Weekend fun

Fun with Daddy:

Then Lucy offered to pull Levi after Daddy was done. Apparently, the decrease in speed was not pleasing to Levi:

And neither was Lucy getting a ride. Here he is Bradying:

Meanwhile, Nate and our neighbor were playing a board game, which they've done for the past couple of days (yesterday was Boggle):

This game, The Allowance Game, which I got for free on Freecycle, is one of Nate's favorites. He's getting very good at counting by 5s, 10s, and 25s because of it, and he has also learned how to make change. Neysa, our neighbor, lives across the street from us and is about a year older than Nate. She came to AWANA with us for the first time this past week!

Hello

Some cute pictures Colleen took last week:

Visit to Journey School

Jon and I had that tour of Journey School on Friday. Overall, I really liked it and am excited about the possibility of the kids going there! We sat in for a couple of minutes on each class and also toured the campus itself.

First, the negatives:
- I researched parent reviews of the school in addition to the school's statewide "scores." The school's standardized testing scores were on the low side, which was expected. They do not "teach to the tests," and, because of the way they teach reading, their students are "behind" on language arts until 2nd-3rd grade (then they surpass average scores). The negative parent reviews I found were centered on two areas: 1) the school isn't academic enough/doesn't prepare kids for high school and 2) the administration is unorganized and has high turnover. I feel the parents who complained about the school's academics either hadn't researched what Waldorf education is about or just had no idea what they were getting into by sending their kids to this school. It's an admittedly alternative approach. Regarding the administration, I do worry a bit about accusations of lack of organization; however, the current head administrator has been there three years and has a pretty amazing background. It looks like things are moving in the right direction in this regard.
- I worry that, because Nate can already read very well, he would be extremely bored in a 2nd grade class where they are still learning the basics. Talking with some teacher friends of mine, I was reassured that any teacher will be able to identify Nate's ability in this area. If he were given a "special job" of helping some of the other kids, I know he would love that. My plan, if we attend Journey, would be not to jump right in and proclaim to the teacher that my son is a reading genius, but instead to see how the beginning of the year goes and see if Nate even minds the pace.
- Like any public school, presentation of religion can be sketchy. This school seems particularly "spiritual" but not necessarily in the right way--perhaps too much focus on Nature and general spirituality.

Now the positives:
- Sitting in the 2nd grade class (where Nate would be next year), I kept thinking, "Nate would like this." It is very participatory.
- The atmosphere of the campus. It was calm, clean--hard to explain but I liked it.
- Each grade has only one or two classes. Nate would be in a grade of one class, while Lucy would be in a grade of two classes (four kindergarten classes, but because they have kindergarten for two years, they move up to two 1st grade classes). This means all the kids know each other; there is a family atmosphere. It doesn't feel clique-y at all. (Regarding kindergarten being two years: Lucy would enter as a second-year kindergartener.)
- All students participate in music (recorder, moving on to violin, moving on to more choices like guitar, cello), "hand work" (knitting, etc., which is great for brain development), and gardening. Third graders do some woodworking as part of their math curriculum.
- Lucy would LOVE the focus on artwork, drawing, etc.
- Although some things in 2nd grade would be easy (too easy?) for Nate, there are also so many areas he could really grow in at Journey, particularly drawing/artwork, creativity, out-of-the-box/critical thinking, and imagination.
- The location of the school. It's tucked down at the bottom of a hill and has a lot of space. There is plenty of playground/open space outside and also trails just off campus, which they use for hiking. The kindergarteners go on full-day hikes/walks one day per week.
- Our chances of actually getting into the school are much, much better than at the other school I looked at. We were told that the chances of getting into the K classes are quite good, even being out of district. Then, if a child gets into a class and that child has a sibling, that sibling automatically moves to the front of the list for his/her grade. So if Lucy gets into the K (and chances are decent), then Nate would at least be at the front of wait list for 2nd. I would continue to homeschool him until a spot opened for him.

I am turning in our applications tomorrow. The lottery is March 14, and they notify you by phone within a week if your child makes it into a class (or by letter within 10 days if you're on the wait list). Pray! :)

Food & school

Things around here are busy, as usual. I feel like I spend every spare minute of the day in the kitchen--either cooking or doing dishes.

I've moved all of us along to GAPS stage 5, which means we can have roasted or pan-fried vegetables and meats (not just boiled now), some nut butters (nice for a snack), some raw vegetables (like cucumber), savory muffins made with almond flour, and more. It's nice to add more variety. I also ordered a juicer with my saved-up Etsy money, since fresh juice is part of the diet.

I also bought a ton of strawberries on sale yesterday (thanks for the tip, Amy!) and enjoyed rinsing them (strong Kangen water) in my beautiful new stockpot:

I'm trying this idea with them and hope they are good. They'll be a nice between-meals treat for the children.

