Family and holidays

I have been so busy of late as I am sure you all have been too. I have not been around much. Alot has been going on, you know the usual of getting ready for the holidays and then surviving them. I am truly disappointed that I didn't make that many cookies this year. I love baking truly I do but with everything happening with my hubs my heart wasn't really in the Christmas spirit this year. I have since realized how silly I am being and am pushing my way out of this little funk I am in. The boys did make gingerbread houses and we baked some sugar cookies that we were going to decorate with a friend but the boys ended up playing instead and my friend and I just talked while I oohed and head over her home school room.

OH and my One year anniversary of this blog passed on the 22nd as well. Do you remember that one, I had chopped ten inches off my hair to donate to Locks of Love. I had always wanted to do that. My sister was right though my hair just about is as long as it was before I cut it. It was above my shoulders this time last year. I guess my hair does still grow like a weed. Boy has a lot happened since I started this blog. I hope that I can make my blog better next year.

We went ice skating and had a great game day with our local home school group. My boys enjoyed both but I think they liked the ice skating a bit more. Fine by me it gets them to have a bit of exercise while they are having fun. This is supposed to be a bi-weekly thing so I think the boys may tire of it at some point. We also made homemade ornaments and almost homemade ornaments. I got some Styrofoam balls and we hot glued bits of fabric into them and then a loop so it could hang on the tree. The almost homemade ornaments were some of those cool plaster of Paris ornaments you can paint. We also took some beads and bells and put them on those pipe cleaners to make cute rings. I love, Absolutely LOVE homemade ornaments.

My grandparents put on the holidays every year. There is a huge and I mean huge feast to be had with several choices of deserts. One would think a restaurant should have this many choices but as Austin says Grandma makes the best food. I showed my mom my feeble attempt at knitting a scarf, my first mind you. And of course I should have known better because my mom looked at it and took half a minute to try and fix the dropped stitches and decided the best way to go would be to start over. I was almost done and she just took it apart and then started knitting telling me she was doing me a favor. HUH? that is my mom to the tee. That and when Chris was trying to be nice by getting some family pics my mom smacked me every time he took on of her. This caused my grandmother to stop her yearly reading of a Christmas book and tell me to stop. Of course it was all in fun. We exchanged our gifts and boy am I glad we do the secret Santa or I would be broke right now or no one would have gotten anything from us. I love going to my grandparents house they are the only sane people in my family everyone else is nuts. We all had such a wonderful evening.

The whole Clan. My mil in front with all the grand kids. I am standing next to my grandparents and of course both my mom and brother conveniently hid from the camera.

But here my hubs captured this shot of my brother with his best Friend and both their girlfriends. My brother is the one with the hat sort of center in the picture

My mom and sister both knitting. This is the scarf my mom unraveled and did me a "favor" by redoing it.

Colin gets money as usual. He loves money.

Here is my dad. I swear every picture he has these glasses up on his forehead. Honestly he looks so handsome when he smiles.

And of course a pic of my kids decorating my tree for me. I treasure this time, won't be long before I can have my tree look just the way I want but will miss the ornaments being in all the wierd places the kids put them.

How was your holiday? I sure hope good.

Vanessa

Weekly happenings

Boy has this been some week. We started out by finishing up out mini unit on Thanksgiving. We only did it for a week and really didn't do all that much in it but it was fun and the kids and I learned alot about thanksgiving. We then started some initial work on a Christmas unit that I am sort of throwing together as we go. The history Channel has a great video on the history of Christmas. I am gathering links and such so I can share all I have found. I am really going to try and make it fun.

Tuesday brought my Birthday. I am officially 33 yrs old. I don't really feel old but I do feel like certain things aren't within my capabilities anymore. Or maybe that is my mind playing tricks on me. I do know that I have outgrown a few things say like judging others. Ok I'm not perfect at it but to a big extent I no longer find myself judging someone when a friend tells me about said someone and what they did. I now think to myself what is the other side of that story? I had been doing this for a bit now. We did a very low key Birthday. Well a couple of months ago Dh felt inclined to get me a dachshund and two days later another one. They were to be my Birthday present. Let me say I really really enjoy these little guys. Honestly until they came I considered myself a cat person. I mean cats aren't all over you all the time, they don't slobber on you. they generally don't scare anyone either or hurt them in any real way or at least none of the cats I have had. You are on your own with any you have had. We have had numerous animals throughout our marriage and with that came a few dogs. They all always loved Dh and then loved Colin. None of them seemed to love me, they liked me sure. More like they put up with me. Anyway these guys genuinely seem so happy to see me and love on me that they officially have me wrapped around their fingers (or would that be toes? )Are you ready for the cuteness if not turn away now this is a warning of severe cuteness. Here are my dogs Sophie and Snoopy.

Sickening isn't it how cute they are?

Wednesday Austin got his braces installed. Is it installed or just on? I never had braces so I don't know. He has had a heck of a time refiguring out how to eat. We have a pet peeve about seeing people chew their food. During dinner I saw all of Austin's food and so I asked him to please try to chew with his mouth closed. He ended up in tears. I officially felt like a crumb . It was not my intent to hurt his feelings but he is aware of our rules and when they don't follow I can be rather unnice especially since he is almost 13 I feel he knows better and I expect more from him.

Thursday Dh had his finger amputated. More on that on my well spouse blog.

