Advent Conspiracy Promo Video

This is something we have been praying about this year. Seeing this video today is confirmation.

Jeff

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I had to post more pictures than words to "talk" about Jeff, the love of my life... I've been thinking about how amazing he is and how much I appreciate who he is and how comforting he is to me and how caring he is to our family. But to do him justice, less words will mean more.

Kailyn's birthday dinner with Daddy

Korbin and Dad working on his derby car

keeps me laughing. this is so gross :)

Jeff with the kids at Sea World

Roses he grew and cut for me by my bedside table

Before...

After.

This project was conceived and completed in less than 6 hours. (I painted the next day)

This is my craft closet for our classroom/studio.

Before...

closet has a weird angled space...

After.

Now the weird space is useful!

This is our entry closet.

stole Kailyn's bike :)

6 a.m. on a Sunday morning

Koi pond

thoughts while tidying up

These were my thoughts a few months ago, posted to my FaceBook. If you have read them before, sorry for the repeat, but an update from this post is that that quick prayer had a lasting effect. I can say that I have continued to improve on my reaction to situations; and that is comforting.

Thoughts while tidying up

by Stephanie Sneed Sparks on Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 1:56pm

I really lost count of how many minutes I kept setting the timer for in order to clean my kitchen today. It needed every second of the time! Yesterday was filled with camping with our AHG troop, which was loads of fun, but quite tiring. (Especially when Daddy was working and Mommy was the one herding the flock!) Knowing that my house was in high disorder was really disheartening upon coming home from church. Lacey turned out to have a fever (101.3) and was sleeping on the couch as I panned from living room to kitchen and beyond with only mound after mound of "stuff" in front of me. "Stuff" is just a neat little word for all that it is. Stuff I need to do, stuff I'm thinking about, and stuff I'd rather be thinking about! So at that moment I realized the motivation I lacked could be found in my friend, my timer!
My first thought was, "I think I can get the breakfast nook straight in 5 minutes." Progress! "Hmm...this corner of the kitchen will probably be 10 minutes," and so on, until my sparkling kitchen smiles back at me. :) Lacey wakes up cheerful and lively, so now I can relax with another cup of coffee (bad! bad!) and have a bit of "me" time before getting to it on the living room and the study. (And the laundry. And the sheets. can't forget the sheets....) No timer here. Sounds like a flylady testimonial. :)
Anyway, I've been really talking to the kids lately (the past couple of months) about how your mood is your choice. This morning, after last night's hard crash after 12 hours of campfires, dirt and whining, the thought of waking up 4 kids who desperately needed to do more than just clean behind their ears was daunting. But a quick prayer and an hour later, we were walking out the door with mostly cheerful faces. There was a snag. There was that point where I could feel it happening... I considered not going. Maybe I should have stayed home, in hindsight, given Lacey's condition among returning home... but there was this point while getting ready that I knew one child had no clean underclothes, one child was dying because I was actually running a brush in their hair, and whatever else was happening, and I wanted to get mad. But I heard this voice in my head that my children hear my voice and later will associate God's voice in a similar way when the Holy Spirit begins to speak to them. I'm God's first impression. Lord knows I've made over my fair share of mistakes. Yikes. But I needed to "hear" that. I prayed for calm in my heart, and turned the brush over to Daddy and continued to do what was necessary to leave. Happily. I had to make the choice... and perhaps I wasn't truthful to the kids. I didn't do it on my own. The choice was mine, yes, but the ability came from God. :) Thank you, Lord for speaking to me and giving me ears to listen and a heart to follow. God has authored my journey and I am happy to follow Him where it leads.

Eyes and Floors and Pets. Oh, My!

