Monday Madness- Ode To The Toothbrush

Welcome to Monday Madness where I will talk about pretty much 

anything that comes to mind. 

From homeschooling to special needs to strange blog posts about silly objects to interviewing a family member...you never know what 

you might read on Monday Madness! Enjoy!

Have you ever thought about how the simplest things in your life can make the biggest difference?

That is how I feel about my toothbrush....

You never think about how much you appreciate something till you can't find it. Recently I went overnight with a friend and her foster son. I remember distinctly packing up my toothbrush and toothpaste when we left. Yet when I got home, it was no where to be found. We all looked and NOTHING....

You know....trying to brush your teeth with a towel is just not the same....blech....!

Thankfully my crisis only last till the next day when I was able to go buy a new toothbrush!

Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!

Heidi
Numbers 6:24-26

Fostering Friday: Staying In Touch With Families While Child Is In Your Care

Welcome to Fostering Fridays! 

Our hope is that you will be able to get a taste of what it's like to foster by reading 

our experiences and thoughts!

Keeping in touch with your foster child's family is so important...

Blast From The Crazy Past: To Move Or Not To Move...

Welcome to memories...my memories....welcome to a Blast from my Crazy Past!

To Move or Not To Move...

Wordless Wednesday- January 25

Tuesday Tidings: Stories And What I Love About Them

                                                                     
                                   Stories 

They are all around us. Reading is such a big part of our world. In fact, my family has an entire wall in our living room that is devoted to books. I love books. I love reading. I sleep, breath and dream books. (No, I do not eat books.)

       

My favorite kind of books are the action/romance/adrenaline-rush type. 

                                     

                                   

                                    

We, as humans in God's likeness, like to create. We create with our imagination, we create with our hands. God likes to create, so we like to create. My favorite thing to create is a story. Sometimes I can write a story in a matter of days, but sometimes they are more thought out, and require a month or two. But I just love to be able to create something that others can enjoy on a daily bases.  I wrote a story for my mom for Christmas. It started out as something that I was supposed to make as an essay for an exam. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I am a natural writer. How do I know? I know because it's something inside me. I know, because when my exam calls for a five paragraph essay, I give them a seven chapter book. That... Is how I know. I have always liked writing. Writing as a subject for school, writing stories, writing letter's to people, writing about a sermon I heard. I just love writing. But to be able to write a story, and bring characters to life, that takes talent. Anyone can write a story. We all have the ability to think up something and eventually put it down on paper, but it takes a special kind of talent to be able to keep your reader on their toes, to write a story so compelling that your reader just can't put the book down, because they just HAVE to find out what happens next. I don't know if I have that kind of talent, but I know that somewhere deep inside of me, the writer is just waiting for the perfect story to write about. And when that perfect story comes along, my personality will come alive with imagination. I have experienced this quite a few times, but someday, I hope to become an actual Author. To be able to write something that the whole world (Or just the U.S.A) will read about. But I think the best part, is when you write a short story for someone you love, and watch as they read it for the first time. It's like magic! I love being able to express my personality through my writing. Thank you all for reading this.

  -George-

Monday Madness: One Of Those Days

Welcome to Monday Madness where I will talk about pretty much anything that comes to mind. From homeschooling to special needs to strange blog posts 

about silly objects to interviewing a family member...

you never know what you might read on Monday Madness! Enjoy!

Ever have one of those days???

Fostering Friday: What Does He Call You?

Welcome to Fostering Fridays! 

Our hope is that you will be able to get a taste of what it's like to foster by reading our experiences and thoughts!

Ever wonder what foster kiddos call their foster parents? Or perhaps why they call their foster parents a certain name.

There can be many different reasons, in all honesty. 

We had a little boy for two years in our home. We had known him since he was tiny as he was in our daycare from the time he was a baby. His mama always referred to us as Aunt and Uncle. After several months in our home, I was driving him to school when he said, "Aunt Heidi? Can I call you 'Mom'? Cause 'Aunt Heidi' is a lot to say...?" He had been calling my hubby "dad" for months at that point, but he had never had a dad in his life and he latched onto Peter like a lifeline. 

Our little boy we have currently started out calling me "Mom", "Mommy", "Heidi" and "Mama". He heard people call me by all of these names and he knew he would get my attention if he called me by one of them. So I answered to whichever one he chose to use at the moment. He has now settled on "Mama Heidi" which I find absolutely adorable and his bio mom thinks is cute as well!

I know of teenagers who call their foster parents by their first name. Some who ask to call them mom and dad.