Friday we had to go to co-op. I really didn't want to as my emotions were all wrought. I felt like I would spring into tears at an inopportune time and I did. Luckily I have a very good friend there who has such a big heart. She prayed with me and I was comforted and inspired and very impressed. I don't come from a big religious family. As a matter of fact I come from a family that believes that whatever you do in church you can do at home just as well. It used to sound like a good theory but since I have been going to church more lately I find that it doesn't work because those people don't do it at home its just said. kwim? I really felt better and really really appreciate my friend. One day I hope I can return the favor or perhaps spread a bit of Karma by praying for someone else in need. Co-op went great. The kids got to launch their rockets (mini rockets). They also got to meet a detective and he talked about his job and gave all the kids a miniature pin. It is a replica of the shield they carry. They also got to work with the science of architecture. They formed groups and built a building out of marshmallows and spaghetti. They had a blast.

How was your week?

Vanessa

Advent fun

I am originally from Germany. I was born there and spent the first 10 yrs of my life there. My mother married and American when I was 2 and 8 yrs later he wanted to go home. So we went. I knew a handful of American words (that's what I still call them most times, its weird). I had to have special tutors and my clothes were not up to standards. Us German Frauleins were still wearing puffy skirts with colored stockings and knitted sweaters. The American girls wore jeans and t-shirts. Another newbie for me was Thanksgiving, what was this strange holiday? And of course no one knew what an Advent Calendar was or at least in the way I was used to. Now I won't say my mom was all creative and stuff but each year my sister and I would get an Advent Calendar. You can now buy them in most stores. You know the ones with the chocolates in them?

In the yrs past this great thing has caught on here. I was so happy to have found a great link for an advent calendar that has all sorts of fun stuff. There is a link for every day till Christmas and on each day there are games, crafts, recipes, history and all sorts of fun that I would probably never be able to do all of but I can do some and record the rest for next yr although I may find something else.

http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/unitssubjhol/a/advent125.htm

We are going to do these things. I'm not sure what category they will all fit into but that is okay I am just going to simplify by saying it's a unit study. There all done in the hs field, lol. Each of the kids will get to pick something each and then I will get to pick at least one. That will have us doing four things on our Unit (like how I did that???) every day. I hope to share pictures and stuff.

Our tree is up and there is snow that is sticking to the ground or at least the roof tops. We have turkey, candied yams and green bean casserole for leftovers. I have put together two deer and a spiral tree to put in our yard. Dh got Santa out and put him on our porch he speaks and sings in American English and Spanish. Most of the decorations are up. We had a great four day weekend, how about you?

Vanessa

Being Thankful

How do you teach your kids to be thankful? Latley I have been finding that I am thankful for very simple things, things that I have taken for granted for far too long. Now how do I show my children this. Well I could be dramatic and go over this ad nauseum but for now how about I do what another friend does occasionally that I find ever so delightful to read, she shares on occasion what she is thankful for.

~Having my grandparents still around to make the holiday feast and wonderful memories for my children and I to remember for years to come.

~Getting a very special call yesterday that brought me to tears at the generosity of others, thank you so much Susie

~Having a friend that truly understands so very much about what I am going through and being able to talk with her

~Having made my own pajama's (although the drawstring still needs to be redone) and soon to follow a purse

~Being blessed to enjoy my children by having them home with me

There are so many more but this is good and I love the simplicity of it. I used to be thankful for the biggies that well most are but I am learning alot of little things can be such a blessing in your life. I hope your holidays are wonderful .

Vanessa

Does it count?

For a few days we took our non carved pumpkins and baked them, cut off the flesh, ran them through my kitchen aid(I love this machine) grinder and then put them in thin towles to squeeze the juice out. then we weighed 16 oz portions and froze them. I had wanted to can them but only have the pressure canner, which I have yet to use. I don't have the water bath one but boy it sure would have been nice to not take up all that room in my freezer with the upcoming holidays and turkeys and what not. The boys all helped although Austin very grudginlly. Conner was my biggest helper he loved the grinder and happily volunteered for this job. It's funny because generally anything that involves work makes conner run for the hills or throw a three year old tantrum. As a matter of fact my niece has sensory integration disfunction and my sister always tells me I should get conner tested because he tends to fall into many of the same categories. Anyway that is a whole nother story. We started with 4 pumpkins and I got 11 16oz containers in the freezer. I still have one pumpkin to go. Can I count this for school? and what is it considered other than cooking which is an elective?
Pumpkin puree is very messy affair

My work space

The finished product before freezing. I even saved the seeds to roast.

I hosted game day for our hs group and decided it was too messy of a job and took too long so I didn't finish it that day but I intend to this weekend, as matter of fact I should probably be doing that now. At game day we played this strange game called Quelf. Have you heard of it? It's not our game so I hadn't and it was so strange there didn't seem to be ryme or reason to it. There is no strategy so really no way you can cheat. I would explain it to you but that would be hard so I will give you a couple of examples. For one card you will need to choose from two categories say candy bars or movies that won an academy award and everyone goes around and names one until you get to a person that can't name another one. On another card you will need to hold your lip and say the card in a random way. Another card may make you act something out in alternative dance. Let's just say it was a strange game but we really enjoyed it and the kids are asking if we can get it. Hmm mabey Christmas?

