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Birthday Party Fun

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My niece had a birthday this weekend so it is a perfect opportunity to travel to see my family.  Birthday’s are always special and fun to observe.  Even more fun when the birthday girl is a smiley, loving now 5 year old little girl.  Little Nora Mae is just a doll and I feel very honored to be her auntie Sara.  

We left to travel to the other side of the state.  I never thought going to the cities would be such a trek.  Now living 3 hours west of the cities it is an event to see large building and multi-lanes of traffic.  Growing up I could get to St Paul in under 20 minutes now it is like traveling to another world.  I love both places where we live, and the cities.  I love the cities for the hustle and bustle.  The variety of things to do and see and experience.  Everytime we enter the cities I feel this twinge of I wish we still lived here.  The kids eyes are always huge with everything from lights, buildings, cars on both sides of us and the list goes on and on.  The kids are rural and they are raised that way.  We live in a small town and by the end of a couple days in the urban setting we are ready to come home. There is something I love about a small town where you know everyone and they know you.  You wave to a passing car, you run into your friends at the drugstore or grocery store.  School is a smaller setting and the kids know everyone in their class and it just is a great place to grow up.  I guess there are pro’s and con’s to each so I am lucky that I have family living in the one so we have a good excuse to experience both.  

We took advantage of being in a metro area and did a little shopping and out for a meal.  Need to pick a restaurant we don’t have near home, and of course visiting with family and a birthday party.  

I don’t get to see my niece and nephew enough so every time I see them they are a little taller and a little more fun.  The kids had so much fun playing and chasing each other and spilling 2000 legos onto the floor.  They laughed and hugged and talked how they loved each other it was sweet and fun to see.  

The adults we had fun also.  My sister is a great hostess, she has a knack to entertain and she does it well.  My brother in law is a great guy, great sense of humor and a great host.  He hooked me up with his private stash of Captain Morgans and an Alabama Slammer drink he had made.  Just took a little bit of the shyness out of me and I was able to laugh and joke with my sister and her friends.  I was thinking later about my sister and her friends I remember when they were little jr high girls and so annoying to be around and now we are all mom’s and more on that level playing field when age no longer matters.  So instead of watching my sister and her friend perform dances to Hanson in my dorm room, I get to watch them be silly interacting with their kids. 

A fun weekend away, a time of family and friends, a time to celebrate birth.  Hope you all had some joy in your weekend.  

Valentines Week

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It is fast approaching the day where we will all see pink and red hearts painted across the sky.  Well maybe that is a little dramatic but it seems like it.  I don’t know why but I have never been the lover of this day on the 14th of February.  I think I did as a child making a card box and having our party and passing out the little valentines to each of our classmates was fun but as I grew older the excitement fizzled.  Now I have loves of my life.  I love my husband and I adore my children but I think I can say and express I love you everyday with them.  I don’t need a special day to show them I love them. 

I have a fond memory of Valentines day when in college.  I was away to college in New Mexico and a couple friends and I decided to take a day and make homemade cards for our families and loved ones.  That was so fun we made hearts and took paper lace and made stacks of cards.  This is what the day should be to us every year in my opinion.  A want to show love and affection, not a deadline to get your card and buy buy buy and get caught up in the consumerism of the world.  I made cards for whom I loved.  Maybe my dislike started during the 10 years I worked at a prison.  Do you know how much mail can come through a maximum security prison at Valentines day….LOTS.  The girlfriends send those big cards, you know the ones that are as large a a child.  Then they proceed to pour an entire bottle of perfume on the card and send it in with the pictures no one should be taking to their man.  I am sorry that again wrong meaning of Valentines day. 

My husband and I already told each other that we love each other and there will be no gift buying this year.  With a totaled car last week and some health challenges in the last year we have expressed we are here for the other person and will continue to be there for them.  Our children yes- I will probably get them some candy and a card.  It is fun for them on this day but I hope they know everyday I am proud of them and love them to the moon and back. 

