Jekyll Island, Ga 2008 Vacation Pictures

This is the place we decided to take a rest stop at on our way back from Florida. It just happens to be right off I95 and the most fabulous rest stop EVER! LOL On our way we picked up sandwiches from Subway and one of these pictures is of me chowing down on the beach.











This is after we got the boys cleaned up and changed. They had a blast. You can see the bridge we crossed to get to the island in the background.




Here's a link with a lot more info about the island. Since it was a Sunday when we were there, the Sea Turtle Center was closed. However, I told the King that one day we'll have to go back there and do some camping. It's just too beautiful. I'm a sucker for peaceful beaches.

Sea World 2008 Pictures

Waiting for the Shamu Show to begin.



The Show:




After the show with one of the trainers. This show affected Pooh powerfully. He was very emotional when it was done. He even shed a few tears. I think it was a combination of the story presented (of a young boy who grew up to work with whales at Sea World) and his own love of anything related to the ocean.



Feeding the dolphins. If you want to do this, show up extra early and make a beeline for the feeding area. Otherwise, you'll be waiting in a very long line.











Flamingo Parade: This was hilarious. They had a flock of flamingos with their trainers? coming through one of the main paths that the tourists walk on. They were just calmly walking along. It's the closest I've ever been to one of these birds. The kids thought it was great!

Creativity-Pictures

After a year of hording my 9 throw away cameras, I've finally gotten around to getting the pictures developed. I'll be sharing them hopefully keeping them organized by event/subject.

This first picture I took of Pooh holding his own creation. He had taken a large fold up van he has and turned it into a rocket by taping soda bottles and tubes to it. It's not often that he gets this creative so it was a treat to see it.











These next two photos are of the boys felt creations. I bought a bunch of different colored felt pieces at walmart and we went to town creating, of course, pirate scenes. They were so cute!














Next we have the kids participating in a cooking class. I was less than impressed with the class, but the kids had fun anyway. (We do better cooking lessons here at home!)

More Deer!

Last night I woke up soooo many times. I was hot because the King had put the kerosene heater in the basement and it was just too warm for me. I have a horrible time sleeping in the heat. In the summer, my bedroom is like an icebox with my window ac unit cranked up high. The King tends to sleep in other rooms during the summer. ;D

One of the times I woke up, our dog was outside barking like crazy. Now, she is known to have nights where she barks a lot. But last night the barking was different. I thought maybe we actually had a prowler in the neighborhood. After all, it was 2:30 in the morning, right?

I checked all windows looking for what she was barking at. Due to the recent rains, it was extremely foggy outside but I could see because of the street lights. It was the last window when I actually saw them. On the other side of our neighbor's house is an empty lot. It's only a little 1/2 acre plot but it's overgrown with pines and brush. There are houses all around it. We also live on a state road that is used A LOT! The traffic is usually going along at a fast clip well over the 45 mile an hour speed limit.

That's why it was amazing to see not only 3 deer in the lot, but then all of a sudden about 6 more deer bounded across the highway into the lot. I've never seen that many deer together before! I couldn't see where they went after that. One can only assume they prance through everybody's back yard on a regular basis. Good Grief!

The really scary part is that within 20 seconds of them bounding across the road, a car came flying around the curve. I would've hated for that timing to have been different. Deers do major damage to vehicles and their drivers. We have some little things stuck on our front bumpers that is supposed to help keep the deer from coming in the road. As long as you're driving at least 45 miles an hour, evidently the wind passes through these little devices and the sound is something only the deer hear and they stay away. I assume they're working, but I have no proof. I haven't hit a deer yet. I did have one jump over the roof of my car one time before the devices were put on. Eeek!

Anyone know if there is some type of deer activity going on right now? I'm not familiar with the deer's schedule of events for the seasons. LOL

Math Ladder

Pooh has been having a rough time learning the addition math facts. We've actually finished his Alpha work from Math U See and he still doesn't know all of them. He'll know some of them for a while and then it disappears. He was always able to get through the material for the simple reason that he loved using the manipulatives. He's very adept at using them and after a little trouble in the beginning became very good at 'solving for the unknown'.

However, I think that he became a bit lazy with using them. He uses the manipulatives without really thinking too much about it. As soon as he comes to a problem he doesn't know, he just uses the blocks. There are a few he would get without them but most of the time he took the easy way. That, of course, is my fault. If I had made him stop and we had discussed each time why 4+5=9 (doubles plus one), then I think he may have been learning to do more in his head. He's keeping the math external instead of trying to internalize it and that's where we'll be getting into trouble if we don't get it corrected.