I made my favorite Tiramasu cake for game day. Once upon a time I used to get recipe cards in the mail and they made several binders. I never did get them all but I have quite a bit and this is one of their recipes that I made once and I was hooked. I promised I would share the reicpe so here it is.

For the cake:

1 package (18 1/4 oz) white cake mix with pudding

1 tsp instant coffee

1 cup strong brewed coffee

1 TBlsp coffee liqueur or espresso


For the filling:

1 container(8 oz)mascrapone cheese

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 TBsp coffee liqueur or espresso


For the frosting:

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

2 TBsp coffee liqueur or espresso


For the garnish:

cocoa powder

Chocolate curls


Making the cake

Preheat ove to 350. Grease three 9 inch round cake pans. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Divide two thirds of batter between 2 pans. Stir instant coffee into remaining batter, pour into rmaining pan. In measuring cup, combine brewed coffee and coffee liqueur;set aside.


Making the filling

In a small bowl, using a n electric mixer set on low speed, combine mascrapone, confectioners' sugar and liqueur. Beat just until smooth, Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.


Making the frosting:

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-high speed, beat cream, confectioners' sugar and liqueur until stiff. Fold 1/2 cup of crem mixture into filling mixture.


Assemling the cake:

Place one plain cake layer on a serving plate. Using a thin skewer, poke holes in cake about 1 inch apart. Pour one thrid of reserve coffee mixture over cake, then spread with half of the filling. Top with coffee-flavored cake layer; poke holes in cake. Pour another third of coffee mixture over the second layer and spread with the remaining filling. Top with remaining cake layer; Poke holes in cake. Pour remaining coffee mixture on top. Spread sides and top of cake with frosting. Place cocoa in a sieve and lightly dust top of cake. Garnish with chocolate curls. Refrigerate at least 30 min. before serving.

Note: You can substitute mascrapone with ricotto but you must make very smooth and it doesn't taste quite the same in my opinion although it is still a heavenly cake. I also substituted chocolate morsels as I don't have a huge chunk of chocolate to make curls from.

Mmmmm. It even looks pretty

See I need to work on getting the sides smoother and the morsels should be chocolate curls.

All the layers of the cake.

a little slice of heaven. MMMMMM





Vanessa

Austin takes the day off

Curtesy of the Dentist and Orthodontist Austin has been given the day off. He had to have two teeth pulled. He said it didn't hurt but it hurt when I had one pulled. Poor guy. I felt so bad for him because his teeth were perfectly fine but because he has crowding in his mouth the Orthodontist needed to make room for his teeth. That way when Austin gets braces he will have the room for them to get uncrowded. On the 3rd of December he is supposed to get his braces put on. the Orthodontist assures me it will not hurt. I never had braces so I don't know but if Austin looks bad he may get that day off as well. Besides which appointments like this always seem to ruin the rest of the day. Don't you think? It's like if it isn't first thing in the morning or after about 1ish I don't get any other hsing done. The boys did do their math and are working on some english now. Im not sure we will get anything else done though.

Look at the root. I don't know why the camera is acting up. growl

Poor baby two teeth.

Vanessa

Back in the saddle? sort of

Having been very distracted lately with other happenings in my life I have noticed that our hs is not at it's best and things have sort of slid. Being aware that is what is happening has led me to renew my commitment to my boys hs. I am re-planing their Indian study, no they have not finished it and yes it has been about a month or month and a half. I went to a great teacher store in the Springs and got a unit study on Indians. I am reading it now and preparing myself for what we will do out of it. I also am thinking about doing a thanksgiving unit. It's right around the corner and it ties in with the Indians.

Some things I am looking at for this unit are a strawberry drink, beef jerky, blue marbles(something to eat), zuni poetry, possibly coiled pottery, green Chile, Navajo weaving, sand painting,fry bread, pictograph, sunflower cakes, making paper and round Mayan calendar. Looking at the list now I think I may have to give some of these up no matter how fun they sound. Sometimes I get to caught up in how fun something sounds and keep adding to a unit making it incredibly long. Then the kids don't have fun, they don't learn and we are all miserable. I am slowly figuring this out. There will also be reading involved and research on the kids parts
to find answers to

1. Where they live
2. What was their culture like
3. Foods they ate(list at least 3)
4. Belief system

I am also thinking about a time line. While picking up the book at the teacher store they had one for Indians. It's pretty detailed but I'm sure I can figure out a smaller version to put in their notebooks. Conner still likes the lapbook idea but Colin really wants to move forward and do a notebook. I haven't done this before but that is okay, I will learn along the way.

Saturday is generally my planning day but I seem to have forgotten that in the past couple of months so lots to catch up on and getting back in the swing of things. There is also house cleaning to do, yeah(Not). I am finding more and more how nice it is after working hard to clean my house I feel so satisfied at the knowledge of it being clean. I am also not stressed by the endless things that need to be done. This has fallen off my track as well. Not that I am a neat freak or anything but I wouldn't mind having things orderly, kwim. I am going to attempt to organize my home. I have things here and there that need it and I have things here and there that are already done but need to be tweaked a bit or redone again as they have fallen out of the order.

In other news we went with our church to rake up the yards of the elderly. I really enjoyed helping out and I think my boys did too. Austin didn't make it as he went with the youth group up to Denver to a group gathering up there. So it was just Colin, Conner and I and they seemed to enjoy doing this. A couple of the folks gave us yummy goodies to thank us for the hard work we did. The gratefulness I saw in their eyes made me an emotional ball. What a simple thing to do and yet it made a difference in the lives of others. Something I and perhaps you would take for granted , raking up the leaves in your yard, is something some people can't do and they truly appreciate it.

