Follow-Up Post

to the Super Busy-ness post that I wrote the other day. Gail and I were talking in the comments section of that post about the whole school situation with Jeriah and I had typed up a VERY lengthy response to her and then Jeriah bumped the laptop, my thumb hit something and it went "kapoof" because "poof" doesn't adequately convey my feelings about losing such a lengthy reply.

So I told her that I would type it up again as a blog post since it was sufficiently long enough to be a post in itself! So here goes!

Gail said (and I quote): "Wow. You have a lot on your plate. I pray that the Lord gives you direction. To go from an IEP into a neurotypical classroom is a big deal. To deal with a possible diagnosis of Aspberger's can be either devastating or a relief. Bless you in your journey!"

It is a big thing to go from an IEP to a neurotypical classroom. A very big deal indeed! There are some major factors to consider both for and against having him enroll in Kindergarten this fall.

Against:

• He has his social challenges. He may not fit in well with the classroom's expectations of a nuerotypical student.
• By continuing to have him in Preschool as a peer model, he would have another year to develop those skills to behave more neurotypically, like the other students. (I think I made that word up.)
• Most parents (according to the Services Coordinator at the school) who start their kid earlier in school end up wishing that they had waited a year for their child to develop more socially. She has never heard a parent say that they wish they had started their child early. (I set her straight on that one. More about that following the "For:" section.)
• It's Full Day Kindergarten. He still naps nearly every day. On the way home from school on the bus.
• He would be one of the very youngest in the Kindergarten classroom.

For:

• He is on grade level with the Kindergarten students where they are right now. If I wanted to drop him in Kindergarten, he has the academic knowledge to keep up with them right now.
• If we wait another year, he could well be at a mid-1st grade level when he starts Kindergarten. I am afraid that if he is too far ahead of the curriculum, he will be bored and more likely to have behavioral issues out of sheer boredom. It is very difficult to have a child placed in higher level material in our school system. Or as I like to say, "No Child Left Behind (and No Student Achieving Ahead of the Others)". Wrong? Maybe. But it is my opinion.
• There is no guarantee that he will develop those skills with another year of Preschool.
• He is a very regimented and routine child. I strongly believe that if he were to go into Kindergarten, he would learn the routine and the expectations and would thrive.
• He is my youngest child. Having him home in the mornings is one of the main reasons why I am not volunteering in the school during the morning hours. If he is at school, I am free to go into the school to help him during the day as well. I currently do that with other students in the afternoon in second grade. (I'm a volunteer "interventionist" for reading and math.)
• He would be one of the oldest in the Preschool classroom.
• I have practiced with him on the lunch room routine. My kids eat breakfast at school, so I started sticking around and letting Jeriah eat with the rest of them. Within a week's time (five days of practicing this routine once each day), he was capable of (on his own!) going into the lunch room, putting his coat on a chair, lining up (and having appropriate line behaviors), getting his milk, choosing what he wants for breakfast (in a timely manner), carrying his tray to the check-out lady, giving her his name so she could ring it in to his account, taking his tray over to another table to pick up a spoon, napkin and straw, then carrying his tray to the table where he placed his coat. Once at the table, he raises his hand for the teacher to come by and open his cereal for him (as do most of the current Kindergartners and even some first graders) and he can open his own milk container. He can pour his own milk on his cereal and then eat in the allotted time frame that they are given. He is able to take his tray up when he is finished, dump his milk and cereal bowl in the "wet" bucket, drop his silverware in the silverware bucket, dump his trash into the trash can and then take his empty tray over to the window. It seems like such a routine thing to go through a cafeteria line, but there are actually quite a few steps involved and for a neuroatypical child, remembering all of those steps and being able to follow through can be overwhelming, especially when you add in the bustle and noise of a hundred other children. Yet, he does extremely well at it all. I think that the same would be true in the classroom.
• He wants to go to Kindergarten.

So, you see, there are factors to consider on both sides, and while it may look like I have decided for Kindergarten, I am still not 100% sure about it. I'd say I'm probably about 75% sure about it at this point.

