We are here. We are here. We are here. We are heeeerrrrreeeee!

Sam wandered into our room while ZD worked on his laptop. "I need a hair cut." he said in annoyance. ZD playfully asked him if he wanted a haircut like his...a soldier's cut with a little length on top.
Sam inspected his father's head and replied, "Yeah....but without all the bald parts."
We're still giggling with each other about that one.

It's been baseball central around here. Season I is finally finished and they are now onto Season II. On Saturday we had a bit of overlap. M & A had games over at the Y and the oldest boy had a double elimination tourney at our church league.
Holy Moley! That boy played baseball all day. The first game was at 9 am and they finally lost the last game at 5 pm. His team came in second place overall, which was how they were ceded coming into the tourney. The team that won really deserved it. We couldn't have lost to a more encouraging coach or nicer man.
I spent the time managing the dugout, keeping the score book, and knitting a very orange pair of socks. Oh yeah, and working on a seriously hot farmer's tan.


I spent half an hour trying to order curriculum for next year's school year. It should have been a quick click and then type in my credit card number, but the company's system wouldn't acknowledge my address. It kept trying to assign me to the town next door. I finally called customer service and convinced them that the two town share the same zip code...though we have our very own post office.
I felt like a "Who" trying to convince the rep in some cold Midwestern place that I really did exist and that I wasn't existing in the town she thought I was.


I'm just about to start the planning for next year's school year. I still have to order a new microscope and decide on a logic program. The basics are all done though. We're sticking with MCP math and Singapore math for the younger ones. Oldest boy will be using Lial's Basic College Math. Everyone is using Rod and Staff English, Spelling Workout, and Wordly Wise.
Oldest boy is reading short stories and poetry this year. We'll sprinkle in a few good novels and introduce Shakespere. But for now he is content to work through an Edgar Allen Poe collection.
Matthew has a school literature book and a whole shelf of biographies to read. This weekend he started with the biography of Albert Einstein. (Who, according to M, left his wife for his cousin. He was quite outraged by that.) The two younger ones will continue with Hooked on Phonics and Explode the code.
History is way off the classical method. Sam will be covering stuff through Five in a Row. A & M will continue with the Core Knowledge History and Geography series. Oldest boy is happy with a Geography and cultures textbook. (We had an interesting discussion about GDP this morning.)
For Science we're using Five in a Row, Harcourt Science, and PH Science Explorer Life Science.
Oh....and we're returning to Latin this year. I've ordered Latin Prep from Galore Park for my oldest. He plans to study it on his own. I think he can knock himself out on that one and I wish him well.
Now I just have to schedule everything to make the upcoming year as smooth as possible....especially since we'll have to move in the middle of it.


The pool opens this week. It's the last week of public school. So either way, my peaceful mornings are over.
If the kids don't bug me about going swimming, the neighbor kids will be ringing the doorbell at 8:30 in the morning.
On a positive note, the ice cream man hasn't been seen in weeks. Maybe he's moved on to more fertile pastures.


Last bit o' news. J has started his road to cosmetically straighten teeth. We start "stage 1 intervention" tomorrow. Let's just say that neither none of us is filled with joyous anticipation. Thank goodness for that Health Savings Plan and the fact that he could walk home from the orthodontist if he had to.

Enjoy your pearly whites, straight of not.

Updates

The painting is finished. Well, the walls and trim are done. The cabinets need a some work and the "big yellow thing" is going to become the "big green thing." (It's a buffet and hutch that are normally in my kitchen.)

The middle children go to the developmental Pediatrician today. That's always a fun filled life affirming trip. Then we have OT and after that, second child has a baseball scrimmage.
Tomorrow....my floor arrives. I will take pictures.

ZD did call the man who was so very annoyed at me about his problem. His conversation went like this.
"I was told that you had a conversation with my wife. I'm not happy about the tone of this conversation. You will not have any further conversations with my wife."
That was it. ZD was ticked off.
The guy was very contrite. His response was, "That's understandable." No apology was offered but ZD didn't ask for one either. He didn't want so I didn't need it.
So that is done.
I thanked the guy for standing up for my honor. My brave knight... slaying dragons and fielding phone calls.

Other stuff, there is knitting again.
I was so busy with the dang painting that there was no knitting. But that has changed.
I'm not happy about the knitted object so far so there may be frogging soon.

I'm off...I have to call a concrete guy. Can you believe that the county only offered to pay for half of the torn up section of the driveway. They seem to believe that we are half responsible for letting them in driveway in the first place.
They also feel we should have cut the tree roots ourselves. (But our insurance company begs to differ.)
I guess they live in an alternate reality where they are responsible for anything except the new library and a sports league.
ZD is meeting with legal tomorrow to see who is right in this situation.
But I need to start getting estimates on a new driveway.