So we still need to make a valentine box for our son to take to school.  He wants one to look like a welder.  We need to get the cards and have him write his name on them.  That will be enough tears to last me a month, he is already whining about writing his name.  My daughter is just having a movie party without the cards.  It just cuts down on the drama in the class, I can see that. 

So Happy Valentines Week to you all.  I hope you have a wonderful day that you can tell people you love that you love and appreciate all they do in your life.  I will continue to kiss my kids goodnight and when I take my kids to school I always tell Greta I love her and Henry and I do the ASL sign for I love you to each other.  It is just our thing. 

Those that don’t have that significant other make sure you tell a co-worker, a parent, a friend or the cashier at the coffee shop that you thank them for being special in your life.  That is what the day means to me, a reminder that we are loved and we are called to love each other. 

Small Victories

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When you have a child that has SPD, Sensory Processing Disorder, you learn to look at the world a different way.  My son Henry has SPD.  We are making great strides in some areas, and there are other areas which are a battle for him which makes a battle for the family.  

To have a child that screams like he is getting beat when water from a shower or the wind hits him in the face.  These are two things that hurt him physically to the core.  I get frustrated over this water thing.  Here is my son that will jump off the diving board with no assistance in 9 feet of water over and over and over but hearing the shower running brings on a full panic attack with hives.  Food is our big stumbling block in our home.  Everything is yucky, everything smells yucky and most of the times my son won’t even be in the kitchen with us when we eat.  I feel so bad for him and I know the smell of bread, or a roast makes him feel physically ill.  Taco’s are his favorite all around.  He loves taco meat and he loves salsa will eat it by the gallon.  Taco night is a great night in our house.  No gagging and no crying.  My son also craves sensory input.  What is that you ask? He will bounce of the couch, crash into walls, crash into me- anything to get that deep pressure input his body is craving.  He loves to spin and spin and spin till his poor mother is feeling like she just got off a tilt a whirl ride.  He will hit his forehead with his hand, or a toy, or even his taekwondo belt.  He is craving that pressure.  

With the sensory challenges we have in our home last night was a night of small victories.  It was just Henry and mom last night and his hair was getting a little unruly.  It actually looked like he was growing horns on the top of his head.  Not a good look.  Now cutting hair is on the same order as a shower.  We really can’t go to a shop to have it done it takes to many people to calm him down and it is just to much on my nerves also.  So I cut his hair at home.  This is usually my husband holding Henry and Greta trying to calm him down as I quickly use the clippers to cut his hair.  Last night I got the crazy idea I would do this alone.  So Henry agreed and he sat so good and he listened to Frozen music on his iPod.  He did WONDERFUL.  His haircut looks good and there wasn’t one tear shed by either of us!!!  I then explained I needed to get the hair off his neck and back but I would have him stand in the tub and I would just pour the water on him.  That got a few tears while doing it but no major meltdown.  We ended up celebrating by a great big bubble bath with Frozen music blaring through the house.  He was happy, clean and a new haircut.  Now that is major success in my book. 

When you have a child that looks at the world through different eyes you need to train your brain and eyes to look to see things a little different also.  It might not make sense to you, a neighbor or the woman casting a frown your way at the store but it is your boy and you will protect him and nurture him anyway you know how.  

A day to forget

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Yesterday is a day I would really like to forget.  It started like any ordinary day but by 8am it was drastically different.  I dropped the kids off at school got all of 3 blocks or so and I came up to an intersection in town.  It is an ordinary intersection no stop signs, no yield signs you just need to be watching and aware.  I was approaching the intersection when I saw another vehicle just starting to go through.  I applied the brakes like I always would but I wasn’t slowing down.  I was on pure ice I then slammed the brake nope it wasn’t going to help.  I ended up crashing into the back wheel and door of this poor lady in her vehicle.  I then spun and landed in a waist high snow bank.

