Pancakes, jewellery and a reading challenge

Monday 27th: Asher had a 1 minute seizure at 1pm. She was on the toilet at the time, so a clear reminder that she does need to be watched ALL the time.
Tuesday 28th: Asher spent the day at home today as the teacher aide had training and the other backups where unfortunately not available. I had a meeting in Culverden, so it was nice to be able to just leave her at home with Rachel. It won't be long before that won't be an option anymore. Rachel is finishing up her high school work this year and will be looking for a full time job. She will only be 18 in April next year, so she has done really well in getting it done this quickly.
Ruth and Hannah were both involved with the 7-a-side tournament at school today. Both their teams did very well. Out of the 6 games each, their teams only lost 1 and Ruth's drew another. Great results and it sounded like a fun day.
Wednesday 29th: LEFT: It was so adorable seeing Anastasia and Asher crawling after the train this afternoon.
A wet day today, so Anastasia and I didn't get to join the walking group. Ruth missed school last Friday as she had a headache which got worse if she moved around. She felt like a cold may be starting on Sunday evening (both Rachel and Ruth started with a sore throat) and felt so blocked up today that she just spent the day resting at home.
Rachel hasn't made pancakes in ages, so it was a real treat for everyone when she made a huge batch this evening.

Thursday 30th: Ruth was very pleased to get her final certificate from Xtra Math. And on-line drill practice that her class has been working on. They only work on one operation at a time. Division is the last one, so she has gotten through them all now with 100%. Great job Ruth.
RIGHT: One of the boys in Asher's class was playing with this when we arrived. I was pleased to see that Asher waited for him to finish, and then had a few goes herself. She got the beanbags flying up nice and high too. It was a favourite activity at the Champion Centre, so it was great to see one in class too.
LEFT: I was a bit late in thinking about taking this photo of Asher pushing her buggy to the library this morning. As there is no school tomorrow, they went to the library today instead. It was sweet to hear (and see) this new tradition of hers. The buggy goes with anyway as it needs to be with encase of a seizure, and also as a backup if she gets restless (it can still be her safe place).  The added bonus is that it slows her down on the walk over (otherwise she tends to just run ahead). She is also quite adamant about pushing it herself and doesn't want any help at all.
RIGHT: And just look at this sweet munchkin. I smile every time I look at this photo. You can tell it got nice and warm today.
LEFT: Hannah climbed into bed with a book as soon as she got home from school today. It is such a blessing to see her enjoying reading so much. She had a hard start on her reading journey, and so it is very special to see her having overcome those struggles and enjoying reading so much now.
Who said males can't multi-task? Hezekiah has been working very diligently on Reading Eggs lessons over the last month, and today decided to carry on with the interactive story he was reading on the mini, while getting the next lesson done. :-)
Friday 31st: It was a teacher's only day at school today, so the children were all home and keeping themselves busy. Ruth made a necklace for Hezekiah's friend who is having a party on Sunday. Such a lovely one.
Hezekiah was a bit upset when Ruth tried to hold it around his neck before it was finished (to check the size) and so it slipped out of her hand and she had to re-do it. Hezekiah felt really bad and so decided he had better buy the necklace from her instead of her just making it for him. I thought it was really nice of him to be willing to use his own money to buy the gift - and also as a way of thanking Ruth for her efforts.
RIGHT: Ruth is really enjoying her blue tooth earphones. She has been diligently creating as many jewellery items as possible for a market on Sunday.
LEFT: Ruth was dancing with Anastasia and Asher wanted to join in. Such a fun photo. Such a great big sister.
RIGHT: Ruth and I spotted the magnificent colours in the sky as the sun went down this evening. So we quickly ran out to try and get a photo of it. Unfortunately the lens of my camera is no where near as good as our eyes and so this picture doesn't do it justice. It was amazing.

Saturday 1st: No children photo yet as Rachel is away at a camp this weekend.
It's a leadership training camp that a lot of the CEF leaders are attending. The trainers are over from Australia. It's great that these young people who are always giving at the CEF camps have an opportunity to be spiritually fed and encouraged.
LEFT: Our HUGE dot-to-dot book arrived today. Ruth didn't waist time to get started on one.
RIGHT: She also made this lovely green necklace today. She doesn't like green herself, so it was good that she could work with them as someone else might love it. I have numbered the photos and am trying to help her sell them on a local buy sell fb group. The market on Sunday was unfortunately very wet and so not well attended. She only sold $7 worth of jewellery. So I've listed them on-line and am just hoping she can get a few more sold for all her hard work.
LEFT: Giving Anastasia some walking practice.
RIGHT: Brendon had to finish up his sermon prep this evening, and so we closed the door from the dinning room (where he was working) to the lounge (where the children were watching TV). Anakin spotted his reflection in the glass and kept scratching it. It was so funny to have Anastasia on this side watching him. We opened the door and he wasn't interested in coming through. Just wanted to scratch that other cat. :-)
Sunday 2nd: Father's Day today, so Brendon got a couple of chocolate presents this morning. :-)
The family was spread out this morning though with Rachel at camp, Ruth at the market and Asher spending the morning with Rachiel (her teacher aide). So it was just 5 of us to church this morning, which felt like such a small family. :-)

