Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what I was thinking when I signed Girly up to try out for a travel soccer team. Truly–I never thought she’d get on one. And if that’s the case, why have her try out?
I’m certain all of this is the reason she got accepted. Oh shit…
Continue reading #soccermom-ing is about to get REEEEAAALLLL
That’s right, y’all. All of our horribly unsocialized homeschoolers won the Spirit Award for the STATE level Science Olympiad this time–beating out 48 other middle schools (since the spirit award was giving to one team across both Class A and Class AA) in displaying exemplary sportsmanship… OUR FIRST YEAR THERE!
And thank GAWD because it saved us from BigGuy insisting we leave the whole shindig…
This weekend, I feel like the torch was officially passed to my husband on the Scouting front. He and BigGuy left early Saturday morning for the first of what will be many Scout camping outings. This one was very short, but they banged out all of the requirements to get him his “Scout” badge (the very first rank in Boy Scouts).
That, however, left Girly and I on our own…
So, the topic of orphanages comes up in the context of talking about a new family I met whose daughter was adopted from an orphanage in Guatemala just before Guatemala closed to adoptions. Our family has been foster parents (before Girly could remember) and one of our former foster children wound up in a group home–which is a special kind of uncomfortable for me. Our kids have a fairly accurate idea of how “the system” works, and this conversation was to clarify the difference between orphanages, group homes, and what becomes of the children in each…
This is not a proud day for Mama, and that’s okay with me. We all have those days. Those days where our parenting behavior is just not stellar or admirable or what we aspire to in any way.
That being said, having one of those days every once in a while (usually) doesn’t end up harming anyone; and sometimes–it even provokes some change in the people around you. Time will tell if that is the result of today’s experiences, but a mama can hope… Continue reading This is what a bad day looks like
Girly is neurotypical. In the world of special needs, this is abbreviated as “NT”. It means that there has been no significant concern or disruption in her development. That is not BigGuy’s history. As a result, we are often pretty taken with some of the things that “just happen” with Girly because it wasn’t our experience with BigGuy.
Continue reading It’s weird to have a neurotypical (NT) kid sometimes
Back in the spring, after years of dietary interventions and ruling out other things that can look like ADD/ADHD and lots of struggling with what looked like a VERY bright but unmotivated kid, BigGuy had a huge battery of psychological testing done so we had a better clue of what he was capable of. These included the Connor’s Test–which is supposed to be an objective way to determine whether a child has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). BigGuy’s results weren’t even borderline–he clearly did NOT have an attention disorder.
The psychologist that did all the testing was as surprised as we were given what he observed during the testing. None the less, BigGuy was clearly able to focus when he needed to. The psychologist said that BigGuy’s problem was actually impulse control. All I could think of was “Isn’t it an attention problem if you can’t control your impulses?!?!?”
Continue reading It’s not attention deficit, it’s impulse control
It’s been a less productive time lately. I have a very hard time with the shortening of the days. No amount of vitamin D or special lighting has ever provoked a response in my body. Even magnesium supplements have not helped (there is a contingent that yells loudly about the need for magnesium to help with vitamin D absorption). So things have gotten slow… and moved to the big bed.
It’s been quite a week. Mama is starting to get her footing and get back to engaging better with the small people. Engagement. That’s what I’m going for here. It’s hard. I have horrible Seasonal Affect Disorder and am truly thankful that we spent our emergency funds on a skylight in the master bedroom. So the last few weeks have been very sluggish and mama hasn’t been very engaged. I think I didn’t really realize what was happening, either. My semester in review post made me think about it. Continue reading Real understanding
And so comes the time to look back at the last few months and assess what has worked, what hasn’t worked, what to change and what to keep. I probably wouldn’t be doing this except that we tried to make a monumental change and I’m not sure we’ve managed it well. In my former career, “continuous process improvement” was actually part of one of my job titles. It’s something I fully embrace.
So let’s review… Continue reading The semester in review…
Educated Adventures 