I love the Beatles song, "O Bla Di, O Bla Da". I think it's the happiest, most cheerful song ever sung. If I weren't afraid of shocking my more conservative friends, I would have it playing on my blog for you to listen to while you read about our life here on Raley Family's Farm. After all, what could be more cheerful than a song that sings about being "happy ever after" with a "couple of kids playing in the yard"? o bla di, o bla da, life goes on, brah! plays in my head quite often. It helps me keep a perspective on the sometimes chaotic happenings around here.
So this morning finds me sitting at my computer while Beau and Mary Susannah are off to church. Angel-Leah was pretty sick yesterday. Her health is fragile at best, she's prone to catching things, and when she does, she goes down with a bang. Her temp was around 104 all day yesterday. And since son Gage is due to come home to take the bar exam this week, and in fact, is going to arrive TODAY, I was quite stressed over the whole thing. I wanted to see him so bad, but there was no way we could expose him to the flu during one of the more crucial weeks of his life. We waited to see if Angel-Leah would recover in time for him to stay with us, or if he would have to go on to the hotel he already had booked in Dallas for the rest of the week. Waking up at six this morning to her throwing up didn't bode well... We cleaned it up and got her in a cool tub. She got out of the tub with a normal temperature, and now, at nearly ten o'clock, she is feeling well enough to be outside!
Whew!!!
So, with that cheerful thought, and the day looking up, I will now post a much requested picture:
Angel-Leah, in full dress up mode. Drum roll, please!
She does make life interesting, anyway...
I recently read a book called "The Explosive Child" to try and help me make sense of Tommy's rages, and to maybe provide some insight into how he is feeling. One thing the book said was that children who tend to do this usually have delayed language skills. Tommy does fall into that category. I hadn't done anything yet, because I enjoy the way he talks. It's really cute. There's the pirate talk, which means a lot of his words have "ar", almost like a pirate says "argh!" "There" is pronounced "thar". "Here" is pronounce "har". Recently, when he was mad at Luke, he was telling me Luke had bopped him on the head. He said with great distress, "He alway do's that, and you don't even car!" I assured him that I did "car", in fact, I car'd very much, and I demanded that Luke not bop his head anymore.
He also starts most his words with "L". This week, he stepped on something outside and came in with a bleeding foot. We don't immunize our children, although I'm not against tetanus shots if they are needed. However, CPS DOES believe in shots, and Tommy was required to get them until I got him adopted. I was just a bit relieved, I admit, that we didn't have to make a trip to the ER, stand before a doctor who doesn't approve of the fact we didn't do shots, and make Tommy get a tetanus on top of being hurt. Instead, we soaked the foot in salt water and tea tree oil:
He was very sad as you can see, as he sat with his foot in the water and a bullet shell in his hand...
As I questioned him about what he had done, he kept insisting he had NOT stepped on a nail, he had
"leppt on uh loo." He was quite frustrated with me because it took me a while to finally catch that he had "stepped on a screw." Oh, well, the treatment was the same...
As I mulled over all this, I just happened to run into my friend Patty, who runs the day care center here in our small town, and is a fellow foster/adopt mom. Somehow, the conversation turned just right, and she gave me the name of a speech therapist she uses who will actually come to your house to give speech therapy. Patty's gushing about how great she was was only slightly more important than the words I was stuck on: she will come to my house!?!? Visions of having to take Tommy to a public school, or haul everyone off to Fort Worth several times a month vanished, and I eagerly took the lady's phone number.
She has now been called, and we are making arrangements for her to come (TO MY HOUSE!!) and work with Tommy.
This is a big step out of the comfort zone for this out of the mainstream, homeschooling mommy. But doing the out of the comfort zone stuff in my own house will help so much, and I hope make it easier for Tommy, who doesn't like people he doesn't know talking to him.
One more thing that has happened in our house is that Mary Susannah is finding her stride. She is in her mid teens now, and has the antsyness of any teen who wants to go and be doing exciting things all the time. I keep telling her she must learn to be content at home, because that is where God calls women to be. I turned the kitchen over to her, and she has done wonders! Everything she does is pretty, including making an outdoor picnic for the kids on a day when a lot was going on in my life:
They loved it, of course. I would have just thrown the cupcakes into a bowl and sent them outside. Mary Susannah made a picnic pretty enough for a magazine, even though it was just for her little brothers and sister.
Then, a young girl at church began to teach Mary Susannah to sew at the monthly sewings. Mary Susannah was not looking forward to it, but I insisted that she at least try it. She agreed, and she was hooked. Who knew it would be so much fun to sew? Next, a lady from church offered to let her spend a couple of days with her while she helped Mary Susannah make a dress. Mary Susannah was determined to wear the dress to a wedding coming up that weekend. I tried to soften her enthusiasm, telling it would be amazing if her first dress turned out that well.
How wrong "I" was! Her dress was beautiful. I think she's going to be a natural at this!
So, like I said, here I sit on a Sunday morning, wishing I was at church, but still happily anticipating Gage's arrival in a few hours. The house is clean, Angel-Leah is so much better (isn't it amazing how quickly they can get well?) and I have a few hours to indulge myself until son number one gets here. I've got lots of blog ideas, so maybe there will be more than one today? But maybe not, my crochet hook is calling me too.