Now, as to the part I mentioned above about regretting a child not starting early. I regret not having Cephas tested to enter Kindergarten at four. I just didn't know it was an option. When he started Academy (the K4 class at his private preschool), he was on the same academic level as most beginning Kindergartners. He was beginning to read, knew his numbers, shapes, colors. He had already had a year of preschool at age three, so he was used to work time, lining up, following rules, cooperating with others, separation from family during the day, etc.

But we didn't. We enrolled him in Academy because he was four and a child had to be five by October 15th to enroll in Kindergarten. Cephas wouldn't turn five until January. All was fine and dandy that whole year.

Then he enrolled in Kindergarten. And by the beginning of the Kindergarten year, he was reading on a first grade level, he had figured out not only addition and subtraction, but had mastered multiplication by 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's by simply playing with the numbers in his mind.

We were riding in the car one day and he told me, "Mom! If you have two and then you have two more, then it's four and then two more is six. Then eight and then ten." And I told him that yes, he was right. He thought about it a little bit and then said, "So, if I have two of something and you have two of something and Koren has two of something and Grandma has two and Grandpa has two, then that makes ten!" Again, I confirmed he was correct and told him, "That's right. If there are five people who each have a set of two items, that makes ten items total." He thought about that a little bit longer and then applied the same concept to three items, then to four items, then to five items, so on and so forth until he was satisfied with his new knowledge.

Then he began skip-counting by two until he reached one hundred. Then he did it by threes, then by fours and then by fives. So before my son had ever even started Kindergarten, he knew 1x1 up to 1x100, 2x1 up to 2x50, 3x1 up to 3x34 (because 3x33 didn't get to 100 and he wanted to get to 100), 4x1 up to 4x25, and 5x1 up to 5x20. He KNEW it, had it memorized.

So he was advanced. By a lot. I tried to inform his teacher but got the "Oh, every parent thinks their child is the smartest child in the world" attitude about it. So I decided to let her discover it for herself. She quickly did. But she didn't do anything to try to help him keep advancing. Kindergarten is a leveling grade. The kids who need to catch up to grade level are the ones that get the most effort put into them. The ones that already know the information get to help the teachers and be a good peer model.

By the end of Kindergarten, Cephas was wholly unchallenged and had grown bored with the whole process. He didn't have to try at school and while we continued a process called "After Schooling" (advancing through activities and interests after school) he just didn't really care much for school. In the middle of first grade, the academics caught up to where he was, but he had already stopped trying in school. By the end of first grade, he was no longer even at grade level for reading. It was such a struggle to get him to try in school. From that point on, until this year (in fifth grade), he has not been reading at grade level. He is now thankfully.

But I really feel that all of this could have been avoided by simply having him tested to enter Kindergarten early. I really and truly believe that. And if there is a chance that I am right about it, why wouldn't I want to do the same for Jeriah? Therefore, the dilemma.

Cephas is the child that we think may end up with an Aspberger's Syndrome diagnosis. He has had an issue with social skills since Kindergarten but we have always been able to somewhat manage them. Now, that just really isn't the case anymore.

To have him diagnosed with Aspberger's would honestly be a huge relief. Then we would know that, yes, this is why he does this or that or whatever. And more importantly, he would know that was why as well. If not Aspberger's, then maybe we could just gain additional coping strategies for him and for us as well. It is devastating to him right now. He tries so hard but he has such a lack of impulse control (always has, actually) and just cannot seem to do/remember/follow through on a myriad of other things that his classmates seem to have no problem with.

On Friday, when I talked to Cephas' teacher and gave her the questionnaire from the behavioral psychologist's office, she took it with a smile and said, "I know exactly what this is and yes, I would be most happy to fill this out for you. When do you need it back?" That tells me something as well.

Well, that ended up being a bit more lengthy than my reply to Gail's comment but not by much. What do you think? What would you do if the decision about Jeriah's classroom next year was your decision to make? Don't worry, our decision is not based on your comment but maybe you have a viewpoint that we haven't considered.

Pick Up

Today on Rachel's blog, she was talking about our schedules being thrown off and to just jump back in and pick up right where we left off. Wherever that may be. That sounds like a WONDERFUL thing for today! I have gotten so far off track with my schedule lately, that everything is just out of order.

