Happy New Year!

Okay, I'm only 20 days late, but it is still a new year :)! We have been getting lots and lots of snow here, which has been really pretty. I am sitting here right now watching about 10 cardinals in the trees around our bird feeders. With the snow behind them, it sure is pretty.

I know it is only January, but I have been having fun trying to plan our garden. Last year was such a wild year for our garden. First, we dug up the garden in the spring, when Jeff was still unemployed. Then Jeff got a job 2 hours away from home, and we thought we were moving. We put the house up for sale, and we grass-seeded over the garden. Then Jeff found a job close to home, so we tore up the garden again. We didn't end up actually planting the garden until the end of June! It was amazing how God still blessed us with a good garden, even with us planting so late. This year it is fun to actually be able to plan more what I want. I got my latest heirloom seed catalog, along with some new books about gardening. One is about companion gardening, or what plants work best beside each other. The other is a seed saving book. I would like to be able to learn how to save seeds from my plants, so I don't have to keep buying tons of seeds each year. I also bought a book on herb gardens, but I haven't gotten that one in the mail yet. I really want to have a nice sized herb garden this year. I would love to grow things that I make tea out of, like chamomile. Our yard isn't very huge, so I am going to have to get creative! I would love to plant some fruit trees on our property too. We planted 4 blueberry bushes this past year in the side yard, and I want to get a few more. I can't wait until they start growing big enough to produce berries!!

I'm almost halfway done with homeschooling. We have done about 80 days so far. The breaks we have been taking every 5-6 weeks have been nice. Around Christmas, I started having doubts about the year-round schooling. I was wondering if I would really miss having a full 3 months off in summer instead of 6 weeks. After our 2 week Christmas break, I was shocked at how much Evie forgot. We had to go over a lot of stuff again. So it looks like year-round schooling is the way to go for us. I may take those 6 weeks in summer and spread them out, taking a week break after a week or 2. That way stuff will stay in Evie's memory more.

Evie started back to horseback riding again this week. She is on a much less ornery horse, which she is thrilled about. She is getting so comfortable with riding that they are tying up the lead ropes, and she has been riding without anyone holding the lead ropes. It has been really cool to see her grow so much with horseback riding. It is so refreshing to go to her therapeutic riding center. I love that the people there treat her like a person. They don't treat her like she is strange or different. They don't tell me I am doing a terrible job as a parent, or tell me that I need to control her hyperness by spanking her more (I can't tell you HOW many times I have heard that one--as if spanking magically solves hyperness). At her riding center, they treat Evie like the amazing human being that she is. It is so refreshing to go there, and it lifts me up. I am amazed at the lack of understanding most people have when it comes to sensory processing disorder. How people have treated us has been one of the hardest things for me to deal with as a parent. Anytime a kid is perceived as anything but "normal", it seems like either the parents or the kids get blamed. People say horrible, cruel things about us as parents, and about Evie. I haven't blogged much lately, partially because I have been going through some difficult times with all this. I have been quite outgoing and social for most of life, until recently. I have really started to become introverted and quiet because of the huge lack of understand people have had. Wow...didn't mean to go off on that. I honestly would love to write a blog post on how I am feeling, but it would probably not be the happiest blog post in the world! I am learning that God is the only one who can be trusted completely with things. I know that I can share how I am feeling with Him, and He won't judge me. If I feel all alone, without a friend, I know that He will be my friend. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Him in my life.

Vacation

This week I took a much needed vacation from just about everything. Evie has had way too much going on, to the point where she was wired and overstimulated. We both needed a break, so I took the week off from homeschooling. I am very seriously considering year round homeschooling. I looked at this one woman's schedule online, and she takes a 2 week break after every 8 weeks of homeschooling, and then she takes 2 weeks off for Christmas and 1 week off for spring break. She takes a month off in the summer. I modified the schedule, just playing around to see what I could come up with. I have gotten burned out easily with homeschooling because of the sensory issues Evie has. I came up with a schedule where I took a week break after every 4 weeks of homeschooling (instead of the 2 weeks after 8 weeks that the woman that I read about did). To me, 1 week is a good vacation! Besides the week off after every 4 weeks of homeschooling, I figured in 2 weeks off for Christmas, and a month off in summer. It worked out to be 180 homeschool days, which is what is required. This way I am not constantly looking forward to summer. I get a nice break in summer, but not so much that I lose motivation. We are going to try it and see how it works. I really like the flexibility of homeschooling.

