Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Hello?? Is anyone still here??

The Wilds now has internet available for sponsors, so here I am actually updating in the middle of my week in the middle of nowhere.

Today was our first full day here and it was busy. We had breakfast with the jr. high campers, sponsor prayer meeting, ran down the hundreds of steps for morning chapel, ran back up the hundreds of steps for the ladies' and mens' sessions, had a picnic lunch by the lake, changed clothes and hiked to the second falls, stood in the driving, and I do mean driving, rain to video Abbie and Sarah on the giant swing, hiked back to the Inn in the still driving rain, showered, napped briefly, went to town for dinner and another pair of shoes for Ben (long story), and are now sitting here checking e-mail before the evening service starts at 8:45.

Yes, it BEGINS fifteen minutes before bedtime.

Anyway, we're having fun, the preaching is great, and I'll share photos when we get home.

Be thankful ~

Karen

My buddy's big boo-boo.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

On the road again. . .

Monday morning, dark and early (4:30), we are leaving for The Wilds. If you've never been, you just don't know what you're missing.

The youth group at our church here in VA always goes to a summer camp about two hours away. My kids have gone and had fun, but there's just nothing like a week at The Wilds. So last fall, Ben and I asked the youth pastor if we could please go to The Wilds this summer, and he agreed. And since he and his wife spent two weeks away from their children while they took the teens to Romania, he asked if Ben and I would be willing to take the kids to camp.

Oh, twist my arm.

I think I'm more excited than the kids!

Anyway, that means I'll be gone for a few days - Monday through Saturday of next week. Since I won't have internet access, I'm setting up things here to post a few pictures for your perusing pleasure, just so you won't forget me - sort of a wordless week. My goal is to make these really and truly wordless. Think I can do it?

Be thankful ~

Karen

Saturday, July 26, 2008

How many pictures did they take?

This just in - I have finally figured out how to get pictures from the SD card to the computer to a CD. I'm sure that sounds simple to most of you, but believe me when I say that computers and I don't get along, except in the most basic of senses.

Part of my problem is that on their recent trip to Romania, Abbie and Elijah took over 1200 pictures. That requires splitting of folders since you can only get so many photos on one CD. But I persevered and, while I may have done it the long way, I can say I did it without help.

Next time I'm calling tech support. In other words, Mike.

Anyway, I thought I'd share just a small fraction of the pics from their trip with you.

Here they are at the gates of Buckingham Palace. Their layover in London allowed them a few hours to see the sights before going on to Budapest, Hungary.

With Big Ben:


At some castle in Budapest (I think):
After hiking up a very steep hill in Romania at Camp Joy:

I could have put more pictures up here, but quite honestly, I got tired of looking at them. 1200 is a lot of pictures!

Be thankful ~

Karen

Hello, my name is Karen and I'm a lazy slob.

They say confession is good for the soul, but I'm not so sure.

Today was my first day in the gym since late May. That's pretty sad, but I'm trying to encourage myself with the old "better late than never" mindset.

I did mostly two sets on machines I used to do three sets on. I did the elliptical for ten minutes rather than the thirty I had worked myself up to. I swam 500 yards instead of 900. Tonight I'm going to take Pete for a two-mile walk.

You might think my efforts are aimed at getting in shape and you would be right, but only partly. My singular goal right now is to get a good night's sleep. Since I hit my forties, I have not been able to sleep well. At all. Ever. Well, maybe once in a great while, but only if I drug myself with every herbal concoction ever thought to induce sleep.

So I'm working out in hope that it will make me tired enough to fall asleep and stay that way. I'll let you know how I do.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Gifted and learning disabled. All in a neat little package.

My kids are incredibly intelligent. I know, everyone says that about their kids, but mine really are. If you've done any reading about intelligence in the last five or ten years, you've probably heard of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner. He asserts that there are many different types of smarts, among which are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, etc. There are eight in all. Go here for a quick overview of the theory. I've read some of his stuff and can pretty confidently guess which categories my kids fit into.

However, and this is a big however, two of my kids have had vision-realted disabilities, and apparently that's not uncommon. I say had because they are very correctable. We first figured this out when Abbie was ten years old and still couldn't read. She knew all the sounds of letters, and how to blend them, but complained of words swimming around on the page. I had no idea what she was talking about. Of course, being home schoolers, we were second-guessed at every turn, and I even did some of that to myself, but I kept digging and finally found something that helped her.

