Learning Around Here This Week...

This week we were without daddy for most of the week who went out to the house with Poppy to lay the chipboard yellow tongue and groove sheets along with cut out the archway and put up the lintel. Great job boys!

We had swimming lessons. Kids are LOVING their classes and teachers and especially love meeting with 15 other homeschooling kids each week!

Zip, Zeeki and I visited a new playgroup this week too.

{We read through more of our read a loud 'Henry and the Clubhouse'.

The boys made a cosy clubhouse of their own this week in the backyard.}

{Checked out Chapt 22 of our Story of the World; life in Ancient Sparta and Ancient Athens. Made knuckles to play out of the Ancient World book and some air dried clay and painted them up.}

{Stass' 3 new books - from the Little House on the Prairie series- The Rose Years- arrived. There are over 200 pages in one book and over 300 in the other two. Stass enjoyed reading through all 3 this week! I must say that it's one thing I lOVE about our learning-at-home journey; the time afforded to the kids to be able to read or do things that really interest them. She was so happy to have finished each one.}

{Liji had an assessment for visual dyslexia at the Alison Lawson clinic here. We are hopeful this may help him at some stage. Just trying to work out when to start.}

{The kids made some NO BAKE ENERGY BALLS as a gift for Sulley (Dannii my SIL) who returned to work this week after an extended break. The boys wrote out the recipe in their new recipe books.}

{Stass wrote out the recipe for the cheesy chicken slow cooker meal we all made together on Wednesday.}

{I sewed up some bunting for the girls' room out of handkerchiefs from a play tea set the girls were given. They never use these from the set and they just always get trodden on when they play so I thought I might put them to another use ;) I just tacked the ends of the triangles together and threaded them onto some twine. Totally dodgy hand sewing but the girls liked them!

Simple but cute with their pink and purple butterfly curtains.}

{Our memory verses book got a work out this week.}

We took a bus and train ride to a town an hour away where Jas, our friend, was organising her first baby wearing meet. I wanted to go along and support her. Unfortunately, a lot of mums couldn't make it and my kids were the only big ones there. This always makes me feel a bit self concious since they are an energetic lot! 

It was lovely to catch up with Jas and Sophie though.

{They did, however, enjoy the train ride there. Zippi got quite overwhelmed and kept asking to go home.I felt overwhelmed too. This was the day I wrote the post 'You are not alone'.}

{Zippi still has to have two dummies like this to self soothe.}

{Babywearing means that I can still hold Zippi's hand, whilst carrying Zeeki on and off public transport.}

The kids started getting excited about the Olympic Games in London.

{Front cover of the OLYMPIC GAMES LAPBOOK that we made. Thank you Homeschool Share!}

{Stass with Sulley's help, looked up the athletic history of two of her favourite athletes; Lauren Jackson and Sally Pearson.}

{Inside we talked about the food pyramid and we are keeping track of Australia's medals. That little flap bottom right flips up and there are three columns for gold, silver and bronze medals.}

{Zeeki began crawling properly about 2 weeks ago and is now going to a push up position and has begun to pull himself up a little on furniture. Man time is flying by! In a month and a week, he'll be one!!! He loves this lovely and warm jumper Aunty Sumi gave him. Since he has been crawling, he's less anxious which is really great - for him and us! He's a gorgeous little boy whom we all adore.}

Liji has been asking for alot of deep pressure lately. For those interested HERE IS A LINK TO A PAPER BY TEMPLE GRANDIN WHO HAS A PH.D AND DEVELOPED NOT ONLY SYSTEMS USED IN AMERICA'S ABBATOIR'S AND CATTLE YARDS BUT ALSO DEVELOPED A SQUEEZE MACHINE TO CALM HERSELF. Over the years, we've used different tools to help with deep pressure; brushes, joint compressions, crab walks and other gross motor style activities and heavy work. I remembered that I had bought some lyrca from my mate Kaz a couple of years ago and whipped that out again. While I got the dinner on in the slow cooker that morning, Liji went to designing a body sock for himself on paper. He drew pictures of the tools we'd need too.

We measured him up and then he helped me assemble it.

I took a video of Liji using the sewing machine for the first time but can't seem to upload it here.