Anyway, I've borrowed the book Games for Math by Peggy Kaye from the library. The other day I found a simple game we could try together. I liked this plan because it will help him learn the addition facts in a fun way and yet doesn't require massive index card preparation. (Preparation for stuff like that almost always make it impossible for me to follow through. I admit it. So there! ;D)


The game is Math Ladder. Basically, you take one sheet of paper. Draw a ladder on it giving enough rungs so that you can write 0-10 one on each rung in random order. The game is played using one die. If I roll a 3, I then take the die, keeping the 3 up, and put it beside each rung starting from the bottom. I must then solve the addition problem of bottom rung number + 3 = (blank). If I solve the bottom rung, I move up one level. I keep going until I get a wrong answer or reach the top.

Pooh and I have played it for two days now. We play after doing some flashcards. Due to that, I make sure that we only go through two or three cycles of tossing the die. I also make sure that I get things wrong. Who wants to play with someone who's always right and wins?

This is a great referencing activity because both ways can be used for referencing. When it's my turn, I'll say 4+3=7 and wait for Pooh to nod his head yes or no. Sometimes he'll say he doesn't know the answer, sometimes he says "let me think" and a couple of times he's said the answer before me. ;D The same type of referencing can be done when it's Pooh's turn.

If I find any other simple, easy prep games in the book (or anywhere else) that work for us, I'll post them.

Can You Hear Them?

Perhaps it's the sunnier weather. Perhaps it's the sense that spring is closer. Whatever the case, I've been noticing the bird calls lately. I'm hearing different calls, louder calls and just more of them. Walking on my driveway last week, there was a bird in the neighbor's weeping willow that was just singing away. When I finally found it, I realized it was a Chickadee and the call it was making wasn't it's usual chicka-dee-dee-dee.

I'm using that as an example because, really, I'm terrible about being able to identify bird calls. Actually, I'm terrible with anything having to do with auditory skills. Figuring out words to songs can sometimes totally baffle me. Anyway, my point is that the calls I'm hearing now are not what I'm used to hearing. That much I can tell. Maybe the birds have different calls depending on the season? I'm pretty sure they have different calls based on attracting a mate and defending a territory. So maybe what I'm hearing is 'scouting' behavior. You know, they're starting to find the territories they're going to control for the coming season. It's a theory. LOL


Whatever the case may be, I'm enjoying it and being continually reminded that this weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count. Today, we will go out and fill our bird feeders. They are pretty empty now. I stocked up the other day on several different types of seeds so that I could attract as many species as possible.

Happy Bird Watching!

Gestures

It really is amazing the little things that can happen from time to time. This evening we were having a family bible study and when Pooh was giving his narration of events, he used gestures. Ok. I have to admit I vaguely noticed this. I was actually concentrating on what he was saying more than on what he was doing with his hands.

He wasn't going to let it go unnoticed though. He says to us, "Did you see me?" "What?" I reply. "I was using my hands when I was talking." said Pooh. Me-"Oh yeeaaahhh. Hey, who taught you that?" Pooh grins and shrugs his shoulders, then says "I just want to be like my Daddy."

First, that is so sweet! I love when the boys look at what things (hopefully, good stuff! LOL) that we're doing and say they want to be like us.

Second, HOLY COW! He's realizing that Dad uses gestures and he doesn't. THEN he's correcting himself.

Third, He's making sure we know about it! I gave him a high five. LOL

Fourth, I guess that means I can work on using more gestures and see if he picks up on some different ones. I can tell he's not quite sure the right way to use them, but he gets an A++++++ for effort. AND, it's been a while since I even thought of working on gestures. Go Figure!

Fifth, you have to laugh at the fact he chose to imitate the King in gestures. After all, he's the Latin King right? And what do you know about Latinos? Watch Out when they're talking! he he If you're unfamiliar with that concept, think Italians and you'll get a great picture in your mind.

Snoopy Dance with Me!

Canada Geese

We had a neat little experience with geese yesterday. We were walking through some open fields when Pooh spotted someone with a dog. As we followed Pooh (who was following the man with the dog to ask if he could pet him), all of a sudden a large flock of geese took off and flew right over us. Well, once the boys realized the game of sending the geese flying, they sent the other two smaller flocks into flight too. It was really cute to watch them run under the flying birds after they sent them into flight. I wish I had had my camera!

