40!!

June 2015

I turned forty years old.  It isn’t all that big a deal, just another birthday. Another turn around the sun.

But I was super surprised by my dearest oldest friend visiting me for the weekend to celebrete. It was amazing having her here with me. I miss her dearly. She lives half way across the continent and I am not able to travel to her since i have T. with me all the time.

We had a lobster dinner and apple pie for dessert.  The lobster dinner was funny since we had R. with us and she had never encountered this food before. It was interesting to watch her reactions in trying to eat this food you really have to fight with the get the meat out of.  These particular lobster shells were extremely thick. I had never come across ones I couldn’t easily break. But we managed and enjoyed them all.  Of course, I was super delighted by sharing my mommas apple pie with everyone afterwards.

My dear friend gave me sweet presents and I had just receieved the birthday gifts I purchased for her back in May! It was very cool. We got to both celebrate turing 40 with each other. 🙂

The next day we had lunch with my mom and dad, then went swimming for an hour or so. I love swimming! I am so glad to be back in an area that has many options for doing just that, for free!

New addition to my Fiber Collection

June 2015

This new addition is a living breathing fiber making beast.

🙂  Welcome my sweetie, Satin angora rabbit, FLUFFERNUTTER!  She lives in the barn and comes in frequently to be groomed. She has just recently been cut down, so her next fiber harvest will be a in a few months and will hopefully have a little better stability than the new baby fluff from her first cut.

B-29 Bomber

June 2015

We were very fortunate to have had the B-29 Bomber, the last one in operation, come to our local airport for a viewing. It was a very coolsite.

I got lots of neat pictures of it and the C-47?. We were able to go inside the under belly to see the bombs and inside the cockpit. We didn’t get into the cockpit since the climb was too much for us, but it was totally worthe the hour or so wait.

The entire time we were there, they were maintaining this beautiful plane like royalty.  What a treat!

Fireman Field Days

June 2015

Our favorite fair is the Firemans Field Days is Appalachin, NY. It is simple and fun. This time I brought the girls with us. I laughed so hard riding the twister ride over and over again my cheeks cramped up. LOL

I introduced the girls to fair food. DEEP FRIED OREO COOKIES! Nom nom nom nom.  T. got to shoot a BB Gun and Paint gun, which made him happy.

We got there way early on the opening day due to lack of proper advertising for the event, so I took some realy neat pictures of the empty fair grounds and rides.

Mothers Day Brunch Surprise

May 2015

Mothers Day. I had received a call from my lil sis a couple days before stating she was coming in for a surprise for Mothers Day. It had been a long time since my parents had seen her. And it would have been the second time they had the opportunity to meet her new husband. I had not met him yet at all.  I was excited. But we had no other plans.

I got my brian in to gear and planned a sneaky surprise. I had told them we were going to bring mom and dad to a fancy shmancy place for brunch. I was going to pick them up. My sis was arriving at the time my parents were supposed to be picked up by us.  They were waiting outside for us to arrive. Instead, my sister and her husband arrived. It was incredibly lovely for my parents but it didn’t end there.

I showed up and my parents were still under the impression that we were going to brunch, but not sure how that was going to work with sis being there. We came prepared. We brought brunch to them!!!

We had ham loaf, mimosas, fruit salad, waffles, eggs, and so much more!!!  It was a lovely day with the family. It was wonderful to meet my brother in law.  Mom had the best Mothers Day. I even topped it off with a trip out for her favorite treat, Ice cream!!

Having fun with the Family – B-Sens Hockey

May 2015

Knocking teeth out. Blood on the ice. Darth Vadar on the runway.

Whaaat??!

Okay, we had lots of fun this winter and early spring at our favorite local hockey teams arena. I brought my parents a few time and we got to see some gruesome action on the ice. We also had a great time at the Start Wars event they held before the game. T. even got pictures with several of the characters.

First Visit to the Zoo!

April 2015

It has been over five years since we have had the pleasure of enjoying this lovely small local zoo. It has just opened for the season and I plan on attending several events they have planned for this year.

It was so fun getting acquianted with the old and new animals.  I also was fortunate enough to have had my parents along with me, as well as R. We got to play with our cameras. The days weather was perfect and the animals did their best to cooperate. Netted cages really suck for autofocus. 😛

Here are a few of my favorite images of the day.

Working backwards

I am going to be updating the blog. That will involve posting lots of pictures along side short posts regarding the events since we moved back to NY.

