Mom & Pop Home School

The latest carnival is up. I didn’t submit anything this week, but check it out anyway. There’s some good stuff there.

http://alasandra2003.blogspot.com/2007/03/carnival-of-homeschooling-65.html

Today I took Sunshine to the grocery with me; she LOVES to drive around in the race car shopping carts. There was another mom there with a little boy about her age, also driving a race car. We seemed to be doing the aisles in the same direction but from opposite ends, so we kept meeting up in the middle. Each time we passed, the little boy would grin and wave at Sunshine, and she’d lean back in her seat and smile at him. When we were picking up the last few things in frozen foods, Sunshine leaned back and commented to me under her breath, “I think that boy likes me.”

“Yes,” I whispered back, “I think he does. He must think you look friendly.”

After they’d gone around the bend she added, “He thinks I’m his girlfriend.”

SAY WHAT? What the heck does she know about girlfriends and boyfriends? She’s only four fer cryin’ in the dark! I put on my best Smug Mom Voice. “Well, sweetheart,” I said, said I, “if he says you’re his girlfriend, you just tell him you’re still much too young to have a boyfriend.”

Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes popped. Her hands went to her hips, and she hissed huffily at me, the very picture of indignance, “BUT Moooom! I NEEED another boyfriend for my COLLECTION!” 

……uuuuuhhhhh…….

 It’s times like that I wish I could blame it on daycare…..

Sometimes that child just really chuckles me.

Today we went to her “creative dance” class. She LOVES it. We knew she would. She ADORES her dance teacher. And Miss Julianna does do a really good job with those kids. The age group is 4-8. They gallop, they skip, they twirl, they hop, they “blast off”, and go “fishing”, and they even occasionally do some actual “dance” exercises. But Miss Julianna keeps them moving and having a wonderful time until, as Sunshine ran over to confide to me after a particularly frolicking romp, “Sometimes shweat just DROPS off me.”

After the class we hopped in the car and zipped off toward home with some nice calm classical music and a late spring snowstorm shedding giant poofy snowflakes outside our windows. After we’d been driving for a few minutes I heard a humungous SIIIIIIGH from the back seat. “Mom,” Sunshine confessed languidly, “I am NOT in the mood. Are you in the mood, Mom?”

Thinking I must have missed part of the conversation, I asked, “Not in the mood for what, Sunshine?”

“Oh…you know…” she replied, “not in the mood for EARTH.”

And I thought, yeah, y’know I HAVE had those days…lol.

Our church is having its semi-annual general conference this weekend, and anyone who is interested (or just curious) is welcome to listen in live on the internet. Speakers are selected from the First Presidency, the Apostles, and other general church officers and leaders. Sessions are held on both Saturday and Sunday at 10:00am and 2:00pm mountain time. I would be happy to answer any questions about it here. To access the live feeds, go to this page: http://www.lds.org/broadcast/gc/0,5161,7536,00.html.

The sessions will also be available in the broadcast archives a few days after the conference if you’re interested but miss something. You can view past conferences there now. The link is: http://www.lds.org/broadcast/archive…,510-1,00.html

Tonight I decided to try again with my list of a hundred things for which I am grateful. It won’t be the same list as the last one, but what can ya do? So, in no particular order, here goes:

1. Christ’s atoning sacrifice, especially the portions of it that apply to me and to those I love.
2. The continual guidance of the Holy Ghost in my life
3. My life. 
4. My husband, and the fact that after ten years, an increasingly disturbing number of white hairs, and…let’s just say “a few” extra pounds…he says he’d still marry me all over again.
5. My two wonderful children. They go on one line, because how do I pick which one to put first?
6. My parents and the decades of solid example of marriage and family building.
7. My parents-in-law, who raised a wonderful son.
8. My six amazing siblings, their spouses and children. (If I listed everyone separately, I wouldn’t have enough room left on the list for other stuff…lol.)
9. Pop’s brother, his wife, and their adorable daughter.
10. The fact that we live in a time and a place when scripture is available to the general populace.
11. The revelations of God through His prophets as recorded in the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.
12. Living prophets and apostles.
13. The freedom to worship as I choose.
14. Temples, and all they represent.
15. A husband who supports our family financially so I can be where I’m needed most.  
16. The fact that I have two eyes, two ears, ten fingers, ten toes, and all other anatomically typical body parts, and that they all function more or less as intended.
17. The fact that the same is more or less true of my loved ones.
18. The lessons I’ve learned through parenting a child with Asperger’s Syndrome. 
19. Daffodils. (more…)

