Let's play...

So I'd like to play a game. How about "Where's Waldo"


Can you find Waldo in this picture?


How about this one?

Now try this one... Gotcha!

(I think I just displayed a little too much of my demented sense of humor.)

I love this girl!

I love homeschooling Chloe. Despite the fact that we have not been so great with the schedule lately, we're really having a great time together. It's so much fun to be such an integral part of her learning experience. Chloe's reading has been great ever since we started, but reading for fun has, for the most part, been only preschool books or reading to her little brothers, Jadon in particular. I do love that she enjoys spending that time with JJ, but I so want her to enjoy reading for pleasure. Compounding her lack of pleasure with reading has been the headaches she seems to get from reading for long periods of time. Over the last few weeks, she has learned to recognize the onset of the headaches before they get too bad, and that has definitely helped her a lot. Yesterday, we picked these up to help with the headaches too. Aren't they sweet! Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that maybe neither of us was really doing a good job of picking out fun chapter books for her to read. So I spent about 1 and a half hours online, trying to come up with a reading list for her, mostly from Sonlight. She started with Felicity, from the American Girl series, and loved it. Anyone who knows my girl, knows that a good horse story can get her into anything.

From there I gave her a "Little House" book, written as an early reader. She actually threw a fit. So I told her she was to think of it as schoolwork if she had to. Apparently, despite my great pick with Felicity, my book judgement was not to be trusted. So, during our drive to Jadon's ENT, she read the first two chapters as required and then asked to read a "Little Critter" book. I proceeded to agree, but first ask a few questions about the book. After a couple of minutes a question stumped her. She had not gotten that far in the book yet. I asked didn't she want to find out. "No," she says, and puts the book down. She had barely picked up the other book, when she said, "Or maybe yes." That was it. She was hooked.

She finished the planned readers so quickly, that we had not made it back to the library for more yet. I had only intended read-alouds remaining. What else is a girl to do but try those too? So she finished The Boxcar Children in about 3 days. Now she's onto the real "Little House" books. I may have created a monster, but I love to see it!

Another bout with ear infections

As most of you know, Jadon and Micah have both had tubes in their ears at one time or another. Jadon had his put in about 18 months ago. The idea is that some kids' Eustachian tubes are not long enough or have enough to drain properly. A surgeon puts tubes into their eardrums to allow fluid to drain and prevent pressure from building and perforating the eardrum as well as minimizing the ability of bacteria to grow in the ear canal. They typically fall out as the child grows sometime between one and two years after placement.

Some kids respond so well, they never have another ear infection. My boys have not done quite that well, but when they go from constant ear infections with no relief to occasional ear infections that respond well to antibiotics, who can complain? However, about two months ago, Jadon came down with a raging ear infection that was unresponsive to antibiotics. We saw his ENT physician on Monday, and she confirmed my fear. One tube is out completely and the other is only partially in the eardrum, rendering it completely ineffective. So Jadon is going to have 2 new tubes put in a couple weeks from now, as well as having his adenoids removed.

I'm so thankful for the doctors that we have right now. His ENT works closely with an audiologist who sees each child with ear infections before and after surgery. Jadon's hearing is poor right now, which is to be expected and hopefully will be rectified by the surgery. But the audiologist always does a baseline reading and explains it thoroughly. That way, if we have concerns about his hearing sometime in the future, we can have a better idea of the reason for any hearing difficulties as well as whether we should expect improvement.

As I write this, I'm reminded of how blessed we are to have a pediatrician who has taken our concerns so seriously. Jadon had his tubes put in after 4 infections, rather than 13 that Micah had. The last 6 weeks or so of not feeling well, Jadon has remained a pretty happy, loving little guy, despite the pain he has had to be in. He'll probably have the infection right up until surgery, when they'll clean everything out. I can't stop thinking of how God has protected his hearing by providing such excellent physicians. Many times, kids with repeated unresolved ear infections wind up with scar tissue in their ears and resulting in hearing loss. Thankfully, that has not been the case for my boys. Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for surgery. It's not anything new to us, but that doesn't keep it from been a little unnerving.

We'll keep you posted.

Funny Guy

This cracks me up daily. At any given moment in our home, you should not be surprised to find Jadon like this. He loves to brush his teeth. Great thing for dental care. Not so great when he's literally running around with the toothbrush protruding from his mouth. But the kid just loves toothbrushes. He got a Lightning McQueen toothbrush for Christmas (it may have been his favorite gift) in the hopes that he would prefer that one over everyone else's. He generally doesn't care who's toothbrush he has in his mouth. Kinda gross. But funny just the same.

Life... at the moment

So the last couple of weeks have been rather crazy and full, so I'll just hit the bullet points.

• Kevin and Mark enlisted a friend of ours to help put in a new window in our basement. When I say help, I mean Justin did all the work while Kevin and Mark stood and watched.
• Chloe and I got really cute haircuts.
• Jody and I spent 4 or 5 days trading off babysitting for various errands.
• One of those babysitting tradeoffs was for a CT scan for Chloe's headaches. Scan was clear. Chloe's getting reading glasses. Hopefully, that will help.
• I celebrated my 28th birthday with a Pampered Chef party. Yum!
• Last weekend was the memorial for my Grandma. Despite the sad occasion, we had a good time with my Dad's family. My cousins are actually closer to my kids' ages than mine, so they had a lot of fun together.
• Chloe, Micah and Kevin went skiing with my Dad, the new ski instructor, last week.
• We had a really fun party with our small group Saturday night. (Another opportunity for Aunt Jody babysitting)

What can I say, life has been rather full. Some of those days were below zero temperatures, so the days we had to go out, we were bundled in full snow gear. But any day we could, we stayed huddled inside.

With all the busyness, school has been rather sporadic. Thankfully, Chloe and Micah do most of their lessons together, so make up time is quick. We've had a few days of 3 lessons in one. Speaking of which, we do need to get to work. So it's off to school for me!