Spring - at Last

It has been a beautiful week, weather-wise. That has done so much to lift my spirits! We just went through a really, really long and dark winter. We had record breaking snows, never-ending cold, and not even a January or February thaw to give us hope for spring. And then suddenly - there it was! We started out in the low sixties Monday and by yesterday it was in the eighties! The boys have been running around in shorts and t-shirts and I've broken out my short sleeved shirts and sandals.

Today we had our first thunderstorm of the season. Even that was kind of fun (well, not for David - he was convinced a tornado was headed our way). The rain lowered our temps a bit but the weathermen are promising us a sunny Easter with temps in the sixties. It's hard to complain about anything when winter has finally been given the boot. I won't totally breathe easily, though, until after the 20th. That is the latest that I've ever recalled us getting a measurable snow. Once that date passes, I think we're safe.

Paul worked an almost full week, which was a relief, after the past three weeks. He got his paycheck yesterday - a whopping $97! At least we were in the positive. I was concerned that we were going to end up owing Loziers with all our deductions, this pay period. Even today with the rain they still kept him working, even into some overtime hours.

With the warm weather the boys have spending nearly every minute of it outdoors. Sam's most favorite thing to do is "gump." He can spend hours "gumping" on our trampoline. I suppose I should be fearful that he'll "gump" right off the edge, but I'm really not. We've had that thing for years now and not one child has ever fallen off it - that I know of anyway.

Paul and Ben had a nice trip last weekend, I think. They got home around 10:30 Sat. evening. They had spent quite a bit of time at Incredible Pizza and Paul had hit a jackpot on one of the games, getting something like 1000 tickets that just kept shooting out all over the floor. So he and Ben had fun picking out prizes with all their tickets. Paul was so tickled at one thing he got. He walked into the house, obviously hiding something under his jacket as he told me of his winnings. Then I saw what he had. He found this furry, safari-printed, pillow with gold and silver metallic fabric that spelled out "Princess." That's what he calls me at times and I have a number of "Princess" things he has bought me throughout the years. Never before, though, had he found one printed on animal-print stuff, which is what our bedroom is done up in. Animal print stuff originally was Paul's thing, eventually it became mine, too. So that was kind of neat. His enthusiasm over it kind of tickled my amusement bone too. He was just like a little kid!

Our intent for these "13" Father/Son trips has been that Paul would give the boys the scoop on sex, reproduction, urges, hormones, and body changes. But we didn't feel that Ben was ready for all that right now. His body is changing like gangbusters, so Paul was able to talk to him about that, but he's not ready for the sex talk. We've decided to handle it as he asks questions of either of us. However, with him going to public school soon, those questions may end up coming sooner than later! Paul was lamenting to me later that it seemed like he was really getting through to Ben when he talked to him and he responded intelligently and gave Paul hope. And then later at the pizza joint, Paul had to leave Ben alone for a few minutes to get his own food from the buffet and he came back to the table. There Ben was, talking to the Activity Director from camp, who just happened to be at Incredible Pizza at the same time they were. Ben was wearing an IRBC shirt, which attracted the Director's attention. And Paul said he had a face full of pizza sauce and cottage cheese in his hair as he talked to this guy...sigh...I told him, "Welcome to my world!"

We finished up our testing at the school this week for Ben. On the last day, the AEA person who has been doing most of the testing "interviewed" me about Ben. She said normally they would just do in-classroom assessments of him, but since his classroom has been at home, she needed me to fill in some information for her. She seemed shocked when I told her, upon being asked, that Ben only gets about 2 hours of school a day. And that's on a good day - maximum. I was honest with her - there are some days we don't do school at all. I don't think she understands homeschooling - that a full day's worth of work can be done within a couple of hours. But I felt almost guilty, like I've been shortchanging him educationally.

An OT came in at that same time and she went over some exercises with Ben to see where he was in that area. She was telling me that we can arrange Ben's school day so that he has frequent breaks. She can bring in a small trampoline for him to go jump on if he needs that. She said we can bring his cds if he wanted to spend some time decompressing by listening to his music. And when I told her about his strange play of pretending to be an overhead announcer she said that there are actually reading programs that operate on the same principal and the school would buy the software for Ben's use.

The next day I met with a PT. She did a number of exercises with Ben and had him run for her and do some things in the school's weight room. She said that actually, Ben does not qualify for PT services. That's kind of nice to hear - that with all his needs, there's actually something he's too "good" at to need help! But she went on to say that her job is working with the kids who can't even sit up or are wheelchair bound. She said Ben's legs are actually very strong. It's just his core that is weak. I already knew that from our years of going to OT at Blank. And what she said backs up what Ben's PT from his preschool years (the last time he had PT) told us. One day he said, "Ben doesn't need me. He is his own best physical therapist!" But she thinks Ben could benefit from having some regular exercise, like what they offer in the weight room. So we're going to write that into his IEP.

It's hard to believe he'll be starting school in just 4 weeks!

