The News Team

Last week we were studying about knights and castles and one of the things which we learned about was the Code of Chivalry. If you are unfamiliar with it you can find it here. Also included there is the Rules of Courtly Love, which was nice refresher for anyone in a relationship with anyone. Last week Haiti was hit by an earthquake that causes major damage and took a lot of lives. Isaac wanted to help them.

We thought up a way to do a donation drive in our community. It started out by just posting a few flyers up in the stores and other areas. While I want it to sound noble and all that we are doing this, (and we want to do this, don't get me wrong), part of the project was helping Isaac with his social skills. Keeping eye contact, asking for help, accepting slight rejection (like the word NO), and working on fluidity in his speech.

I was so proud of our little community. Safeway donated a 25.00 gift card to him, another store is offering discounts if they bring in a donation, others let him post his flyer in their place of business. The Chamber of Commerce notified KNOP News 2 out of North Platte, so they scheduled an appointment yesterday to come out and film Isaac and our family for his project.

I rehearsed with Isaac most of the day on the questions they were going to ask him. We cleaned the house. Why is it on the day you are so worked up and nervous about something, its the day the kids are out of sorts, off medication, don't feel good or refuse to cooperate in any way? By the time the News got here, I was trying my best to not look like a stressed out freak of a mom with six kids.

She positioned us all on our couch. Then she handed Isaac a microphone. I got the giggles when I said "Kermit the Frog here, reporting for Sesame Street News." So much for not acting like a freak. Well, the laughter was good anyway, it helped with the nerves.

The anchorwoman that was filming this was very nice and very patient. Kendra Potter had a smile on her face the entire time, complimented and encouraged Isaac, and put us at ease. After our interview she filmed the kids playing a game and I noticed five of them were not even aware of her camera, or that she was stepping over 6 wiggly bodies to get a better shot. Except Simeon. Simeon had all his penguins in tow. He insisted Cody, his favorite, get filmed. At one point Simeon shouts out "Hi Mrs. Hendricks (his Kindergarten teacher)! Look! I'm so brave!" While she was filming the kids playing a game, Simeon was standing beside her with Cody, jabbering on about something. When she lowered the camera for a better picture, Simeon took that opportunity to inch Cody up to the side of the camera, then ease Cody around the edge of lens so it looked something like this:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Only, pretend the seal is a penguin. And the penguins are 5 unassuming kids playing a game.

They will air the segment tomorrow night on the 10:00 news. Isaac is going to be their Hometown Hero. Isaac seemed so at ease, not nervous, and pretty excited about it all. We have yet to get any physical donation in, but I hope after Sunday we might get some. We plan to take all of it to a collection point in Cheyenne WY.

It has been a pretty exciting week here in Ogallala. Its not too often that a news team shows up at your house. I know there are several ways to donate to the people of Haiti, but that Isaac can actually touch the goods, sort them, pack them and deliver them has a lot more meaning to him. I think *sniff*...he's on his way to becoming a knight!

New Year's Resolutions: When All Else Fails

I found this on the MOPS newsletter today and wanted to share it. I got a good laugh out of it.

* I will do less laundry and use more deodorant.

* I will avoid taking a bath when ever possible and conserve more water.

* I will not tell the same story at every get together.

* I will brush my hair every day.

* Eat one hot meal a day.

* Go to the bathroom at least once a day BY MYSELF!

* I will make my husband happy and pretend to be a sports fan.

* I will not congratulate any women on her pregnancy unless I am ABSOLUTELY SURE she is indeed with child.

* I will accept the fact that I will never stick to my resolution I have had for the last ten years-that I will go on a diet. To heck with it, I resolve to eat whatever I want, forever.

* Not to do anything incriminating (like, say, shave my nipple hair) in front of my three year old, who will promptly give me away-loudly-to anyone who will listen.

*Not to let the Cheerios littering the floor of my car get crushed, then spilled on, then formed into dried lumps permanently stuck to the carpeting.

* Not to forget my kindergartener's homework, folder, lunch, jacket, show and tell, class picture order, and the fact that is "wear red" school spirit day. Dang kindergarten is hard!