Today is a busy one anyhow. I had one kid with a doctor's appointment this morning. Oralee has been complaining of a sore throat all weekend and today, I took her in to see the doctor to rule out strep, which the quick strep test has done, so she is back at school now. We will have to wait and see what the cultured sample turns up, but for now, we're calling it a virus.

Later today, Koren and Jeriah both have eye appointments with the pediatric opthamologist. Their appointments are an hour apart. And yes, those are back-to-back appointments. Across town. Just like Oralee's appointment this morning was. Which means that we will get done just in time to get the other kids from school.

Then tonight, I have a Pampered Chef party to go to. It's being held by Hubby's cousin. I don't really need anything but I'll go along anyhow. I like the food. Free food is even better! Meanwhile, Hubby and his friend will hang out at his mom's house, watching the kids and playing a new video game that is in beta testing right now. Yes, my Hubby is a beta tester. I'm so proud.

So, my hope is that between the boys' eye appointment this afternoon and the time that we leave for the other side of town to go to Hubby's mom's house and for me to go to the Pampered Chef party, I will be able to accomplish SOMETHING semi-domestic around here.

My goal:

• Clean up the dining room to presentable form.
• Clean the kitchen. All dishes washed/dried/put away. Counters and stove top all cleared. Trash out.
• Living room picked up. All toys put away. All miscellaneous items that end up in here replaced to their proper homes.
• Den area picked up. All trash taken out of this room, the toys put away, the baby stuff put away, the floor picked up, the desk and table surfaces cleared off.
• Laundry. Two loads. A girl can dream right?

That's my goal for today. This evening after the party, I also hope to put the finishing touches on Jeriah's Family Literacy Portfolio. I NEED to find my camera though so that I can upload all the pictures and have those to go along with the book. Okay, so I don't HAVE to have the pictures, but I really enjoy having them in there as well. It was due, oh, on Friday, I believe. My bad. I will strive to get it done by this Friday.

Baby Days

Our youngest is four years old. We are done with the baby stage in our house. Yet, if you had come to our home this past week, you would never have known the difference! Between the stroller on the front porch, the highchair in the dining room, the playpen in the den area, the diaper bag by the front door, the baby clothes neatly folded on the couch, and of course, the baby on my lap, it would appear as though we were right back in the midst of it! This past week we actually have been.

Hubby has a co-worker who has a son that visits three days each "weekend", which really amounts to Sunday-Tuesday and then Friday-Sunday later that week. Then one week off from the baby. It's kind of a confusing schedule but anyhow, that's not the important part. On the Sundays that the baby goes home, I babysit him in the morning while his dad works. So every other weekend, I watch him and take him to church with me and we have a blast.

The baby's mother decided at the beginning of April to move out of state at the last minute. She gave up her apartment and moved across the country, leaving the baby with his father. The interesting part though, is that the dad works double shifts on a lot of the days that he normally doesn't have the baby and the schedule had already been made for him to work.

So, he ran into a bit of dilemma this past week. He has a paper route from 2a-4a then works 8a-2p, has a short break and then goes back to work and works 5p-9p. Rinse and repeat the next day. Fine and dandy. Unless you also have a little one to take care of.

So, Babycakes ended up spending much of this past week with us. He was with us Wednesday morning then went home with his Dad. Dad dropped him off on Wednesday night and he was with us until Dad's break time on Thursday, then back to us and stayed the night Thursday night. Then went back to Dad on Friday after Dad got off work and then came back to us Friday night. And then he was with us from Friday evening until just now, on Sunday afternoon.

We have been in full-on baby mode this past week. And I'm exhausted! It is such a shock to my system to suddenly be on baby duty again. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED having him but it was a big change to wake up in the middle of the night, change diapers again, watch to make sure that things don't go into the baby's mouth, tiny bites of food, wracking my brain trying to remember which foods are not be given before which age. No honey before 1 or is it 2? And what about citrus? It was quite the adventure.

