Crafty Mama

I found another unpublished post!  Seriously?  When did I have enough time to actually sit down and type about craft projects???  I am soo looking forward to having time to blog again soon.

I enjoy myself a good craft project now and then.  I'm not necessarily the most patient person when it comes to DIY, though.   An hour on Pinterest can give me some Martha Stewart bravado, though, like no body's business.   I have been known to make a whirlwind trip to Lowes and Hobby Lobby only to come home and after an 45 minutes, drop a glue gun and a swear word or two and throw in the towel.

For instance, I tried to re-screen our screens a month or two ago.  Yeah.  That didn't work out.

Fortunately, a few things I've tried this Spring have worked out and I feel a little proud of them:

First, Casey's second grade class had a Famous American wax museum in which each kid had to pick a famous American and research about that person's life.  Then on the day of the 'wax museum' they had to dress up like their person and give a speech they wrote to an audience of classmates and their family members.  Casey chose Betsy Ross.  (Of course she did.  She couldn't possibly just pick Mia Hamm and wear last year's soccer uniform...)  I figured I could wing most of the outfit but the skirt needed to be a long one.  I had some blue fabric from the toga part Tom and I went to in February (see! I totally told Tom the toga party would be worth it!)  and stitched it to a child's crinoline that was supposed to go under a dress-up Cinderella dress we had here.  I used the crinoline as a form, then just stitched it close and hemmed it.  The ancient (think from the 70's or 80's) sewing machine I have no longer works so I did this all by hand.  The front hem was 3" longer than the back, but I don't think Betsy Ross, Abe Lincoln, Sacajawea, Michael Jordan or anyone else cared :)

 

 

 

A while back I was on Pinterest idea shopping for something with curb appeal for the front porch this for this spring/summer.  Because I was (again) convinced I could whip up something, you know, Pinterest worthy.  And because chevron pattern is on everything this year, I was doubly-convinced it would be easy to do myself.  On a planter.  That is a cylinder.  Right?  Wrong.  But I did it anyhow and, although despite spending a ton of time trying to figure out how to get the pattern and angles even around the planter, I think they turned out kind of cute.  This was a total wing-it job and, thankfully, my anal husband hasn't inspected them close enough to comment on the lack of symmetry.  If he has noticed, he's just smart enough to keep it to himself. 

A $3 vine wreath, some ribbon and fake flowers were easy enough for what I wanted to make for the front door.  A wooden letter and a $2 chevron stencil were all I needed to help coordinate the front door to the porch planters. 

The finished result is a fresh look for the porch this year. 

Each year for the girls' pre-school and kindergarten teachers I try to give a homemade gift along with a gift card as an end-of-the-year thank you.  Even though they have classes that last under 3 hours, I feel like there is far too much nose wiping, tear dabbing and painted fingers to scrub to not acknowledge the effort and patience it takes to teach such young children every day.  A trip to Michael's produced some unfinished wooden picture frames and some cute buttons that were going to work just fine for this year.  I painted them white with paint I had here then had Emily write hers name as well as her teachers' name on the frames.  I traced her work with a sharpie and hot glue gunned the buttons.  Each teacher had asked me for a picture of Emily and they each had damp eyes when they saw them :)

May - part 1

I actually wrote this post 2 weeks ago and haven't even had the time to add pictures and publish it.  I'm adding the photos now and we'll just pretend that I posted this a couple of weeks ago :)


Holy cow!  Time is literally flying by!  The end of the school year is fast approaching.  In fact, Emily has 4 days left next week and then we will be bidding farewell to pre-school.  Casey has 9 days left of second grade and she hasn't once mentioned how sad she's going to be to say goodbye to her classmates for the summer.  Hmmm, wonder what that means? 