I ended up hitting my head pretty bad on what I am not sure.  I don’t know if it was the steering wheel, the windshield or the visor which was down at this point.  This was the first accident of any kind I have ever been in and I was terrified and my head was swelling.  Luckily the individual following me was on the ambulance crew and he called it in right away and was able to tend to both drivers.  I was only met with kindness and concern by the town police officer, the county sheriff and the ambulance crew.  I had to go to the ambulance to get checked out that was another new experience.  I was scared in the ambulance because I had a hard time hearing anything they were saying to me.  Yes I am hard of hearing but this was different it was very muffled much more than normal.  When I told them they thought because of the blow to my head and my blood pressure was very high.  There was so many things running through my head.  How is the car, will they get a hold of my husband, what is wrong with my head, will my hearing come back at least to the level it was at?

I ended up going to the hospital where again everyone was so nice.  Once my blood pressure started to go down and I felt more calm my hearing ended up going back to the level I was used to.  My husband made it, my car was towed my questions were being answered.  Luckily no concussion but a good goose egg and it is day 2 now and it is SO tender to the touch.

The outpouring of love and concern has humbled me.  From calls from my mom and mother in law, texts from friends, and messages on social media.  I sure felt and feel loved.  A friend was over within an hour to check on me and she checked on me last night also.  A friend brought us lunch today just so nice.  A call came from New York and Illinois when friends there had heard. Thank you to everyone.

I still am worried about my wonderful vehicle.  I don’t know what will happen with it till next week.  It is a day I hope to forget but I am afraid I won’t

A warm memory

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This cold weather makes me want to think warm thoughts.  My brain has been taking trips in the way way back machine lately.  Twenty one short years ago this month I took a trip of a life time.  It was a trip I could only imagine and a trip that I never want to leave my mind.  I was a shy 10th grader that had a real problem talking to anyone and here I take a two week trip to Jamaica with a bunch of strangers besides my dad.  This was a two week trip that opened my eyes to the beauty of the earth, love of God, and kindness of strangers.  

January 2nd we flew from cold Minnesota to Jamaica.  It was gorgeous, I couldn’t get over the color of the ocean.  It was the most mesmerizing blues and aquas.  I got to experience this close up a couple times with swimming and a glass bottom boat ride.  We were picked up by our driver for the time we were there.  He simply went by Johnny Walker and became a dear friend.  We traveled to Brownstown Jamaica which was a small town about in the middle of the island. Think mountains, hills and lush greenery every where you looked.  We stayed at a school where we would be helping build housing for future teachers of the school.  

Oh there is so much I could tell you about the kids, which were adorable, to the food and the poverty we saw.  It all affected me greatly and made me the person I am today.  Seeing these kids who are living in tin shacks come to school in the cleanest most pressed clothes made a big impression on me.  There are kids now that have everything given to them and they come to school looking like they just rolled out of bed.  The pride to be able to attend a school just isn’t there.  It is a privilege we take for granted there they did not.  The children have to pay for their books, uniforms, and lunch.  There is no free education there.  We got to help build this building, but what touched me more were attending some of the classes and morning devotions of this school.  They would pray and sing praises to God each morning before school.  The respect they had for the teachers and staff was unbelievable just something I don’t see enough working at the school.  

Like I said before there is so much I could say but there are two short stories I would like to share about this time of my life.  First is fun.  I was a very shy child and adult.  I didn’t assert myself much and if my friends said they did or didn’t want to do something that is what I did.  Well I missed out a lot in school because of that.  In Jamaica an amazing young man who was studying to be a doctor invited me to go out with him one night in town.  My dad said yes and I wanted to go.  We went to the local roller rink.  How fun skating in an open air rink with Marley vibrating through the air.  The reggae music got in my blood that trip.  It just slows your body down and you can enjoy each note as the music swirls in the air and surrounds you.  There were some funny songs also like Whitney Huston put to reggae, just didn’t sound right to me.  It was a night with a new friend and a time to let go of some of that inhibition and just be and have fun.  I could smile, not care about what others were thinking it was a night to truly remember.  

