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(100th post!)

Raingutter Regatta = extreme anxiety for a mom with a child that has Prader-Willi syndrome

A~man has been in scouts for 3 years and is now finishing his Bear year. I will admit that I truly only do Boy Scouts so A~man can have social interaction with just boys (which is a challenge for him)...plus the leaders are awesome, accepting and inclusive. Also I love the activities they do which are SO what our family likes to do with it being nature and the big outdoors focussed.  Most parents...or so it seems...go 101% with their boys in scouts. Admittedly I do about 75%. I am hoping I can pull it together so he can complete what he needs to for the year. But on top of geography club,  drama club, Brownies, 4H, Z~girls running club, Z's soccer, A's occupational therapy and HOMESCHOOLING...I am doing the best that I can. So I am really praying about what I need to do as far as activities for next year. I am a homebody and haven't been spending as much time at home as I would like!

Tonight we participated in the Raingutter Regatta . We go to meetings and a couple other extra events but due to hubby's work or our busy schedules we do not go to the extra stuff. Infact I have avoided the Regatta like the freakin PLAGUE. Why?  The boat part I am fine with but when they are finished they fill up the raingutters (foil over the top) with ICECREAM and the kids eat out of it. Now I am not a germ freek so that is not the issue at all. But as a mom of a child with PWS it is emotional for me. A typical child may eat and eat all crazy like but y'know what? he WILL get full...or throw up. A child with PWS does not know this "full" they would eat and eat and eat.  I was feeling such anxiety about it and wondering if it would end with me dragging him to the car. But you know what? That did not happen. YES I let him eat more icecream than I would normally do but then I whispered in his ear "3 more bites" then you are finished. I underestimated my boy...he was just fine and walked away. He did brag about how much he ate but so did all the other kids. This gives me hope that maybe...just maybe as he grows older he will be able to walk away from food...or at least be redirected to something else.

A posey...

I took a million pictures today...but I will just post this one for now. I would love to have some of these in my yard!

Look what the miss and I created!

 On Saturday miss Z and I had some girl time without the boys. We went to a place that you can paint your own pottery. She had been a couple times for a friends party, her party, and to paint a Christmas ornament. For the longest time though I have wanted us to go there and paint some cups as we love to have tea together. When I was growing up I had a mug that had a little frog in the bottom of it. I remember when I wasn't wanting to drink my milk (I was really young) it really helped knowing I could see that frog peeking it's head out of my milk. So that is what Z and I did. We were there almost 2 hours ahahah but the time flew by! We drank a coke and painted. We did not originally plan for them to color coordinate but by the time we borrowed each others paints they did. 

I think they turned out adorable! I especially like Z's the smaller one.

what does a mama do?

Almost every Wednesday afternoon A~man goes to his favorite place on earth. Church. He has a "helper" and he gets to visit the special populations class. This is a wonderful day placement class for adults with disabilities that have aged out of school. A couple of these peeps I had as preschoolers when I was a teacher. (oh that makes me feel old) A~man is at a highter level than most of these and loves to go and help and socialize. He also eats dinner there. On rare occasions he goes and listens to the band practice for the teen service...they even let him play the drums. (in practice)

Today we went for a walk, did school, and hung out with hubby as he had the daytime off. Normally A~man gets a nap...but not today. I guess he was ornery, kicking, hitting, and *gulp* swearing. (his swearing is pretty mild usually involves phrases using $hit...but non the less not appropriate anywhere let alone CHURCH! He also quite proudly told me when he got home that he bit his helper....I haven't had this in a long long time. So when he go home (7) I had him take a bath and go to bed. He will also lose out on hanging out with helper (that he LOVES) on Friday which ultimately means more work for me. But that is how the cookie crumbles sometimes I 'spose.

Tomorrow is going to be insanely busy day. Somehow I need to fit in Drama club, watching a friend at the special olympics, 4/H and soccer practice. Followed by date night. I think I will have to cut out something tomorrow but it won't be date night! :^)

Why we do not watch television

It's going on 5 years on being television free WOOHOO! There was also a couple years earlier in our marriage where we did not watch. When we moved into our first home (the other was a rental) we just decided cable wasn't something we wanted to spend the extra money on.

I need a disclaimer...I do not judge people that watch tv..I am not completely ANTI TV but for our family it just works.When we go to friends, family, hotels do we boycott their tv? nahhh! So far anything they are watching hasn't been stuff I do not want my child to see. I like to watch it a bit myself on rare occasion when it is there. But it is not my choice of leisure time activity for my family. I admit to watching LOST on netflix years ago...and House...

