A Wrinkle in Time

 About a month ago we headed out for some adventure.  Mark had a conference in Jacksonville, Florida so the girls and I packed our bags, searched some Jacksonville websites, mustered up some bravery, mapped out some fun day excursions,  and tagged along.

Thursday, our travel day ended up with some goofing off and dinner.

 Friday morning, once my three monkeys rolled out of bed, we met Mark for a quick breakfast, and headed to the zoo.

 We almost passed by the butterfly gardens.  I am so glad we didn't!!

 I just could not capture it's beauty in a picture. 

 Tranquil, would maybe be the best way to describe it.  Although there were several children squealing with delight, many mothers sternly insisting not to try to touch the butterflies, maintenance workers fixing a fountain pump.  Even with all that, the soft music whispering above it all, the aroma of the sweet nectar oozing from the flowers that surrounded us, and the fluttering wings of thousands of butterflies all around.  It was amazing!! I could of stayed in that one spot all day and been perfectly happy, content, and blissfully calm.

It was a favorite to all!

The Lorakeet feeding was full of giggles!! The birds would steel the feeding cups right out of your grip and throw the cup down when they were done.  We all laughed hard! (Haleigh is in a tug-of-war with one in the bush below,)

The stingray touch tank was thrilling, we had to go there twice!

 Instead of feeding the goats the girls got to brush the goats?!

 Several times I cracked up when I realized our need to pause along the path was because all three girls were snapping pictures.  (Considering I took over 575 pics on this trip I'm sure I shouldn't have been surprised.)

 A sweet lady at the bagel shop early in the morning suggested we take bathing suites for the wet zone.  I am so thankful she did.  It was the perfect way to wrap up our zoo day.

 During dinner Sophie shared with Mark about one hundred of her favorite moments from the day!!

 Day one was a success! 

 Saturday Mark was only going to attend the first half of the lectures so we planned to have a slow morning and see what Daddy would come up with for the rest of our day...

fun, fun, and more fun to come in the next few posts...

Artisphere

Saturday morning we started the day searching for a fun outing somewhat close to home.  After the gym we tried to come up with a plan that would work out around our new eating habits.  A trip to the mountains with a packed picnic, run random errands around town and be home during meal time, just stay home and be still...?  Mark searched out downtown events for the weekend.  Sometimes we forget what a fabulous downtown environment is just 12 short miles from our front door. 

SCORE!!  

Artisphere, 

"Artisphere is ranked a Top 20 Fine Arts Festival in the country by Greg Lawler's Art Fair Sourcebook. Each year,120 artists from across the nation exhibit everything from abstract paintings and photographs to 3D media to live music, art performances and much more."

 It was amazing!  Such a variety of art,  breathtaking portraits,  hilarious paintings, amazingly beautiful jewelry.  Everything from a blacksmith to a lady who made and played didgeridoos (a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1500 years ago.) One of the best parts of the day was realizing how interested the girls were in the actual art of it all and not just hoopla.

 After viewing many beautiful pieces it was time for the girls to have a go of it at 

Kidsphere!

 It was a super day.  Honestly, we would have driven quite a distance for this event and been really happy that we had.  So again, we were pleasantly reminded what a great place Greenville is for our family!!

Thanks Mom!!

This lady is one who loves projects...
On her last visit I just made a list and let her at it.  So many of those little, "I'll get to it later" things got done.

Haleigh's wall decorations were hung to add cheer.

Legos were sorted and Mom made the coolest Lego table for my Lego fanatic.

 

We pressed on to complete Sophie's Grand Prix car.

But, she's not just about getting the projects done,  

she steps in any time Mark and I set out for a conference and keeps things flowing as if we were home, with added fun.  She even keeps the school schedule!

(My mom has always been one of our biggest supporters of our homeschooling and that is means more than most can ever know!)

 I guess what I'm trying to say is

 THANKS MOM   

~for teaching me so much.  (To jump in to projects and just figure them out, I am amazed at the things you'll take on and just do!) 

~for loving us well, being willing to come when we hit a bump in life just to do whatever we may need.