My other story was one that was rather scary to me.  We slept all in one large room and my dad gave me silicone earplugs to wear for the snoring.  I could never stand that sound still can’t.  Well a stupid little thing like an earplug really messed me up.  It ended up getting pushed in and lodged next to my eardrum.  I tried and tried to get that sucker out but it just wouldn’t budge.  My dad tried a tweezer but it just broke apart but the main part was staying in.  I went to the local doctor they tried no success, then to the missionary doctor from England.  She tried flushing it out nope it was there to stay.  Now everyone was worried about traveling and air pressure not sure what to do.  Well we come back to Johnny Walker our driver.  He offered to drive me to a hospital some distance away to try and see if they could get this out.  I was scared.  My dad was scared of how much was a hospital going to charge an American.  We got to the hospital and this is a scene I will never get out of my head.  The waiting room was outside on the grass and the sign above the door said Operating Theatre.  There was a young girl waiting that had an obvious broken arm she had to be in such pain.  They took me in first because I was an American.  That still guilts me to this day.  I had a doctor that was from another country don’t remember where.  He ended up cutting my ear canal and getting in under the ear plug and pushing it out from behind the plug.  He had to cut my ear canal and ear drum in the process but he did it.  That is the ear with the most scarring and damage today.  When my dad asked how much he just responded please pray for our hospital and that is all.  I still do, I pray for that operating theatre all the time.  I pray for that little girl who is now about 30 years old now that she is ok.  The smell and look of that hospital is in my brain forever.  It was a large ward with beds down each wall with green peeling paint.  It is somewhere I would never want to go back to.  

That trip 21 years ago it changed me.  It made me see that I had a little more self worth then I ever thought.  It made me appreciate how much I had even though to US standards we didn’t have a lot.  It mostly strengthened my love in Christ and to see what people he put in our path and how we went there to help this town and what they did was help me.  

Brownstown Jamaica forever is dear in my heart and it is as fresh in my mind as it was 21 years ago.  Sometimes you have to use that way way back machine in your brain to find a warm memory.  

WINTER poem

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W-wind whipping from the west. Howling like a train and shaking the walls of the house. 

I– ice coating the streets and sidewalks. Ice painting designs on my windows. 

N– nose and toes frozen in our boots. Can I feel my ears or fingers nope.

T– trees swaying from side to side in the frozen wind.  Just about hitting the door wanting to be let in. 

E- everything white and coated. Looks like frosting on a cake over everything

R- ready to run far away. Away where the sun is shining and we can feel the warmth

My ADD Mind

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Image                                              It is another snow day out here on the prairies of Minnesota.  When I was young if we had a snow day it was like hell had froze over.  My school district did not close for anything.  If we did end up with a snow day the joke was that the superintendent’s garage door was froze shut.  Out here going on our 7th year I have learned if there is wind you are stuck.  The drift that form on the roads are just huge and make it impassable.  My kids will be raised with this weather so I hope they learn to respect it and know its power.  

When we have a day with the kids home I swear my mind turns to ADD brain.  It jumps from one topic to another and I don’t know if anything really gets down in a full manner since I am already on the next task or activity.  We did clean up the clutter that was around.  I vacuumed and got the few dishes done that were in the sink.  Boy I would like a dishwasher someday.  I cooked up some italian sausage and have that in the slow cooker with some of my home canned sauce.  Just jumping from one task to another not really taking the full time on one task that it deserves.  My mind drifts in thinking also of past events and future events.  Problems of the day and praises of the past.  A day like today is a good one for music.  I love my Pandora radio.  I have many stations set up but days like today I am partial to Rusted Root, makes me think of warmer temps. I also am enjoying Indigo Girls, Eva Cassidy, and some Paul Simon, and some smattering of Pearl Jam.  My music choices vary so much but today these are what are making me happy. My iPod is plugged into my speaker and they are going strong and loud.  