Kailyn recently had an evaluation for dyslexia. I had surmised that she had this three years ago when she began the 1st grade. I was confused by some of what she did, such as reading words that were not on the page, but were related to the words actually there. At the time, I didn't realize that was also a part of it. I think most people think of dyslexia as simply seeing letters or words or numbers backwards, or in reversed sequence. That is a part of what can happen, but there is so much more than just that. A friend of mine lent me a CD series made at a seminar related to The Charlotte Mason method of home schooling. In this seminar, the speaker made reference to a book entitled, "The Gift of Dyslexia." It took me months to get the book. I was about the 5th person to request it from the library. I did eventually get it, and I'm so glad that I did! It was like putting together a puzzle for me. I had all of these pieces, but I couldn't see how they would ever fit together. Based on my reading, I was convinced that Kailyn was dyslexic. I mentioned this to the eye doctor. She said that Kailyn needed a diagnosis. So I scheduled her evaluation. Sure enough, she is! The eye doctor was so very sweet and encouraging. She did not have anything but encouragement to offer. Kailyn's testing revealed she is very behind in coordination and academics. She had strengths too, as her visual sequential memory scored at the equivalent of a 15 1/2 year old, and a couple where she was right on the mark, but many other facets of the testing revealed deficits with a perceptual age of 4-7 years. Having the test results gives me a great sense of relief. While she is "behind" according to the average, we home school, and she is not doomed to stay "behind." I did learn some things today about how to implement some things to improve where she's at that I hadn't really considered. There are some things she doesn't do well, simply because she doesn't try. She tends to avoid what she isn't "good" at and leave those things for the people who are. It's good for her to still apply herself in these ways. One example is "hidden pictures." She scored pretty low there, but she lets everyone else find things in those exercises. She has the option of therapy, and we will implement that in addition to the curriculum I have found for her. The curriculum is based on the book I read, and the center that created it has a 97% success rate for improving reading skills drastically. She sounded excited about it. We worked well into the summer on our schooling last year, and I won't start school for a couple more weeks.

Kailyn in her new bifocals.

We are finally installing baseboards, and are nearing the stage to re-floor the spare room downstairs. We will transform this "junk room" into a studio! I am picturing a place where we can do school, art, sewing, and other projects. The first step is to clear the junk!!! I don't know how papers find their way into my house so fast. I know they multiply on their own!! After I can clear the space, the carpet will come out, and the flooring will go in! We have finished all rooms downstairs except for the studio and the bathroom. Can I say how much I love NOT having concrete floors?? We chose a product called "Luxury Vinyl," which is a PVC product that is very durable. I have loved having these floors. They do not tear like normal vinyl. There is no paper in this flooring, and it has been a pleasure to walk on! It looks just like hardwood floors. The pieces went down like planks, and we did all of our cutting with a razor blade. (It took a few tries to realize the cutting process involves scoring, folding, and finally cutting.)

Early this year we took a trip to Dallas to visit family and to pick up a St. Bernard puppy. I remember not wanting anymore dogs, but late last year, this area suffered many break-ins and home invasions, many times in broad daylight, and once by a person who looked like a police officer. Jeff was right to say I wouldn't feel safe without a dog. So we got an 8 week old puppy and named him Caleb. He's also been known as "Kitty," or "Buddy," and I don't know what the name is this week. At the moment, he is nearly 8 months, and weighs in at over 90 pounds. He has an average weight gain of 3 pounds per week. He stays inside, due to our lovely hot and humid weather. St. Bernards are most comfortable in temperatures ranging from 30-70 degrees. We've stayed in the range of 92-110 this summer.

caleb at 8 weeks (with rachel)

caleb at 7.5 months (yep, that's rachel!)

This summer Jeff picture texted me one day with a photo of 2 tiny kittens. He had me come pick them up. They had been abandoned in a taped up box with their mother on a 100 degree day. One of the kittens didn't make it. She died of heatstroke. We had to take her to the ER vet. The symptoms of Rabies and heatstroke are very similar. We had to do testing, however, as she was really displaying some frightening behaviors. The test was negative, but we did lose her. The kitty here with us is "Fluffy."

2010 in Retrospect

Wow. It has been a long time! This year has gone by so fast! It has been a good year. This Spring, Jeff and I took parenting classes. They were entitled "Growing Kids God's Way." This is a class I highly recommend. We attended for 18 weeks straight, with 2 other supplement classes. There are no short cuts, as it would be hard to duplicate what goes on in that time frame. I own a set of books by the same authors, with the same precepts in them. However, this class gave week-by-week lessons and assignments in order that we could be on a path of mastery to each component. I am not saying I mastered each week. I am saying I had the time to apply each concept before I moved forward.

