I know some of you are waiting for a vacation post, and there will be one soon. Really, I promise. Some of my favorite photos are on the grumpy camera, and I need some help from my dh getting them and loading them up.
In the meantime, I thought I would talk about lessons learned on vacation. Hmmm ... cable TV is really fun, but I am so glad we do not own it. It was amazing how often all three TV's in the condo were going with an audience of blank stares looking at the screens. Communication going on? No ... Playing with each other? Not so much ... Noggin has some borderline appropriate shows for my kids to be watching (in my opinion) and the whole channel is geared toward American preschoolers. Hmmm ... A "clean slate" condo with one floor living is way easier to clean and watch children than a big house. Why does everyone on HGTV want bigger homes when the bigger ones take more work to maintain? I really, really need to get rid of more toys and stuff in general. On vacation, you should have seen how much fun my kids had with two paper cups, a straw and two matchbox cars! I want my children to spend time with people, not maintaining relationships with their things. I really need to think through our schedule and rethink what our priorities are. I think we still have too much on our plate. The problem is that so much of what is on our plate is forced there (for example ~ speech, psychotherapy, Tomatis, allergy diets, and doctor appointments galore).
Which leads me to the next question ~ What are we really obligated to give our children? Since my children "supposedly" will benefit from speech, OT, Tomatis, neurofeedback, biofeedback, therapeutic horseback riding lessons, swimming, acrobats, therapy, and doctor/orthodontist appointments galore, am I obligated to get ALL of these services for them? What if from some of these services I have seen little to no improvement? What if I am spending so much time chasing all of these services that I don't have enough hours in the day to child train, form the best loving relationships possible between sibs or establish a better bond with my dd who suffers from RAD/FASD? What about all of those support groups I belong to ~ RAD, FASD, Homeschool, Special Needs Homeschool Support groups? It all just seems like too much. I need more time to just enjoy my kids and watch them grow.
Just since we got home on Sunday, I have already dealt with a few voice mail and snail mail crises, unpacked, answered lots of questions from the contractor, and taken one child to an orthodontist appointment. On Thursday, I blow back out of town with my Mother and kiddos to take Timothy for his annual pacemaker check at Duke Hospital. AND then there is the paperwork and battles to be fought to keep some very necessary services in place.
AND what to do about that nasty H1N1 flu ~ do I vaccinate the kids or just try to isolate more? Ha -- who am I kidding on the isolation thing? We have three more doctor appointments before the end of the month and two additional outpatient stays in the hospital in the next three weeks. But still, I am not sure about vaccinating them for this flu. I am not real eager to fill them with more chemicals.
Did I mention that there is a thick layer of dust throughout my house (construction), which has the asthmatics in my house sneezing, and that I am trying to homeschool a bit. CRAZY BUSY ....
We have decided to drop speech and several support groups at this time. We will keep up with swimming, acrobats, necessary doctor appointments, our special needs homeschool group and Tomatis. We will pray about what else will stay or go.
Well, I have vented. Come back in a day or two for a really fun post.
Blessings, Dawn
And, I thought my life was crazy! : ) It sounds like vacation gave you a great time of reflection, and you're asking some great questions. I would agree that if you aren't seeing results, or if the good does not out weigh the better, then it needs to go, especially with all of your have-to's.
ReplyDeleteWhen my husband wanted cable, I was very concerned, but my girls have done great. Even from the start, they have not begged me to watch it. We have always had a t.v. rule, and they knew it was non-negotiable. In fact, the only t.v. they ever ask to watch is Animal Planet. They still just watch their dvds at scheduled times. I was SO thankful.
I had to smile at your paper cup reference. Two weeks ago, I looked out the back door, and my 2 younger ones had small bathroom cups turned upside down and were smashing them with croquet mallets. LOL. I still have NO idea what they wanted and did accomplish, but I'm guessing they learned something! : )
I hope your construction progresses quickly for you. That's a pain to live with!
Letitia
WOW! You are what I call "crazy busy!" As for the whole H1N1 thing, I posted some tips for avoiding the flu by using things you already have in your home. You might want to take a look at it.
ReplyDeleteI work in ER, and I still did NOT get the vaccine, and I WON'T get it. I don't trust it. Too new, and pushed through even faster than the Gardisil vaccine. I don't care to be a guinea pig for any vaccine, especially after getting chicken pox vaccine for my dd when it was new. She got SO sick. That turned me off for any new vaccines. And shall we add that this year, when I got the regular flu vaccine, I thought I was going to die, due to a reaction I had afterwards????