D Day at our house

  What is the one of the most memorable days in your life? The day you were married ? When your children were born? Many parents I know would say it was the day when their beloved child was diagnosed with a chronic disease. That memory will wake you in the middle of the night for the rest of your life. I know this because just about 5ys ago my daughter, who was then 7, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. With those words the course of my child's life was changed forever. Now we had to learn very quickly how to give her a shot of insulin several time a day, poke her finger 6-10 times a day to ck her blood sugar, watch her so she didn't go low or have her blood sugar go to hi, pay close attention to what she ate, learn the words A1C,ketoacidosis and glucagon. Believe me this was a crash course that we learned quickly.
  There was no Type 1's in our family and only 2-3 type 2's,so we had no idea this was coming. About 6 months before D Day(diagnosis day) Zoe had had strep throat twice in two months. We had noticed she was dropping a little weight but her Dr. said she was just growing taller. Her energy seemed to be fine, and there didn't seem be any other signs except she had started having nightmares a lot. For the Thanksgiving holiday we had gone to my sister's in Tx. when it hit me that something was really wrong. I was helping the girls with their bath and realized just how much weight Zoe had lost. I weighed her and she was 53lbs, down from over 70. When we came home I made her an apt. with her Dr. for the next Monday and started doing research. The Internet can be a wonderful /terrible source for medical information. I had kind of narrowed it down to diabetes and hyper thyroid  when she started getting what we thought was the flu, so I treated her for that and then she started saying her side was hurting a lot.I had taken my husband to work and told him I was probably going to bring Zoe in to the ER just in case it was appendicitis.When we got there Zoe couldn't set up very well and when the guy taking her vitals saw her he called to have her taken back immediately! This is when the pace picked up so fast it was hard to keep up. He was calling for a Dr. as he was taking her to a room and saying they needed blood work NOW! As the nurse and Dr. ask Zoe questions she couldn't answer them,she was slipping into a coma. Her blood work came back and they told me she was diabetic, in severe ketoacidosis  and would not have made it to her Dr.apt.I remember crying and waiting for my husband to come upstairs(he worked at the hospital), They put her in ICU  for a couple of days until she stabilized and then into a regular room.We were told that the closest Endocrinologist was a Dr. Jelly in Tulsa and that we would have to go there to learn how to take care of Zoe's diabetes.They sent us home with orders to be in Tulsa by 8 the next morning(we live 2hrs away from Tulsa). We were so scared to take her home but were told that the long acting insulin would hold her until we got to the Dr.
In Tulsa we were taught how to give shots, ck blood sugars and given a major crash course in what was happening to Zoe's body. Dr. Jelly seemed nice enough and he explained that Zoe would have to be on a strict schedule for shots, meals and snacks. Now we are not a family that goes by a schedule very much so this was going to be hard to do. Zoe was to get her insulin shot and only eat 45carbs at meals and about 22 for snacks. This kid was starving ALL the time, I couldn't keep enough low/non carb foods in the house for her. We stayed with this Dr. for about year,going to Tulsa every three months for a ck up, when we heard about a Dr.Adam Maass here in Lowell. This guy was a god send! He took Zoe off of her strict schedule and said she should eat whatever she wanted! She would eat and then we would give her an insulin shot based on how many carbs she ate and what her sugar was. Life became so much easier, diabetes became something we could manage, not a huge monster that managed us.
   Nov. 30th will mark 5yrs since we started this journey that will last the rest of our lives and yes it does get easier, some days are hard with some being downright scary! We have made new friends who understand because they are having to deal with this disease also, learned a whole lot about the human body and have became closer as a family. While I would never, ever wish a chronic disease on anyone, I do believe the Diabetes is one of the more manageable ones and you stay on top of it.
 Here are some links for more info on diabetes,
http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/ (ck out the humor section.)
http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/parents-and-kids/
http://kids.jdrf.org/

  Blessed Be,

That time of year!

