Family First

Being gone and having so much responsibility makes me feel so appreciative to be home. I want to be home, fold my laundry, rearrange and organize various parts of the house. I love to "play house". You never really know how valuable meals together, clean clothes, organized bills, and attended to children is until it isn't happening proficiently. I love my role as a mother and homemaker/advocate and supporter of my family.

 Yesterday, I took Emmy to Davis for her Speech and debate competition. I helped her practice and prepare. I was able to see many of her speeches and prepare her for the Aurora ball she attended later that night. Emmy is doing better in Speech and debate. She is becoming more skilled and comfortable with her speeches, I'm sure taking drama this semester helps. I'm glad Emmy is doing better in school. I have been advocating for her at her school with her counselors and it has been hectic. We have seen some positive change. I'm grateful that Joseph is a little lower maintenance than his siblings at the moment. He is loving and kind and supportive. He says no, but he will follow through and help out.  I am impressed with Emmy and her kind nature, her patience and her understanding as she makes new friends and support all she knows with special needs. Family, serving others, and acquiring righteous virtues are some of the most important things in life. I love my family, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and my ability to choose these wonderful purposes in this free country.

Rain Dance (I mean hike)

I've felt the need to write lately. I enjoy looking back and remembering the great time and really feel love and peace in my life when I do. I almost forgot how much I love hiking. It has been a while since I've gone with our group. With no rain, we scheduled a hike then happily rain came. We didn't mind in the least  bit walking in the sprinkles and the mist. We have had a drought here and we are praying and fasting for rain. I know it will come in abundance due to our prayers. Next week there will be a state wide fast for rain. Fasting for us go like this: we pray and go without food for 2 meals or twenty four hours then give a generous donation to our church( The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) of at least the amount of money we would have used for the meals we missed and it is given to those in need in our area. How can the Lord not bless such a great act of selflessness. It will help and be great. I enjoy hiking with these ladies. We talk and we eat healthy food and we take pictures. Heidi keeps us moving at quite a quick pace even though she manages to snap these great photos, it is still wonderful exercise. We went to Hidden falls. It is a short hike, but we managed to wander all around and make it into a 4.7 mile adventure. Even if my hikes in the mountains are every so often, I'm glad I go and remember and record their memories to appreciate later.

Happenings Lately

Life can be so routine. The last little while we have been blessed to have fun activities going on and we are doing the things we love. Celia had two friends over Elysia and Jennifer. They were pretty cute. Celia was nice to them both and they shared a lot. They played dress up, ate snacks, and scootered around the backyard. Joseph lead the playtime and the other girls sure were interested in him! I love how well Celia does in small groups or one on one. We work  on social skills with her and it makes me so happy to see her doing well with her friends. Brian took Celia to the Daddy Daughter Dance. Spence and I drove past( we were out and about saving Emmy from her car being out of gas) and it seemed like a beautiful fancy event was going on. I loved the white lights and winter wonderland decorations. Apparently, they had dances that included their partners(dad) and it was neat. Celia was shy, but I think they had a great time and Celia enjoyed visiting the grandparents after too. Emmy got to go to Crush 29 and stayed there a long time I think experimenting how long they could stay before they were kicked out. Gotta love teenagers.

Daddy Daugter Date Dresses.

Celia is going to a Daddy Daughter Dance tonight at her elementary school with her daddy! She wears a lot of different dresses to church so we had a little fashion show to decide which dress she wanted to wear tonight. I was glad Celia let me take pictures since she is definitely not a fan of the camera. My macro lens is stuck on my camera so I'll go and get that fixed today, but in the meantime we had a fun morning trying these on and counting down. Ten hours until dance time! The light pink one with satin and pearls won. It was Emmy's so it is even more special for me to see her in it.

Bodega Bay On Monday

 We had a lovely trip to Bodega Bay on Martin Luther King's Day. The kids were out of school, but I couldn't get Joseph to come. He said he didn't' want to have any adventures. I'm going to remember that as he goes into his teenage years.~ I had never been to Bodega bay, but with Emmy as my co pilota and some help from navigation we got there. We parked in a coastal access area which turned out to be almost two miles from the beach. It was a lovely nature walk and bird watching area. Not nearly as green as we are used to in the rainy season here. There was a cute bridge and benches to sit on, but still Spencer insisted we go back to the car. After he through his toys in the lake of course. I found a way in the car to get closer to the shore in the car. Spence never did get out to see the waves, he was tired from our walk.