What was really neat about the experience, was listening to the sound of their wings flapping. It sounded like a mini helicopter sound. It took me a few seconds to realize what that particular sound was. I was watching the last flock before it took off and was able to note the lead goose because I saw him make his call about 10 seconds before lift off. It was really interesting to see! It makes me wish we lived closer to one of those large lakes where large flocks of birds visit in spring and fall. You know, like you only see on National Geographic. LOL

The first group did not fly in formation for a long time. It took them quite a while to realize where they were going. As they took off, they split into a few smaller groups and perhaps by the time they were out of sight they had formed the famous "V". However, as we were watching they first flew one direction, then took off into another direction. I'm sure they knew what they were doing, but it was the first time I had ever seen them 'look' disorganized.

I was able to show the boys all the 'scat' lying on the ground. That was a new word for them to learn. There was plenty of it around let me tell ya. We saw their huge tracks. I never realized what big feet? they have.

You just never know what you're going to see. And that wasn't even supposed to be a nature walk!

Lazy Days

I never did stick to my 'early to bed early to rise' habit. Oh well. I will keep trying. But in the meantime, I've been enjoying our relaxed days. Wednesday after Pooh's Art class, we met a fellow homeschooling family at McD's. Her three kids and my two boys enjoyed three hours of fun play at the playplace. And they still didn't want to leave when it was time. LOL It's been too stinking cold here for outside play. I think Wednesday's windchill put us at around 15 degrees. Blech.

After we got home, I made dinner while Pooh read to me the Daily Text, one chapter of Genesis and a couple of pages of George Washington. (He narrates with all of these.) Then we got out some of our other bible study material and finished that by 6pm. That put us with time for dinner and a movie.

Thursday we got through all of our material for the day. We use Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare. I think Pooh enjoys the stories, but they are difficult for him. There are so many people and the names are so unusual that he has a hard time keeping up. I just supply names as needed during his narration and I'll correct anything he happens to construe incorrectly. Otherwise, I don't stress much about this book. I've never read Winter's Tale which we did this week. I was glad of the happy ending. LOL It reminded me a little of Much Ado About Nothing.

Today was an extra easy day. We had Drama class in the morning and then hung around town until my tax appointment. Refunds, come to mama! ;D If you getting a refund, get your taxes done early. I heard the state of California is broke and they won't be issuing refunds anytime soon. Who knows how many other places may end up doing the same.

This weekend is supposed to be beautiful weather wise, so hopefully, we'll get out for a nice walk in the sun!

Happy Weekend everyone!

Buddy Reading

In the AmblesideOnline World, it is generally recommended that the students start taking responsibility for reading their material in Year 3 and be reading it all on their own by Year 4. When we started this past summer with Year 1, Pooh was 10 and could read very simple stuff. He was just getting into Frog and Toad style books. Now his reading has taken off. So, even though we're still in Year 1, I'm starting to turn some simple reading responsibilities over to him. (I also feel this is appropriate due to his age. He's starting AO late due to his developmental delays, but once I see an area he takes off in, I may quickly bring him up to age appropriate material. Example: I'm considering starting with very easy dictation to work on spelling and writing. I'll post about that when I decide to start it.)

Buddy reading is a great way to start the process of turning reading over to your student. For those new to the term, buddy reading is simply sitting beside your child and the two of you taking turns reading. It can be as easy as having your child read a word here and there in a sentence (holding your finger under the words for reference). Then you can move onto taking turns with sentences, paragraphs and short chapters. This is where you as the parent need to key in to the 'zone of proximal development' that your child is at. You want to slowly bring them along with their skills, challenging them little by little. Only you know your child's breaking point. You DO NOT want to reach the breaking point. I'm a firm believer in 'any lesson ending in tears will be remembered negatively'. So make sure you offer enough challenge to move them along but are still able to end on a successful note.

