Thankful.

I'm sure I'm going to be insanely busy from about 10 AM Wednesday morning until Sunday afternoon, but it's worth it.  I love the food.  I love changing the decorations.  I love that I will have all of my Christmas shopping finished by November 30th and I can enjoy the entire month of December doing fun things with my kids.

I have so many things for which to be thankful. As I have been thinking about and planning for the Thanksgiving holiday, I always have a thought or two about how much the Lord has blessed me. Here is a list of just a few of my blessings.

1. We always have enough to eat, clean clothing to wear, and a warm, safe place to sleep at night.
2. My girls are able to attend school when many girls around the world don't have that same opportunity. The education they receive is excellent, and equal for all students. My daughters are smart, funny, and beautiful and don't have to hide it.
3. We enjoy very good health and access to excellent medical care.
4. I live in an area that is lush, green, and changes with the seasons. I can go outside safely anytime I want.
5. We have a large, loving extended family on both sides.
6. David has a job. Many people in our nation don't have the privilege of working right now, and we are grateful for it.
7. Our car works well. It's reliable, and takes us where we need to go whenever we want.
8. We live in the greatest nation on the earth. It's one that my ancestors worked hard to get to, and regardless of the current circumstances Americans find themselves in, this is still a great country and I believe it will be even better in the future.
9. I have wonderful friends. They are kind, generous, and good examples of love, charity, and faith.
10. All of us are children of God, and are loved by Him. I am grateful for that knowledge, and for the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is the ultimate gift of unconditional love. I am thankful for prayer, and the comfort and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

I have so many more that I could spend the rest of my life counting them, and still never finish.  But service and action are also a part of gratitude, and I would not be truly thankful without the desire to "git 'er done"! 

School has been cancelled the last couple of days due to snow and ice and bitterly cold weather.  (This is another blessing, because I love having my older girls home!)  I snapped a few pictures of the girls enjoying our winter weather.

It will all be melted and rained away on Thanksgiving (which secretly makes me happy), but it has been fun, magical, and a glimpse of the weather Santa has at the North Pole!

Happy Thanksgiving.  May it be filled with love, gratitude, good food, and the company of loved ones.

Lucy's piano lessons take place in the music building of a university near where we live.  While I was waiting for her yesterday, I was reading some of the stuff tacked up on various professors' office doors.  I came across the "10 Rules for Teachers and Students" by John Cage.

Before I share the rules, I should explain who John Cage was. 

John Cage (1912-1992) was a composer, print maker, performance artist, writer, philosopher, editor, teacher, mushroom expert, collaborator and poet. Fact is, John Cage had a lot of fun in his factory. Considered one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, he produced works with one note, no notes, notes by chance, and a noted organ composition that takes 639 years to play.  (http://clicks.robertgenn.com/john-cage.php)

Now, I am not a huge fan of John Cage's music in general.  In high school, I attended a concert at Ham Hall on the UNLV campus and heard some of Cage's music.  I appreciate the "experimental" aspect and the creativity of his compositions, but honestly, the interesting part of most contemporary/modern music is in the study and performance of the work--not in the listening.

Okay, back to yesterday during Lucy's lesson and John Cage's 10 rules for teachers and students.  I read through the list, and I really liked them!  I came home and looked them up, and it seems that a lot of people like them as well.  I think there are some good ideas for life in his list, especially #5, #7, and #9.  Here they are:

1. Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
2. General duties of a student--pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
3. General duties of a teacher--pull everything out of your students.
4. Consider everything an experiment.
5. Be self-disciplined--this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
6. Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.
7. The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
8. Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
9. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
10. Break rules. Even your own rules. Leave plenty of room for X quantities.

HINTS:
Always be around.
Come or go to everything.
Always go to classes.
Read anything you can get your hands on.
Look at movies carefully, often.
Save everything - it might come in handy later.

John Cage's favorite saying was, "Every day is a good day."  I think life would be much easier if I woke up with that attitude every single day.  I don't know if this comes from being a philosopher or a mushroom expert, but either way, I guess I was a little inspired by reading those rules.  Good for me.



P.S.  Some have argued that these rules were not written by John Cage, but rather by a teacher named Corita Kent.  Well, whatever.  I liked it, and I don't care who wrote it.

