Wow, it's been 2 months since my last blog?!

 We have been a busy bunch...  

4 new haircuts

I ran my 3rd Half Marathon
Eugene Women's

Ashley and Josh

My brother, his wife (my college roommate), and their 2 daughters moved into our neighborhood!

Jocelyn and Abby

School started for 3! 

I thought I'd just get serious about Haylee (5 1/2) this year because she is Kindergarten age now and let Hannah (4 1/2) play for one more year.  But we got her a Preschool workbook and she went through all 200 pages in 6 weeks!  She was completing 10-15 pages a day and loving it!  So we decided to order the Kindergarten Math and Phonics workbooks for Hannah like Haylee.  Hannah is quickly trying to catch up.  They are only 13 months apart, so we'll see how they land over the years academically, but no pressure either way.  That's one of the beauties of homeschooling, you don't have to be governed by grade levels.  You have the freedom to move ahead or slow down depending on each child's progress.  

Lukas made a great Mario! 

Lukas (7) is really taking off with reading, but I still do a lot of reading aloud to him for the chapter books.  I was really nervous about homeschool this year because I was unsure how it was going to work for a newish reader doing 2nd grade, and teaching one or both of the girls to start reading.  I'm still amazed a mom without a college degree can teach her own child to read!  What an incredible concept!  It's such a rewarding task!  But 2 in one year?  EEK!

It's crazy to sit down with all 3 at the table and have all 3 asking, at the same time, "What do I do on this page?"  Aaaa!
I have begun a few new habits to help me stay calm and keep everyone focused.

1) We light a yummy candle in the middle of the table 

(deep breath) 

2) I play Classical music on Pandora Radio 

(Just discovered Pandora this month and I LOVE it!)

3) I always bring my coffee!  

And 4) We slide Jaron's chair right up to the table, so he can be a part of the school day (or take a nap).  

It also helps that Autumn is my favorite season!  The AMAZING color of leaves on the trees out the dining room window (our homeschool room) fills my soul with thanksgiving!

I LOVE this big tree in front of our house in the Fall!

This is an old Fall picture of the girls.
It makes me smile!

Oh, and Jaron is SMILING!!!  And that makes my soul sing every time!

Speaking of Jaron, he got new wheels, a Kid Kart Xpress!  (pics later) He is 19 months old and has grown an inch longer (30") and a pound heavier (21' 9").  He is almost weaned off of both seizure medicines (Keppra and Topomax), and will soon be only on the ketogenic diet and supplements for seizure control.  He had a 2 week period of NO SEIZURES!  He started smiling, cooing, and responding in his own special way!  And I would say his seizures are "controlled" for now.  He has multiple little "startle spasms" through the day (I coined the term because that's exactly what they look like).  But they are not disruptive and he often smiles right after he does it.  We have now added a Speech Pathologist to his list of specialists, who is excited to be teaching him to use switch toys!  Basically, it is an electronic toy attached to a cord with an "easy" button on the end.  They place the button about a finger-width from his head or hand or foot and teach him to push the button to activate the toy!  I'm shocked that he is able to make the cause-and-effect connection!  The fact that a year ago, I was trying to prepare my heart for losing my precious baby boy (If you're wondering... No, it's not possible to prepare for), and today I'm telling him, "Push the button, play your music!" is a miracle!

More later...