Delaney has a friend who she wants to come to her birthday party. The little girl had broken her foot and since Delaney was having a skating party, was unsure if she should invite her friend as she didn't want her to feel bad because she couldn't skate. I saw the mother and child at another birthday party and spoke with the mother. Delaney was very pleased to hear she would be having her cast removed a week before the party and would be able to come. Off they skipped happily together.....as much as a casted foot would allow.
What I immediately saw when I met this child was that she obviously has a lot of medical issues. Her gait unsure. Her face clearly showing bone structure abnormalities. I, of course, said nothing but felt so sorry for the little girl who would grow up having problems.
What I found though as I watched them play was that Delaney didn't see any of that. The only thing she has ever noticed was that she was missing a single finger on her one hand. Not the facial abnormalities. Not the gait. Not the delays. A simple single finger.
It reminded me of another little boy in school she is friends with. I met him last year in the school hallway. He is extremely handicapped and cannot walk. Mainly wheelchair bound and shorter than the other children. Delaney talked about him like he was her best friend. He was cute. He was kind. He was her friend. They often played together on the school playground.
It reminded me of when we went to Ronald McDonald house to make a dinner and Delaney happily played with the children who were there for medical reasons. Children without legs. Children with a lot of handicaps. Children with medical issues beyond my understanding. Never once did she shy away or question it.
It reminded me of Grams and who Delaney loved playing with her even in the mist of her dementia. Or the older people in the assisted living with her who Delaney made friends with each visit. Elderly people who she laughed with, danced for and took their hands to walk with.
I joked often that I was going to rent Delaney out to nursing homes but the truth is, Delaney has a gift way beyond many children. I realized my daughter sees something far beyond what we would focus on or see. Nothing really seems to matter. She sees beyond the surface and just accepts. This child coming to her birthday party was simply her friend. They laughed and giggled together. Delaney was so happy she would be able to come. I came to see that Delaney has a special gift of simply loving someone for who they are. The old, the senile, the handicapped, the person most would shy away from due to lack of understanding. She simply.....
.........loves.
It is a special gift indeed.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
How get rid of the energy of a puppy?
Peace!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
What goes up......it pours. And all that jazzy stuff.
I woke this morning to the single beep of my fire alarm announcing to me at 4:30am that it was in need of batteries. Of course it could not wait until noon. That would make life too boring. I vaguely registered the announcement and rolled over to try and pretend I didn't hear it. Maybe it would go away if I pulled the blanket over my head and wished really hard. It came again. And again. I was so tired that I probably could have actually fallen back to sleep through the beeps had it not been for the dog trying to cram her big body under my bed in a panic.
Cherokee does not like the fire alarm and the single beep set her into a run even though it wasn't its normal loud and long shrill. But it was a warning she could not ignore and came running for help. Under my bed. Like it would protect her. Maybe she was thinking if she hid under the blankets too it would go away. She spent a good 15 min trying to dig her way under and as I lay there desperately trying to fall back to sleep I felt like I was on a vibrating bed as she shook under it.
I gave up and turned the news on. I sat there for a while watching in mind numbness a news anchor tell the daily report and I realized I never set my alarm clock. Here I am awake, watching tv and am now a good 10 minutes late because I was waiting for it to go off.
I stumble out of bed and get Megan up and get myself ready. The fire alarm is still beeping and Cherokee is now hiding in my shower. I take time that I do not have to unplug the alarm if not for her sanity then for mine. Silence. I tell Cherokee she can come out of hiding.......just in time for another one down the hall to go off too. I am now VERY VERY late.
I do not have time to sweep the snow that fell last night off my car to take Megan to the bus stop and she has to make a run for it. I am now running myself to get Delaney up and lunch made before my 1st daycare arrival. I didn't make it.
The arrivals are coming one after another along with a ton of Valentines bags and gifts and I am still elbow deep in peanut butter and chips. I rush everyone in and out, slap the sandwich in the lunch box, throw the lunch box in the backpack and take a breath. Only to have Delaney cry that her teachers gifts for Valentines day were not ready to go.