Always some sort of action here in the Zoo.

A new resolution

I know it's not January 1. But I've making my own blogging resolution.

Nope, not to blog more often. I can't without leaving me any time to actually live my life. (No life...no life to blog.)
But I'm going to vow that I will start leaving comments on all the wonderful blogs that I visit and that provide me with such entertainment and encouragement.

Not that I'm fishing for comments, not that at all.
But if you'd like me to visit and (therefor say howdy do) just leave me your blog address (No comment needed) and I'll add you to my daily routine.

BTW, I'm cross posting this on my knitting blog so I can find some new knitting blogs too.
See it's a win/win situation for me.

Did you have to do a double take?

Me too.
I decided to drop my Army colors and I'm unsure what "message" I want to convey these days.
It matches my general mood. (bland and unsure. LOL)

I can share the "secret" news soon. Most people IRL know already. Some know and do not realise the impact of what we're doing. Some know and aren't happy about it. And some know and are just as thrilled as we are. But all the pertinent people know, I just have to get the idea squared away in my own head. Maybe later today.

As part of my own internalization, I found a piece of house decoration that I thought I was long done with. In fact, when it was packed up, it was done with great bitterness. I was so bitter when I put it away. I'm kind of ashamed of that now.

oh well, at least I'm growing.

Hey, go look at my knitting. I've been busy.

Not in the Neiman-Marcus catalog

"Do you want anything from the store?" I yelled up to ZooDad.
"Nope," he replied curtly. I could tell he was still stinging from my little meltdown over the condition of the family room/study/site of storage for mass amounts of Army gear. I can't even begin to explain the mess but it rivaled the rooms on that show "Clean Sweep."

"Too bad I can't buy you a non-nagging wife."

"Oh please," he begged, coming to the stairwell with a smile on his face. "Please buy one of those. I would really like one."

"No," I replied. "They don't sell those at the store. You can only get them free with really expensive jewelry or new cars. You can't purchase them separately."

I heard laughter from upstairs, "But I've bought you expensive jewelry and new cars."
"Well, you just got screwed over didn't you," as I walked out the door.

Poor guy, all that money invested and he didn't get the free non-nagging wife.
When I got back home, considerable progress had been made on the family room/study/Army depot

I am still living.

Things are going great here at the zoo. I just haven't had the motivation to blog.
We've had lots going on. I even have pictures.
I'll get back into the swing of things once I get back into the swing of things. (Do you feel like the Alfak duck in the Yogi Berra commercial?)

A funny from today: I tutor 2 different 8th graders from our local PS. One for 2 hours and one for 1 hour. The 1 hour kid brought his math problems and two worksheets from his teacher. (The worksheets were requested by his mom for me to use to work with him. The teacher is great to provide these.)

Anyway...

1 hour kid and I do his homework and he's got negative integers down pat. Then we move on to worksheet #1 which has material that he botched totally earlier in the week. We work on it until the light bulb clicks on. He's got it!
then we move on to the worksheet for tomorrow's work to get him a head start. In no time, he's got it and we fly through the sheet.

We he finished, he looked at the clock and saw that him mom wouldn't be by to pick him up for another 15 minutes. So we go on to the next section to pre-teach that material.
By the time his mom gets to my house, we're done with that material also.

As he packed up his work he remarked, "I just did a whole weeks worth of math in a HOUR! And I understand it. And I did my homework."

I couldn't help but laugh at him.

And the clouds parted and a beam of sunlight poured down on them

It's a sunny day here at the zoo.

Well, as sunny as we can get it anyway.

Things are falling into place around here and it's not all gloom and doom. There's behind the scenes gloom and doom that I can't post publicly about yet. And that's the reason for my overall Eeyore-ness.

But the behind the scenes stuff is lot less gloomier than it has been so...Woohoo for us. I will eventually fill everyone in on what exactly is going on but I have to wait for clearance for ZooDad. I still don't have a long term plan but the very next step is firming up. So at least I know the direction we're going.

All this cryptic talk. Let's just say that my "let's just wing it" gene has been pushed to its tensile strength. At one point it even snapped and we had to do some complicated Boy Scout knots to tie it back together.
But the stress on it has recently reduced a bit and things seem to holding up.