I was very happy to have the baby around. He's such a joy and he really likes being here. Another co-worker of Hubby and Babycakes' Dad commented the other day that Babycakes doesn't like women (it's odd but it is true - he prefers guys WAY more than women) and then another coworker said that Babycakes doesn't really like anyone at their work, then stopped herself and said, "Well, other than his dad, of course. And her," at which point, she motioned to me.

It was one of those moments that really hit me. She was right. Babycakes HAD taken a liking to me. And I AM a woman. He even had started to prefer me over my husband (who he used to prefer, even though I was the one taking care of him). I had finally come into my own where Babycakes was concerned. And that was awesome to realize.

But the baby is gone now. He won't be back til Tuesday. So the baby toys will actually all be put back into their baskets on the shelf, the highchair will go back to the corner of the dining room instead of  pulled up to the table full-time, the stroller will go back to the garage, the playpen will be broken down and the diaper bag is not even here right now, and I have the computer on my lap, instead of a baby. My house will get cleaned in a way that I wasn't able to accomplish with a baby that ended up being VERY attached to me. And I will sleep the WHOLE way through the night. And on Tuesday, we begin again. I don't quite recall. Is it possible to stockpile sleep and energy? No? Darn. Well, I am still going to nap this afternoon and enjoy it. And I am going to sleep through the night and I will most definitely enjoy it.

Friendships

As I had mentioned before, the kids have developed some new quality friendships with some kids. Part of this came with the change in Scouts and part of it came with a change in my own relationships.

You see, Jeriah's first non-family semi-regular babysitter is a woman whom I have known for 22 years now, maybe longer? Bree is my friend that I mentioned here. She has two children, T and S. T is 8 and S is 6. T and Koren get along extremely well and so do Oralee and S.

Bree's great grandmother and my grandmother were best friends back in the day. I grew up calling her great grandmother, Grandma Thelma. And she grew up calling my grandmother, Mrs. K. My grandmother was introduced to her great grandmother as "Mrs. K" and Thelma was introduced as, well, Thelma.

Every single morning, my grandmother would call Thelma and they would talk to each other, then three days a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), my grandma would go over to Thelma's house (she lived two doors down in the townhouse community where they lived most of my life) and together, they would drive to the senior center for lunch. It was so cute and I have such fond memories of it, that go back as far as I can recall. On breaks from school, I'd go along with them and spend the morning helping the seniors take their plates to their seats, going up and picking out prizes for them from the prize table during Friday Bingo and would just overall, do whatever I could to help out. I would eat lunch with them too. It was like having a whole community of grandparents while I was growing up. Trust me, if I even thought about doing something wrong, any one of those grandmothers wouldn't hesitate to stop me, scold me, or even give me a quick swat to get my attention. Love those ladies! I really do!

So anyhow, since Bree's great grandmother and my grandma were best friends, I spent plenty of time with both of them and since I claimed Thelma as another grandma, I also claimed her family as well, which if it were real, would make Bree something like a distant cousin of some sort. :) I think of her more like a sister and definitely as a best friend!

Bree and I actually share the same birthdate, year included! Kinda crazy, huh?

Bree and I only knew each other a little bit growing up, but we did know each other. Last year, we connected and really got to know each other and now, we talk on the phone at least 3 or 4 times a week and try to get together at least once (outside of Scouts) and we trade off kids and babysitting and all that.

So it is only natural that with our friendship, our children would also develop a friendship and I am grateful for it. You see, most of my years growing up, I was accustomed to being disciplined by whatever adult was closest to me. Family member, family friend, whoever. And I developed a major respect for my elders.

The friends that I am the closest to are the ones that are as quick to discipline my children as I am and they discipline in similar ways as well. They are the ones who have similar expectations of their kids and we feel totally comfortable in the role of being in charge of each other's children.

This is not true for most of the adults I know. I hesitate to discipline another child, even when they are in my home. Even if it is something as simple as telling them to stop something or redirecting them. I mean, I still do it, but I hesitate and am not totally comfortable with it.

So it has really helped all of us for the kids to be developing these new relationships and so wonderful for Bree and I to have developed our relationship as well. And who knows, sixty or seventy years from now, we might be the ones living two houses apart and going to the senior center for lunches together too. It's a neat thought.

