our Annie

Some of you knew we were thinking about it, some of you knew we'd decided, and some had no idea we had any intention of doing it. But I doubt anyone is going to be too surprised that we have a new addition to announce! Meet Annie, our new pony mare. She showed up at 10:00 this morning, and by 10:15 seemed as settled as if she'd been here forever.

Her color is chestnut. According to her teeth, she's somewhere in her late teens, but not yet 20. Her breed and her history are a mystery, but somewhere along the line she was treated nicely enough that she's trusting and trustworthy herself. She's taken kids, sheep, dogs, cats, chickens, and Pig all in stride. She even peacefully looked on while I taught a couple of herding lessons this morning, head hanging over the fence between lessons as if to ask the sheep what the deal was with the whole thing.

Annie and Lacy greet each other. For the most part the interactions between the three ponies have been very amicable. An occasional squeal from Lacy or Butterscotch, but nobody looks too serious about it, more just a "hey, this is our place, so don't try anything crazy!" sort of thing.

Interesting coincidence, the woman I bought Annie from is the same woman that sold Lacy to the woman who gave her to me. Small world! Was fun chatting with her about Lacy's past. (Apparently she'd been a fairly well known hunter-jumper pony in the south prior to being sold as a broodmare. This woman bought her to breed to her Welsh Cob stallion, got a nice little colt out of her, then sold her to the woman who eventually gave her to me.)

Here's Zoo Boy aboard Annie when we went to look at her earlier in the week. The important thing about this was that Zoo Boy doesn't like riding horses. At least, not traditionally. He rode the pony we used to have (Ladybug) when he was a toddler, but has had no interest in riding Butterscotch, Nina (a pony we'd adopted for the kids to ride last spring, who wound up not getting along with our other two so we had to find a home for her), or any other horse/pony we've come across since. Yet, the first thing he said when he saw her was "Can I ride her?" Once he found out that yes, indeed, we were there so that they COULD ride her, he asked "Can I go first?" and then didn't accept just being led around inside the barn, he wanted to REALLY ride her. So, go figure. Certainly weighed heavily in my decision to buy her!

Hanging out with the gang. We'll keep a fence between them for the first day or two, just to be safe, but I can already tell that they are going to work out to be buddies. So now we're a 3 horse family. Which means we officially have a "herd". Which means I'll have that much less time for blogging....

what I'm thankful for this year

And no, I'm not talking about snow. Although we DID get our first snowfall yesterday morning. Only amounted to 1 1/2 inches, but given that they'd only predicted flurries, it was a surprise. Although not entirely unexpected given the time of year. So of course we had to run out to buy snow boots for the boys. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

No, what I'm thankful for has to do with this. This is J (on the left), in a cooking class at the children's museum. I'm going to take a minute to let that sink in for those of you that know all about our journey with J. For the rest of you, let me fill you in briefly by saying that of all the issues we've faced with J's Autism, the "food thing" has been the most persistent and troublesome. So although J has been loving all of the museum classes he's done, I've been avoiding the cooking classes like the plague. We've not mentioned the "A" word to anyone at the museum, so up to this point they've just assumed he's your typical adorable enthusiastic Kindergartner, and we've been a bit reluctant to put him in a situation where his lingering issues surrounding his sensory and regulatory challenges might come bursting to the surface. It's the one place we go where Autism hasn't figured into anyone's perception of J, and we'd really like to keep it that way.

But for some reason, I decided that now was the time to take this whole remediation concept for a spin and test out really how far we've come in the past 3 years. So I signed him up for the Thanksgiving Feast class -- a COOKING class -- and cheerfully left him in a classroom full of strong aromas and unfamiliar foods. But despite my outward bravado, my stomach was churning, and I kept sneaking peeks through the classroom window. And, lo and behold, I saw amazing things. Like, for instance, J joyfully scooping gook out of a large pumpkin!!

And J eating a pumpkin cookie that they made in class. Yes, our J made pumpkin cookies from scratch. With walnuts and cranberries. And then -- ATE THEM. (In this photo he's commenting to the teachers on how delicious the cookie is.) After class the teacher, totally unaware of any of this child's history, took me aside and told me how much he enjoyed cooking and that she wants me to sign him up for all of her future cooking classes too, because she believes this is something that he really enjoys.

Well, what do you know. Maybe he IS just your typical adorable enthusiastic Kindergartner after all! And if that's not something to be thankful for, I don't know what is.