Monday 3rd: I forgot to get the children photo once everyone was home yesterday afternoon, so I was pleased to get this one before bible study this afternoon. The challenge now is to keep Anastasia sitting still - as she kept trying to crawl forward.
Hezekiah has worked so diligently over the last month, doing either 4 or 5 lessons every day. Today was his last day and he finished up lesson number 120!

So that means he raised $120 for children's medical equipment.
Great effort Hezekiah. Well done.

Monarch, math and more smileys

Monday 22nd: Hannah has started having an Epsom salt and bicarb bath once she gets home from school to help with the reaction to the chlorine and the week went so well. Almost all of the issues that we had over the previous 2 weeks just disappeared. We are so thankful.
Tuesday 23rd: Asher had a rough day today with 3 seizures. First a 1 1/2 minute Tonic Clonic at 11am. Then a 1 1/2 minute Tonic at 3:15pm. She went very blue with this one. And then at 6:30 she had a 1 minute semi-conscious one where she wasn't able to talk and just moved very slowly. We have seen this before where she wants to be with someone, but it takes a lot of effort for her to move. She just cuddles though and thankfully it has never lasted long. Rather a tiring day for her though. Although we are very thankful she had a great 18 day break since the last seizure.
Wednesday 24th: Ruth had swimming lessons today, so we had to rearrange things and Rachel came with to Champion Centre with me, to be Asher's travelling companion. In April Rachel has a St John lesson to teach on physical activity for disabled children. So she was able to spend some time chatting to the Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists at the Champion Centre while we were there. She learnt so much and is really excited about teaching the lesson now.
It was also nice for Rachel to get to meet Asher's different therapists and get to see some of the activities she does.
It's always wonderful to see how quickly she learns things. She learnt so quickly how the magnets work and that they sometimes need to be turned around to work. She also learnt so quickly how to use the tongs. At first we had to keep her left hand held back so that she didn't "cheat", and that helped her see how much she could do.
Asher loves time in the music room and her favourite activity is playing with the small scarves. She loves when we have them on our heads and play peek-a-boo.
There are a whole range of instruments for her to play with too.
Ruth was based at our neighbour, Val, while we were out through the morning (other than getting herself to her swimming lesson). She had the privilege of watching a monarch butterfly hatching from it's pupa.
So when I arrived to pick her up, she asked that I come in and take some photos. It was quite appropriate that she was wearing her butterfly top today.

Wednesday's are always such a full on day. The whole morning out for Champion Centre, then Ruth to Guides from 3 till 6 (including travelling time) and then as soon as we get home she heads out to karate.
Today I decided to walk up to the hall at 7 once the younger girls were finished (Brendon and Rachel practice till 8). Shadow enjoyed the walk and Hezekiah was thrilled to have some time at the park. It was good to make use of the warmer weather and longer days. (Writing this near the end of March and the days are already so much shorter.)

Rachel asked me to take a photo with her and her new blue belt. We didn't have the blue belts for all 4 of them yet, so a group photo will have to come at a later date.
Friday 26th: This week we (Ruth, Hezekiah, Asher and I) walked Hannah to school and I pick her up in the afternoon (as Asher is normally still sleeping).
This morning I quickly came into the classroom so that I could take a photo of Hannah at the board with her two smiley faces. She had told me all about them on Sunday and so I was eagerly hearing about their "growth" through the week. For every "good" thing (like getting to the mat quickly or listening well), she gets one part of the smiley face (circle, an eye or the smile). One she has 3 smiley faces she gets a smiley token which allows her a privilege. It's great to see her motivated and working hard to do well.

Saturday 27th: As Hannah had a much better week, Brendon said she could "practice" riding her bike in uniform with her bag and he would see if she was safe enough to ride to school. She diligently got everything ready and had a ride around for him to watch her. She showed that she was safe enough (and stable enough even with her heavy bag with swimming gear in) and so she will start riding to school on Monday.

I had to smile this evening when Hannah was doing Math. Ruth and her enjoy "racing" through their Reflex Math and so that gets them both motivated to work (although it's also loads of playing). Ruth finished first tonight and so enjoyed reading through some things on the blog. She had a sore knee today, so she put her bean bag in the freezer and had that on her knee for a while this evening. I feel so sorry for her with her regular knee pain. She does still have underlying inflammation in her body - so we just don't know what is going on in there.

