Friday's Picture Post

We've had a busy couple of weeks.  I'm working on my addiction to time wasters (namely the iPad).  So one afternoon Tate wanted help with his Lego building and I obliged.  We were close to finishing when he told me I could go lay down if I wanted to or do something else.  I said no, I could finish helping him.  A few minutes later he told me he was going to go have a rest :).  At any rate, here is his Lego hotel, which has now been transformed into something else.

 Last weekend, my sister and her family traveled up to get their new puppy.  One of my CC runners breeds her golden retriever and she had her batch of puppies just before Christmas.  Shelby thought he was great as long as he wasn't in her face.

 Even Juno got some loving.

Shelby also really liked his play yard.  The puppy, not so much.

 We've also been out enjoying the last few nice days before winter reared her ugly head, again.

 There were plenty of snowballs thrown,

 and Cole even built a snowman.

We also managed to find time to finish his 40 books so he joined the Super Reader club at school.

The Milk Debate

Look at this!  4 days in a row!

Anywhoodle, since Shelby is not yet 2, and she's tiny, she is on whole milk.  She goes through a lot of milk so instead of buying 2 kinds, I switched us all to whole milk.  We were going through over 3 gallons every 2 weeks.  It got to the point where I finally stopped and asked myself why I am buying milk.  So I stopped buying milk.  We've gone to tank milk and I'm wondering why it took me so long to do this.  The taste!  Oh my goodness!  If you haven't had milk straight from the tank, you are missing out.  There is so much flavor!  We have a plate cooler, and our milk is constantly agitated, so the milk comes out mixed and ice cold, no shaking involved.  I fill a gallon jug about every other day.  It certainly saves on trips to the store and money.

Catch Up, Again

So the last 5 months...

• I finished cross country in October.  I took a group of my runners to watch the state meet.  That was fun.  I miss being part of that.  
• Harvest was not fabulous.  It got done, but that was about all that was positive about it.  
• Tate is exhausted all the time, which is causing us some worry.  I'm hoping it's just that he's growing, but he will willingly nap.  What 5 year old does that?
• Shelby refuses to nap.  She is going to be trouble.  She now has a mouth full of teeth and talks all the time.

• Thanksgiving was spent with my family in Iowa.  This kids love being together and we had a good time.
• Christmas was low key and spent at home.  Cole did a great job with his lines in the Sunday School program and Tate sang his heart out.

• In January, Pat and I travelled to Frisco, TX, to watch NDSU win their 3rd straight national championship.  We had an absolute blast.  It helped that it was in the 60s on game day. :)

• Cole started piano lessons when school resumed.  Two of his 4 lessons have been cancelled or rescheduled due to weather.  I am tried of cold.

• While we were in Texas, the boys were introduced to MineCraft.  If anyone understands this game and can explain it to me, I am all ears.  Otherwise, my typical response is glazed eyes and feeling ready to explode with "I don't care!"  I just don't get it.

 And there you have the highlights since September.  3 blog posts in 1 week!

I Love to Read

**Disclaimer:  I love to read.  I enjoy reading and I want my kids to enjoy reading.  Do not read this post thinking I am against reading in any way.

February is I love to read month.  I hate it.  I love reading, I hate all the work that comes with February.  Our school does some fantastic reading things with the kids, but they all come to a head in February.  

They do One School, One Book which means the entire elementary, pre-k through 6, staff, custodians, bus drivers, cooks, everyone reads the same book.  We read one chapter a night until the book is finished.  Every morning they get a question to answer about what was read the night before.  It's a great program.  The problem, they also do Fast Start Reading, and the first grade is doing a super reader's squad challenge (40 books in February).  That means, on top of the chapter every night, he has a poem to read, his guided reading homework, and the books for the reading squad.  That's on top of the library books we have to read and Cole's piano practice.  That's a lot of reading to do between the hours of 4 and 8, if there is nothing else going on.  Cole likes to read and he's good at reading, but it's a lot.  We already dropped the ball with the One School book.  We forgot that last night so I read it to them over breakfast.  At least it's cold and no one wants to be outside.

Research

Oops, so it's been almost 5 months since my last post.  I may update you before the next 5 months, but today is something I need to blog about.  I know I've mentioned before that my mom has FTD, frontal temporal dementia.  My Dad has been taking her to research appointments at Large Hospital and has even consented to donate her brain when she is gone.  The problem is that they can do all the research they want after a person has been diagnosed, but it does them little good if they don't know what causes it or how it starts.  Large Hospital has been hoping to start a study on those with a family history, but haven't had the funding.  Enter my sister and me.  Today the call came in.  They have funding.

I am scared to death.

Of course, I consented and have appointments set.  It's nothing difficult on my part.  Memory tests, scans, blood draw.  The scary part is that I don't want to know.  Being in research means they will run tests every year and if we have it, it could lead to an earlier diagnosis.  I don't want to know.  I do not want to know which road I will travel down until I am traveling it.  It's scary seeing my mom and wondering if that will become me.  I'm not sure I can handle actually knowing.

So I do this for my kids and my grandkids.  If they can learn something from me.  If they can find a way to stop it, stall it, or treat it because of this research, then it is worth knowing.  I pray the data they collect from me and my sister will be worthless, because I pray this disease ends with my mom.  If it doesn't, then I pray this research gives my kids a better future.

But, I'm still scared to death.