Still trying homeschooling

I'm still plugging away at trying to homeschool  but she is definitely a challenge, I am having my own challenges of getting organized for it too, plus MIL has been here 5 weeks and totally thrown us off what little rythym we had, now D is watching way more TV than I'd like, and Isabella is not quite walking yet so its hard to handle her physically while trying to do stuff with Daniella so I'm kinda failing at it for now, I have 7 more weeks of MIL and I need to get something figured out soon. MIL has been great though, she does all our dishes and keeps the kitchen clean, so you'd think I have tons more time to do fun learning stuff with the girls, C has just started to get in to a good space neurologically so I think it will get better soon, hopefully before summer because all 3 littles home with me for 3 months we have to get more creative or I will lose my mind !! Last summer was great, although we were pretty much with out a vehicle I got through it. I think it will get better if we can move to a better neighborhood, and have a better living space for kids. We just ordered a subscription to a monthly kids craft box. So hopefully that will help jumpstart ideas! I am also hoping I start blogging more, I think this helps get my crazy thoughts more organized LOL ... I guess we will see!

My life is a Jason Mraz concert

This morning I've spent it listening to Jason Mraz. Love him! His music is so happy even when its not always about the greatest things in life. He has a way of lifting my spirit. My happy chaos life is every week some kind of roller coaster. Today is no exception. C had a seizure this morning then of course he was super crabby all morning (understandably so). After a nice bath he seems to be better. D has been off and on sick but she seems better I think its mostly the time change and weather changing. I'm still trying our homeschool preschool a little bit everyday. C is on spring break so its a little harder to fit it all in. Plus I am so excited my mother in law is coming over in 2 weeks to spend 3 months with us. She live in the UK currently so we havent seen her in years. It will be so nice to have the kids nana living with us. Plus she will be able to babysit which will help me and J get back to one on one time <3. So as you see, the day is full of fun and not so fun stuff. But overall I smile. Life is always good in some way.

 jasonmraz.com

Best Song & Video!!

Adventures in homeschooling and balance

Wow, I havent posted in awhile, but my lil sprite fairy D, decided it would be a fun experiment to spill milk out of her mouth on to my laptop keyboard! So I had to wait a while before we could buy another. I have started to explore homeschooling, and we are trying to focus on a homeschool program based on learning the nature and the natural rhythms of the home. I really really like the program but I'm struggling to find the balance in using nature to learn and our need of electronics in our home. We are very mindful of the TV the kids do watch, but at the same time I feel guilty for them watching. I think my struggle comes from the fact that we have C with his complex physical needs I cant always be fully engaged with D all day long, in fact I cant always be in the same room with her and she is still at that age where her curiousity over comes her and all sense of 'this might not be a good idea' goes out the window. So I'm working on balance, making sure when I have the opportunity the TV is OFF the majority of the day and her and I are side by side engaged and mindful of everything we do. I do also struggle with the fact that C needs the cause and effect toys and videos to get his playing done, he cannot handle the sensory effects of paper, crayons, sand, grass, flowers, dirt, etc. So I have to find alternatives things he can put in his mouth or be engaged in visually but not hands on. We are so lucky to have the ipad and the many wonderful apps that can accompany us moving in to a more nature based, mindful lifestyle. It's not perfect, I find some days our lives revolve around staying inside and I'm busy with things the kids cant participate in, we will get there, I have several role models to help.

I've also chosen to homeschool because I've been learning how kids best learn, and how the schools seem to be very counter intuitive to this process. Hours of homework in Kindergarten and Elementary school, Expecting preschoolers and kinder kids to learn to read and do math; which I KNOW I didnt have to learn to do math until first grade, the only math I learned in kinder was to count to 100. I really cant see how putting so much pressure on young children is a good thing. I know if our homeschooling doesnt work out, I will be trying my hardest to get the girls in to a montessori program, I wish there was a waldorf school in town too but I know the montessori school program would suit Daniella really well. For now I will try my hardest at home to nuture a love of nature and the miracles of mother earth <3

Mondays

I normally like mondays, it's when my oldest goes to school and i just have the two girls during the day. But today I am dragging so much, the coffee's not working, my toddler was up until 1am which felt like 2 because of the time change, mr. C got sick in the middle of the night so I had to clean him up and his bed luckily he went back to sleep and woke up fine for school. Baby is still teething which feels like has been going on 10 yrs! And today I still need to clean up Mr. C's bedroom, the playroom, make some appts, and sweep the floor in between keeping the girls out of trouble and hopefully keeping them from screaming their heads off all day over various things. So this monday is in no way a good day, but I am now playing catch with Ms. D whether I like it or not as I just got a soccerball to my head while she was yelling  'CATCH' her new favorite word!!