Super busy-ness

I have come by the blog EVERY single day and even though I have often thought about whipping up a blog post, I just didn't. I journal off of the computer, although that is a different sort of thing than what I write about online. But regardless, I love blogging and I miss doing it regularly

I had mentioned that Jeriah had some changes happen at school, so I am going to share about that and then move on to another (semi-)related topic and that is some of the things that we are going through with Cephas. You will see in the end how the two tie (loosely) together.

So to start with, when Jeriah was 19 months old, he was evaluated by our school district's team of experts (a doctor, a speech/language pathologist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and a few other professionals) and they determined that he had PDD-NOS, Pervasive Developmental Delay, Not Otherwise Specified, which is on the Autism Spectrum. We began home-based schooling at that point in time, working with him on language development (he'd had words but "lost" them) and on gross and fine motor skills (He had just started walking the day before his evaluation with the team). We worked with his texture issues and his food intolerances/sensitivities. He had more specialist doctors than the other five of us in our family combined.

Last year (2010-2011 school year), he started school-based, well, schooling. He attended preschool five days a week for half days, then due to some issues, we ended up reducing it down to only 3 days a week. His development really progressed during this process. This year, (2011-2012 school year), he started a new school since we moved over the summer. He has been attending half-days of school, five days a week.
Then in February, we met with his "team" for his MDT meeting. They were talking about the progress he has made this year, which has been incredible. They were setting up his evaluations to see if he still qualified for Special Education and to set up all of the information that they needed for his IEP meeting, which was to happen at the end of the month.

The last day of February, we had a "home visit" with his classroom teacher. I say "home visit" because the visit actually took place at school, instead of at our home (the way that it is generally done), because his teacher is pregnant and has severe allergies and dogs are one of them. We have three dogs. However, Miss C is not able to take her allergy medicine during pregnancy so therefore, home visit at school.
Jeriah, BC (a little guy I take care of here and there) and I met with Miss C for the visit and she told me that Jeriah's testing had come back and that she thought he would probably be dismissed from the Special Education program. Also, we had discussed our options for him for next school year. You see, where we live, the school district has changed the guidelines for Kindergarten. Ever since I was a child, the cut-off date for Kindergarten admission was "5 years by October 15th of the current school year" so a child could enter Kindergarten at age 4, provided that they would turn 5 by October 15th.

Oralee is in Kindergarten right now. Before they had changed the guidelines, we had figured that Jeriah would be just one grade behind her all through school. Then they changed up the guideline and so we had planned on there being a year between the two of them in school. Jeriah was going to attend the preschool program for one more year.

Then, we met for his IEP. And he was released from the program. His IQ testing had all come back at average or above average for his age. His verbal skills are great, his Kindergarten curriculum skills are great (in fact, he's at grade level right now for Kindergarten academics for where Kindergarten is RIGHT NOW in the school year) but he still has his "Jeriah Quirks" as his teacher calls them. They are little things that he does that is just a little bit "off". Mostly, they are social things. He scripts, for one thing. Some of what he says makes sense and is said in context, but the manner in which he says it is scripted. For instance, he will "test" someone else's knowledge (repetitively - which in itself is a quirk) and when they give him a correct answer, he will say "You have the right answer!" Not a big deal, right? The inflection and intonation of his sentence is the exact same every time.

Earlier this year, when Jeriah's first semi-regular non-family babysitter was watching him, she was telling me of an interaction that Jeriah had with her husband. At the end of the conversation, she told me, "Jeriah told B that he correct," and without even thinking about it, I said, "You have the right answer!" with Jeriah's practiced intonation and inflection. She stopped and said, "Oh my gosh! That's exactly what he said! And EXACTLY how he said it! How did you know that?" It's just Jeriah. Anyone who has spent time with him knows some of his scripting.