* Not to blame my husband for getting me pregnant for a third time, because we actually did plan it but now I have morning sickness and it is all his fault!

Sharing the Struggles

I realized last week how lax I have been in writing here. I plead with anyone that has any experience in the mental illness realm to please chime in with advice. I'm still floundering a bit over here.

The short story is we took a trip out to Monroe Meyer Institute in Omaha, NE for them to evaluate Isaac and Simeon and to get a final diagnosis. I had so many people speculate what Isaac or Simeon may have. What it came down to was mild autism for Simeon and ADHD, Asperger Syndrome and possible Schizophrenia for Isaac. The testing is not done as we go out to Kearney next week to get MRI's done to eliminate seizures or tumors. While none of this came as a surprise, there were some things in there I didn't want to admit to myself.

Schizophrenia scares me. It scares me even more to hear all that Isaac has to say about his condition. This had come up about 6 years ago with another counselor, but I dismissed it because of Isaac's age. He's 11 now and quite able to tell me about what he sees. He has two sets of people: the Ladies, Ms. Bonnet and Ms. Moss are nice and tell Isaac he is good, handsome, and smart. They comfort him when he is sad. The other ones are Cowboys. These guys jump out and scare him, hide under the bed, move in the shadows and tell Isaac to do things like choke, hit and kick people. As he's gotten older he's gotten better control. To be honest, I feel like a stranger family moved in and I'm just now learning they've been living in the basement all along. When Isaac seems distracted, it is because he is listening to the voices. When he is standing to the side of the room, tapping his hands, his eyes trying to look at everything at once, he's arguing with the voices. The Cowboys are also why his anxiety is through the roof, why he never wants to be left alone, why he never wants to be in a room by himself. We are currently working with medications to get some balance back to him, but medications don't always last 24 hours and we have to have plans for when it wears off. Isaac is under supervision most of the time and this is exhausting but getting better as he gets older.

Heavenly Father certainly knows our prayers well before we ask them. By Thanksgiving I knew Isaac was not doing well at all. School was hard, he was begging to come back home, you could see the anxiety rising in him. His medications would wear off about 4 in the afternoon, just in time for him to ride the bus home and sometimes walk. It became apparent quickly we couldn't let Isaac walk home with his brothers and sister because he caused fights, left them behind, took different routes or screamed all the way home. In desperate prayer one night I felt he needed to come back out of school. If I needed a reminder of why I started homeschooling, I had my answer. All the 'symptoms' of why I started homeschooling were still there, but a lot of them had lessened with homeschooling...apparently enough that I forgot about them. I started making plans to remove just Isaac from school, hoping this would reset the balance he needed to function, hoping I could get some relief from the constant upset in my home.

The school has not taken kindly to this. They are not equipped to help a child with Schizophrenia, and while they never saw the behaviors I did, they would not help him with the problems I listed until they saw them displayed. So, no Occupational Therapy, no Behavior Intervention or therapy. They helped him with academics. When I went to them for help, they suggested I get Isaac institutionalized and then got upset when we chose not to go that route. Within a week of removing Isaac from school, a lot of the behaviors lessened. His doctors adjusted some medications and that helped as well. By Christmas, we were all starting to breath easily. One of the more disturbing situations I witnessed about Isaac was on his last day we went in to his class to get the few things left out of his desk. I thought he could have a chance to say good bye to some friends. He wouldn't make eye contact with anyone, he wouldn't speak to anyone, and he was agitated. The other kids tried to say good bye, ask him if he was moving, that sort of thing, but his eyes were all over the place he never seemed to make the connection that they were talking to him. He hovered under my arm, too insecure to wander off on his own.

I'm not saying I'm anti public school at this point, but there have been more cons to the kids being in school than being homeschooled. I learned very quickly I lost a lot of patience I had while homeschooling. I missed my kids, I missed having a purpose (i.e. lesson planning, scheduling, teaching). It is different to just homeschool one child versus 4-6 of them at the same time. With the advice of a couple of doctors we felt it would be better to get Isaac stable and let the other kids finish out the school year. We have already decided we will all homeschool next year. It will be nice to be altogether again and I've learned a huge lesson in all this. Mothering instincts are real and usually pretty accurate. YOU know your child better than anyone.

