Happenings....

So....once again, it's been awhile. Things have been crazy...emotions crazy...and trying to put some things back together that needed mending. We're all a long way from perfect, and God is working slowly, but working nonetheless.

The kids are doing great. Andrew is still trying our every bit of patience, proving that God is working on that personality flaw of all of ours...His speech is slowly improving with weekly speech therapy. He still LOVES music, but now he's starting with his older brother's past passions of action figures - in particular - Transformers, Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, and of course, anything from the Disney movie "Cars." He has begun, once again to have his major temperamental breakdowns . I'm not sure what's up...but he gets set off so quickly and it so quickly escalates that he can't be calmed down at all. I'm going to talk to his speech therapist, who also does other work with kids with apraxia and see what she thinks. Is the apraxia all there is to this? Or is there something else that we have to start looking out for? Or is he just a "drama king?" He also still loves his music and is very happy to listen to his favorite artist, Toby Mac (a Christian musician).

Cody is continuing to excel with his Math and English, but his other subjects become lacking some days. We're trying to get a full "standard" school day done, but some days are just harder than others. Somehow, he still learns incredible animal facts and catches on so quickly to the things that he loves to do or learn about. He's very, very much into drawing and has been for the past year...so this Christmas I'm thinking lots of drawing pads, some professional drawing chalk (he already has expensive colored pencils), and some other art supplies. This is his passion. He is getting pretty good at it, and spending more and more time with attention to detail and coloring/shading.

Nathanael...ever the baby...even at two years old. He continues to amaze us with his sentences and high level of intelligence and physical ability. He climbs EVERYTHING!!! It sometimes seems like he has little monkey toes, even though his nickname is "Bug" (he's our littlest buglet, while Andrew is our "monkey"), he insists upon climbing up onto every obstacle that crosses his path. He's speaking very clearly and conveying his thoughts about things very well. Nathan wore an old lion costume recently ----------------------->

It looks like I will finally be able to return back to work at least two days a week starting after the New Year. One of my very good gal pals, who has babysat for us for years, has a job opening and is willing to watch the kids at least two days a week while I work. The money will be good for her and for us...so hopefully that will work out.
I'm still doing medical transcription and enjoying it tremendously, the problem is that the kids won't leave me alone for a few hours a day to get the work done. As they get older, it should get better, but until then....I use it as extra income...recently...I needed some me time...and to spend some money on me...selfish - perhaps, but with some of the other more serious stuff going on...I needed it....so I had this done - The saxophone is on my left calf, the other, the Musketeers Cross....is between my shoulder blades..the initials and dates are in remembrance of my grandfather who died this past year...and to help me keep my focus where it needs to be. My strength has to come from God...and nowhere else.