If you think about the old Taco Bell commercials and the little chihuahua who would say, "Yo quiero Taco Bell" we all can repeat it. Now, imagine if EVERY single time you went to Taco Bell (and let's say you eat there for lunch two or three times a week), you walk in and say, "Yo quiero Taco Bell" in the same tone and with the same inflection as the chihuahua. That would be very much like Jeriah. Correct timing for a phrase but always the same exact phrase, said the same exact way. And that is scripting. Which, as I said, is just ONE of Jeriah's "quirks".

So anyhow, he was released from Special Education and is now attending the same preschool class as before, just sans IEP. He is now one of the "peer models" instead of the one needing the peer model. He still has his social issues (won't generally initiate contact with another child, prefers to parallel play with other children, has developing problem-solving skills when it comes to disagreements with others, and a few other things) but his academic skills are out of this world!

In fact, at the beginning of the year, Miss C made up these little progress books in which she would "test" each student throughout the year and record their progress. It had numbers listed 1-10, kept track of how far a child could rote count, how far they could count with one-to-one correspondence, which letters of the alphabet they knew (lowercase and uppercase), which shapes and colors they knew. Well, Jeriah knew all of his numbers 1-10 (and actually could recognize numbers up to 100), could rote count and could count with one-to-one correspondence to 16 on both (he missed 17 both times and she had to stop him, although he wanted to keep going), knew most of the letters (uppercase and lowercase both!) except for five of them I think, and knew all of the colors and shapes Miss C tested him on.

So, the second time we met, she skipped the numbers portion (although we played Chutes and Ladders and he had a great chance of showing off his number recognition skills), and she had tested him on letter sounds (because he had mastered the "missing" letters shortly after his previous testing) and had tested him on other shapes than the typical preschool level shapes. Things like oval, crescent, hexagon, pentagon, octagon and rhombus (to name a few). By the third meeting, the "testing progress" book was a moot point. Other than his cutting skills, which I am honestly just fine that he doesn't have great scissor skills. :) Personal preference.

So, now we are in the unique place where we can have him attend preschool one more year, as would follow guidelines. Or we can have him tested to enter kindergarten a year early. He would have been one of the youngest with the old guideline, he will be one of the oldest following the new guideline.
We reserved his place in preschool for next year and are setting up a time for him to be tested into Kindergarten for next year. We have the option of not placing him in Kindergarten even if he tests into it.
You know how parenting is an absolute trial and error experience and you generally learn things from one kid to the next? Well, Jeriah is our fourth and last. And I'm STILL learning. Some of what I am learning is all new to me because of his PDD-NOS.

Since he no longer qualifies for Special Education services and coordination, we will be starting to see a behavioral psychologist at a group that specializes in ASD. We found this group because of Cephas and some of the issues we have been having with him.

I have honestly debated on whether or not to share about this but have decided to go ahead and share. You see, Cephas has some issues with staying on task at school, following directions, things all the way up to outright defiance. There are times when I will tell him to stop doing something and he will continue to do it and then proceed to tell me why he is continuing to do it. And while I appreciate his independent thinking, sometimes it is more important to just be able to obey a simple directive immediately. And if it were once in awhile, it wouldn't be such an issue, but it isn't. It is a several-times-a-day kind of thing.

So we went to see someone in this office and while we were there, Cephas DID a few of the things/behaviors/attitudes that we were there to discuss. Now, I know it may sound bad but I was secretly quite relieved that he did that. Just because it gave some of my concerns about him more validity, if that makes sense. I think we may end up looking at an Aspberger's diagnosis down the line. I can't say for sure though, which is part of the reason that we are there. To see if there is something that we can do to help him, or at the very least come up with strategies to help him be successful.

So, there you have it. Jeriah's exciting school thing and Cephas's behavior thing. Slowly but surely, I am going to get caught up!

Scouts

Since I had mentioned this first, I am going to write about it. The boys were in our Scouts at our school. Cephas was a Webelos II and he didn't get a chance to finish out his program in Webelos because he had come in for the last few months of the 18 month program. He was still able to go on to Boy Scouts because of his age, regardless of whether or not he finished Webelos. So we started looking into Boy Scout Troops.