Sometimes it is the caregiver that asks the child to call them a certain name like "Mr and Mrs Jones", (sounds awkward and not at all like a family to me but it happens), or they tell the child that they can call them by their first name or "mom and dad" like the rest of the kiddos in the home.

So there are many different reasons why kiddos latch onto calling their caregivers certain names. The main one being that they follow the lead of the other children in the home.

Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!

Heidi

Blast From The Crazy Past- Letter to my Favorite Teacher

Welcome to memories...my memories....welcome to a Blast from my Crazy Past!

I remember it clearly....I was sitting on my front porch and someone had stopped by to talk to my mom. They mentioned that they knew who the new third grade teacher was going to be at our little school. It was a man. A man. At the ripe, old age of 8, I had only had female teachers. The first one was wonderful, the second one hated me. Now a man?

If I could ever run into Mr. Morgan, I would love to say the following to him:


Dear Mr. Morgan,

I doubt you remember me in particular. My name is Heidi. I know you would remember my class as a whole because you asked to teach our group for three years. So I was blessed to have you as a teacher for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades before starting my homeschooling journey in Middle School.

Mr. Morgan, you changed my life in so many ways, I am not even sure I would have time to express them all, but I will try.

When you came into my life in 3rd grade, I had just got through a horrible year with my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Wall. Do you remember her? She seemed to favor the straight A students and I sure wasn't one of them. I struggled for every B I got and never felt good enough. Then there was the time I had to go to the bathroom so bad and she refused to let me go and I peed my pants all over my chair. I remember laying my head on my desk and sobbing because  my clothes and seat were soaked.

When you came along, I had just about had enough of this thing called "school". 

But you came in with your energy, great smile and with a voice full of encouragement and reassurance, you gave me a desire again to try.

I already loved reading by third grade but you gave me a desire to try out different genres of books. You opened my eyes to so many different authors by reading aloud to us every day. I don't even know if teachers have time or desire to do that any more! But every day you would read a chapter or two of a book after lunch. Your voice so animated and thrilling, it was better than an movie I had ever watched. Your voice stirred our imaginations and taught us to explore! The author I still love to this day is Rould Dahl. To this day, two of my favorite books are The BFG and Danny, The Champion of the World. Did you know they made The BFG into a movie last year! I like the idea of you going and seeing it, because I know Roald Dahl was one of your favorite authors.

You made learning fun! You made me want to learn and taught me how to teach as well. Because of you, I got a desire to teach my own children and have spent a fantastic 14 years teaching my children at home.

There are so many other things you did that changed me as a person as well as my outlook on life. I would love to think that there are other "Mr. Morgans" out there teaching children to love life and books. 

You know, I spotted you one day a few months ago....I was waiting in line in my truck to drop off things at Goodwill. I watched this man give things to the worker and as he turned, I realized it was you! I wasn't able to say hi....I had no words. How do you casually say hi to someone who changed your life??

Someday I hope to meet you again....if I do, I hope I have the words to say thank you. Thank you for changing my life. Thank you for being such an amazing teacher. Thank you for being you.

Your student,
Heidi

Wordless Wednesday- January 18

Tuesday Tidings: Snow Days By Sis

On Tuesdays you will find guest blogs by my daughters and many other people. 

This post is by my daughter, Sis.

Enjoy!!

(2015)

I'm so glad we got snow this year! (Technically 2016)

I was afraid it wouldn't snow just like year 2014. Tsk tsk, sad year....

Thankfully, we got snow this year just like year 2015, all the pictures 

I'm going to show you are from 2015.

Here goes!

                                                                           (George)

                                                                              (Me)

(Our Christmas Tree in 2015)

Thank You For Reading My Blog Post!

Monday Madness: Special Needs and Visual Flow Schedules

Welcome to Monday Madness where I will talk about pretty much anything that comes to mind. From homeschooling to special needs to strange blog posts about 

silly objects to interviewing a family member...

you never know what you might read on 

Monday Madness!

 Enjoy!

This post is about having special needs kiddos and how a visual flow schedule can be a benefit. I will talk about how we made these for both our son and our foster son:

Recently we received a diagnosis about our son that was not completely unexpected. However, there were some aspects that surprised us and also gave us some ideas about the kinds of help we will possible need for his future.

One thing that was mentioned is that he probably needed more visual aids as he seems to learn the best visually. Well, I have tried different kinds of visual aids for years, but it seemed to be a hit and miss help for him. After studying what we have tried doing in the past and what I was doing currently, I figured out where I needed to improve:

1. I realized that I had made the visual schedules too confusing for him to follow. I didn't mean to, but it happened.
2. I was including things in his schedule that he really didn't need help with. He has reached an age where he doesn't need each part of his day broke down. He simply needs visual reminders to help him remember when to do hygiene and what his chores are.
3. He needed pictures of himself doing these activities. 