Not in any particular order but one reason that comes to mind is commercials. The lack of commercials I think has made it so my children are never " I want I want" with any gimicky toy..product. OK I am a prude too...some commercials are not what I want my child exposed to right now. "kid shows" my kids have seen a few of them but to me it seems like they take what should be a childrens show and make the topic about older teen situations. Hee hee my dd barely knows who Hannah Montana is...I like that. ;) At 8 she does not talk about boyfriends...makeup....dating.  I like that...there is plenty of time for that when she IS a teen. Violence. Trust me my son does NOT need to see violent cartoons. He is a mirror of whatever he is exposed to and has an imagination that makes up enough stuff it shouldn't on it's own.

Now we do watch videos...but not much. Maybe 30min - 1hr a day. We have a ton at home...plus we check out from the library often. Redbox is also an awesome invention.;) We do have a Wii but sonny rarily (maybe once a week) plays it and Z a few times...but they only play when hubby is here as I just cannot get into it. (although it is fun when I do)

What DO we do for entertainment? We love to spend time outside. Hiking, walking and in the summer swimming...camping. My daughters favorite spot is in a tree with a book. Z and I love doing crafty stuff and I am trying to increase that this year. Oh and of course activities with our homeschool groups...but I'm finding we have too many this year. My vice...I admit though is the computer...so the time others are watching tv...I am surfing craft blogs. ;)

I admit...I am a packrat...

Does that go along with creativity? Can I use that excuse?? ;) Well I've decided to blog about it to keep me accountable. My BFF from High School is visiting us the last weekend in May. This is the wonderful friend/family we visited at Thanksgiving. I am sooo excited/nervous/anxious/excited...you get the point. Her house? Well she's a dr and her hubby is an AF pilot...so the house is NICE, decorated perfectly, and very clean. She has help though. ;)

I'm not envious (well maybe a bit on how orderly and decorated it is) as we have a really nice home too. Only I do not have much help (hubby and big T do mow/weedeat) and we have some major things we need to have done. Our deck is in desperate need of being overhauled and we also need a new liner for our above ground pool,and we need a new roof. Last year it waited as did anything that needed $$ with hubbies broken hip. It will get done...gradually...but that is not what this blog entry was supposed to be without. I am offtrack which happens easily.

I have decided in the next 4-5 weeks to declutter the house top to bottom excluding the garage THAT is dh's. Now my friend Topsy KNOWS I wanted to do this in Jan...I DID do well starting off but got off track way before completion. ;)  So I ran off a calender for the rest of April and May designating where I would be focussing each day. Today I also typed up A and Z's goals for the rest of the spring for school...to help me keep them on task for what I want to accomplish.

I'm also hoping to get some pictures and art up on the walls also. I already started on something for the entryway. I have used my painted papers on the matte portion of a picture (that I took) that was already up there. The problem is...I cannot find the photo now.....thus my need for an overhaul. Can you say ADD mama?

It's all about perspective

Today I decided to do some math review over things I thought (thought is the key word here) they knew. Z~girl did pretty good. A~man...it was as if he had never done it before. For A~man it was telling time up to each 15 minutes. NOPE. Also a worksheet with several coins to find the total and I also had real coins out as I know when he was tested last year he wasn't able to do it with unrealistic coin pictures. NOPE. He could still identify the coins and their value but not with several coins adding them together. He was frustrated and I was deflated like a balloon. See he wasn't being non compliant although he was a little spacey...I honestly think he forgot...along with a wee little Z~sister voice reminding me "do not fuss at him I think he is really trying!" (my voice of reason this morning) So I decided it was time for a break.

