One of his ideas was to have a plant sale. So the kids planted a bunch of beans (we started the plants late and I figured beans would grow the quickest..and we had the seeds on hand) and have been doing a pretty good job of taking care of them.

The kids have been excited to look each day to see if there are any new plants sprouting. Now that the weather is warmer and danger of frost has passed, the plants have been staying outside and got a good watering with the rain we had and have been thriving.

It’s such a sweet reminder of God’s creativity and power to see a new plant sprouting out of plain old dirt.

I’ve been discussing with Tobi what might be a reasonable price to ask for the plants. He doesn’t really have a concept of the value of money yet. I had to explain to him why potential customers may not want to pay $10.50 for a single bean plant.

Tobi also wanted to start some pumpkin plants in the garden this year so that he could sell the pumpkins in the fall. So we now have 2 pumpkin plants that I just transplanted into the garden this past weekend. That area of the garden will be Tobi’s responsibility to keep watered and weeded.

 Have your kids ever done their own “home business?” How did it go?

I love lilacs. They smell so good and they’re so pretty. Along with the warm weather, they’re my favourite part of spring.

And they remind me of my grandma, because they had a lilac bush in their yard when I was growing up.

Unfortunately, I can’t bring them into the house because Louis is allergic to, well, nature in general. I’ve been suspecting that Tobi has inherited some allergies (Josiah as well) and quite possibly the asthma that Louis and I both have. Tobi has been coughing most of the winter. Usually just when he runs around a lot and at night, and I definitely noticed that when he caught a cold the cough would be worse and would hang on. So now that allergy season is among us and the cough is still with him, I brought Tobi along to Gabriel’s 4 month check-up.

Because Louis and I both have asthma and with how long he’s been coughing, the Dr. decided to try Tobi on a couple of puffers to see if that helps. So now he’s on ventolin and flovent.

And I’ve been noticing a difference!  I don’t hear Tobi cough at night as much, and he doesn’t stop and cough his head off when he runs around as much. Yay! He doesn’t have a diagnosis of asthma as of yet, and we’ll see if it gets to that point. We go for a follow-up appointment in a month.

Now, I just need to teach Tobi to rinse his mouth and spit since the flovent can cause thrush. He keeps swallowing the water. Any ideas?

I decided to experiment in the kitchen a couple of nights ago and since the result was pretty yummy, I thought I’d share the recipe for ginger pork. I’m not giving precise measurements because it doesn’t really matter with  this recipe. If you like lots of garlic, use more garlic. If you don’t like onions, skip them all together. Sorry that there isn’t a photo of the finished meal. We ate it all and I forgot to take a photo before serving it.

Ingredients

• 4-6 pork chops. I used sliced pork tenderloin. You want to be able to lay them in your  skillet in one layer.
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped small.
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2-3 tsp ginger powder

Instructions

1. Heat oil in large skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook a few minutes until it starts to brown.
2. Lay pork in skillet and brown each side.
3. Lower heat and slowly add in the chicken broth. Be careful, it might spatter a bit. Also add in ginger.
4. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

Serve on rice, pouring some of the extra sauce on the rice. Broccoli or green beans make an excellent side to this meal.

Annie got to choose her birthday supper. Spaghetti. Nice. Easy to cook for a crowd and everyone eats it. Then I made a tomato soup cake for her birthday cake. This cake sounds strange but it’s so good, easy to make, and every loves it. I usually serve it with whipped cream on top but it’s nice and moist plain, too.

On Monday morning Annie got her presents. I’d been working like crazy to finish a crocheted bunny for her and finally finished it on Saturday night. I don’t think she was quite awake yet.

I also made her a dolly ring sling using a pillowcase I found at a thrift store.

We had pancakes for breakfast and Tobi smothered her all day with birthday attention.

It’s hard to believe Annie is already 4.

She’s a great helper and loves to watch Gabriel for me while I get supper ready or am busy with some other chore. She’s kind and passionate and sensitive. And living in a house full of boys, she’s also not afraid to get dirty and rough house a bit.