On top of all this stress, we've had illnesses galore. H1N1 flu, pneumonia, colds, strep, ear infections, hand foot and mouth disease, and I have an ulcer. Then this month the van breaks down (our only vehicle), but God is mindful and we were able to get a second opinion on it and it IS just fine. At least for now. Yeah, it could stand a few repairs, but not no 1700.00 we were originally quoted. Curtis continues to look for a better paying job, but it is not easy going but we are grateful we DO have a job.

In a month, my baby will be two. By this time we have usually had another baby or be just about to have another baby. I feel a little lost on that part too. I feel like I'm entering a new stage of life but I wasn't quite ready for the last part of be over yet. I love the babies, I crave the babies, and they sadly may not be coming anymore. I'm trying to resign myself to being happy with the six we have, but I felt so sure we had at least one more coming to us.

So, this is the end of my post on our struggles. I wish there was someway to lace some humor into it, but there seems to be a short supply of that when dealing with mental illness. Once again, I would love to hear from any homeschoolers who have this affliction with their children.

To a better year!!!

Works For Me Wednesday

I saw this on another homeschool blog and thought I could apply it over here too. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with this theme for the year. (I petered out on the Day Book theme).

This will probably sound really confusing to a lot of people, but I will attempt to tell you what our schedule is, and when it's working how it works for us.

I cannot function in a blown up house. The clutter, messiness and dirt inhibits any functionality in my body. Maybe this came from a few years of studying Feng Shui, maybe it is just how I'm wired. For me, my best time is in the morning, so most mornings (barring any catastrophes, like a flooded basement, lost dog, meltdown 30 seconds before heading out the door)we start with scripture study. This year we are doing the Relief Society and Priesthood book Gospel Principles together as a family. We eat breakfast and get everyone out the door for work and three kids that are going to school. Once back home, we clean up the dishes, get laundry going, clean the cat box, feed the animals, and clean the bathroom.

Then it is onto school. I'll post more about this tomorrow, but we are just getting back into the routine of things after a four month break. While I function better in the morning, Isaac does not and his best time is early afternoon and evening. I try to get in school for him in the morning, and then carry over the leftover school stuff to afternoon.

Lunch is leftovers or sandwiches and soup. When I was homeschooling all the kids, we had some lunches like that, but I usually ended up cooking a regular meal because it was cheaper and went farther.

Naps are at 1:30. The little boys go down and that leaves time for Isaac and I to do school stuff uninterrupted and without distractions. I will admit, if it has been a hard morning, I veg during this time. I zone out on Facebook, email, a game or a book and Isaac does the same. If its been a pretty good day, we do chores and school activities.

One thing I don't like is the 3:30 interruption for the other three kids coming home from school. They don't all get out of school at the same time. They stagger the dismissal times between the 3 different schools the kids attend and so I end up waiting impatiently for Jesse to arrive. I have hurt their feelings by refusing to allow the kids to show me anything out of their backpacks in the car. Too much stuff in an itty bitty space. Once we are home it is snack time and homework time, a few chores (animal care and laundry to be put away) and veg time for the school age kids.

Mondays and Wednesdays we have a paper route that takes an hour and fifteen minutes to complete. It adds a nice break in the summer from the monotonous day of nothing, but during school its becomes a chore and on really cold, freezing days like today, it is miserable.

Dinner is at 6. Then it is baths for little kids, showers for the older ones, cleaning of the bedrooms and bathroom (again) and most of them are into bed by 9.

On bad days, my sanity is strapping them all in the car and driving around for 20 minutes 'creating' errands. If I can't leave the house for whatever reason, it's listening to my Ipod with the volume turned up so loud I can't hear crying or fighting. Or hiding in my closet.