 

We've had new neighbors move in and they have boys nearly the same age as the girls.  Casey has been begging us for 6 years to live someplace where there are kids her own age to play with, so she was thrilled when she discovered Jon is as eager to play outdoors as she is.  They've rode and ran around the cul-de-sac non-stop for weeks now and it's so good to see her have a playmate finally.  And, of course, Emily wants to be outside, too.  And that means I have to be outside with her.  This is the main reason I have not been able to blog or get anything done around the house - I'm outside with her constantly because she needs supervision to keep her from going on the street or off to a neighbor's house.  At the age of 5, I hate having to hover over her, but I can only hope that one day she will be aware enough to play outside with the other kids without my watchful eye.  She is old enough to realize she should be doing some of the same things they are doing and gets frustrated when she isn't able or allowed.  So while there are some difficult times trying to get her to understand all of this, there have been some really great results.  In fact, in her motivation to do what the other kids are doing, Emily has managed to check another goal off the list.  Emily learned how to ride her bike last week.

 

Okay, well she knew how to do it mostly, but the experience of riding her bike since she received it for her birthday in March has gone something like this:  Bring bike onto street.  Pedal a few times with much encouragement from mommy.  Then get frustrated because pedaling is hard.  Then get mad at mommy and hit her.  Then mommy gets mad at Emily for hitting.  Emily gets off bike and throws a fit.  Mommy drags Emily and bike back to driveway. 

 

But this week, sister saw the other kids zipping around on their scooters and bikes and decided she wanted to hang, too.  So she started pedaling and hasn't stopped.  And, again, I am in love with her determination and persistence.  She's fallen several times and has managed to rally each time with little fuss; she just gets back on and takes off down the street like she's been riding her little pink bike forever.  Checkin' goals off lists - it's good stuff and I'm glad I'm out hovering to see it all unfold.

 

We've managed to check another big one off our list.  I've been putting off writing about this because I didn't want to set the law of averages into motion and summon some reverse luck on us (me? superstitious? yup.), but this one's been done for almost 2 months.  Emily is potty trained.  Not through the nights yet, but, honestly, that one is so far down on the list, I'm not worried about it.  There was a time not-so-long-ago that I thought she may never be able to be potty trained.  And now she is.  And that is awesomeness.  I can honestly say that even while in potty training boot camp through February and March, she didn't even have that many accidents.  We've been hopeful for this for a long time.  Checkin' more goals of lists - really, really good stuff and sister is happy to rock and roll some big girl undies.

 

Mother's Day was last weekend.  Tom and the girls took me out to breakfast at our usual Mother's Day spot, First Watch.  I love breakfast food, so we go and indulge gorge on french toast and pancakes then everyone is too stuffed to need me to make lunch.  I got to spend the whole stay curled up reading a book and it was beautiful :)  The girls and neighbor kids rode their scooters and bikes and did 'tricks' for the moms, who were parked in lawn chairs.  I use quotations because these tricks were not very elaborate.  At all.  But they practiced them for days to show the moms and they were so proud. 

 

Tom grilled steaks for dinner and I enjoyed a glass of wine.  Except I really mean that the bottle of wine was made out of glass and I had that.  The bottle.

The next part of May will be super busy- Emily's dance recital, the end of school for both girls, a doctor's appointment for Emily that I'm hopeful brings some good changes, a crazy packed Memorial Day weekend and the start of summer!!!  And I'm positive it will all just fly by!

Wondering about Emily

I am writing two separate posts simultaneously.  I'm sure I'll jump back and forth between the two before I publish one or the other.  I am writing both as 'markers of time' in our lives and I look forward to reading each one day far in the future.

Some days I write about our everyday family life, more often than not, drawing out the fun, happy or glitter-covered frustrated moments.  I don't purposefully omit the more trying times in order to paint a false reality in which no one ever argues, gets on nerves, or flips out here.  Most days, the difficult parts are just best put behind me.  Either dwelling on them will put me back into a bad mood or it will just come across as whining or bitching.  But then there are times I call upon the emotions of a trying time to try to mark a moment in time for me because I am certain one day I will look back and see how far we've come from that moment.  Maybe the emotion felt at that time will seem trivial and I won't be able to believe I once fretted about it.  Maybe I'll look back and be able to give the old hand a swipe across the forehead and be grateful we survived the moment.  Most of these moments inevitably involve parenting.  And quite a few come from parenting a child with special needs.