I am finding that I need to do more to meet Evie's sensory needs. Evie was diagnosed as what is called a "sensory seeker". She craves sensory input, and her sensory nervous system is basically screaming at her all day long for more input. It has been a really challenging past few weeks for us. Some ways to help with the sensory issues is to let her squeeze special squeezy balls, hit punching bags, swing in special swings, play tug of war, and do therapeutic horseback riding. I am thinking I need to invest in an indoor swing, and a punching bags. The squeezy balls are a challenge. She usually pops them really quick. We bought one once at a store, and she popped it in line after we paid for it! I took a picture of Evie at her therapeutic riding class a few weeks ago. I wish my camera took better pictures in the arena, but the lighting there is really crazy. She really enjoys horseback riding, and it is really calming for her.














Last weekend we got to meet our new addition to our family. We got to meet our new baby cousin, who was adopted from China. She is about 10 months old, and is soooo precious!




















Evie got to hold her, and she just relaxed in Evie's arms. It was so sweet. She is blowing bubbles in this picture :). I got to hold her twice, even though there were about 50 people there. I wish I could have held her even longer! She is such a precious baby girl!

Sensory fun

I bought a book awhile back called, "The Out of Sync Child Has Fun". It is a book that gives fun ideas to help Sensory Processing Disorder kids. Many of the ideas are, well, messy! The activities are actually good for me because I tend to be a person who likes things nice and clean. I need this kind of stuff to stretch me :). I tried a new activity yesterday. It involved shaving cream and a cookie sheet. Basically, I put a mountain of shaving cream on the cookie sheet and let Evie play in it. It gives her a lot of tactile sensory imput. She loved it. She literally was up to her eyeballs in it. She put it all over her face, arms, and legs. We did it all outside, and then she just washed off by jumping in the sprinkler :). She got soaked, but she loved it. I'm thinking about trying a new activity every day during her school year.

Speaking of school year, I bought Evie's curriculum online yesterday. I am doing a curriculum called My Father's World. I used it for 1st grade too, and I liked that it was so hands on for Evie. My Father's World uses more of what is called the Charlotte Mason approach, or classical homeschooling. This 2nd grade curriculum is packed full of so much. We are officially starting homeschooling in another few weeks. The kids in this area go back to school really early this year. Most start around the 2nd week of August. I can't believe how fast summer has gone by!

Last night of horseback riding

Last night was Evie's last night of therapeutic horseback riding for the year. We had a really fun time watching her. She was sad to find out that they switch teachers each semester, so she won't have her favorite teacher Mr. Tim in her next semester. She will have a new teacher when the classes start up again in January. I'm sure the new teacher will be great, but we have really loved Mr. Tim. He has done such a great job with her. Evie adores horseback riding. Everyone there, including all the volunteers, are so great. At the end of the class, she gave Mr. Tim and the volunteers a plate of Christmas cookies and gave them all hugs. Here is a video of Evie trotting on her pony Spike. We had a better video, but for some reason Blogger wouldn't upload it. Oh well. The person running next to the horse is Mr. Rick. He has been Evie's volunteer this semester. The person giving commands is Mr. Tim.

Horseback Riding Pics

We took Evie to horseback riding last night, and this time I brought my camera. I didn't have the speed set right on my camera, so the pictures turned out blurry :(. I guess I will have to try again next week. I figured I will post the few that I took that weren't too blurry.

