Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

                                                     CHAPTER 15

  This evening we went to some  friends house and had dinner( btw.....uh YUM).....we took all the kids. I hate to admit it but taking all the children over to our families houses let alone a friends house generally stresses me out due to the fact that most people can't handle my children or don't understand them. Many times I feel like people are just putting up with us rather than "hanging" out with us. Tonight was somewhat of a relief I guess. These particular friends are easy going and seem to be more patient than most despite our children constantly pestering their animals and generally running amok around the apartment playing and being loud. They have invited us over a few times now, that's like a record! There have been times,many times our own family has acted disgusted when we've come over and it can be very hurtful so to have a friend come along and be so kind and patient with us is good for our hearts.

 

Buy one get one cut in half

                                                     CHAPTER 14

  Today's another two for the price of one day. I wasn't able to even get near the computer yesterday, it really was that busy. The day started of in a whirl of cleaning as I was expecting Troy's teacher and a few of his therapist at around eleven am, for a IFSP review. Three out of four were late but not by much it did make me a little concerned though because this meeting was to determine if Troy is deemed as having autism and if so what extra services that he will receive. All in all the meeting went well and he was officially diagnosed,according to the school district as having autism and in need of extra help. Now we are going to focus on getting the medical diagnosis. After our guest left the day was spent in a reckless abandon.....................no, not really. I continued to clean in hopes that we may be able to actually have guest over for a movie and dinner.......Yeah I kinda went around that one backwards. Rebekah did show up and hung out with me for the rest of the day and into the evening, so I did get some adult interaction today but I must admit that is WAS REBEKAH I was hanging with.

   A little background, Rebekah is a good friend of mine that I hang out with nearly everyday. I do this for adult interaction but usually what ends up happening is we both end up acting like children..so much for that adventure,huh?

   By Eight O'clock last night I was already falling asleep but I managed to power down a couple more hours watching stuff on Hulu with Laz.

Zombie in my own home

                                                     CHAPTER 14

   Even as I write this I am falling asleep and it's only 7:40 pm. Today was uneventful, We left at 9 this morning and went to my parents house across town and did Gabriel's homeschooling there. We also visited,ate some food and the kids made a mess of someone else's house. All in all a relatively light day yet I feel like a zombie. As soon as the kids are out for the night I am going straight to bed and I'm going to like it ;)

First Semester Down

                                                     CHAPTER 13

     Today is a Wednesday, in homeschooling terms that means the longest day of the week. Gabriel and I covered his first big Math test,a weekly phonics test, a lengthy poem reading ( The Jellicle Cats) for Language Arts, THe story of David and Goliath for History and reviewed "textures" in Art.  All in all we spent 5 and a half hours on school today and it went fairly smoothly. Now if I could just get everything else to fall into place as smoothly. Don't get me wrong, today went smooth in comparison to other's. But my "day to day" life as of late has been something of a whirlwind which obviously is anything but smooth. On top of my daily life of diaper changing,cooking,cleaning,running errands dealing with my children's disabilities and their special need's and all that goes with that,family drama etc. I have joined an art guild to top it all off......Ugghhhhhhhh I think I just signed my own ticket to insanity. Not to mention my health has been, well, BAD lately...but I'll spare anyone the details. My family and I could really use some peace right now that would be dandy.
  

Emma the Parrot and the Alphabet

                                                     CHAPTER 12

  I learned today that my 19 month old will say anything you ask of her. I was able to squeeze the alphabet out of her this evening which shocked me to say the least. I have been taking care of children with varying degree's of disabilities for so long that any bit of what's considered normal by societies standards, just blows my mind. Maybe being able to prod your 19 month old to say the alphabet is normal or "average" but for me it was a huge deal. She was even able to recognize  and point out the letter "E" all on her own. I wonder if this is from all the homeschooling stuff I been doing around her. Maybe she's picking up on that. Or maybe I am in the mist of a genius. Perhaps it's time to introduce her to the theory of relativity or Newton's equation:)

The Importance of Fresh Air

                                                     CHAPTER 11

   We had a rough start to our day today. I got Paul and Troy fed,clothed and on their buses respectively and on time.As soon as they were gone I fired up the home-school machine, however, Gabe's mind seemed to draw blank this morning. He could not focus,he answered everything incorrectly and he often mumbled his answers under his breath, drove me batty. After an hour and a half STRAIGHT of this behavior I had HAD it. I realized that perhaps it was time for a break from routine,maybe it was routine that was making him behave this way. But I wasn't about to let him off the hook so easy. I told him that though we were taking a vacation day from school that it would NOT be a vacation day from our chores. It took him all day and several rough patches involving mocking and back talking but by golly he cleaned his room and helped around the house.

   I had a friend over for the most of the day (she had the day off from work). She helped with the kiddo's so I could clean and it came with the added benefits of adult interaction. After 8 years of  raising my broad, my vocab has probably dropped by over half, I don't even remember what math is and my greatest skill has become speed diaper changing. Luckily this friend is nice enough to put up with me despite my obvious "issues", but I only think she does it so she can hang with the coolest kids on the block;)

   The majority of today consisted of me cleaning. Things had piled up from the last couple of days,like laundry and dishes even the garbage was beginning to overflow. I got that all squared away thanks to some helpful friends and kiddo's. I even had time to cook a new recipe from scratch tonight, "Chicken breast with balsamic vinegar and garlic." It was delicious if I do say so myself...and I do;) As the day winded down I took to shopping at Target with Troy and a friend while Laz watched the other kids. I picked up some Easter stuff, a movie and some lip gloss. After I came home, I vegged on the couch for awhile,said goodnight to my kids and then watched Laz take apart a small engine for his go-kart.......in the middle of our living room next to our cream colored faux suede sofa......lol. Gotta' love that nerd! And now I'm here in front of the computer writing about my day in brief.

What Today Held

                                                     CHAPTER 10

          Today was good!