Now I am normally on the ball with things like that. Gifts bought and packed and wrapped and waiting often weeks ahead of time. Only the gift she told her teacher she was bringing was end of the school year gifts! Not Valentines Day. She is crying because she cannot go empty handed now so I am running to find anything remotely close to a Valentines gift bag in between door bell rings. I find some Snowman bags with hearts on them and grab those along with tissue paper and throw them in her back pack too just as the bus is pulling up.
Now one would think that was the end but oh no. Not really. That would make life too boring remember.
I have someones bottle bag leaking milk all over my kitchen table, chairs and floor. I unpack another and find one mom switched her childs lunch with hers and the toddler now has cheese enchiladas for lunch and mom has the chicken nuggets. I turn on the tv to it blaring an infomercial and cannot find the remote that Todd lost last night. A daycare child has arrived crying and spilled his cereal all over the floor. And a baby has arrived with the mother announcing she is cranky. The baby that is. Not the mother.
I clean up the milk, unpack the diaper bags, put the cheese enchilada in the freezer for a rainy day, lay the babies down for naps, take the left over gift wrap stuff downstairs, clean up the cereal, hide the squealing alarms, find the remote, turn on Thomas the Train, grab my most healthy breakfast of......
......that someone so thoughtfully brought me for Valentines Day and said a prayer of peace.
"Lord give me strength. And please make this doughnut make it all better"
It didn't. But if felt sooooooooooo good going down.
Peace......
For now.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
Cherokee does not like the fire alarm and the single beep set her into a run even though it wasn't its normal loud and long shrill. But it was a warning she could not ignore and came running for help. Under my bed. Like it would protect her. Maybe she was thinking if she hid under the blankets too it would go away. She spent a good 15 min trying to dig her way under and as I lay there desperately trying to fall back to sleep I felt like I was on a vibrating bed as she shook under it.
I gave up and turned the news on. I sat there for a while watching in mind numbness a news anchor tell the daily report and I realized I never set my alarm clock. Here I am awake, watching tv and am now a good 10 minutes late because I was waiting for it to go off.
I do not have time to sweep the snow that fell last night off my car to take Megan to the bus stop and she has to make a run for it. I am now running myself to get Delaney up and lunch made before my 1st daycare arrival. I didn't make it.
The arrivals are coming one after another along with a ton of Valentines bags and gifts and I am still elbow deep in peanut butter and chips. I rush everyone in and out, slap the sandwich in the lunch box, throw the lunch box in the backpack and take a breath. Only to have Delaney cry that her teachers gifts for Valentines day were not ready to go.
Now I am normally on the ball with things like that. Gifts bought and packed and wrapped and waiting often weeks ahead of time. Only the gift she told her teacher she was bringing was end of the school year gifts! Not Valentines Day. She is crying because she cannot go empty handed now so I am running to find anything remotely close to a Valentines gift bag in between door bell rings. I find some Snowman bags with hearts on them and grab those along with tissue paper and throw them in her back pack too just as the bus is pulling up.
Now one would think that was the end but oh no. Not really. That would make life too boring remember.
I have someones bottle bag leaking milk all over my kitchen table, chairs and floor. I unpack another and find one mom switched her childs lunch with hers and the toddler now has cheese enchiladas for lunch and mom has the chicken nuggets. I turn on the tv to it blaring an infomercial and cannot find the remote that Todd lost last night. A daycare child has arrived crying and spilled his cereal all over the floor. And a baby has arrived with the mother announcing she is cranky. The baby that is. Not the mother.
I clean up the milk, unpack the diaper bags, put the cheese enchilada in the freezer for a rainy day, lay the babies down for naps, take the left over gift wrap stuff downstairs, clean up the cereal, hide the squealing alarms, find the remote, turn on Thomas the Train, grab my most healthy breakfast of......
"Lord give me strength. And please make this doughnut make it all better"
It didn't. But if felt sooooooooooo good going down.
Peace......
For now.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
This that and little of whatever
Since the holidays we....ok...I seem to be going in 5 different directions. Did you ever have a day where you plan on cleaning up everything in one day but there is just so much to do that you begin pulling everything out and doing a little here and a little there cause you don't know where to begin and come 3pm in the evening you stop and turn and see everything exploded all over your house and nothing is actually really done?? Yeah. Kinda like that.