We stepped out into the sunshine, the warmth, the breeze and I know I exclaimed ahhhhhhhhh! PERFECT day. I walked the dog around the yard and remembered a different time when we first moved to this house gosh I think it has been 5 years. Back then Z was almost 4 and A was 6.5. In the last 5 years he has changed so much! I remember step MIL helping to watch the kids while we unloaded things. I remember coming outside and seeing A running from our yard to the house behind us that is quite a ways a way. MIL couldn't catch him so I caught him. This happened many times. I remember coming into his room one afternoon when he was taking a nap...or so I thought...to see him climbing out the window. This has been more recent but I remember the walls in his bedroom before we had them redone this past year. You see he had created 2 holes..(fist sized)...one beside his bed and one behind his door and picked and picked the wallpaper, the sheet rock paper all the way through the wall. Up untill a few years ago he was still "fingerpainting" (you do not want to know WHAT) all over his walls. He used to fling all kinds of things (again...not going into details) down the air/heating duct in his room causing the whole house to smell like....well you do not want to know. He used to constantly hug strangers...we have narrowed that down to friends although he needs to ask before grabbing people..what can I say he LOVES people. He no longer does these things! I need to internally celebrate that! He IS advancing, maturing, sure he has some new "issues" but thank goodness these old ones are past us! I have no doubt he will be able to learn basic math...how to use money...tell time I KNOW he has the ability...but it is on his schedule not mine. (Joy repeat this 100 times "his schedule") I truly believe he will keep advancing on his reading...s l o w l y...but he will be able to read functionally as an adult. I WILL insure this. ;) I also need to celebrate his knowing and understanding about God...He is growing up to be a Godly, caring, sympathetic man. I love him so much!

Here is a picture. Most I put on my blog I have taken but this one was taken by a good friend this winter.

My journal is finished! woohoo!

Well except for filling its pages of course. I used some colored hemp to lace the notebook together. I'm not sure I would use this exact method again but who knows. :) THIS is an accomplishment for me. I love starting and working on sewing and artsy projects but finishing stuff is challenging for me. Take for example this awesome blue jean quilt that is on my couch waiting to be finished...I started it a year ago to use camping. Also I think I skipped week 1 project as I was having a hard time painting pages that would work for that. I guess that is what I will work on this week and also practice some ATC's...and make my SIL who is going to be having surgery soon a card. Later this week I will gather supplies to make the tote! Thanks for all that have looked and commented.

Sneek peek of my Artistic Mother Journal!

I have been working so hard on this! It is....was almost done but I couldn't figure out how to put the cover and the back....back on the notebook! So I went to the hubby and he tried but the wire got messed up. GASP. We brainstormed and came up with a solution that will be even better. :)

But I wanted to at least share the cover.

an Artful beginning!!

Ok here are some pictures of some of my painted papers. The goldish brown one with the red around it is one of my favorites. It looks a lot different/better in person. I also like the really dark one that is mainly green with blue and red in the center...I just wish it was a couple shades lighter. Hopefully someone can tell me how to make future pictures lighter. (although I do like the bold ones!) In the past I have worked with pencils, charcoal, pastels, and water color...never acrylic! The way it spreads though makes me smile. In fact every evening I have played even when it is just applying gesso I get a sappy smile on my face!

I had a BLAST at Michaels....spent too much money...shhhhh (some women buy shoes;) but with the 30% coupon it knocked a lot off the price. NOW to create something using these!

Our first spring hike of the year

I believe we have taken at least a couple prior in what would be considered the "technical" start of spring but this hike last week was the first in REAL spring weather. In the last two days you could almost see the pear trees and our mini weeping cherry open in full bloom!

In the car Z~girl asked if she could bring her book and I said "sure, why not" thinking she would read when we took breaks. No. The child read the ENTIRE time we were hiking. Fortunately it is a very familiar path. People got a complete kick out her when they passed us. I hope she continues this joy of reading. She read the book in a day...and the hubby wondered why I wish he would have found her the full length novel. hahahah

The Artistic Mother

A few weeks ago I ran across this awesome book book at Barnes and Noble. I have been absorbed by it ever since! I even found the authors blog (no I am not a stalker hahahah) and after that found a group of mothers that is going through Shona Coles steps in making creativity an everyday occurance. So I have been gradually gathering supplies...making some painted pages. Also I have been looking at the others art and feeling just a wee bit intimidated. ;) It is AWESOME and I am a wee bit behind but I have been encouraged by Trudy that I am welcome to join in and encourage any friends to join in. C'mon you know you want to!

When I go to visit my mom...I am always filled with warm fuzzies as I look at her walls. Her walls are filled with my art from high school and young adulthood. Somehow through infertility, eventual parenthood and homeschooling I have lost out on expressing myself visually. There is no excuse for the blank walls that fill my house!

Tomorrow I have a 30% coupon off your entire purchase at Michaels...and I intend to use it. I need more stamps and ink before I feel comfortable posting my creations so far. Z~girl being the artsy girl that she is has been joining in. So stay tuned...I might have some artistic creativity to show y'all!