News about Martha

Ok, so continuing on the updates, it's time for me to update you about Martha.  Wonderful, responsible, Martha.  Seriously, she's 14 (almost 15) and thank God we've not had any of those horrific teen battles all parents have nightmares about.  She never gives us a hard time about anything, whether it's extra chores, or babysitting, or plans getting cancelled or rearranged (which happens alot around here.)  I'm not saying she's perfect because she's not (and only Jesus ever was or ever will be) but she is one heck of a young lady.

She's started her own blog about a topic she knows a lot about: bullying.  If you have a chance, go check it out  at www.bullyinghelpsite.blogspot.ca and leave her a comment.  I know she would love that.  She's included some really powerful videos and she's also written a bit about her personal experience.  As her Mom, I'm super proud of how she's willing to share her story and how she wants to do what she can to help other people that are going through any type of bullying.

At school, Martha has also joined the Gay-Straight Alliance (I think that's what it's called!)  I'm pretty sure this is because she has seen people being bullied because of their sexuality and like I said earlier, she wants all forms of bullying to stop.

Oh yeah, and she's part of the Inter-school Christian Fellowship (ISCF) too.  High school has been good for Martha because it's a much larger setting than her elementary school.  She's gaining back the self-confidence she lost and she's pursuing her interests more and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and God bless you!

My dah-ling Maggie!

Before I get into anything else, I've got two things to share.  First, I'm super excited about two finds I've recently acquired.  The first is an antique school desk that I found put out for garbage!  I think it's maple.  And it even has the inkpot holder.  It is missing the drawer underneath the seat, but Mike promises me that he will build one for it soon (hopefully it won't take as long as it took him to build the swingset - 2 years!) My plan is to refinish it and restore the desk to it's original beauty.  Isaac has already claimed it as his as he loves to sit at it and read or 'write' or colour.

And my second exciting find was a vintage Polaroid ColorMark Land Camera for only $4.  And it is in mint condition, with the manual and case and some original posting boards.  I could not believe that the thrift store was selling it for that ridiculously low price.  I almost feel bad for not giving them more. I've cleaned it all out, put batteries in it and it works...I just need to get some film for it. 

 

 

 

Oh and one other cool thing to mention is I've found a great online community for women interested in bible studies.  It's www.shereadstruth.com  I've really found it great to study God's word with other women and be able to discuss it with a large group of fellow Christian women.  I like that there are people from all over and from a wide range of backgrounds.  It's definitely worth checking out!

Ok so I've been updating about the kids.  And continuing chronologically, next up is the always funny, ever so beautiful Maggie.  She just turned 12 a couple of weeks ago and is growing into such an amazing young lady.  My Mom recently had a family get-together when my Uncle Jack and Aunt Kelly were up from Florida and I was so absolutely proud of Maggie (and all the other kids too!)  She helped prepare dinner, set the table, asked people if they needed a drink, and had some good conversations with different people.

Maggies interests currently are:  One Direction (ugh!), playing on her dsi and ipod, anything to do with fashion or makeup, scrapbooking (I wonder where she gets that from?), and of course she loves doing anything outdoorsy!

This is Maggie after getting her face painted at our church's Fall Festival.  Our church is Forks Road East United Church here in Wainfleet.













And this pic was taken just before school started.  Most of my kids are sick of me taking their photos all the time, but not Maggie!  She would let me take pics of her all day long!





Well, thanks for stopping by.  And God bless you!

I'm on a roll....here's Bruce!

Ahh Bruce, where do I begin?  My first-born son, my quiet, serious, but hilarious and fun-loving 10 year old.  My Grandma told me something a long time ago that I never really understood until I had Bruce.  She said "Sarah, you'll love all your children the same but wait till you have a son, he will steal your heart and you'll never want it back!"  And as always, Grandma was right.

Bruce has been through so much in the last while.  He was diagnosed with ADHD and autistic tendencies.  What's the difference between autistic tendencies and autism, you ask?  Well, not a whole lot; I think it's just that on the autism spectrum Bruce presents at the low end or has the least amount of characteristics/symptoms.  We are still learning, so bear with me.

Here's a great starting point if you're interested in learning more:
http://www.autismontario.com

So Bruce is on a medication for the two disorders and has been adjusting so well.  His behaviour has changed so much (no suspensions, no bus reports, a huge decrease in fighting with his siblings)  Bruce has always been a sweet, caring, gentleman of a boy but he got a bit lost in there for a while. 
He's back and wow am I ever proud of who he's becoming!

Bruce is super excited that basketball starts just after Thanksgiving.  He has signed up to be on the travel team this year and is looking forward to our weekends away at tournaments.  Last year, he missed out because not enough kids in his division were interested in the travel team. 

