Uberinteresting comments about today

As I type, Avari just pushed aside her strawberry shortcake to request a bowl of green beans.

At the dentist, the hygenist had classical music on and Josh wrinkled his nose. She asked if it wasn't better than silence, and he replied, "In our house, you learn to appreciate quiet."

After scouts, Sam and I were at Braums, Sam told me that if he had a time-machine he would travel back in time to when we got to Braums (awww! I don't know if it was the sundae or the company, but I have my suspicions)

When I got home, dh relays to me that Emily came running in to tell us that Dan was put into a coma. He runs out, and there's Dan, flat on his back in the middle of the basketball court, covered in blood (good thing I wasn't home!) He was NOT knocked out, but doing his usual broken heart fall down. He did have a five stitch gap in his forehead where Rachel accidently got him with a fully swung baseball bat. yikes. Dh cleaned him up, put some steristrips on it, and the girls set up this whole grand puhbah deal in Avari's bed, complete with seven pillows, two blankets, his personal strawberry shortcake and a snoopy video.

Feelings, nothing more than....

"Kids don't need their feelings validated. They're born knowing their
feelings are valid. It's only when adults start dismissing their
feelings that children might get the idea that there's something
wrong with them.

What kids often want is what adults want: someone to sympathize,
someone who understands what's going on inside of them. It's so
relieving when someone says "I'm sorry, that really stinks when that
happens." (And ruined when followed by a "but"!)

What needs validated is the child's feelings for *you*. You need to
accept that the child's feelings are valid even if you don't
understand or you think it's silly to be that upset over something or
want something."
Scott Noelle

Guess who wants a haircut?

A week after I paid $15 for a haircut, Mr Man decides he wants to cut it himself. To make a long story short, dh caught him first, and said no way, jose. When I found out, I discussed it with dh, and we agreed that it was Dan's hair, and he had a choice. SO...the next day I apologized to Dan and said that if he wanted to cut his own hair, he was welcome to do it. BUT! He needed to talk to us first so that we could make sure that the clippers were used in a safe manner. He agreed and we were on our way.



TADA! He's very proud. There are a few straggly hairs, but for the most part he looks cute. lol!

Grrrr...the blogger

I am having so much trouble uploading my pictures. I'm such a visual person that I really NEED pictures to think when i post, however...I will try.

We've had such a busy week, running late on everything. However, tomorrow seems to be a laid back day. I might be able to fit some grocery store business into my day (we are way low on everything...think, apple, milk, meat and potatoes. Some condiments)

Today Rachel had girl scouts, at the mall of all places. 'Career Day' you know. Build-a-bear did a great job of it. All of the kids got stuffies, except Josh who asked if he could have the cash for something else. Mario Kart Wii is coming out this weekend, that should work. Lets see, Breanna got the yellow sparkly bear to match her MiMi, Emily got the pink heart bear, Sam got a Mrs Bunny (and a batman suit, although he is wanted the tux and wedding dress so that she and Mr Bunny can get married), Rachel got a brown bear, and Avari just wanted one of the mini-cats.

Wednesday it seems to me we did a lot, but i can't for the life of me think of what it was. Probably laundry. We're just not finishing up from the funeral. ack!

Josh had a psych appointment on Tuesday, and had a really great time. The Mobley (as Bre calls her) really is great at validating who he IS, without saying it's a bad thing. Josh gets stuff off his chest, they talk about how to handle issues, and the rest of us get to play with all her fun therapy toys. He also had a scout meeting that night, so we ran from the appointment, picked up daddy, dropped THEM at home, drove across town again to the meeting, and got Josh signed up for his summer camp.

Our TV room is looking great, there are details that we need to take care of, but it's nearly functional. IE it has a TV in it now. Dh needs to add supports to the TV shelf, i need to sew cushion covers for our retooled futon, and I would like to paint the toybox that my daddy made me when I was little. Dh says it doesn't fit into his 'modern' idea, but eh. We need something to hold the blankets for movie party nights, right?

Hopefully, I'll get some pictures up soon.

Yummy warm goodness

HomeMADE yummy goodness, I should say!

