A SuPeR StAr

Now I'm not one to brag and be biased but Abby rocked the recital today! She was the most prepared, had her pieces memorized and was playing above & beyond the other kids....I mean they are playing "Twinkle Twinkle" and she's playing Beethoven. Ok, so I'm a little biased.

Baby Steps...

I've been trying to figure out what to do with Sam's significant weight gain. Ever since he was little, he's been in the 5th percentile on height & weight. I even had a cardiologist ask me, "So, is there a reason why he's not thriving?" What? Sam has always been tiny, that is until he started a medication Risperdal. That was a his downfall. The medication worked really well but the weight gain side effect was dramatic so we changed the med to a similar kind, Abilify, to see if that would help....not really. He continued to gain weight and it's been real challenge to buy clothes for him. He's so short and has a big belly. I decided to take him to a GI doc to see what our options were. He made several suggestions and one was to see a nutritionist. We made an appointment with Bailey and saw her last week. I had to keep a 3 day log of what Sam ate and I'll tell you what, there is nothing like going in and sitting across from someone who is judging what you are doing as a parent. YIKES! After our appointment, I asked if I was the worst parent she's seen. Thankfully, I am not! YAY!

Here are the changes we need to make. Luckily, I am only a "2 pager".

So some of the things I've incorporated are: the vitamins, low cal/high fiber bread, spray butter, spray dressing, 2 snacks/day, low cal chocolate milk, more activity, no desserts during the week and carrying around paperwork that gives me calorie counts for restaurants. I've also added an app that lists the calories of more restaurants. I've not been a terrible mom when it comes to food but I certainly could have done better. We could all do better. Per our scale at home, Sam weighs 75 lbs. and he needs to lose 1/4 to 1 lb./week.

Happy Dieting!


Another baby step we've made is that Sam is officially off of....

That doesn't mean I haven't kept all the extra pills for myself! ha ha

Progress is slow but great.

My personal sweat shop

A few weeks back I made several skirts for Abby and my very business savvy sister-in-law Jennifer commented that I should sell them. Thankfully, Jennifer has lots of contacts and she has a friend who has a little boutique near Emory and she forwarded some photos of them. Well, Michele from Small World really liked them and asked me to sew some to sell on consignment at her shop. I spent the last few days buying fabric and sewing my brains out.

The Sweat Shop

I don't have a designated area to leave out all my sewing stuff (maybe someday!) so I decided to sew a lot of skirts while I had everything out.



All the sewing necessities...serger, pins, fabric, ipod and jelly bellies

Here are the results of my sweat...22 skirts in these fabrics.

I dropped them off at Small World yesterday and am hopeful that some will sell. It's so strange to me that women would possibly pay $30 for these skirts (that's what we have listed them for) but I will be happy to get the negotiated $18/skirt.

So, help support my shopping habits by buying a skirt!

Our Busy Weekend

Our Saturday was very busy! Abby had a basketball game at 9am so no sleeping in for us! The Timberwolves have really improved their game & Abby even scored a basket.

The Timberwolves

Todd left to go play golf with a friend so we came home for just a bit and since the weather was sooo beautiful, we decided to take a nature walk at Sweetwater Creek State Park. We have been freeeeezing here so the 60 degrees was so great!

Here are the kids at the beginning of our hike. Sweetwater Creek had a lot of damage due to the flooding. Lots of trees are down and it's a bit messy but we were happy to be outside!

Next up was Abby's Upward Soccer eval. This took quite a while but she is excited to finally try soccer this spring. This is what we'll be doing every Saturday starting next month!

The Future

We had some kids come over yesterday and they were all in the back yard. As I watched one of the boys tease Sam a bit, I called him up and got about 2 inches away from his face and had to explain how Sam is different. He doesn't understand what the other kids are doing and why he can't do what they are doing. The boy apologized and they went on playing.

It makes me sad to think that a few short years from now Sam may be a loner. Will the other kids just decide to stay away since Sam is so different from them? Will he come sit in the house and not participate because they don't understand why he talks about game shows or TV programs? Will he have friends that come & hang out and watch movies? Will I have to plan play dates with other kids who have special needs?