I know I have a tendency to read into these things and make them relevant to me and how I view the world . What can I learn from this ? How can I teach or show my young impressionable boys this? I love to reflect, its sort of an obsession but I feel that I am trying to improve myself as a person and pass that on to my children. I like to think that I am a good person but I am human and I still make mistakes but I would like to say that I try to learn from them. I hope that my boys see this and that they too will strive to continually make themselves better people. So often we can get stagnant and then we do the inevitable and make a mistake. It is human nature, I just want my boys to know that yeah you will make mistakes but try to learn from them. So now that I have gone of another tangent back to our raking story.

I spent alot of time thinking about the people we helped and their gratitude. I thought of all the things that I do take for granted. I thought of all the rights my children seem to think they have. For example they get to spend an hour on the computer every day. They do ask to go on the computer but more than once have they asked "can I have my computer time now?". Do you see the implication in such a simple statement? My computer time? umm it's a privilege not a right. These are the things that were juggling through my head yesterday. Alot of people are scaling down on Christmas this yr, we are one of them. Most people do this out of necessity but some(those fortunate souls) are doing it as a choice as it seems to have been blown out of proportion. It seems as if you don't spend at least a hundred bucks on each child you are somehow a Scrooge? really? Seriously? (eye roll). When I see people so appreciative of something so small and so taken for granted it really makes me want to reevaluate my ethics and stand on many things such as Christmas or other holidays or birthdays. They all have gotten so out of proportion. It doesn't even seem to be about the holiday or what its original purpose was but more about the gifts and how much you spent. I am guilty as charged on this account as many of you are. I envy those who can make it so simple and beautiful. Ok maybe they really got to me or maybe I am already an emotional ball because of other happenings in my life. But to be so grateful for people just raking your yard? Wow. I am beyond impressed.

Ok now if you will just drop a note letting me know just how nutty you think I am to be this wrought over raking up yards I would much appreciate it. *sly grin*
Have a great day.

Vanessa

A Quick Note

It has come to my attention that I didn't let you guys know that I did make a blog in regards to my dealings with my husbands health issues and the ramification surrounding that. I had spent enough time on telling you guy's about it so I didn't want to bother you with the details plus the blog is more a therapy for me and a possible help for others in a similar situation as opposed to finding a ton of readers. I actually have noticed I let alot of myself into that blog so it seems incredibly personal. Anyway I put the blog link into a widget that is at the bottom of my blog roll. Its all in black on the sidebar, really you can't miss it. So for those who cheered me on thank you so very much it was just the thing I needed to get back a bit of sanity in my life by letting some steam off. I can not express my gratitude in words here as there are so few to choose from so just know I thank you very much and I will forever be grateful for the kind words you guys have given me.
Enough said Now back to hs stuff.

Vanessa

Chef extrodinaire

My boys have been trying to have a "cookoff" for some time now. I have invited anyone who would like to participate to do so. I did want to videotape these sesssions to give it a sort of "cooking show" feel. Well I forgot to do this last night but I did manage a couple of pictures of what Colin did before we at it all.

Colin wanted to make eggs benedict. I knew that the egg was poached and there was some type of sauce on top but that was the extent of my knowledge of eggs benedict. Colin said
Mom we learned three things today.
What's that son?
We learned how to poach an egg, how to make hollindaise sauce and how to make eggs benedict.
Why yes we did Colin(I look at dh with a very proud grin of how astute my son is)
The things we decided was that the english muffin would be better toasted. The egg should cooked a few minutes longer. Colin now has a new favorite breakfast and he didn't think it was all that hard. Dh said he would just fry the egg because it was easier. I pointed out that it was healthier this way.
It is amazing at how long i have gone without poaching an egg. I have never done this and here my 11 yr old son has that belt already under him. I am really proud of him for trying out a new recipe. He truly is in his element in the kitchen. Austin is supposed to make dinner for us tonight. I think it is breakfast burritos in the microwave. Yes I said microwave and yes I think that is wierd but hey it's all good. Oh yeah the pictures, here they are. And to anyone wanting to "cook off" with us just have your child cook a breakfast item of their choice, you may help out I did. Then put your link into the comments. I would do mister linky but I don't exactly know how yet. I hope to be able to do this next time. Sure hope you guys join us.

Hollandaise sauce. I made it because there seemed to be alot going on in the kitchen and I didn't want Colin to get frustrated. I wanted it to be fun. Besides now I know how to make it. Is it just me or does it look like pudding?
Eggs benedict by Chef Colin.

Vanessa

2 great new products you will just have to have

I am sooo excited. I have found two great new products that you will fall in love with . They are versatile, easy to use and just soooo adorable.

The first product is this fantastic new bookmark I found. I have seen bookmarks and have had many throughout my life, haven't' you? While the old bookmark it was still a bit hard to find your place if it was very skinny and smaller than your book. Then I saw some that were thicker and came out of your book which I thought was ingenious and found very helpful. The problem is that inevitably I would loose the bookmark. Then I had spent all this money on a great bookmark that actually made finding my page easier and I would misplace it somewhere. Seriously? This new and improved bookmark does the same thing as far as great ease of finding your spot in your book and I'm pretty sure I will not misplace it. Here is a great picture of my new improved bookmark.

