Baby Steps

Last week was one of those times when I felt like throwing in the towel with educating Drew.  We worked on math facts, he would need to use blocks for every single problem and still not get it right every time.  After our geography lesson, I asked him some questions and he stared at me blankly like I just asked what the volume of the moon was not in which direction the sun rises.  One evening I confessed to Jathan that I really didn't know what point it was to teach him.  Yes, I know that sounds horrible, even typing that I cringe.  But that is how I felt.  And it wasn't just last week.  There are days that I feel like I am banging my head on a brick wall.  Of course I know causing brain damage in my head is not going to help his.  Information goes in his head, but then I don't know what happens to it after that.  Sometimes it seems to bounce right out.  Other times it sticks, but you never know if he will be able to use it all the time or not. 

You see it is hard to tell what he has learned.  He can know something one day, and every day for a week, but one day it is gone, then it comes back again.  Not just school things either.  A few weeks ago, MacKenzie and I were working on dinner and he asked what we were going to have that night.  I rattled off the list with the last item being kiwi.  He asked with a confused look on his face "What is kiwi?"  MacKenzie held one up and said, these are kiwi.  He still looked a little confused and said "oh".  Now to some that may not sound like an unreasonable question.  But understand that it is the middle of kiwi season here in California, we love kiwi, he loves kiwi, so every week I buy some at the farmers market.  We eat it all the time.  So there is the frustration.  But I can't get frustrated with him.  He can't help it.  In fact, he doesn't like that he doesn't remember/understand things any more than I do.

So we rejoice in the good days, when he does remember or does understand.  And we encourage in the bad.  Yesterday he did a math worksheet.  There were ten problems.  He did them all in his head except one.  (For whatever reason 3+2 gets him everytime.)  I cheered and told him how proud I was of him.  Today, we worked on math again.  We worked on circling the big number and then starting with that number and counting the rest on his fingers.  He was getting it.  I loved watching him work his problems.  He got to 3+2 and said "three is in my head" then he counted (using his fingers) 4, 5 until he had the two fingers help up.  (keep in mind keeping track of his fingers can be difficult too) Triumphantly, he announced the answer was 5.

They are baby steps.  And tomorrow he might have trouble with every problem.  But today we got to see the baby steps forward and rejoice.

The Uninvited Guest

Paige's friend has developed a magazine that comes out bimonthly and Paige is one of the staff writers.  Here is her story from the last issue that came out the end of last week.  It is a true story.  Enjoy!

 

The Uninvited Guest

One day my mom, Clay, Drew, MacKenzie and I were sitting on a blanket in the middle of the family room floor reading our geography book. We heard Tigerlily playing with something in the other room. I just guessed it was a bouncy ball. When I got up to get a globe and colored pencils, I saw what Tigerlily was playing with was not a bouncy ball. It was something scurrying. "It’s a mouse!" I cried. Tigerlily, our cat, was playing with a mouse. Then to add more to the problem, she had no intention to just get it, she was just daintily playing with it. So we stepped in.

Mom plopped an empty ice cream bucket over the mouse. Then we scooted the bucket, with the mouse under it, along the floor towards the front door. Carefully, we slid it over the ridges of the doorway to the front walk. We got Tigerlily so we could give her another chance to get rid of the mouse. Quickly, I lifted the ice cream bucket, but Tigerlily wasn’t interested anymore. She wanted nothing to do with it. Tigerlily ran, but not towards the mouse, she ran the other way. Now the mouse was loose in the front yard. "Tigerlily!" we half groaned, half shouted. Well now I had the ice cream bucket. I tried to get the mouse. I threw the ice cream bucket, hoping it would land on the mouse, but I missed. The mouse ran up into a bush. We tried to spot it. I especially tried hard since I had not caught the mouse. I found it on a branch in the bush. Mom hit the bush with a little pvc pipe about three feet long and one inch diameter which Clay had been carrying around and the mouse fell down to the ground.

The mouse sprinted under the van which was parked in the driveway. We chased it back and forth, this way and that way. At this point we were laughing. One of my brothers said, "We could all get in the van and run over it." We decided not to. The mouse darted into the flowerbed by the mailbox. My mom had the pipe. Hastily, she plunked it down on the mouse’s tail so it couldn’t get free and I held it there while mom fetched the shovel. We said goodbye to the mouse, then disposed of it in the trash can where it rested in peace. That is until trash day.

The end

 

Christmas Cruise

Wow!  Nine months since my last post.  I knew it had been a while, but wow, that is a lot longer than I thought it had been.  I feel this post is a bit out of the blue and even a month past the event.  But, I will share anyways.

This year, we spent Christmas on a cruise ship in the Pacific.  My mom took my family and my sister on Carnival's Inspiration to visit Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico.  It was a wonderful, relaxing time once on the ship.  Unfortunately it didn't start out that way.  The night before we left, we found that our van wouldn't start and it wasn't the battery.  Early the next morning we had the van at the mechanic who said he thought he might know what the problem was and there was a possibility it could be repaired in time to take it to LA.  Just in case we reserved a rental.  An hour later, we find out that something is wrong but not sure what, so we had to get the rental.  Taking two cars to LA we did arrive in time to board the ship and even have a snack before the ship set sail.  We praise God that the van decided to act up before we left home and not on our way to the ship. 

Here are a few shots from our Christmas vacation...

I am not sure how many stuffed animals the kids brought with them, but every night they were part of the towel folding display :)

 

 

Shopping in Ensenada.  This was the low pressure market.  They kids did not like the bartering market where the vendors shoved things at them trying to get them to buy.

 

The boys in front of Long Beach as our ship was heading out (I didn't get the pics in order very well)

 

The younger three liked the water slide for short periods of time.  It was pretty close to freezing water and the air wasn't too warm either.

 

Jathan and I in Catalina Island

 

View of our ship from Catalina Island.

 

 

Paige, Clay and Jathan did a little rock climbing while on Catalina. 

 

Wild buffalo on Catalina Island.