Megan is back to school. That is a plus. But she had issue with an online class that some idiot sitting at desk in some big office in NJ decided was needed. See they tried cramming a personal finance class into a 25 min opening slot in a school day. This is a online run program with no actual teacher. This, in itself, has been an issue. I think I saw red when I emailed her teacher for this class in the school about a concern and was told she really isn't the teacher. She just babysits. I have to contact the online supervisor who is the teacher. I do that and am told it isn't her job either and I have to call some 800 number of the people who made the program. Yeah. Well. Lets just say that didn't exactly go over very well with me and I rather exploded.....and sent a copy to every possible leader, teacher, principal, director and maybe even a few janitors in the school district on my thoughts of this. Yeah. It has been way fun. Megan goes back in school after being sick and it is final week. They won't let her take her final because.........#1 the site had been down for two weeks and she was behind #2 they don't have her logging in since Jan 8th and she can't do the final if she hasn't done the work. Only I personal KNOW she has been on cause Todd and I have been doing it! Yes. I just admitted to doing my childs homework! See this hour class turned into a 3-4 hour class....per day....5 days a week. It simply was not meant to be done in a 25min slot. So Todd and I have been on trying to keep her afloat as best as we could. Make a loooooong story short Todd got to go in and explode all over everyone. She was supposed to be allowed to finish the final. We are awaiting results on that.
Oh and next year this class will be a full slot class. WITH A TEACHER. Go figure. Sometimes a little bitching helps.
That brings me to cookie sales. Almost done. Yippie. We are currently at 350 boxes sold. I am rather done. Done. Done. And did I mention done? It was a lot of work that the weather has not been cooperating on. No fun lugging boxes of cookies in a wagon in snow, wind and 20 degrees. But we trudged on and are down to the last few boxes. However the leader has some left overs she is trying to push and so we are now doing yet another cookie booth to try and get rid of what cookies the troop have left. Yea (said in a weak and mildly under-excited voice)
I have been working on vacation bible school things. Its early, Kim, you say? Why, yes it is. But I am setting up my 1st meeting with teachers and have packs to make and copies to run and schedules to schedule and have been working on that too.
And scheduling vacation too. Its early for that too, Kim, you say? Why, yes, yes it is. But we have a group going and I have to get an idea on how much it will cost and so have been booking hotels and planning schedules for that as well.
Delaney birthday is coming up. She wanted a gym party again this year but when I went to book it a month and half ahead of time, I was told no room at the Inn. So we redirected and she is having a roller skating party. I have been looking for supplies and making favors and sending invites and making calls and ordering cakes. And just when I am almost done on party planning, Ryan asks for a party too. Ryan is going to be 20 two weeks after Delaney. And he wants a party. A soccer party. A soccer party with pizza and guests and the works. *sigh* Really?! I am debating between saying no out of exhaustion and um...dude your gonna be 20..... and yes out of quilt. I will have to get back to you on that one.
Add in some stress at Delaneys school. Lets see...where to begin......
Delaney is shy. She doesn't like to talk in class and doesn't like being wrong even more. She is a bit of a perfectionist and insanely in need of being right and not being laughed at. This is effecting her class work. She doesn't participate and only works in small groups. Odd for a child that I would say is about my most outgoing child of the three but she IS unique and is who she is. She is a little of Ryan who will focus on one thing till it is perfect and a little of Megan who also would not talk in a class.