I would like to say upfront, I love being back here so that I can care for my family and friends. I do miss all the luxuries I had available to me in Iowa and the very close friends and connections I made there.
The transition back has been fairly easy but reconnecting with old friends is a challenge since many folks here just don’t have the same vibes I do. Never did, so its not a surprise to me. I just with that was a little easier and folks would actually take some time to welcome us back and make an effort to connect, rather than me always reaching out. It gets tiresome.

I love being near mom and dad. I even visited my brother. That is a rarity and one I enjoyed very much. Lots of doctors appointments between us all that keep me busy alongside the schoolwork I prepare for T. and R.&J.

I am fortunate enough to live back on five acres of land with a decent barn. I am building my homesteading skills back up by raising meat rabbits and meat chickens. After fencing gets funded, I will start meat goats. I have enjoyed getting dirty, wet and sweaty again. I know that sounds strange but I have lived an alternate life these past five years and it is a relief to get back into the activities I thrive in doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiona, our Saint Bernard finally passed away back in June of 2014, since then I have filled that void with a teacup yorkie, Precious, and two chihuahuas, Minnie( build like a tank) and Carly ( long hair carebear).
They have been expensive to keep and maintain but they are loveable critters.

We’re Baaack!!

Jones Park, Vestal , NY

The big move back to NY is complete. It was a long and arduous process. I am still not content with our home purchase and living situation, but we are here and I am thankful for that.

I am able to take care of my parents, at a sacrafice of my son T. The services in which he needs are nil in NY. We knew that going in, but at least here we have the opportunity to rebuild our community with our homeschool coop and church.
For the last 5 years, not having either community available has made life very challenging. I am happy to be able to rebuild relationships and reshape them as all our lives have shifted in one way or another since our absence.

I hate to NY paperwork crap we have to complete for homeschooling. Such a beauraucratic waste of time, but it is easy enough. T was homeschooling as a 9th grader doing approx. 6th grade level work in IA, but here I am more app to document him as 8th in hopeful persuits of closer to accurate learning ability. No matter what I teach from here on out, it won’t make much difference to his life. It is pretty much stagnant as far as acedemics. Now is the time to focus on Life Skills as much as I can. One can only hope he will be independant for even a small portion of his life in the future.

I am now able to care for and help my dearest friend(Jacqui) daughters, when they allow it, as well. I was fortunate to be able to move so close to them. I love them dearly and wish I had never moved away and missed a minute of their life and Jacquis.

I don’t have room to spread my office and art supplies anywhere in the new house so I feel very contained and trapped here with little outlet. So I am slowly getting aggitated and trying to find outlets that aren’t fighting about stupid things that have little to do with the actual issue at hand. 😛 I know, silly, but it still happens. I learned about SoulCollage and I love that. I had fun doing a Zentangle and enjoyed that too. I have joined a very large Fiber Arts Guild, Lamb to Loom that thankfully meets at my church, I am very much enjoying. I am missing more than my fair share of Photography Club meetings and haven’t entered a single image in the Competitions, but I really like the format. Winters are not an easy time to pull me out of the house and then add the stress of moving, I have hiberanted a little. Not a good thing for me, even as an introvert.

I was admitted in to the Lourdes Hospital for about week from severe stomach pain and vomitting. I am now the proud owner of a medicaid card and lots of holes in my arms. It was super stressful and its not quite over yet. I have lots of follow up appts and such to make sure other issues they found are taken care of before I get so old it will be much harder to recover from. Hernia! yay! Not!

Now I must figure out how to get S. a birthday gift, T. a birthday party planned, Ostara set up and celebrated, dogs spayed, my surgery scheduled, psych appts for T. set up, house furntiure purchasing, plumbing and electrical work scheduled and paid for, care for T. during my recovery, and school work and classes continued. I am falling behind on everything but mybrain fog is making things slip and am becoming very unreliable. My mess, I will clean it up.

Did I mention I have not had any time to network, so that means no business can be thrown my way. No one knows I exist as far as design work. Sad but true. I must find work, so I can become independant. I feel like a kid living under someone elses roof and not being able to care for myself and my child on my own. Pathetic.

I am happy to be so close in vicinity to B. now. He attends Ithaca College as a sophmore. He is a smart guy. I hope he succeeds in what ever path he chooses. Soon he will be home for a week and I have no room for him. That makes me very angry.