Playtime and meditation in Fall

So it's fall and in Texas that means it's outside weather! We are not living in a gigantic oven anymore, there is coolness to the air and the ever present sun is still shining everyday. I love it. This is why I moved here 5.5 yrs ago. Now we can talk walks outside with out heat exhaustion! I've been feeling kind of weird through this transistion of season, very disconnected but yearning to be grounded again. It all and always comes down to the distractions we have. We have so many computers and gadgets and tv's it's so easy for us to be doing 10 things at once. Dont get me wrong, I love my Facebook. It keeps me connected to all the other families out there with a child with Angelman Syndrome. They are my support group and my family. But I need to keep perspective and I dont need to be checking every second of the day if they have posted updates. This time of year I start to feel the desire to be more connected to our earth, maybe since I was born in October. so now instead of watching TV when the girls are napping, I will meditate, listen to wind in the trees, the cars going down the street, the creak of our house settling in for the cold weather.

Being a mother up to this time has been fantastic and continues to be. D is almost potty trained, I is learning to crawl, sit up and eat baby food, and C is his happy crazy self as always. I am constantly challenged by them to do better and learn more. It's so weird how this life that I've had continues to be so hard yet so fulfilling at the same time.

Life gets so crazy for us sometimes. Hubby has been self-employed since I met him. This kind of employment is not easy and not for everyone. You have to be resourceful. Money does not always come in regular intervals like for employees of a business. You have to wait for money, or you gets tons of it in one big bunch but then you dont always know when the next bunch is coming. This lifestyle has made me resourceful to say the least, I know how to stretch a dollar, and we know how to budget to big bunches to make it last until the next. It has also taught me what's really important. Some people seem to think it's better for a family to have steady money coming in and more money than you may need. Although it does make life easier to have more money, I dont think it makes it better. Life should be great with or with out lots of money. I definitely appreciate having money and lots of stuff to buy. In fact I love shopping, going to store and buying fun stuff to bring home. But I know for sure my families happiness has nothing to do with whether we can buy stuff or not. I actually really love this. I hope my kids see how we are living our dreams and always make the best of whatever our situation is. I hope they never see us stress over money, and they see us work hard for everything we have. I know they will never see my husband and I fight over money. I know we do get stressed from it here and there but there is never a doubt we will be ok. And I hope my kids grow up knowing if they follow their dreams they can make any situation happy.

Saturday's .....

Today was a fabulous Saturday, apart from missing hub who was at the office. I was able to work on getting creative with the kids. I always remember back in the day when I was  a kid, my mom would always plan all these crafts for us to do; paper mache, collages, painting, etc. Our house was full of paint, construction paper. I love it! Well, as a mother, I have had a hard time getting into it.

In theory Arts & Crafts sounds fun and fabulous. Classic mommy stuff. But when your dealing with my oldest, he LOVES to make messes and eat ANYTHING. Not good for me. Stresses me out. and I have to get over that. I do. So I did! Today I made a whole  bunch of edible playdoh/slimy doughy mess!! It turned out to be so much fun! I covered C's wheelchair in an old sheet and he went to town! Mostly eating it, and D thought it was funny but she didnt want to really squish it, but when I put down a whole pile of flour she had no problem making a mess with that! It was so fun and cute! Then I took some of it and made patty's that I squished the kids hands in to make ornaments for grandparents. I cant wait for more fun stuff!

potty training and procrastinating.....

So now that C is back to school, I have been trying to get D potty trained, I need her in pre-school ASAP, both for her and me, I've also (like my previous post states) been trying to stay off the computer. Well 2 days ago I got a crazy virus on my laptop and its now in laptop ICU hopefully in recovery - no word yet from the laptop doc. So then I thought well that's the universe helping me out with my cause... NO it is not. I'm married to an extremely techie person, who runs his own business, so we have tons of computers; one in his office, one in his home office, one on the dining room table, an ipad, itouch, of course my iphone; and that's not with my laptop in service so I'm always plugged in, its a blessing and a curse! yesterday I was semi successful with staying off comp. I still didnt get dishes done 100% (stupid dishes) half my laundry is all over my floor, and I didnt do ANY POTTY TRAINING!! I suck at this housewife stuff sometimes which I think is a key ingrediant to my happy chaos life. I procrastinate. ALOT! Dont get me wrong, I love my job, I take my job seriously. Being a homemaker is my career, but as a former retail manager, I think I should be written up sometimes!! So daily I tell myself today I'm going to do better, I need to! My dear Husband works a lot, he is living his dream, being his own boss, and doing what he loves... geeky techie things. And I should be doing mine by taking care of the kids and not playing the Sims on FB (which is super fun BTW!) ... quick pause... my daughter is currently perfecting her bottom streaking skills..... ok pants back on D..... back to what I was saying. I need to try harder. So today I did get her on the potty and we went #1!!!! yay!!! now let's see if I can manage to have the kitchen semi clean before C comes home for a LONG weekend... doubt it... I just hate dishes... and my sim needs a shower.... maybe I do to... Happy Labor day Weekend!