In other news, a couple of weeks ago I attended a parent info meeting at Oxford Prep regarding their homeschooling program. After the meeting, I decided that Oxford is not for us. This is for a variety of reasons, the main one being that since we are out of district, we get absolute last priority in the lottery and in placement. Another big reason is that, with the 2-3 days at home, 2-3 days at school setup, it is different for each grade (and even month by month), so that Lucy and Nate would be at school on different days, different times (or same days, different times), making for non-stop pick-ups and drop-offs (sometimes 4 in one day).

Ruling Oxford out meant I was back to square one with a schooling decision. Then, after Casey visited and really liked it, I re-looked at Journey School, another charter school in the area (Aliso Viejo). I had heard of the school before but didn't look into it because it sounded a little wacky. Frankly, it does still sound a little "alternative," but it might be great! Neil and Casey really liked it for Bennett. I'm going to visit on Friday. It's still out of our district (we're in Saddleback; it's in Capo), but the chances of getting in are much, much better than at Oxford. I'll have a better idea after Friday.

Recent pictures

Half of what Nate ate for breakfast that day (a little over a week ago. See how skinny he still was?):

Homemade Larabars. These are really good. Only two ingredients: dates and home-soaked/dehydrated walnuts:

Nate's first basketball game on Coach Scott's team:

GAPS progress

Despite dealing with the horrendous stomach flu the children all had, I was determined (stubborn?) to move forward with starting the GAPS diet. I started myself on it on the Sunday the kids were sick (that was January 29) and then introduced the foods to the children as each of them healed from the virus (or as they didn't heal, in Lucy's case).

Here's what I'm hoping, long term, this diet will do for us:

Me: reduce stress and fatigue, clear skin, bonus would be to lose 8-10 pounds

Nate: calm his "can't-keep-hands-to-himself" tendency, heal food sensitivities (eventually we'll be eating dairy on GAPS!), broaden his self-limited diet, improve his ability to interact with same-age peers

Lucy: help with sensory issues

Levi: broaden diet, heal any issues that were caused by the heavy doses of antibiotics he had when in the hospital as a baby

Here's how we're doing so far:

Me: this diet is easiest for me, since I'm the one who made the choice to do it. I've also found I'm an "all-or-nothing person" when it comes to eating: if I've chosen to eat very well, then I won't eat one bite of a banned food. On the other hand, if I'm being lax about my eating, I can eat an entire pan of brownies in one day. I've found many of the GAPS foods/recipes delicious, with some fails too (some of the soups). I also don't mind the taste of broth and drink it fine with each meal (a cornerstone of the diet). For the first few days, I had some definite cravings (coffee, sweets) and felt hungry all day, even though I was eating plenty. The cravings and excessive hunger subsided after about 6 days or a week, though. Honestly, I haven't been desperately craving coffee like I thought I would be. I've lost 7 pounds. I'm still as stressed as ever--actually, maybe more!--which is partially due to the huge increase in time spent in the kitchen these first couple weeks of the diet. That will get better as we move through the stages and add more foods that can be prepared in shorter times. My skin hasn't changed, but I'm still hopeful.

Nate: unbelievably, Nate is doing pretty well with GAPS! The first two to three days were the worst with him wanting his usual foods (ketchup, gf pancakes, peanut butter) and hating the broth. Then I made boiled (yes, boiled) hamburger patties into which I had kneaded minced carrot, onion, and salt. He loved these, and from then on has been chowing down like crazy: decent portions of broth with each meal, scrambled eggs (introduced on stage 3 of GAPS, which I moved us all to after 5 or 6 days since I was pretty sure no one was sensitive to them), lots of steak, ground beef, and modest portions of cooked vegetables. I'm still sneaking most of his vegetables into other foods. Did you know that you can blend a yellow squash with eggs and make delicious scrambled eggs? Nate has been salting everything quite a bit, but I'm not too worried about that since I bought a high-quality/nutrient-rich salt. As far as behavioral effects, I have noticed a calmer Nate this week; some of that could be from getting over being sick too, though. Another instance that sticks out is when Nate and Levi came to visit Lucy in the hospital: Lucy showed Nate several of the presents she had gotten for being in the hospital (a sparkly Barbie, a coloring book, and more). Normally, Nate would have gotten angry at her having gotten presents but him not; however, he said, "Cool Lucy!" I couldn't believe it. I know that's something tiny, but I noticed it.

Lucy: surprisingly, Lucy has been complaining. A lot. She was supposed to be the easy one with GAPS, since she is a great eater. I'm chalking up her complaining to a prolonged recovery from the stomach sickness. She has refused the broth each meal, even though the day before she got sick, she drank cups of it (hmm--maybe her body is associating the taste with the sickness). This morning she did love the breakfast sausage (ground beef mixed with minced garlic, ginger, parsley, cilantro, basil, and salt) and scrambled eggs, though.

Levi: Levi is kind of in between Lucy and Nate as far as success with the diet goes. He has been complaining about the broth and some of the foods, but he has also started eating foods he wouldn't eat before (cooked broccoli, scrambled eggs). He has been very fussy and whiny, but I think that's part sickness recovery and part diet.

