wheat free—halfway through the challenge

18 days since we started our wheat free March.  It’s been fascinating to see the changes.  Ryan no longer scratches to the point of bleeding at night.  He’s falling asleep in 15-20 minutes instead of his normal 60-75 (generally the same bedtime but sometimes earlier!).  He’s down to a very minimal amount of melatonin before bed (recommended by his pediatrician, but now only taking 1/10th the recommended amount) that we’re cutting back more, since it’s mostly a ‘crutch’ instead of a necessity at this point.  He sleeps well and wakes rested.  He’s not dealing with headaches.  Or leg cramps.  Or stomach aches.  Or a continually plugged nose.  He’s been very vigilant about what he eats, and hasn’t grumbled at all.  So far, he’s earned $2 or the $5 promised for completing the month without grumbling.  (Phil 2:14 is the verse we’ve been putting into practice this month).  From his standpoint, going wheat free has been a huge success.

Logan hasn’t been as obvious, but he didn’t have the significant question marks, either.  We are seeing some improvement in his ability to focus and recall.  He still struggles tremendously with academic issues (who wouldn’t, given his laundry list of issues?) but the changes have been helpful.  Always a great sleeper, we’re seeing him fall asleep faster and wake up much less groggy.  For Logan, going wheat free has been a tolerable experience.    He’s also earned $2 of his promised $5 for not grumbling this month about food. 

Jim hasn’t seen much change, but he’s also eating more wheat than the rest of us, by his choice.  (Maybe I should have promised him $5 too?!?) Not a big deal as far as I’m concerned.  The thing is…he’s likely stuck with the wheat free thing for a long time.  I’ve seen great changes for me:  I sleep SO much better.  I FEEL better.  My headaches are almost completely gone (unless I inadvertently eat some wheat!).  My achy thumbs don’t bother me.  My hip (an ongoing problem since I was about 10) hasn’t bugged me.  I have more energy and less ‘down’ days.  The rainy grey weather hasn’t bugged me at all, and that’s saying something around here! 

So…it looks like wheat-free is going to be much more permanent.  Next steps?  Cut out sugar and most other grains.  But since I love my family, we’ll take it slow.

making progress

It’s not fluent and it’s far from perfect, but we’re thrilled!  (We were told he would be 10 before he could read.)  This pretty much speaks for itself…

Sorry it’s a bit wobbly—it’s hard to hold the camera and do the teaching too!  (Note—there are some sounds Logan simply cannot make due to his hearing loss and apraxia.  “x” is one of them, and he struggles mightily with words like ‘six,’ hence the significant help with that sentence.)

the things we do for love

like walking in the rain and the snow…

Wait.  That’s not where I intended to go!  Flashback to music from my growing up years.  All that does is prove I’m old.  <sigh>

 

So…the things we do for love.  How about things like a 30 day elimination diet?  For everyone in the house?  Simply because it needs to be tried for one or 2 people?  Yep.  One of those things we do for love.    Fortunately, it won’t hurt those who don’t need to be on it, so we move forward.  Friday will be 8 days without wheat or wheat products at home, and surprisingly it’s going well.  The boys have been quite agreeable, even double checking to make sure they’re ‘not cheating.’  The best part is that we’re seeing some clearing of eczema already.  Definitely seeing less headaches.  And the child in question is undeniably sleeping better.  And feeling better!   I’m doing ‘experimental baking’ on Wednesdays (when we’re home all day) so that we can figure this wheat-less thing out.  I’m working hard to NOT trade one starchy food for another, so we’re not using the typical wheat free or gluten free all purpose flours that are available.  Makes things slightly more challenging, but it also makes things much healthier!  This week I baked wheat free, high fiber, low(er) carb chocolate zucchini bread, and it was a huge hit.  I took a recipe I have at home and modified it slightly.  Nearly perfect!  I am glad chemistry has always been a favorite subject, since understanding chemistry in the kitchen makes the experimentation a touch easier.

But for this face (hard at work on his math)

and this one (being a goof at speech therapy)

going wheat free is something we’ll gladly try (and stay with!) if it makes a difference.  How on earth could we say no?? 

time crunch!

