Updates {Sept 1, 2014}

A little over a week ago, I finally decided to take anti-nausea medication for my morning(noon and night) sickness. A week later, my insurance company found a version of the medication that they felt they could pay for. So, Friday, I finally started taking it. I have to take 2 pills a day instead of one, since the insurance company felt that the one pill was newer and more expensive than they wanted to pay for, but it seems to be working! I'm now only nauseous and sensitive to smells, not so sick I can barely move. The drawback is that the medication makes me tired, really tired. I could up the dose and possibly not feel sick at all, but I might be too sleepy to function at that point, so I think I've hit an even medium right now. The good news is that just as I suspected, my blood pressure has been going down now that I'm able to eat and drink normally (or somewhat normally). Which is the reason I decided to try the medication after all. At the doctor's office I was in the hypertensive range. Since I started the medication, my blood pressure has been steadily dropping to point where I'm actually in normal range today.

So anyway, the blog posts should pick up a little now that I'm not feeling quite so sick. I've still been managing to get some projects done. I finished converting some jeans to maternity, I finished a hat for Baby Carlitos, and I've been busy gearing up for our new school year. Pictures will be coming soon. I originally planned to start school tomorrow, the day after Labor Day, but Owen has an appointment in Seattle on Wednesday, so I decided that doing one day of school and then taking a day off didn't make any sense. We'll start on Thursday instead. This week I have a movie and some fun projects planned, then we'll get into the real work next week.

Wednesday's appointment will be a big one for Owen. We have another EEG that should tell us if his recent medication change is working to control the ESES. We've made several diet changes so far that haven't changed it at all. I'm hoping the Onfi increase will have made a difference. If not he will be starting an intensive drug regimen that has the potential for a lot of pretty severe side effects. I'm holding off on planning Owen's Kindergarten routine until we get the results of the EEG and set up his next treatment plan since some of the things I had planned to do this year may not be possible for him if we do the new drug treatment. Anyway, we'll have more of an idea what's going on with that after Wednesday.

Chores!

My camera isn't cooperating, so you get pictures of Brenna at the beach instead of the kids doing chores.

I've posted BEFORE about why I make my kids do chores, but I've never really gotten around to how we do chores. For many years now we've had a chore system that worked wonderfully. It was easy to remember, stayed the same long enough for the kids to become proficient, and changed enough that no one got too bored. We divided up the main things that needed done on a daily basis and had each child over 7 or 8 be in charge of one area (dishes, laundry, floors, bathrooms) for a month. Anything else that needed done was done by me or by all of us on the weekends. We used this system with a few minor changes for about 10 years.

This year, it stopped working. I had one child who wasn't quite old enough to do an area on her own, but old enough to need a job, one child with a completely irregular schedule, and very little time to do things on my own due to the demands of Owen's new diet. We hobbled through this year making a few small changes and trying to think of something easy and enforceable that would work as well as our previous system. I finally decided that we needed to break things up more and just keep a very detailed chart so I could remember who was in charge of what and when. So, I made lists of all the things that need done and approximately how often and assigned each child age appropriate chores which rotated by days of the week.

Now, the most important part of any chore system is accountability. If the chores aren't done it doesn't matter how great the system is. I have problems keeping track of things without visual aids, so I made laminated charts with a magnetic back and have them on the refrigerator with a dry erase marker to mark when I've inspected each chore. We started the new system in August so that we'd have a month before school starts to get the hang of it and make any necessary changes.

Once I can get my camera cooperating again I'll post pictures of the actual charts. So far, it's going pretty well. We had a few kids gone at various times this weekend and had to fill in for them, but that worked out well. I have one child who has extreme difficulties with change who is having a few problems with not having the same chore every day and with having to follow someone else who may not do things the same way he does, but I think that will settle down. I've purposely given Devon chores that don't need to be done on a specific day and time so she can make them work around her school/work schedule. I'm hoping that we can have most of the bugs worked out and some things that haven't gotten done around the house under control by September. that way we can start school fresh and organized.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

After a couple of days reprieve, our hot weather is back! Owen got a new wading pool for his birthday, so the little kids have been using it daily. Our house is situated to take advantage of the sun for heating, which is great most of the year, but it means it gets really hot the few weeks of the year we actually have summer. As a result, we've been spending a lot of time outside. Our property has a lot of nice shade trees and a pond, so outside is preferable right now.

We figure we need to take advantage of the weather while we can since most of the year is cool and wet.

While the kids are busy playing in the pool and chasing chickens, I've been planning and prepping for our upcoming school year. We're starting a new chore system in August (I'll post more on this once I have it worked out. We start in a couple of days, so I have to have it ready by then). I plan to have that in place for a month, so we can get used to it, then start school in September.

