Back To School

It can be so difficult to find the opportunity to steal away some computer time for myself when the boys are all home. Everyone is back to school and adjusting well back into the routine.

Jordan did get shuffled on to ninth grade. I have mixed feeling about this; while I know he is more than capable of doing the work, his grades however did not reflect this. I irks me that every child gets pushed on to the next grade rather they are capable of the work or not. Jordan is enjoying his freshman year thus far. His elective classes are his favorite weight training and surprising Spanish. Until this year he's dreaded Spanish class, he says he only likes it because his teacher is so much fun. His grades last year did come with consequences, he was placed in pre-algebra which he despises because of the extremely slow pace for the class and he gets pulled from weight training twice a week for language arts remediation.


Joey has a wonderful teacher!! I have spoken with her a few times and she is very open to working with parents. Joey still qualifies for resource room assistance but has not needed to visit the resource room. He is keeping up with his classmates on his assignments with no modifications. To help prepare him for middle school I am not meeting him in his classroom at the end of the day. He is to fill out his agenda and the teacher double checks that he has all homework assignments before he meets me at the end of the hallway. He still digs in his heels about doing homework, but does it with little help from me. The grades he's been earning on his assignments are nothing lower than a B. Thank God Almighty he really enjoys his teacher, they seem to get along well.



  Jacob hit a hiccup before school even started when not even one of his friends were in his class. Jacob is Jacob though and within a week was okay with only seeing his buddies at lunch. He is looking forward to running for student council now that he's in 4th grade. He really likes this teacher, says she's really funny. Both Joey and Jacob have taken a new student under their wing. Both volunteered to be their locker partners and are still playing with their "new student" during recess.



Jordan is planning on trying out for the school's basketball team this year. He hasn't done much in the sense of conditioning but is hoping through his weigh training class he won't be at too much of a disadvantage. Jordan has recently become involved with the youth group through our church. The group consists of high school students, so majority of the kids are older than him. He prefers to hang out with people older than him, he is more comfortable in this group than he was in the middle school one. I'm not 100% sure what they do at the youth group meetings, but from the pictures they share they have way too much fun :) *Pictured is the outfit he chose for their "Thrift Store Homecoming Dance"




Joey has joined Jacob's soccer team and both are doing awesome. Jacob is the leader scorer for his team although most of his teammates have played for a couple of years. Jacob is still strong as a forward and Joey is getting the hang of things. There are two Joeys on their team, Joey asked the coach to call him "Bob" so he knew when he was talking to him...lol. It works well, but is so funny listening to everyone cheer for "Bob". He has been wonderful at being an encouragement to his teammates, it doesn't matter if someone is upset about letting a goal get past them or if someone was injured, "Bob" is right there to comfort and encourage.


Due to soccer games overlapping the time we spend helping at the pantry, we have to wait until the season is over before returning to volunteer. They boys really miss being at the pantry and are looking forward to being back and seeing everyone. I have compensated not being at the pantry by helping out the church one day a week. I do a little bit of everything, whatever they need the day I'm there I do. One of the best parts is I help assemble the programs we hand on before our services. I have meet some wonderful people. I really don't want to totally give up my time helping at the church once we return to the pantry, it's a lot of gas to head to the church 3 times a week. The boys have agreed to helping at the pantry every other week so on the off weeks I can still do my volunteering.



Jordan also has been ushering with me at church. We work in different areas so he can have a bit more independence, but I can still keep an eye on him. The boys are too young to usher, not to be excluded though every Sunday they help with taking down all the chairs after service. They are a huge help and great workers.




The changes I have seen in Joey the last couple months has me awestruck. He has been surprising me in so many little ways from trying new foods to joining a team sport. The newest one is he has decided he'd like to be in the beginner band through the school!! He had his heart set on playing the flute, but after he tested out what instrument best fit him; he's going to play the.... trombone!! "I'm going to be the best trombone player ever, Mom! And I only have to be to school and hour earlier for practice!!" So I guess I going to see about renting him a trombone.

Year Long Goals Progress- September (Part 2)

I love setting and working towards reaching goals. Short term goals tend to be better for me. As I have looked through what I had hoped to accomplish this year and compared it to where I am now, I still have a ways to go. I haven't even looked into what I need to do to return to college and finish my degree. I don't agree with the way things are being taught and don't really want to be "forced" to teach any specific way. So I'm trying to figure out if there is some other way for me to use a teacher degree that doesn't suffocate the my teaching style. Either way there is no way I'll be reaching this goal this year seems I'm not signed up for classes and technically it would be 2015 if I registered now.

As for losing weight, I have absolutely no clue if I have gained or lost anything. I haven't dug out my scale in well over 6 months. I have been eating at least 2 meals plus snacks most days and have really upped my water intake. I'm not the type to sit and veg for more than an hour tv show, so I'm staying active. I'm outside whenever the boys are, often playing games with them or trying not to break a bone while attempting skateboard tricks they are trying to teach me. We walk and bike often, if we have somewhere to go what is within 3 miles we'll walk/bike there.