All three children have been very lethargic. I attribute it--again--partly to sickness recovery but also partly to their bodies adjusting to this new way of burning energy (burning good fats instead of carbohydrates). It could also be "die-off" of the bad bacteria in their digestive systems. I'm hoping it resolves within the next week, but it could be longer.

Home

Lucy came home on Tuesday afternoon from the hospital. We are healthy and thankful!

Doing better!

Lucy is still at the hospital tonight, but she's doing so much better. She didn't want to eat anything all day today, but apparently what she needed was

In-n-Out. This was her second burger (protein style). :)

... or maybe not

I guess Lucy wasn't getting better. Here she is tonight in the ER getting IV fluids:

After a week of throwing up (which stopped I think on Wednesday night), not eating, and being really lethargic/exhausted (e.g., taking four or five naps a day, though she hasn't napped in over 6 months), she started throwing up again today. After four episodes of that, we (Jon) took her to the ER. The bloodwork came back showing dehydration (pretty severe, I think), but thankfully that's it. They admitted her overnight to keep getting IV fluids, and Jon is staying with her. Thankful for God's protection and for insurance, good hospitals close by, and a good husband/daddy.

Better

The kids are finally better today. Lucy still hasn't eaten anything but she's obviously better than yesterday, when I was still worried about her. Yay!

New car

This past weekend, I said goodbye to my beloved red Durango. Jon and I decided to get something with better gas mileage while the Durango would still fetch a good trade-in value (and also before some expensive needed repairs and maintenance this coming year).

Look at how little Nate was when we got the car (he was about 20 months):

Here are Lucy and me making our sad goodbye faces:

So now, we're the proud owners of a minivan. It's a 2011 Chrysler Town & Country. I'll post pictures as soon as the children are healthy and we actually go out to the car!

Sick :(

All three kids came down with a nasty stomach bug over the weekend. Levi is recovered from the worst of it, though he's still so tired. Last night:

This morning, he sat on the stairs waiting for me to finish my shower. This is what I came out to (he's just asleep--I promise):

Nate has been sick the longest, but I'm praying that today is the day he gets better and can keep liquids down. Lucy is still sick, but I am really hoping she'll perk up by the end of the day today.

Ballerina

I love this picture Lucy brought home from school on Tuesday.

Rite of passage

Nate got to go to his first Clippers game last night. Jon said Nate was scared when they arrived because the lights were off and it was loud for the player introductions, but by the end of the 1st quarter he was really enjoying himself.

How did this happen?

Levi tonight

As Jon was telling Levi the story of Adam and Eve tonight at bed time, Levi chimed in: "Adam and Eve ate the fruit! And God gave them a spankin'."

After bed time, Levi called from the bed, "Mama and Daddy, can Nate lie down with me?" (He asks that every once in a while.) We said yes. Then we heard Levi say to Nate, "They said yes! But don't wrestle!"

I love that boy.

GAPS

OK. We're going to do it. We're going to put the whole family on the GAPS diet. My plan had been to put just Nate and me on the diet (and probably "partial participation" for the other two children), but last night Jon said he would do it with us too. I am actually very excited... and nervous too. So for the past couple of weeks, I've been gathering ingredients and supplies that I don't already have, making and storing various dishes (sauerkraut, homemade chicken stock and meat stock), and researching sources for organic ingredients. I think it'll take me a couple more weeks before I'm ready to start, so I'm shooting for a February 1 start date.

Rewind for a minute: have I mentioned the GAPS diet on this blog yet? I might not have! Basically, I've been reading up on it a lot and am finding that gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free might just have been partially/indirectly dealing with Nate's "internal" issues and not fully addressing the real issue. The GAPS diet works in stages, with the introduction/first stage being quite restrictive; you add in more and more foods with each stage until you reach the "full GAPS" diet, which you maintain for a while (think 2 years). Eventually, you introduce dairy (also in stages), but the GAPS diet does remain gluten- and soy free. The staples of the diet are organic/unprocessed meats and broth, lots of fats, soup, cooked vegetables, eggs, naturally probiotic foods (like sauerkraut), and NO grains, starches, or sugar. After the couple of years on full GAPS, the gut should be healed and you can start coming off of the diet and eating other foods (while still eating healthy and making good choices). Basically, it is not a life sentence and has as its primary goal healing of the gut/digestive system so that all foods can again be tolerated.

Dancing

Basketball

Nate has been asking to play a sport for several months (mostly since he saw what it was like when Lucy did gymnastics). I finally found a class for him on our charter school "approved vendor list" (meaning they pay for it) that will work with our schedule. It's a once-a-week basketball class/clinic for ages 5-7. This afternoon was his first class. He was so excited--and he told me he was also nervous. But it went great and he loved it. I wondered if he would get frustrated about being near the bottom of the class skills-wise, but thankfully he didn't notice or mind.

Nervous on the way there:

In class:

And my favorite of the day: the "defensive stance" video:

Toothless

This is definitely a favorite stage of mine.