Horseback riding

Evie had her therapeutic horseback riding class for the second time last night. She LOVES it. She kept asking over and over when she could go again. The volunteers she has will be her volunteers for the whole semester. There are only 3 kids total in the class, and 1-2 volunteers per child. Evie's horse is a small pony named Spike. He is a sweet horse, and while Evie was saddled up, she would lean forward and hug him. Last week, we didn't get to watch her ride because we weren't allowed in the arena then (I think they didn't want us to distract the kids on their first week). Last night we got to sit in the arena. I was so bummed that I forgot my camera! Oh my word, she looked so adorable. Evie looked so precious in her little riding helmet (the stables provide them), and riding on Spike. She did a great job too. They teach the kids how to lead the horses into the arena, and lead them out. They teach them how to get on the horse, how to hold the reins, how to turn, and they also get to groom the horses. I hope I remember my camera next week!

Therapy Stuff

Last Thursday we started Evie in a sensory therapy playgroup. It is every Thursday, and it is a group with 4 kids who have Sensory Processing Disorder. Two of them are sensory seekers, meaning they crave activity. Seekers tend to touch everything, spin in circles for minutes at a time without getting dizzy, crave deep pressure hugs, have no fear, feel very little pain, have a very hard time sitting still, and get very wired when there is any activity around. They are the movers and the shakers of the group. That is Evie. She is a seeker. The other two kids in the group are sensory defensive, meaning that they would rather sit on the floor and not speak to anyone, and not play. They can't stand loud noises. They get very upset with lots of activity and shut down or melt down. The goal of the group is to teach the kids how to play together. Sensory kids usually have poor social skills. For the seeker, they tend to scare some kids away because they play too rough (they don't realize their own strength). The sensory defensive kids have a hard time socially because they don't want to play or talk with the other kids. The parents are in a different room during the meeting, away from the kids. There are 2 occupational therapists working with the kids. When we went last week, I almost cried. As I sat in the room with the parents, we all were talking about our kids. To be able to hear such similar stories, and be able to talk to these parents without feeling judged was the most amazing feeling for me. I have found that many people refuse to understand sensory issues. They think it is bogus, and tell us we are bad parents, and that we aren't disciplining enough. Evie is not a defiant child. She is just very very active because her sensory nervous system is pretty much screaming at her every day. Last week was so refreshing for me. I can't even describe it. I felt validated. I felt like I was not the worlds worst mom, which is how I have been made to feel many times by other moms. I did a lot of thinking after going to the group. I realized that I need to avoid situations where I know I (and Evie) will be judged unfairly. That means not getting together with people who refuse to understand, and make their opinions known. I'm telling you, it does a real number to your self esteem after awhile when people say such horrible things. I have never ever told a mom before that she was a bad mom, and not doing her job. I wouldn't even dream of being that cruel. Being a mom is a tough job as it is. We all need support, not judgement. Being a mom of a special needs kids is tough. Most people don't have any clue as to how hard it is, or how their negative words can affect both the kids and the moms. All the moms in the group commented that people had said some really horrible things to them about their kids, and about their parenting. So I am not alone.

One awesome thing is that God keeps bringing amazing people into my life to help me. I have made a wonderful friend named Kate in my neighborhood, who just happens to be an occupational therapist. She has worked a lot with sensory kids, and her daughter Ella, who plays with Evie, is a sensory defensive kid. I can be myself around Kate, and know that she will not judge me. She loves Evie, and sees her as the wonderful little girl that she is. I am so thankful to God for bringing her into my life. Jeff and I have been getting together often with the couple who has the 5 girls (3 of them are triplets). They are super laid back, and are very familiar with sensory issues. Many multiples have sensory issues, so they had to have their girls tested for that. I don't have to worry at all about them judging me or Evie when we get together, which is wonderful. God has also led me to get Evie into some other therapies. I had been curious about Theraputic Riding for awhile. It is horseback riding for kids with special needs. For sensory seekers, it is very calming. After researching it, our occupational therapist mentioned it to us (before I had even said a word!) and said it would be extremely beneficial. Then at the playgroup we found out that 2 of the kids were in Theraputic Riding! The moms highly recommended it. I called the riding facility today, and we are going to start it in the fall! I am really excited. I know that Evie will love it. It is once a week, and it lasts for about an hour. It is cool to see how the Lord is leading us in different ways. It has been great to see how He just keeps opening doors.