I have learned that no matter what time I head to bed, I just can't fall asleep before 11:30/12:00. I have always been a night owl and no matter how much I try to train myself to fall asleep at a responsible time, it's probably just not going to happen. So instead of staring at the ceiling until I can finally sleep, I continue to use it as "Me Time". This past month that means crocheting. I have been busy creating things. I have discovered there are so many other things to make than blankets and have been hooked on making anything that is 3D. I have made some pumpkins, a hat for myself and one for a friend, a turkey, as well as some gifts I can't talk about until after Christmas. I'm going to have switch up what I do for my "Me Time" as my hands have been cramping from all the crochet work, I may have to start tackling the thousands of pictures that still need to put in the scrapbooks.

Mr. Gobble :)

The first hat I ever made.

Family goals- We are taking a break from doing Bucket Lists as they are becoming as just one more thing that needs to be done. We didn't even complete our whole summer list this year. If you missed what we had dome from our list you can find the links here and clicking on the activities that have dates following them. We are quickly coming to the end of our 1000 Hours Outside Challenge with only 2.5 days left. We will not reach the goal of 1000 hours, but we sure tried. Jacob being in soccer helped us get in some hours when I would have other-wised deemed it to chilly or wet to be outdoors. We managed only a total of  95.5 hours for the month. There hasn't been much reading going on around here as we were focused on logging outside hours. Jacob held the lead this month with 4 books read. We're hoping to quickly catch up on our books read total now that it's our only "challenge" going on. As of September 30th our combined total books read so far this year is 131. We are way behind where we would like to be. That leaves us with 269 books to read within just under 3 months. I have faith that we will all have our noses enough to reach our goal. Plus as it gets cooler out we prefer to curl up in a blanket (one of the many I had previously crochet, before learning about 3D projects) and a good book. Here is the very short list of books read this month.

Jacob- (4 books) Big Nate Goes for Broke by Lincoln Peirce, Field Trip to the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler, Starwars The Clone Wars by Grosset & Dunlap, and Big Nate From the Top by Lincoln Peirce.

Joey- (1 book) Chocolate Fever by Robert Smith

Jordan- (1 book) The Power of Six by Pittacur Lore

Me- (1 book) Rise by Ana Carey

Quick Update on Joey

This past Wednesday I turned in my formal request to have the boys' school evaluate Joey for learning disabilities, and today I received a call from the school psychologist. She wanted to let me know that she will be leading the Joey's evaluation. Also to let me know that in his backpack was the form for me to sign granting my approval for the testing. I'm so very glad that get a response so quickly from the school. I'm hoping the school's evaluation will proceed quicker than the medical one.

Then the psychologist said something that really bothers me. She had hoped to have the medical evaluation results back before the school tested him, because he's going to need to be on medication and that will effect his results.  She can tell from how much trouble Joey is having in school that there basically isn't any other way than to have him medicated (paraphrased). That "we" will have to re-monitor him after he is back on medicine. If he's on medications he may not need as much intervention.

It really bothers me that it seems the school just wants him on medication. As if he'll take some magic pill that suddenly make him a model student. That medication will "fix" his handwriting and difficulty reading and spelling. While it may help him focus better or sit still longer it's doesn't help him retain the material taught. If they talk to his teacher from last year, she can tell them he still struggled and he was medicated then. Even on meds he didn't sit quietly at his desk, was easily distracted and distracted others, his assignments weren't completed or if they were he couldn't find them in the black hole his desk had become to turn them in.

I understand that in our society everyone is all about finding magic pills for everything. Can't sleep- take a pill, need to lose weight- take a pill, kid can't sit still-give them a pill. While there are many people who do really need to take medications in order to function, why is that always the first option we turn to. With all the research that has been done with children (and adults) with ADHD and Autism and all the alternative therapies and diets, why aren't those encouraged instead of pushing medications.

We have been very blessed to have found a Neurologist and Neuro-psychologist that don't want to look to medications until we have tried everything else first.

I think Joey is doing awesome recently in class! Does he have room for improvement? Yep, tons! The progress he has made isn't coming from some pill I give him every morning. It comes from the teachers who are helping me figure out what tools Joey needs so he can learn to deal with his "disabilities". It's the cushion, the Velcro strips, the change of space (either going to the office or to the resource room). It's me hanging around the kitchen table while he does his homework and the encouraging when he is feeling frustrated with his assignments. It's having him practice writing and reading daily. It's the added step for me to double check that he has put all his homework in the correct folders and that the folders made their way back into his backpack.

He has been in class for 3 weeks. He has only know his teacher for 3 weeks. He only meet the school psychologist a week or 2 ago. You can't tell me that within 3 weeks that both his teacher and the psychologist know him well enough to decide he needs medication. Especially when the Neuro doctors (who have PhD's) and deal with "kids like Joey" are telling me to hold off on medications.

UGH!! I guess the update turned more into a rant than an update, but it just gets under my skin when people who barely know my kids start telling me what I should do with them. Medications are not always the only way success.

So within the next 30 days the school is suppose to test Joey. I'm hoping they do it sooner rather than later, seems they know he is going in for the medical evaluation at the end of October.