Many of you know what has been going on with our family the last couple of months, and many of you don't. We haven't really been trying to keep anything a secret, it's just hard for us to wrap our brains around it ourselves, we really haven't wanted to go through the burden of having to explain it over and over. But I feel like enough time has passed, we can let everyone know what's going on.
As you all know in April of 2012 Caleb accepted a Pastoral position in Missouri and we moved there in June. Because of some events and things that happened, Caleb resigned the position on Dec. 2, 2012. If you want to know details you can message me or him. I don't really want to get into what happened or way, it just didn't work out.
After resigning we packed everything up and most of Caleb's family came out to help us pack up and move back to Oklahoma. Right now our stuff is all in Caleb's parents' garage and we are living with them for the time being.
The plan right now is for Caleb to go back to school at Beth Haven Baptist Institute and finish getting his Pastoral degree. I will also be taking counseling classes as I'm able to. He got a job doing maintenance at some apartments in Edmond and that's going really well for him. It's a great job with really great benefits. Pray for him as he's adjusting to being in the work field again!
We are hoping to save up as much money as we can in the next weeks so we can move into either a rent house or a townhouse of some kind near his job, which is in the Edmond/Village/Hefner area. We will also begin looking for a church soon. We have been visiting at Beth Haven and also Lighthouse in Mustang, but we would like to find a church close to where he's working.
This has been such a big change for our family, and it was very sudden. We're not even close to adjusting to the change and probably won't until we have our own place and can get settled there. Please pray for us as we're going through this difficult time!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Our Journey with Noah
Our son Noah is 10 years old and as most of you know, I've been convinced he has Asperger's Syndrome for about 5 years. It was difficult coming to that conclusion and I won't give you the details of how we came to that, but I still believe that he has that condition. I probably will never be convinced otherwise.
Lately we've been having problems with his behavior. He is fighting more, he gets angry more, and his tics are getting worse. He used to just sniff or clear his throat, lately he has started squishing up his face, rolling his eyes, and taking quick breaths kind of like an asthmatic problem.
We've had a lot of changes in our family lately and things are still changing, I don't know when things will settle down for us, and I know that has a lot of effects on the children and especially Noah. Stress can make all of these issues worse, but it's gotten to the point where my husband and I don't feel like we can handle it on our own.
We looked into getting him and official AS diagnosis so he could get behavioral training, occupational therapy, and some other options that are out there when you have a diagnosis. I met with a clinical psychologist for an hour and went over issues we have with Noah and things we've dealt with him about.
Afterward he told me he didn't think Noah had AS (he said 30-40% chance) but he suspected gifted-ness and possibly Tourrette's. We decided not to go back to him when he wanted to meet with Noah for 2 hours by himself. Maybe I'm over-protective but that really bothered me. I also had some disturbing dreams and I think God was warning me.
This week he met with Bro. Hays who is a Biblical Counselor at my Brother-in-Law Rick Carter's church. I was there during the meeting and he just got to know Noah and find out what kind of issues he was having. Bro. Hays said that we needed to set up some goals for him, and make sure he had something to look forward to. He also suggested the possibility of Noah having Tourrette's.
I was looking online and there are some more natural ways to help Noah deal with the tics. We're going to start him on a grown-up multi-vitamin that has 300-500% B-6 and B-12, compared to the children's multi we were giving him that had 100%. A lot of websites also suggested cutting out sugar, caffeine, and white bread. We will be discussing that more drastic change in the future.
Some other things we're looking into is getting him into taekwando since it is known for structure, discipline, and also has goals that they achieve rather quickly. He also recently finished a book in Light Brigade, which is a children's church program similar to AWANA or King's Kids.
I just wanted to share these issues we're having and maybe someone else is struggling with these things with their own kid. And also maybe spread some awareness or understanding if you come across a kid who deals with these issues.
Lately we've been having problems with his behavior. He is fighting more, he gets angry more, and his tics are getting worse. He used to just sniff or clear his throat, lately he has started squishing up his face, rolling his eyes, and taking quick breaths kind of like an asthmatic problem.