Our second product is just fantastic and I have never seen anything like it on the market. Too bad I think I will have it patented and make millions on dollars. Yeah. So this is in that infomercial voice.

Do you love puzzles? A lady appears shaking her head very excitedly yes I do.

But hate the tedious work of sorting through all those pieces for the ones you are looking for?

A scene shows with the same lady this time over her box of puzzle pieces. Her hair is frayed and she has a scowl on her face. She looks for a puzzle piece in the box and blows air out and puts the puzzle away as she got too frustrated. All around is kaos. The lady hears the wonderful infomercial guide and looks hopeful and shakes her head yes.

With our new Automatic puzzle sorter(APS) you will never again be looking for that elusive puzzle piece. Just place the APS in your puzzle box full of pieces and it goes to work for you diligently sorting pieces for the ones you are looking for.

The scene goes back to the lady with her puzzle. She now has lovely hair and of course her house is miraculously clean all of a sudden. She has a big smile on her face as she finishes the other half the puzzle thanks to the great new invention of the APS her life is wonderful with smiling children and cute animals by her side. (snicker)

So you want your own too? Well for the low price of not $49.99, no not even $39.99 and unbelievably not even $29.99 no you can get this great new product for the incredible price of $19.99. In a very low voice they ramble a bunch of stuff about tax and shipping not included very fast and a number flashes before your eyes. You reach for the phone and order up your own APS so you can finally finish that puzzle that you have been working on for over a year now.

oh yeah I should show a picture of my own APS delivered to me about 2 months ago. I have been extraordinarily pleased with this product and it's versatility. Honestly people this is very handy. You must get one.

My new APS hard at work. Here he has found the piece I am looking for. Sigh, it is so amazing how much easier putting puzzles together is now thanks to my APS.

Occasionally your APS ,may need to 'test' the puzzle pieces to see if it is the one you need. Do not be alarmed as this is all part of the puzzle sorting process.

this is at the beginning of the puzzle sorting process after your APS has gotten his instructions as to the pieces to look for.

Vanessa

A roller coaster of a ride

Friday Co-op during science activities class we did a really fun project that lasted the entire class time. Kathy had the kids make a roller coaster out of foam tubing cut lenghtwise in half. They taped these together and were able to use chairs, boxes, cans or whatever they found to create hills and valleys and loop de loops. The kids were divided into four teams and each team made their own roller coaster. Then they competed to see which coaster was the fastest. They used marbles to speed down their coasters. Each team got their marble under about 2 seconds. Out of the four teams we saw some really cool things that went on. The team with mostly girls used styrafoam cups in various ways like you would see a watermill work, it was incredibly creative. Another team , conner was in it, had the only loop. One team went the speed route and taped their coaster way up on the wall to see if they could make it go faster than the other teams, Austin was on this team. Colin's team made valleys and such . They all had such great minds all forming their own cool versions of a roller coaster. It was so much fun. After all four teams competed we then combined them to make two teams and an even bigger coaster. It was crazy and you saw teams using the ingenuity of other teams work on both coasters.



The atmosphere was insane. They were soooooo loud. I had to get mean and raise my voice and let me tell you my voice already carries quite well and I tend to be louder than I think most times. I have no problem getting my kids attention. All around the room you saw excitment and fun and creativity and best of all learning. We kept asking the kids what type of energy the marble had at any given point. The kids were enthused and pretty competetive. It was great.
Kathy puts on one mean class. : > ) I hope to get pictures from her, she had a helper go around and take some. She also has lesson plans that coordinate this fun exciting class if you want to try it .

Vanessa

100th Post

I am so excited. I can't believe this is my 100th post. I am not quite to my 1 yr anniversary for blogging and here I am at my 100th post. I really wanted to change the look of my blog for this post and perhaps it will happen later but for now it will need to stay like this because I am not html inclined, kwim. I really wanted to add another column to share some other neat things like great links with you guys and I wanted to change the background to be more solid or at least not "bleed" through my posts. Oh and I really wanted to add a pretty signature at the end of all my posts as well. I looked and looked online for ways to show me how this is done but that only got me so far. I really need someone there to ask questions and such. Perhaps one day.

I have had such a good time doing this blog. Gina introduced me to blogging not quite a yr ago. Can you believe I had never heard of it?Crazy I know. There are so many wonderful blogs that share such great things on such an array of subjects that I have spent an enormous amount of time just reading these. Some have become blogs I go back to again and again like Mrs. Darling , Kathy and others. I started this blog with the intention of sharing with our family and friends our going's ons and such. I have made great new friends and wonderful new discoveries.

I hope the next yr brings even better stuff to share with all of you guys. I love sharing information and if nothing else this is what I love about blogging. I love reading about everything from the every day life of another hs'er or mom to scrapbooking or self sufficiency. There are so many wonderful blogs about all sorts of things great and I appreciate all those that take the time out to put them out there. These blogs inspire me to do the same and share with you our everyday lives and great links or websites I find along the way.

