A Renewed Hope

I had a very bad weekend that seemed to be getting worse by the minute. I was so glad when 8 AM rolled around this morning and I could call to get an appointment. The girl who answered the phone told me I couldn't come in today and I started crying. She asked me if it was an emergency and I said YES. She said I could come sit and get worked in.
I honestly felt like I needed to be in the hospital not just going in to the office.

When the doctor walked in the room he said "OH My God, What happened to you?" First off my face is very swollen and then Saturday I woke up with this red splotchy raised whelps all over my face and neck. It is like one big whelp but just running every where.

My skin is also flared up really bad. I'm so sick of this. I've dealt with this for so long with out any relief at times I feel like I can't go on any longer.

After being up all night crying in pain and spending the day at the doctor, who wrote on my paper once again contact dermatitis because he just doesn't know, and getting prescriptions filled I finally made it home, got a shower and went to bed. I cried and cried and called out to God for relief. I can not live like this. I feel so sick I feel each day could be my last day on earth.

When I woke up I came to my computer and googled a bunch of different stuff, but basically that I feel sick all over and doctors can't help. I came up with Candida yeast infection.

I'm going drastic! I've got to give it a try. I can not live like this another day. This will be very hard, but I'm going to give it a go. Please pray that I have the strength to keep this up so I can see if it makes a difference in my health.

I have been on high doses of prednisone for well over a year now and my readings tell me that can cause this infection in your body.

With Dakota's help we've came up a small list of foods I can eat. It's the middle of the month and grocery funds have already been spent on foods I can't eat, but I'm going to buy some salad stuff and start from there.

I have an appointment with an allergist Tuesday morning. I hope he has some ideas to help me. Next Monday I have an appointment with my rheumatologist in Shreveport. Actually I'll be seeing his NP and I'm looking forward to that because I know she will sit and listen and ask questions, not like the doctor who I feel like just sticks his head in the door for a few seconds.

I LOVE how God speaks to me and knows things I don't know a head of time. Last week I started to pay something I owe. I reached in my bag and touched the envelope I had the money in. I heard WAIT. I was ready to pay so I really didn't know why I should wait, but I did even though it felt strange. I didn't know I was going to get this sick and have two doctor visits this week. But Jesus did. I was already wondering how I was going to have gas money and doctor plus prescription money for the rheumatologist in Shreveport next week, which happens to fall two days BEFORE payday. Now I've added two doctor visits and the 4 prescriptions from today. I don't know if there will be more prescriptions tomorrow.

Dakota is googling recipes for me right now. I love that kid! When payday rolls around he'll help me buy some foods I can eat.

So far in this horrible journey the only thing that has made me feel even a little bit better is when I'm in the bed so sick I can't get up and Elijah comes in to lay down with me for a few minutes and he prays for me. That is so precious to me. I hate that my child has to worry about me and pray for me like he does, but I love it when he does pray for me.

Even though I have two more doctor appointments coming up I don't have hope for answers from them, I'm going anyway... just in case! But I'm feeling a renewed hope in trying this candida/sugar free food list.
Please, yes, I'm begging you, pray for me to be able to stick to this for at least a couple of weeks to see if I can tell a difference in my health. Thanks friends.

Gosh I have rambled on and on....

One Step Away

Dakota sent me this picture and said we are one step away from this being us.

Elijah and Reading

Elijah has never enjoyed reading. I thought he was a struggling reader forever. Finally Dr. Bryan at the College, who is over the Literacy Clinic told me Elijah CAN read, he just don't WANT to.
I'd thought I'd never see him reading for pleasure.

Over the past few months he has been researching stuff online and reading about it. Mostly about animals he would like to own or sometimes something he saw on TV and wants to know more about it. I've been happy to see him doing that.

Just this month I made him a calendar reading chart. I told him each night if he reads a book or some of a book if it's a chapter book he can put a sticker on the chart. At the end of the month we will see how much he read and decide on a prize. It'll probably be something Lego. So far he has made 11 out of 14 days!