Pooh and I are up to buddy reading sections of our bible reading, paragraphs in stories etc. With our Year 1 book Paddle to the Sea, I let him read the chapter but I'm still there to help with difficult words. Last week when we were behind on things for the day, I actually had him read a chapter of Genesis to me while I was getting dinner ready. That way any difficult words were also taken care of by my simply going over to have a look. Another thing I'm teaching Pooh, is when he wants me to help him with a word, to let me know the beginning of it by either sounding out the beginning or giving me the beginning letters. A lot of the time I can tell him what the word is without having to look at it because of the sentence it's in. There are some words he'll sound out in reading that are done incorrectly and I can correct those immediately when we buddy read. Charlotte Mason advised that a child always be corrected right away so that a bad habit of spelling/reading isn't ingrained in the brain. Buddy reading is great for that.

It always helps me to know some of the 'in-between' things you do to get to the next level, so I hope this helps some others who aren't quite sure how you get from A. Reading all the material of Year 1 to your student to B. Your student reading all the material. It's great that we have this blogworld to help one another scaffold these tasks.

Happy Reading Everyone!

Distractions

The snow in these pictures was a lovely distraction. The kids had a nice time playing in it. It wasn't a wet snow though, so despite his best efforts, Tigger couldn't get it to form into a snowman. :D We also had today's history lesson distraction--we watched the inauguration. Pooh loves history so he enjoyed watching.

Here is a little of their early morning adventures: (Pooh said they were shipwrecked on Antarctica.)

1/19/09 Menu Plan

I'm still at it! Can you believe it? It must be good, if I'm actually sticking with it. (Being easy to do helps too. ;D)

This week I'm laying out the plan first and will give a few comments afterward. Here goes:

Monday:
B-French Toast Casserole
S-Fruit
L-Chicken Sandwich or wrap
S-Muffins
D-Shepard's Pie

Tuesday:
B-Eggs/bacon/toast
S-carrots
L-Soup
S-Yogurt
D-Salmon burgers/roasted veggies

Wednesday:
B-Leftover french casserole
S-cheese/crackers
L-tuna sandwiches
S-muffins
D-gumbo/rice

Thursday:
B-Crockpot Oatmeal
S-Smoothie
L-Pizza
S-Rice cakes with pb
D-Black beans/rice

Friday:
B-cereal
S-fruit
L-pb &j
S-cookies/hot tea
D-pasta

Last week we ended up having a leftover night on Wednesday which pushed the lamb to Thursday. So, tonight it's lamb taquitos by the King and I've moved the Shepard's Pie to tomorrow. With the menu planning it's easy to see and use leftovers and make needed adjustments.

My goal would be eventually to get all prep work done for the each day the night before. This would cut down on having to think so much in the morning of how to schedule in food prep for the day. Who wants to think about preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner at 8 o'clock in the morning? For instance, I would love to be able to do the following tonight:

Put chicken in fridge to thaw for Wednesday's Gumbo
Prep the French toast casserole so all I have to do is pop it in the oven in the morning.
Get chicken salad prepared for tomorrow's sandwiches.
Prep potatoes-wash, peel, cook, mash for tomorrow's pie.

I'll probably only get two out of the four done realistically. I also have 3 heads of hair to cut tonight. AND tonight is PBS's version of Wuthering Heights on Masterpiece Theater. I'm a bit of a Masterpiece Theater addict. I love how they've done all the Jane Austen novels lately. I think I managed to videotape all of them. (Satisfied sigh.....) AND I'm seriously behind in the laundry area. That's what happens when I cut down on watching a TV show before I go to bed, I forget to do the laundry. Eeeeek! Guess I need a new system for that! Yes, I'll be doing laundry while watching Wuthering Heights. LOL

Off to eat Taquitos!!!

A Picture for Posterity

Tigger had a bump. A very Big Bump this week. This picture ended up highlighting it well once I switched it to Sepia view. You see that nice goose egg on his forehead???

We went ice skating. That should say it all. However, I will give you a few extra details. We went with a group of homeschoolers and I was happily talking with a few of the moms. I did have my skates on just in case I needed to help one of the boys on the ice or they needed me to take a turn with them, whatever. So, somebody suddenly gets our attention and then I heard it--Tigger yelling and crying. I sat with him for maybe about 5 minutes. The whole time he told me he hit his nose. "Um, ok, nose looks good, no blood. You're good to go." Off he skates for another 30 minutes before it was time to leave. (I'm not one of those moms that freaks out at that kind of stuff. Of course if his leg had come off, that might be a different matter.....)

As we're leaving he informs me he feels a bump on his head. It's under his bang area. I look and "Good Grief!" He may have hit his nose too, but what really hit was obviously the kid's forehead. What's that all about???? What you see in the picture is a little less of what I saw. By that time, it had actually gone down a little. We applied the ice pack I had packed for our snacks. He even walked through Lowes Foods carrying it before we got back to the house.