Music brings me all over my mind. It will bring back a memory for high school and college.  It will bring back a memory of a trip I may have taken or a special friend that has crossed my path.  I wonder what is the music of my future will be? Will it still be these groups I enjoy to listen on a day like today or will it be other groups and song?.  What will be the problems of the future and the praises of the past?  Music is really a journey into a soul.  Sure seems like that today.  I love hearing the music, the melody to the bass line.  So on my ADD brain I had to share this week.  I find myself testing my hearing all the time. She the transition- music, hearing.  I may notice I can’t hear the TV and radio at the volume I could before.  So I knew the UPS truck would be coming a couple days ago and I was going to really test myself if I could tell when he came.  I have a loss at low frequencies and I think that affects me hearing the truck pull up.  I was sitting no more then 2 feet from the door and I was thinking I am going to really listen for that truck should be coming soon.  At that moment there was a pounding at the door just 24 inches from me.  It happened to be the UPS guy.  Guess I failed that test and didn’t hear the truck.  Oh well I will just enjoy my music at this time and not be concerned I am at the top of the volume range.  

Well I better try to get to some of the more not so fun tasks I have on my list complete.  I would really like to go through the kids clothes and try to organize that mess.  Enjoy your day!!

What’s your mountain

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My boys, husband and son, went out ice fishing this morning.  What a glorious day today.  Not a cloud in the sky and no wind and 42 degrees.  Now for Minnesota standards that is a regular heat wave where coats, hats and mittens will stay in the car.  Greta and I made our way to church this morning.  I heard a wonderful message that I think can be applicable to all of us in some part of our life.  

What Is Our Mountain or our Giant??  

We all have obstacles in this life.  If you don’t have something that is testing us I believe your head is in the sand and not looking at life head on.  We may have trouble in relationships, financial, health, children, jobs…the list is endless.  These are our Mountains or Giants in life.  David faced Goliath that was his literal giant.  He kept his eyes on God and he was able to defeat that giant right between his eyes.  We have a God that will help us through all these trials of life.  He holds our hand or he holds us if we need the support.  He will help us pass threw these mountain passes and by these Giant armies that look like they are out for us.  We need to keep our eyes on Christ and not the trials that life throw at us.  God will reach out grab our hand and lead us threw this thing called life.  

I have learned numerous times in life that sometimes it takes falling to your knees and remembering that we aren’t in this alone and we need reinforcement to help.  I need help with my marriage, children, job, health and all of life.  I don’t have the answers.  

I pray I can keep my eye on God and reach my hand out and ask for help.  That is the way I will defeat my giant and cross my mountain.  

I hope you all can start this week with peace and knowledge that we have an Awesome God and he Reigns from Heaven to Earth.  

Thoughts from a mom on a Snow Day

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Today started out with a 2 hour late start for school that soon changed to closed.  When you have a day planned and two hyper kids who are on the verge of killing each other it just crushes you.  Yes I love my kids and I would hate for them to go outside in the blizzard we are having but when your day gets turned upside down it just changes your mood.

I had a meeting scheduled today with the State office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing.  I was hoping to get some questions answered and find out where some of the resources are located in our part of the state.  I read about all these classes and other things I would be interested in and they are 3 hours away from us.  Not very practical.  Would be nice to know what our region of the state has.  When I found out school was cancelled it was NOOOO I don’t want to do this meeting with kids there.  Meeting got cancelled hopefully will be rescheduled soon. A little relieved- didn’t want to do this with the children.

I was going to clean my floors this morning but instead I have blankets down on the floor and it is either a TaeKwonDo sparring match, or a WWW match, or cage fighting or some variation of this.  The kids are determined to harm one another today.  It must be the change in the weather.  The wind is sounding like a freight train and it is doing odd things to the children’s brains.  They are wild!!!!!

I made some soup for dinner and cleaned a few things up today but I am thinking I am done for today.  I need to act as referee today and maybe a quiet movie later will be the magic pill.

The kids and I have been practicing our ASL.  So now the kids are using the signs they know to insult each other.  I tell you the day is one long fight fest.  Henry’s big way to bug Greta now is to sign “Beautiful Henry” and then “Boring Greta”  Greta then does some insults back to him and it goes and goes until one starts crying or tattles.  At least they are learning ASL even if it is for taunting.  That is good right?

Well good luck for anyone who is stuck in a blizzard.  I hope my husband makes his 1 mile drive home ok tonight.  I think we will all be staying home tonight. Now to go keep the peace and let my daughter know that she is “Beautiful Greta.”  Maybe we should look up some uplifting signs today.

Have a good day everyone.