What I am having issues with is her teacher who doesn't know how to work with her. Or doesn't want to. I told her to get her to do something...praise her. She will blossom. Nothing. I told her to get her to preform.....reward her. She will do whatever you want her to. Nothing. What I did get was a notice saying she was having issues and we needed to deal with them. If you remember I home schooled Delaney for a while. In prek she was doing Kindergarten work. In kindergarten she was doing 1st grade work. By the time I sent her off to school she was heading into 1st grade doing a 2nd grade level on work....for me. Now I am getting that she is having issues and is falling behind in 2nd grade. Why? I get a notice home saying she can't do XYZ but she does it for me at the table. She happily does homework. She loves workbooks and stories. I don't see an issue. Having another child with a learning disability I know to look for signs. I don't see them. I think it is more a teacher not willing to take advise and rethink on what she normally does. Perhaps a teacher already overworked in a class of 23 kids and little time to think out of the box for one. But I gave the teacher the benefit of the doubt and took Delaney to our tutor. She is a special education teacher and was Ryans tutor and guide through school. She tested Delaney and said....nothing wrong with this child other than a few bad habits in her reading she picked up from school. They have gone from phonics that I taught her to site words and so she is having issues with decoding and sounding out but nothing that a few sessions can't correct. I schedule lessons with her and she makes a note to the school and teacher for me.
The teacher, not liking that I would even begin to doubt her suggestions, has retaliated with daily notes scribbled all over Delaneys school work. Extra work sent home with more notes scribbled on it. Black sharpie marker notes all over her work that she did during the day. It is irritating me. I am gearing up to attack. Listen.....I have put three children through school. One with a learning disability. I have been here and done it. I have dealt with some of the worse teachers and some of the best and have a whole new perspective on tenure and overworked teachers and special education and the whole public education as a whole. And if I learned nothing in those first 12 years, it is that THEY work for me. THEY don't tell ME what to do. I tell them. They might teach but I am who makes the choices on what is really taught and done. I am not a sit at home and do whatever you want parent. I am involved. I read. I research. I find ways to make things work as I know not all children fall into a mold made by some school. And I do NOT take the easy road just to make life the of a teacher better and less stressful. Delaney is bright and eager to learn. She needs a teacher willing to help her grow. This teacher can either redirect under my suggestions and watch Delaney grow and achieve or she and I will have some issues before the end of school year comes. She might just want to put her black marker away too cause it is setting me up and she does not want to go there.
So life has been busy. Stressful. A little crazy. Maybe a bit grumpy. As it is, it has taken all morning just to write this. So I am off to change diapers and make lunches and read stories and do some tutoring of my own..........................
Megan is back to school. That is a plus. But she had issue with an online class that some idiot sitting at desk in some big office in NJ decided was needed. See they tried cramming a personal finance class into a 25 min opening slot in a school day. This is a online run program with no actual teacher. This, in itself, has been an issue. I think I saw red when I emailed her teacher for this class in the school about a concern and was told she really isn't the teacher. She just babysits. I have to contact the online supervisor who is the teacher. I do that and am told it isn't her job either and I have to call some 800 number of the people who made the program. Yeah. Well. Lets just say that didn't exactly go over very well with me and I rather exploded.....and sent a copy to every possible leader, teacher, principal, director and maybe even a few janitors in the school district on my thoughts of this. Yeah. It has been way fun. Megan goes back in school after being sick and it is final week. They won't let her take her final because.........#1 the site had been down for two weeks and she was behind #2 they don't have her logging in since Jan 8th and she can't do the final if she hasn't done the work. Only I personal KNOW she has been on cause Todd and I have been doing it! Yes. I just admitted to doing my childs homework! See this hour class turned into a 3-4 hour class....per day....5 days a week. It simply was not meant to be done in a 25min slot. So Todd and I have been on trying to keep her afloat as best as we could. Make a loooooong story short Todd got to go in and explode all over everyone. She was supposed to be allowed to finish the final. We are awaiting results on that.
Oh and next year this class will be a full slot class. WITH A TEACHER. Go figure. Sometimes a little bitching helps.
That brings me to cookie sales. Almost done. Yippie. We are currently at 350 boxes sold. I am rather done. Done. Done. And did I mention done? It was a lot of work that the weather has not been cooperating on. No fun lugging boxes of cookies in a wagon in snow, wind and 20 degrees. But we trudged on and are down to the last few boxes. However the leader has some left overs she is trying to push and so we are now doing yet another cookie booth to try and get rid of what cookies the troop have left. Yea (said in a weak and mildly under-excited voice)
I have been working on vacation bible school things. Its early, Kim, you say? Why, yes it is. But I am setting up my 1st meeting with teachers and have packs to make and copies to run and schedules to schedule and have been working on that too.