A while back Elijah bought a book, with his own money because I wouldn't buy it, A Practical Guide to Dragons. He said he read it, but I wasn't sure if he REALLY read it. I never looked at the book. I'm not into dragons and don't care to know anything about dragons.


The other night while in Books A Million Elijah found another dragon book he wanted. I looked at the book, pages and pages of sentences, 146 pages to be exact, very few pictures. I said "Elijah, you won't read this." He assured me he would read it. I went a head and bought the book because it was only $2.97, but I had my doubts about him reading it.

Once in the van he got his book out of the bag. A few minutes later I noticed he was using the light from his cell phone to read. I motioned for Dakota to look, we were both shocked. We made our way over to the grocery store and Elijah didn't want to get out because "I just got to a good part!" My heart was smiling so big! Elijah was finally reading for pleasure. For the record I did make him get out and go in with us.

Here is a snippet I found online about the book Elijah is reading.
Seventeen short selections that will appeal to lovers of dragons, fantasy, and folktales. A broad range of writing styles and plot twists are pulled together to provide readers with something fresh in each tale. Excerpts from classic novels such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and short stories such as Kenneth Grahame's "The Reluctant Dragon" are included. In addition, there are folktales from China, Italy, and Germany. Most of the heroes are men, but occasionally children are the only ones who can outsmart the dragon. In "Li Chi Slays the Serpent," it is a young girl who conquers the beast. Hague's beautiful full-page watercolors reflect the different moods of the stories and the temperaments of the dragons depicted. A pen-and-ink drawing of a dragon announces each new selection; delicately detailed line drawings appear throughout. The combination of well-selected stories and excerpts and dramatic artwork make The Book of Dragons a fine addition to library collections.?


Elijah also has this Dragonology book that he enjoys pouring over.

Like I said, I'm not into dragons, don't even care to read about dragons, but sometimes we do stuff for our kids even though we don't enjoy it. Elijah has a high interest in them right now so I'm creating a lapbook for him about dragons. I hope to get it done so he can make his lapbook next week. Stay tuned for lapbook pictures.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches

Yes, we have Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches as pets, doesn't everyone? Their names are Mr. Hiss and Mrs. Hisser.


We have finished 4 days of school and it seems to be going well. This evening Elijah completed his lapbook on his cockroaches.



Here is a picture of the lapbook open.



You can see the different booklets and flaps open with information on the inside.



There is a close up of Elijah holding his pets.


This is a picture of Mrs. Hisser going through a Lego maze that Elijah built. He used the stop watch on his phone to time them making their way through the maze.
On day one it took Mr. Hiss 1 minute and 13 seconds and Mrs. Hisser 1 minute and 6 seconds.
Then on day two it took Mr. Hiss 46 seconds and Mrs. Hisser whipped through the maze in 30 seconds.

This is where Mr. Hiss and Mrs. Hisser live. They mostly stay under that piece of egg carton during the day. At night they come out and climb all over the little cage.


This was a fun lapbook and study. Elijah is so proud of his lapbook, I hope I can do more with his this school year.

You can get this lapbook and many more fun lapbooks from Homeschool Share.

2010 - 2011 School Year

We have officially started our new school year! We really school year round, but we have taken off several weeks due to having company and other things going on.

I'm back to homeschooling only one this year. Dakota was 8 when Elijah was born so it's been about 10 years since I've had only one to focus on. This year is all about Elijah as last year seemed to be about Dakota and his senior year.

I've never been a serious have to do school or we'll be behind kind of teacher. I love homeschooling year round so we can take off when we want to and have family days when Jody is off.

Last year was a pretty bad year for me as I was so sick and most days couldn't even get out of bed. I'm still in that shape, but I've came up with a plan. I am a hands on, unit study, lapbook and notebooking kind of teacher, but with my health problems I'm just not able to school like I want to. At one point last year I really wondered how much longer I was going to be around so I made the decision to get Elijah some Spectrum workbooks from Books A Million. He was able to work in these books even if I couldn't get out of bed. And I felt better knowing he was doing something.

