Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving! It will be a quiet one for us this year. For the first time that I can recall, it will be just our immediate family. We are usually treated to the culinary talents of a good friend, but he was not able to join us this year. My husband does not particularly care for turkey, so I will instead roast a chicken and serve it with a few of the typical side dishes: mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes..

I have not posted in a while, but we are all doing well. We went on a two week vacation in October and I am still "catching up" from that. So, I am very thankful today for the quiet time that we are able to spend together.



Samuel continues to make leaps in his school work with reading and spelling. His handwriting seems to have made some improvements lately too. I continue to place dots on the paper where he should start his letters ( something that is done in Handwriting Without Tears) and he is doing better at properly placing them within the lines. At the same time, we are challenged by him being "in his own world" with his VHS tapes. He constantly talks about them, doing "reviews" like he watches on You Tube videos. He continues to be motivated to do his school work by checklists that reward him with a purchase of a VHS tape.



I wish everyone the best with the upcoming Holiday Season, especially those whose children with autism may have a difficult time. The Autism Society and other organizations are good about giving tips for how to deal with the holidays, so be sure to check those out when you have a moment!



I'm going to be traveling with my two youngest children for a quick visit to my parents this weekend. I'm trying to prepare Samuel for our separation, the first since I went into the hospital to have my youngest child four years ago. Later in December I plan to visit my parents again with all four children. Both of these occasions will require some planning ahead. I'll let you know how it goes!

The photo: This mountainous stack of videos is one of the many ways Samuel goes about organizing them as he "reviews" them. Another variation is for him to stack them according to who produced them, for example.. Nickelodeon, Universal Studios, etc..

Rethinking Autism: Autistics Speak

This is great to see.. an organization/website that wants the attitude about autism that is presented in the media to show more respect and dignity towards those individuals who have autism.

It was 2 1/2 years ago that I wrote a post expressing my dissatisfaction about how autism was being portrayed in the media.

The Tough Reality of Consequences

I wrote this back on August 26, but forgot to post it!


Samuel has had a tough time at his last two Occupational Therapy sessions. Last week he would not cooperate with his therapist when it was time for him to use Wii. All Samuel wanted to do was go into the "settings" menu. (At home he erased all the data we had accumulated the first month we owned it while he played around in the "settings" menu.. so it's not a good thing for him to be there!) His therapist had already endured several sessions of this, so last week she decided that no more would be tolerated, his opportunity to play Wii would be lost once he did not comply with her request to stay out of "settings." Their session ended early. Samuel was upset, but he was over it by the time I picked him up at the scheduled ending time.

Yesterday, Samuel never even got together with the therapist to start the session. Over several days prior to the session and on the way in the car, I had talked with Samuel about how it was important to play Wii as his therapist requested, by staying out of the "settings" menu. This caused him to become a bit agitated. Then, as we were waiting in the reception area, he tried getting on to the computer located there. He has learned how to get into the DOS menu on computers (thanks You Tube!) and has already wrought havoc on the entire office's computer system. Stopping him from getting to the computer caused further agitation. He began to yell and throw toys so I told him we would have to leave the office until he could be calm. A few minutes later the therapist joined us outside, where Samuel was still upset. I gave him a few minutes to calm down and his therapist brought a container of rice for him to play with. He still didn't calm down and then he started throwing the rice on the ground.

The next step was to take him to the car to calm down. I gave him five minutes to become calm. I tried giving him some "sensory toys" that I had stashed in my purse, but they were not helpful. Ultimately, we had to call it a day and had to agree that we would try again next week. He was then upset because not partipating in Occupational Therapy meant that the soda I usually get for him afterwards was not available. It took about another 10 minutes for Samuel to calm down enough that I felt safe driving home with him. He apologized within an hour after getting home and has done so again several times today.

What will I do differently next time? I am thinking about setting up some kind of sticker chart or token system that he will have to fill in in order to "earn" his soda after OT next week. I am going to call the therapist and see how many activities we should place on the chart, and determine within what parameters he will "earn" the sticker for each activity. I will also make up a social story for him to read. It seems the "verbal only" method of talking to him about the problem isn't working very well! I am also going to offer him more verbal encouragement ("I know that you can earn all of your stickers!" "Won't if feel great to show Miss M____ how well you can do your Wii exercises?")

Since then we have had two successful therapy sessions! The sticker chart is helping out and his therapist really likes having it. Samuel is happy that he is earning and able to get something he really likes.