{Liji cutting the material.}

{The boys in their body socks.}

{Liji's has to be resewn now after the feet got holes in them but they really like these!}

{The kids enjoyed a game of scrabble with Nan after dinner one night. Nan, Sull and my lovely next door neighbour once again all came and pitched in while Brett was away. I'm so thankful for all their help.}

An invitation to craft: making cards

{An invitation to craft: making cards using foam letters, paper embellishments and double sided tape for Zippi.}

{Happy for ten minutes or so choosing from the bowls and adding to her cards.}

{Great fine motor skills}

I had a lovely night out with my 'M' girls...except we were missing Michelle :( Next time mate.

{Mell, Mel and Me}

{My yummy steak}

All in all another busy week full of learning experiences and faith-stretching experiences too!

More another time,
Lus x

Update on the House Reno

Brett and his dad were out at the house again for another week (last week in May).
They took out the bricks that we'd been kindly given by our neighbour's and their son (thanks Mc'C's!!!) and then Brett went and picked up another 200 out there.
They used the laser level (thanks so much for suggesting that Dan!!!) and got the piers all to the correct height in two days.

Then they laid the ant capping and steel all in one day!!!!!
I'M SO EXCITED!
It's actually starting to look like a re-build now!

So all the steel (replacing the timber joists and bearers) is all up now in the 2 big bedrooms, loungeroom, learning room and the hallway.

Brett and his dad have worked SO HARD and I am so thankful for and proud of them both.

Meanwhile back here, Brett's amazing sis, kind mum and my incredible next door neighbour all leant helping hands this week to help out. I had to have an echocardiogram for a heart murmur that had been picked up (all fine!) and had Zeeki with a fever for some of the time. He's looking better today but it's always worrying when a bubby has a fever! We also attended a homeschool social group park meet and on Friday went to a morning tea/play for families with siblings of autistic children. Was an encouraging time.
So lots happening out at the house and always lots happening at the end too!
More catching up to follow!
Lus x

Another House Update and Some Perspective

Our computer is so super dodgy at the moment. Just shuts down at a moment's notice and basically is set on a course of meltdown in the not too distant future. This has put me off blogging along with the fact that our SD card reader is busted. My sil's camera takes a different type of card and that's why I can still update the house reno. Anyway, all that said, I miss being able to share pics of our fam as they happen but this season shall soon pass too! lol
In the meantime how about a quick house update?
Ok so since I last blogged here, Brett had to delay heading out to the house because I had a wisdom tooth pulled, that then turned into a bacterial infection, Ezekiel had an ear infection (his first one poor sausage) . We got through all of those things and so Brett went out to do more on the house and the second day he was gone...my back went.
Fully packed it in.
Praise God for His amazing provisions!
Neighbours and family from near and far came to help out; bringing meals, offers of help, wiping up, bathing kids, getting Zeeki in and out of his cot since I couldn't even do that. I fely completely helpless on my own, but with others around, we still got through a successful homeschooling week (our first one back for the year!)

So you'll remember our main bedroom originally looked like this...

...then last time I showed you it looked like this...

...and now it looks like this!
No joists or bearers at all, fireplace completely removed, all the dirt and debris shovelled out and taken away and most of the piers gone too.
The piers that are there need to be fixed and more need to be added so we bought a second hand (but in BRILLIANT condition) cement mixer this week!

This was repeated in most of the rooms. The other major job that Brett wanted to tackle this past week was to install a new damp course into the mortar to help combat the rising damp issue. Brett's dad is helping him learn so much about all this kind of stuff! They had to buy a special type of silicone and drill into the mortar every 10cm and then inject this silicone into the holes. It spreads to form a new damp course. It's expensive but was our best option in preventing the same damage from happening again...

And last time the fireplace in the learning room was uncovered...

Now it has been completely removed and again all the floor below the joists has been cleared and cleaned out properly now too!
Way to go my beautiful Brett, Poppy and Sulley as well!
You guys are doing amazing things!

Now onto the 'perspective' part of this post.
It's funny, well not ha ha kind of funny but you know funny weird, that most families we know who have a child on the Autism Spectrum go between various phases during their child's early life.
I don't have all the energy I need to blog about it all right now but I wanted to make a few small notes.
I've greived and now I've gotten busy!
We have mental health care plans drawn up now, referrals written and specialists ready and willing to help all booked in.
Yay!
We have resumed a regular rhythm for our learning and this has helped greatly!
I'm being very deliberate and specific about who and when people come to visit only out of complete necessity so that my two little people who struggle so greatly with change are able to cope at this unpredictable time when Daddy might be away and the house plans are a bit up in the air. Again, it seems to be helping!
I've decided (having been inspired by my lovely friend Donna!) to do a rotating menu plan. We are still chemical free (5 years now), Liji is lactose free (also 5 years), I am gluten free and all the family is back on low-moderate only salicylates except for Shabbat (sabbath) where I do a meal with a couple of *extra* high fruits/vegies thrown in. This is only a temporary measure and we hope to wean back on to regular fruits and vegies again soon after we've kind of 'reset' our systems again.
I have enjoyed looking back over the years over the various stages; challenges and highlights too, of our time on diets.