And he's also interested in trying out karate or some other form of martial arts so we are looking into that for him. 

  I think I've taken so many photos of the kids that some of them (especially Bruce) are getting sick of it!  I pull out my camera and Bruce groans!

Here's Audrijana!

Alright, so my last post was an update about Isaac so I guess I'll keep going and update about the other kids.

Audrijana is going to be 7 in a couple of weeks!  I can't believe how fast she is growing up (well, actually, I can't believe how fast they all are growing up!)  She is in grade 2 this year and most days she loves school.  Her struggle has always been not wanting to get up in time for the bus, no matter what time I send her to bed.  I guess she inherited that from me as I would much rather stay up late than get up early!  We are looking to get her into dance and/or gymnastics although she also would like to try karate.  Maybe she'll try all 3 (if we can fit it all in somehow!)  She continues to be a "princess tomboy" (that's really the best way to describe her.)  She loves makeup and dresses and painting her nails but she also loves swimming in mud puddles, catching frogs, snakes and other creatures, doing tricks/stunts on her bike and lots of different sports.  At school, she is writing a book and she is so super excited about it (she told me tonight that it is completed but she has to wait for her teacher to mark it.)  I am super excited to read this masterpiece!

Thanks for reading and God bless you!

I can't believe it's been this long!

So, it's been a really, really long time since I last posted on here.  A while back, I had it in my head to start blogging again, and guess what, I couldn't remember my log in.  That is so typically me!  Well, I've got it sorted out and here I am, ready to blog again!

So much has happened since my last post that I almost don't know where to begin.  Almost.  Of course I'll start with the kiddos!

Isaac - He is now 3, as of June 27, and weighs 51 pounds (that about 5 lbs more than his almost 7 year old sister, Audrijana!)  People ask me all the time why he isn't in school, he is such a big boy! 
We are still working on figuring out his speech delays.  He's on the wait list (surprise, surprise) for speech therapy.  That should start around January, if their estimates are correct.  And we are waiting for a spot in a childcare setting because his speech therapist believes that being around other children his own age will help him with his speech.  He will see an ear-nose-throat specialist in October to investigate the thyro-glossal cyst and to see if there are any issues with his oral muscles, etc that could be preventing him from speaking clearly.  So I'm doing a lot of praying because I know God can heal and I know God has a great plan for this little man of mine!  He has an amazing spirit and I know he is going to do great things in his life!

I'll keep this short and sweet and finish this post here so that I have to come back to update y'all about my other 4 amazing children!

to be continued.......

I am so blessed!

Isaac is now officially 20 months old.  I can't believe how fast he's growing up.....4 months from today he will be 2!  How can it have went so fast?!
He's at the wonderful stage where he doesn't want to wear a diaper.  Yesterday, I struggled for over an hour to get a diaper on him, then I gave up!  And he peed on the carpet a couple of times!  He startled himself so much when he started peeing that he jumped back, peed some more, jumped back, and did it some more! Perhaps it's time to get the potty out!

And this week he decided to play on the kitchen table!  He sat there with a bowl and a bottle of glue (closed!) for quite a while. He really thought it was cool!  I laughed so hard at his antics - until he tried to pull the mirror off the wall!

Oh yeah, we also had a visit last weekend from my other sister Jen and her daughter Grace.  Audrijana (and the rest of the kids too!) had a lot of fun hanging out together

I feel so blessed to have my life....5 wonderful kids, the most amazing husband, amazing parents.......and wonderful family and friends!  Thank you God!

Busy times at our busy house!

BASKETBALL
Bruce plays on two basketball teams, a house league and a travel team (The Port Colborne Hornets.)  This is his first year playing so he has a lot to learn (as do I!)  Every practice and every game, he is learning and getting better! 
Last weekend (Feb 4 - 6), the Hornets had a tournament in Brantford.  We weren't expencting to make it to Sunday's game, but the boys surprised us and played super well.   I was super excited when Bruce got called on three fouls in the second half of their last game.  Bruce has never been called on a foul before so maybe I was a little too excited, but he's learning to play defense really well.  Now, he needs to learn to play offense as well, but I'm sure that will come soon.
I was kind of leary about Bruce playing basketball because he can sometimes be a poor sport, but apparently that's just with his siblings, as he always has a smile on his face at basketball.  I was also kind of worried about Bruce being left behind or overlooked by his coach because he isn't one of the best players on the team.  I needn't have worried - both Coach John and Coach Jay are super with Bruce.  They take the time to explain things to him and praise him when he does something well.  And when he doesn't do something well (for example, one of his fouls was because he pushed the other player) they take the time to explain what he did wrong so he can learn.  "Bruce, you can't push the other player!"  The other players are really good with Bruce too.  Some of them have been playing for a couple of years and I've heard them explaining things to Bruce during practise.  It's been such a great experience for Bruce, I'm so glad that I signed him up for it!

