Stride Right

Basketball casualty

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:30:00 +0000

Sean was playing a good game until he turned his ankle, fell and then someone stepped on it.

He has a possible growth plate fracture with pretty nice ankle sprain. Cast for at least two weeks depending on exam.

Deer oh Deer, It’s Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:38:00 +0000

I took this picture on Christmas Day at my brother-in-law’s.

Christmas in November

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:34:00 +0000

My mom’s side of the family celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas all in the same weekend, but not the same day. We experienced awesome weather so the kids were able to play outside. As usual, this was a great photo opportunity for me.

My niece.

My dad and his brother, Mark.

Sierra and my brother enjoying the go-kart.

November Field Trip to T.C. Steele Historic Site

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:58:00 +0000

As beautiful as this place is in the fall, I cannot wait to go back when everything including the garden is in bloom.

This is the back of his home.

The kids spread out on each side of the tree to show just how big it is.. the limbs spread out. It is one of the recorded largest white oak trees in Indiana and was the subject in some of his paintings.

The front of his home from below. Beautiful hills of Brown County.

Loved this path.

This hill did not look so big until you were about halfway up it. I think it had 59 steps and many of those were taller than normal steps. Quite a workout.

Sean found this interesting pattern in some rock on the path up the hill.

Work in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Stairs from main floor to the upstairs. What a mess. The dust level is incredible after they tore out the stairs carpet.

Going down the the family room which is at ground level on slab.

Callie thought the green pad was the new carpet and was so excited. She thought it was so pretty. She apparently didn’t notice the roll of carpet laying on top of the pad.

We painted and painted and painted the paneling. Cannot wait to see it all finished.

We are so going to need new linoleum in the kitchen and entry after this.

Halloween 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:49:00 +0000

Do not ask me what they are. I think one was a witch.

Never Leave Home…

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:48:00 +0000

Without making sure toilets are not running, especially if you have a kid who is OCD with toilet paper.

By God’s design, the books on the shelves did not have a drop of water or drywall on them. Amazing. The track lighting pulled the ceiling down.

This is why we get new carpet on the stairs and in the hall upstairs. Also, the tile in the bathroom was removed to assist in drying.

The ceiling in half the family room was removed.

The view from the bathroom to the family room.

I think there were about six of those blowers altogether… one in the bathroom in and four or five in the family room. They ran constantly for 2 days. Noisy!

Another fun fieldtrip

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:48:00 +0000

This fieldtrip was to a local farm (yes, we have those in Indiana too!) and it was less than 10 minutes from our house – a plus!

Hay ride.

Miniature horse cart ride.

She wants to trade in our lovebirds for turkeys. I don’t think so.

Petting Zoo

Obstacle course.

Crane ride… way up high. A little too high for mom’s liking.

Same Place, Different View

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:49:00 +0000

Our field trip today was to our local county’s landfill. It was a very good field trip. There were about 40 kids who attended. We learned about trash and about how to reduce the amount of trash. We learned about how the Landfill works. In connection with the local children’s museum, the kids did experiments such as testing water and dissecting owl pellets. The latter is not what one might first think of when hearing the term “owl pellets”. Birds of prey cannot digest all that they eat so they will spit it back up much like a cat does a hairball. Inside the owl pellets, which are held together by dried up hair/fur, are the remains of what they ate. The one that I helped with was thought to be a large rodent, such as a squirrel or large chipmunk. We found the skull, jawbone, teeth, ribs, vertebrae, leg bones, etc. See below for some pictures. I reminded the kids why we don’t let the guinea pigs play outside unattended. They could become lunch.

The Irony of the Beauty

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:53:00 +0000

We had a field trip today. Joining a local homeschool group was a good idea. The best part is going to be the field trips.

We were all pleasantly surprised at how much fun this field trip was.

First, I would ask if you can guess by a couple of these pictures, where the field trip was? I will post more pictures later that will reveal where this is but just found the beauty a bit ironic.

The Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:54:00 +0000

It amazes me how much different Sean looks now than he did just two years ago. And look at how his shirt has changed.