Lacey completed her occupational therapy at Aspire. What a great place! The staff is very warm and so helpful! Last year about this time, perhaps a little later, I began to wonder about whether Lacey felt secure. Jeff and I were concerned for her because she not only still sucks her fingers, but she was sucking with more intensity, biting through the skin and then through the callouses. On top of this, she was beginning to tuck her elbow into her shirt, sometimes ripping her clothes, in order to have her arm close by her. Thinking back, she had really been this way all along, but some of the calming comforts had gone away, such as swaddling, the infant swing, and she was big enough that I couldn't really hold her as much. She's a real snuggler.

A very good friend of ours had had some sensory issues with their son. They had been to many different professionals for him. They went through many diagnoses for him, none of which really fit. Finally, last year, a fitting diagnoses was made: sensory processing disorder, or SPD. Now this child just turned 12. (I can't believe it!) And he was vastly different than Lacey. He was really opposite in many ways. Avoided sensations, overwhelmed by "too much" going on around him, low muscle tone, among other things. When a diagnoses was given, the family had relief, as the prescription for this is THERAPY, not drugs.

I googled SPD and found checklists that I used in relation to Lacey. I found two wonderful books: Sensational Kids, and Lacey fit perfectly into the far opposite spectrum from our friend's son of this disorder, so I asked my doctor about it and was referred to an Occupational Therapist for evaluation. Sure enough, Lacey was off the charts as a Sensory Seeker. I can sum that up by saying she's a diagnosed thrill seeker. That's not entirely what it encompasses, but it gives an idea to what my days are like!! God gave me a measure of patience He knew I needed. She's a beautiful girl, and makes me smile. But boy, do I have to watch her!!! At one she was climbing onto the kitchen counters. At two she was jumping off the bar. At three she told me she could "just hop out" of the second story window!!!!! Thank the Lord I saw the gears turning before anything happened. At the time that happened (or didn't happen) we were in the middle of weekly therapy appointments, so the therapist and I teamed up and went over safety issues with her.

Lacey needs "deep pressure" activities to keep her body feeling normal. Swinging, hanging, jumping, squeezing, spinning, etc. Though her appointments have stopped, we do these things at home to help her feel balanced. My sweet Monkey Child. :)

how Lacey gets her clothes from the closet

hippity hop ball. (wonderful for a rainy day!)

In June we began swimming lessons! Megan was our instructor and we had so much fun this summer! I now have two children who can swim! I am afraid of water, so I have avoided pools as a mom. I know this isn't the answer, so I finally made swimming attainable for my kids. We'll definitely do this again next year, as long as Megan is still available. (She is awesome!) Lacey will be really ready by then. The little ones had lessons too, but we didn't get very far with them.

Sweet Kailyn

Maddox (yellow is his favorite color!)

Kailyn and Korbin listening to Megan

Lacey on her back

In July the kids participated in Vacation Bible School. That was such a great week! We took a young group, ranging in age from 3-9 years old. Korbin helped me in my 3 year olds group, since he was too old to actually participate this year. Maddox joined the 3 yr old class with me for one day, so he was very happy to participate with the others in the Friday night show!


There was one day we were hanging out with our friends, who were in the process of moving, and Maddox found a purple Sharpie marker and colored his teeth with it. Half of his teeth were purple. Nothing I could do would get it off! I called the dentist in a panic, and they had him come in the next day. (of course it was 5 o'clock) The situation had resolved itself by that time, and there was no trace of purple left behind.

This August we went on vacation to San Antonio. We visited the Alamo, The Riverwalk, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Sea World. Each day was so busy that I couldn't call it relaxing, but it was full of fun!

Behind the scenes at Penguin Encounter at Sea World

The Alamo

Sea Lion Interaction Program at Sea World

Jack Sparrow and the Batman at The Magic Time Machine restaurant

Cannery Row Caper show at Sea World

The Riverwalk

For the second straight year we were able to enjoy SNOW!!! It snowed in December here. This was the 5th snow in my lifetime here, and the 3rd for Korbin & Kailyn, and the 2nd for Lacey & Maddox!

frost across the street :)

Leilu was even excited!

Getting 4 kids to take a good picture is an elusive art.

The "bulk" of the snow fell during the little ones' nap time.

So much fun!