Success with Spelling

Samuel has made a big leap in his spelling! He has shown that he is able to correctly spell words with consonant digraphs! He has revisited this issue in his spelling over the last 2 years. Occasionally words like "what," "why," "this," would make their way into his spelling list. After a week or so of practising he would still have a problem with the digraphs.

What has changed this? I credit the change mostly to phonics exercises he has been doing on "Time 4 Learning," an on-line curriculum. It is amazing to watch how much more easily Samuel speeds through work on a computer rather than struggling with worksheets and books.

Found!

It had been missing for months. This status caused great distress and moments of upheaval when he would remember. Who would think that one little Sponge Bob VHS tape was so important? Well, it was to Samuel.

It seemed that whenever I was impossibly busy he would demand that I look for it. I tried; on all the usual shelves and in all the usual boxes. Then it was on to the unusual places: under the beds, under the couch, on top of the fridge. I tried turning the search into teachable moments for him. " Why don't you take a few minutes and look for it?" That was not what he wanted at all.

Finally, yesterday I heard a jubilant, "I FOUND IT!!!!" I immediately knew he was talking about the video, but I asked him, "What did you find?" "My Spongebob Nautical Nonsense VHS tape!" "Where did you find it?" "Right here!" (I had to laugh, I was in another room and had no way of knowing what he was talking about, but he did answer my question!) He had found it on the bottom of our coat closet. Videos are kept on a shelf in there and it must have fallen off.

"Well Samuel, I'm very proud of you, you were able to find your missing video all by yourself!" Now maybe he can help me teach his three year old sister to look for her own things as well!

The Absent Blogger

It has been quite a while since I posted regularly. Several things have contributed to this. One reason is that I have had an extraordinarily difficult time keeping up with the activity in my daily life. I enrolled two of my sons in a rather demanding homeschool curriculum this past fall. It proved to be very difficult to keep up with while having to continually customize Samuel's school work. In addition to that, last September I became Vice Chairman of our county's Special Education Advisory Committee. Granted, the demands of this position are not very great, but it did involve a monthly meeting, along with a few informal meetings or discussions with other members around that. Also, due to some activity that came up during the year I also served as the committee secretary. A new secretary had to be named and I came to realize that was really the position I wanted to serve in. So, now that's what I do. Again, it isn't all that involved but there is the responsibility of typing meeting minutes each month.

In addition to that, a good predictable bedtime for the kids has become a thing of the past in our household! Bedtime has always been a bit on the late side for our children because of Samuel's natural tendency to stay up late. Well, now his two younger siblings are used to that.. and my youngest has a hard time falling asleep on her own! On top of that, even though Samuel has finally mastered the required skills to change from his clothes to his pajamas, that doesn't always mean he is motivated to do so. I have come up with checklists, etc.. to take care of getting the school work done. Now I have to work on the same thing for the night-time routine! I would love to have my free time in the evening back, at an early enough time that I can stay awake to enjoy it!

Probably one of the biggest reasons for my lack of posting, however, is the advent of Facebook in my life. It is so difficult for me to sit down and write even just a few short paragraphs when I have gotten used to doing posts in two and three sentence blurbs! I went through a Facebook overload when I first joined it over the winter, but now I'm finding that my activity on it has leveled off a bit and I am hoping to post on this blog a little more regularly!

Third and Fourth Checklist Goals are Set!

Samuel has already told me what he wants to work towards on his next two checklists of school assignments: first a trip to McDonalds and then another trip to the Goodwill Store for another video!

I love that we have this mutually beneficial way of accomplishing something each of us wants. Now if I can just figure out how to motivate my NT students!

Second Work Checklist Completed!

Samuel has already completed the second checklist of work (language arts and math), on which he got to fill in stickers as he completed assignments. He is downstairs right now doing some quick school work and then we are off to the Goodwill Store to buy the video he earned; he is so excited and I am so proud of him! I'll post photos of the checklists soon.

Autistic Pride Day

June 18 is Autistic Pride Day. What is Autistic Pride Day? Take a look at this link for the answer directly from the group who created it, Aspies for Freedom.

This date was unknown to me until just a few nights ago, when I found it while looking around for some things on the internet. I was thrilled that I happened to find out about it only a few days before it was to be celebrated! It is nice to know that at a day has been chosen to recognize that there are those who do not regard autism as a tragedy.