http://joansowards.com/somepostman.html>

Today we went to the zoo, which was oodles of fun, and he got to see penguins (one of Cricket’s passions)!! He didn’t really have any problems the whole 4 hours we were there except for a brief anxiety attack in the small animal house when we walked into a particular room with….let’s say a “distinctive odor” that turned out to be emanating from a porcupine. For some reason, porcupine scent pushed the ‘completely intolerable button’ somewhere in the back of his brain and we had to buzz through that particular room fairly rapidly in order to avoid a scene. But he held it together pretty well, considering. Especially after I showed him how to breathe through his sweatshirt sleeve to filter the air…lol. You just never know, do ya, what’s going to be a trigger. Porcupine. Who knew? Otherwise, he did great though.

And so did Sunshine, the Energizer bunny. After four hours of frolicking around the zoo (and I do mean frolicking, the child doesn’t know how to just “walk” for more than a few steps) she went to 45 minutes or so of dance class (we were late), and then came home and we put on some music so she could dance some more. She has aquired a new “pet”, a stuffed pink flamingo which she has named “Parakeet”. Don’t ask. I have no idea. What’s that you say? Oh. Yes, well, that’s what I thought too.

At least compared to my friend. Holy cow! All I had to deal with was a little screaming, anxiety, obsessive compulsive behavior, depression, and whatnot. Piece of cake! I was talking to my friend yesterday evening. Her father-in-law came over to help them put up trim molding in their basement that they’re finishing, and despite years of working “in the industry”, the poor man cut his thumb. Off. All the way down to the wrist. In her basement. And when the ambulance came and rushed him to a hospital, they couldn’t find a doctor who thought it could be reattatched. So they rushed him to another hospital in the next city over, where my friend used to work for a doctor who knew a doctor who she thought would do it, if only she could get in touch with him. But the doc she used to work for wasn’t answering her pages. And then they got to the hospital and discovered that, miracle of miracles, the doc she thought could do the surgery was THERE, and on call. And after 13 hours of surgery, the thumb has been reattached. It won’t ever be the same, but at least it’s on there. And then my friend had to go home and clean up the blood. Oh. My. Goodness. What a fabulous weekend I had! I’m such an ingrate for even feeling sorry for myself. What was I thinking?

Also, my other friend’s whole family has the flu. Bad. And one of her sweet girls, Sunshine’s friend “Birdie” also has strep throat, which has recently developed into scarlet fever. I AM SUCH A WHINER!

Well, as of yesterday morning Cricket is back on meds (see comments on this previous post). I’m glad it was his decision and I didn’t have to force the issue. I’m glad he was self-aware enough to realize that he still needs it. And I’m glad that things went as well as they did; it gives me hope for “someday”, even if “someday” isn’t this week.

Yesterday was a very good day. I think Cricket was relieved to have the decision made, and there weren’t any really unusual overstimulating things going on. Today was Wednesday, and his speech teacher wasn’t there again due to a very ill daughter (I hope she’s better soon, it sounded serious) so that threw him off kilter first thing this morning. Her co-worker did call to let us know, so it isn’t like we went down there and got stood up, it just threw off his view of how the day was supposed to go. He did well at the counselor, but was a little overstimulated by a game they played, and then we went to the school’s book fair, and he couldn’t find a book he liked, and wound up getting quite agitated. So, when we came home he was agitated and Sunshine was lonely, so she wouldn’t leave him alone, and he sniped at her. Aargh! After breaking it up a few times I sent them both to their rooms to cool down. It didn’t help a whole lot on the attitudes, but at least it gave me a little break.

We did get through a little school, at least, today–but I’ve spent a lot of time playing with Sunshine so she’ll leave her brother alone. And frankly, I’m tired of talking on my “invisible telephone” that rings incessantly and can’t be either lost or broken. And I no longer really care that her pink toy cat was killed by a giant invisible insect while she (Sunshine) was trying to herd it (the giant insect) back into the forest while swooshing dramatically around on her glider (Pop’s Ab Roller), and her magic wand is broken so she can’t make it (the cat) back alive again until she finds the queen mouse to re-magic it (the wand), and the unicorn princess’s villiage is being ravaged in the mean time by the giant insects. I just don’t care. I’m maybe even starting to be a little bit on the side of the giant insects.

Don’t tell.

Well, I got brave again and submitted another post to the carnival. This week’s host did a really great job with the carnival, tying all the different post topics together with the theme of springtime migration. There are some very good, thought provoking articles and I definitely recommend checking them out. Click here: http://gottsegnet.blogspot.com/