March was Youth Art Month

To acquaint my kids and I with the arts a little better, I featured some specific categories for Youth Art Month.

Music: We made a guitar by slipping rubber bands around an open box and strummed an kooky tune.

Dance: We put on the kids favorite Dora CD and rocked out, making sure to use both our upper and lower body. Talked about how Buzz Lightyear does good Latin ballroom dancing at the end of Toy Story 3. Literary Arts: Read poems from Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Two Dimensional Art: fingerpianted and brush painted. Three Dimensional Art: sculpted snowmen, snakes, and alphabetical letters out of play-doh. Architecture: Discussed how different buildings have different roof lines including, slant, flat, and dome. Searched for examples while out running errands.

Textiles: created beautiful tied-dyed fabric with cheap baby wipes, rubber bands, and markers. Most importantly we had fun and explored a few types of art that we may not have even considered art before now.

We're Good

Recent body scans came back negative for cancer again! Hooray! Don't have to be scanned for another 6 months. Last set of scans did show some possible degeneration in my spine and ankle. Will be meeting with a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) doctor who will view the scans and tell me what he thinks. Not shabby at all.

Joy

Joy is helping your husband garden, watching you kids play in the sprinklers, and enjoying a beautiful spring day. Peace is napping with a soft breeze coming through the window while your sweet husband takes the only non-dozing child to run errands.

Artfully Said

I finished up my second day of routine (every 3 months) body scans at the Cancer Center today (results Monday the 28th). In the lobby they had artwork on display that was created by cancer patients, survivors, family member/friends, and caregivers depicting their experiences and their comments.

Two paintings really helped me put words to my own experience last year. Despite the positive attitude, last year was tough--tough for me, the family, and some friends. In the comments on one of the pictures, the cancer patient described her cancer treatment as "swimming up stream." That is it! I thought. You are doing it. You are exhausted. And your fighting to move forward in almost unnoticeable increments. Fighting cancer is like swimming up stream.

Another painting showed a staircase ascending but with a few consecutive steps torn up and unusable. That is what last year felt like too, at times. Like you were making your way and then suddenly you are stuck. Everything is on hold. You can see the plans ahead but you are just stuck, unable to move while you and everyone else deals with the cancer.

Did I grow from yet another cancer experience? Yes. I learned some things and really felt my Heavenly Father's love for me and my family. I gained some patience, humility, and gratitude--although I know those don't appear to be blatant characteristics of mine. But if there is to be opposition in all things, I thought it was appropriate to share the other side of cancer as well. You know cancer isn't all fuzzy bunnies and rainbows!

Proof

Proof that we were not lying about Sophie running away with the idea of the mischievous leprechaun:

Today while our friend Carly was watching the kids, she heard this (a direct quote):

"Caree (Carly), Caree, come and look! The leprechauns turned my poop green!"

Later, at home with Keri, Sophie reminded her that her green poop was "GREAT for St. Patrick's Day."

Thank you, Sophie. You rock!

St. Patty's Day Happenings

Yesterday Sophie used her best cutting and gluing skills to disguise our homemade leprechaun trap. We set it up last night and baited it with a gold coin Sophie had and other items she thought he would enjoy like a bead and small green ball.In the morning, the trap had been sprung but there was no little magical Irish person in sight, only a wee note left by our visitor. He stated that since the kids had tried to play a trick on him he had played a few of his own on them. Sophie was very sad when she realized the leprechaun had taken her gold coin, near tears even.Well, it was not long before we happened upon his tricks. He turned the milk green, turned the dining room chairs backwards, turned an empty trash can upside down, moved Sophie's green shirt to a high shelf in her room, and pre-buckled the seat belts in the car. And yes, magically, that gold coin (rescued from the kitchen trash can) was later discovered under her pillow to her delight (good save parents!).

Sophie's imagination went wild with this leprechaun mischief idea. Anything that even seemed out of place to her had been a trick played by the leprechaun.Later that afternoon we made rainbow cupcakes to enjoy with friends. It was a lot of fun! Maybe we'll catch one next year!

Playing in the Dirt

Well the vegetable garden is almost fully planted. We have spent the last 3 years building up our container garden in the backyard. We love it. It's healthy, gives us quality time as a family, gets us outside, provides an opportunity to learn ourselves and teach our children, and, oh, it's fun!

This year we added a small orange tree in addition to the pomegranate, blackberries, and blueberries from last year. Our newly planted herbs are cilantro, basil, thyme, dill, and parsley. We planted onions (bunching), arugula, radishes, lettuce, microgreens, carrots, sugar snap peas, several varieties of tomato, hot and sweet peppers, red cabbage, kale, corn, beans, and cucumbers. Soon to be planted are summer and winter squash, pumpkin, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

It's a fun Saturday afternoon with the kids playing in the hose water and us parents getting dirt under our nails.

What's That You Say?

Rhys is making gains in his speech little by little. He started with 3 consonant sounds - m, b, and d. He is now using those more consistently and he has added n, t, and p with h emerging. What a champ!

Sophie says things her own way and it makes us laugh. To exclaim surprise, she says "Oh my cow!" which we think is a combo of Oh my gosh and Holy cow!

Also with spring approaching, she likes to point out the common red breasted robin, labeled by her as "Christopher Robin." "Look, a Christopher Robin, Mom!" Love it!

Nothing Much Here

That's the answer to "What's been going on?"

Neal and Keri are continuing their upholstery class once a week. They have spent four hours removing staples, thus far. Staples like the sands of the sea! Someday they will learn a new upholstery skill besides how to remove staples and band-aid up cuts and puncture wounds.

Rhys is starting to use his 3 consonant sounds more often. He is becoming more expressive, more communicative, but the words are going to come slow as of now. We now are sticking him time out for pulling his sister's hair. His favorite job is pushing the buttons on the washer, dryer, and dishwasher to get them started.

Sophie is growing so tall but she is skinny! She loves preschool. She loves riding her tricycle. She loves spending grandma's money to buy the occasional ice cream sandwich from the ice cream truck. She is fascinated by the fact that different foods and liquids turn her tongue various colors. She can talk endlessly. When we are out running errands, she always requests "one more store."

Today we attended the Arbor Day celebration at our city library. It was cold. Only some of the trees got planted by various volunteer groups because it was so cold. No matter! The city plants any unloved tree soon thereafter.

We also picked up our 'bountiful basket' order today. We get mostly local grown veggies and fruit every other week. Never know what's going to be in there which is half the fun. We learned we liked kale this way and now are going to try turnips for the first time. It's fun to find out what's in the basket and what we are going to do with it.

So just everyday stuff going on.