When Sam was young, I didn't really even think about these things. Well, "these things" are starting to get hard. How long can I just smile & nod while Sam tells strangers funny things or hugs them? It won't be so cute when he's 17.

What will life be like in just a few short years? It makes me sad to think of all the things he'll miss out on...driving, dating, college, marriage, children. Now, I can never say never but at this point, I don't see those things happening. I know I need to look at the positive things and all the things he can do but as a mom, it hurts my heart.

Life.

Service Sunday

This past week had this great idea! I would make a treat & some valentines and take them to the local nursing home & have the kids hand them out. Needless to say, that idea totally slipped my mind until today. Ooops! Oh well, we could still pull it off. I told the kids that we were going to do a service project and I called the local facility to see if it was OK for us to stop by and they were happy to have us. She told me they had 33 residents, 7 of whom were diabetic. Oh man! I was able to pull off cupcakes easy enough but I wasn't too prepared with a diabetic-friendly treat so I got into my pantry and found a variety of nuts. Todd, the kids and I went and delivered little valentines, cupcakes (or nuts) and wished the residents a Happy Valentines Day. I think it's good for the kids to interact with the residents there and they had fun.

Diabetic-friendly treat


Simple Valentines

On our way home, Todd asked Abby if when we get older, could we live with her or would she put is him a home. Her response, "Probably in a home because I don't want you to wander off."

Fair enough!

I think from here on out, we will make the 2nd Sunday of the month Service Sunday. We will choose someone to serve and do a little service project. I hope to instill in the kids a love of service and charity.

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." Moroni 7:47

Did we move?

Chocolate Hearts

I saw this recipe on TV and thought it would be fun. Little did I know how much of a process it actually was.

Chop 2 lbs. of chocolate (I used Baker's semi-sweet)
It made 121 little hearts



Melt in glass bowl over boiling water

Once melted, pour some into a pastry bag

Squish out 2 quarter-sized blobs then use back of spoon to shape into a heart

While still warm, put on toppings

Let them set in the fridge

Send them off to school

p.s... they are very fra-gee-lay!

I {heart} you!
xoxo

I Have A Dream....

Sam came home yesterday with some work in his folder. They had been studying Martin Luther King, Jr. and had written what their dream is.

Sam's dream:

I have a dream of TPIR (The Price is Right) with Bob Barker.
I am going on the show.
I can be the host of the show.

We all need a dream. I don't even know if I have a dream. I think at one point in my life I had one but I can't think of what is/was. I need to dream more often.

What is your dream?

Skirts

Last weekend I took Abby to a b-day party in the Virginia-Highlands area of Atlanta. I dropped her off at the pottery place and since I didn't want to loose my prime parking place, I decided to just wander in some of the cute little shops. I went into one little gift boutique and saw a cute little skirt. It was pricey! I checked it out and thought, "Now I could make that." The next day I picked up some cute fabric and started sewing some skirts for Abby. These are what I made:

Abby needed something besides pink & purple.

I really like this fabric & it's a bit longer than the others.

The ruffle was a bit of a challenge since I sewed it wrong initially, broke some of the running stitch so after my frustration hit a high, I just put it on and didn't care how it looked.

This is the first one I made and I love, love, love this fabric and the simple rick-rack.

I had this fabric sitting around for over a year so I finally used it.

I think they turned out pretty cute and were easy to make. What I need now is a designated space where I can leave out all my sewing stuff. Someday!

Family Home Evening

For Family Home Evening this week, we discussed LoVe!!

I started out by reading John 3:16:
"For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

We discussed that Heavenly Father loved us so much that He gave us His Son and how special that is. I bought this little jar and each day we are to write down something that we love and put it in the jar and at the end of the month, we'll read them all.



Abby then handled the activity portion of FHE. She decided to play art teacher and had us each draw a picture then we pass them around and everyone makes a nice comment about each drawing. Here is what we drew:

Todd
A squirrel that looks like Abby

I drew a lovely pig. I've got mad drawring skills!

Sam drew Newman

Abby drew our frog, Marge

It's very apparent to me that we could use some more practice!