around us.
• I made another batch of homemade playdough this afternoon since the kids had mixed up all our other playdough until we simply had a big grayish, greenish, brownish mass. I always think it's so fun to mix the colors and see what shades I can come up with and Tammy and Amanda joined the fun, mixing up some colors of their own.
• It was a fairly quiet day as far as the daycare goes. One child stayed overnight and left just before we went to church. Another came just before time for church and left this afternoon. Three more came this evening and left around 8:30.
• This afternoon Doug took Austin to his friend Aaron's birthday party. Austin and Aaron have been best friends for years and spend as much time together as possible
• I'm looking forward to beginning a new week and hoping it brings us some good news about the house.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week.

Notes From the Last Few Days

• The last couple days have been frustrating.
• Everything was moving along smoothly on the house we are hoping to buy until Thursday evening when we hit a snag. Now we're very hopeful but uncertain if everything is going to go through or not. Waiting for answers is the hardest part.
• Amanda and Doug were both hit by a stomach bug this week. Amanda's started Wednesday night and Doug's Thursday night. It seemed to be a 24 hour bug. They are both feeling much better now.
• Mona was not so lucky and was unable to come in to work for 2 1/2 days. But we're glad she's feeling better now.
• Michael has been beyond difficult the last few weeks and I'm at a loss to know what to do next. Consequences and punishments don't seem to work. Extra time and positve attention doesn't seem to work. Ignoring doesn't seem to work. Today has been full of multiple temper tantrums, outright defiance, even a table turned over in a rage. He oftens sneaks out the door and runs away. Doug and Mona have been trying to take him with them often to give me a break which I greatly appreciate but I'm still exhausted.
• On a happier note, we had some delicious homemade vegetable soup for lunch that Mona made yesterday so I would have an easy lunch. For dinner we had homemade pizza that I made while Doug took the little kids outside to play. Yummy!

Bits and Pieces

• We had a new child begin daycare with us today. A big welcome to Gabe. His first day went very well and we're looking forward to Gabe coming back on Thursday.

• The home inspection on the house we are buying was today. We got a pretty good report. There are a few minor repairs that need to be done, but nothing that causes us a lot of concern.
• Since everything is moving along so smoothly with the house it looks like closing may be the beginning instead of middle of November. We're planning to go ahead and pay the rent on the house we're living in through the month of November, however, so that we won't be as rushed while making the change.
• As we're trying to get through all this with as little stress as possible, I am hoping the rest of us don't catch the stomach bug that bit a couple people today. One child had to go home early and Mona, my asssistant, only worked about 1 1/2 hours today because she wasn't feeling well. My house now smells like Lysol.
• Yesterday Mona loaned me a book to read that I had a hard time putting down last night. Before I knew it, it was 1:30AM. Yikes. The book is A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers. Somehow I needed to read the stories of women who faced hard times and perservered. Women who dreamed and prayed and cried and laughed and in the end were used by God to bring about wonderful results. I will be reading some more of this book tonight, but hopefully this time I will stop reading before 1AM. I really need more sleep than that to persevere very much at anything.

Recent Reads I've Enjoyed

10 Instant Productive Working Habits from All About Living with Life

Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online I had a hard time choosing one or two articles from this site so I am simply sharing a link to the homepage.

Is Your Life Too Small for You? and How to Change Your Luck  from My Super-Charged Life

Boxes

Everywhere I look right now this is what I see.

Boxes packed full of whatever we think we can do without until we move.



And more empty boxes ready to be filled.

Oh, the joys of moving.

The best part of today - Austin and Amanda came home from a week of vacation with my parents. Yay! I always miss them a lot. This week however was so busy that I didn't get to spend to much time being sad that they were gone.

Here is some of the fun we had this past week.

The first, and most exciting to me is that we signed the contract on this house.

It's an older house, built in 1901, and I love it. Somehow I always feel more at home in the older houses. There is definitely less space here than the house we live in now but it feels like it's very workable. We will have about an acre of land with a two car garage and a storage building as well as plenty of space for the kids to play. And a garden spot. And room for the kids to each get a dog. I am SO excited.

So with the knowledge that we will soon be moving, barring any unforseen bumps in the road, I began packing. Since Austin and Amanda were gone last week and we were not doing schoolwork each day, I used as much of that time as I could to pack. I know that with the kids to care for, schoolwork to accomplish each day, and everything else that life tosses my way in seemingly random fashion, I will have limited time to pack so I'm trying to get as much done as possible when I have the time.