On Tuesday we had a meeting at Emily's pre-school to review all of the testing and assessments that teachers, therapists, and school psychologists have done over the past 6 weeks.  Apparently when you have a kid with special needs, everything from her self care to her IQ must be identified to know what exactly her school needs are.  And from the information everyone gave us on Tuesday, they truly did get to know Emily.  And for that I was pleased.  They told us she was kind and friendly and loves going to school.  That she is incredibly social.  And loving.  They told us she has very difficult time focusing and staying on task.  That she needs a lot, almost constant, redirection.  They identified her skills; what she can and cannot do in various assessments.  And qualified that these results were only snapshots in time and she is probably capable of more than what these tests indicated.  They told me exactly what I knew about Emily.  Nothing they said was new information to me because I make it my business to know what my daughter can and cannot do and I set goals by this information.  I try to not have my head in the sand when it comes to her disabilities.  We own it and we strive to kick butt in spite of it. 

Then they told me what I didn't know, or maybe its more likely what I fear.  They told me Emily's peers love Emily.  And they accept her.  And for some reason in Emily's 5 years, that is something I still cannot hear enough.  Shame on me for being surprised by it because I know my daughter and she is the friendliest kid I know.  She talks funny, sometimes doesn't make sense and plays differently, but, at least for kids, kindness and friendship translate beyond vocabulary.  I wonder if I will ever stop being so needy to hear that she is accepted...

Anyhow, I digress.  Back to the meeting. 

Then they got out the graph.  It honestly took me a bit to recognize what I was looking at.  It was a graph that illustrated where a typical 5 year old falls in all the categories they assessed Emily in.  And on this graph was where Emily falls.  And it was a kick in the teeth to me.  Again, nothing they told me about Emily was new information.  But to see it charted out was different for me.  Maybe that says I'm a visual learner or something else that confirms most of what I hear goes in one ear and out the other; I have no idea.  But it also tells me I am a mom, who even though I have accepted my 5 year old daughter has special needs and learning disabilities, I am not always prepared for the reality of it.  To see how far behind she is rocked me.  I had never seen Emily compared to her peers before.  And it sucked.  Big.  I accept this will likely never change, her being way behind.  I wonder if I will ever get used to seeing it spelled out, though.... 

It was something I shed some tears over because that's therapeutic and all (after I got home, not in the school meeting), and I decided I had to document what my reaction was because I am hoping in 5, 10 15, years this will hurt a little less.  And I can look back at this and think: Oh, Jen.  Look at how far you've come.  I can't believe you were so worked up over pre-school assessments.  Look at your beautiful daughter now, graduated from high school, choosing what she wants to do with her life and being awesome at it.  She is happy and people accept her and that worry was for nothing...  And you should go ahead and get yourself Chanel anything and some botox - you've earned it. :)

I am happy to say we just live our life with Emily and are extremely happy for all that she has accomplished and continues to achieve.  Our days are not spent being sad over 'special needs stuff' or anything like that (I would hate to give that impression based on one post about school assessments).  In fact, its mostly the exact opposite.  She and Casey both bring such joy to us and Emily is, frankly, just one of our daughters.  But I also can acknowledge that there are these times when special needs is all up in our face and its difficult.

So this week's meeting went well except for my emotional reaction to graphs and charts.  The teachers, therapists, psychologists, and administrators all said the right things to us.  But we didn't actually get to writing Emily's IEP in Tuesday's meeting; we'll do that in a couple of weeks.  So we still need to get through that meeting, and I will have my fingers crossed it goes well.  I wonder if I will always worry about IEP meetings....

Casey's Book (and room)

 

One day I will look back on this post and probably laugh harder than I am as I'm typing it.  Miss Casey wrote a book at school.  It's near the end of second grade and it's a doosey.  I have no idea what other second graders are doing as far as writing.  I'm sure some are very gifted and skilled readers and writers and I am not re-typing her book for bragging or comparison purposes.  I just found her writing style completely hilarious.  I think looking back at this one day will be entertaining and I love to imagine what she will be doing in her schoolwork in years to come.  I've tried to keep (within reason...because girl can pump out the artwork and crafts with some serious speed and then smack on some emotional attachment to it) most a lot of her artwork and schoolwork from as early as when she was in daycare.  Out of all the work from the second grade, this is one that I don't want to get lost among the archives of Works-de-Casey stashed in the basement.  And I think our families might get a kick out of her little story, so here it is.