Hopefully there will be a day when the voices who sound this opinion will be louder than the voices sounding despair and tragedy. Most of all, hopefully there will be a day when all people are treated with dignity and respect, and all human life is valued and appreciated, no matter how "difficult" or "challenging" the situation might be.

Samuel has now completed all the tasks and has filled in the stickers on his chart, hurray!

The next chart will be to earn a trip to the Goodwill Store, where he will be allowed to buy a videotape. I am going to include Language Arts and Math assignments on it. It's lots of fun to have Samuel motivated by these checklists. It wasn't too many years ago that I could not even comprehend using one for him!

There's Nothing Like A Little Motivation!

Samuel has been standing behind me, practically breathing down my neck as he eagerly awaits something that I told him I would work on tonight. The latest video he has been asking us to buy is "The Land Before Time." I am not exactly sure why he has become so interested in it, but it could be simply because it is a Universal Studios picture.

As Samuel was bothering me about buying this video for him yesterday I was busy thinking about getting him to finish a Language Arts workbook that we have been working on for some time. Actually, it has been sitting on a shelf collecting dust for the past 3 months while we took a little break from it (we started an on-line language arts curriculum in the meantime). Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head, "Tie these two things together!" I told Samuel that I would order him the video after he finishes the workbook. Later in the day he wanted to know when we were going to work in the workbook! He also asked me this several times today. Before jumping back into the workbook I printed out a punctuation worksheet on periods and question marks as a review of the last assignment he had done. Then, after he asked me about the workbook about 5 more times, I decided to add a visual element to tracking his progress; I would make a checklist.

We will put stickers on it as he completes each assignment. The movie promotional picture I put on it is freaking him out a bit, but at least he now will have a sense of how much longer it will take until he is finished. He wants to do some work tonight, but it's almost 9:00 and I am a bit tired!

Real Bowling

Our family has gone bowling several times over the years. Two of my sons have had birthday parties at our local alley. That's where Samuel had his eighth birthday party, and spent much of it fighting to get into the arcade room.

We were newly inspired to go bowling as a family again recently by our youngest son, who is currently the family bowling champion on Wii. So this past Sunday we trekked over to the lanes. Samuel and his younger siblings had rails up so their balls would stay out of the gutter. My youngest son got the best score of anyone, thanks to the rails. We were all surprised at how poorly we did compared to our results on Wii, especially my oldest son.

I was so happy that we were able to convince all the kids to stick with the game, even my 3 year old. That was no easy feat, considering that six of us were in the game! Samuel was especially impressive. He stayed with us the entire time, no running away and no attempting to escape to the game room! We gave them a moment to take a look after the arcade afterwards.

There is talk of us going again. I hope we will, it was lots of fun and we could all use a bit of work on our skills; not a one of us scored over 100!

It seems that most stories I have heard about IEPs lately have been quite negative, so it was nice to come across this more light-hearted list of IEP DOs and DON'Ts from "Mama on the Edge."



Life continues to be rather crazy, but it goes on and we have good days here and there. We have adjusted Samuel's day to include much more in the way of sensory activity. We are trying "Time4Learning" on-line curriculum for Math and Language Arts. I am amazed at how much better his attention span is working on the computer as opposed to toughing it out with worksheets and books while sitting at the table. Independence in completing tasks and teaching self-control are still very important parts of Samuel's education at home.

My youngest son has developed a strong fear of wind. I just learned that this is called Ancraophobia. I am not sure what has brought this on in him. He is constantly looking out the window to see how much the tree branches are moving. The wind chimes ringing (which I consider to be a happy sound) put fear in him. Windy conditions developed here this afternoon and my son hid under a blanket curled up in a ball on the couch, after he made sure all the blinds were shut! I am trying to keep everyone else in the house from teasing him. I even teased him a little at first, but now I realize that he really is afraid and I am trying to help him get over it.

Glass Half Empty/Glass Half Full

Samuel did a bit of swearing during prayer time with the family this morning./Samuel prayed appropriately a few times during prayer time this morning.

I had lots of bedding to wash this morning./Samuel got to enjoy a nice relaxing bath this morning.

My little girl needed a wardrobe change at mid-day./My little girl is almost potty trained!

I just about ran myself ragged today/We had the most productive day of school work in weeks today.