What has been going on at my house? Well we have been getting a bit off track in hsing due to my husbands illness and my inability to cope well with it. I am getting there and well that is a whole nother Blog I want to create in the near future. We have done our math and grammar and our science since we go to co-op and do three hours of science, thank god. We had started our Native American studies but veered off and I look forward to getting the boys back on track. Yesterday they watched a film about the Aztec's. They seemed to enjoy it and we will have a discussion on it today. They continue to go to Karate which I count as P.E., Social studies, and perhaps a bit of history when sensai throws it in there. We are trucking along and I hope to get back to normal.

Vanessa

Opinions please

I have been thinking about the possibility of starting a blog about my journey through my husband's illness. It has been really helpful to get it all off my chest. At the same time it has also caused other things in emotional nature to happen. What do you guys think? This blog is for my kid's and their schooling and so families far and wide can see what we are up to. I don't really want the two to mesh so to speak.
I need opinions here. I feel like I am becoming self obsessed or something and that I don't want. I don't want an all incompasing all about me thing It just helped me so very much to have it out there and I have found I am not alone and if I can help others while healing myself all in the same process it would be fantastic.
So let me have it.

Vanessa

Thank you kind friends

I got such wonderful friends here and you all have been so kind. I would like to take a moment to say how much I appreciate all of you for your concern about my husband. I really makes my journey down this road much easier with such great people around me, even virtually although some of you I know in real life.

To answer some questions that came up in the comments I would like to give you a bit of information about this virtually unknown disease. I say unknown because my dh saw about 10 specialists and all didn't have a clue what exactly he had, just what he didn't. So I will give you the gist.

Buerger's disease is for those who have smoked ALOT in their life. I didn't think my hubby smoked that much but then again almost the moment we started dating he knew I didn't like the habit and therefore he didn't really do it around me. Thus my knowledge on the amount was pretty limited. He picked up smoking somewhere around age 13-14. Crazy since my oldest son is about to turn 13 and I can't fathom him smoking. Thank goodness he is hs'ed so he doesn't have those types of influences around him. Anyway about a year ago my dh's fingers started turning bluish white when it got cold. His mom has Raynaud's so we just assumed that when cold, this would continue to happen to him. The his skin started to sort of get really tight and a sore started to form, later we would discover these are called ulcers. He thinking he had an infection tried to heal it with bandages and neosporin. This actually made it open and then the fun began. It didn't go away until we went on vacation in June. Kid you not. He had this ulcer for about 4-5 months. It also started to hurt a bit. Then when it did heal it didn't seem his skin wanted to grow back so he sort of lost a chunk at the tip of his finger, hmm weird but ok. He got all cleared up while we were on vacation in South Carolina. He had no pain and things seemed to go back to normal. Then we came back and one of his toes decided to get an ulcer. He again tried bandages and neosporin and it again opened up and has yet to heal. It has been about 3 months now. About a month ago another finger started to get an ulcer and we decided not to bandage it and just put the cream to make the skin not as tight which was causing discomfort. This seems to have not made it open so we are hoping that will be a good thing. About 3 weeks ago dh noticed on the same foot his toe had an ulcer the ball of his foot had a bruise. A week and a half passed and we saw it was no bruise but what appeared to be another ulcer. It has yet to open but if it does we are in deep kimpshe(sp?). Actually dh just informed me that it opened last night (thursday), great. Now he is hobbling even more. :(

Dh is a disabled Veteran so alot has been going through the V.A. But after having seen the umpteenth specialist and no one having an answer we went to our doctor. He also didn't have an answer. We tried a herbalist that lives in Canyon City that gave Chris some crystals and such and that didn't seem to help either. He has had cat scans, X-Ray's, blood work among other things. He has been put on several antibiotics, steroids, blood thinners, pain medications and even been offered (ahem) a medical prescription for marijuana (ahem)? Seriously? Appearntly good for cronic pain? Nothing seems to work .

One day he was working , at the state hospital, and one of the doctors and older Asian gentlemen and him were talking and after about 30 min. the guy said Dh has Buerger's disease. Dh looked it up and we were astounded at how this seemed to be what he had. We brought this to a couple of the doctors he had been seeing and they all agreed. Umm what exactly am I paying you for? Sickening. Anyway at least we now have what we believe a name to the mystery ailment that has been following us for about a yr now. That in itself was something of a relief. Unfortunatly there isn't a thing that can cure this disease. The doctors can only really try to help with the symptoms. Upon research though I discovered that the ulcers go away after 1 1/2-2 yrs of appearing. Of course that is dependent upon quiting smoking. I having never been a fan of dh's smoking habit was in favor of him quitting throughout our marriage. Last yr in March he quit for good, so I thought. But apparently he has had a couple here and there ,errrg. When a doctor tells you that you will loose a digit if you don't quit smoking it makes you much more likely to do so. He was not nearly as addicted anymore so quitting the here and now cig was not a hard choice to make, especially at the expense of his digits.

We are now upon winter which is no friend of my dh and his digits. He has 3 ulcers, two on one foot and one on his finger. The doctors are unsure whether the one on his finger is now gangrene. This can happen in Buerger's disease. We are keeping a close eye on it. The last doctor he saw was amazed that he was still working. Apparently pain medication is my dh's friend and as long as his boss is not privy to him being this medicated everyone gets along just great. Umm do you see my dilemma here? These statements brought to my attention just how serious our situation is. Dh being a MAN (ugghh) didn't really let me see just how much pain he is in and just how much medication he is taking and just how much he really probably shouldn't be working. What happens if he doesn't work. I haven't the foggiest. I don't have the type of skills to bring in equal amount of money as he does. I might be able to cover our mortgage or food and gas but not everything we have coming in. Where does this leave us? It leaves us possibly getting 100% disability through the V.A. He is already 50% so it isn't such a stretch but they just don't hand that out. Plus what will happen to my 32 yr old hubby if he can never work again?? How will that affect his health? Will it be better? All doctors agree on one thing- Move to a warmer climate.

