In no particular order because half of it was lost when I took a call mid-publishing this afternoon. So here is the un edited (haha like I ever edit any more) in fluffy version. I'm calling it part 1, because I was in the high 20's on my bullet point catch all for April and May when it died. Wah! I'll catch up later. Or not. I started and stopped and added to this lost so many times that there's no system or order to them any more.
1) an early Mother's Day gift of flowers. This honeysuckle grows wildly all over the empty lots and woods of Bella Vista. It is fragrant and just heavenly. The view from my front porch is green and so lovely it stops me in my tracks to breathe and take it all in.
2) Soccer Meltdowns
Final score = 6-0, meaning I took all 6 children to watch Corbin play soccer one night while Aaron had ward conference visits. So many of the kids were crying at the same time that a total stranger came up to me and apologized.
Whatever. It's who we are. That night, who we are included some simultaneous tantrums on the grass during a brother's soccer game and also a tired mom with kids who had been sleeping in shifts for two weeks. We were exactly where we were supposed to be.
Maybe we only get to spend 2 minutes catching up once the kids are settled before one of us crashes, but we are good. I am running on empty but we're good. I know Aaron sees it and gets it because these were on my kitchen table when I got home tonight.
We were a train wreck on the soccer field that night. Seeing these beauties reassures me what I already know: together, we've got this.
The flowers made me cry. Aaron knows me so well.
As I tenderly gathered the chicks for the bedtime routine, anyone who hadn't been crying before fell apart, and the weeping and wailing could probably be heard from the street. And that was when our sweet bishop and stk presidency counselor stopped by. Corbin greeted them at the door with "come inside, my mom is crying."
Oh well that's great! They looked at the tear streaked faces of the children and probably assumed the worst! Haha! Bishop saw the flowers and asked if someone had died. LOL. They joined us for scripture time and were on their way, but kids and I will probably never forget the funny timing of their visit and the reminder that when their dad isn't home serving his own family, he is out doing great work.
3) Tween Service
One of our sweet Primrose neighbors, Marsha, has been on hospice for a couple weeks. She has suffered with MS for years and even during her years restrained to a wheelchair, she always waits in the entry way on Halloween to pass out treats to the kids.
Last week she became non responsive so we took flowers to Tom to brighten the house while Marsha listened to her Elvis in Hawaii record album.
On Saturday, Reese and Corbin made several plates of cookies and delivered them to Tom and some of the other retired people on our street. The plate empty came back last night with a note signed Tom and Marsha. It must be a difficult thing to sign Tom and Marsha believing it is a finite signature with a limited number of uses before it becomes just "Tom".
I'm thankful for the forever families, and I hope to remember the next time I sign something "from Aaron and Meg" to have gratitude that I get to be a Willardson forever. I love these young people I am bound to. They were simply adorable scootering up and down the lane dropping off their cookies. Reese made a plate of them to share with her beehive class, but later remembered it was a fast Sunday, so she left them at home and they became FHE treats on Monday.
4) PACE evaluation
It was almost exactly 4 years since the last time were at UAMS. Thatbwas such a joyful day as we found out all 3 of Soren's heart defects had resolved/healed. This time, we went to UAMS for Baby W's pace evaluation. The results of the eval were a bit discouraging at first, but I felt very hopeful after meeting with a specialist and I left with a few referrals for more specialists and hospital/lab work and a plan to get baby finally started in a few kinds of therapy. The timing for adding more regular appointments to our schedule really could not be more ideal: yay summer!
5) 504
I've been working for months with a team of teachers and disability specialists at the middle school to get Reese tested for dyslexia. We finally got results back and basically were told what I have known for years. My dad is dyslexic, my sister is dyslexic, and similar learning disabilities are also prevalent on Aaron's side of the family. I recognize all of the signs and red flags. I have had requests for assessments and testing laughed off or denied for 3 years and was assured that Reese has no dyslexic tendencies because she is "so good" and "is gifted in other areas". I don't want to make these teachers sound bad--they were wonderful individuals and good educators. But the timing was unfortunate to have 3 years in a row where her homeroom or literacy teacher moved mid year or/and went on an extended maternity leave. It was difficult to explain my concerns to new faces and Reese works so hard and has a personality that allowed her to fly under the radar, undiagnosed. This year, however, a few spiritual experiences guided me to press for assessments and my requests were granted, and assessments led to more testing with a dyslexia specialist. I owe this blessing to the change in middle schools. Reese needed to be with this right team of teachers and administrators, this year, and they have served her well.