Halloween and Other Stuff

Halloween was fun this year.  Lucy and I decorated the front of the house and made this "Ghosts in the Graveyard" cake:

 

Here are the girls in their Halloween costumes.  Lately, when I've tried to take pictures of all 3 girls, Lucy is the only one who is looking at the camera.  The other two are doing their own thing.  Grampa P was taking pictures too and that's who Lucy is looking at.

 

 

This is a good example of what I was talking about before:

See how Lucy is the only one looking?

Okay.  Now on to the "Other Stuff".  I always start with Lucy, so today I'll start with Sadie.

SADIE has been very whiny lately.  This is hard for me because I detest whining.  I wish all whining could be abolished forever.  Okay, enough about that!  Sadie has also been talking up a storm.  This is not new, but I love to listen to her little jabbering and make out what she's saying.  A new phrase she has picked up is "Not fair!"  For now, it's cute. 

Her current favorite person to hang out with is Lexie's boyfriend, Brandon.  She asks, "Where's Brandon?" several times a day.  We went out to eat with Lexie, Brandon, and Yaya the other night, and Sadie sat right next to him, and even tried his shrimp!  She spit it out, but at least she tried it. 

Sadie loves to go places.  She is very sad when someone walks out the door and doesn't take her along.  She cries like they hurt her personal feelings (which they probably did...what else does a 22-month-old POSSIBLY have to be upset about?).

She also loves her milk.  Boy, she drinks a lot of it.  I'm trying to reduce the amount she drinks, but she still gets about 16 ounces a day.  If she had it her way, she'd drink milk ALL. THE. TIME.  And she'd most likely skip eating.

She's cute, we love her, and she's growing into quite the toddler!

AMY is doing very well in school.  She loves to go every day.  She is a good friend to all of the other kids in her class.  Her teachers love her.  She is writing her name!  She usually gets the A and M written and runs out of room, so she puts the Y at the beginning. (She ends up spelling her name "YAM".)  She'll get it though!

Something new and exciting for us is how well she is doing regarding her clothing preferences.  Those who know Amy well know that she was VERY particular about her clothing.  And that's putting it mildly.  In mid-September, I was able to get Amy in to see an occupational therapist for an evaluation.  I explained about her clothing issues, and her unwillingness to wear her seat belt properly in the car.  I guess it's not an unwillingness...it's more of an inability.  When the seatbelt is properly on her, she screams that it is "too tight" and "it's burning me!" and she pulls it off or climbs out of it.  Often, she would take off her clothing in the car if she was upset about the seatbelt.  She spent most of her time at home wearing very little or no clothing.  After the OT completed the evaluation, she diagnosed Amy with a sensory disorder. 

We've been seeing the OT once a week, and also doing the Wilbarger brushing/joint compression therapy at home twice a day.  David and I have seen INCREDIBLE changes with Amy.  She has been wearing pants, long sleeves, a coat when necessary, socks, and shoes without complaint!  She even loves tights with her dresses!  She wears her clothing for longer and longer periods of time, and only rarely does she pull it off in the car or at home.  To us, it's a miracle that she has been able to adjust to wearing different types of clothing.  We don't have to worry about her not wearing proper clothing and a coat this winter!  The OT told me that we would have to continue the brushing and joint compressions for at least another year.

We are still working on getting her to wear the seat belt appropriately.  I purchased this seat belt adjuster for her to use in the car, and the she has been willing to wear the shoulder belt.  She still wants to put something between her and the lap belt.  Her stomach is very sensitive.  We have been trying some massage on her abdomen, but she only barely tolerates it for a few seconds.  And she wants her hand over mine for those few seconds.  But today at her OT appointment, she laid on her stomach on a platform swing for several minutes while playing a game with the therapist.  She would not let her stomach touch the bag of sensory balls the therapist wanted her to roll over, however.  I am also learning to tell when she has received too much sensory input, and needs some proprioceptive activities to get herself calm and centered again.

LUCY is, as always, doing incredible things.  Her piano lessons are going well.  She is the only kid I've ever seen who can sit down and sight read a piece of music perfectly the first time.

She's also an amazing reader!  She has been going into the Kindergarten classes once or twice a week in the afternoons to read to them!  They adore her.  She has started the Accelerated Reader program, and has already earned 5 points.  Her goal is to earn 10 points by Christmas Break.  She'll do it!  And probably surpass her goal.

More soon.