Ordinary Time

It feels as though it has been a very long week, possibly because parts of it have indeed felt very long indeed. Today was better. Well, parts of today were better. Other parts of today were atrocious. I'm feeling kind of done with atrocious. I am more and more convinced of the power of grounding, mindfulness, and self-regulation. Today, during the atrocious part of the day, I managed to get myself enough in hand to remember to practice what has worked before. So, I sat down in front of my bedroom door (R. and I were inside my bedroom) to stop her from eloping and just breathed. Concentrating on just my own breathing and relaxing and not paying attention to the screaming, flailing child next to me. Within ten minutes, my regulation had communicated itself to her and she started to ratchet down. I told her that she seemed to have a lot of angry feelings and that I loved her. She calmed down more. She told me she was scared. This led to a real conversation which ended with calmness a

Since today was not better than yesterday in terms of R.'s functioning... and possibly worse... let's skip the sordid details and think about something positive instead. We are nearly done with our schoolwork for the year. Everyone has finished their math books, we finished our chemistry book earlier this week, which just leaves our architecture unit study. Since it is all we are doing, we will probably complete it fairly quickly. Many of us are hanging on by a thread, so this is a good thing. Today was a skyscraper art project. (We've been spending the week covering sky scrapers before moving on to individual architects.) I found a cool art lesson on Drawing Buildings in One Point Perspective and it seemed to go perfectly with our study. Here are the results. Y. H. G. (with a sunset starting in the sky) K. L.  I think they turned out really well. One of the keys to doing art projects is letting go of the idea that everyone is going to follow the instructions exactly. As yo

There are moments when you just have to wonder if the few days away by yourself are actually worth it because of the resulting chaos your leaving causes. If you didn't already guess, life with R. for the past couple of days has not been easy. Today we plunged even further into the abyss with some psychotic behavior we haven't seen a long time. (Thank goodness for rescue meds that work, because heading to the ER was not really on today's to do list.) This is definitely one of those ten steps back moments, especially after we had seen what seemed to be real progress in terms of emotional stability. Sigh. This post isn't really about R., though, and is instead about her siblings. Their life with their sister isn't exactly typical. Frankly, there are times when they all really do have to fend for themselves because one hundred percent of my attention is focused on keeping R. out of the hospital. It kind of stinks. It is not the life I would give them if I had the abilit

I've had a change of schedule, so I'm going to the grocery store on Tuesday afternoons now. That also means that my meal planning post will be moving to Tuesday. Easy and cheap was what I was looking for this week. I was so tired yesterday when I was making the menu that I couldn't fathom doing anything too labor intensive. Tuesday, April 27 Hot sausage and cabbage stir-fry      This is pretty quick and everyone likes it. The stir-fry is served in warmed tortillas along with hoisin sauce Cucumber salad Wednesday, April 28 Skillet chili mac      Would you believe I've never made chili mac before? This is a new recipe for us. I found a few more pounds of frozen ground beef in the refrigerator that was hiding, so I'm using some for this. Salad Thursday, April 29 Lentil dal      We love dal, plus it's pretty easy. Naan      I had some in the freezer from when I bought it on sale a while ago. Friday, April 30 Reuben sandwiches      I had one more corned beef in the f

I've made it home, but a full weekend combined with a 6am flight did me in. I did a lot of napping today. Well, when I wasn't helping R. get regulated. I had a suspicion that re-entry would be difficult and I wasn't wrong. I'm hoping a good night's sleep for everyone will do a giant re-set. So instead of writing anything, I'll show some pictures. The first are from the backyard of a friend of my mom's. The art is really cool, so I though you would like it. She had a tree die in her yard, so hired someone to carve it into a giant peacock. The tail acts as a cover for a seating area. The peacock is standing on a stack of books. She also has a dragonfly in progress.  Finally, in her front yard, a family of owls is carved into the stump of a palm tree. (These are all done by the same artist.) This is the second baby around the other side. Fun, huh? And I was thrilled to see my favorite bush was in bloom to greet me. (If anyone knows what kind of bush this is, I&

Today was mostly piano judging with some breaks here and there. On one of them I was able to get outside and take a walk around the block. This is a beautiful time of year to be here because everything is in bloom and the weather hasn't become too horribly hot. The forecast is for 100+ next weekend, but I will have gone home before then.  Some pictures from my walk. I missed the orange trees blossoming, but here are some little baby oranges for you. And my mom's front walk.