We've had a lot of changes in our family lately and things are still changing, I don't know when things will settle down for us, and I know that has a lot of effects on the children and especially Noah. Stress can make all of these issues worse, but it's gotten to the point where my husband and I don't feel like we can handle it on our own.
We looked into getting him and official AS diagnosis so he could get behavioral training, occupational therapy, and some other options that are out there when you have a diagnosis. I met with a clinical psychologist for an hour and went over issues we have with Noah and things we've dealt with him about.
Afterward he told me he didn't think Noah had AS (he said 30-40% chance) but he suspected gifted-ness and possibly Tourrette's. We decided not to go back to him when he wanted to meet with Noah for 2 hours by himself. Maybe I'm over-protective but that really bothered me. I also had some disturbing dreams and I think God was warning me.
This week he met with Bro. Hays who is a Biblical Counselor at my Brother-in-Law Rick Carter's church. I was there during the meeting and he just got to know Noah and find out what kind of issues he was having. Bro. Hays said that we needed to set up some goals for him, and make sure he had something to look forward to. He also suggested the possibility of Noah having Tourrette's.
I was looking online and there are some more natural ways to help Noah deal with the tics. We're going to start him on a grown-up multi-vitamin that has 300-500% B-6 and B-12, compared to the children's multi we were giving him that had 100%. A lot of websites also suggested cutting out sugar, caffeine, and white bread. We will be discussing that more drastic change in the future.
Some other things we're looking into is getting him into taekwando since it is known for structure, discipline, and also has goals that they achieve rather quickly. He also recently finished a book in Light Brigade, which is a children's church program similar to AWANA or King's Kids.
I just wanted to share these issues we're having and maybe someone else is struggling with these things with their own kid. And also maybe spread some awareness or understanding if you come across a kid who deals with these issues.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Exciting December
We were able to go to my parents' house for two weeks in Iowa. I'm so thankful we were able to go! We had hoped to go in the Summer but it just never worked out, especially since we went to North Dakota for my Grandma's funeral in July.
Before we left I looked up the 10-day forecast to see if we should take our snow stuff or not and only one day had a "slight chance" of flurries, so we decided not to take it all. Well that was a big mistake! We got there on a Saturday and that Wednesday we were hit with a blizzard and my parents ended up getting several inches of snow. Not only that, the temperature never got above freezing the whole time we were there and it snowed two more times.
But thankfully my parents still had some snow things left over from when we were kids and since it was so cold, the kids didn't want to stay out too long anyway. Caleb went out the first day and pushed them on their sleds, and I went out the next day. We had a blast sledding, throwing snowballs, and we played snow tackle. We were exhausted by the time we went inside, though. And very grateful for the fireplace!
We weren't able to go to the zoo with my sister and her boys, but my mom did take the kids to the IMAX theater twice, and they went to the new aquarium, the jungle, desert, and the new pavilion. She has a lot of pictures of this, I just haven't gotten any copies yet! (hint, hint)
Other highlights of our trip were spending a day at my sister's house, seeing my younger brother and sister, surprising the kids with gifts on Christmas morning that they were NOT expecting, getting my hair trimmed and colored, and spending time with my parents. We had a good visit and I'm very thankful we were able to go! But it would be nice to go again this year.
Before we left I looked up the 10-day forecast to see if we should take our snow stuff or not and only one day had a "slight chance" of flurries, so we decided not to take it all. Well that was a big mistake! We got there on a Saturday and that Wednesday we were hit with a blizzard and my parents ended up getting several inches of snow. Not only that, the temperature never got above freezing the whole time we were there and it snowed two more times.
But thankfully my parents still had some snow things left over from when we were kids and since it was so cold, the kids didn't want to stay out too long anyway. Caleb went out the first day and pushed them on their sleds, and I went out the next day. We had a blast sledding, throwing snowballs, and we played snow tackle. We were exhausted by the time we went inside, though. And very grateful for the fireplace!