And, as a good mommy should, I Googled "goose eggs on forehead" and got back very helpful information to make sure he didn't have any major brain injury. ;D

Tigger tends to be our accident prone child due to his being so 'bouncy'. The bump is actually in the same spot that as a toddler he went diving off a couch and was stabbed in the forehead by a plastic spiderman finger. That should have had a couple of stitches but me, being a Dr-phobe, applied butterfly bandaids. The spiderman deal was not on my watch by the way. LOL I actually arrived at the sitter's house as it happened. You can imagine my joy to come in when blood was spurting out of his forehead. Sigh...... That's nothing though compared to the poor kid's hand after riding on a homemade go-kart. Another story, another day. Did I mention he was accident prone???

(Yes, that's the Latin King in the picture. Now you know what he looks like!)

Keeping Warm and Saving Pennies

It's the coldest here it's been in 4 years. Tonight's low is expected to be around 9F. Yep, single digits. What's an ex-Florida girl to do???





Prepare lots and lots of hot drinks. Hot cocoa, hot tea, hot SoyFee, even hot water with lemon added.

I mentioned before about how we're trying to cut back on power usage by keeping our house temperatures a bit lower. 64F is chilly to me! Anyway, the way I've figured things is, if the temps are in the 50's or above, we heat the house using our baseboard heaters in the basement only. (We have a split-level with a half-basement.) The heat rising thing keeps the whole house reasonably warm. If the temps are below 50F, then we crank up our kerosene heater and turn off the baseboards. My last power bills shows our usage down from last year by $.88 a day, potentially saving $26 per month. This is all, of course, subjective seeing as how I haven't analyzed the difference in daily temps from last year. However, I love still being able to see a 'credit' on my power bill. We pay equal monthly payments and have a settle up month in August. Usually, we get money back. I'm always aiming for as much money as I can get back. I also try to delay putting in our window AC units for as long as possible in the summer. I usually break down and demand them to be put in instantly by mid-June. :D I just can't sleep when I'm hot.

The 'No Flushing' is still going strong in our house. We're down 5 cu ft per day from last year this time. I didn't have to pay the water bill this month because I make equal monthly payments to them too throughout the year so I don't end up with a whopper of a bill in the summer months when watering the garden. This year I hope to be able to get some rain barrels installed to off-set any drought periods. A dear friend let us have theirs when they had to move. They are just used soap barrels from a car wash, but we're re-purposing them into rain barrels. Here's a great document showing how to do it. (it's a pdf)

I promised some pics of my greenhouse and while it's still a bit of a mess inside and out, here they are:


If you look towards the back, you can see a one white and one blue barrel. These will be the rain barrels. We have a total of seven.



I'll have to make sure and take pics in the summer when there are actually things growing around here. LOL


This is the baker's cart/rack that we got for free. The King then made several 'shelves' with wood and wire that can hold trays of seedlings or plant pots. I wish this picture were better because the King did an absolutely fabulous job on these! I was soooo impressed! (What can I say? I'm easy to please. ;D)




Radishes, brussel sprouts, cukes and cabbage are up. Some other things either aren't going to come up or are just taking their sweet time.


Lettuce that will continue to grow in this window box for fresh winter time salads. (I hope! This is the first year of trying it.)


Going along with the "Keeping Warm" theme, this is how I keep the greenhouse warm enough to grow stuff. I open the basement window and have a regular fan on low to pull warm air from the house into the greenhouse at night. It can get turned around during sunny days to pull warm air from the greenhouse into the basement. The greenhouse can easily heat to 90F-100F on very sunny days where the outside temps are in the 50's-60's. Even today with the outside temp at 28F for a high!, the greenhouse heated up to about 70F.

I also placed a space heater at the window for nights like tonight. It will need that extra boost of heat to keep it above 40F.



Sorry for the quality of the photos. I have a dinky digital camera that was a freebie from the phone company when I signed up for something a couple of years ago. I'm planning on a newer one, hopefully in the next couple of months. One where the batteries last for more than 30 pictures and where automatic picture taking will really automatically adjust the light and everything. I just don't have time to mess with a bunch of controls. If anyone has any suggestions for under $150, let me know!