And scheduling vacation too. Its early for that too, Kim, you say? Why, yes, yes it is. But we have a group going and I have to get an idea on how much it will cost and so have been booking hotels and planning schedules for that as well.
Delaney birthday is coming up. She wanted a gym party again this year but when I went to book it a month and half ahead of time, I was told no room at the Inn. So we redirected and she is having a roller skating party. I have been looking for supplies and making favors and sending invites and making calls and ordering cakes. And just when I am almost done on party planning, Ryan asks for a party too. Ryan is going to be 20 two weeks after Delaney. And he wants a party. A soccer party. A soccer party with pizza and guests and the works. *sigh* Really?! I am debating between saying no out of exhaustion and um...dude your gonna be 20..... and yes out of quilt. I will have to get back to you on that one.
Add in some stress at Delaneys school. Lets see...where to begin......
Delaney is shy. She doesn't like to talk in class and doesn't like being wrong even more. She is a bit of a perfectionist and insanely in need of being right and not being laughed at. This is effecting her class work. She doesn't participate and only works in small groups. Odd for a child that I would say is about my most outgoing child of the three but she IS unique and is who she is. She is a little of Ryan who will focus on one thing till it is perfect and a little of Megan who also would not talk in a class.
What I am having issues with is her teacher who doesn't know how to work with her. Or doesn't want to. I told her to get her to do something...praise her. She will blossom. Nothing. I told her to get her to preform.....reward her. She will do whatever you want her to. Nothing. What I did get was a notice saying she was having issues and we needed to deal with them. If you remember I home schooled Delaney for a while. In prek she was doing Kindergarten work. In kindergarten she was doing 1st grade work. By the time I sent her off to school she was heading into 1st grade doing a 2nd grade level on work....for me. Now I am getting that she is having issues and is falling behind in 2nd grade. Why? I get a notice home saying she can't do XYZ but she does it for me at the table. She happily does homework. She loves workbooks and stories. I don't see an issue. Having another child with a learning disability I know to look for signs. I don't see them. I think it is more a teacher not willing to take advise and rethink on what she normally does. Perhaps a teacher already overworked in a class of 23 kids and little time to think out of the box for one. But I gave the teacher the benefit of the doubt and took Delaney to our tutor. She is a special education teacher and was Ryans tutor and guide through school. She tested Delaney and said....nothing wrong with this child other than a few bad habits in her reading she picked up from school. They have gone from phonics that I taught her to site words and so she is having issues with decoding and sounding out but nothing that a few sessions can't correct. I schedule lessons with her and she makes a note to the school and teacher for me.
The teacher, not liking that I would even begin to doubt her suggestions, has retaliated with daily notes scribbled all over Delaneys school work. Extra work sent home with more notes scribbled on it. Black sharpie marker notes all over her work that she did during the day. It is irritating me. I am gearing up to attack. Listen.....I have put three children through school. One with a learning disability. I have been here and done it. I have dealt with some of the worse teachers and some of the best and have a whole new perspective on tenure and overworked teachers and special education and the whole public education as a whole. And if I learned nothing in those first 12 years, it is that THEY work for me. THEY don't tell ME what to do. I tell them. They might teach but I am who makes the choices on what is really taught and done. I am not a sit at home and do whatever you want parent. I am involved. I read. I research. I find ways to make things work as I know not all children fall into a mold made by some school. And I do NOT take the easy road just to make life the of a teacher better and less stressful. Delaney is bright and eager to learn. She needs a teacher willing to help her grow. This teacher can either redirect under my suggestions and watch Delaney grow and achieve or she and I will have some issues before the end of school year comes. She might just want to put her black marker away too cause it is setting me up and she does not want to go there.
So life has been busy. Stressful. A little crazy. Maybe a bit grumpy. As it is, it has taken all morning just to write this. So I am off to change diapers and make lunches and read stories and do some tutoring of my own..........................
