Review of 2014 ~ Inspirational Quotes

Like the year of 2011, I had to make two albums for our picture memories. 

Front and back of the first photo book

Front and back of second photo book

 (Wow, I just realized I used a very similar, but NOT my favorite picture as the front.  I just noticed it, because Elizabeth is not smiling, and in my favorite, she's giving a big smile).

Winter

We had so much fun during the snows!  Nathan and William made homemade sleds.

Spring

I was really pleased with the book theme I chose, because I loved the inspirational quotes I could place on the pages of my choosing, and there were some pretty cute butterfly embellishments.

It really is a JOY to give to others and to be rewarded with their reflected joy.  My children have learned that joy of giving with joy.  That boy pictured above is so thoughtful of others.  :-)

We really did enjoy watching a young frog transition through its life cycle (even death, sadly).

We enjoyed many walks all together as a family, and we checked on the neighbors' horses and fed them while they were gone.  We saw a few rough green snakes, which I absolutely loved, because they're beautiful and interesting.  It was so much fun to see them crawl and climb among the branches when we put them in trees. 

Summer

We got to see quite a few amazing sights in nature this year, and the kids and I spent a lot of time outside.  I spent a lot of time outside reading, in addition to our walks.  I read and read and read and read, and then I did a lot of deep meditation, too.  It was a spring and summer full of deep learning and reflection for me.  The kids got to simply enjoy a great summer.

Choosing positive actions (like the "singing" mentioned in the quote on the right page above) actually work to bring positive feelings. 

We learned about many different kinds of mushrooms and other fungi.  It was fascinating.   Some of them are so beautiful.

We enjoyed a family trip to Chicago.  It was our first time visiting that city, besides being in the airport.  It was also a learning experience as we visited the Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum, and the Adler Planetarium.  

Fall

Save for our loss of our beloved chickens, we enjoyed a wonderful fall.  During the year of 2014, I personally started appreciating my life at a much higher level and starting taking things a lot less for granted. 
 

We can't keep our sunshine to ourselves!  :-)  We want to share it with others.

Even though the boys gave me opposition on the day I took their fall pictures, I was content with what I got.  :-)  

Things don't always go smoothly in life, but we must choose happiness, contentedness.  If we are to be happy, we must choose to focus on all the positive things in our lives, rather than all the negative.  The negative things, the negative people...they will bring us down if we make that our focus.  There's also no shortage of people we can reach out to and help in the world, and improving the lives of others also builds our own happiness.

I'm striving to enjoy my children to the fullest every day they are with me for this life journey.  They are so precious.

Winter

Walking life's journey in LOVE makes sense.  We are all much happier and healthier when we live our our lives in love toward others, when we all live in cooperation, as opposed to war, theft, etc.  That is why when we "have really lived" when we have done things "in a spirit of love."  Hate does not promote life, even in the person doing the hating.  They'll self-destruct, poisoning themselves with their toxic-in-excess endogenous hormones.

We enjoyed our walks in December. We even took a picnic one day.  It was so nice to spend that time with my sweet babies.

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." -Thomas Carter

A loving heart seeks out knowledge in order to choose the most loving, beneficial ways of living and interacting with fellow earthlings.  Those who don't care, who don't make any effort to grow in knowledge and act accordingly with wisdom, are not acting in love.  In their ignorance, they are likely to commit unloving acts toward themselves or others.  In addition, those who prohibit knowledge are not acting in love.  When knowledge is prohibited or controlled, we end up with something like the Dark Ages. 

2014 was a year full of growing in knowledge, appreciation of life, and an increased love toward fellow earthlings. 

Coming soon in my posts for January through April 2015:  our participation in university scientific research studies (Harvard University and University of Arkansas), new magazine subscription, educational plans for the next year, some awesome new nature photos, and more.

Until next time...

What We Did... (December 2014)

December through the first half of January was very stressful for us.  Nathan's dad was admitted to the hospital, his life endangered, and he had part of his leg amputated.  Then he went to rehab.  Though we all all went down to visit once, there were a few other times when Nathan went alone for many days at a time, leaving me as a single parent during a very rough time, as I'll soon explain.

The time we all traveled, we traveled separately from Nathan, because the boys had a dental appointment that day. 

This was Trusten's first dental check-up at seven-and-a-half.  He had no cavities.  It was William's second visit, and he had no cavities (he had one at his first visit at the age of nine), but he's had a tooth come out before the primary has fallen out, so we're about to have to get that pulled.

We left the evening the day following the dental appointment.  I snapped the above picture while fueling up.  We took Atlas Dog with us.  See his black head?

The following pictures were all taken by my momma of the kids while they stayed with her one day.