1/12/09 Menu Plan

Ok, on to week 2 of using a menu plan!! Last week was terrific and made my life so much easier. As one commenter pointed out, the menu plan helps in actually making stuff ahead of time so it's ready and there's no last minute stress on getting things together. The boys continued to be ruled by the planner for the whole week, so hardly any complaining. Which, frankly, is a minor miracle as far as I'm concerned.

I'm currently suffering from a very congested head so I hope that my current plan doesn't fall apart in actually doing it. We'll just have to see. I'm not thinking the clearest right now. I do know that Monday's snack #2 will be on the road. Wednesday I plan on taking leftover drumsticks, carrots and the granola bars with us on the road for munching, but also know that we will be hitting McD's in the afternoon due to several errands I'm running that day (and i'm meeting someone there so pretty much have to plan a meal there ;D).

Last week's make-aheads included getting the crock pot going the night before for the oatmeal, leftover homemade bread for the french toast casserole, preparing the tuna salad sandwiches while preparing breakfast so they were ready for our lunch out (same day as the nature walk---that worked out wonderfully well!), and muffins made ahead of time. Also, I'm able to see what needs to be thawed from the freezer in plenty of time to use it and marinate if I so desire.

This week I'll make ahead bread, muffins, thaw bagels for Friday's breakfast, thaw this week's meat. Pancakes are already made for tomorrow's breakfast.

Here's the outline for this week:

Monday:
B-pancakes
S-smoothie
L-pb & j sandwiches
S-cheese n crackers
D-bratwurst, cabbage, potatoes, salad

Tuesday:
B-hot cereal
S-carrots
L-tuna sandwiches
S-yogurt
D-chicken drumsticks/veggie/rice

Wednesday:
B-cereal
S-fruit
L-eat out
S-granola bars
D-lamb shoulder/rice/veggie/salad

Thursday:
B-eggs/bacon/english muffins
S-muffins
L-hot dogs
S-rice cakes/pb
D-shepards pie

Friday:
B-bagels/cream cheese
S-muffins
L-cheese tortillas
S-hot tea/biscotti or cookie
D-lasagna/salad

Out of the Mouth of Babes

The boys are in the bath and Tigger yells, "Can we have a bubble bath?"

I yell back “No!”

Tigger then talking to Pooh about the situation of not having a bubble bath.

Pooh says: “Mommy says no”

Tigger: “Well, mommy is crazy a lot.”

Pooh: “Yes, sometimes mommy is crazy”

Mommy “Sigh…..”

Get in Gear for .......Birds!

That's right everyone. It's already time to start thinking about this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. The dates are February 13-16. I'm going to start now getting the boys in gear by having them do at least one 15 minute bird watch each week. This will help us to get a bit of a refresher in identifying our birds. I will also be teaching them as we go along some of the rules of the count. For instance, that we only count birds in multiples in one shot. This means that if you see two cardinals at the same time you can count two. However, if you see a cardinal, it flies away and then 'another' one comes, you still can only count one cardinal. Make sense? This would be why we need to practice ahead of time. They can get easily confused. LOL

Last year the boys turned in one report each and I turned in several. It's so cool to be able to see how how well our area is represented by the number of reports turned in. Go to your area and check it out!

Don't forget to put a button on your blog as a reminder to everyone to participate!!!

Ok, I Give Up!

I've tried doing the winter walk post three times. The preview keeps showing me the way I want it but once it posts to blogger it gets messed up. I'll leave it to you to figure out which words go with which picture.

sigh.......I guess I won't try putting pics on the left anymore. Anybody else figure out the answer to this problem? Just always put the pics in the center?

Winter Walk--Photo Intense

After Pooh's Art class today we decided to go on a winter walk. The weather here lately has been very wet, so I should have been prepared for how wet the woods were. There was mud everywhere and oodles of puddles. Right up the boys' alley. Before we got to the creek area, I managed to squeeze in a bit of tree study. I was commenting on the different bark we saw and on the fungi that was growing everywhere. Funny how the fungi seems to flourish during this cooler weather.

Here are some photos of some of the different bark we saw:


The trees of love.



















This is Tigger with the piece of bark he found on the ground. I believe it is from the American Beech tree that I fell in love with. The Beech tree has great color for winter contrasts and would, I believe, make great black and white photos. It has a very light gray bark with some darker spots on it. Then the faded yellow leaves were still on the tree. If you look in the background of this picture you can see the only tree back there with leaves is the Beech tree.