A bit lower on the scale of miracles, but amazing enough and also worthy of thankfulness this season is how well our dear Lacy is doing right now. She's gained back all the weight and muscling that she'd lost when she was in the throws of problems from her DSLD, and seems to finally have stabilized on the experimental treatment. In fact, she looks as good as she ever has since I owned her. Here's hoping that continues for a good long time!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! May we all be thankful for the many blessings in our lives.

week #11 wrap-up

It was a REALLY busy week! Yet, keeping my eye focused on our supportive rhythms, we didn't fall into the chaos or dysregulation of week #9, but instead continued the smooth groove we established in week #10. Our fall semester is winding down, only one more week to go (although we'll take next week "off" to prepare for, and celebrate, Thanksgiving, and will wrap up with one more week the last week of November).

It was the last week for our Monday homeschooling classes in Chorus and Soccer, complete with a Choral Performance and soccer awards. J took a museum class on Harry Houdini and magic. I had a phone consultation/support session with the director of Enki Education to discuss where we're headed for our upcoming Winter Semester (I will probably blog about that conversation in the coming week). We attended an open gym session with other homeschoolers (there's a photo down below of this). I had my yearly physical (and other than being a little heftier than I should be, am in pretty reasonable health, which is always nice to hear). Our Friday Excursion took us to the ever-wonderful Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory. J tested for and earned his first instructor-awarded belt in Tae Kwon Do. And I attended a soap-making class and made my first-ever batch of REAL soap!

Here is a picture that J drew about our Curriculum Story this week. This week I modified a story based on the Native American spirit quest, written by Leigh Casler, entitled "The Boy Who Dreamed of an Acorn". (The picture book version of this story, illustrated by Shonto Begay, can be found here.) J depicts the beginning of the story, where 3 boys go on a spirit quest, and one dreams of a bear, one dreams of an eagle, and one dreams of an acorn. The general gist is that each dream brings it's own power to teach and guide each child. The kids loved the story almost as much as I do. When I modify a story to better suit my kids' needs, I add a repeating verse if one is not already included in the story, and make sure the story flows in a predictable pattern. In this case, I also gave the boys Native American names (they were not named, only referred to as the boy who dreamed of the bear, etc) so that my kids could relate better to their characters. (In case anyone is interested, I used the names Running Water, Bright Star, and Little Wind.)

Here's a photo of my kids during the Open Gym time I mentioned above. One of the other homeschooling moms in our local group arranged for us to use this church gym a couple afternoons a month throughout the winter. Only a few families came this first time, but I'm sure attendance will be picking up once the news gets around about what a great time we had! Nice clean gym, lots of balls and jump ropes, a basketball court, a stage area with tables for crafts or games, and kiddie-sized versions of air hockey, Foosball, and pool, as well as a bookshelf full of books, and a dollhouse with rather extensive accessories.

(To the left, a depiction of the water cycle, built out of pattern blocks by J. Entirely his own idea and pattern, we've got the rain falling on a tree, where it will be absorbed by the roots -- the white things below the ground -- and then the sun will evaporate the water and it will all start over again. Thanks, Professor J!)

For Family Story Time this week, we read The Acorn and the Oak Tree, by Lori C. Froeb, illustrated by Chi Chung; Nuts to You!, by Lois Ehlert; and The Deer in the Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Renee Graef. We also watched the pilot movie for Little House on the Prairie, which J quite enjoyed (the content was a little too mature for Zoo Boy), and he joyfully connected the characters in the movie with the My First Little House Books we've been reading throughout the year. Special Story Time on Friday evening in front of the fire was much anticipated all week by the boys. This week I read them an Enki Nature Story entitled Night Magic.

karate kid

This morning at Tae Kwon Do, J and another classmate tested for their white-with-yellow-stripe belt. Here both proud boys pose with their black-belt instructor, wearing their new belts.






For warm-ups, prior to the testing, they played a jumping and reflexes type game. J gets some good air under him while the "Connecticut Alligator" passes underneath him.



The boys demonstrate their knowledge of the Star Block sequence. They did it first along with their instructor, then on their own.



A flying front kick, after a roll-out. J got some good height here, too!