Splits and Sorting, Buddies and Brownies

Ruth and her jazz teacher doing the splits during warm up.

Tuesday 26 saw Brendon, Asher and I head into town for her follow up appointment with her neurologist. Her appetite has been compromised over the last couple of weeks from her drug increase, and we noted today that she has only put on 100g in the last 2 months. So it's not ideal. It sounds like there are only 2 other drugs to try though, so for now we have just made a tiny increase (over the last weeks she went from 10 to 14ml, it's now going up to 15ml a day) and it sounds like that will be the max on that drug.

Rachel was very nervous about
giving a lesson at St John tonight.
A part of her leadership training.

So I have to change my thinking about her food. I need to accept that she has just "gone off" many of her previously enjoyed food and I need to focus on getting as many nutrients (and good fats) into whatever she is eating.
It was also good to discuss a "plan of action" if we see any more long seizures. Both the 20 and 22 minute seizures started with a long vacant period where Asher had some degree of consciousness. As the seizure progressed, it almost got "deeper" and she lost that consciousness. Previously the doc had questions if there "conscious episodes" were actually seizures, and so this was why we had delayed giving her the extra meds during those long ones. It was only when we saw the Tonic phase start - that we felt sure we needed to give the extra drug. So it was good to have the doc say that we obviously know her very well and he feels confident that he can trust our judgement. If we feel there has been seizure activity for 5 minutes - then we give the drugs (even if there is that degree of consciousness).

Ruth created a "Buzz light-year"

We do need to do all that we can to stop long ones from happening. The more the body has time in a seizure state - the easier it is to go back there - and to stay there.
I was thankful for the time in the car with the girls in the afternoon (taking them to dancing and then St John). It gave me time to talk through Asher's food situation and we came up with a great idea to make Asher her own Apple Crumble. It's one food she always enjoys and so Rachel will make her one that has extra nuts in (quantity and variation) and then instead of using honey, we will use butter (replacing the stickiness of the honey) as well as coconut oil as we normally do. She will also get to eat it with cream. So really adding as many good nutrients and healthy fats as we can. We will even soak all her nuts to make sure we get maximum benefit from them for her.

Asher's homework of "same" has been applied to her unpacking the cutlery. She insists on doing this every day - so why not use it to re-enforce the principle. She learnt so quickly and now unpacks all the "same" items onto the step for me to put away.

I couldn't resist taking this photo of Asher. She was playing with the blocks and decided to make the box a pillow. So cute.
Hannah is really enjoying "playing" on Reflex Math. The first time she played she looked at me after a while and asked "so where is the work". :-) She has already gotten so quick at a number of addition and subtraction sums. It is boosting her confidence wonderfully. She is already sitting at a 32% fluency - which is excellent when I look at how much (or how little) she knew when she started.

Hannah thrilled with the new game she opened today.

Ruth and Rachel are having a race to see who can have all their addition and subtraction facts at "reflex" speed. Ruth is currently just ahead with 81% and Rachel already has 76%. So they are all doing well having only had it for less than 2 weeks.
Once the older girls have gotten to 100% on their addition and subtraction - they will both move onto multiplication and division. That will be new to Ruth who is only just starting to learn her multiplication facts - but I think the competition with Rachel will push her to work hard.
If you would like to treat your child to this game (and in so doing help boost their skill and confidence with their math facts) - then you can use this link. And if you have 3 children who can use it - you can save 44%. And becoming a member of the homeschool buyers co-op - it's free - no strings attached. You will get free smart points when you join and I will get some points too. :-) Their link is also on the right margin of my blog (at the bottom). I have gotten some wonderful deals and free products through them over the years.

Wednesday fun with Hannah and Hezekiah.

Thursday at Brownies. It ended up being just these 3 girls today. This "peg tag" had them burning up some energy and having a load of fun. At one point Ruth had managed to get almost every peg (I think the other girls only had 1 each left). And then I looked again and Hannah had almost all of them. :-)

Learning the actions with Edelweiss. Rachel still remembers doing this as a Brownie.

Lost of concentration for Hannah. And then they even changed and did it the other way around. Their goal is to practice often enough so that they can change direction constantly through the song. I wanted to try get a video but couldn't find the right spot.
Even though Hannah has not said her promise yet, she was allowed to take the prayer book home last week. So she read her prayer today. She will be having her promise ceremony in 2 weeks time. So she is very excited about that. The main thing is getting her sash and all the badges she has been working on (and earning) over the last few months.