She loves her independence, which means if you come to visit you’ll likely find her wearing a dress on backward with pants on backward underneath, and mismatched shoes on the wrong feet. She might even have her jacket on upside down (I’m not quite sure how she manages that one.)

She’s really learning her letters well lately and I’m hoping she’ll share my love of reading when she’s a bit older. She also loves to draw and colour.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Raising Kids on the Spectrum

101 Inspirational Stories for Parents of Children with Autism and Asperger’s

Book summary:

If you are the parent of a child — from newborn to college age — with autism or Asperger’s, you will find support, advice, and insight in this collection. With its 101 stories from other parents and experts, this book will comfort, encourage, and uplift you. Stories cover everything from the serious side and the challenges, to the lighter side and the positives, of raising a special child on the autism spectrum.

My Thoughts:

I’ve never had a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder but I do know from when my son was diagnosed with hydronephrosis as an infant how much it can help to speak to or read stories from other parents who have walked the same path.

I found that the entries in this book shined a light onto a lot of day-to-day aspects of parenting a child with autism or asperger’s that I wasn’t aware of.

I knew that kids can fall anywhere on the spectrum from very high function to quite low functioning, but I didn’t really have a real concept of what it might look like for different families. My only real experience with a child with autism was a friend’s little brother who was severely autistic when I was about 6 or 7, and a brief encounter with a teen with asperger’s when I worked as a nurse. So I found this book interesting and eye-opening.

I liked that the stories weren’t just of the happy ending, lovey nice feelings variety. Nothing makes a struggling parent feel worse than to be made to feel like every other parent dealing with the same situation is having a much easier go of it. It was real.

There were stories that shared struggles, heartache, and scary situations. But of course, there were the happy, silver lining, encouraging stories as well. Like I said, it was real, with the ups and downs.

I would recommend this book to any parent raising a child on the spectrum, and even to those who just want a bit of a better understanding of hat a day in the life of autism and asperger’s might entail.

And guess what? One of you is going to win a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Raising Kids on the Spectrum! This giveaway is open to Canada and the US. Giveaway ends May 22, 11:59 EST.

Enter using the rafflecopter widget below.

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The ranch takes in animals that need homes, whether it’s because the old owners couldn’t look after them any more due to a decline in health or a change in life circumstance, or whether the animal was abused or just found lost somewhere.

They have all the usual sorts of farm animals: chickens and roosters, pigs (pot belly and some B-I-G 1000+ lbs pigs), horses, goats, sheep, a cow, etc. They also have an emu, alpaca, deer, llama, and buffalo. The owner said they once even had a zebra.

The older two kids had a blast. Tobi got to ride a Pinto pony. Annie tried to but animals scare her a bit and she changed her mind when she was being lifted up onto the horse. They fed several animals baby carrots and loved looking around.

Tobi feeding Toby the goat.

Josiah was tired and not feeling well from a cold so he watched from the stroller, which was unfortunate. I had hoped he would get more out of the day.

Andy, the owner of Big Sky Ranch, was interviewed on CTV’s Amazing People last night. If you click the video clip with the buffalo you can see a bit more about the ranch and the animals.

It’s a bit easier to feed a big animal when Daddy is helping.

Have you been on any homeschool outings lately?

The kids and I have read a lot of Canadian picture books this year as part of the home school curriculum we used and I wanted to share some of our favourites!

Check out my blog post over at Ottawa Mommy Club blog to see our list of favourites and why we loved them.

Ok, now that I have your attention and probably have people upset and ready to jump at me, let me explain.

I’m not trying to say that a relationship has more value than human life. A child’s physical and emotional needs have to be taken care of, of course. I’m not talking about cases in which there is abuse from one spouse.

I’m saying that keeping my relationship with my husband strong all of the time is more important than keeping the kids happy all of the time.

My kids are learning that sometimes they need to go off and do something on their own so that Daddy and Mommy can catch up and spend some time together at the end of a long day.  That might mean that they need to wait before they can tell us something or show us something.