Family Update

It has been a busy time in my household and I have not posted here in a while! Samuel seems to be very much in need of extra sensory activity these days; he is running, jumping, and flopping around. He also seems to be very much on edge and I am not sure why. He is growing in leaps and bounds, he is almost 5 feet tall now..only 6 inches shorter than I am! I am grateful to have plenty of assistance and advice from his Occupational Therapists, who are recommending lots of sensory breaks during his day. We now have 2 therapy balls for him to bounce on and I just replaced a broken mini-trampoline. I had been letting him jump on my bed but he is getting treacherously close to hitting the ceiling when he jumps!

I have discovered Face Book, which is probably contributing to my lack of posting here. Wow, is that addictive! It has been fun connecting with friends in my area and with people I haven't seen or talked to in ages.

Our family is preparing for a trip down to Colonial Williamsburg and Virginia Beach, where my husband and I were living when we met and first got married. I am hoping to get a good taste of spring while there; it arrives a few weeks earlier there than up here in the northern part of the state.

I am sorry that I haven't visited other blog friends so much lately but I hope to do so soon!

Speaker at our meeting

The guest speaker at my county's Special Education Advisory Committee meeting for February got some attention in one of our local newspapers! I am hoping this will inspire parents of children with special needs in our area to become more involved with their childrens' education.



We are hoping to set up a monthly "Respite Day" locally in the next few months.



http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2009/02/founder-of-group-tells-parents-to-use-available-re.html

[Message sent by leesja@gmail.com via AddThis.com. Please note that the sender's email address has not been verified.]

"The Transporters" DVD Series, Recognizing Emotions in Others

Following are a few links for a DVD series called "The Transporters" that was made in Great Britain. It is supposed to help children with autism learn to recognize emotions in others.


I remember coming across a sample episode on-line a while back. It is VERY similar to the Thomas the Tank Engine videos.. and all my kids were captivated by it.

The series became available in the U.S. last month. You can get more info about it from this website, where you can also view an episode.
http://www.thetransporters.com/

Here is a recent article about the series, which was sent to me in an Autism Society of Northern VA Yahoo Group post.:Kids with autism learn to 'read' people" dated 11 February 2009 by Mark Roth from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09042/948176-298.stm?cmpid=MOSTEMAILEDBOX.

I'm going to see if my local library will buy the series. This will go along nicely with Samuel's desire to "explore emotions."

Exploring Emotions and Actions

In the last year we have noticed that Samuel likes to "explore" various emotional feelings. During Easter last year he was focused on death and dying, and it seemed natural that he would explore this through the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Later in the year he explored this through Walt Disney. I do not know exactly how this came to be, but he would ask me and one of his helpers in particular about what would have happened when Walt Disney got old and died.

I am not quite sure what to make about the feeling that he is exploring now. It might be "things forbidden" or it could just be that he is curious about things that ultimately lead to him getting in trouble. I don't know. I do know that if he does something that gets him in trouble he wants us to narrate the story back to him.

One recent event occurred one morning while he was playing Wii. This was a "break" time for Samuel so his helper was organizing some things in the kitchen while Samuel was playing in the family room. I was working in the kitchen. All of a sudden Samuel screamed, started crying, and ran upstairs to hide. I went over to the television screen and the Wii system was asking questions like, "what language do you want?..." I realized that Samuel had been exploring the menus, had come across some kind of "clear system" button and had selected it. SAMUEL HAD DELETED ALL THE CHARACTERS, ALL THE INFORMATION, ALL THE SCORES WE HAD OBTAINED over the 40 days since we received it at Christmas. This included all the games and levels that had been unlocked due to our hard work. I felt really bad for my two other sons, who had done lots of hard work on Wii Fit, Wii Sports, and a crossbow shooting game. Samuel's helper took care of setting up the system so that a password would be needed in the future to do such a thing. I wish we had thought of that earlier! Live and learn.. Now, Samuel wants me to repeat the story of this. I won't. I tell him that what he did was wrong and that we have now fixed the game so that it cannot be done again. He apologized to all of us without me even asking for him to do so.

Samuel also likes for me to repeat a story that I had told all the children one time.. about how I had broken apart one of my baby brother's toys (a toy hour glass) so that I could get to the plastic pellets inside of it. I will not repeat this story for him anymore either. I talk about it in terms of how it was wrong, that I should have respected my brother's property.

The strange thing in all of this is that he seems truly remorseful and sorry for doing things that hurt others, yet he likes to get others to talk about it and I'm sure that he will "explore" other such actions in the future. We're trying to pay attention to what he talks about and what he is watching on the computer. His big brother says he got the idea about clearing out Wii from a video he watched on the computer.. YouTube or something like that.