Friends come and they go

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:20:00 +0000

Sierra will miss her friends who are moving. She does not have many girls to play with so this will be a noticeable loss.

The oldest girl is only a year younger than Sierra but she’s tiny. Her sister is three and has the brightest hair.

Eating Healthier or Eating Wiser?

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Eating healthier does not always mean dieting to lose weight or eating salads and low fat. What about the artificial stuff? What about the petroleum?

How many of us have stopped and thought about that beautiful birthday cake we just ate with all those colors and realized that we just ingested or gave our kids petroleum? Those food dyes are petroleum based.

It is a pretty common belief that many kids get hyper when they have had a lot of sugar. Is it really the sugar? Could it be the petroleum? Could it be the high fructose corn syrup?

What about those preservatives that are often times not labeled on packages. Or sometimes you see “BHT added to preserve freshness” or “TBHQ added as a preservative” and this all seems good at first sight because we want our foods to be “fresh” and those labels make it sound like they did us a favor.

I asked my husband how long it has been since he had a Mountain Dew (yellow dye). He said it has been quite a while. I reminded him that it’s been quite a while since he needed his inhaler too. Coincidence?

Do you avoid the artificial sweetener aspartame for your kids such as is found in diet sodas? Do you ever give your kids Wrigley gum? Read the label next time.

My teen daughter is allergic to aspartame. It gives her headaches. She noticed she kept getting headaches after chewing some Doublemint gum so she read the label and brought it too me to show me it had aspartame. It’s not even sugar free gum. I was beside myself. We carefully avoid any diet drinks or foods because of the aspartame problem. She had a diet drink for the first time a few years ago and passed out with a migraine. In amounts as small as a stick of gum, she gets headaches.

She cannot remember everything she is allergic to and sometimes will cheat to have some dairy, but she does not forget or cheat with aspartame, red #40 and Blue dyes. These affect her so much worse than her dairy, egg, and many other allergies. A few months ago she was complaining of shortness of breath for everything. An inhaler didn’t help, tests were negative… she stopped drinking the blue drinks and all her breathing problems went away.

Red #40 seriously makes her act intoxicated. Even a small prescription capsule tinted to look barely pink will do this to her. We thought the pills were white until she reacted.

Of all the ingredients we are avoiding, corn is the hardest by far. Take a peek at the corn ingredient list at http://www.livecornfree.com/2010/04/ingredients-derived-from-corn-what-to.html. I do not think we are as sensitive as some folks are, but more than just anything with the word corn.

In the past few months I have done things I never thought I’d do. I bake most of our bread now and hope to get to the point of baking all of it. Bread, hot dog and hamburger buns. All I can say is yummy. I made pizza from scratch. Another yummy. I have made gummy worms and marshmallows. Gummies are gummies but whoa.. those marshmallows were wonderful. The first batch tasted just like peeps. No one complained. The second batch I used organic powder sugar (regular powder sugar has corn starch). Next time you see a bag of marshmallows, read the ingredients. Many of them are made with blue dye not to mention corn syrup. I must have missed it in art class that blue helps to make white. I have never cooked 4 lbs. of meatballs at one time but did this recently so I could freeze a meal. Did you know you can make meatloaf or meatballs without egg or milk and still have them turnout delicious?

The second hardest part is not having the convenience of eating out or making something from a box. Meals must be planned and prepared. This takes time. I only have one bread machine so it takes planning ahead to have bread or buns. I bake it all in the oven but the bread machine makes a wonderful dough. The hardest is the events that are planned around a meal. Cookouts with others, snacks for kids’ activities, etc. It not only can be challenging to anticipate when they will occur, but also to come up with alternatives or do without. It is a big lifestyle change. But it has all been worth it.

More Summer Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:17:00 +0000

We love our state fair more and more each year. So much that we are going to have to start going a couple of days to see all we want to see and do what we enjoy. We do not go to the Midway and we take our own food and eat in the van. We choose $2 day so we all get in for $10. I didn’t take my best camera and photo opportunities were not always available but here are a few.

Feeding goats is fun.

