Christmas Cheer

Hello all! I am ignoring the fact that it has been so long since I last posted and I am going to not feel guilty about it. I do what I can when I can. That has to be enough.



Here is a nice little photo to get me going. They were both eating cookies. teehee. I love it when the babies learn to follow their siblings.

Little is "talking" all over the place and Buggy is too. She was just retested in her speech and she just kept going through the test when they expected her to start getting them wrong, she just keeps going. I think her language may be pretty close to her age. Her receptive may actually be over her age. Now her speech is nowhere near that good. Her clinician can understand her and so can I (most of the time). :-) But others...it's kind of a crap shoot. :-)

Rapunzel is such a big helper. She now knows how to change diapers (paper only, thank -you-very-much) and she does so well with the little girls. She loves to "read" stories to them and has a great "small business" with Frodo.

Frodo wanted to learn some real-life applications of math and a few other things. He is starting to sit in on our budget meetings and he came with me to the store a few times. Then we talked about his goals for money.

Omi and opi wanted to go to Disneyland as an extendeds vacation. Not my thing. Or hubby's. We opted to just have HeaterBoy take Buggy since it is her turn anyway and opt out of the rest of the trip. I had no idea of the wrath that we would incur. It was terrible. We talked to the kids and told them we just didn't have the money, not did we want to use the money we did have for this trip. We talked about our options and the kids chose to start their own money-making venture to contribute to the trip.

Oh my goodness. We are not ever giving these kids an allowance. I'm not even going to feel guilty about it.

They made cookies and are also now selling spiced apple cider and their first day they made over $30. For two hours. They sell out on our yard corner and I'm a little concerned that since they do so well, someone might tell on us and we'll have to get them a business license. ;-)

They aren't out there every day, but usually at least once per week. They are going to make their end of the money pretty quickly. It's almost shameful how much people tip my children. Especially poor college kids who can't afford their own food. It's not completely uncommon for them to make as much in tips as they did in actual sales. One of the advantages they have over other kids is that they can sell right when the college kids get out around twelve and one, when the school kids wouldn't be able to set up shop until 3 or so. Too bad I don't have any photos of them. I'll have to do that one of the times they are out there.

I am now officially finished with my Communication Skills Training. I have passed the mentorship phase and they trust me to teach/facilitate Communication Learning that fosters respect trust and empathy. Hooray!

I actually started this job in LLL to learn more about communication. We don't always pick up the best habits in communication as we are growing up. I realized that many of my habits were not creating the feeling I wanted in my home. I was doing things that I didn't realize were sabotaging us and I didn't know how to fix it. I know feel much more "aware" of how I speak with others. I'm not done learning, but I do feel like I have new tools that work much better than the old ones. It has also changed how I think about communicating and creating/maintaining relationships. It's a paradigm shift that fits better with my belief in God and the divinity in all of us.

so...
That's all for the next two or three months. ;-) If you want to connect, please contact me. If I get back to this earlier than that, then it will be a surprise. ;-p

Here are some Halloween photos for your viewing pleasure. :-)