You Might Be a Homeschooler If...

You stalk the mail box for a week waiting for this to show up!

Connor is using these for something I only barely understand. It has to do with reclaiming gold off of computer parts and involves several steps. My rule is that the kids have to know what they are doing enough to explain it to me (even if I don't understand) and demonstrate the use of proper safety equipment and precautions. This particular experiment is being done outside in the carport since some of these chemicals (or combinations thereof) aren't really indoor suitable without a much better ventilation system than we have. Sometimes I wonder what government watch list we've put ourselves on with all the chemicals and supplies we order. I often have people ask me how I can teach things like chemistry without all the chemicals and equipment. I don't think people realize that you can get all the same stuff at home. Well, there was one thing Connor wanted that would have been difficult to get for home use, but he was able to figure out a way to make something else work instead. Which just seems like even more of a learning experience to me.

Updates!

We've finally had a few days without rain, so I let the kids talk me into setting up the easel on the front porch. It took me several tries to get a picture of Owen actually looking at the camera.

I didn't get any better pictures of Morgan than this though. It's so fun watching the kids paint. Morgan actually paints pictures now. She had a girl and a train in her picture. Owen pretty much just mixed colors. He's fascinated with how many colors he can get just using the three primary colors. Brenna just makes a really wet mess.

This is the look I get when I ask Brenna to smile for me.

While the younger kids painted, Duncan was busy playing with his mini kite. He only got it tangled up in a tree once.

We have been busy, busy, busy around here. We're getting the garden ready and cleaning and re-arranging the animal areas. I've been cleaning up the rabbit cages and making some repairs to the flooring to prepare for new babies. I've also been cleaning out the chicken pen and hardening off our new chicks, who don't really look like babies anymore. Rod has been making some repairs and improvements to the goat fields to better accommodate our new alpacas.

Devon has been on spring break this week and starts her new quarter on Tuesday. This quarter she takes her Artisan Bread Baking class, I can't wait! She's also been applying for jobs since she has a much smaller course load this quarter than last, so she should have time for a part-time job.

Connor is starting Driver's Ed on Tuesday and still working at his Grandpa's office a couple of hours a week. Cameron is going to start at the office soon too.

Duncan and Morgan are busy with school. We are studying aquatic animals in science and just got tadpoles this week. The kids can't wait to see them grow into frogs. I just hope Brenna lets them live that long. She played with the sea monkeys the other day and we only have two left now.

Owen is adjusting pretty well to the re-increase in medication and the change in Keto ratio. He's changed his favorite food again, but I'm not sure if that's in response to the ratio changing  the recipes or just due to the fact that he seems to choose a new favorite food every few weeks anyway. We are already noticing his cognitive and behavioral issues go back to how they were before the medication reduction. Our ultimate goal on the ketogenic diet is to get seizure freedom on the diet alone and eventually even stop the diet and maintain that freedom from seizures, but right now I'm just trying to be happy with no seizures even if it requires the diet AND medications to stay that way.

Snow!!

It's been snowing here for two days straight. Well, there was a little rain break for a couple of hours yesterday, but mostly snow.

Morgan loves the snow, she's barely come in at all. I have to lure her in with marshmallow topped, candy cane flavored hot chocolate.

Brenna also loves the snow, but she gets cold very fast and has to go out for frequent short trips. She was having a lot of fun crawling around on all fours digging the snow like a "kitty".

Owen wasn't quite as thrilled. When we asked him if he wanted to go out he said, "But, but, it's really cold out there in the snow!" He did finally go out, but got upset that the snow was getting all over his boots and mittens. He did enjoy being pulled around on the sled.

Devon gets a snow day tomorrow. Unfortunately for the other kids, homeschool doesn't have to shut down for a little snow. Or even 12 inches of snow. We might do a lot of P.E. tomorrow though.

Homeschool Snapshots

Morgan working on math.

Brenna playing blocks and eating an ice pop.

Owen playing a game on his InnoTab.

Duncan working on his spelling while trying to prevent me from taking pictures.

Connor working on computer programming.

Cameron cleaning hamster tanks.

 This week has been incredibly busy seeing as we haven't really had anything out of the ordinary happening. I'm not entirely sure why, it just seems like everyone is especially needy this week. We're getting back on track with homeschooling now that Connor and Morgan are back home. When Connor was gone we didn't do History or Logic because I didn't want to have to catch him up when he got back. While Morgan was gone, we skipped primary science and our read aloud book so that she wouldn't miss anything. This week we are taking Friday off since Owen has an afternoon appointment and my nephews are staying overnight since they don't have school that day. Friday is usually a "light " homeschool day anyway. We plan our schedule for 4 days a week and use Fridays for special activities, field trip, and catch up for anyone who didn't finish their work.