We always enjoy the DNR building.

Visiting Sankt Nikolaus at the Wilkommen to Germany exhibit. Considering the kids are 4th generation Americans, this was kind of cool.

Not only is our last name German, but all of my husband’s great grandparents except one migrated from Germany. The other one was a 1st generation American to German parents. So German runs strong here.

These piglets were out of a litter of 14. No wonder their mommy looked tired.

9 piglets only 9 days old. Sweet.

After a brief storm, we saw a cool rainbow that later turned into a double rainbow.

Music and Drama Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:32:00 +0000

The church we are attending sponsors a music and drama camp each summer and this year Sean went. In addition to many other things, they learned a musical in five days. Sean had a brief part in a duet which I taped below. The whole group did a wonderful job. They had approximately 85 campers.

Sean singing in a duet.

Summer Fun on a Hot Day

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:40:00 +0000

Owen and Seth are Sean’s and Sierra’s best friends. They live to play with them. They are lost when they are not home or cannot play. This weekend they enjoyed some fun on the Slip-N-Slide. Can you tell my kids haven’t been out in the sun much?

Photo Time– My Hobby

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:20:00 +0000

The Low Down on Food Allergies

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:41:00 +0000

This pretty much sums it up. Great presentation if you have 18 minutes to listen. Make time to get informed.

ER Visit Already?

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:19:00 +0000

Yesterday was June 8 and we have already made a trip to the ER. I think we have our quota in for the summer.

I think half the people in Columbus needed the ER last night. We were there 3 1/2 hours.

This picture is from last year, but you can see how much fun the slide can be with some water on it.

Problem would be if you come to the top too quickly and slip, flying off the side and landing on your back. That is what Sierra did yesterday.

They checked her urine for blood since she landed on her kidneys and did x-rays and everything was okay but they said she would be sore like she’d been in a wreck.

This picture was earlier in the day when they were climbing on the slide.

Everyone be safe this summer. Hidden dangers and not so hidden ones await us when we spend so much more time outside.

Technorati Tags: emergency room,accident,fall,summer,slide,injured,kids,fun

Putting Up the For Sale Sign

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:44:00 +0000

I wonder if sticking a for sale sign in the yard down the street would subliminally result in the family wanting to move. It probably would be a bit too obvious.

The father who lives there got upset with me because my child told him that I didn’t want their son playing with them. This is true but I didn’t expect the boy to show up in our backyard, uninvited, refusing to leave. He wouldn’t leave when asked by my kids and before I could go outside to supervise their play, my child had already solicited the help of the father who was less than happy about the whole situation. He felt very angry that we were excluding his son. My children are almost 9 and 7 and two of the other kids playing are almost 9. His son is four and acts like he’s two.

He smarts off to adults, throws tantrums to get his way and cusses regularly. He tries coming in the house, drives his power wheel in everyone’s yard between here and their house over half a block away, tried to run over my kids in our driveway and ran his power wheel into our gate repeatedly the other day. I explained to the dad that we have a problem with his language and how he smarts off to us if we ask him to stop doing something. His best comeback was to ask if I thought my kids behaved at his house. They have played in their driveway a few times with other kids. My first thought was yes, I think they behave, but instead, I told him if they did not, to please send them home and let me know. He didn’t have a response to that. I hope he thinks about what I said and tries to deal with it. I have a feeling the boy will be back down here again soon and we won’t be over this situation. I have no problem laying down some ground rules for him to play here, but I do not expect it to work since he smarts off to us when he hears us talking to our own kids about something, as if he thinks we are talking to him.

All The Little Ducklings… Sean’s Piano Recital

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:18:00 +0000

Sean is playing All the Little Ducklings at his piano recital June 3, 2011

Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:11:00 +0000

I’m behind on updating… here are some pics of us on Easter.

The Power of Straight Line Winds

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Tue, 24 May 2011 12:14:00 +0000

Storms came through here yesterday. Winds lifted a building into the air and smashed it right behind my parents’ garage, knocking down their privacy fence and spilling concrete blocks and shingles into their yard. A couple miles away, a tree was uprooted from the ground, taking the sod up around it and another tree broken off.