Everyone say a prayer for Gage this week! This is the culmination of several years work!!
So this morning finds me sitting at my computer while Beau and Mary Susannah are off to church. Angel-Leah was pretty sick yesterday. Her health is fragile at best, she's prone to catching things, and when she does, she goes down with a bang. Her temp was around 104 all day yesterday. And since son Gage is due to come home to take the bar exam this week, and in fact, is going to arrive TODAY, I was quite stressed over the whole thing. I wanted to see him so bad, but there was no way we could expose him to the flu during one of the more crucial weeks of his life. We waited to see if Angel-Leah would recover in time for him to stay with us, or if he would have to go on to the hotel he already had booked in Dallas for the rest of the week. Waking up at six this morning to her throwing up didn't bode well... We cleaned it up and got her in a cool tub. She got out of the tub with a normal temperature, and now, at nearly ten o'clock, she is feeling well enough to be outside!
Whew!!!
So, with that cheerful thought, and the day looking up, I will now post a much requested picture:
Angel-Leah, in full dress up mode. Drum roll, please!
She does make life interesting, anyway...
I recently read a book called "The Explosive Child" to try and help me make sense of Tommy's rages, and to maybe provide some insight into how he is feeling. One thing the book said was that children who tend to do this usually have delayed language skills. Tommy does fall into that category. I hadn't done anything yet, because I enjoy the way he talks. It's really cute. There's the pirate talk, which means a lot of his words have "ar", almost like a pirate says "argh!" "There" is pronounced "thar". "Here" is pronounce "har". Recently, when he was mad at Luke, he was telling me Luke had bopped him on the head. He said with great distress, "He alway do's that, and you don't even car!" I assured him that I did "car", in fact, I car'd very much, and I demanded that Luke not bop his head anymore.
He also starts most his words with "L". This week, he stepped on something outside and came in with a bleeding foot. We don't immunize our children, although I'm not against tetanus shots if they are needed. However, CPS DOES believe in shots, and Tommy was required to get them until I got him adopted. I was just a bit relieved, I admit, that we didn't have to make a trip to the ER, stand before a doctor who doesn't approve of the fact we didn't do shots, and make Tommy get a tetanus on top of being hurt. Instead, we soaked the foot in salt water and tea tree oil:
He was very sad as you can see, as he sat with his foot in the water and a bullet shell in his hand...
As I questioned him about what he had done, he kept insisting he had NOT stepped on a nail, he had
"leppt on uh loo." He was quite frustrated with me because it took me a while to finally catch that he had "stepped on a screw." Oh, well, the treatment was the same...
As I mulled over all this, I just happened to run into my friend Patty, who runs the day care center here in our small town, and is a fellow foster/adopt mom. Somehow, the conversation turned just right, and she gave me the name of a speech therapist she uses who will actually come to your house to give speech therapy. Patty's gushing about how great she was was only slightly more important than the words I was stuck on: she will come to my house!?!? Visions of having to take Tommy to a public school, or haul everyone off to Fort Worth several times a month vanished, and I eagerly took the lady's phone number.
She has now been called, and we are making arrangements for her to come (TO MY HOUSE!!) and work with Tommy.
This is a big step out of the comfort zone for this out of the mainstream, homeschooling mommy. But doing the out of the comfort zone stuff in my own house will help so much, and I hope make it easier for Tommy, who doesn't like people he doesn't know talking to him.
One more thing that has happened in our house is that Mary Susannah is finding her stride. She is in her mid teens now, and has the antsyness of any teen who wants to go and be doing exciting things all the time. I keep telling her she must learn to be content at home, because that is where God calls women to be. I turned the kitchen over to her, and she has done wonders! Everything she does is pretty, including making an outdoor picnic for the kids on a day when a lot was going on in my life:
They loved it, of course. I would have just thrown the cupcakes into a bowl and sent them outside. Mary Susannah made a picnic pretty enough for a magazine, even though it was just for her little brothers and sister.
Then, a young girl at church began to teach Mary Susannah to sew at the monthly sewings. Mary Susannah was not looking forward to it, but I insisted that she at least try it. She agreed, and she was hooked. Who knew it would be so much fun to sew? Next, a lady from church offered to let her spend a couple of days with her while she helped Mary Susannah make a dress. Mary Susannah was determined to wear the dress to a wedding coming up that weekend. I tried to soften her enthusiasm, telling it would be amazing if her first dress turned out that well.
How wrong "I" was! Her dress was beautiful. I think she's going to be a natural at this!
So, like I said, here I sit on a Sunday morning, wishing I was at church, but still happily anticipating Gage's arrival in a few hours. The house is clean, Angel-Leah is so much better (isn't it amazing how quickly they can get well?) and I have a few hours to indulge myself until son number one gets here. I've got lots of blog ideas, so maybe there will be more than one today? But maybe not, my crochet hook is calling me too.
Everyone say a prayer for Gage this week! This is the culmination of several years work!!
Your little guy looks so pitiful! I wonder why it's those crazy busy little guys that are always carting around some form of ammo! I have decided God just put warrior DNA in them. They live hard, play hard and most of all love hard! Have a blessed week!
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