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Cough cough.....sneeze sneeze
This week has been busy. Not so much as with activities but more so with illness. You see...I have been fighting an uphill battle with all the germs going around lately. Stomach flu, virus', flu, pink eye, whooping cough, etc etc etc. I have a better understanding of all those service men on the home fronts. Oh I might not be fighting an army of men with guns but I AM fighting an army of germs coming in my door daily on the hands and mouths of little snotty nosed toddlers and school aged kids. I can lysol and purel till I am coughing up fresh linen and have hands dry enough to look like a desert. It doesn't stop it from invading once I have a sick child sitting in the middle of the playroom!
Oh how I long for the days of summer!
This week alone I had one stomach virus, one flu and one "I don't know what my child has cause I didn't take them to the dr but they are all better after pumping them with Tylenol and hoping no one notices".
I cringe at the sound of a sneeze!
Add in Megan was my 1st to come down sick. It wasn't contagious. She started out as a really bad allergy attack on and off over the last several weeks which turned into a sinus infection. I should have gone with my gut and made the dr appointment on Monday when she said her teeth hurt but I have been trying to encourage her to speak for herself rather than me doing it for her. She is, after all, 15.
By Wed. she was in full bloom and I made the appointment. She was given an antibiotic and sent on her way. By that night she was in pain. We started hot tea and Advil and allergy meds around the clock. Thurs she was home sick and unable to go to school. And by Thur night/Friday morning (cause nothing of course happens when the dr office is open!) we were on our way to the ER as she was starting to pass out when standing. We took the advise of a nurse friend of ours and gave her more Advil and iced her face which really helped.
Lesson learned....do not show up at the ER at 3am after Advil and ice and tell them that your pain level is a 1! They look at you like your insane and are disturbing their rest! But the ice helped and a pain level of 1 is what she proudly announced! I so need to have a talk with my daughter on her drama performance in times on need like that!!
They gave her a new antibiotic which in turn was the change of the world for her! By the time she woke she was feeling so much better. It still took her the rest of the weekend to feel slightly normal and is still dealing with the tail end effects of it all but overall she is doing so much better.
Goes to show you that lysol is not the cure-all for everything.
Wouldn't life be so much simpler if it was!? I could just spray down everyone from head to toe at the 1st sneeze and make it all go away! Life would be full of no germs and the lovely invigorating fresh smell of Linen!
Course we might have issues with asthma but that is another story...........
Oh how I long for the days of summer!
This week alone I had one stomach virus, one flu and one "I don't know what my child has cause I didn't take them to the dr but they are all better after pumping them with Tylenol and hoping no one notices".
I cringe at the sound of a sneeze!
Add in Megan was my 1st to come down sick. It wasn't contagious. She started out as a really bad allergy attack on and off over the last several weeks which turned into a sinus infection. I should have gone with my gut and made the dr appointment on Monday when she said her teeth hurt but I have been trying to encourage her to speak for herself rather than me doing it for her. She is, after all, 15.
By Wed. she was in full bloom and I made the appointment. She was given an antibiotic and sent on her way. By that night she was in pain. We started hot tea and Advil and allergy meds around the clock. Thurs she was home sick and unable to go to school. And by Thur night/Friday morning (cause nothing of course happens when the dr office is open!) we were on our way to the ER as she was starting to pass out when standing. We took the advise of a nurse friend of ours and gave her more Advil and iced her face which really helped.
Lesson learned....do not show up at the ER at 3am after Advil and ice and tell them that your pain level is a 1! They look at you like your insane and are disturbing their rest! But the ice helped and a pain level of 1 is what she proudly announced! I so need to have a talk with my daughter on her drama performance in times on need like that!!
They gave her a new antibiotic which in turn was the change of the world for her! By the time she woke she was feeling so much better. It still took her the rest of the weekend to feel slightly normal and is still dealing with the tail end effects of it all but overall she is doing so much better.
Goes to show you that lysol is not the cure-all for everything.
Wouldn't life be so much simpler if it was!? I could just spray down everyone from head to toe at the 1st sneeze and make it all go away! Life would be full of no germs and the lovely invigorating fresh smell of Linen!
Course we might have issues with asthma but that is another story...........
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