We needed a really BIG one too

and of course we always need wheat free alternatives. We made this one with the prepackaged bread mix, following the directions for frepes. Next time we'll thicken it up a bit and I'm sure it will look more like a traditional funnel cake. However, it was still delish!
At the festival/fair, there was a funnel cake booth. Now, part of this is fiscal, but a great part of NEVER buying funnel cakes is medical in origin. There is a ton of corn starch in the powdered sugar, and we can't be sure of the source of leavening, could have corn as well. And it goes without saying the funnel cakes have wheat. LOTS of wheat. So we came home and made our own. Oh Em Gee.

Kids for Kindness/Earth Day

Annual Little River Zoo kids for kindness day. We'd never attended...too many animals and Breanna is NOT the animal person. She's like, the anti-animal person. However, we stayed about 45 minutes, did some fun crafts, learned some new facts, and saw some friends

Breanna made a necklace from the wood blocks our friend Mr B made after the ice storms!

Josh made a new friends lol! Who says unschoolers are unsocial?

Avari LOVED the snake much more than the wallaby or rabbits that the LRZ had out.

I'm not totally sure what Dan was thinking here, but he did look awful cute. Sam was moving too fast to get a picture of him, but he did every single booth at the fair.

Earth day, celebrated

"In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous." Aristotle

sam was the only one brave enough to hold the tub of squirmy little guys in his hand before releasing them to feast on our gardens. But even he was tired of the marvelousness after a while. 

Girls and power tools

"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings." Samuel Johnson

rachel needed to make a game for her brownie scout patch...and so she needed a power tool. Of course. She was at first frightened, but quickly overcame that fear, and with great confidence (and few mistakes) made a tic-tac-toe board. With buttons as markers. It is SO cute.

Because I shared our news with SOME people...

and I don't recall who, I should probably share this news with everyone. It seems old hat, almost, our third miscarriage in about a year. But I really would like to keep anyone from the uncomfortable situation of asking how the pregnancy was going.

Two weeks ago, I went into labor, and our baby was born at fifteen weeks gestation. It was very much less traumatic for me than the births of Abigail and Matthew. 

Without going into testimony (much) I had been have cramps for several weeks, and that, on the heels of our previous two losses, gave me the opportunity to prepare for this birth. I had a wonderful prayer chain, and I felt that I was able to give it all up to God and trust that He has a plan for all of us. I was led to a story a few weeks before in Newsweek about parents who go through an entire pregnancy knowing that their baby will probably not live long after birth. This article gave me the courage to look at this pregnancy as a blessing, regardless of how long it may last. It really touched me and helped heal the pain from the last two pregnancies and let me know that every pregnancy has meaning, regardless of the outcome. 

The birth of Abigail, and that of Matthew, held too much struggle and not enough dignity. With the support of my husband and wonderful children, I had a very calm, natural birth, part of life rather than a terrible event to be suffered. We are, of course, mourning still, especially with the loss of my father-in-law so immediately following. 

Zane Gray, Jr

As I mentioned, my father-in-law died over a week ago. We've been out of town, and then recovering from being out of town with seven kids. Laundry is overwhelming. Anyway, It's eerie reading the funeral leaflet and seeing your husbands name on there. I had that problem at his grandfather's funeral as well. Anyway, back to topic.

I was talking to my husband about my plans for when I die, and I honestly don't like the idea of a traditional funeral. I mean, what a waste! Not only the money, but all those materials. I don't like the idea of a shell taking up so much space on the planet, and for what? So people can feel obliged to visit a cemetery and pay their respects every so often. Seriously, a six foot by three foot concrete box to hold your wood or plastic box to hold your body that is created and designed to decompose. Today, reading the news online (yeah, i don't get papers either, again with the wasted trees) I come across this! 

Green funerals! "what people are wanting is to know that they're doing the best they can both for their loved ones and for the environment," Cassidy said. Yes! Of course, I'm heading for cremation myself. Even less mess! 

So far behind...

Last week was a week that was so busy I can't even tell you.