Also keeping me busy this past week were are tempory boarders. Tammy and her son Dustyn are staying with us temporarily. It has gone well, and she has been very helpful with the kids. But at the same time it calls for adjustments and those have to be worked through. We have a lot of good talks, laughter and evenings when we are both on the computer in quiet companionship.



After our busy week, it was nice to have a quieter than normal day. In a completely unplanned stroke of luck there were no daycare kids here today. It just happened that all the parents had a day off on the same day. It was my turn to be in the church nursery today. Normally Amanda would help me but since she didn't get home until after church Doug helped me. We only had a few children and it went very well. After church we went to the Chinese restaurant across the road from where we live for lunch. When we got home I took a short nap before we went and picked up the kids from my parents and took them to look at the house.

It's been a good day, a good week. I'm looking forward to another busy week with more progress toward the actual closing and moving date.

Today has been full of . . .

 kids . . .



banana wheat muffins . . .

I made a triple batch of these this morning, putting some in the freezer and leaving plenty out to enjoy for the next few days.

fingerpaint . . .

I love making homemade fingerpaint and mixing up the colors.

and making an offer on this house that we hope to call home soon.



It's been a great day.

Animal Care Instructions

Amanda and Austin are on vacation this week with their grandparents and other extended family. I miss them a lot but I'm glad they are having fun.

Before Amanda left she wrote me a complete set of instructions for taking care of her pets, It was so cute I have to copy them here.

Remember to put Toby's food on a plate so he does not cut his tongue.

Only put his food near his beds. I am trying to teach him he can't come on the entrance porch.

Please, please, please make sure Scout AND Toby know they are good boys.

And sometimes can you pet them a little bit.

And if you see one of Scout's toys can you throw it for him so he can chase it.

8:30AM - Toby's first meal

Noonish - Toby's 2nd meal

5:30PM Toby's 3rd meal

The rats can eat leftovers from meals or just about anything actually.  Please make sure that they have PLENTY of water.

Thank You.

Friday's Fave Five

This week I am linking up to Friday's Fave Five over at Living to Tell the Story.

So without further ado here are some of my favorite five things about this week.

1. MY HELPER IS BACK! After being gone Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then on Monday she was able to come back on Tuesday Her son was very ill and needed her to be with him. I'm so glad he's doing better. And I'm so glad to have her back. Everything just runs so much more smoothly when she's here.

2. Sleeping in on a rainy morning. This morning we woke up to rain, rain, rain. My early kids came in and went back to sleep so I was able to catch another hour of rest on the couch. It was awesome to lay there and listen to the rain on the windows and doze. It made my day.

3. Emely. Tuesday was Emely's first day with us and we have enjoyed having her here with us.

4.  The blessing of having a roof over my head.  Earlier this week we found out the mother of one of the kids we babysit had fallen on hard times and she and her son had no place to live. It made me realize how grateful I am to have the security of a roof over my head. We were fortunate to be able to offer her a temporary place to stay while she looks for an apartment.

5. Coffee. This week has been cool and rainy and I have been enjoying lots of coffee. Almost as good as actually drinking coffee is the aroma of fresh coffee brewing. In fact, I think I'm going to go brew a fresh pot now.

Homeschool Reflections - Looking Back at September

This year we started our homeschool year the day after Labor Day. It took us a couple weeks to find our groove we seem to be in a good place right now.

Our routine this year is very simple and takes about two hours a day. Math and Independent Reading are done in the mornings between 10:00 and 11:00. The math assignment is done first and when that is finished the rest of the hour is filled with independent reading. A few of the books the kids have read so far this year are The Black Stallion by Walter Farley (Amanda), Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (Austin and Amanda) and The Story of King Arthur and His Knights from the Classic Starts series (Austin and Amanda).

Our second hour of work is in the afternoon when the little kids are napping. During this time we sit down together and I read aloud. We do Bible, Science or Social Studies (alternating books) and Literature. Our Bible reading takes 5 - 10 minutes and then we finish the first half hour with the Science or Social Studies book that we are reading. The second half hour is spent reading our literature books. So far this year we've read Don't Know Much About Space by Kenneth C. Davis and Death on the Nile (A Hercule Poirot Mystery) by Agatha Christie.

This system is working very well for us. I feel like we are covering the basics without taking too much time away from all the other things that are capturing their interests at the moment. Things like building endless models with K-Nex, nursing a sickly abandoned kitten back to health, self inititiated reading just because the book looks interesting, walks through woods and fields, and watching The Learning Channel, Discovery Health and Animal Planet. It allows us time to work together as a family in our home daycare business and gives them the opportunity to earn money of their own. And, of course, earning money and learning how to manage it is another important part of their education.