Port Colborne Hornets - Novice

So, I spent an hour and a half each way either driving or being a passenger for this tournament and the Friday before the tournament and Monday after the tournament, I drove my Mom to Hamilton and back for some tests on her heart.  We're hoping that the tests show that there's nothing wrong with her heart.  We'll find out next Monday, so please pray for her!

DANGEROUS SNOWDRIFTS AND MACHINERY
Wednesday was also an interesting day.  I had to drive Audrijana to school as she missed the bus (as usual) and as I was backing up out of our driveway I turned too soon and backed right into a snowbank.  Instead of getting out and walking back to the house to ask Jenn or Mike to come help me, I phoned them and Jenn came out.  Jenn didn't seem to impressed with me as she had just worked a midnight shift and was going to bed, but she tried for a while to get me out.  Finally, she went back in the house to ask Mike to come out and eventually they got me unstuck.  And I got Audrijana to school on time for once!  And here's where the story gets interesting.  I told Mom about the incident and she thought it was hilarious.  Around lunch time, she texted me to tell me she was leaving to take the van to the mechanic (hole in the brake line).  She asked me to keep my phone with me in case she needed me.  Not five minutes later, she phoned me asking me to come over to her house and help her as she was stuck in her driveway.  I thought she was joking around making fun of me, but no, she was serious.  The wind had caused quite a drift in her driveway and she thought that if she drove fast enough she could just plough right through it.  Needless to say, we left the van right where it was, and I drove her to work.  And later that night, Dad used a mini-excavator to plough the van out.  Jenn and I were there assisting (or more like observing) and when the van was clear we were going to drop the van off at the mechanics.  Well, we eventually had to attach a chain to the van and Dad used the mini-excavator to pull the van out.  As he went to get out of the machine, the door got stuck, so ever helpful Sarah ran over to help him, and as Dad was pulling the door back in, his arm hit the lever for the bucket and it dropped right on my foot.  I managed to pull my foot off, and I screamed and screamed.  And Dad screamed and screamed.  And Jenn didn't know what to do.  So now, I have a black and blue swollen foot, and possibly a few cracked bones. 

DANGEROUS TODDLER TOYS
Oh yeah, and one of the days this week (I can't remember which one) Isaac was spinning in circles, literally, and fell and cut his eyelid open on one of his toys.  So off he went to the hospital as it was a horrible cut right on his eyelid.  The ER doctor said it was already closing up and didn't need stitches, so that was a relief.  I completely had a panic attack when it happened.  I'm so nervous about anything eye-related due to my experience with strange eye infections (can you say flesh-eating disease of the eye?!)  Within four days, the cut was healed and the black eye gone!  Thank you God!

FAMILY VISITS
One of my two favourite uncles, Jack, and my lovely Aunt Kelly, were down from Florida so I got to spend some time visiting with them.  Saturday night when Bruce and I got home from the basketball tournament, we sat around chatting with them.  And then, last night (Saturday), Mom held a dinner party for them.  Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Gerry and Uncle Gord, Amy, Tom, and Zack, Uncle Jack and Aunt Kelly, Mom and Dad, Jenn, Mike and I and our kids all had a fabulous time.  Well, I think the noise level got a bit out of hand for the older people to handle, but it was a lot of fun.  Grandma made her famous German potato salad (I ate so much I felt sick!)  We don't have a lot of family get-togethers anymore as we're all busy with our own lives.  So it was super-awesome to see everyone together!  Unfortunately, I took my camera with me, but I never got around to using it, so I have no pictures to post!

ADDICTION BATTLE
It's been almost a month since I finished my methadone treatment program and things are going really well.  Mike is doing really well too; he has a couple weeks left.  As I've said before, I feel like myself again!
Today at church we had a great presentation about  a program called "Teen Challenge" that is a 12-month residential faith-based drug treatment program.  All three speakers were either former or current clients and two of them were oxycontin addicts, like Mike and I.  Their testimonies were great to hear, and brought back a lot of memories for both Mike and I.  One of the speakers recited a lot of facts about how widespread oxycontin abuse is.  It's to the point where it's no longer considered an epidemic but now a pandemic.  I couldn't agree more.  There are so many people from all walks of life that for some reason or another have become addicted to this painkiller.  I've been praying a lot lately that God will show me a way that I can help other people going through this ordeal.  I keep getting this nudge from God to get out there and help people like Mike and I that feel trapped and don't know where to go for help.  So if anyone has any ideas could you let me know.......and could everyone pray for God to give me some guidance.


As usual, thanks for reading and God bless you all!