Monday, December 25, 2017

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

This year Christmas has been a little difficult. My aunt has been sick for quite some time and we are getting to the end of her illness now :( My husband and I went to see her early last week and I'm SO thankful we did because that was the last time I was able to talk to her and hear her voice :( She is an amazing lady. She has fought and dealt with more in her life than anyone I have EVER known.  She is smart, funny, quirky and I just loved her to death! I've struggled to get into the spirit the last few weeks due to focusing my thoughts on sadness. Today I had a talk with myself and reminded myself that Christmas has always been her favorite holiday of the year. She decorated her entire house, even the bathroom! (LOL) She is currently in a coma, but today I tried to think about all the years she's lived and all the years of Christmas that she has enjoyed.  Today was a little different than previous years, but after telling myself that I needed to enjoy today FOR HER it was better than I had anticipated.  Sadly there won't be any more Christmas celebrations with my aunt or anymore times of laughter listening to her stories. Even though I know the sadness is going to get worse I'm choosing to TRY and focus on how she lived life. She lived in pain every day of her life, but 99.9% of the time you wouldn't have known it. Hopefully we have all gotten enough of her spirit to help us through these difficult times that are coming. I love my Aunt Mary Lou with all my heart! The time I spent with my husband and children today is special and I'm celebrating those good times because I know she would want me to.  



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Friday, December 22, 2017

Review: Magic Stix Washable Markers



The kids and I have always loved doing craft projects together. One of the biggest issues we seem to have always faced is to grab the marker box to start a project and find several dried out markers. Usually the youngest child at the time has left the lids off and now we don't have all the colors we need or want for our project :( I was recently offered a product to try free, for my honest review that claims on the package they won't try out for 7 days with the cap off. My first thought was I really couldn't imagine because we've dealt with this dry marker issue for years. Our Magic Stix 12 pack arrived and the first thing I thought was how to check this 7 day guarantee! I let my youngest son pick the color he wanted to use and then I wrote my name on paper. My plan was to write the same name and date each day for 7 days and see how the marker held up. I ended up a little distracted with a badly sprained foot, but was surprised when after 2 days I checked it the writing was still great. The marker wrote just as brightly colored, smooth and flowing as it had on day one. That sold it for me! I'm always looking for a cheap price for markers and will never buy anything that isn't washable. Even though these markers are priced higher than what I'd normally pay the fact that they don't dry out is a HUGE selling point! I think anyone with children would love these knowing that they are safe from drying out if left our for a day or two!

Usually the markers we buy come in a cardboard box, but these arrived in a nice shell case with individual spots for the markers.  This is a great way to store them because here in my house they tend to get lost if not kept together. Of course I loved that they were washable because as I wrote earlier I don't buy any that aren't. I learned early on with my first child that I wanted him to have the freedom to use markers without the worry I might have of items getting stained. These also have NO odor and vented safety caps. Not having an odor is important because there are so many of us that strong odors cause headaches. No worries here! I think most parents want their children to use markers and get to do fun things, but they worry about the fumes, the stains and the possibly toxicity.  Thankfully the The Pencil Grip has taken all of our concerns and given us a wonderful product that we can use with our children.

I'm including a picture of our little experiment with trying out the marker uncapped for 7 days. You can see for yourself that the writing is just as good on the last day as on the first. We also did a few little projects to try out our new markers. I would highly recommend these to anyone with children. The higher cost, in my opinion, will greatly even out with all the packs of markers you'd buy because the tops were lost and they dried out!














We really loved these markers and are so excited to have gotten the opportunity to try them. They are available in a 24 pack or in the 12 pack like we were given.  The Pencil Grip has some amazing products and these items are some of their newest. I recommend you check out their sight and all the products they have.



** I was given a 12 pack of these markers free for my honest review.  



Sunday, December 10, 2017

Intensive Home Therapy

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted! So much has been going on that I've hardly been able to catch my breath :) One of the biggest things happening here right now is that we have started INTENSIVE home therapy with Issac. When they say intensive they mean it (LOL) He has a team of three people, two ladies and one man.  Someone is here Monday-Friday for TWO HOURS each day! Our life is already hectic and I struggle to do appointments, school, etc., but add in this for two hours a day and it's really been hard.  Issac prefers two of the people and really doesn't care for one of the ladies. It's basically because she called him out on his behavior one day and he hasn't liked her since.  Things are going as well as can be expected I think. It's hard having people in your house and watching what you say and do all the time. I feel like Issac really connects to Chaz, the one guy on the team.  He's been working with him on his feels, actions, behaviors, etc.  I think that's going to be huge for Issac because he often feels things that don't seem valid to the rest of us. He's talked to him at length about it's ok for him to have his feelings, but they might not get communicated appropriately to us.  The lead on the team started working with him on coping skills this week and told us to practice them daily. I think that will help him when he needs them because before we were trying to direct him to certain behaviors, but we were doing it in the heat of the moment. The hope is with practicing them when he's not upset that he'll recall it when he is upset.  The coping skill she's started him off with is what she calls 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  He's suppose to list 5 things he can see, 4 things he can hear, 3 things he can feel, 2 things he can smell and then 1 deep breath.  I'm hoping this technique can and will help when he's upset.  She also talked to him about when he's frustrated or confused what he can do. They made a card to remind him to ask someone to explain what they said, tell someone he's confused or ask them to please repeat themselves.  We've completed two full weeks and I was originally told the plan is for six months. It's so hard to imagine six months of this, but I feel like this is really what we need. It's very hard for people to imagine Issac in a rage when they see the sweet side of him.  I do have to say it's not been as bad as I expected (LOL) The people are nice and I really do feel comfortable with them in the home. Hopefully this is going to be the answer to prayers I've had for a while! :)

Review: Roar Like a Lion

Raising kids has always been a hard job, but with technology the way it is now I think most parents would say it's become harder.  We al...