And I do not have to worry in the slightest about lack of socialization. Amanda has five really good friends and Austin has three that they spend time with, both in their homes and with them in our home. Then there are all the families we learn to know through our business. Add to that activities at church and time spent with extended family and they are in no way lacking socialization.

So over all I feel like our first month of school for this year has gone very well and looking forward to October.

I mentioned in my last post that Mona's nineteen year old son had a blood clot. Later in the week things took a turn for the worse and he began having seizures. Then he completely lost consciousness and finally had to be put on a ventilator. This was on Wednesday. He is now off the ventilator, awake and talking but when I last talked to his sister this afternoon the doctors still did not know what had caused the seizures. They are saying that they believe the blood clot and the seizures are unrelated. This family could certainly use some prayers right now as they go through this.

I Thought I Lost the Chicken Nuggets

When I came downstairs this morning at 6:00 I was startled to find Mona (my helper) standing in the kitchen reading the weekly menu that I had posted on the bulletin board. She wasn't scheduled to come in until 10AM so I was very surprised to see her. It turned out she had been at the hospital all night with her 19 year old son who has a blood clot in his leg. She was on her way home and stopped by to see what was coming up for the day  and to see if she could get a head start on anything. I told her she could take the day off if she wanted/needed to, but she insisted on working.

 Since there were green beans on the menu she took a large can of them and a large kettle home with her to get them started cooking while she took care of a few things at home and made some phone calls. I told her I would start the chicken nuggets and french fries and keep an eye on them when the time came if she wasn't here by then. So when it was time to start lunch I took a few minutes to get the food out of the freezer, put it on baking sheets and put it in the oven. Then I took the kids into the back yard to play. Since the door to the back yard is right off the kitchen in was easy enough to pop in and check on them now and then. After we were out a little while I decided to check on the food. I came in and looked in the oven and the fries were coming along nicely. But I didn't see any chicken nuggets. Irritated with myself for forgetting to put them in the oven I turned around to see where on the kitchen counter I had left them. No chicken nuggets. Now really annoyed with myself  I opened the oven door again to see if I had somehow missed them there. Still no chicken nuggets. I checked the freezer to see if I just thought I had gotten them out. No nuggets. Now getting a little concerned about my state of mind I looked in the refrigerator, in the freezer again, in the second refrigerator. No nuggets. Getting a little desperate I checked the cabinets. Still no nuggets.Now feeling a little hysterical I started laughing and looked some more. Nothing. Finally, I called Amanda, who was in the yard with the kids to come in for a little. I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't talk.

"Amanda" I said. "I have a little problem." She looked puzzled and very unsure of what on earth this problem might be. "I lost the chicken nuggets."

Now she started laughing. "Mona came by and got them and took them home with her to finish baking." she said.

I still haven't figured out why Mona decided to take the nuggets home with her and leave the fries in the oven but I'm sure she had her reasons. I'm just glad to know that I wasn't hallucinating when I thought I put them in the oven.

Meandering Through Saturday

All day I've been enjoying these roses that Mona brought with her when she came to work Wednesday. They are on a little shelf in the kitchen where I can see them while I cook and bake and feed the kids and clean up after them. Somehow they make me happy just to have them there to look at.

I tried some new recipes to today and they all turned out very good. I made Pumpkin Bread, Chili, and Amish Bread. The last few weeks I have been using the bread machine more and it's so much fun to try new reicpes in it. And I love the smell of baking bread. Another thing that makes me happy.

The rest of the day was spent with the kids and at naptime I printed the pages for our new circle time book and the pictures for our new wall display for next week. Most of what I printed came from one of my favorite sites for kids activities - DLTK Kids. Our letter of the week is Kk, the shape is circle, the color is purple and the number is 8. I printed several songs for the letter Kk and some pictures of things that begin with Kk, as well as some songs about dinosaurs  to compliment our dinosaur wall display. The only thing that did not come from DLTK Kids was our sign language lesson for the week. That came from Lesson Tutor.

Doug took trash to the landfill, went grocery shopping (Amanda and Michael went with him), did some laundry (Thank you!) and mowed the yard at our rental house. Austin slept until after 2:00 this afternoon and then I had Amanda go wake him. He's had a cold and was really sleepy yesterday, so I thought he probably needed the rest, but I also wanted him to be able to sleep tonight. Amanda spent most of her free time either playing with Toby and Scout (our cats) or on her laptop watching YouTube videos of WebKinz.