I took her to a developmental optometrist for testing, and we found that she had visual deficiencies in several areas. That doesn't mean she couldn't see - she had 20/20 vision - it just means her eyes didn't do the things that most people's eyes naturally learn to do to enable them to actually read. Her two eyes didn't work together to focus on the same thing at the same time - that's binocularity and convergence. Her eyes didn't move smoothly from left to right along a line of print - they moved in jerky, jumping motions, missing parts of words or whole words altogether - that's tracking. She had issues with size and shape discrimination - a b looked just like a p to her, an e looked like a c, and so forth. She couldn't translate something she saw on a vertical plane (blackboard or printed music at the piano) to a horizontal plane, as in writing it down or playing it on a keyboard.

Seriously, I never knew these things existed! And that's why many of these disorders are completely missed - because those of us whose eyes naturally learned to do them don't even know it happened - it just happened naturally without our knowledge!

So Abbie started vision therapy. I was a skeptic at first, especially while it was draining my bank account and running up my credit card bill, but we were so desperate to find something that would help her, we kept at it. Testing was $345. Eighteen weeks of therapy at $60 per week (it's much higher now). And insurance wouldn't pay a penny.

At the end of 18 weeks, the doctor said to let her rest for six months, continue to read to her, and don't push her to do anything with reading. After the rest period they trained me in some exercises I could do with her at home and that was that.

There was no overnight miracle. We wondered if all that money had been wasted. But we waited. And it paid off.

At some point not too long after that, Leah had been reading a Redwall (by Brian Jacques) book to Abbie and got tired of it. But Abbie was hooked and just had to find out what happened next. So she picked it up and started reading. By herself. At amazing speed.

She has never looked back. At 18 years old, she still loves to read. She has issues with comprehension, but we work on other strategies to help her with that.

One of the things that I clearly remember the optometrist saying in the very beginning is that if children don't like to read, there's a reason for it. Most likely it's because reading is hard work because their eyes aren't cooperating.

So when Elijah persisted in his "I can read, I just hate it" approach to life, I started digging. We found a new developmental optometrist near us (we had moved since the first one) and had him tested. Sure enough, he had some of the same issues, although not as severely. We went through the vision therapy program with him - it's computerized now - and he is reading much, much faster and almost enjoying it.

I tell this story occasionally to encourage parents to pay attention when their children say they hate reading. There's a reason.

For more info and a symptoms checklist to determine if your child may have a vision-related disability, go to Children's Vision.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Almost wordless Wednesday.

I say almost because I never can just post a picture without saying something about it. I mean, how would you know what point I was trying to get across if I didn't include at least a short explanation? Especially since I'm not the greatest photographer in the world, you know, like "a picture is worth a thousand words" and all that, except that my pictures are really only worth ten or twelve.

So.

When Abbie and Elijah went to Romania, they did some puppet skits. They needed a dinosaur bone for one of them and, since we don't keep any of those lying around, they made one. Here they are papier-mache-ing it (sorry about the lack of French doodley marks - my keyboard is distinctly American).



Then of course, it has to sit and dry, so they put it on the coffee table in the porch.


See that look in his eye? That's how he got the name Pete the Terrible.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Physics, the homeschooling way.

Today Elijah and I were on our way home from the orthodontist, who just happens to be 2 1/2 hours away. Yes, we really love him.

Anyway, these long trips every six weeks give us a lot of time to talk. Sometimes we have so much time that we run out of things to talk about, so we endure some silences. In the middle of one of those quiet times today, Elijah asked, "Did I get you?"

I had no idea what he was talking about.

He explained, "When Abbie had rubber bands (on her braces) she used to flick spit at me. I'm trying to figure out how to do it so I can get her back.

I was speechless.

Finally, I blurted out, "EEEWWWWW! That's nasty!!" and we went back to silence.

After thinking for a few minutes, I added, "You have to pull it back with your tongue and make it snap out. The spit will go in the direction of the snap. And I can't believe I just told you that."

But I'm comforted that at least we had an educational discussion - you know, the physics of snapping spit at your sister. We embrace our opportunities around here, you know.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Friday, July 18, 2008

She lives! She lives!

Yes indeed, I made it through my last two weeks in the daycare. The girls were cheering when I told them Miss Leah would be back on Monday.

I was too.

But before the daycare becomes a distant, fond memory, let me just inform you that E doesn't like her crists. And yes, I spelled it right. She just couldn't bring herself to eat them.

And the girls love animals. All animals. Seriously, they hunt for ants in the gym and let them crawl up their arms, name them, put them back where they found them when it's time to leave and say, "See you tomorrow!" E walked over to Mrs. L to share her joy in the latest little find and Mrs. L promptly snatched the ant off E's arm and squished it. E gasped in horror. Mrs. L just doesn't understand.