Left: Anyone know what that one is? Very interesting bark. When you push it, it has a very spongy quality to it.

Right: The park labeled it as a Virginia Pine. (although I have my doubts from looking at the tree guide book I have.)






Here are some photos of the fungi we saw growing on the bark:

This pine tree had two seemingly different fungi growing on it. One a lighter green that was growing in between the bark pieces and the other was a moss growing at the base of the tree.

















Tigger with his stick on which we found bright orange colored fungi.












Another tree with the green fungi.

(Bet you can tell which one of the boys is the 'ham'! LOL)








Here are the photos of their favorite part-water play:





Right now, the thing they like to do best in the streams is to reroute the water. They clear out paths of debris (sticks and leaves) and watch the new route the water takes. They could play at this for hours if I let them. Especially Pooh. He's always loved the water.

Some other cool things we noted about the woods today, were the wind and the sounds. The wind was gearing up to be enough for weather warnings so the tops of the trees were really swaying. It made the trees have these eerie creaking noises. You could even hear one tree hit into another. I told the boys the trees were kissing. I got big smiles and "Eeeeewwwwww" s. LOL One of the pictures above was of two completely different kinds of trees growing right next to each other, as they tend to do. I told the boys that those trees were in love. :D

One part of the woods is very dense with trees. Somehow, despite all of them pretty much looking dead, it is very dark in that area. Tigger said it was 'spooky'. I started telling a little story about "A sad, lonely bear entering the deep, dark forest with it's muddly, puddly creek" a la Bear Snores On. I love those books. He even tried coming up with his own little description to fit the story. So cute! (no, i don't remember what it was. i have to learn to lock it away in a memory somewhere.)

The trail is about a one hour walk. I like the way it winds and the different kinds of areas it encompasses. It keep us eager to see around the next corner.

The Power of the Menu Plan

You know, I kept hearing people raving about how wonderful a menu plan is. My response has been characterized by: Uh huh. Whatever. I'll get to it one day. How great can it really be?

There's POWER in the menu plan. Amaaaaaazing power. I'm in awe. And I've only been at it for two days.

There are two powerful aspects of the menu plan that I've experienced so far. (My experience is very limited and there may be many more that I haven't discovered yet.) The first power operates on me. I can look at my simple list located on the frig and know what's happening. So simple and yet so profound! I'm not hunting down recipes an hour before dinner is supposed to be ready, wondering what on earth I'm going to do with the leftover ham. I know! I don't have to think about what I'm feeding the kids for snack. I know! It's so freeing! I have a different breakfast planned for each day. I'm using that butternut squash that's been sitting in the pantry for 3 weeks. I'm using the quinoa I've had in there for forever too!

This was all planned around food I already had in the house. No shopping or even last minute runs. If I didn't have exactly what I wanted, I substituted. My ham and potato casserole turned into a Ham and Sweet Potato casserole. (There's a lot of ham in our menu this week due to wanting to use all our leftovers from baking a spiral sliced ham on the weekend.)

The second power to be noticed was the one that was exerted over the children. Ahhhhh. This is something I've never seen mentioned in the accolades of the menu plan. This is a big secret. Are you ready?

If it's on the menu plan, that's what we eat.

No arguments, no griping. A simple "I'm sorry. Cookies aren't on the plan. It says we have to eat carrots for snack this morning." AND THEY DO IT! No kidding! They may say "ooohhhhh, I wanted something else" but it doesn't change the fact that we follow the plan. I think Pooh will even start reading the plan himself soon. He's kind looking there when I say "hmmmm, it says we're having waffles for breakfast". Pooh is also the child more willing to try foods and will at least partially eat things even when he isn't crazy about them. Go figure!!!

I'm not making two separate sandwiches for lunch. "Today is ham, tomorrow is tuna." I was amazed at how fast they ate. The only thing that didn't go over well was the Crockpot Oatmeal. That's because they both dislike oatmeal. I told them they needed to learn to like it. :D Today they had French Toast Casserole for the first time ever and gobbled it up. They ate the butternut squash. The quinoa was a bit iffy and so was the ham casserole on Tuesday's dinner. BUT, they're trying it and they are eating more than they would have if I hadn't done a menu plan.

So I consider this a success. Now I just have to keep it up. Consistency has never been my strong suit.