Dh's family has a homesteaded property, 50 acres, in South Carolina. The house burned to the ground 2 yrs ago. We would need to build and live in nowhere ville. They don't even have a Wal-Mart. On the other hand perhaps not having a Wal-Mart isn't such a bad thing after all. Plus I just moved a little over a yr ago so I am not looking forward to moving again. But if there is a chance it will make my hubby better I am certainly willing to try. And this ladies and gentlemen has been my predicament for the past few months, or more acuratley about a yr I just didn't realize it.

I would like to say again that I feel so blessed to have such good people around me. Thank you so much for all your prayers and warm thoughts. I really appreicate it and my heart is swelled and warm and fuzzy. I am the kind of person that likes to try and look at the positive side and well that is that I am fortunate enough to still have my dh around, crippled as he may be. He is here. That is such a good thing that having to deal with this illness doesn't seem quite as bad, kwim?

Vanessa

My Zoo grows

I love my husband I really do but sometimes I just wonder why he does the stuff he does, know what I mean? About a month ago I took Austin to the Rock show in Denver where he convinced me that we needed a 6 week old kitten. I love cats, I'm a cat person what can I say. It wasn't all that hard. I tried to hold off but the cat was so cute and I have been having alot of stress lately so I caved. (smacks self on forehead).

This is Tigger. His eyes are now brownish green. I'll see if I can get a picture.

Could you say no to this face?

My dh has a mystery ailment that we think we have figured out. Unfortunately it's not looking like we will be able to cure him. We think he has Buerger's Disease. It's directly linked to smoking lots of smoking and it's quite yucky. It's not very prevalent these days but essentially those who quit smoking will be mostly symptom free in 1 1/2 -2 yrs. But if you don't quit the chances of you needing amputation are about 80%. Patients, my dh included, get these ulcers on their digits. This is accompanied by extreme pain and there ain't a thing the doctors can do at least that they have found. So most nights he doesn't sleep and some nights I don't either. He can't get comfortable, he can't sit still. He gets up and walks around. Then tries to lay down again. We even got a recliner because he was more comfortable sitting up. This lets him sleep an extra hour or two a night.

Tigger becomes a pocket pet. All the while doing a great job of distracting my hubbs.

So here I have this kitten and the greatest thing happened. At night the kitten wanted to play. I was tired and wanted to sleep but hubbs can't sleep and the kitten biting and whatnot with him for an hour takes his mind off of the intense burning, itching and pain. I couldn't tell you how I was happy I had brought this cat home. Anything that helps at this point is making my life much nicer. Here I had thought "just what I need, something else to take care of and I am adding another bill to my modest budget". After one night my thinking was thank you so much for letting me come upon this little creature that is helping my hubs.



A couple of weeks passes and what does my hubs do? Hmmm? Apparently my stress is showing in not so nice emotional ways so he gets me a puppy. UMMmm hello do you not see my plate is overflowing here? Maybe I should have gotten a platter, that would have worked much better. In his defense and since I am such a cat person this is really the only type of dog I have ever said I would really want. But I meant when we were old and grey and our kids out the house not now. So I have two new babies in my home that do an awesome job of distracting my hubby from his various ailments. For this I am grateful. I am going to share pictures of our new additions. Oh and for those who are wondering my puppy is a "Dappled Dachshund" and he has stolen my heart.

And this my friends is Snoopy. I liked Harley but he answered to Snoopy so Snoopy it is. Isn't he a doll.

Tigger and Snoopy are becoming best friends.

Vanessa

Thankful to great teachers

This week has been a bit stressful. On Monday night I found out I would be teaching the Science Activities class at our co-op. My friend Kathy had a new grandson to see and wouldn't be able to make it. The good news was that we have been sort of teaching together although I must admit Kathy has been doing a huge chunk of the work with me sort of helping out a bit. This meant I knew what the class entailed and sort of what was planned for the upcoming class. Kathy sent me the list of activities that we were going to do and I went with it. It didn't dawn on me how much work Kathy was doing on her own until I was expected to do just such work. Okay I wasn't expected to but she had laid the groundwork for the class and I wanted to uphold that. I went through the list of things I would need and ended up with about 20 things that I needed to bring. I got really stressed at how I would pull this off.

So most of the week I spent worrying. I don't like being unorganized, it only stresses me out and makes me all weird. Unfortunatly I grew up with an unorganized mom whom I learned many bad habits from because I didn't know any other way. I have since worked on that and am finding more and more that I do like organization quite a bit. Anyway I knew I needed help in the classroom because I noticed if I put the kids in charge of a experiment/station then they didn't get to do the other experiments/stations. On the flip side of that the kids for the most part enjoyed being helpers and that in itself is beneficial.

I asked parents for volunteers to help with the stations but I was late in the game so I didn't get many mom's to volunteer. I did get one mom who was willing to take one station off my hands and she got her friend to do another one. This meant I still needed to get the kids to help out.

