~~name calling~~

not many of us want to call our children nasty names. when mrT and i were expecting our children, we were very careful to investigate the meanings of the names before we decided they were the names we wanted. why? because we firmly believe that, although we may be speaking their actual name, we are prophesying the characteristics of the meaning into their lives.

my challenge lately has not been changing their names, but watching my tone because sometimes my voice says a child is stupid, dumb, or less than the gift that God gave me. how terrible. what devastating effects it can have. a sunny disposition can turn thunderous very quickly.

a wonderful piece of advice my mom (i think) gave me is to listen to my words and at the end of a sentence silently add "sweetheart" or "stupid." very quickly one's tone dictates which name your words imply.

like proverbs 15:3 says, 'a soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.'

i want my interactions with people to be 'sweetheart.' i'm starting at home.

~~reason to celebrate~~

rejoice with us. :)

last week missT had a follow-up appointment with her paediatrician. at her previous visit, we were finally able to start reducing the clonazepam. she was only taking 2.75mg / day but the effects were strong. with her head full of fog and all processes slowed to a dull roar, how can a kid learn? all she wanted to do was sleep! after a full night's sleep, she would start asking for a nap around 11 30 am and at 6 30 pm she would be begging to be in her pj's. how many 7 1/2-year-olds do you know like that?

the reduction begins..... and, for the first time in 2 years, she didn't ask for a nap in the afternoon. get this... we had only reduced it by .25mg. at that rate, it would take 11 months for her to be completely off the drug. (cold turkey could throw her back into seizures) a month later, after we had gone down yet another .25mg, she actually asked if she could 'please, stay up later.'

so, when we saw the Dr. last week, the first news was that the eeg missT had in july had come back with a 'significant improvement' and was 'normal.' as you can imagine, after 140 seizures in five years, most of them in the last two, i am about to burst!

i love what missT says about the eeg results: 'i am NORMAL!'

thank you, Jesus. (big sigh)

***if you wanna be great...***

in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all...

i remember singing my heart out to that song as a child. what i'm hoping to instill in our children is service isn't always boring! Granny needed her lawn raked and we got to have fun doing it. check this fun serving time out.

who knew you could rake a yard with a leaf blower?

it's camoflaged nicely, but there's a geyser of leaves in front of that nozzle.

almost done!!

this wonderful mound of cottonwood leaves is only about half of what we raked & blowed (is that a word?). a few years ago, we had a pile so high, landing in the middle of it hardly hurt at all!

~~nature's beads~~

combine a little girl's love of crafting and nature walks and what do you get?

a snowberry tiara!

(some websites say that snowberries are toxic, others write the snowberries are only inedible due to their taste. our children have each tried them and i have no fear of them ever eating another!)

~~you should try this at home!~~

a few days back we tried a very cool experiment. almost every day since, the children have been begging to do it again! after collecting water bottles, balloons, a funnel, vinegar (acid) and baking soda (base), we prepared by pouring the acid into the bottles to 1/2 full and 2 heaping tablespoons of the base into each balloon.

standing ready.... set....

MIX!!!

(the results were instant... perfect for eager, curious budding scientists)

the balloon expanded until some of the pressure was released through the valve at the bottle.

i think we were all amazed at how simple and fun this could be!

we found that remixing the solution encouraged the reaction.