We weren't able to go to the zoo with my sister and her boys, but my mom did take the kids to the IMAX theater twice, and they went to the new aquarium, the jungle, desert, and the new pavilion. She has a lot of pictures of this, I just haven't gotten any copies yet! (hint, hint)
Other highlights of our trip were spending a day at my sister's house, seeing my younger brother and sister, surprising the kids with gifts on Christmas morning that they were NOT expecting, getting my hair trimmed and colored, and spending time with my parents. We had a good visit and I'm very thankful we were able to go! But it would be nice to go again this year.
A most exciting event!
After taking a loooooong, unscheduled, unwanted break from my 30 List I'm back! And this one is an exciting one. My friend Belinda Mooney has helped set me up to send articles to magazine publishers and with her tips and help I sold an article to two different ones! Here's a link to one of the magazines. If it goes to the first page, my article is on page 37.
My article is even in the Table of Contents, which I think is ultra cool. It's not just a side bit, it's an actual article! I'm pretty excited to get into this field of writing.
So there you have it, another one of my "30 Things To Do While I'm 30" is accomplished!
My article is even in the Table of Contents, which I think is ultra cool. It's not just a side bit, it's an actual article! I'm pretty excited to get into this field of writing.
So there you have it, another one of my "30 Things To Do While I'm 30" is accomplished!
Friday, November 9, 2012
Our New Schedule
We are on our 8th week of homeschooling and by all accounts and purposes, it's going great. Everyone is still enjoying school and are still motivated. There's a little bit of frustration over new topics as we're starting to move past reviewing the last year, but overall it's going smoothly.
But we were having this horrible problem of a chaotic morning. It all starts because I am a night owl. I love the quietness of the nighttime, and I would go to bed after midnight every night if it didn't affect the next day. But it does, and we weren't waking up until almost 9am every morning. Which meant breakfast was close to 10am, school didn't get started until around 11am, and we weren't ready for lunch until 2pm. Which messed up nap-time, afternoon subjects, snack time, cartoons, and pushed dinner and even bedtime later, which then started the whole mess over again. That may work for some people, but I'm a traditionalist and I think lunch should be at noon, so it wasn't working.
Because of all of this, I decided to get serious and start a new schedule. I made a list of everything that needed to get done during the day, and divided it into "morning", "afternoon", and "evening" sections. Most of these things are pretty simple like meals, chores, naps, etc, usually happen around the same time everyday. Then I figured out how long each of these things should take, and kind of worked around set times like bedtimes, lunch (of course at 12pm), and favorite cartoons. Our kids love Wild Kratts and it's really the only cartoon they HAVE to watch everyday, so I wanted to make sure they were able to watch it.
I wanted to have set times for each subject because I found myself having a pile of workbooks to check, and by the time I checked something, they were already halfway done with another subject, and we were going back and forth from subject to subject, and I really didn't feel like they were grasping the concepts, they were just getting the work done. So with set subjects for set amount of times, they don't have to rush and make mistakes, and there's plenty of time to check work and fix mistakes that do happen. There's also not the competition of "I got done before you did!" and "What subject are you on? I only have one left." that breeds discontent and causes others to hurry and not concentrate.
So here is our daily schedule:
Carter Family Schedule
7:30- Wake up, Get Dressed, Read your Bible, Start Chores
8:00- Eat Breakfast, Have Family Devotions
8:45- Clean up breakfast, Finish chores
9:30-10- Handwriting
10-10:30- English
10:30-11- Math
11-11:30- Reading
11:30-12- Spelling
12:00- Lunch
1-2:30 Rest time
2:30- snack
2:30-4- Afternoon Session
Monday-Library
Tuesday- Art
Wednesday- Music
Thursday- Science
Friday- History
4-5:30- Free Time
6:00- Dinner
8:30- Anna and Elsa bedtime
8:45- Kayla and Lela bedtime
9:00- Noah bedtime
10:30- Mom and Dad bedtime
There are a few times on there can be moved or changed, depending on what we have going on (or what went on the night before), but for the most part, if we stick with this schedule, we will get everything done.