William was not acting like himself.  Usually a very helpful and sweet boy, he was extremely irritable and didn't want to do anything.  He refused to do his school work, and he didn't want to do anything to help around the house.  He also complained of hurting joints and being tired.  I kept thinking, "Lyme disease.  He's got Lyme disease," but he's had hurting joints before due to growth spurts. And I figured maybe his moodiness and lethargy was due to changing hormones, since he's at that age.  I asked him whether it was serious, because I ought to take him to the doctor if it was, and early on he'd say no.  But then when he'd complain about things, I told him to go lie down in bed if he really didn't feel well...and he did!  And he started sleeping in later.  I became more concerned, and when I told him I was going to take him to the doctor, he was then agreeable.  I requested a blood draw to test for Lyme, since that is what I intuitively suspected, plus juvenile RA.  They did those and a couple other tests of their choosing.

The nurse who took William's blood was amazed that he thought nothing of it.  Well, that boy takes pain like a champ.  Thankfully it wasn't Olivia, or someone would have to sedate her just to keep her still and quiet.  LOL

It took thirteen days for the results to come back.  The Lyme test came back positive.  We went out immediately to pick up antibiotics.  It was the first time in his eleven-and-a-half years he'd ever taken conventional antibiotics, and I'm so very thankful, because along with the fact that he's had mostly only organic food during his lifetime, I believe the antibiotics worked to top capacity, which was very important, considering he must have been infected for over a month by the time he started them. He had to take them twice daily for 21 days, and there were several restrictions, like not eating iron or taking mineral supplements or eating dairy within two hours of taking the medication and avoid direct sunlight.  Since he was still highly irritable for the first half of that duration, it was hell getting him to take them and follow all the rules.  We were both relieved when he started feeling better.

My momma had given me this cool hood-with-scarf when we had visited, and I took a picture for her while sitting outside the laundromat, waiting for our clothes to wash, because we were waiting on a part so Nathan could fix our washing machine.  I call it my Red Riding Hood.  :-)

I met a dear friend at Barnes and Noble, because she moved farther away from me, and I miss her!  The youngest kids had fun playing with her sweet son, Jaxon, while we talked.  I think William read.

Nathan spent more time away this month than home with us.  When he was gone, the kids slept in our bedroom with me.  One time William went with Nathan.

The girls were thrilled to sleep with me.  They even brought their My Little Pony blanket to serve as our extra covering.

When Nathan came back, we celebrated Elizabeth's birthday.  It was her third birthday, so we visited Promised Land Animal Park, which is where we normally go for our children's third birthdays.

Elizabeth loves chocolate like I do, so I made her a homemade chocolate cake and some homemade chocolate hot fudge, and I bought Alden's vanilla ice cream.

Also I paid for the materials to administer a standardized test (the CAT) to William.  This isn't required, but we were curious.  I chose a sixth grade level, because for his age, that is what he'd be in, even though he's just now doing sixth grade math, since he's been slow in that.  He was terribly stressed during it, having never taken any such test before, and he kept panicking about the time.  However he ended up scoring well above average in reading, slightly above average in writing, and slightly below average in math (having not even learned some of the things on the test in math, yet). 

William also enrolled in his first Minecraft Homeschool course, since he loves playing Minecraft.  He plays as Aptenodytes88 (the penguin genus that contains emperors and kings; penguins are his favorite animal; 8 is his favorite number).  For his first course, he chose Redstone Academy, in which he learned about engineering and the different branches.  He watched videos, took quizzes, wrote essays, and built things on the MCHS server.  He scored a 93 for the course total. 

Furthermore, I was about ready once again to find a speech therapist for Elizabeth, when once again (every time I am about to take her for help), she had a burst of improvement.  She really exploded around her third birthday (not uncommon) in words.  Now (as of April 2015) she will repeat about any word spoken.  Around half of what she says is echolalia (but that's still a major improvement over very little at all), but she also talks plenty about things on her own.  She has quite a fascination with letters.  I've wondered from time to time whether she will turn out to be somewhat hyperlexic, but I really can't say for sure now.  She shows plenty of signs of being a happy, highly social, high-functioning autistic.  I had speech problems, and William had different speech problems, and we've both turned out to be fine and get by well.  I fully expect Elizabeth to turn out the same way, even if she may end up needing some speech therapy.

We enjoyed a wonderful walk during the second half of December.  Here are a few of the pictures from the walk and picnic:

We enjoyed our walking and picnic time together and loved our finds.  I posted about the mushrooms in the early fall to early winter mushrooms post.

I also finished another college course.  I scored a 100 in psychology, just as I did last semester in sociology.  Next semester I'm only taking a second 8-weeks course, and if that works out well for me, I'll start taking two courses each semester, as I'm able, a first 8-weeks and a second 8-weeks.  I'm also planning to take the CLEP exam sometime soon for the analyzing literature course, which is one of the required English credits.  That will save me some time not to have to take that course.

Trusten is doing well in all his studies.  Some days he fools around and skips out on doing his work altogether, but he does extremely well on the days he does do his things.  He's working on language lessons and sometimes journal writing, reading biology lessons and geography. 

That's all I'll say for this month.  I was hoping to be caught up on my back posts, but the 8-weeks course I'm currently taking (here in April 2015) keeps me busy.

Until next time...