I’m still here.  There’s a lot on my plate these days, and it seems that I never have enough time to take what’s in my head and get it down here.  We’ve been doing some teaching at church—I taught at Moms N Tots on time management (SUCH fun!!), and Jim and I have been involved in some teaching on Sunday mornings.  We’re involved in a ministry called Young Families, aimed at families with children under 6th grade.  Since we’ve already been there and done that once, we’re sort of the ‘old people mentor types’ in the class.  Young Families has been looking at kids with challenges and life with them.  We shared our experiences on navigating education with a child whose list of challenges/differences reads like a who’s who in the disability world.    BUT…it has helped us refine our thoughts, redefine the WHY of our decisions, and clarify  where we go from here.  God keeps teaching us, and hopefully we keep learning!  Some days I’m WAY too slow to get where He’s leading, but I can see pieces of the bigger picture…more than I could even just 4 months ago.  It’s encouraging.  And when I have (a little more) time, I’ll give the run-down.  In the meantime…

…here’s where some of my time has gone.  My Life in God’s Garden—Musings of a Mom of Many.   Diane is an amazing writer, and her family has been walking an incredible journey.  He faith is SO evident in her blog, and she shares so transparently.  Not just the good stuff…the hard stuff too.  The “I can’t do this any more, except for God” kind of days.  My heart echoes her cry in this post, but she’s so much more eloquent than I.   I have had the briefest glimpse of how she feels here as we have worked to come to terms with Logan’s challenges.    I check her blog almost daily and pray for her family often, even though we’ve never met.  Diane inspires me! 

With that, I need to get moving today.  Since we’ve been in Everett for speech, there’s still lots to accomplish before dinner.

challenges

I have 2 challenges for everyone today.  One is fun, and one will be hard.  We’ll start with the fun. 

Go here and take the 2013 “Be My Valentine” Marriage Challenge.  There are activities for every week between now and Valentine’s Day to make this season extra special for someone you love.  The weekly challenges are fun and will bring some extra spice to your marriage.

And then, when you’re done looking that over, c’mon back.  The second challenge is a bit tougher.  Okay…a LOT tougher.

I want you to go read an incredibly fascinating series of articles about adoption.  Yes, it’s primarily about adoption in and from China, but much of the information is true regardless of where in the world you are talking about orphans.  I know my heart is in turmoil, knowing that we have the resources and the ability to change the world for another child or two, but not necessarily feeling the pull at the moment.  It’s that impossible question:  when you know the RIGHT thing to do but you don’t feel like doing it, is it okay to say ‘no’?  I’m thinking God would have some thoughts on that!  I’m definitely praying here about what we do next.  (No, it’s not likely that we’ll ever be adopting again.  Stranger things have happened, I know, but I would fall over in a dead faint if we moved forward.  We’ll see.  This is when I’m grateful God is in charge, not me.     )

The articles:

• The Changing Face of China’s Orphans
• Changing Attitudes
• The Adoption of Boys (this one breaks my heart!!)
• Domestic Adoption on the Rise
• Birth Defects
• New Challenges
• Why International Adoption Still Matters

All these articles were written by Amy Eldridge, whose organization (Love without Boundaries) has been involved in orphan care in China for over 10 years.  LWB does incredible work there!! 

Happy reading!  Can’t wait to hear what you think of the challenges. 

well, if you think it will help someone…

This boy:

rocks!!

Jim and I are teaching in our adult Sunday School class a week from Sunday.  The class is going through a series on living with those who are differently abled and uniquely challenged, and we will be teaching the session on navigating education for your uniquely challenged child.  As we’ve talked through some ideas, I have struggled with how much of what makes Logan uniquely challenged is appropriate to share.  After all, my desire is for him to see himself as ‘normal’ rather than ‘different’ or ‘disabled.’  I don’t want him to use his unique challenges as an excuse or even a crutch.  Yes, he has more challenges in his daily life than most of us, but he’s also got some incredible gifts that most of us don’t possess! 

Anyway, as I was struggling with how much to share, I decided to ask Logan for his input.  It is, after all, HIS story and HIS situation.  So I did.  And man was I blown away by this child’s answer.  He thought for a few minutes, then said, “If you think it will help someone, Momma, then sure.  Tell them whatever you want to about me.  I just want other people to be helped by it.”  My eyes filled with tears at the compassion of this little one.

We talked more when we got home, and it’s clear he truly understands what I am asking.  He knows he doesn’t hear well…and he offered to let us bring his hearing aids to class in case someone needed to see them.  He knows that he isn’t as coordinated as others, but he reminded me that with practice and patience he will eventually learn to do things like ride a bicycle.  He pointed out that already he’s learned so much about his balance and his body placement in space just from being allowed to run and jump and play (and fall down!).  He said that our encouragement to get back up and try again makes it easier.  He knows that he struggles greatly with working memory and inhibitory control and almost all things academic (he’s severely dyslexic).  He is, however, seeing the rewards of patience and time…and he is reading!  He is doing basic math!  He loves that we have the freedom to customize his learning to make it accessible for him, to help him achieve success.  He wants everyone to see the kind of success he’s seeing right now, and if sharing his story and his ‘issues’ helps one family, then he’s all for it. 