After doing some research, I came up with a simple visual schedule that hopefully will help in the areas he needs help. And TA-DA! The past few weeks have been so much better. I'm still working on little tweaks. And I will talk about those in a minute, but first what I am doing:

I have this nifty little camera put out by Fujifilm called a Instax Mini7:

It's a great little camera that takes those pics you used to get with Polaroids but perhaps a little nicer quality!

Anyway, I took this camera and followed Tony around one day taking pictures of the things he needs reminders of. Starting with getting dressed in the morning to chores to hygiene etc...

Then I put the pictures on this wall pocket chart like this:

The neat thing I am finding about this system is that first of all, I don't have to make a new chart every time our schedule changes. (Which happened a lot in the past!) Secondly, if I need to add/take away a chore or reminder, I don't have to make a new chart. I simply take a new picture and pop it in the flow chart. Or I take away a picture. For instance, when there isn't school for the day, I simply remove that picture for the day.

Here is a pic of what his flow chart looks like currently:

So how does this work? Quite simple: every day, T-Boss goes to his chart, looks at what he needs to do. After he finishes the task, he flips the card over. This tells me that I can go check that activity to make sure it was done.

All in all, it's been a perfect fit for him!

Enter our foster son....at four years old, he has some special needs that require a lot of reminders. He also needs help in predicting how his day will go so he knows what to expect.

I can't show you his chart for obvious reasons but when I got started I thought hard about how I was going to do it because his days vary so differently from one day to the next. And unlike T-Boss, he NEEDS to know how every part of the day is going. Some days there are visits, therapy appointments, skills trainers, school etc....then there is the down time at home. He can't do it. He doesn't stop for a minute and has the attention span of a gnat. So how was I going to do this??

Well, using the same concept of the pictures and wall pocket that I am doing with T-Boss, I started building a pile of pictures that represent his life. I took pictures of his day, his activities, and the different people in his life that meet his needs such as teachers, therapists, family members, DHS workers etc... It took about a week and at the time of writing this I am still needing to take a couple pictures to add in. 

Using the wall pocket chart, I put in the pictures that never change such as get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, take a nap...etc... in another pocket I keep the pictures that are ever changing such as whether there is school that day, a visit with mommy or a therapist appointment. Then in the morning, I set up his day with the pictures so that they are ready to go when he gets up.

What an amazing difference this has made for this little guy! 

It has helped keep him on task, it has helped with anxiety regarding his day and even helped with his OCD as he sees he has a time to do the different things he is slightly obsessed with! 

Hopefully this wasn't too confusing and I hope that it helps you if you are needing to create a visual schedule for one of your kiddos! If you would like help creating one, I would love to help out as I realized this is something I really enjoy doing!

Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!

Heidi

Numbers 6:24-26

Fostering Fridays: Supporting Families That Foster- Consistency

Welcome to Fostering Fridays! 

Our hope is that you will be able to get a taste of what it's like to foster by reading our experiences and thoughts!

Today we are talking about how to support families that foster and how to help with consistency:

Blast From The Crazy Past: Letters To Mommy

Welcome to memories...my memories....welcome to a Blast from my Crazy Past!

Many years ago, I had a little girl who was desperately missing her Nana....

Not So Wordless Wednesday: January 11

In memory of my Grandma Kelly, known as Gigi to my kiddos....her birthday was yesterday....

Tuesday Tidings: Half A Day Thru The Eyes Of A Seventeen Year Old Girl

On Tuesdays you will find guest blogs by my daughters and many other people. Enjoy this post by my oldest daughter, Mac.

Monday Madness- It's His Birthday....

Welcome to Monday Madness where I will talk about pretty much anything that comes to mind. From homeschooling to special needs to strange blog posts about silly objects to interviewing a family member...

You never know what you might read on Monday Madness! 

Enjoy!

The man I love, the one I am so grateful for, is celebrating his birthday today....if you want to read something mooshy and oozing with love, you can read what I wrote about Peter in this post from October.

I am so thankful for this man....he is an amazing father and husband. He deserves so much more than he gets most of the time. There are times when he struggles like anyone else. But the Lord knew what He was doing when He made Peter the head of our home and father of our children.

I hope you enjoy these Pictures and please, wish Peter a Happy birthday!

Not Your Normal Sunday...