The Haunted Mansion

by Casey Wise

 Chapter 1

Ivy, Tony, Lucy, Bella and Alex were on vacation.  They were going to Paris! 

"I see the Eiffel Tower!" said Ivy.  "Cool!" said Bella.  Beep!  Beep!  Beep! "We are landing," said the captain.  "Yay!"  "Yippee!" everyone said.  Finally they were off the plane.  Ring!  Ring! went Ivy's phone.  "Hi!  Uh.  Uh.  Ok!  Bye" She said someone called to say to go to the woods of Paris!  "Wow!  Legend has it that there is a haunted mansion in the woods of Paris", said Tony.  "Wicked!" said Alex.  "Can we just go ......." said Bella.  So they went.  Soon, they were lost.  "Ok, we're lost," said Lucy.  "No we arrrrren't," said Alex pointing at a big old black house.  All their mouths dropped open except for Alex who had a sly grin on his face.  "Let's go in," Lucy said.  "No!" Ivy said.  But everyone else was gone!

Chapter 2

Ivy ran into that house.  Everybody was just staring at her.  Red in the face Ivy said, "Ok, let's explore this hunk-of-junk."  The door slammed shut behind them!  And a note was taped on the door.  It said:

Hello fellow people.  So splendid to see you in my trap!  There are traps everywhere in my house so BEWARE!  And you'll be lucky if you get out of here ALIVE! - Miseur Pane.

"Aaaaaaaaawwwww!" they screamed.  "Ooookkaay," Ivy said in a shaky voice, "Let's go in the kitchen."  Ivy took a step forward and the floor opened.  "Aaaawww!" they screamed.  Down they falled.  Bam!  They hit the floor.  "WhWhWhWhere are we?" Lucy said.  "Hey!  Look - a door with a note?" Alex said.  "Can you read it?" Lucy asked.  "Ok" Ivy said.

Chapter 3

Hi!  My first trap complete!  Surprises await you in here! Kind of a movie.  Kind of a story.  But mostly werewolves. - Miseur Pane. 

 By now there were in the room seeing a werewolf movie.  "Wow," Ivy said creepily.  "Look!" said Tony, "The movie is ending!  Let's go to a different room now."  "Good riddance!" they all said.

Chapter 4

Just then, Rumble Rumble. "What's that?" Lucy said.  Then the whole top of the house came down!  Bam!  Then they ran.  They ran as fast as they could out of the woods but right under the Eiffel Tower stood a man with an eye patch.  Then, in mid-air, he was gone.  But a note was in his place:

Lucky!  Lucky!  Lucky!  You got out!  For I was Miseur Pane!  Ha!  Ha!  Good-bye! Ha!

The End

I never promised literary greatness here, but I just love how this girl's imagination is constantly in overdrive.  She is always telling a tale or planning the next big thing and I hope this is something that never changes about Casey.  Not only will I probably get a good laugh at all her dialogue and the use of adjectives in this little story, but I think Casey will enjoy reading it one day as well.

 

When miss Casey isn't drawing, reading, writing or asking to play on the computer, she loves to hang out in her room.  Apparently 8 is the age where a little girl's room becomes her sanctuary.  With a big old sign that says something like No boys or little sisters allowed.  One day recently I went up to her room and the usual level of disorder and messiness had multiplied.  Honestly, it's not like I'm absent from that part of the house from days on end or anything, so I'm not sure how it happened but it was like the movie Gremlins.  Shit just multiplied.  Everywhere.  I told her to stop what she was doing and start cleaning the landfill formerly known as her room up.  And when I returned to see she hadn't even put a sock or a Polly Pocket away I may have thrown a bit of a temper tantrum.  It wasn't pretty and I think she might have been a little scared.  I was just mad enough to threaten to go get my camera and document the mess to include on a blog post.  One day when she reads her little 8 year old book she can also remember the good old days when mommy flipped out over the state of her room.... except I suspect that was only the first, not the last time it's going to happen. :)