I can’t wait to see this boy grow up.  His compassion and desire to make a difference will change his world forever.  Just like he’s changed ours.  And that’s a good thing.  A VERY good thing. 

prayer needed

Sweet Ivy was adopted from China early in 2012.   She has a complex heart defect and has recently been through a fairly traumatic surgery and recovery period.  After being home for a short period of time, Ivy has had some complications and is back in the hospital.  Things don’t look great from a human perspective at the moment.  Please take a minute and read about sweet Ivy and her family, and pray for them!  Ivy’s blog can be found here.

“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”   ~Matthew 18:20

Shout it from the rooftops!!

We are SO excited here!  Today was our first day back at school after a very long break.  (We take time off from Thanksgiving to the New Year, instead focusing on practical applications of our skills.  We use math in budgeting and baking and gift wrapping.  We practice our penmanship in list-making.  We learn about music appreciation and composers when we listen to Handel’s Messiah.  We learn life skills when we learn how to keep our Christmas focus in the right places.  And we enjoy the season with less stress!)  Anyway, today was Logan’s first day ‘back in the saddle’ and to start, we pulled out some slightly more challenging work I’ve been saving for the right time.  Guess what?  He BLEW through it all!  Every single page.  Every single problem!  Every word in the short book I had for him?  HE read them.  By himself.  Alone!  No tears.  No frustration.  No whining.  Just the grins and smiles that come from success, and the spiraling excitement when he realized that he really truly could do this!  Now, he’s not going to win any reading or math awards any time soon.  The book was small—11 pages.  It has 16 different words in it, in 21 sentences.  But he DID it!  For him it’s a HUGE step.  The best part?  He’s so excited by his success that he can’t wait to try the next book.  And the next.  And he’s already talking about how he’s going to do more than I think he can before school’s out this year.  For the kid who has approached every lesson with tears and trepidation, it’s a RED LETTER day.

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, and I apologize.  God has a way of making sure that we truly understand our topic when we are asked to teach.  I am teaching the young moms at church next week, and the topic I was given is time management.  And I have been learning lessons this winter.  Plagued by a mild infection since mid-October, I’ve been under the weather enough to have to evaluate my priorities and understand what’s truly important.  The down time that comes from an ongoing low grade fever and just generally feeling crummy has put significant experience to understanding how those priorities should be ordered.  Fortunately, I am feeling better and am (almost) ready to speak next week.  Even more important, I am grateful for the lessons learned through this and pray that they will stick with me. 

So rejoice with us!  2013 is starting off with a bang.  Great school work.  Mostly restored health for me.  A girl who is excited to head back to WSU tomorrow.  One who leaves Wednesday morning for a semester abroad—in Florence, Italy.  (Such a hard thing for a renaissance era History and Art History major.  We will miss her terribly, but I know when she returns in May she’ll have loads to share.)  One who is back in school, eagerly awaiting her first clinical assignment.  And one who is coming to visit for his little brother’s birthday!  Can’t wait for that…36 hours at Christmas wasn’t long enough to suit this mom.  

I’ll leave you with the words God has given me for this year:

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.  ~Psalm 90:12

a lightbulb moment

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  ~Ps 139:14

God is teaching me that every single day…

It’s not news that one of my little guys struggles with motor planning issues.  Clearly, though, I haven’t thought through the implications all the way.  If I had, yesterday’s ‘aha!’ would have happened long ago.

One of the boys uses a math book beyond his grade level, and he has difficulty fitting his 2nd grade printing size into the space allotted in these more advanced math worksheets.  No big deal—I don’t care as much about the penmanship (it will come!) as I do about the math knowledge, so I scribe some for him.  Works well.  He talks me through the problems and I write things down for him.  The other advantage is that I get to see how well he understands what he’s doing!  Anyway, I’ve been scribing for him since we started homeschooling.  Since the other boy’s math book has LOTS of empty space between problems on the page (most excellent for easily distractible kidlets! ), I’ve not done the scribing for him.  Until yesterday.  He was frustrated and needed some help, so I picked up a pencil and said, “Let’s blow through this.  You read the problems and tell me the answers, and I’ll write them down for you.”  Having watched him work on math problems for the last 2 years, I really didn’t expect much.  After all, a single worksheet with about 10 basic addition or subtraction problems on it can take him half an hour or longer.  But you know what?  He CAN blow through it!  Apparently his motor planning issues make the whole process nigh unto impossible.  Take away the need to switch from knowing the answer to figuring out how to get his arm and hand to use the pencil to actually CREATE the number on the page, and he’s got it!  Blew me away.   He did 10 problems in about 2 1/2 minutes.  Today we did 2 worksheets, one a new(er) concept and one a review sheet.  Probably 25-30 problems total.   I chose to scribe for him, and I think we were done in 15 minutes or so.  And he struggled with some of the math facts!  (No surprise there—he has working memory issues, and basic math facts come and go in his brain’s ‘filing system’.)