But we were having this horrible problem of a chaotic morning. It all starts because I am a night owl. I love the quietness of the nighttime, and I would go to bed after midnight every night if it didn't affect the next day. But it does, and we weren't waking up until almost 9am every morning. Which meant breakfast was close to 10am, school didn't get started until around 11am, and we weren't ready for lunch until 2pm. Which messed up nap-time, afternoon subjects, snack time, cartoons, and pushed dinner and even bedtime later, which then started the whole mess over again. That may work for some people, but I'm a traditionalist and I think lunch should be at noon, so it wasn't working.
Because of all of this, I decided to get serious and start a new schedule. I made a list of everything that needed to get done during the day, and divided it into "morning", "afternoon", and "evening" sections. Most of these things are pretty simple like meals, chores, naps, etc, usually happen around the same time everyday. Then I figured out how long each of these things should take, and kind of worked around set times like bedtimes, lunch (of course at 12pm), and favorite cartoons. Our kids love Wild Kratts and it's really the only cartoon they HAVE to watch everyday, so I wanted to make sure they were able to watch it.
I wanted to have set times for each subject because I found myself having a pile of workbooks to check, and by the time I checked something, they were already halfway done with another subject, and we were going back and forth from subject to subject, and I really didn't feel like they were grasping the concepts, they were just getting the work done. So with set subjects for set amount of times, they don't have to rush and make mistakes, and there's plenty of time to check work and fix mistakes that do happen. There's also not the competition of "I got done before you did!" and "What subject are you on? I only have one left." that breeds discontent and causes others to hurry and not concentrate.
So here is our daily schedule:
Carter Family Schedule
7:30- Wake up, Get Dressed, Read your Bible, Start Chores
8:00- Eat Breakfast, Have Family Devotions
8:45- Clean up breakfast, Finish chores
9:30-10- Handwriting
10-10:30- English
10:30-11- Math
11-11:30- Reading
11:30-12- Spelling
12:00- Lunch
1-2:30 Rest time
2:30- snack
2:30-4- Afternoon Session
Monday-Library
Tuesday- Art
Wednesday- Music
Thursday- Science
Friday- History
4-5:30- Free Time
6:00- Dinner
8:30- Anna and Elsa bedtime
8:45- Kayla and Lela bedtime
9:00- Noah bedtime
10:30- Mom and Dad bedtime
There are a few times on there can be moved or changed, depending on what we have going on (or what went on the night before), but for the most part, if we stick with this schedule, we will get everything done.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Sick :(
Well this is not what I was thinking when I wrote this one down, but I guess life has a way of changing plans!
This morning I woke up at 6am with intense stomach pain. I won't give you details, but I was very sick all morning. I successfully slept way past noon!
I don't know if it was the Taco Bell I had Saturday night, or the delicious BBQ grilled chicken I had Sunday afternoon, or if I just got a stomach bug.
I'm so thankful for my husband that he works from home (or near home anyway) and he was able and willing to take care of the kids while I was sick. He was a very good nurse. He also got the morning chores done, and helped the kids with their school! I am very blessed.
Maybe I'll have another opportunity to sleep until noon. Let's hope so!
And no, I don't have a picture. ;)
This morning I woke up at 6am with intense stomach pain. I won't give you details, but I was very sick all morning. I successfully slept way past noon!
I don't know if it was the Taco Bell I had Saturday night, or the delicious BBQ grilled chicken I had Sunday afternoon, or if I just got a stomach bug.
I'm so thankful for my husband that he works from home (or near home anyway) and he was able and willing to take care of the kids while I was sick. He was a very good nurse. He also got the morning chores done, and helped the kids with their school! I am very blessed.
Maybe I'll have another opportunity to sleep until noon. Let's hope so!
And no, I don't have a picture. ;)
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Bookshelf Re-do
Today I finished a project, I sanded and then painted this bookshelf for the girls' room. I liked it best after I sanded it, but the girls wanted it painted.
This is after I sanded it.
Me painting! I look lovely.
The finished product! It's not perfect, but Kayla said it was "awesome", so I'll be happy with that!
My first project on my "30 List" is officially done! Only 29 more to go.
My first project on my "30 List" is officially done! Only 29 more to go.
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