Ordinary Time

Having H. home these past 5 months has made me much more aware of the activities which we do as a family. I don't think of us as an overly active family with different types of outdoor activities happening every weekend, but I guess I have to re-evaluate that opinion, because we do a heck of a lot more than H. is used to. And, if the opportunity to climb up mountains presents itself, we will take advantage of it. As we were climbing/hiking yet again, it did make me kind of tongue-in-cheek think to myself that this was our physical therapy program. (I don't mean to disparage physical therapy or physical therapists with that thought or my title, but living in an active family with normally developing children is really good for delayed ones. I haven't yet taken a picture of the '6-pack' that K. is rocking these days, but it is a lot of muscle, especially on a little guy who didn't even have enough muscle to hold his rib cage down four years ago. Clearly something...

Last Sunday we loaded up the van and the trailer and headed out of town on a trip we had been planning for a while.... we were driving to New Hampshire to visit J.'s brother and his family. (His wife, my sister-in-law, is the wonderfully talented designer who did my blog design.) They have four children, the newest being 9 months old now and we really wanted to meet him before he was all grown up. We took two days to make the drive. The first day was really long and the second not too bad. (If we could have found a nice spot to eat lunch it would have been better, but that will come later.) Everyone is pretty good about travelling these days, so the actual travel part was (mostly) painless. It helps to have a routine. Usually people stake out their spot in the van and it is theirs for the duration. This is helpful because it cuts down on bickering every time we have to stop, get out and reload. On this trip, the way the seating worked out was that H. was in the front bench bet...

This doesn't really count as extremely frugal, but you can stretch it to feed a lot of people. It is the recipe I tend to think of first when I am feeding a crowd. Well, it's often just us and another family or two, but often that's upwards of 20 people. So, I guess it's pretty frugal if it will feed that type of crowd. Chalupa (this is my mother's recipe and version) **You will need a slow cooker to make this recipe! 1 ~4lb pork roast (I've used all sizes, though. It really depends on what I find and how much I feel like paying) 1 lb dried pinto beans 2 cloves chopped garlic 1-4 oz can diced green chilies (these can be found in the Mexican food aisle of your grocery store) 2 TBSP chili powder 1 TBSP ground cumin 1 TBSP salt 1 tsp oregano Mix all of the ingredients in your slow cooker, cover with water, and cook on low all day (~10 hours). You will need to check it every so often to be sure there is enough water... I often have to add some because...

I'm hoping one (or more) of my readers can help me out on this. I am going to be in charge of children's stewardship at my church this year. In order to make it more tangible for the children, I have had the crazy idea that the children's offerings should go to buy pediatric wheelchairs that are needed at the foster home in Zhengzhou where we brought some donations when we were there last March. The problem is, I have no idea how to go about arranging this. I have contacted Joni and Friends, and they have been very nice, but it's summer and we are having some missed connections. I'm still hoping that this will be the venue that works out. But in case it doesn't, do any of you know how we could go about purchasing and shipping pediatric wheelchairs to China? I need to get some real details figured out soon so I can see if this is going to work! (I'm really trying, Donna! I would love to get you those wheelchairs.)

It's been summer and though I try to keep a somewhat normal schedule, it's difficult. And without a schedule, I have a son who is easily disregulated. This means that he has trouble functioning, controlling his actions and emotions, and is very easily frustrated. This is not new and is something we have dealt with for what seems like forever, but how I have been dealing with it is changing. I have started to view this disregulation as a symptom of the faulty wiring in his brain which has occurred as a result of trauma. If I view it as basically an illness, much, say, as I view H.'s seizures, it is easier for me to cope with and deal with appropriately. It is no longer personal and no longer just willful, bratty behavior. Now, I want to say, that I am the last one to want to brush all bad behavior off as organically based. I expect decent behavior from my children and have high expectations of them. But where good, consistent parenting will usually beget appropriately beha...

Don't you love this picture of G. and L.? (G. is on the left and L. is on the right). A. took it with my camera a week or so ago and I just discovered it. I don't think I will be finding many more surprise photos by her on my camera anymore, though. This is not because she doesn't like to take pictures or anything like that, but because she really likes taking photographs and wanted a better camera than the ones we had available. Thanks to many lucrative babysitting jobs and a lot of saving, she bought herself a pretty darn nice SLR camera.  It turns out that she is very, very interested in photographing extreme weather. I thought it was just weather which is why she did a full year's study of meteorology last school year. Now I discover that it is not learning about weather so much as how it looks. This is why next on her list is photography, which she will be working on this school year. I had already bought her books which could be used with her point-and...

There was a Wall Street Journal article that came out at the end of July about a mother's first year homeschooling and how it was different from her preconceived ideas of what homeschooling was like. It was a generally positive article and I didn't really have any problems with it. And then I read the comments. (I don't know why... it's a bit like picking a scab. Painful, but sometimes you just can't help yourself.) And in the comments were these two gems of public opinion: "Simply consider the opportunity cost of an educated mother spending her day at home teaching her children." and, "Not working in the labor market means you are a parasite even if your hubby approves."  Wow. One hardly knows where to begin with those two statements. Pretty much, my first thought is that the authors of these statements must have had a pretty impoverished home life growing up to not understand the value of home and of homemaking. I am saddened for the write...