When I talked to Reese about dyslexia I explained it like a language. If we moved to France tomorrow and immersed her in public school, how might the rest of the school year go? Pretty rough! Is this because she is stupid? Of course not! How absurd! She is just being taught in French and she speaks English. The handful of French words that she would pick up, paired with the similarities in assignments that speak a universal language might help her to scrape by, but if she wanted to stay on pace with her native French speaking peers, she would need to take a LOT of work home, translate it to English, do the assignment, translate it back to French, and turn it in. That is doable, and Reese is and has been willing, but it is time consuming.
Looking her test results, I am tempted by vindication and feel a little like shouting "what have I been telling you?!" But I know this does no good. I wish I had fought back and pressed harder and sooner, for her sake, but I also recognize this as Satan's trap to mentally distort my mothering and my relationship with the Holy Ghost. I have to trust my memory and I believe that I didn't ignore any promptings to push or pursue this harder or any faster than I did over the past few years.
We imagined that dyslexic tendencies are like a native language in her brain. She is lucky to speak the language she is being taught in, But it's not her first language, so her brain is working double time translating on tasks like coping information from power point slide to her notes. Sketch notes, however, work wonderfully, because sketch notes also know a little bit of the dyslexic language, so they understand each other well. A few academic accommodations, like audio testing, would serve Reese's neurological bilingualism very well.
On Friday, I met with the assistant principal, next year's assistant principal, Reese's literacy, math, social studies, and science teachers, and the dyslexia specialist to discuss her qualifications for a 504. It was a super formal meeting and I am overwhelmed by the support and commitment to Reese's educational success. She has been attending a phonics first class twice a week (and will continue through the summer, to her chagrin) with an awesome teacher and I just feel so much hope for her future...not that I ever lost hope-Reese is brilliant and bright and hardworking and so educated. Watching her work twice as hard to do some assignments has been an inspiring experience for our whole family. This girl has gusto and drive and she knows her great worth as well as the source of her strength. I'm just really happy for her that a few simple changes will be made to help her really fly. And oooh girl, is she gonna fly!
6) Mass
Our loveley neighbor friend took her First Communion at St Bernard's Catholic Parrish, Sunday. Our family attended mass to support beautiful Finley and it was a special cultural experience and day of lovely friendship for all of us.
I made Finley a necklace and wrote a note explaining the symbolic reminders about her special day. I saw how my older children were able to draw connections between Finley's beliefs and ours, while recommitting their own participation in our sacrament meeting. It was a rich teaching moment and we just loved celebrating and supporting Finley and sharing this beautiful day with her.
7) Amateur stylist in the house!
Reese and Quincy both really love acts of service and physical touch. I'm trying to "do less" and boot unnecessary "things" from our schedule, I really am, and hair seems like that might be something that should go, and for years, it has. But I've found that taking the time twice a week or so, to style fun hair for the girls before school or church opens a wonderful opportunity for us to talk and bond.
We all love this "big girl" time together and I know they appreciate my efforts to up my braiding skills from Pinterest-fail-pathetic to mediocre and sometimes even "wow this actually looks really good, mom. Thanks! Now spray quick it before it falls out." And sometimes I just curl or flat iron it (I've actually got the hang of those skills!)
8) Out of the Mouth of Corbin
The children somehow got in a full blown wrestle mania kicking and punch throwing fight in the back of the van on the way home from church today. (PS Nissan you lied. More space does not guarantee less fighting. Real mothers know that one child simply only needs to look out another child's window, or steal someone's "spot" to cause an argument. But I digress.) I pulled over at the edge of the parking lot (as we hadn't even made it to the main road yet) and waited for a few children to move and rebuckle. I began a stellar dictatorly mom lecture about keeping peace and turning thenother cheek and keeping hands to yourself and was interrupted with pleas of innocence and accusations for the one to blame. I looked back at them through the rear view mirror like an actual bus driver and pointed at their reflections in the glass and began with "do you know what you need to do? I am going to wait here but you guys need to get it together and you need ---"
And then I was cut off by Corbin, who jumped right in with a pretty legit Donald Trump accent and hand gestures and said, "you need to build. a. wallllll."
This kid.
It caught us all SO off guard that we just lost it. Donald Trump? What in the world? My evil rotten dictator lecture was trumped. Literally! haha. I gave up. We laughed the rest of the drive home. Thanks Corbin.
9) Play School
Soren had his last formal "play school" class last week. A few ladies in my ward had a rotating preschool/playgroup coop this school year that they kept small and close in proximity to one another. About 6 weeks ago, I reached out in desperation to find something socially enriching for Soren, since I was too tired/our schedule is too full with other appointments to take him to story time right now, and Soren needs something engaging than my current offerings. The awesome girls in my ward talked it over and decided to let Soren join in these last 6 weeks. He has absolutely loved it and it cured some of the mom guilt I can't quiet lately. I'm so thankful for the supportive mom friends for this gift!
