Every year, I have to remind my hubby that the children will not die and Christmas will not be ruined if the they only get one gift. Jesus was God and He only received 3 gifts. That aside, if they got nothing, they would be okay. Are you caught up in the Christmas Crazies?
Christmas can be difficult for many folks. Often times we put ourselves through unnecessary stress over gift giving. I am guilty of it, as well. It is difficult not to get caught up in the Christmas hullabaloo. So-in-so is getting you a gift, so you feel compelled to return the favor. We've had to learn to be frugal and give handmade gifts. This year, I have made altered notebooks and hand-stamped cards for people on our gift list. I also give small scrapbooks and baked goods. Of course, at some point, your list could just continue into infinity--- We have so many people that we'd like to give a gift, but we simply cannot afford it.
A friend told me about writing IOUs for gifts. What a neat idea! Kids can write things such as, "IOU an hour of quiet" "I will empty the dishwasher without complaining", so forth and so on.
As we are in the last week of Advent, we are trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas- the birth of Christ. Sometimes, we have to step away from the Christmas craziness to find Him.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Batik Cards
I had so much fun creating cards handmade cards using the Batik technique. This is one of my favorite creations.
To see a tutorial video on how to create using Batik, it will be my video next week (December 14, 2010) on Tuesday's Techniques.
Writing Real Letters
Emphasis on REAL. Yesterday, as I was carting the kids hither and yon, I heard a news blurb on the radio. Kids at a local college were being taught to write REAL letters. They interviewed one of the professors and she was discussing a few recent surveys about the lack of letter writing skills among college age adults. Absolutely amazing. She went on to say that many universities are finding their students lack the ability to write letters at all-- formal or informal -- because they only know how to text and certainly don't know how to email a proper letter, either.
"Wow," I thought as I was driving, "I am certainly glad that I homeschool!" We began teaching the children to write proper letters at an early age. headings, salutations, body, complimentary close and the signature. I consider not being able to write a proper letter by the time you go off to college as being functionally illiterate. It is mind boggling that schools are not teaching students how to write a proper letter.
When is the last time you wrote a REAL letter to a friend. Not an email, but a real letter. Is letter writing a lost art? I make hand-stamped cards and love to send them to friends and family. Try to make a point of writing a letter to a friend today....... a REAL letter!
"Wow," I thought as I was driving, "I am certainly glad that I homeschool!" We began teaching the children to write proper letters at an early age. headings, salutations, body, complimentary close and the signature. I consider not being able to write a proper letter by the time you go off to college as being functionally illiterate. It is mind boggling that schools are not teaching students how to write a proper letter.
When is the last time you wrote a REAL letter to a friend. Not an email, but a real letter. Is letter writing a lost art? I make hand-stamped cards and love to send them to friends and family. Try to make a point of writing a letter to a friend today....... a REAL letter!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Christmas Wishes
Every year, as Christmas rolls around people start asking, "What do you want for Christmas?" Truthfully, what I want isn't something that anyone can give. Well, other than God Himself. I want a cure for Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome and Mitochondrial Disease. I want to never bring my children to the hospital for medical tests and procedures. I want my children to be healthy and not have daily health problems that impact their lives. Sounds like I'm asking for a normal life, doesn't it?
Over the last several years, we've had to make 15 out of state hospital trips and every fall, we end up having several surgeries-- this on top of the routine bone marrow biopsies and other testing. This fall was the first fall in 5 years that we didn't have an extra surgery scheduled. That certainly doesn't push us into that elusive land called normal. We've had high blood pressure (one child, not mine!), dizzy spells, severe migraines, and lots of their continuing pain issues over the last six months. I wish that we knew there would be an end--- if this next battery of tests were the end and we could fix it, then we could fix it and get on to regulalry scheduled life. That would be a gift-- fix it-- find a cure!
Yesterday, I was thinking about our oldest son. He is "normal" and healthy. I was wondering if, perhaps, the problems my other two have on a daily basis might be in the realm of normal. Our oldest rarely, if ever, complains of pain, headaches or anything. He has never had trouble walking -- except for the time he sliced his leg open when running into a metal bleacher. His blood pressure is normal. He is rarely sick...and when he is, it never gets too bad. Just small colds. When I do this, I realize there REALLY is something wrong with my other two boys. Sigh.
All I want for Christmas is a little slice of health! If the tilt-table test isn't normal, then we won't have to repeat the MRI (he has a small lesion -left temporal lobe) and we will have an answer. I don't think the lesion is an issue-- we found it in 2006, repepated MRIs with and w/o contrast and an MRA tat same month, then repeated the MRI the following year (2007) and the lesion showed no change at all. His headaches have gotten worse and the dizzy spells seem more frequent, but that really could be any number of things. We are trying to get the youngest in to see the MDA clinic PTs. We've heard they had experiecne with Mito. The last time he went to PT, the PT made the pain worse. Here's praying the MDA clinic PTs know how to help him.
Over the last several years, we've had to make 15 out of state hospital trips and every fall, we end up having several surgeries-- this on top of the routine bone marrow biopsies and other testing. This fall was the first fall in 5 years that we didn't have an extra surgery scheduled. That certainly doesn't push us into that elusive land called normal. We've had high blood pressure (one child, not mine!), dizzy spells, severe migraines, and lots of their continuing pain issues over the last six months. I wish that we knew there would be an end--- if this next battery of tests were the end and we could fix it, then we could fix it and get on to regulalry scheduled life. That would be a gift-- fix it-- find a cure!
Yesterday, I was thinking about our oldest son. He is "normal" and healthy. I was wondering if, perhaps, the problems my other two have on a daily basis might be in the realm of normal. Our oldest rarely, if ever, complains of pain, headaches or anything. He has never had trouble walking -- except for the time he sliced his leg open when running into a metal bleacher. His blood pressure is normal. He is rarely sick...and when he is, it never gets too bad. Just small colds. When I do this, I realize there REALLY is something wrong with my other two boys. Sigh.
All I want for Christmas is a little slice of health! If the tilt-table test isn't normal, then we won't have to repeat the MRI (he has a small lesion -left temporal lobe) and we will have an answer. I don't think the lesion is an issue-- we found it in 2006, repepated MRIs with and w/o contrast and an MRA tat same month, then repeated the MRI the following year (2007) and the lesion showed no change at all. His headaches have gotten worse and the dizzy spells seem more frequent, but that really could be any number of things. We are trying to get the youngest in to see the MDA clinic PTs. We've heard they had experiecne with Mito. The last time he went to PT, the PT made the pain worse. Here's praying the MDA clinic PTs know how to help him.