In other news...
We've been spending our days with my newest little great nephew who is down visiting from way out of state. Eli is three months old and just bit over 10 pounds. We've never seen one so small. All mine hit 10 pounds by the end of their first month. (And that includes the one who had to have stomach surgery)
He is such a cutie. I swear, if my niece weren't so attached to him, I'd just claim him as mine and take him home.
It sure makes me want another one and I thought I was over all that.
It makes the boys want another little brother, even Sam.
Andrew has managed to teach Eli his first word, at least that's Andrew's point of view. He was excited because he taught the baby to say "Hey."

See. First word at 3 months. He's a tiny genius.

Oh....forgot to say...

The oldest child, the one who is 11.5 years old...he went to the doctor today right?

His stats:
117 pounds
5'4"
size 11.5 shoe

His 5'1" doctor lamented, "I've got 11-year-olds taller than me."
I laughed until I realized......

He's taller than me also.

Daaaaaaaaang!
Doc said he hasn't even started his puberty growth spurt. It's not the height I'm worried about.

It's the shoe size.
It's scary to think about.

Life with an insane cat.

No pictures of the cat. She won't sit still for that long.

Mango is crazy.



She plays with marbles. That in itself would not be a problem but she carries them around in her mouth and then drops them on the tile work. Tap, tap, tap, tap, rooooooolllll. All night long.



She also races up and down the stairs. Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum.

It scares me because I think that one of the little guys is tumbling down the stairs. Nope....just the insane cat.



She goes in the pantry and chews on the bags. She chewed open a bag of bird seed, a bag of flour, and a bag of cornmeal. That was a huge mess.



At 10:30 each night she starts howling. We have no reason why. She's not hungry. She has clean water. No one is outside. No other animal is around. She just meows. Even Max the Cat gets annoyed. He usually pounces on her to get her to shut up.



She sleeps in the laundry basket, right on top of the clothes.



Every thing is a cat toy, except the actual cat toys. A dropped Cheese-it gets batted around on the floor. Crocs...that must be a marble maze to play. good thing she can carry marbles around. Plastic wrap....ultimate cat toy. Noisy and fun to chew.



Now she's playing with a carpet indention left by a table leg. That's right. She is stalking and pouncing on the indention...and then attempts to dig it out. I guess in her cat brain, a hole means something must be in the hole.



She'll dig and play or a awhile and then stretch out on the floor and act indifferent until someone drops a Cheeto.

Nothing really

We're recovering this week.
This noro virus takes a whole lot out of you.

Not much is going on. Nothing out of the ordinary anyway. I spent the evening on the phone with the Dell support people. The first person was a total wash. The second person more than made of for the first person's incompetence. Truly awesome tech support and all around well spent hour.

My stuff for achievement testing is going right along. If things go well, we'll add about 10 more families to testing. That translates into a lower cost for everyone. It's nice that I can provide that service to families that need it.

I've got a new calling brewing in my head. I'm going to let it steep a little while longer until I know for sure. But it involves forming a social and informational group for families with Asperger's Syndrome. In the past 7 days, I have just run into complete strangers who have children with Asperger's. They seemed so happy to meet me and talk about what they were going through. I got the vibe from one particular person that this was the most he had every talked to anyone about his children. It seemed like a load had been lifted from him. The other was just happy that she was not alone and that AS kids could turn out just fine. (Mine have.)
Those were just strangers. I've had several other people that I know get with me about therapy and things to do at home.
It was just a nudge...to have so many encounters in one week. Like maybe this is something I should to pursue. Like I have some need that I could fulfill.
But I'm a stubborn follower. I like to wait until I get a nice clear message a path to follow. It is meant for me to do...I'll know.

The boys are wicked smart. They remind me of that each day and in the most surprising ways. They also show their love for each other and compassion for others. Which to me is even more important than knowledge or intelligence. I don't know how I ended up with such great kids. I think I get as much out support and love out of them as they do out of me.

I'm knitting like a crazy woman. We all dropped by the yarn store to procure new stash and show off my finished socks. The boys happened to wear their handknit socks too and the yarn store ladies were so impressed by the boys love and respect of handknits. The neighbors, the firewood guys, the grocery store bagger, and now the yarn store ladies have all proclaimed the boys to be well behaved and responsible young men that I should be quite proud of.

And I am. How could I not be?
I'm adopting the Dell chick as a sister. She'd fit right in with the clan.

Thanks to You for "the Gift"

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not shouting, "I've been saved!"
I'm whispering, "I get lost! That's why I chose this way"

When I say, "I am a Christian," I don't speak with human pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble-needing God to be my guide.

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak and pray for strength to carry on.

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting that I've failed and cannot ever pay the debt.