I am liking the implications of this!  No more fighting over how long it takes to do a simple math page.  No more tears because it’s ‘too hard’ or ‘takes too long.’  No worries!  Yes, I know he needs to learn to write.  We work on penmanship.  But you know what?  In the big picture of life, I’d much prefer he knows how to read and do math.  He can always learn to type.  He can live forever without knowing how to print or write in cursive well, but life will be very hard indeed if he can’t read or do math. 

So now we apply this more proactively to his language/grammar as well.  He loves to tells stories, so we will be more intentional about writing them for him.  (No creative spelling allowed here.    For a child with severe dyslexia and significant working memory issues, creative spelling is risky at best and potentially damaging long term.)  The bonus of all that is that when we scribe for him, we can help him with the parts of language that are difficult for him:  word usage, tenses, and sentence construction.  (Yes, pretty much the whole thing.  Oh well.)

boys…and horses!

Check out the joy on these faces:

Ryan rides the little horse, Spud.  And Spud is TINY.  Logan’s on Jenn in this picture (a touch of irony there…), but he usually rides a horse named Appy.  Jenn’s pretty little compared to Appy.  They ride every Wednesday afternoon, and it is the highlight of their week.

Logan’s riding for therapy. We’ve seen incredible improvement in his core strength and his speech since he started.  With 7 weeks down, he’s loving every minute of it.  I suspect his favorite part is that HE is in control of the horse.  These horses are incredible—if Logan doesn’t ‘turn his belly button and his nose’ in the direction he wants to go, then Appy or Jenn will simply walk right into the obstacle he is supposed to be steering them around.  He’s learning…and one of the great lessons is that with control comes responsibility!  He doesn’t fight me anywhere near as hard, since he now gets that making decisions means paying the consequences of wrong ones.  (Yes, he’s directed his horse into a few fences.  Corwin and Natalie stop the horse before anyone is hurt!) 

Ryan’s also riding for therapy. In his case, it’s not for physical therapy but instead for help with his overwhelming fears.  Hence the pony.    Even after just 2 sessions I can see the benefits—Ryan’s not as afraid of going upstairs on his own, or going to bed a night.  Amazing how conquering a fear of large animals can transfer to other areas of life.

(Ryan and Spud get to lead on the trail ride last week)

Both boys have 2 people with them when they ride (part of the therapeutic riding program at this arena.)  Pepper and Eli work with Ryan, and Corwin and Natalie work with Logan.  It’s perfect—Pepper is friendly and outgoing, just what somewhat shy Ryan needs.  Natalie is partially deaf and wears hearing aids, just like Logan.  Natalie has challenged Logan at every turn, not letting him slack off and get away with anything less than hard work.  Pepper is encouraging to Ryan, gently reminding him that he is okay, that he will be fine, and that Spud won’t hurt him.  They both give the boys some responsibilities at the end of the lesson, although Pepper discovered quickly that Ryan was more suited to putting away the saddle blanket than the saddle!  Logan LOVES the hard, heavy work, though and thrives on helping out. 

They both want to go to Equestrian Day Camp this summer right here where they ride.  I’d LOVE to send them!  They would be at camp from 8:30-4:30 Monday through Friday, riding horses and learning about their care.  They would absolutely be in heaven!  Sadly, you have to be 52” tall to participate, and although Logan will be that tall by summer, there’s not a snowball’s chance anywhere that Ryan will be.  At not quite 48”, he’s got a long ways to go before he gets that tall.  Especially when you consider that he’s only grown 20” in the last 7 years!!  Oh well.  Hopefully, a spring term of therapeutic riding is in their future.  Maybe that will ease the pain of being too short for summer camp.

Need me on Wednesday afternoons?  I’ll be at the barn, watching my boys have a blast!    Enjoying the fact that sometimes therapy (and hard work) are truly FUN.