So I thought, purely for my own record, I would make note of our rotating fortnight. It's a temporary measure to once again help me stay on top of things when I am here being a single-parent, homeschooling and shopping with 5 kids while Brett works on our house. He's not gone every week but for when he is away, this works FABULOUSLY for us!

So here is my Week 1 Dinner Menu:
{nb: all the food photos below are from my archives!}

Monday: Vegie & Rice Noodle Stir Fry
Main Ingredients are: Carrots, Celery, Red Cabbage, Shallots, Garlic, Water Chestnuts, Cashews (when tolerated) and Tamari

{at the moment we can't have capsicum - a high salicylate- as featured in this photo but we are hoping to be able to again sometime soon!}

Tuesday: Beef & Barley casserole in the Slow Cooker
(Old slow cooker book page 21)

Wednesday: Frozen Fish (Skinless NZ Hokki from Aldi) with homemade potato wedges/gems or mash

Thursday: Gluten Free Vegie Frittata
Main Ingredients are: Eggs, Rice Flour, Grated Carrots, peas, Zucchini (high sal), cheese, garlic
To mine I also add some cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and various herbs
(Recipe from the Gluten Free 4 Ingredients book pg 171 - the BEST frittata recipe I've ever used!)


{at present we have to have ours without the tomatoes since they are very high in salicylates; a natural chemical found present in various levels of all fruits and vegetables. Most people are not intolerant to them however, if you are and come off them, it can really help! Well that's generally been our experience. This time round I'm not 100% sure but we are still hanging in there with them.}

Friday: Slow Cooker whole chook then shredded and eaten on rice wraps
Other than the chicken and wraps, the main ingredients are homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut, lettuce, cheese, carrots (mod salicylate) and a few slices of cucumber (again high salicylate)

Saturday is our family's day of rest and is the only day I plan to do two special meals;
Saturday (Shabbat) lunch:
Baked Rice
(Gluten Free 4 Ingredients book)

Shabbat Dinner:
Sclow cooker Roast Beef with oven roasted Safe Vegies

{delicious oven baked potatoes}
Sunday:
 Baked Pumpkin and Beetroot Risotto
Main Ingredients are: Butternut pumpkin (moderate salicylate) and beetroot along with aborio rice and chicken stock

{old photo. Looks much more appetising when you have beetroot and pumpkinnd a little fresh parsley with it!}
Week 2 Dinner Menu

Monday: Italian Soup Mix in the Slow Cooker served with homemade crusty garlic bread



Tuesday: Beef Satay in the Slow Cooker with rice
(Recipe in our Family Recipe Planner)

Wednesday: Slow Cooker Rice Pasta and Vegie soup
(Newer s/c bk Page 39)

Thursday: Slow Cooker Oriental Chicken
(Old s/c bk pg 64)

Friday: Slow Cooker Autumn Bounty
(Old s/c bk pg 111)



Shabbat Lunch: Bean Nachos
(a very high salicylate meal and therefore MASSIVE treat for us all to look forward to!)

Shabbat Dinner: Slow Cooker Savoury Mince with Gluten free rice pasta/spaghetti or plain rice

Sunday: Pancakes served with 100% maple syrup, soy icecream, safe fruits
(Recipe found in our Family Recipe Planner)



Anyway, gotta fly but basically am feeling much more optimistic, hopeful and refreshed this week.

5 things I am thankful for today:

1. Sunshine after so much rain! Time to have together in a park :)
2. All the help we've recieved recently from SO many people! Truly thankful for each and every person.
3. A card, gift and chat with my beautiful treasure of a friend Kaz D.
4. That even after a hard day, there is always a fresh beginning each morning
5. A dose of perspective. When those around you are doing it tougher than you are in a vartiey of ways, it really makes you stop and think and helps you to count your blessings. It puts it all in perspective.

