The Novel

Jamin’s been working on a book for a couple of year’s. This project was born one year when I handed him "Learn to Write the Novel Way" to play with. His goal was to have the rough draft done while he was 14. He has spent the last several months revising the novel. He’s finished! He turns 15 in 5 days and finished it on Nolan's birthday (last Wed). It is 139, single-spaced, 8x11 pages. Now Mike and I will read it. Mr. John from chapel has said he’d like to read it….and Jamin would like to get it published…but I have no clue how to proceed with that goal.

We surprised him with a printed out copy of the book after he was done lifting weights.


I read the first sentence, written in his Charles Dickens style, and mentioned that 4 lines for a first sentence is sure to attract Mike's red pen. {G}

FASTING

I will be answering the most often asked questions I’m getting about fasting here on the blog.

Tonight I want to send this link from Bill Bright of Campus Crusade. Thanks Yvonne for sharing this link on SHS. Bill Bright has composed an article titled *7 Basic Steps to Successful Fasting and Prayer*. I offer this as a concise guide that contains Scriptures along the way. Do note that Mr. Bright is discussing a 40 day fast. I’ve only called those who the Spirit is calling to a one day fast.

Briefly Mr. Bright informs us to set our objective, make our commitment, prepare ourselves spiritually, prepare ourselves physically, put ourselves on a schedule (YIKES WHAT’S THAT {G}), end our fast gradually and expect results.

Above all – PRAY about this….don’t feel pressured by me to do this.

WAY TO GO JARED!!!!

Jared, our 6th grader, has finished Saxon 6/5 today. This is big. This is HUGE! This is wonderful! It means that he will begin Saxon 7/6 tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll be able to test out of the first few lessons of the book. His goal is to be done with 7/6 by the time he begins 7th grade. That means he’d be right on TRACK.

As a 3rd grader Jared and I made a mistake. He pulled the wool over my eyes and I was not conscientious to check his work. We’ve been working together to deal with the consequences of that lost year of math for the past three years. In 4th grade I insisted he do 3rd grade math….and we’ve been slowly plodding away, making up a few units each year until FINALLY he’s within months of being “caught up”. Please understand that I was gracious and merciful and accepted my share of the fault for the lost year…but we felt he needed to learn that we wouldn’t bail him out when he cheated. This is a LIFE lesson.

Biggest lessons we learned from this bout of reality discipline: I learned – Check their work every day (or at least weekly). I also learned to teach and re-teach and re-teach until they “get it” – use different methods if needed – but don’t simply give up. Jared learned “if you cheat, you won’t learn what you need to and it will be harder for you”. Life lessons we learned…Don’t look for short cuts, perseverance pays off, sometimes you have to allow a bit of pain into a child’s life for them to grow, be CONSISTENT with grading! The funny thing is that through this whole 3 year trip – Jared and I have been drawn together as each of us realized the part we played in his mess.

We’re going to pull out the CELEBRATE plate tonight for sure! BUT I’m not letting him burn the Saxon text book.

The Birds are coming!

We dutifully hung our hangers a couple of weeks ago and waited for birds. None. They were in the BACKyard eating dog food but not the two kinds of bird seed from our science experiment. They are along the fence and in the tree in the backyard but avoiding the front.

Finally, last week we saw a couple of birds. THIS week there are lots of birds. This morning we saw 8 grackles, 3 doves, a sparrow looking bird and a red cardinal. We are also hearing some unknown song bird and the doves in the early a.m. outside our bedroom window again.

NOW we can go ahead and put out the other bird experiments.

BREAD BAKING

I baked my first real loaves of bread since moving….first time in 8 months. The boys are enjoying it but I’m not sure quite what I did wrong. They did NOT rise like they usually do. I’m thinking either the yeast was too old or I’ve lost my touch. I had brought enough grain, dough enhancer and SAF yeast to last a month while I looked for another supplier of grains. I’m thinking the yeast has sat too long. I’ll try again when we eat these up and proof the yeas first. I’ve been spoiled with not needing to do that with my BOSCH but maybe since it is older yeast that will help.

We’re going to the park this afternoon. I’m going to help Adrienne and Heather as they set up a new produce co-op…if I can remember any tips that might be helpful. {G}Adrienne is going to bring the catalog from her co-op and I’m going to see about ordering some grain and get back into the swing of baking. She assures me that she has never had bugs fly out of buckets of grains with gamma seals on them…so maybe I can make this work in TX after all. . .

SPEECH WOES

I'm a bit unsettled about Nolan's speech. I talked with his therapist yesterday. Thursday I will observe. I'm not sure if I should try to have another discussion with HER, her supervisor or call the district and talk to those who did his IEP.

He's always LOVED speech - for the 2 years he's gone in AK. He is visibly upset now when he knows it's a speech day. He's tense, uptight and has even teared up when walking into the building. This is not normal. After I talked with the therapist yesterday about her method of teaching, I heard her with her supervisor. The supervisor was telling her she needs to make eye contact etc....and she was saying "but he won't look me in the eye"...this is so not like him.

My talk with her had nothing to do with him not wanting to come. She's brand new. I know that she is learning that "patient/client manner" that is so important for new docs and such to learn.

Yesterday, she told me that he CAN make all the sounds now but speaks to fast. She's teaching him to read. I told her I was doing that. She showed me the book she is having him "read". I told her that is way beyond his reading ability. She showed me that she tells him to trace the word, memorize its shape and then they close their eyes and say the word etc. and that he is learning to read. I explained that we are teaching him to read via phonics and that I didn't want her to be teaching him to "read" via the whatever this method is way. She said the only thing to help him artic is to learn to read this way. I told her that if the only thing they have to offer is to teach him to read then this is a waste of the school district's money because WE are teaching him to read and can read to him and slow him down at HOME.

In AK our speech therapist was giving him exercises to strengthen his jaw and mouth muscles...he has weak muscle tone. She was giving us things to do at home, she insisted he needed a thorough hearing exam by an audiologist...which we didn't get due to the move.....

Here they send nothing home, do no exercises, haven't said a word about the hearing test (though I requested it in November) and all she tells me each week is "we read a book". On top of this he now is visibly worried about attending speech.

Please pray with us as I try to figure out what to do and where to go from here. I certainly don't want to pull him out if they can still offer something to help....but I HAVE the ARTIC books that show which books to read for which sounds etc. I have several of the Speech Therapy books that our therapist recommend the state of AK buy for us...so really...if he can make the sounds...and they have nothing to offer but read.....maybe it is time to see about terminating therapy......but I don't want to do that if they have tools to help him further....See the quandry?

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... in one month...I wonder who is reading this....feel free to comment....I write this thinking what would parents and dear friends who are away from us want to know and see.... I know we don't have over 300 friends and family checking each week....so welcome whoever you are...I'm a bit perplexed as to what is worth spending time reading here...but you are certainly welcome and feel free to "be known" at any time.....or continue to read and hopefully pray for the requests we mention.