He's going over the Ten Commandments one by one in Religion and I am glad that he seems to be able to relate to the idea that there are rules of proper behavior that should be followed. I have a few books that are great for bringing the rules of the commandments to his level. (For example.. "Thou shalt not kill," besides meaning that we really shouldn't "kill," also means that we should treat our siblings and friends nicely....)We are reading them; now I have my job as his Mom to help him apply them in everyday life.

Fun for me too

To satisfy Samuel's interest in "The History of the Years" I have been printing out select events from years. I began last week with 1900 and we have worked our way, year by year, up to 1905. Samuel is looking forward to seeing 1906 because he already knows that his favorite breakfast cereal company, Kellog's, was founded that year. I wonder if the website I have been using will mention that (spiritus-temporis.com).

I am having just as much fun reading up on all of this as Samuel is. I absolutely love history and I am particulary mesmerized by the beginning of the 20th century and the years leading up to WWI, when a massive upheaval started occuring in the world that nobody could have possibly predicted.

The Flip Side

My last post was about the great time I had with Samuel while we were out one evening recently. I hope I did not give the impression that every single trip out with Samuel is a breeze, that certainly is not the case. A good example of this occurred just a few days after my last post, at Special Olympics Basketball practise.

Samuel started playing basketball this winter for the first time. We did not attend practises consistently, but we did make it to 4 or 5 of them. A few times I took a helper along. By the last week of practise I was able to convince Samuel to stay in the gym (he had made a game out of running away at our first practise). The coaches had also developed a bit of a rapport with Samuel and were able to convince him, on occasion, to join in the drills. Samuel was the youngest player and he was definitely more interested in running up and down the courts than he was in participating. (I'm hoping that track will hold Samuel's interest better. We're planning to participate in that this coming summer)

That last week of practise was going along quite well. Samuel had been alternating between participating in drills and taking breaks by running around the court, when all of a sudden I caught view of him across the court bursting into tears. I honestly have no idea what triggered this. I went up to him and started asking him what he was thinking about, but he had no interest in talking to me. He screamed, "I'm running away!" and he sped down the hallway out of the gym. My two youngest children were with me so I situated them in the gym and proceeded to chase Samuel. He had gone into a room, turned on the lights, and then proceeded further down the hall. I was able to get him back in the gym, but we had to leave practise. Samuel grudgingly came along out to the car, but he still wasn't very happy. Somehow, over the course of the next 10 minutes his mood improved. We were set to go spend the rest of the day with friends and he was fine after the incident at the gym. He was amongst 14 other children and had a great time.

I never figured out why he was upset at the gym. All I know is that I was caught off guard. I had scheduled a helper but due to a miscommunication she did not meet us there. I had thought we would be okay because Samuel was in such a good mood, but I was reminded that day that things can take a turn for the worst mighty quickly!

A Nice Evening Out with Samuel

Last week I started participating in an autism support group that is being held in a nearby town. The group is called Essential Pieces and has existed for a few years now. They hold support group meetings in 8 week sessions. I first found out about this group some time last year but this is the first session that I have been able to participate in. As a preview to attending this group, I attended a conference they held last October about Sensory Stories. I found it to be a very professionally run conference and thought the topic was terrific. I'll talk more about Sensory Stories later..

During the parent meetings, some interns from a local university conduct a social group for children with autism and their siblings. I decided to take along Samuel and his younger brother to participate in this. The first meeting Samuel was not able to go because he had an eye infection. Then, this past week his younger brother was ill, so I took Samuel alone.

I was so impressed by Samuel's behavior the entire evening! We had to park in a parking garage and walk about a block to the meeting location. He stayed with me nicely, no having to worry about him running away! He also left his videos that he had brought along in the car without a problem, even after he had asked if he could bring them and I said, "I think it will be better to keep them in the car, then you won't lose them." I had told him ahead of time in the car where he would be and where I would be, and about how long I would be at my meeting. He seemed excited and interested and did not have any problem saying goodbye. Even though he is a bit older than the other social group participants (most of them look to be somewhere between 4-6 years old), he seemed happy to be there.

Our walk back to the car went great. He asked for a treat on the way, which was fine because we had to stop at a pharmacy to pick up some Pedialyte for his younger brother. Samuel was even well behaved at the pharmacy! He likes to look around stores and I had been worried about him getting into the DVD display. He found it and was able to look at it as I paid for my purchases and accepted the time limit I gave him very nicely! I let him listen to the "Cars" soundtrack on the way home.