Back in NY! IHIP 8th Grade

INDIVIDUAL HOME INSTRUCTION PLAN
NAME OF CHILD: T
GRADE LEVEL: 8th DOB: ___________
SCHOOL YEAR: 2014-2015
ADDRESS: _________________________________ NY ________
DATE SUBMITTED: February 28th 2015
QUARTERLY REPORT WILL BE MAILED ON: remainder…April 30th 2015 and July 31

T will be using various methods/tools for 8th grade instruction in all the subjects specified in Section 100.10 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. T will utilize an eclectic mix of classical, unschool and child led methodologies to complete his academic goals. The corresponding topics may include and shall not be limited to:

Mathematics

* Maintaining skills in fundamental operations* Factoring and products* Sets and simple sentences* Numeration systems* Using fractions and decimals* Ratio, proportion, and percent* Equalities and inequalities* Simple formulas and equations* Graphing an equation* Powers and roots of rational numbers* Polynomials* Metric and nonmetric geometry* Pythagorean Theorem* Scale drawing* Righttriangle trigonometry* Customary and metric measurement* Permutations* Probability statistics* Statistical terms* Mathematics of insurance, banking, and taxes

*Utilizing “Key to…” workbooks, “Oak Meadow Math 7” curriculum, Mathaid.com, etc…

English

* Independent reading, * Literal, inferential, and evaluative reading skills, * Literary terms, * Novel, short story, narrative poetry, * Nonfiction, * Biographies of great Americans, * American poets and storytellers, * Creative dramatics, * Listening and speech activities, * Advanced dictionary work, * Extended vocabulary, * Figures of speech* Spelling* Infinitive, participle, gerund, predicate nominative, predicate adjective, direct and indirect object* Kinds of sentences and their parts* Functions of sentence elements* Writing simple business letters* Reportwriting skills* Improving skills in using basic reference sources* Inductive and deductive reasoning

*Utilizing “Oak Meadow English Literature 9” curriculum, “Super Sentences and Paragraphs” worksheets, practice workbooks, etc…

History and Geography

* Exploration and discovery* Growth and development of the United StatesColonial life* Struggle for independence* U. S. Constitution and Bill of RightsWestward movement in America* American Civil War* Reconstruction* U. S. as a world power * Meaning of democracy* WWI* WWII* Our American culture* U. S. political system* U.S. economic system* U. S. government* U. S. geography* Map and globe skills*
Current Affairs *NY State history has been previously covered

*Utilizing “American History” Coop class, “The Story of US” curriculum, newspapers, etc…

Science

* Scientific method* Scientific nomenclature* Scientific measurement* Magnetism and electricity* Heat and light* Forces in liquids and gases* Wave, mechanical, electrical, and nuclear energy* Newton’s three laws of motion* Machines* The atom* Periodic table of elements* Compounds and mixtures* Chemical changes* Learning science concepts and vocabulary* Building inquiry, STEM, and 21st Century Skills* Incorporating math and writing in each science lesson

*Utilizing “ScienceFusion Module H, Matter and Force” curriculum, Wonderopolis.com, etc…

Health

* Grooming* Functions of the body* The body’s utilization of food* Types and functions of foods* Environmental hazards* Community sanitation and health * Health care services* Sexually transmitted diseases* Accident prevention, safety, and first aid* Mental hygiene* Substance abuse* Social Skills* Coping Skills* Anger Management* Medication Management

*Utilizing “Social Skills for High Schoolers”, “Hidden Keys”, “Its’ Perfectly Normal”, etc…

Music/Visual Arts/Phys. Ed./Practical Arts

* Wide exposure to all forms of music* Indepth studies of composers and artists* Arts and crafts* Art technique* Free play indoors and outdoors* Practical arts* Library skills* Cooking* Banking* Budgeting* Running a household* Basic Life Skills* Swimming* LARPing

Extracurricula

*”Introduction to Psychology” Coop class

Instruction tools/resources may include and shall not be limited to: reference materials (atlas, dictionaries, globe, maps, encyclopedias, nonfiction books, videos, the internet), workbooks, worksheets, handson activities, experiments, science lab, projects,
newspapers, magazines, frequent field trips, group activities, classic/contemporary literature, research, journal/narrative/essay/poetry writing, games, creative thinking, predicting/forecasting, gathering facts, music CDs, CD ROMs, piano keyboard, abundant art supplies (clay, paint, crayons, pencils, sketchpads, felt, chalk, charcoal, pastels, etc.), structured group classes, free play, conversations, and real life.

Student Attendance Record available upon request.

Instruction will consist of no less than 990 hours for the year.

Primary instruction to T will be provided by ___________ his mother. Supplemental instruction will be provided by others, as necessary. A narrative assessment will be provided with the fourth quarterly report.