We have made some changes in the last few months. The biggest of these is that I took on a weekend job. I am a server at Cracker Barrel 11-7 Saturdays and Sundays. It is what I needed to do for our family after the drought last year. Vic passed the state's test and became licensed to sell life and health insurance. He has more tests to go to be able to sell property and casualty insurance. Before his brain surgery five years ago something like this would not have been possible. This mowing season is shaping up a bit different than last years. First of all it has been a wet and cold spring. It has rained, rained, and rained some more. Farmers have not been able to get into their fields in this farming community so far this year. So Vic has been mowing a lot. Financial recovery will take a while for us, but it is so good to see better times on the horizon.
Caleb started piano lessons a couple of months ago and he really loves them. Those lessons have been so good for him. He also started Brain Integration Therapy and using Right Brain Phonics techniques to deal with his dyslexic symptoms. So far he seems to be feeling so much more hopeful which has made a big difference in his work. However, it takes approximately 3 months to see if it is actually working. Sometime this summer I hope to start him in some dance classes as well and to do a theater camp and a puppet workshop in addition to Cub Scout Camp and swimming lessons (last time he took swimming lessons after day 2 he fell and had to get stitches in his knee which ended the swimming lessons). It is neet to watch him grow in his talents and also to see his character develop as he faces his challenges.
Simeon will be a Tiger Cub in the Cub Scouts officially on June 1st and will be going to Cub Scout Camp as well. We are praying that this year (on our seventh attempt) that he will put the headphones on his head and actually take a hearing test. I have suspected hearing loss for a long time and tried to get his tested so we can address it. I am considering a really good high quality sign language class for our homeschool next year. We will see. Simeon will finally pedal so I am going to attempt to replace his inner tubes and tires on his bike this summer (I am not mechanically inclined so I have this turns out well) and he can learn to ride a bike. We will also explore some other sports for fun.
As far as our school right now we are making a detailed model of the DeSmet, South Dakota town as it is being settled during the time that the Ingalls family lived there as we work to finish the Little House series. The Ingalls lived in DeSmet during By The Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years. It is also where Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder met and married. What started out as a time of reading and eating pistachios turned into a major project that is going to take us a long time to finish, but the boys keep coming up with more and more ideas. We are also trying to take advantage of nice weather while we have it. So we are going on many Nature Walks and Treasure Walks. Soon we will take art supplies, go out in nature, stop somewhere and make a work of art out of what we are seeing.
I have two big challenges right now. The first is fitting into 4-5 days what I did in 7 before. I will figure it out and we will get a good routine going. The other big challenge is that we are trying to be patient while we wait to plant our garden, but it has been too wet and cold. I am hoping Friday may be that Vic can take the tiller to it and then we can get to work on the vegetable and herb gardens. Then make our flower beds look nice. It is all a work in progress, but slow and steady wins the race. I just thought I would update our family.
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