When I say, "I am a Christian," I don't think I know it all.
I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught.

When I say, "I am a Christian," I'm not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are far too visible but God believes I'm worth it.

When I say, "I am a Christian," I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartache which is why I seek His name.

When I say, "I am a Christian," I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority--I only know I'm loved.

Copyright 1988 Carol Wimmer

Got all excited

My regular chat buddy was on IM.
But she wasn't.
Wah!

This is the person I normally waste an hour with from time to time. We have the same political bent and the same sense of humor.
She is a drama magnet. (She doesn't cause it...it just flocks to her.) and I get such a kick out of teasing her about it.

Her new work schedule sucks...for me anyway. Because she's never online.
Sigh...I'll have to resort to emailing her.

You can not have silly irreverent conversations through email. But, I'll be forced to try.
Not only that, I'll end up dragging a couple of others into the silliness.
and it's all Seanna's fault. (Now your haters will be hitting my blog. LOL)

Oh, and if that wasn't you online today...the girls are logging in on your IM account. I'm so glad I don't have teen-age girls.
No...I'll just be eaten out of house and home with the teen-age boys.
And buying cases of "Oust."

Faith

Faith[feyth] –noun
1.confidence or trust in a person or thing
2.belief that is not based on proof
3.belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion
4.belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.
5.a system of religious belief
6.the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.
7.the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one's promise, oath, allegiance, etc.
8.Christian Theology. the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

I am not a religious person but I am a very spiritual person. I'm not the person who leads prayer and I very seldom discuss God or faith at all. But I do have great faith. My faith is defined by two things.

Oddly enough, a college class was the first impetus that defined my faith. I was a biology major who was forced to take elective classes for my degree. I had managed in the previous 3 years to take elective that had some science background or, at the very least, were interesting to me. But now I was forced to take a "philosophy" type class. I chose a course called "Dialogs of Reason and faith" that was taught by a theologian PhD. I can't even remember the man's name but it turned out to be one of my favorite classes and the only one that has served me daily.
He reasoned that there were four types of people: Faith includes reason, Reason includes faith, Reason excludes faith, and Faith excludes reason.

I determined that, even though I was a scientist at heart and mind, as a Christian...my Faith excluded reason. I believe because I believe. He says He has a reason for all things, so I believe it. He says that we shall have everlasting life, so I believe it.
I don't seek out answers.
I don't seek out proof.
I don't pray for things to happen or not.

Where am I going with all this?

A friend knew of our recent diagnosis and sent me a link to a website for support.
From that website:

If you are the parent of a child with autism, you know the agonizing pain of the shock, grief, distress, and even the hopelessness that can grip your soul. If you are a friend or family member of someone with a child with autism, you may well have spent time trying to comfort or bring clarity to a grieving parent. And in the midst of the dark night, one question burns in our spirits: Where is God?

That perplexed me. I have had many questions as a parent. I have grieved for losses real and imagined. But I have never had the question: Where is God?
Never.
Not once.
Why? Because I believe. I don't have faith in God because he has given me a wonderful husband and four blessed children.
I have faith because I faith. I need no proof, no miracles, no answered prayers.

More than once, I have been asked how I can handle homeschooling the 5 boys with my husband off to war. How do I handle the eight hours of scheduled therapy each week with all the extra home therapy? How do I handle the needs of two special needs children and all the extra stuff we do? How do I do it all?
The answer...I don't.

Most times, I just trust that it will work out. That there is a reason for all things, even if I'm never told what that reason is. I pray to be reminded of that when I forget. I pray that those I love will be reminded. And I, most importantly pray to thank God for His gifts.

In the early 90's, I got an impromptu invitation to hear Maya Angelou speak. She was vibrant woman. The poet Laureate spoke of being a woman, about growing up poor and disrespected, and about rising above all the things that you allow to hold you down.
It was an electrifying 90 minutes.
But the part that has stayed with me it this:
Ms. Angelou told a story of her childhood about a summer spent with an aging patriarch. The young Angelou was hot and miserable and let her hostess know about her discontent.
"You know child," the matriarch replied, "there are people all over God's great Earth that won't be rising this morning. They would give all they ever had for just five more minutes of all your troubles."

I'm reminded of that at therapy each week. It's why I seldom complain about my children's needs. I know for a fact that there are many parents who would gladly trade for my troubles.
I see how blessed I am.

Do I have troubles? Yes. Everyone does. God never promised us a life on Earth without trouble. But I can't get lost in those problems. I can't let them be what defines who I am.
Has He blessed me? Yes, every minute but even if He didn't, I would still have faith.