They learned young that they are to sleep in their own beds once they’ve passed the nursing stage (and even then, we try to keep the kids out of our bed for the most part. But that’s a discussion for another day.) They are seeing us talk and hug and kiss and learning that Mommy and Daddy need to communicate and be close to each other.

I’m not saying that parents should neglect the kids’ needs and go do their own thing every day. Of course not! By nature, kids are needy and require more time and attention than our spouses, and since I’m home all day with them I naturally spent more time with the kids than I do with my husband.

Every good parent wants to do what is best for their kids. And some parents mistakenly believe that this means they need to put their kids before their spouse. There will be seasons in our lives in which we need to give our kids more attention than our spouse, but when times arise where it’s a choice between inconveniencing our kids or our husbands, our husband should come first.

A marriage can only stay strong if both spouses are working at it. Working hard! If we give ourselves completely to our kids and don’t have enough energy to properly invest in our marriages, the marriage will eventually suffer.

By putting our marriage first, we are doing what is best for our kids!

Our kids will have more security in a home with a strong marriage. And we are also modeling to our kids that spouses need to work on a marriage! It isn’t something that just happens when grown-ups live together.

Both my husband and I grew up in homes with single parents and we didn’t really get to see how a marriage works. We came into our own marriage not knowing what to expect and I think we had a harder time in many areas of our marriage that we’ve had to put extra effort into.

We live in a generation that tells us that the more attention we give to our kids, the better they will turn out. I don’t think that’s true, though. We need to give our kids enough attention to take of their emotional needs of course, and to develop strong relationships with them. But we also need to give them their space, let them learn how to play by themselves, how to think for themselves, and how to manage themselves as they get older.

Ephesians 5:31 tells us,

 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” NKJV

We are never one with our children (after they’re born, of course.) We are responsible for them until they leave the home, but we are with our spouse until death do us part.

Usually we do school in the afternoon when Josiah naps because he’s just so busy that he ends up distracting the kids and myself. Now that he hasn’t been napping consistently though, I’ve been having to rethink our school time approach.

I had tried to involve him in our school time before but it always ended up in tantrums and frustration. I decided to try again though, now that it’s been several months. Maybe he’s matured a bit?

Instead of doing school in the living room like we usually do, I had everyone set up at the table. We’ve done this for only 3 days so far but it hasn’t gone too badly. I tried to keep Josiah busy with puzzles and paper and crayons. This kept his attention for a couple of minutes, but I’m going to have to find something that will keep him busy for a bit longer.

Annie did well keeping on task with her work pages. When she finished, I gave her some glue and scrap papers to have fun with.

I think Tobi was able to concentrate better sitting in the kitchen though, even though he’d always said he’d prefer to be in the living room.

Sorry for the bad quality of the photos..my phone doesn’t have the best camera.

We’ll try this for a bit longer. I don’t think I’ll require Josiah to sit in the kitchen if he’s busy elsewhere, but if he wants to join us then he can sit with us. I also don’t think that we’ll only use the kitchen for school work, especially since the chalkboard is in the living room, but I guess I’ll just have to figure out what will work for us!

Where do you do school in your house?

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Parenthood

As I’ve posted before, I love Chicken Soup for the Soul books. I love the stories. And what parent doesn’t want to read stories about parenting!

This book claims to contain “101 heartwarming and humorous stories about the joys of raising children of all ages” and well, it’s true!

There are many funny stories, such as the one in which after listening to a 7 year old child complain for weeks that he was too smart for school, the parents kept him home one day, dressed him up, and brought him to Walmart to ask the manager for a job application since he had no use for school.

There are encouraging stories, such as the one in which the mom is struggling to connect with her teenage son but is reminded of his kindness and thoughtfulness when he shows up to check on her while they’re out and it begins to rain.

There are stories of new families, stories of grown children and grandchildren. Even stories of adoptive parents.

I really enjoyed Chicken Soup for the Soul: Parenthood. The stories are a pleasure to read and I think it would make a great gift for any parent, grandparent, or soon-to-be parent.

Check back soon as I’ll be writing up a review for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Raising Kids on the Spectrum!