The instructor ties J's new belt onto him. This was followed by the ceremonial throwing of the old belt over his shoulder, signifying throwing away all the "bad" behaviors that were experienced while wearing that belt, in effect wiping the slate clean for this new belt. Not exactly how I would have worded it, but interesting symbolism none the less. The boys were pretty excited about the new belt with color, and no longer being White Belts.

butterfly hunters

Today we ventured up to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in South Deerfield, MA, with some of our homeschooling pals. This was not our first visit to this wonderful place, you can read about our last visit there in this blog entry and also in this one, and you can see lots of butterfly photos from that trip here and here and here. Oh, and some photos of some of the other critters that live there as well can be found here. Yup, we like it there! In this first picture, my boys and their friend B use their identification chart to hunt down various species so they can check them off on their list.

J shows me what the caterpillars in this tank are going to change into eventually -- Blue Morpho Butterflies, one of my favorites! The caterpillars are actually sort of hideous, which is surprising given how gorgeous their adult form is.


Zoo Boy was sure to point out all the reptilian inhabitants as well, here spotlighting the fact that Magic Wings STILL has Bearded Dragons, and WE still do NOT. Duly noted. He also managed to talk one of the employees into taking the Gila Monster out of it's cage so he could pet it. It was a lively fella, and all my photos of their interaction came out ridiculously blurry, so you're just going to have to take my word on it. Zoo Boy giggled at how feisty he was. I made a mental note NOT to consider, under any circumstances, allowing him to get a Gila Monster.

J and Zoo Boy check their identification chart to figure out the name of the butterfly they are looking at. They didn't accept "Charlie", which was my answer. (In fact, I got a quite mature roll-of-the-eyes response from at least one of them.) It was a really good day to be in a tropical location -- the weather on the other side of the glass wall was windy and bitterly cold, while we on the inside were cavorting around in short-sleeves.

J takes a quiet moment to enjoy the ambiance. I could spend all day in that place. In fact, we're talking about bringing our entire families (husbands, too, imagine that) up there for a weekend in mid-winter. Part of the idea is so that the menfolk can partake in the wonder and beauty of this place, too. The other part, of course, is that then we'd have someone else to chase after the kids, and us Moms can just sit and enjoy the butterflies, flowers, tropical atmosphere, and each other's company for a bit. Ahhh, sounds like heaven!

it's magic

J took a class about Houdini and magic tricks at the children's museum yesterday. He put on a little magic show for us when he got home. Here, he makes a quarter disappear. He told us that Houdini didn't use "Abracadabra", or any other magic words, so he insists on not using them, too.




The magic spoon-arising-from-behind-a-napkin illusion.









The mysterious growing magic wand.










Meanwhile, back at the museum, Zoo Boy spent the time J was in class riding the high seas of his imagination, deep sea fishing...








...and convincing museum employees to take out animals for him to pet, and talking them into taking him behind the scenes to see animals that are not out on public display. We're sort of becoming a fixture at that place, and Zoo boy is slowly weaseling his way into the inner workings, convincing volunteers to let him help clean cages and feed the animals, and garnering invitations into the office and behind the exhibits. Museum policy limits volunteers to age 14 or above, but he's working his hardest to get them to bend that rule. He reminds me a lot of someone...let's see, who was that...oh, yeah, ME!

awards and performances

Today was the last day of the local Homeschool Classes' fall semester. The parents who taught the classes truly outdid themselves. Here J shows off his soccer certificate of accomplishment, and a nice little trophy (that the moms running the program obviously footed the bill for themselves, as it was a no-charge class!). I was blown away, to say the least -- what an amazing, dedicated group of homeschooling parents!

The Homeschool Chorus poses for a portrait with their teacher (a wonderful professional music teacher hired by the homeschooling group to instruct our kids). J is 2nd from the right, in the red and blue shirt.

The chorus treated us to a performance of the songs they've worked on this semester. Parents and siblings and grandparents and friends filled the room as the kids performed on the stage, it was quite a crowd!





J and some of his buddies taking direction from their teacher during the performance. J was so excited to get to "show off" all of the songs he'd learned -- he's been practicing a lot the past few weeks, wandering off in the pasture by himself when we're out doing chores. I could hear his sweet voice riding on the breeze, and if I asked him later, he'd say "oh, I was just practicing my chorus singing".

The kids take bow at the end of their concert. Lots of smiles all around.

J's sad to see the semester end, but is excited about the 4 week "intersession" that is being held prior to the winter semester. He's registered for Chorus and African Drumming, and can't wait to be making music with his friends again.