So this year I wanted to have a plan. Plan A for my sick days and plan B for my better days. I asked Elijah to help me come up with school plans.

First we decided our school days will be
Sunday - school
Monday - school
Tuesday - family day
Wednesday - co-op
Thursday - school
Friday - school
Saturday - free day

This schedule will start in August. Even though we have started school this month we have a lot of unusual events going on so we are just schooling on the days we don't have scheduled for other things.

After having a long Wednesday this past week I'm wondering if I should have Thursday as a free day so I can recoop after co-op and have Saturday as a school day. I guess I'll see how it goes, thankfully I can always change things up to what works best for us.

Next we came up with a list of goals for Elijah.
1. learn his multiplication facts better
2. read every day
3. get his formula and hook up to his pump by himself
4. learn cursive
5. memorize 10 Bible verses
6. train his dog, maybe take classes at Pet Smart
7. more art
8. learn to tie shoes
9. practice counting money
10. practice telling time

We came up with a list of FIAR books we want to row.
1. Salamander Room
2. Owl Moon
3. Snowflake Bentley
4. Daniel's Duck
5. Truman's Aunt Farm
6. Follow The Drinking Gourd
7. The Giraffe that Walked to Paris
8. The Glorious Flight
9. Night of the Moon jellies
10. Mailing May
11. Who Owns the Sun
12. Papa Piccolo

Unit Studies
1. Pirates
2. Zoo
3. Magnets
4. Birds
5. Dinosaurs
6. Butterflies
7. Human Body
8. Detectives
9. Night of the Museum

Lapbooks
1. Madagascar Cockroaches
2. Legos
3. Arthur Meets the President
4. snakes
5. worms
6. oil spill
7. astronaut adventures
8. bears
9. mammals
10. frogs
11. soccer
12. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Topics of interest
1. bull sharks and tiger sharks
2 Battle of Vicksburg
3. any war
4. bats

Elijah also decided he wants to learn about American History.

So on the days that I am too sick to do school Elijah can use his Spectrum workbooks and on my better days we will do lapbooks, notebooking and unit studies.

The Pain Behind The Smile

When I'm out and about I try to smile and not complain about my health. Gosh I do enough of that at home anyway. I really just don't want to be a downer around people so I just smile and struggle through.

That might be confusing for some though. I really am sick and it is so hard to do things I really want to do.

The Savella does help. It takes the edge off, but it does not take the pain completely away.

We had co-op registration the other day, 9am - 3pm. That was a long hard day for me. By the end of the day I was in so much pain I got in the van and cried. We did have a heat issue too and heat always makes me feel worse. That night my skeleton and muscles hurt so bad I laid there and cried. Jody said even when I did doze off I was whimpering like a dog.

I knew the registration day were coming so I upped my prednisone in hopes that it would help me get through the next few weeks. I don't think it worked!

I spent Thursday in the bed barely able to move. Guess what Thursday was our first day of school too. HA I have a design to where Elijah can still do some school even on my bad days.

Anyway many people ask me how I am and I always say okay, but the truth is if you think about me please say a prayer for me. Some days are almost unbearable. I am so thankful for the days where I can at least get up and out.

Along with the Fibromyalgia I have also been diagnosed with Sjogrens syndrome and Connective Tissue Disease. My test for Lupus have also came back pos 4 times. I go back to the doctor August 23 so we'll see if he has more to say about that.

I thank my family for being understanding and putting up with me. I hate being like this and wish I could do all that I really want to do. If only my body could keep up with my brain!

Science

I love it that Elijah makes his own science learning. He found some eggs about a month ago, but didn't know what kind of eggs they were. He carefully placed them in a container and has been "taking care" of them.

Today he discovered they hatched. Six five lined skinks. I had no idea they were called five lined, but that's what Elijah said. I googled and he was right.

He is so proud of his skinks.