When we were out at the pool today and saw a bumblebee struggling in the water on the deck, we just had to help it. We tried to scoop it up with a leaf, but it kept falling off. The entire group stopped swimming and splashing to watch the unfolding drama. One girl was able to get the bee to hold on to a stick, and transported it to the garden. She declared (clutching hands to chest, and I am not making this up), "I saved its life!"

When we were leaving the pool I told the girls to walk around the patches of clover because I had stepped on a bee just 30 minutes earlier. I was describing the sting and how it really didn't last that long, but that now it was starting to itch, when R., terribly concerned, asked, "Did you kill it?" When I reminded her that I had stepped on it, she was crestfallen. I can now honestly say that I have apologized to a child for killing a bee.

Tomorrow I get back to my adult life. I am surprised that, though most of the kids can be little tarts quite often, I've learned to care for them. I imagine I'll go back to visit once in a while. But I'll leave before I get hired again.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Some gore with your Bible story.

I'm learning a great deal during my thankfully short tenure in the daycamp.

Every morning the children play until most of them are there. Then we have a bathroom break, a snack, and Bible time. Last week Randall took care of Bible time, and I just tried to keep Brandon from standing on his head in his seat.

This week, Randall is on vacation.

So Monday, I had some lame lesson prepared that even I can't remember.

Tuesday I got it together and, in the interest of keeping the boys' attention, I brought out the blood and guts and violence. Did you know the Bible is full of that? Start in Judges. We read about Ehud, the lefthanded dagger-maker, and Eglon, the fat king who became the dagger-receptacle. The boys loved it.

Today we're going to read about Jael (sounds like jail) with the nail. She invites this bad guy, Sisera, into her tent to hide from his pursuer, and when he falls asleep, she drives a tent spike through his temples into the ground. My kinda woman.

There's a Bible story for everyone - even hyperactive little boys.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Monday, July 14, 2008

A sweet tooth. Or a salty tooth.

Have you ever heard the saying, "When the cat's away, the mice will play?" Of course you have. Well, in my family it's "when the cat's away, the mice don't cook dinner."

Relax dear, we still ate together.

But as we were driving home from another noisy day at the daycare, Abbie and I were trying to figure out what to have for supper. She came up with the great idea to make breakfast burritos.

That's a big tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, shredded cheese, and bacon, just in case you've never had one.

Ben will fuss when he finds out we ate bacon when he wasn't here. See, I never buy bacon. I mean NEVER. It's bad for you. It clogs your arteries, raises your blood pressure and makes you fat. So I don't buy it. Every once in a while he just has to have some though, so he goes out on a Saturday morning and gets it, but I'm not going to be the one feeding it to him.

Of course, it would logically follow that I would also refuse to feed him ice cream and fettucini alfredo because they are also bad for you, but my logic is not his logic, and I just love ice cream and alfredo too much. I have to draw the line somewhere, right? I mean, you can't deny yourself EVERY goody out there, can you? And I DO feed him squash and spinach and broccoli and whole wheat pancakes (not necessarily together), right?

It's all for his own good.

And we won't talk about my ice cream addiction.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Friday, July 11, 2008

Observations for a Friday afternoon.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.

I have just finished my first week in the 5-8 year old daycare.

I am begging to get the toddlers back.

Not really. But I have made some observations on this Friday afternoon.

I spent the first few days being pretty much overwhelmed by the noise, the constant whine of "Teacher! TEACHER! TEEEEEECHER!" and the incredible cattiness of a group of very young girls. All week I kept wondering why there was a ceaseless cry of "Teacher, she won't let me play!" "Teacher, she said she doesn't like me!" "Teacher, they told me to go away!" until finally, at 2:30 this afternoon, it all became crystal clear and I snapped.

It was a very controlled snap.

I sat them all down in front of me and told them I had never witnessed a more catty, nasty, mean-spirited group of so-called friends in my life. I told them I now understood why they were constantly complaining of the others not letting them play or telling them to go away. I told them that if they treated me that way, I wouldn't be their friend either. I asked them if they thought the Lord Jesus was pleased with the way they talked to each other. I told them I thought it probably made Him sick to His holy stomach.

Then I asked them what the answer to the problem was.

They volunteered, "Be nice. Be kind." And things along those lines.

We ended with a few verses about being kind, being a friend, etc. and I sent them off to play.

30 seconds. Thirty seconds, people! That's how long my pep talk lasted.

So you know what we did?

We went out to the pre-school playground in the ninety degree, sunny, humid heat and worked. I decided if they were working and sweating they wouldn't have time to be nasty, and I was right.

We picked up toys. We swept rocks off the very long sidewalk. We wiped dirt off slides. We emptied and rinsed out baby pools. We sweated and we earned compliments for hard work.

So my observation for the week is this: entertainment doesn't work. Work works.