For those that wish to know, I'm including my plan for this week. It's only a M-F plan. Also, the meals are listed in this order: Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner. They usually have another snack before bed, but I didn't include that one because it's never an issue.

Monday:
Crockpot Oatmeal
Cheese n Crackers
Mac n Cheese
Carrots
Delicata Delish (allrecipes)

Tuesday:
French Toast Casserole
Carrots
Ham Sandwich
Fruit
Ham & Potato Casserole (with broccoli)

Wednesday:
Waffles
Pb crackers
Tuna sandwich
Yogurt
Split Pea Soup

Thursday:
Eggs & Bacon
Muffins
Mac n Cheese
Carrots
Pasta and roasted root veggies

Friday:
Hot Cereal
Smoothie
Hot Dogs
Muffins
Pizza

The Bed Post

I finally got around to finishing a post I started in October about the beds King made for the boys. I didn't know how to change the date on it so it's showing up in October's posts. If you want to have a look, go to the Home label. It's about the 3rd one down.

Anger

Anger issues are pretty common with autistic kids. Due to their inner anxieties and not understanding social 'rules', they can become rigid, inflexible, controlling and angry. This is what they use as a buffer to keep the big, bad, scary world from invading their world.

Pooh tends to have problems with this in phases. I haven't ever been able to pin down any specific time/reason for it. Currently, his phases are a couple of normal days and then a couple of grouchy/angry days. (Right now, my mood is swinging right along with him unfortunately which can make for one irritated mommy.) We use homeopathy with him and this can help him in many ways but it doesn't take it completely away. Pooh has never been on meds and I hope to keep him off of them.

I wanted to share this site for anyone who may benefit from it. I have been looking it over and it seems to have some helpful tips. In the For Kids section, there are little slide shows with audio that show some different coping skills and it has the children actually act them out while watching. It's something you'd want to do with your child. I did it with Pooh yesterday and he seemed to enjoy and get it.

I want to work on him accepting responsibility for his anger. The Teacher section has several articles that I'm looking over to help me help him. When he's angry, it's 'all our fault'. He has issues with us 'bossing him around'. Although he knows he's the child, that obedience is required, etc. he still acts out when we have him do/not do something. It's unknown what will set him off. You can tell him 'no' about one thing without a complaint, yet tell him 'no' about something else and he flips out.

A current example is a candy example. We were at someone's house who leaves candy out for when the kids come over. All of a sudden Pooh asks me if he can have a certain candy. I looked at him and knew he already eaten at least one so I asked him. He had eaten two. I told him "no, you already had enough for today." That set him off. He was mad about it for about 2 hours. Now, he's learned not to hit me or anything. However, he'll come at me with hands raised, growl, cry, whine, stomp his feet, slam doors and just generally be rude, disrespectful and obnoxious. Once he's there, there's no reasoning with him (unless you give him what he wants). I just have to remain calm, reiterate the rules, make sure he doesn't hurt others or anything and keep it to a low roar instead of a dino roar. ;D

I've tried teasing him out of it, fake crying (not always convenient in a crowd), being very stern and I'm sure several other things I can't think of right now. It just doesn't help. It makes him more angry.

So with the help of the articles from this site, I'm going to try teaching him more responsibility in dealing with it. I'll be there to help, of course, but only he can use the tools to calm down. I've tried the counting to ten and deep breathing before but he doesn't want to hear about it in the middle of his tantrum. To thwart that, we're going to watch the slide shows a couple more times, practice when calm, use the positive wording recommended ("I'm a good boy even when I'm angry") and maybe that will help. They also teach them places to tap while they use the positive phrasing that seems to be targeting the acupuncture points. I'll try anything. LOL

Frankly, right now I'm tired of dealing with the demanding nature of his anger. It's a "if you don't do what I want, I'll make you sorry/miserable" kind of thing. It works. But I'm not giving in. I may need an escape now and then. I may need to cry. I may need to step back and reroute our course. But he's not going to win by bullying us into being scared of making him angry. I want to help him, but he has to do the work too.

I'm sure you see the whole host of emotions that runs through me in all of this. It's par for the course when you're the caregiver of a special needs child. I'm sure they'll be more to come. This is what's on my mind now. In any given day, I can go from being very proud of him and what he's been able to accomplish to be sick and tired of being around him.

King and I watched the old Bill Cosby Himself video last night. I think I might need to do that more often. ;D



Proud Day! His first bible reading in the congregation.