Paul told me that he met a retiree up at the campground where he and Ben stayed. This guy is a life-long Democrat and is furious about the passage of the health care bill - mainly because he stands to lose some of his medical benefits that were part of his retirement package from Mid American Energy. He said that he has voted Democrat his entire life, but he will never vote for another one. I'm not convinced Republicans are all that much better, but this sentiment seems to be echoed all over these days. I truly, truly hope there is a revolution this Nov. at the ballot box. Don't get me wrong - I'll vote Rep. before I vote Democrat, but I'm becoming more and more disillusioned by that party all the time. I guess I'd call myself a Conservative Independent.

We've been working a lot with David lately on his multiplication facts. About six weeks ago I put away his math book when I realized that he didn't know his facts. Because of that, it made doing his math assignments so much harder for him. So we've been doing only facts for math instead. David doesn't like math and I completely understand that. I've hated math since the second grade when a teacher made me cry and feel inadequate - and so hopeless - over my performance at math. But the truth is, you can't get through life without knowing your basic math facts. David gets upset when I am drilling him and I don't allow him to "figure out" the answer. I tell him that he needs to just automatically know the answer, rather than having to use his fingers or guess. I don't think I've been mean about it, but there's just no way around this - it must be learned. So one day this week David came to me, chin quivering, voice quavering, and said, "I just feel like you're torturing me about math!" I had to bite the inside of my cheek at that one. He was so serious!

But today, David nailed the 7 times table. I was so proud of him! He had to study and study that thing, but he finally got it.

I have had a couple of "dumb" couple of days. Sometimes I'm amazed that I'm still alive, given my lack of intelligence. First story: Ben receives SSI benefits. It's never been a program that I'm thrilled to be participating with - I hate the whole idea of government dependence and it feels a bit like welfare to me. But the money has been very helpful as we have sought to meet Ben's extra needs. And quite honestly, it's one of the reasons that I'm able to stay home with my children, so I'm willing to suffer the humiliation and frustration of dealing with the program in order to provide that for my boys. The amount of that money is dependent on how much we earn in any given month so I have to mail in Paul's paystubs every month to the Social Security office. He is paid by direct deposit and then given a check with "non-negotiable" stamped on it. This month he also received his yearly performance bonus. So I bundled them all up the other day and mailed them to Ottumwa. Sitting down last night to figure up our available monies and budget for the next two weeks, I discovered, upon calling the bank, that I mailed the actual check to the SS office! Oh, I could not believe it! So, I called them this morning and they hadn't even realized I did that since the actual check looked just like the others which aren't real checks. But apparently, it's already on it's way back to me (they mail back the stubs - to me, that's just another inefficiency in a government agency - wouldn't it be easier to just get an employer statement of earnings, rather than paying double postage to have the stubs mailed and then returned via mail?). I will not rest easy, though, until that check is back in my hot little hands. Oh, dummy, dummy, dummy me!

Then, tonight I made a cake with a new recipe. I popped it in the oven and the thing would never solidify. It was so liquid and was taking far longer to bake than the recipe indicated. Finally, it dawned on me: I never put the flour in! It's going to be kind of hard to stick together without that!

And last Sunday one of the boys had a friend come over from church and spend the afternoon. I made pound cake smores, which entails broiling slices of pound cake with mini chocolate chips and marshmallows on top. So I did that. I opened the oven door and flames whooshed out at me! My pan was totally engulfed in flames. I shrieked, "What do I do?! What do I do?!" Paul hollered, "Reach in and get it out of there!" Ok, I'm not the sharpest cookie these days, but even I know that you don't pull out a pan that's on fire. The flames would have easily gotten my hands and arms. I just looked at him with an "are you insane?!" look. I turned off the oven and eventually the flames died down. Paul carried the charred mess outside where I'm assuming, even the birds rejected it. So much for dessert this week!

One good thing that happened this week: I went to the library last weekend and came home with a stack of books. I discovered a new author, Dolores J. Wilson. She is hilarious! I mean, I was in the tub the other night reading one of her books, "Big Hair and Flying Goats" and I laughed like I haven't in months. My flabby belly was shaking so hard it slapped the water, I had tears running down my face, and I had to pause numerous times and stop reading because I was laughing so hard. I'm reading the second one in the series now and I'm laughing just as much. I only wish she was a Christian author. If there's anything that bothers me about her books it's that the main character attends her Baptist church faithfully, but seems to have a very cavalier attitude about premarital sex. Those two shouldn't go together, I'm thinking. The books aren't bad, but that's really the only thing that I can find fault with.

And hopefully, tomorrow, will be a good thing, too. I'm meeting up with my friend, Melissa, in Des Moines and we're going to find her an outfit for Prom Alternative. She's chaperoning and needs something appropriate. And then it sounds like we are meeting up with another gal from church, Debbie, and going to the Cheesecake Factory. It will be a day away from my children tracking in mud, their bickering, and Sam sheepishly holding his bottom and saying, "Mommy - I wet!" I need a break!

And then it's Easter Sunday - the remembrance of our Independence Day. I can't wait to sing "Up from the Grave He Arose" on Sunday morning and be filled with thankfulness once again for my Jesus. I am so unworthy of His great love.

Happy Spring and Happy Easter, Everyone!