The reason? Entertainment doesn't make us feel good about ourselves. Work does. It's amazing.

So next week we're going to start each day with a work project. We'll weed, lay mulch, sweep sidewalks, clean windows, I'll have them scrub the parking lot with toothbrushes if we run out of things to do, but by golly, I'm going to work the nasty out of them. All with smiles on our faces and laughing and singing as we go.

I might lose my job, but I've decided if I'm going to be there, I'm going to try to make a difference in a young girl's life.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Another Perspective

It-was-a- symphony! The first movement featured three men playing saws to provide the foundation (worked down to the foundation that is) for movement two that featured hammers drumming, strings popping and pencils whistling to lay out the structure. The third and final movement featured a window pair set to the tune of light sunshine in my living room.

It was a beautiful thing. My eldest son instructing my youngest in framing, safety and planning. Mama and Abbie jumping in to provide the extra push and encouragement that comes natural to them coupled with smiles and joy. Dad doing what he does best (demolition, cheap labor and delegation) to provide leadership by example. Rain and a strong breeze from the Lord to keep us from working too hard and too long (one of dad's great leadership weaknesses). The BBQ was great, food so so (dad cooked) but the fellowship wonderful as always. It was, as are most of our family projects, a symphony!

*This perspective brought to you by Ben*

One step up from the pre-school?

I didn't think the 5-8 year olds class could be more challenging than the pre-school.

Oh, I was so sadly mistaken.

The drama. The cattiness. The TATTLING. Oy, veh.

Today I'm taking my coach's whistle and getting some order. Please pray.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Marathon construction and marathon cleaning.

For quite some time we have wanted to do some remodeling in our living room. You may remember that last Christmas we tore the carpet out in anticipation of installing a hardwood floor. But before we could tackle flooring, we wanted to remove the fireplace (one of those cheap, pre-fab jobs - not worth having) and put in a set of large windows to give us a nice view of the lovely back yard and woods beyond. But to do that, we had to tear down the chimney.

Bring on the powertools. The boys tore the cedar siding off the chimney on Thursday, and started removing the sheathing.

Sheathing removed, it was time to dismantle the frame and take down the double-wall chimney pipe. Look at that blue sky on Friday! Perfect weather for making a big hole in the back of your living room.
Ben broke up the tile with a sledge hammer, and pulled up the underlying concrete backer-board to get the actual fireplace out.
Unfortunately, Ben doesn't know his own strength, and sledge-hammered a big hole in the floor. Apparently, the chimney had been leaking for a very long time, and there was much rotted wood back there. They wound up having to build a brace under the corner of the deck so it wouldn't cave in. Remember the story of "If you give a mouse a cookie. . .?"
Here we are on bright, sunny Friday, examining the gaping hole in the back wall. There is also a section of roof missing where the chimney used to be, but that's ok, because, I mean, just LOOK at all that sunshine!

Hole in roof:


Oh, and I forgot to tell you, we are having a barbecue Saturday at 1 pm for our Sunday School class. Yes indeed, here we are, ready for a party on our deck.

Here's Mike testing out the first window. It works perfectly, thanks to Mike's amazing framing skills.


Notice how dark it's getting? That's not night coming. It's only 6 pm. That's a storm brewing. We can hear the first rumblings of thunder far away, and a nice breeze is kicking up. Suddenly, we were scrambling like ants whose hill has been discovered by a little boy. Throwing tools in the porch, unplugging saws, finding a big tarp for the roof, duct-taping heavy plastic over the remaining hole in the wall, covering Ben's car window with a plastic bag (long story), pulling up truck windows by hand (another long story). We were piling insulation under a tarp and throwing the last of the tools in the house when it broke loose.

That storm was quite a whopper - wind, lightning, and rain coming down in sheets. We stood at our one new window and watched the rain pour off the tarp - a good sign that it wasn't coming in under it.

Saturday, the day of the barbecue, dawned bright and sunny. That called for an even bigger hole in the wall. I couldn't take any more construction and went to buy food. When I got back at 9 am, this is what I saw in my living room, four hours before company:
Call me crazy, but this doesn't look like a family ready for a picnic. You can't appreciate the amount of dust and mess in there without having breathed it for two days.

However, my husband and sons made a believer of me, and they had the windows in by 12. For the next hour, Abbie and I had two vacuums going, brooms and mops and dusting rags flying and had the place looking downright comfortable when our first guests arrived.
That's Elijah on the couch, trying to rest up for the party to come. Ben spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake.

We have another chimney and useless fireplace in our bedroom which we've always said we would tear out and replace with French doors. We are currently rethinking that plan.

Be thankful ~

Karen