Later that evening I thought about how nice it can be to take Samuel out now, after all the years of practising and using visual aids. We had been in a part of town that night where, about 7 years ago (when Samuel was 3 and I was pregnant with his little brother), he ran away from me and out into a road. What a scary event that was. Even though we can have tough moments out in public, it is nice to have more and more successes with him!

"History of the Years"

Samuel has a funny new way of showing his interest in history. He keeps asking us what happened in a particular year. My husband was watching a show on the History Channel last night about World War II. Samuel came in the room and asked, "What year is this?" My oldest son left a book he is reading about the War of 1812 in their bedrom; Samuel asked me, "What happened in 1812?" He also keeps asking me, "What happened in 1944?" and while he was getting a bath the other night he asked me, "What happened in the year 1?"

I'm sure if I asked him, he could tell me what year every video game was introduced. That seems to be where this interest in years came to the forefront for him. He has been watching a YouTube video that covers the history of video games and has been scripting it for the past few weeks. One time he told me, "I'm going to watch, 'The History of the Years.'" I asked him what that was about and he explained it was about the video games. Not long after this is when he started to ask all the questions about years.

I need to capitalize on this interest Samuel has for teaching him some history! Does anyone know about any good books or other resources for timelines?

Wii love it!

A Wii game system from Nintendo was one of our family's most popular Christmas gifts this year. Right after gifts had been opened Christmas morning my oldest son set out to create characters for the entire family. They are called "Mii"s (pronounced like "me"). Then he, his father and youngest brother played some of the sports games: tennis and bowling. When it was Samuel's turn he got a bit upset. This wasn't the Wii playing that he was used to. After a few minutes I figured it out; to Samuel "Wii" means "Wii Fit" because that is what he plays while he is at Occupational Therapy. We took out the Wii Sports disc and put in Wii Fit, he was fine after that.

I have been very surprised at Samuel's lack of balance and control while he does some of the exercises on Wii Fit. While exercising, a visual reference showing your center of balance appears on the screen. Samuel's moves all over the place! Players earn points for doing the exercises the correct way, and Samuel's scores are usually very low. Just last week I watched his occupational therapist guide him in these exercises and now Samuel's helpers and I will assist Samuel at home when we can. I think Wii will be a very helpful tool for improving Samuel's coordination and awareness.

As for the rest of the family, we are all enjoying it in different ways. My other two sons have an intense competition going for the top scores in the games and exercises. They really like the video games. My youngest son can beat everyone in the family in Wii bowling! He does this crazy twirling motion with his arm when he releases the ball! I don't ever recommend standing behind him in a real bowling alley if he tries that move there! My 3 year old daughter has fun on the balancing games in Wii Fit. Her 6 year old brother "helps" her, so she has some of the high scores on those games. I am the yoga champion for right now, but some of that is because I am the only one doing those exercises! I think I still hold the record score in the hula hoop games as well. The step aerobic exercises are the funniest to watch the kids do. All of them but Samuel will line up in the family room and follow along with whoever is actually using the Wii board at the time. The boys have the record scores in that.

We're all enjoying our new Wii game system very much!

Life is a Precious Gift

We live in a fantastic country. The inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday is a testament to the greatness that one can achieve when a country follows through on its promise of freedom and opportunity. That is the ONLY promise that I want from my government; the preservation of our freedom.

The March for Life is in Washington, D.C., tomorrow. My prayers go with those participating in the march and they also go out to everyone in our country: that we will all learn to value and respect life in all of its stages.

Sorry, the video downloaded with some pauses.. I'll try to re-load it later. It is from CatholicVote.com and I heard that this is a commercial that aired in the Chicago area yesterday.

Posted using ShareThis

Rare Date Night

My husband and I enjoyed an evening out together for the first time in a LONG LONG TIME. The last time we had needed a babysitter was a year ago last November, when we celebrated a friend's 50th birthday with other friends. I honestly do not remember the last time my husband and I went out for dinner alone! It could have been almost two years ago, on an occasion when my sister in law was visiting.

Anyways, we went to an Indian Restaurant. My husband, who works for an British-owned company, was introduced to this restaurant by some of his co-workers who are from England. Neither of us has much familiarity with Indian food so this was a bit of an adventure for us.