I put Colin in charge of flubber/silly putty station which was really two experiments in one but we had done this at home so he wanted that one. Austin got one with oil and water and food coloring that we had done the day before at home. It turned out neat and he knew what to do. Conner wanted to do a Krampf experiment that was more of a trick on how you can fit through an index card. I was in charge of looking at bubbles, and the other moms where in charge of slick sliding soap and fun with gas. So it was chemistry class.

At first it was a bit chaotic. I made the fatal mistake of assuming since this was the 3rd class the kids knew the drill and would wait while we got ready. It took quite a bit longer than I had intended and the kids got bored and played and got loud. We soon got a few of the stations set up and the rest came to follow quickly. Halfway through class the kids were engaged and we got an additional helper. At the end of class I felt it went well if not a bit crazy. The mom's helped clean up and we talked about how we would work out the kinks and get the class just running smoothly in time for the semester to be over. LOL.

I am constantly vigilant for learning opportunities for my children but also for myself. In this way I lead by example and my brain doesn't rot away from never being stretched any further than where it is at that particular moment. On this day I learned so very much. If unprepared you stress out alot. If prepared you don't stress nearly as much but on your first time doing something there is a nervousness involved. I think alot of my stress came from my feelings of inadequacy. I thought the class wouldn't go as well as it had with Kathy in charge. She is a great lady and so great with children. I am good with my children and with their friends but with 22 kids in the class I felt a bit overwhelmed at making the class work efficiently, having the kids learn something all the while having a great time during a one hour session. I learned about alot of things that day, mostly about how little I know or how very much I don't know. I'm okay with that because I feel I have reached that point where you really stop acting like you know about everything and start trying to find the answers to your questions. I have been there for some time. I feel more comfortable in the classroom setting in our co-op . Which is fantastic as I would like to teach a class perhaps next semester.

There is a new appreciation for teachers in general and of course of our co-op. These great mom's must prepare their class well in order for it to run smoothly. In that I hope to learn from these women about what makes a great class and how to best prepare for it. Of course nothing is foolproof is it? I will always expect surprises along the way to learn from for future reference. In the meantime I will attempt to lend a better helping hand to our great teacher Kathy for future classes by taking more of the workload.
We had a relativly laid back week the rest of the time. We did our schoolwork and our housework. A new week begins shortly with new possiblities. What was your week like?

Vanessa

"Newsworthy" trip

Thursday brought us to our local newspaper to see just how it all works. Our tour guide , Gregoria Vallejo told us all about the newspaper it's history and all sorts of other facts. The paper has been in operation since 1868 and puts out 50,000 copies per day that reach as far east as the Kansas border, west to Salida, south to Raton and north to Colorado Springs. They go through 72 rolls per week each roll weighing in at 1,700pounds of paper.And just how many people does it take to put out all those papers? 225 people to be exact. I don't think it includes the newspaper boys and such but that is still alot of people. We spoke with one of the reporters doing a golf piece and I noticed that all the computers are Mac's . We inquired about this and he said that most newspapers use mac's because they are easier to use. Huh I didn't know that I still don't understand the difference to be quite honest. The newspaper also boasts a printing machine that is so new they have only 5 in the USA and theirs is the 2nd one. It puts the paper on aluminum sheets and then prints from that. It really simplifies the way the old machine had done it. She explained that to the kids but I was busy yapping at how cool the machines and such were I missed most of this part. The printing press uses only 4 basic colors to do all its printing.

cyan (blue)
magenta (red)
yellow
black

She showed us how this works, it was really cool. She had a sample picture and put the yellow part down, it was on an overhead type plastic. The she put the red over that picture and you could see that it was a mom and daughter. Finally she put the blue one and it shadowed it and the black one came last and it made the picture crisp. I think us moms found it alot more interesting then the kids although they did like it too. We also covered a small bit of history with the Gutenberg printing press that mechanized printing. Here is a lesson plan for the gutenberg press.
http://www.education-world.com/a_tsl/archives/00-2/lesson0019.shtml

The paper has it's own fitness center and still has some of their old machines around like a muesum room, they were fascinating to look at. We were treated to pads of paper, the sunday comics which won't be out for 2 more days as well. Of course I took an insane amount of pictures I think it was around 50 , I won't bore you with every single last one but here are some of the best.

Our Tour guide Gregoria showing the kids about the paper
The newsroom. I was unsuccesful at getting all the signs hanging showing what each section was.
Meeting a reporter as he tells us about the golf piece he is working on
A little information about how they store all the old papers and where
This is how they used to store them. They bound them and made them books. Kathy really wanted to smell them(wink)

What is this?

I know this is an old video recorder. Cool huh?

A little information about how papers used to be printed in years past.

They hand carved rubber stamps to printing.Wow what alot of work and craftsmenship. These are a set of wedding announcments

Kathy points out neat window art of some near and dear comics

Here is the printing press with the aluminum sheets .

The boys look on as we are show how this all works

Some of the aluminum shets set out to be ready when needed.

The yellow picture first

Now the red and you can see it's a mom and daughter

Blue defines it even more and black gives it that crisp edge

Do they look like they are having fun?

Storage room for all the rolls of paper they need. They did have recycled paper.

Her the kids hear about the paper rolls . Did you know they come from Canada?

This machine assembles the paper.

Vanessa