Sunday we did go to the Medieval Faire, and the above picture is from the Viking encampment from the Shawnee SCA...the girls really loved the tent and we're looking to build one when dad is done with the TV room (we'll have scrap lumber left over yay!) The guy to whom the tent belonged was VERY nice, explaining how he built it, offering to take the picture, explaining how his son did the armor, how they did the bed, and then more about other items.

Monday was trying to clean the house after a week of me being on bedrest, and then a visit to Sam's Club to stock up on supplies for 'feed the homeless'

Tuesday was feed the homeless in downtown OKC as well as dental appointments and cub scouts. Total hours out of the house, nine and a half. Total mileage over 75.

Wednesday was finishing up a bunch of boy and girl scout stuff, as well as surviving a big ol' thunderstorm. It was dh and I's date night with a kid. It was Sam's turn, so we ate at IHOP and visited Home Depot. Then stopped at Marble Slab Creamery for the biggest cone I've ever seen Sam eat. 

Thursday, girl scouts, library day and boy scouts. 

Friday I was in Tulsa all day for teacher training (ironic, I know)

Today, Josh had to be at the scout church for yard work at 8am (!) So we got home and we've been cleaning up. Like serious "knife the scum off the porcelain" cleaning. ick.

Then we got news that my FIL has passed away. So I don't know when we'll be back online. 

I do have a bunch of pictures that some day will be loaded. Some from my new camera phone (including flooded roads from Wednesday) and some from the traditional camera.

Unplugged Play

So I get this book from the library, by Bobbi Conner. I may not agree with the idea of forceably limiting screen time, but the book is a great resource. I picked it up to get some game ideas for the Tiger Cubs. In addition, we're spring cleaning, and part of that is restocking all of our strewing items at one time. 

My favorite part of the book is Index B "The well-stocked toy cupboards", a section for toddlers, one for preschools and best of all, one for grade-schoolers.  I like to think I do a good idea, but there were some great hints in there. Like balloons. Older kids should always have a supply of uninflated balloons at hand. 

Cleanliness is over-rated

"The moment may be temporary, but the memory is forever."

Tour de Fountain

"If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water." Loren Eisley

QOTD

"Mom, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we're all on planet earth. Bad news is that I dreamt of Mars"
teehee

Quote of the Day

"A blue Christmas is made out of water, a white Christmas is made out of snow. That is good"
Dan, who's a little too interested in Elvis lately.

Tricia is in surgery!!!

Nate will update as he gets information, but please keep them in prayers. She'll be done about 3am. Duke has a 90% survival rate, so this is really a good place to be.
Again, visit www.chusband.blogspot.com to comment or add your well-wishes.
Thanks

Prayers for me too

Health has been very poor lately, for currently undisclosed reasons. But God knows our needs, and if you can just pray for our family, I know that He will hear and help out. Thanks

More prayers for Nate and Trish

After only a few days, their surgeons are flying out to check on another set of lungs for her. Please keep them in your prayers. Dry run starts right about...NOW!
M

Struggling

Avari is trying to put her own socks on, and struggling. She sighs, and tells me "This one is a dirty job!" I think she's watching too much Mike Rowe in the evenings.

Who needs the fair?

We already make our own wheat-free corn-free corn dogs, now we can make our own cotton candy too! We rented one for our FYI party, and the girls really wanted one for home. The big industrial one was a bit out of our price range, but hey, Target's got my back. Yay!

National Autism Awareness Month

otherwise known as NAAM. I posted last year on my old blog, all about how we were introduced to autism and how it affects us now. We do have a new diagnosis this year, Dan has been added to our spectrum kiddos. Not officially, but the Doc said that when we needed the paperwork, she'd do it. It's kind of a moot point, since we unschool and we untherapy, I guess is the term. We live LIFE and work on issues as they come up.

But I'm tired of the news releases. I'm tired of new theories and new therapies and tired of the 'poor me' videos. I'm even tired of the regular, 'don't pity me' videos.

I'm not overwhelmed. I'm not depressed. I'm just looking at autism differently than I used to. And it's not so bad. So maybe this year, I'm not going to post anything about autism. I'm just going to post my life, because autism is our life.

The diagnosis doesn't change the child. Dan's awesome.