And that in a nutshell was our day. I feel like I just kinda meandered through my Saturday and it was good.

Another Day in the Life

Some days I sit down to write and think that I really don't have anything to say, that nothing has happened today. Then I realize that I am just so used to the daily chaos, drama and doings around here that I forget that it may be at least somewhat interesting to write about.

One parent today experienced a lot of frustration and what she felt was unfairness at work today, leading to her walking out. She called me and asked to come by and talk. The kids had just gone down for naps so I met her outside and we talked. She decided go talk to the owners of the business she had worked for to make sure they understood her side of the story and then she was  planning to see if she could put in some applications at other places. About 45 minutes later she called me back to tell me that she was back at work. When she came in this evening she told me that when she went to talk to the business owners and they in turn called the manager of the place where she was  employed and they were able to work things out so that she could return to work.

Another parent, actually a grandparent who has custody of her grandchild, has started radiaton treatment for breast and thyroid cancer this week. She had breast cancer five years ago and just a couple months ago found out she has it again. It has been really hard for her to make the decision to go ahead with treatment but her love for her grandson has won out.  Prayers for her and her grandson would be greatly appreciated.

Still another grandparent is temporarily taking care of her granddaughter for about ten days after the child's mother was unexpectedly unable too. I have cared for this child in the past and received a rather frantic call from the grandmother wondering if she could come here again for a little. I'm glad to say it worked out that we can so she was back today after being gone about six months. It's amazing how much a toddler can grow and change in six months.

 The stepmother of two of our kids works at Hershey Chocolate Factory brought us a whole box of Mounds candy bars this afternoon. SO GOOD! I don't think they're going to stay around long at all. Especially with four tween/teens in the house this evening. Of course I have definitely had my share of them as well.

I had a little scuffle (playfully) with one of the kids this afternoon and lost. Painfully. I was sitting in a lawn chair outside and just when I said "You win!" the chair tipped over backward and I hit the ground so hard I heard my teeth grind together. The chair folded up and I folded with it. I think I'm going to be a little sore tomorrow. The fourteen year old I was scuffling with thought it was a lot funnier than I did (although I think it did scare her a little at first.)

Amanda is still spending a large amount of her free time with Toby, the cat who showed up at our door last week. Wednesday evening Toby discovered Amanda's pet rats, who were safely in their cage. Of course he had to get as close as he could and try to figure this out. Two of the rats stayed at the back of the cage, but Amber, the feisty one, was not going to be afraid in her own home and gave him a good little nip on the nose. He jumped and fussed but went right back to the cage so she nipped him again. At that point Amanda seperated them and took Toby outside. Our other cat, Scout, just considers them a  normal part of the family and ignores them, even if Amanda has them out of their cage playing with them. He has been known to go to sleep next to them playing.

I made this pizza recipe for lunch today and we really like the flavor and texture of the very simple crust. It disappeared very quickly and even though I doubled the recipe I really should have made twice as much. I'm planning to make it again Sunday evening for a simple dinner. I was going to make this Chocolate Chip Bread for afternoon snack and then realized that somebody (Amanda) had eaten all the chocolate chips. So I guess it will have to wait now until Doug makes another trip to the grocery store.

And now my brain seems to have gone numb and I'm having a hard time writing a coherent sentence. I think it's time to go read a few blogs and maybe play a game or two of Mahjong.

Yesterday and today have been the kind of days that just move smoothly along pretty much the way they are supposed too. Which is a wonderful and somewhat rare occasion around here.

The weather has been nice, not too hot and not too cool. The kids have been in pretty good moods, homeschool has gone well and life looks good.

At the moment (9:22PM) we only have one daycare child here and he's asleep as is Michael.

The Wednesday evening children's program at church has started again so Doug took Michael and Austin. Doug always stays and helps out then brings the boys back home. Amanda would rather stay home and we have decided not push the issue. So she was home with me. I stay home because of the kids we have here in daycare. Some are too young to go and some leave at a time the would make it difficut to go to church. But I enjoy the quieter evenings with Michael occupied at church.

Yesterday I heard a sudden little yell from Amanda and then Austin and Amanda came running to the kitchen to tell us they had found some kind of strange insect and didn't know what it was. I had an idea when I saw it what it was but wasn't completely sure. The kids caught and kept it until we could look it up. This afternoon we did looked it up online and found I was right. It is called a camel cricket. I think the kids are planning to take it along to Grandma's tomorrow evening to show everyone there and then they will probably let it go.