My friend made mention that our church had Scouts as well and that Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts all meet together at the same time, in the same location on the same night every week. I was really excited about that! The fact that we are able to have a regular set schedule makes such a huge difference! Before, Cephas had Scouts one day every other week always at the same location. Meanwhile, Koren had Scouts on a different day but it was every week but at different locations that changed constantly. It was so frustrating trying to keep track of it all. I love streamlining the schedule!

The boys have adapted to it really well too. The boys that they are in Scouts with are boys whose family have a different (from the school) moral compass but are all more similar to each other and to our family's values. I hope that makes sense.

And the bonus is that I get to see my friend every week too! She brings her son to Scouts and then she and her daughter sit there at the church in the foyer and wait for Scouts to get over. Or sometimes they will go to the mall, which is nearby and walk around while Scouts is going on. Since my boys started attending Scouts there too, I bring Oralee along and she and my friend's daughter play and color and read together while my friend and I sit and visit. It has been so wonderful! Oh - and Jeriah stays home with Dad. It's his father/son time. It just works so well!

Can you tell that I love it?! Last week, Cephas had a field trip for Scouts so we were going to meet in an alternate location (arranged far in advance so that I could plan for it) which would have been difficult because Koren had to be at the regular location at the same time. But what made it so easy was that I just called my friend up, mentioned the change in Cephas' meeting location and she offered to take Koren and Oralee. I just dropped them off at her house and then went on to the meeting with Cephas. She brought the kids home afterwards and it worked out so beautifully! I love the friendship that I have with her and I love the friendship that our children are developing as well!

Tonight, I think we might be picking the three of them up on our way to Scouts because she has some intermittent vehicle troubles going on with certain weather conditions that are forecast for tonight.

Okay, that is one item checked off of my list of things to blog about. :)

Two Months In No Time Flat

Is it just me or did those two months that I unintentionally took another bloggy break just fly by? Man, I gotta work on that! I have had a very full and exciting two months though. I have taken notes in my planner so that I can share with you some of the highlights. But not tonight. Tonight I am just going to give you a little hint of what I am going to post about. You ready for it?

Cephas and Koren both have changed Scout groups. Cephas is now a Boy Scout so needed to change groups anyhow and it made sense to have Koren follow along with him to the new group. The Cub Scout Pack that Koren is now involved in feeds directly into the Boy Scout Troop that Cephas is in.

Cephas has had some issues with behavior and this is a current work in progress. I will be sharing some of what we are doing and how it is working with him. I have some ideas about what may be going on with him but until I know more, the posts may be a bit on the vague side (or they might not be - it depends on my thoughts for that day)

Cephas and Koren both have dropped their music lessons. More about that as well.

Oralee had dominated the space she shared with Jeriah. I changed that. It is pretty cute. And a HUGE change when you see the before and after! You won't want to miss that post!

Jeriah has some exciting things going on at school that I am still amazed about.

All of the kids have developed some much-needed new friendships with quality kids.

Jeriah has his first semi-regular non-family babysitter. It has been awesome!

I have rearranged my living areas three (or is it four?) times since I last posted about our living room arrangement. It is too hard to keep track. We will say that it is VASTLY different from what you last knew of it.

I have been a decluttering, spring cleaning mad woman around here. That is part of why I haven't been posting much. Too busy living life to write about it. That will change though. Well, not the living life part of it, the too busy to write about it part of it.

We have a storage unit. I hate it. I hate wasting my money every month to hold on to things that we will (probably) never need again and haven't (for the most part - there are exceptions to this) even missed having around. We are working hard on that as well. By the end of April, there will be no storage unit. Mark my words. You have them here in writing. (Yes, I think I said something about that before but there are other changes in our lives that have made this possible.)

Speaking of those other changes in our lives, I will be blogging about those as well. They are big. They are good. They are new. I am excited about them like you wouldn't even be able to believe.

And I have fallen in love with a product that I want to share with you all. That will probably be more towards the end of April, maybe even the beginning of May. It is truly wonderful and I love what I know about the company right now. More research is required at this point, but so far, I am in love with the products!

Okay, I think that will sum up this post for now. Hope to see you back here soon. I can't wait to figure out where to start! It's so good to be back!