Today sweet Sebby would have been 5 months old.
My heart ached for Natti today.
Just wanted to make note of that too.

Well, more to come another time soon.
Love to you and yours, my friends in blogland!

Ps: Neen, if you are reading this, you've been on my mind heaps. Will try calling this week. xo

You may be wondering why I've been so quiet on this blog lately.

A couple of reasons.

Lack of time since Brett's been out at the house doing as much work as he can on it.

Lack of energy; since Brett has been at the house obviously I've had to do the parenting thing on my own (although have been incredibly blessed with help from my lovely SIL Dannii and my next door neighbour Alayne along with offers of help from kind friends).

And well, the main reason is a little too hard to write about in alot of depth right now.

It's basically that with all the changes that have occured in our fam over the past couple of months, Liji's autistic symptoms have flooded back and risen to the surface along with some new things that need to be dealt with very quickly.

And we are. 

It's also brought out stuff in our little Zippi and we are looking into statergies and tools to now help her too. Our doctor believes that she is definitely somewhere on the spectrum and is incredibly 'rigid'.

Life is going to look quite different around here this year.

And that's ok.

It's just not what other families look like.

And again, that's ok.
We are just focussing on what our family needs are...and that's ok.

We are our own family and God is at the helm of this rig! 

He will direct our path and make our way straight once more.

We will continue to trust in Him.

He is ever-faithful and unwavering even in the midst of diasters, chaos and crises. 

My days have been overwhelming; filled with many tears, heartfelt cries and loads of research.

That's what my spare time has been taken up with. 

The pain of seeing your children slip away from you so suddenly is not something I would wish on any parent and if you've never had a child with ASD (Austism Spectrum Disorder) then you really can not possibly begin to understand the pain and heartache your mama heart feels when you see it happening.

Again.

It is incredibly frustrating and as I said, overwhelming.

Those who have gone through it...you know how hard it is to try EVERYTHING and NOTHING be good enough to reach them.
That's where we are right now.
Having lived this already I know that Yah will direct us to show us what will help us reach Elijah and Zipporah too.

I keep reminding myself that we've had two amazing years with almost NO symptoms present in Liji - what a miraculous time that has been!

This is another season it seems; one where I must once again educate, advocate and arm myself with everything I can to pull my children up from that dark place they try to disappear to. Sometimes it is not so dark. Sometimes because of their uniqueness, I see light and laughter, love and delight in amazing things that quite frankly my eyes would have missed had it not been for the insight these two children bring me.

These two who seem so alike in so many ways that it sometimes scares me.

And our other three beautiful kiddos?
Well Zeeki is still feeding like a champion, has (manageable) reflux but no colic (yay!) and has found a little natural sleeping rhythm. Ethi and Stass are struggling to cope sometimes with the outbursts of Zippi and Liji.
We all are.

It is hard.
But they are gorgeous kids too and are trying to understand. There is room for all of us to learn about what it is to walk in forgiveness, grace and compassion. I am so proud of them for trying to live out these things during this time.
Yep, it is hard right now but I do know that Yah will continue to walk with us and get us through.

I will post more on these things and stratergies we will be using, some time down the track.

What I really came on here to show you was photos of the renovations Brett and his dad did last week!

So the last photo I showed up of the hallway floor looked like this:

...then last week it started looking like this...

and now with all the joists gone looks like this...

Our floors last time...

And now...

The floors in the learning room before...

...and now...

When we bought the house, there were blue shutters on the outside...



..and now they are gone...

and they have gone off the side of the house too...



Originally, all we had planned to do before we moved in was some painting inside and out and some small repairs. I was thinking that the first thing I wanted to do was change the outside colour of the house! Now that seems to pale into insignificance compared with what we have to do inside!
BUT we ARE getting there!
Each time Brett returns with photos I get excited seeing what they have accomplished out there!
I am so proud of him and thankful for my father in law too!

Anyway can't stay long.
Just wanted to keep my record going of what's been happening with the house and also to record here the happenings in our precious fam over this past week or so.

5 things I am very thankful to Yah for:

1. Family support, help and understanding
2. Hope
3. Our fabulous doctor
4. Encouragement from other mums who have children on the spectrum
5. A plan for the immediate future :)

Some encouragement for my heart from the scriptures:

"Do not withhold your mercy from me O Yehovah;
may your love and your truth always protect me."
- Psalm 40:11

"...we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal".
- 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Blessings and love and more another time,
Lus x