   It's August, and this means back to school for all the kids. Homeschoolers are having their Not-Back to school get together and the stores are a night mare to get into because of parents getting school supplies. This year my girls will be using the Ace program from a local school. We received 6 boxes of supplies from K12 on Friday,ironically I was at a book sale trying to sell about 7 boxes of books! This is an online program and we will work with the Lincoln school system so technically they are in public school but we have more control over when they work and the girls do not have to get up at the crack of dawn to get on a bus!

  At the Homeschool book sale we had on Friday there were a few new families that came thru. You can always tell new homeschooling families, they have that deer in the headlight look of panic on their face as opposed to the same more settled look on  longtime homeschooling parents!. They know that this is a good choice for their child but society/their family/co-workers/neighbors/person on the street will try and tell them different, that there is nothing wrong with the school system/the child is just lazy/a trained teacher can teach your child along with 30 others in the class room better than your one on one could do/your out of your freaking mind! I have been told all that and more. We will always have our doubts about this path we have chosen, worried that we are screwing up our kids lives because they are not learning everything their age group is at the same time or the same way. Then we hear stories of hs kids excelling in a major way, of colleges actively looking for hs kids to come to their schools,then we look back at all the famous creative people who were home schooled and we know that though our learning choice is not for all it is right for our family!(climbing off my soap box now)

There is so much out  there now for new homeschoolers! 10 -20 years ago parents were pretty much on there own. There were no programs in place and in some cases you ran the risk of being arrested for not putting your child thru the public school system. Even now, once in awhile we here on the news where a parent is fighting for the right to teach their children at home. Now I feel the hs is becoming more mainstream. Very seldom do I run across someone who has never heard about it, most know of at least one or more families that homeschool these days. Business's are actively contacting or are willing when contacted to put together weekday programs for our kids. We get the same group and teacher discounts as schools. Things are so much better and I thank the homeschooling pioneers that came before us for all their hard work to make it so.

The first place I send new comers is to the library. Most libraries have a good selection of books on homeschooling now, if not they are willing to help you locate what you need. Then I send them online, there is such a plethra of home education information online  that it can be very overwhelming! One of the best sites I go to is Secular Homeschool,http://www.secularhomeschool.com/

This is a great site to connect with other homeschoolers and to get the information you need to get started. This is one of those instances of do as I say not as I did, As a new homeschooler you know you need curriculum your children will like to learn from and yes these will usually change quite often. Don't go out and buy just anything to get you started, stop and think about what you want your home library to have in it. If you do this now you might not be selling boxes of books that were not used much at a book sale in a few years! Or you might still be doing that if you are addicted to books like me. Then after you go to the library and online look for homeschool groups in your area. You can find them in yahoo groups, googling homeschoolers in your area,going to the library during a weekday,if you see school age kids there during that time chances are they are homeschoolers and you can strike up a conversation with the parents. Most groups get together for play days,field trips,parties and classes the parents teach.Most are religious based but more and more parents are looking for secular groups and when they don't find any they create their own like we did. Also there are tons of homeschool blogs that give parents great information!(like me)

So #1 is not to panic, this will work but probably not in any fashion you ever imianged.

2. Try and find a family who has been doing this a few years to get you thru the tough times, you know when little Tom wants to do his math behind the couch instead of at the wonderful desk you have for him or Katie wants to watch documentaries on dinosaurs all day instead of writing sentences.

3. Know that EVERY year (if not every day)you will swear to yourself and your kids that this is not working and they are going back to school!

4. Listen, you might not think your kids are learning much but when you see them kick their dad's butt when playing Planet Earth because they did watch all those documentaries you know you're on the right track.

and last ,

Be kind to yourself and your kids, there is a learning curve to this that will never straighten out and change is the name of the game.

I hope everyone has a wonderful fun year!

Blessed Be,

New baby boy!

Liam Marc Sterling Gray blessed our family with his presence on May 5th 2011. My son is now a father! He wasn't able to be there when Liam was born because he is in training for the Air Force. Nate was able to go to Va. for memorial weekend and see his son in person for the first time. Liam looks just like him! Nathan's wife Meridith is doing a great job holding down the fort until she and Liam can join him after training. I am so grateful that Liam is here safe and sound and can't wait to hold him!