A Word on Food Dyes

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:11:00 +0000

Below is an article that gives me hope. It’s been about 3-4 years since we figured out that our teen had issues with food dyes. Red #40 was the one we discovered to be a problem at first, but now we believe they all are. Actually we are now dye free in our household. That really isn’t a totally easy thing to do as food dyes are in things that you would not expect.

While watching children at gymnastics or some other organized event, I see kids that remind me of my daughter when she was the same age and I want to warn the parents to get rid of food dyes in their child’s diet. Dyes are made of petroleum. I think how different my child’s life might have been without them. Behavior problems at school, unable to go to sleep at night, etc. The teachers complained that she was highly distractible. The only thing they knew to do was move her desk to different places until she was sitting completely isolated from everyone else. She would act so silly on the playground that other kids would egg her on and try to get her to do stupid stuff. She was totally out of control.

Today, with red #40 out of her system, when she does accidentally digest it (which happens most often in prescription meds or when she eats at a pitch-in), we can all tell. And so can she. It’s horrible. She acts intoxicated and it causes her anxiety to go high.

Not all reactions to food dyes are the same. Other reactions could include skin issues, inability to concentrate, bed wetting, mood problems, and the list goes on.

But, red #40 is not the only culprit. Remember, they are all made from petroleum. Our same daughter with the red #40 issue was having breathing issues…. from any activity. Unable to catch her breath. An inhaler did not work. She had an echocardiogram done to rule out heart issues. We started on the Feingold diet soon after and the main thing eliminated from what she ate/drank was Powerade Zero the mixed berry flavor (the only one without red #40). Instead, it has blue dye. After cutting out the dyes, her breathing went back to normal and she has resumed regular activities, like walking. Anywhere.

Anyway, if you haven’t begun to do so, begin reading the labels of your foods, especially those targeted at children. Look for Red #40, blue 1, yellow 5 and 6, and others with color names. I get angry when I see how much this junk is being used in our foods.

Technorati Tags: adhd,hyperactivity,food dyes,red #40,food allergies,reactions

Good news from Australia

The Australian branch of the Aldi supermarket chain has announced
they are ditching food dyes.

This is important to consumers
world-wide for several reasons:
First, it brings awareness to the fact
that petroleum-based food dyes are
harmful. Second, it shows that food
can be colorful and delicious without
the need for fake dyes. This makes it
harder for markets in other countries
(and for the US FDA) to continue to
turn a blind eye to the enormous
amount of research showing the damage
they cause. Finally, it puts pressure
on governmental agencies to take
action to protect consumers, especially
children.
In 2007, following the landmark
study from the University of
Southampton (showing that food dyes
cause harm to all children), the major
British chains announced they would
be getting rid of the dyes.

The effort that started in England
with Jamie Oliver, and the 2004
and 2007 Southampton studies,
resulted in the removal of most of
the synthetic dyes from the food in
Europe! Let's hope this trend
makes its way to North America!

Leading the charge were Marks &
Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury's and
ASDA (which is owned by
Wal-Mart.) ASDA was especially vocal,
promising their customers a "no
nasties guarantee."
The chain's "no nasties" policy did
not sit well with Ajinomoto, who currently
makes the synthetic sweetener
aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet). The
Japanese company initiated a law suit
against ASDA that has gone on for
several years.
Ajinomoto seeks to defend the integrity
of its controversial sweetener,
which has generated more health complaints
to the US FDA than any other
additive in history.
In addition to aspartame, Ajinomoto
is the major manufacturer of MSG
(monosodium glutamate), which has
an even longer history of reported
health problems.

Reprinted from Pure Facts, the newsletter
of the Feingold Association of
the United States, www.feingold.org.

Spring and new beginnings

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 01:46:00 +0000

Sierra learned how to ride her bike without training wheels last month. It took just a short time of practicing. Soon she was zooming around the circle and I was afraid she would crash and burn and not try again until she was 16, so we made her stop. She was so excited that she came inside, got paper and wrote a story about it.