MIRACLE ANNIVERSARY

 Yesterday we celebrated my parents’ 67th wedding anniversary.  

In today’s world, that is quite an accomplishment in itself.  

However, this anniversary celebration was full of miracles!  

In January 2019, my mom suffered a massive stroke. She lost the use of her left side and her swallowing ability.  

There were times during these past 18 months, we weren’t sure what her future would hold. 

Yet, last night she was able to be at this anniversary dinner and EATING the meal with us!  She moved backed to her house from the nursing home in June, and since then has graduated from puréed foods to regular food.  

Even after spending 2 nites in the hospital this past week because of experiencing a short seizure, she was still able to be at the party!

And all of these accomplishments are due to God’s love and grace and His strength helping my mom AND dad work so hard on her recovery this past year and half.

It was a beautiful celebration last night!  

Congratulations Mom and Dad, and thank you Lord for all your help getting to this point!  

HERE'S THE PLAN

 

School starts 9-1-20.  Next week.

Our school district is offering two options: 

5 full days or virtual.

Lydia will be attending 5 full days.

Because the boys have an IEP, we have been able to formulate our own plan for them.  

The boys will be attending school from 9-12 each day.  They will have lunch at home, no recess, and no art, gym, or music.  They will also not have any time in their 4th grade classrooms.

They will spend their 3 hours in the special ed room having teaching time with their special ed teacher as well as their occupational and speech therapy.  I will work in the afternoon on things the teacher sends home with them.

At any point, we can change this plan and start giving them more time and more inclusion at school.

We are choosing this plan for the following reasons:

1. Minimal amount of contact/interaction for the boys since social distancing is VERY hard for them;

2. The boys will be able to be taught new things by their teacher since I feel like I am better in the role of maintaining/reviewing skills;

3. The boys will be able to have their therapies again after a very LONG break-since March 2020!

I am still very nervous about sending them to school even for 3 hours/day.  The boys have basically been safe at home since March.  We have been very protective of them.  Now I am letting them go to school, and I wouldn't even be there to watch over them.  This is very hard for me.  I worry about them getting sick, but I also worry about them getting others sick.  I honestly don't know if this will be the plan until Tuesday, 9-1 at 9 a.m. when I actually have to drop them off at school and drive away.   

I hope we are doing the smart and safe thing for them.  It's just so hard to know what is the right thing to do in this very confusing time we are in right now.

FUN BUT FAST: SUMMER 2020!

 Stephen and his sidekicks made this 

film to showcase our summer.

If video doesn't appear, here is the YouTube link:

Click HERE for Summer Days video

AND JUST LIKE THAT, SHE'S A SENIOR!

After a very unusual end to her junior year- quarantine, school at home, no junior prom (she was going to be the DJ!), no spring break college visits, no softball season, no graduation parties to say good bye to friends, no final last moments before your senior year,- Lydia is now ready to start her senior year of high school.

We were able to visit 3 colleges over the summer although the tours were mostly outdoors.

We were able to have her senior pictures taken - see below.  They are beautiful!

We are hoping she can have somewhat of a normal senior year- hoping for a fall play, homecoming, graduation, and all those special senior moments in between.  

We can't believe how our Lydia Grace got this old already!  She was always the little one of our three older kids.  Now she is almost ready to leave the nest.

Lydia has the coolest and most fun personality!  She is a super talented artist and very smart young woman.  We are so proud of her success working at the bank again this past summer.  It's going to be exciting to see what her future holds after high school.

As we learned with the other two, we are really going to cherish every moment we have with her this next school year.  Before we know it, we will be packing up the van for move-in day at college...

shaunnaclaerboutphotography.com/

WE DARED TO DO IT AGAIN!

We liked camping so much last month, we dared to do it again!

The boys are good little campers.  They eat good, sleep good, handle the public restroom without a problem, and hike good.  What more could we ask for?

We had beautiful weather so that was an added bonus.

Hard to believe it's August already.  Summer is slowly but surely winding down.

We started August by having Jonah wear underwear during the day instead of pull ups!  This is a major accomplishment!

We have been toilet training Jonah for the past 6 years.  Yes, you read that right- 6 years!  It has been a long frustrating process where we have tried every method and idea that was ever thought of for toilet training.  

What finally got us some success was a method Jonah's teacher used at school.  She did 3 intense days of toilet training and got Jonah to the point of going on demand with some self-initiating.  

Unfortunately Jonah still wets (usually slightly) between his "goes".  This is why wearing underwear has not been a possibility because of the constant clean up we would have to do.

However, this summer I came up with the idea of Jonah wearing underwear with an incontinence pad.  This way Jonah can be more like other boys his age by being underwear since the pads can be more discreet than pullups.

It's not the ultimate success I know, but to me it's a partial victory.  There have been many times in these past 6 years where I thought we would never even get to this point so I am celebrating!

It's been a real frustration for me because I feel so guilty like I am doing something terribly wrong that Jonah can't completely get toilet training.  I feel like it's my fault.  

However, after all the things I've tried and still not had complete success, I have to tell myself that perhaps Jonah just really has a difficult time completely understanding this process plus with his low muscle tone, I think he has a hard time controlling down there.  

On a different note, we went on a beautiful hike today at the state park nearby.  Ben was a determined hiker, staying on the path and having lots of energy to the very end of the .8 mile hike.  Jonah, on the other end, kept throwing himself to the ground acting out some movie in his head and kept saying he was tired and hot.  What a difference in personalities between these two!

Of interest in this next photo, many ash trees in our area have died due to the ash borer.  This photo shows how much of the state park is affected by this.  Look how many trees are dead.  The whole look of this state park will change as these trees come down.  We have an ash tree in our yard that is slowing dying from this.  Sad...

Emerald ash borer is an invasive wood-boring beetle that attacks all species of ash trees that exist in Wisconsin. ... In Wisconsin, the southeastern part of the state is generally infested.