A friend reminded me last week I needed to get back to our family rhythm so that we can relieve some stress in our family (more to follow on that) and so I really took time this week to try to remember what that was. There simply is a lot of comfort in routine, and a lot of relief in not having to use your brain for one more thing to stress out about.

If any of you would feel inclined to share a WFMW post, please link it here! We'd love to hear it!

Cat House

Mary Ann and Nemo

When Shiloah and Ben came through with everyone, we offered to watch their cats for them until they could find a house and get settled. Mary Ann and Bianca have been visiting for almost three weeks now. I've never had more than two cats at a time, so to see four of them interacting now is very entertaining.


Mary Man and Bianca

Curtis discovered Mary Ann and Bianca were boys, not the girls we all thought they were. Not knowing how to make Bianca masculine, we still call him Bianca, but Mary Ann became Mary Man. Nemo and Mary Man are pretty good friends, most of the time. Nemo wanders around quite a bit during the day, so Mary Man joined with him.

Then it progressed to these two fighting in the tree, begging at the table, sharing the same tiny litter box at the same time (because nothing says best friends like sharing a litter box).



Bianca was injured so he has stayed holed up in a closet on an afghan most of the time. When nighttime rolled around though, he would come up to see us, eat, and turn into Ninja Kitty. He'd hide out under the beds and swipe at you as you walked by. I don't know how much sleep the boys got with the cats running around constantly all night, but it was fun to watch them tearing around.



I don't have a picture of Missy up here (ever evasive), but she was mad, like usual. She never handles change well, nor new animals. I had no idea that cats hissed and spit THAT much. One night just by chance, she got caught between Mary Man and Bianca and had no escape. They all hissed and spit and fuzzed up but no one moved. Missy's domain is on our bed and she rarely even allows Nemo up there, much less any other cats, no matter how pretty and cute they are. A couple times we got a giggle out of watching her discover we had sneaked Bianca in to cuddle and one Missy discovered him, there was not enough forgiveness in the world for how offended she was. She even hissed at Curtis as if to say "How dare you!!!" If she came upon Nemo, who probably smelled a lot like Mary Man from wrestling with him, she would hiss at him too, as if to say "How dare you associate with those strangers!"

Anyway, we had a pretty good time with the visiting cats. They go home today, but I'm sure it's not the last time we will see them.

We Made it and are Still Sane: I Think?

We made it across the continental USA with seven kids and two cats still alive and sane. December was an insanely busy month. I was sick with morning sickness most of the month. The seabands saved my life during the car trip. {smile}

The movers came and packed us up, we cleaned house and lived in it empty for a couple of days and took off on a very long road trip. It was five days of driving with some sight-seeing:

We saw Jamestown, Virginia. This was a favorite view from Black Point on the island of Jamestown.



Next stop was Washington D.C. which was insane.  We were pulling a large trailer with a van and had a Suburban full of people and luggage.  We must have looked a sight!  We did get to stop at the Washington D.C. Temple and I was able to go through while hubby watched the kids.  My parents were married there, so I was so happy to be able to go.



We also got to meet Rebecca, an online friend of mine for 10 years! We had dinner with them and then we were off for another almost 24 hours of driving.



We made it to Nebraska and enjoyed some time with my best friend Dawn and her family.

After a week's worth of looking at houses, we found one and moved in! Once again we were without furniture for 6 days due to it being Christmas and everything was closed. The furniture is here now and the internet is hooked up. My morning sickness is mostly gone and all I can say is I'm so happy to be getting settled again. Moving is stressful, but moving long distances can cause insanity!

"Home is the resort
Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where,
Supporting and supported, polish'd friends
And dear relations mingled into bliss"
-Thompson

There is something to be said about one's own furniture and belongings in a home bringing you comfort and a feeling of stability. The kids have relaxed as we unpack and pull out their favorite toys and books.  I've relaxed and sleep better now that I have my king sized bed and don't have to share a queen sized air mattress!

Finally, I'm glad to be back online.  This is such an enjoyable pastime for me to blog, write, read blogs and facebook.  We had some wonderful guest bloggers who did such a great job!  Thank you so much!  I always am thankful Linda's help managing the Facebook group!