~for showing me how to be a mom to three girls at all the stages.

Love you MOM!

Toad-ally Great Day

Yesterday we planted some veggies and played outside.  It was a great day with lots of laughter, fun, and sisterhood... 

and frog toad training.

Detour On Our Journey!! Allergies!!

I have several pictures flagged in my photo suite just waiting to have captions added so they can be part of our sweet memory treasure box.  However, this week has caused us to pause and do a bit of regrouping.  
Over the past two years Haleigh has been sick more often than not.  Nothing too serious except for one or two specific episodes that were pretty severe, one requiring a 4 day hospital stay.  We have been uneasy with the amount of sinus infections, walking pneumonias, simple strep turning into more serious lymph infection, it just seemed to go on and on.  We have taken many steps of "medical digging" to find answers, lots of blood work, boosting vaccines, switching up allergy medicines...

In the midst of this time span I had made the decision to start taking steps to move our family toward a more whole foods diet and diving in to find out how to lessen the toxins Haleigh's body was (in my mind) obviously not handling well.  As my pile of books about whole food diets, herbs, essential oils, and even one on ancient breads grew I stole moments to read snippets whenever I could.  (I even caught my own microbes and made sour dough bread from scratch!  That's another post entirely.)  As this information intrigued me we continue to reach for answers and direction medically too.  About a month ago Haleigh saw a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor who spent a great deal of time with us, ordered, and scoured lots of labs to check on Haleigh's immune system.  It was all surprising right on track.  She was anxious to see what our next appointment would show us.  That appointment was with the allergy doctor.
 This week, after a few rescheduling hurdles were jumped, we set out for allergy testing.  We were scheduled for "patch" allergy testing that would require patching on Tuesday, a recheck on Thursday, and another full appointment on Friday.  I expected we would go for this testing have confirmation that Haleigh did indeed really struggle with outside, environmental allergies.  I expected we would juggle some medicines around and see how much improvement that would bring to her health.  As we began talking with the allergy doctor, she was certain we were about to get some direction based on Haleigh's history, records, labs and physical exam.
We started with a "scratch" allergy test.  My baby lit up like a Christmas tree.  She did great during the "scratches" and although her little back began to show welt after welt she didn't try to scratch once.  She just held onto my phone and peered at the Wild Krats show determined not to move.
After the 15 minutes of waiting it out, the doctor and nurse came in to read the results.  Out of 24 pricks with different test solutions about 18 were strong positives.  The environmental ones were much like we expected, trees, grasses, dogs, cats, but then dust mites were added to the list. The food portion completely UNEXPECTED.  It shocked me when the doctor listed them and said the nurse will be in with more instructions.  

When the nurse came back in to discuss further details she placed a stack of papers in front of me and gently said, "Life in your home is going to change.  Along with environmental allergens that span the seasons of the entire year, she is allergic to wheat, soy, eggs, milk, and maybe peanuts.  So you need to get educated on what she can eat, next take her off all the allergens for two weeks.  After those two weeks reintroduce them one at a time and see if her body will tolerate them if it can't you will clearly know.   Also, there are lots of changes to make in her bedroom for this dust mites allergy."  The nurse stepped out to get a few more papers and I could feel the color in my face drain.  Seriously?!? what foods are left?
So another adventure begins.  (Please know that I know it could be SO much worse!! These are allergies, and we can deal with them, but it is a LOT of allergies.)  I have spent most nights since Tuesday, once everyone else is in bed, searching out the resource sites the nurse told me about, looking for recipes and recipe books.  I think plain meats, and vegetables will be the staple for her two weeks without any of these allergens.  (If I stick with vegan and gluten free recipes that seems to keep all our unwanted ingredients out.) A sweet friend who has traveled a much harder, more intense road with these foods has offered to go with me to whole foods and teach me the label reading, as well as, point out their tried and true "go to"s.  Tomorrow and the weekend will bring the purging of Haleigh's bedroom "stuff," only things used daily are to stay in there.  We have bagged her mattress and pillow in the special allergen bags, picked out one stuffed animal that gets to be in her bed after a cycle in the washing machine on hot.  
My sister has encouraged me to track our "allergy journey" on a side blog.  I'm not sure it will be too exciting.  Therapeutic for me maybe, and it has to be logged somewhere.  Perhaps some things I learn along the way could help another overwhelmed mom when she feels she's the one standing in front of a wide open fire hydrant. (For example, did you know some Asian restaurants mold wheat flour into shapes to look like pork, beef, or shrimp!?)  I don't know, we'll see how that works out.  
BUT here is what I do know...
I know God started us on this path before we knew we needed to really be here.  
I know His timing is amazing as there is really no better month for us to go through our trial of limited food and re-introducing the allergens, all of the "end of the year" parties have been celebrated with goodies and treats we'll have to step away from now.  And most of our scheduled events are on summer break.  
I know God has been faithful to walk our family through other really tough stuff.  Through Mackenzie's food and health struggles as an infant He pulled us closer to Him and closer to each other, and showed Himself in mighty ways.
I know He is going to strengthen and walk with us on the tough road again.  We have just finished a series at church on "His strength in our weakness."  As a friend replied when I sent out a "distress text" to our small group, "He has prepared you for this."  
I know He has, and is, and will continue to!