Let's just face it, it's not only your normal Sunday around here....but it makes sense...2017 has started out really bizarre!

Fostering Friday- I Will Statements...

Welcome to Fostering Friday! First of all, I am not a therapist or a professional in any field and cannot guarantee that you will get the same results we have regarding the following...I am a simple bio and foster parent sharing the things that have helped us on this journey!

"I Will" statements have an amazing power behind them. There is no room for negotiation.

When you say, "Stop whining, it's annoying." You can guarantee you will continue hearing the whining and you have just told them that you are willing to engage in the behavior AND you have given them a response the the negative behavior. When you say, "I will talk to you when you are done whining." (and then ignore them) you have sent a clear message that you are not going to engage in the behavior.

Let's look at some examples of statements that are usually ineffective:

• I'm not going to take you to the park unless you get your chores done.
• You need to say please or I won't help you.
• Cuss at me one more time and you go in time out.
• You need to take the garbage out or I can't help you.
• You can't come to the store without your shoes and socks, get them on.

"I Will" statements take negotiation out of things. They clearly state what you expect and they also let the child know what you are going to do. This could be things like:

• I will take you to the park after you do your chores. See how it clearly states what you expect and what they can expect from you?
• I will help you with your shoes when you say please.
• I will give you thinking time if you cuss at me.
• I will help you with your homework if you please take the garbage out.
• I will let you go to the store with me if you get your shoes and coat on.
• I will call your caseworker if you run away. (Really....I will. The fact that I had to say that to one child is crazy. But he hated it if we called his caseworker about anything.)

I will statements also help so that things are not constantly sounding negative like: Don't swear, no hitting, no biting, don't forget your chores, don't forget to feed your pet.

With one placement we had that was school age and reading, it helped to have a "I Will" poster on display in our home. It addressed things he had a problem with so that there was no fighting over things that were clearly stated. 

A present example is that we have a 3 year old with us right now who is, as we speak, supposed to be playing in his room for a few minutes. What he would love to do is to spend the whole time trying to talk and reason with me to get out of it. "Heidi! Heidi! Mom! Mom! Heidi! Mom!" I told him, "I will talk to you when you stay in your room." When he came out to test me, I walked him back to his room without speaking to him. When his time is up, I won't lecture him about how he should have stayed in his room. Instead, I will walk in (timing it so that he is not trying to talk to me!) and tell him, "Thank you for staying in your room like I asked you. What would you like to talk to me about?" Slowly but surely, he will realize that I am different. That I mean what I say and I will follow through. We have only had him about a month and it is making a huge difference just as it has with many other kiddos.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comment section below!

Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!

Heidi

Blast From The Crazy Past- Praise The Lord!

After the holidays, it seems like money is always tight. Know what I mean? No matter how well you budget, things just seem to happen and you wonder how to make ends meet. Enjoy this blog post about answered prayers around the holidays 9 years ago....

Wordless Wednesday- January 4

Tuesday Tidings: Puppy in a Bunny Cage

On Tuesdays you will find guest blogs by my daughters and many other people. Enjoy!!

Monday Madness: It's A New Year!

Welcome to Monday Madness where I will talk about pretty much anything that comes to mind. From homeschooling to strange blog posts about silly objects to interviewing a family member...you never know what you might read on Monday Madness! Enjoy!

Welcome 2017!

I wonder what this year will hold? I am not a resolution person....at. all.

That being said, I can tell you what you can anticipate seeing on my blog this coming year:

Mondays: Monday Madness
Tuesdays: Tuesday Tidings
Wednesdays: Wordless Wednesday
Thursdays: Throwback Thursday AKA Blast From The Crazy Past
Fridays: Fostering Friday
Saturdays: (occasionally) Surprise Saturday

Each one of these days will have different types of posts that have to do with different areas of our life. Much the same as what you have already been reading the past couple months, just a little more organized....mainly for my sake!

• Monday can be anything, you never know what I might throw out. 
• Tuesdays will be days that I will have guest bloggers. Some weeks it will be my kiddos, as they want to try their hand at blogging. Other times I will throw out a different guest blogger. (I'm hoping to get my hubby on here as well!)
• Wednesdays will be...well...wordless. As we all know, a picture paints a thousand words! 
• Thursday will feature either old blog posts or I will post some old pictures and the story that goes with them. 
• Friday is all about fostering. Whether it's about current challenges we are facing, past challenges, how fostering works in our situation...etc...

So, now that you have an idea on what this coming year holds, I hope you take the time to click quickly on the left side of this blog and either sign up to get my blog coming to your inbox or choose to follow me!

Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!

Heidi