 Emmy played with Celia in the sand and I watched Spencer then we traded. Emmy is such a great help. I took a detour on the ride home to go see Dillon's beach. Spencer was very  interested in the view of the ocean. I'm glad we was able to see the coast and realize our purpose for going so far that day. I found my favorite store( Grocery Outlet) in Petaluma on the way home and we got treats from there. I'm glad Celia was so calm and happy. We've had drama for her at school and she seemed unaffected by her usual anxiety while we were there. I kinda liked the peacefulness of it too. I'm grateful for such wonderful opportunities and great family.

How cute is this?

Andrew( Emmy's Boyfriend) called me to let us know he would be putting something on Emmy's car  for her to find this morning to ask her to Winter Ball. I thought maybe he would put a poster on her car door or something. It turned out really cute. The decorations definitely gave the car the "Rose Parade" look. The letters were made of flowers! The front message is made of corn kernels because it is corny, according to Andrew. I love that he came to see her reaction and Emmy was really happy and surprised! They are off to Emmy's seminary together. Now we get to prep for a formal, which I enjoy! I'm actually really excited I got to use my new fancy flash and wide angle lens for these pictures in the dark. Props to Brian for getting those for me, I love photography!~

Routines

     When we have routines, it seems we remember things. With my children if they have a morning routine, that means less reminding for me to do. The order gives us guidance on what comes next. I went outside my normal routine yesterday. Every Tuesday morning I go to the gym with Laurie then I have a parent training with Alicia right after. I was given two different opportunities on Tuesday morning so I switched things around. The alternative activities didn't turn out, but I enjoyed going to Whole Foods to get some yummy tomatillo salsa and there was a farmers marker out front and I enjoyed that too. It was out of the norm, but it was nice. I love and look forward to our Date night routine as well. We went for Tom Yuk Gai soup at Star of Siam. That soup is extremely tasty. They didn't bring it out with the fire going on the metal soup container, but it was delicious still the same.

     Good things can still happen even if things don't go as planned or the way we wanted. I didn't play volleyball at the church because it was cancelled, I didn't go to get my hair played with for a couple hours to be a hair model, but I was happy I went to John Adam's Academy and found out that there was a tour of the school once a month and it was that day. I went to it later. I am looking for a great fit for Celia. I really felt there would be a great fit for her. I like the ten core values they have and how it seems the learning is embedded in all they do.

     Celia does great with the tutors learning all sorts of life skills that are embedded. We made some cute rainbow loom bracelets and beaded crafts with ally. We were learning to finish a project, take turns, compromise on activities and social interactions. It seemed like fun to her! I love it when I can kill two birds with one stone. I can use my new photography fun tools while preparing to blog and I am reinforcing Celia's success all at the same time. I hope we can get Celia into John Adams sooner than later. There is a waiting list so time will tell.
     
In the meantime it is IEP month for me, Starting this week. I will be advocating for Celia and Spencer and helping them to get the best routines for learning and growing the best they can at this time. I feel grateful for the good things they have going and opportunities for change.

Beginning School Again

It was a little bumpy getting the kids back in school after the long vacation. Spence has been doing great toilet training at school. He gets mad he cannot change pull ups when he is dry. We'll work on that, but it is exciting that he is showing some promise in that area. Celia and Joseph had an extra half day because of the different start dates of kiddos in our family(oops) therefore lots of classwork and homework to do. Celia is having negative interactions with the kids in her class. I mean several of them. I miss vacation already where she can feel safe, love and where most she had positive experiences. She really can get quite anxious and have nightmares due to working out all the problems she has at school in her head at night. Poor thing. 

Celia was able to go to the gym with me which is has been begging to do. We used to go a lot since she was a baby and she would play in the kids care. We'd even go before her afternoon kindergarten class. Now she rarely gets to go because she is a big second grader and has school. She is learning a lot though. Celia has made quite a bit of progress in catching up on reading , is doing well with subtraction and borrowing although she admits she like addition better. I am just so amazed at how she works hard at things that are difficult for her then makes great strides.  Even with hiking/walking. Celia usually didn't make it more than a block without saying how tired she was after building up to it. She can walk a little further. I love walking around this track like path with the kids on our days off. Spencer is more cooperative about it on certain days, but we try nonetheless.
Spence liked school. he is back to no behaviors and all smiles. We would love that at home too. He is such a routine junky, hehe.