Memory Master testing

Over the past two weeks we have stepped up our drilling of CC material we covered throughout the past school year. 

Twenty four weeks of science (12 weeks of body systems,  6 weeks of chemistry, and 6 weeks of science theories) Latin (all of John 1:1-7, and Latin rules) Math,  Geography (all US states and capitals, as well as, physical features) History (from Columbus to present) Timeline (160 events from creation to present day plus all the presidents) English Grammar, and finally Scripture memory work (John 1:1-7) 

 All of this info is "proofed" completely two times through at home,

 then one of the CC tutors quizzes on ALL the info again,

then our CC director quizzes randomly through the material where no mistakes are allowed for one to gain the title of "Memory Master."

SHE DID IT AGAIN!! 

Sophie worked hard, put in the hours of focused time, drilled, and drilled some more.  Sunday after our final home proofing, she could hardly wait for the testing time to arrive.  Monday morning we headed out and testing began.  One of the sweetest parts of the morning is watching the students cheer and celebrate with each other once they have completed testing and been deemed "Memory Master."  There are tears of joy from mammas, requests to call Daddy to let him know of the great accomplishment, and joy overflowing.

Its not just that these kiddos passed, or even that they are more knowledgeable than at the beginning of the year.  It is the perseverance, dedication, and hard work they put forth and experiencing the great feeling of accomplishing a high goal they set out to reach.  

(And perhaps the experience of iron sharpening iron-student and mom- as the process takes place ;)

All the students who passed got to spend the afternoon at Frankie's Fun Park with our CC Director.  They had a blast!! Once Sophie came home she got to pick the restaurant and dessert for the evening continue the celebration.  So we headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings and Yogurt Mountain.  It was a supper fun evening! 

YEAH!!!  So proud of you girl!!

Final Easter Post

Easter Sunday looked much different than we had planned.  Mark was pretty sick so he was unable to go to church with us.  We planned on the big girls attending the "big" service since they didn't have Sunday School.  Hearing this news Mackenzie insisted she wanted to go to the "big" service with her sisters.  I asked her at least a ten times if she really wanted to go to the service instead of her really fun class.  She was certain she wanted to go with the big girls.

 As we stepped into the service the seats were packed.  To my sweet surprise God had reserved 3 seats right behind a precious friend from AM2PM whom I knew would be gracious if my three weren't absolutely still (Mackenzie had her own special seat on my lap;).  Still more sweet surprises came as the girls were actually pretty still, very interested in the service, and the praise and worship time was nothing less than a treasure.  Although I had no camera to do my usual clicking away to try to capture any possible memorable moment, the Spirit just stilled me and in that moment prompted me to imprint that slice of time on my heart.  So even though I can't post the snapshot it has been seared in my heart... my girls all singing, praising their Rescuer for coming to this fallen world out of love, incomparable, incomprehensible, astonishing love to rescue us and pour out His grace on us!