When it was our turn to host, we were given a cinco de mayo theme. I have a classroom full of preschool supplies but nothing for cinco de mayo, so it was fun to put on my thinking cap and come up with some activities to meet the assignment. We listened to mariachi music, ate nachos and salsa, and made beaded Mexican tissue paper flowers. We also had the letter Y, so we did books about eating because, YUM starts with y! It's a stretch, I know, but the kids loved shopping for food in the dramatic play center and a bunch of hungry caterpillar activities. "Yum yum yum!"
10) Reading Lessons with Soren
He is delightful and loves doing lessons from his "practicing book" together during Sloanie's naptime
11) Cub Family Campout
Why a campout always on Mother's Day weekend? It's some universal code, I think. My house is still littered with camping gear.
So much clean up is waiting for me. I tried to opt out of this one, since Corbin technically isn't a Cub Scout until next week, but I was overruled. And I'm glad I was. The big kids went with Aaron and love love loved it. Aaron is still catching up on his one terrible sleepless night camping and was really really tired on Mother's Day. I keep teasing him that the way he feels is the last 6months for me. Haha! I do relate to exhaustion, though so I feel about 10% bad for him ;) Reese caught a fish and the Shaw's cooked it up. These are the only pics I've got from their adventure but they came home at 9am Saturday morning VERY excited to go again sometime. Reese's fish was good! Corbin pulled a tick off of himself last night while sitting on Soren's bed, and claims it crawled away. I didn't believe it at first, but there's a huge bite on his groin and The terror on Soren's face made bedtime pretty interesting.
12) Oh yeah, this is me. I've been slammed with the flu or mono or something purely evil.
Did I mention Aaron is gone until Thursday? At 3 am Monday morning he woke me up to take some Tylenol because I was shivering in bed. He left a couple hours later and will be home later this week. My glands are so big it's like I have a 2nd neck today. They hurt and my armpits hurt. Fatigue is a strange thing. I had a CBC a few years ago with no telling results other than anemia. Something is off. We don't have a real name or a reason for it so when I swell up, we just call it a "flare up" at our house. I randomly burn a low grade fever a couple days, I'll get a headache and my joints and glands will swell and ache and then I will randomly wake up feeling a lot better and all the swelling settles back down in a few days.
We THOUGHT that was just what this was, a flare. Not so. This time, it's gotta be the flu.
I had an appointment at Reese's school for some Barton training and a camp wild planning meeting, a combined YW activity at mutual, but I had to bail on all three. I survived taking Wren to his 6 month checkup, which I would have rescheduled, but we need to get him into therapy asap and the ped referral was the last step. Plus, all of the updated TR-1 forms for Medicaid and transporting a foster child are due in Fayetteville this week and I needed to have the dates confirmed. Oh yah, I spent 2 hours on monday filling out papers. good thing, because by today I couldn't have done it. I
Aaron face timed the kids last night and they loved it. He is the best dad. I love him so much. But I told him to watch out because I'm tempted to find a sitter to hire and when he gets back to his hotel room late one night, there might be an exhausted wife asleep in his fancy hotel bed. I say "fancy" because it has fresh sheets that I didn't have to launder and there is no one crying in the room. He says he is very tired. I'm 10% sad for him. no....more like 5%. hahaha!
13) School is out in t-minus 9 days and not a moment too soon! Summer, we are ready for you! I haven't planned a dang thing. It's going to be wonderful!
Especially after April's madness. Any blank spot on there can just be filled in with "laundry" or "homework supervisor". May looks no different. In fact, it's worse. I just sent my last big kid to bed and it is 10:30. I've been reading sections of Dante's Inferno to Reese (her 504 will ensure her access an audio version of this! cue applause!) while she answers the questions since 7pm. In her description of what her "imaginary" circle of Hell would look like, I rolled my eyes and thought, "Eternal Homework would be a great circle..." She did a take home test on the renaissance from 4-6:30. We all need summer break so badly. All I need now is Gob Bluth to throw some pennies at us! And for this horrible virus to leave me alone.
Give me summmeerrrrrrrr.
I'm getting greenbeans and strawbeeeies and squash galore! The peas are almost done, which I'm sad about because they're one of my favorite snacks. I wish o had more garden space. I need to get butternuts and spaghetti squash in the ground. My friend Saeng gave me some long bean seeds from her garden. She brought them over from Taiwan and saved the seeds every year for next year's crop. They're a 12 inch long pole bean and they are super heat tolerant. My green bean harvest is almost done and normally I would rip out the vines and plant melons or pumpkins but I think I'm going to put up an arch for the beans or cucumbers to work their way up. I don't spend nearly as much time as I used to in my garden because Sloane hates it out there and just screams, and my outdoor working time limited a bit to baby W's nap time. I love it out there, though, and I think Sloane will come around soon when she realizes she can eat all the yummy things she pics. 