When we left we had two babysitters and one of Samuel's helpers at our house. His helper went home within a half hour after that. Our babysitters have known us for 6 years and it is such a relief to be able to leave our children with them without a worry. Even though we don't need a babysitter very often, they are over at our house regularly to help me in other ways so our children know them and are very comfortable with them. They are wonderful with Samuel, without my having to go into all kinds of explanations of how to do things with him or for him.

Happy 2009!!!

Well, Christmas is over and another new year begins! We returned to school work this week. I was without one of Samuel's helpers while she was on vacation with her family. In spite of that we got by okay. Samuel had much fewer outbursts, even with the demands of school work being put upon him. We'll see how next week goes, when I try to get more work in.

I think Samuel may have FINALLY learned how to zip his jacket! We have been working on that for so long. I realized that the kind of jacket we had him wear was too difficult for him to work with. We usually get Land's End jackets, which are wonderful, but the way the zippers are covered makes it way too difficult for Samuel to maneuver it. He has a very hard time getting the separate parts of the zipper together. I bought a cheap jacket at a local discount store that doesn't have a covered zipper and it's much easier for him to work with that.

I have started using Saxon Math with Samuel. His younger brother has been working in it. I was reminded that Samuel's teacher had used it with him when he was younger. So, we're repeating first grade math again, but I am much more confident he will be successful in this. I was having to make too many alterations to the other workbook curriculum I was using for him.

Seton Home Study curriculum is what I am using for my youngest and oldest sons. While we are provided with a daily schedule for each subject, I did find this statement in the curriculum materials, which I take great comfort in given that we deviated from the schedule after about Day 2 of the school year:

There is no "getting behind" in homeschooling; the pace should be according to
the needs of the student.

Granted, I could be a little more organized, but I don't think I'm doing too bad given all the preparation that has to go into getting Samuel's lessons together and all the chaos our days sometimes holds because of his behavior.

Good News

One of Samuel's helpers has been waiting for the arrival of his baby, whose due date was Christmas day. I got a call from him this morning with the good news that his wife gave birth this morning to a healthy baby boy! Congratulations! Another of Samuel's helpers is a good friend of theirs and generously made herself available during the week of Christmas, and much of last week, to assist them, but the baby had other plans I guess! She wasn't able to help them after all because she is now on vacation, visiting her family.

Our family has been fortunate to have help from both of these individuals with Samuel for almost a year and a half now. We have help from two other people as well, but they do not work as regularly. They all have their own ways of interacting with Samuel and I am glad that he is able to have a variety of people helping him (and me!).

I stand corrected, I found out that the friend was present at the baby's delivery after all! His baptism is next weekend. I cannot wait to see him! I saw his picture and he is soooo darling. I miss having a baby! My 40 pound 3 year old is still my baby, but I miss the little newborn kind!

Holiday Mode

We're finishing our second week of taking a break from school work. In spite of that I am still trying to maintain somewhat of a routine to help Samuel have a sense of normalcy. My children have had the luxury of sleeping in LATE, and I have had the luxury of a little more quiet time in the morning before they are up and running (more like they are up and I am running!)

The schedule has been something along the lines of : WAKE UP- BRUSH (Wilbarger Protocol Brushing) - TOILET- WASH HANDS-CHOOSE CLOTHES-GET DRESSED-DIRTY CLOTHES TO THE HAMPER-COMB HAIR-MAKE BED-CLEAN UP TOYS-BREAKFAST-BRUSH TEETH-RACING(My oldest son leads all four children in some relay races outside, with the assistance of one of Samuel's helpers on the days they are scheduled to work here in the morning-ACTIVITY AT THE TABLE (During the school break this has been checking his calendar, writing in his journal, and filling in his "All About Me" book) - YOUR CHOICE. This schedule varies a little bit on the days I have Samuel's helpers here.

I had visions of having all kinds of free time for myself during our break from school, but that hasn't happened yet! I'm still working on Christmas cards, which I still do the old-fashioned way, for the most part. I write out addresses on the envelopes, sign our cards, type out a letter, print a few family photos on it, and then get everything together. I cannot bring myself to abbreviate the process to one of those photo greeting cards, but it sure is tempting when it often takes me until mid-January to get my cards out! I consider Christmas to be until January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, so as far as I'm concerned my cards aren't late yet! Still, I'd rather have them arrive at the beginning of Christmas rather than at the end, or later.

Our vacation from school finishes up at the end of this weekend. Then we hit the books! Samuel's 10th birthday will be here not long after that!