A Great First Week

It's been a great start to the week.  My goal of getting more face to face with people is going well, so far.  I know things like this always do great the first week and then dwindle down.  I expect it to some, but hopefully not too much.

Monday, I have coffee (hot chocolate for me) with a great friend.  We met several years ago because our sons play baseball together.  We've never really gotten together outside of attending a baseball game, so this was nice.  She has 4 kids, most older than mine, and she has such a different mind than me (she is an artist) so I love picking her brain and hearing how she works with her family.  We are different but also the same in a lot of ways. Time flew by and before I knew it, I had to go to get Elijah to his first OT appointment....

Yes, more OT for Elijah.  He went through 6 months of OT at age 5, before he started Kindergarten.  I thought we were done.  But his 2nd grade teacher started requesting meetings concerning his writing ability.  He has difficulty getting his thoughts down on paper.  We also learned, after this most recent OT evaluation, that he is writing correctly.  Suffice it to say that he isn't holding his pencil correctly or using the right finger/hand motions when writing.  I figure that it hurts his hand and that could be part of why he doesn't like the actual act of writing.  So I figure so OT to help him with that is definitely worth it.  Turns out that he is below average on most of his fine motor skills.  At the age of 8, he is the equivalent of a 5 or 6 year old.  May not seem like a big deal, delayed in fine motor skills, but you'd be surprised.  You don't think about them when you have them, but when you don't, it's obvious.  There are lots of things he can't do: open a Coke can, open yogurt, roll up his sleeping bag, snap his pants.  (He keeps them snapped and zipped and just pulls them up that way.  Luckily he is skinny enough to do that still right now.  There will come a time when he will actually have to undo his pants to get them on, I guess.)

So, anyway, we've been doing some home exercises to try and strengthen his hands: picking up coins one by one, holding them in his palm, then manipulating them up to between his thumb and index finger and dropping them in a slot.  Flipping a coin and catching it, writing sentences making sure size of letters and spacing is appropriate, and manipulating his pencil with only 3 fingers.  It's a challenge to him, even though it may seem simple.  Hopefully it will help.

Tuesday, I had lunch with a dear friend that I have worked with at Perimeter for many years.  She is such a sweet soul and a calm voice of reason when everything else is crazy.  She also has 3 kids and homeschools them.  I picked her brain when decided what to do with Elijah.  We are always talking about couponing, budgets, etc.  We are very similar.  I took the boys to this meeting.  They wouldn't have been very happy if I had gone to CFA without them.  It was a treat for all of us.

Also, I'M FINALLY GETTING MY MASTER BATHROOM REDONE!  We've lived in this house 6 years (longer than ANYWHERE since we've been married!).  The bathroom is nice and big, but it's got pink tile and is falling apart in many places.  After a long wait, we found a good deal on a remodel and it will be done by Labor Day!  Right now Steven and I are spending our time looking at tile patterns, vanities, fixtures, etc trying to decide exactly what we want.  I can't wait!  I'll take before and after pictures to show you just how bad it is.

Today, the kids and I went to a $1 movie up at the Mall of Georgia.  It was Kung Fu Panda 2.  We've already seen it, but they like going to the theater.  It gets them out and we enjoy the movies.  Today we even got popcorn and Coke.

Amazingly enough, they went right to work after we got home.  Zach started typing his journal for his LA class and then did his typing lesson.  Elijah and I did his hand exercises and he immediately went to his typing lesson.  JJ read some and then did a math sheet I had printed for him.  I think they realize that school is getting closer and closer and they want to be ready.  Good!  I want them to be too!