What a beautiful family!

Homeschool Conversations

 Yesterday our homeschool group met up for park day as we do on most Fridays. There were about 9 moms with 1-4 kids each so we had a good group. The kids had fun playing in the creek and generally chasing around. As I was leaving I wondered what moms in a big city homeschool group would talk about.  
 Our conversation yesterday centered around our gardens and the animals we hoped to raise this year. We talked about the best chickens to raise for meat and eggs , the best way to butcher them, how many a family would need in a year and how we could help each other out with that big chore. We considered what breed of rabbits to raise and volunteered to help one mom to make a better chicken tractor as she didn't like hers.
 We talked about the gardens and I hoped it wasn't to late to put in potatoes. Composting came up which then lead to a conversation about humanure. Most had read The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins and I told of a new one out called Holy Shit by Gene Logsdon. One family had already tried this and said the soil that was produced after 2 years was the richest she had ever seen. I thought that was quite interesting.r
 In between these conversations we kept an eye on kids, passed out snacks, passed around babies and generally made sure no one roamed to far away. With all the families there about half lived in town with the rest living any where from just outside to about 30-45 min away. I think we all consider ourselves homesteaders, urban and country. All in all it was a great play day for the kids and me!

Good Morning Homeschoolers!

 Good morning and Happy New Year to everyone!

 My favorite secular home school site has a new giveaway this morning! Secular Homeschooling will be giving away a set of books from Arithmetic Village. These look like a great way to engage your kids in learning math, the characters are ones that the kids can role play with to really get the idea that math is fun. These books would be great for a co-op class with costumes and all.
http://www.arithmeticvillage.com/
http://www.secularhomeschool.com/content/1-the-front-page

They also have a great list of homeschool blogs and you will find us there to!
http://www.secularhomeschool.com/content/207-Secular-Homeschool-Blogs

 Also ck out Earthschooling. This is a wonderful Waldorf site that leads you preschool thru 7th(more grades to come) with a gentle rhythmic way of learning for you kids.There are different levels of membership and with the lifetime membership you can share the cost with one person. I really wish I had known about this resource when my kids were younger.I look forward to playing with it this next year.  http://thebearthinstitute.memberlodge.com/Default.aspx?pageId=625979

I spent yesterday working on organizing our craft area, I needed half the shelves for my fabric. I was inspired by a blog by Pioneer Women,http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2010/12/white-out/.

I love everything about this room and while I know mine will never look this neat, I will do what I can to organize our homeschool this well.I am pairing down books , art supplies and other homeschool materials that I now realize that we will not ever use. Trying to stream line our learning areas a bit. Some I will put on my amazon bookstore, most I will pass on to other homeschoolers.
 Do you do this in between semesters or are you super organized from the beginning of the school year?  The main thing I really like about homeschooling is that you can change course in the year when you find something is not working for your child,ok, that and not getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to get the kids on the school bus!
 I hope everyone has a wonderful start to the new year and lots of learning going on!

The Miracle that is Facebook!

  Here's hoping everyone had a good holiday. We had a unexpected surprise, a few days before christmas, I had a request from someone on facebook looking for siblings. Turns out it was my husbands sister who we had lost touch with several years ago. Come to find out she and her family only live 6 hours away and on christmas day she and her daughter drove up to visit. What an awesome gift for us all! We hadn't seen Susan since she was about 15 and it was great to reconnect. Thru her my husband was able to talk with another sister in California.
 I think this was good for my husband and hopefully for Susan also to be able to talk with someone who had the same memories of their childhood. Theirs was not a good childhood by any means whatsoever, I really wanted to cry at listening to what their parents had put them thru. For three kids to come out of that childhood and turn into loving caring parents/adults is a testament to the strength of the human spirit! I am sure we will see them often and when their other sister moves this way we will see them also.
 Blessed Be to Facebook!