Breakfast Then some piano judging Then some reading And then lunch at a RESTAURANT on the patio, but I forget to take a picture And some more reading Then some more piano judging And yet more reading A little more piano judging All followed by dinner on a restaurant patio

I'm not quite ready to leave tomorrow, but I'm getting there. I have done more than a few loads of laundry, both so I have something to pack and people here have something to wear. I have the menu done. I've completed my homework for my class and sent it in. I've left several documentaries for people to watch so we can continue to check things off the school list. I have thought a lot about what books I am going to bring. I have not thought at all about what clothes I'm going to pack, so I suppose I should do that. And today, I have spent significant amounts of time working on R.'s script with her. Things had been fairly calm up to today given that I am leaving for the weekend. Today, though, as I'm walking back from the barn., L. runs out to let me know that R. had a seizure. My first question, of course, was, " Does she still have all her teeth? " She did, thank goodness. But it still did not bode well for the day or the weekend. When I got into

I knew that H. had been working very diligently on something, but truthfully, I wasn't quite sure what it was. I knew she was drawing and writing, but hadn't paid much attention past that. This young lady never ceases to amaze me. Take a look at what she was up to. This is one of three pages that she has crated. Each picture has a different story with it. What I find fascinating is how she has created something new out of what she has been reading on her own and what we have been doing in school. One page has four little stories all about Peanuts characters. H. adores comic books, and I will often come across her reading them to herself and laughing. I don't need to tell you how much this warms my heart, I'm sure. Well, if I ever wondered if she was getting anything out of her reading, I can put that vague concern to rest. In her Peanuts stories, she has drawn a character and then written a bit a bout that character. This is not copy work, but retelling what she has rea

The trick this week was to plan meals I wouldn't be making or eating. I leave on Thursday to go visit my mom in Arizona, and J. is holding down the fort here. He will have plenty to keep him busy, so I wanted to plan meals that wouldn't be too labor intensive. It is supposed to snow tomorrow. Any guilt I might have felt about leaving seems to disappear in a direct correlation with how bad the weather is going to be. I just hope R. can maintain some sense of calm and that everyone can sleep. Monday, April 19 Chicken gyros      We had a lot of leftover pita bread from last night, so it made sense to plan a meal which used it Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers Yogurt sauce Rice Tuesday, April 20 Coconut beef curry      Just because I love it and have all the ingredients on hand Fresh noodles Eggrolls Wednesday, April 21 Macaroni and cheese      Girls who were watching me make the menu were adamant that this is what we needed on the menu Sauteed spinach Thursday, April 22 Chicken paprik

Everyone was able to be home and enjoy our Greek feast this evening. The festivities began with a presentation of "Theseus and the Minotaur". The audience gathered and read the programs while waiting for the play to begin. And then the narrators took the stage. K. and H. were the kings of the two cities and G. was playing Theseus. The narrators doubled as Ariadne (Y.) and Athena (L.) When an audience member became a little unruly, Athena felt the need to step in and remedy the situation. The big battle between Theseus and the Minotaur (K.) And the bows. After the play, we headed inside to fix the food. We had grilled chicken, Greek salad, a roasted eggplant dish, pastitsio, pita bread, and baklava for dessert.  K. created the centerpieces by constructing the Parthenon and a trireme ship out of Lego. A good time was enjoyed by all. It was particularly lovely to have everyone there and filling sixteen seats at the table. I love that my older children still come around to act as