Hi everyone,
Happy Birthday to everyone who had birthdays, especially to brand-new baby Jane! What a great 2 weeks these last two have been for birthdays! And a few more to go before this birthday season is over.
Thoughts from the week:
1. Our new practicing-done-by-11:00 is going pretty well. 3 out of the 4 days were a success. I still need to work on helping some of my boys stay focused on schoolwork while I'm occupied with practicing. I will find one boy in particular (Brigham) sitting in the playroom building something with blocks, and I'll ask him what he's doing. "I'm waiting for you to do (math/science/writing/spelling) with me!" Meanwhile there were about 5 other things he could have been working on by himself! This is very frustrating, because by the end of the school day, he's usually the one who hasn't finished everything. Then there are tears and, "I could have already been done if only____" (insert whatever excuse you like, as long as it isn't the fact that he thought it a better use of his time to play with blocks than to get his schoolwork done). Not that I mind if he takes breaks and plays during the day-- I only mind when it's somehow someone else's fault that he didn't get his schoolwork done!
2. I'm still torn about Joseph's flute teacher. I think Joseph is doing well on flute, although it's hard for me to tell not having any basis for comparison. But Joseph is not excited to go to his lessons. I've tried to tease out what his issues are. Joseph thinks the lessons are too long. He wishes his teacher wouldn't make him practice, but would just give him his assignments. He still has some problems understanding everything because of his accent. But, after his lessons, especially if it was a good one, Joseph is happy. I ask him if he still wants to change teachers and he'll say, "I don't know, maybe not." So, writing this out, it seems like we should try a new teacher. If this one is not inspiring Joseph, then he needs a new teacher! However, Joseph often will be reluctant about things before he goes (Tae Kwon Do was a good example of this), but while he's there and afterwards, he has a good time and is glad he went. There was nothing wrong with TKD, just his attitude about it. So, will it be exactly the same with a new teacher? Secondly, I feel really guilty dropping his current teacher. He's a brand-new PhD graduate, trying to start up his teaching studio. I know he doesn't have many students-- maybe only 2 or 3. If Joseph drops out, that's a pretty big blow. Also, I know Francois really likes Joseph, thinks he his doing well, and is excited to keep teaching him. I have no idea what I would even say to him if I were to switch teachers. I hate confrontation, and I really hate disappointing people. Advice??
3. Mosey started speech again this week. He's not that excited about it. Is it worth keeping him in? It's a long drive down to UT, and especially complicated because now that we have scouts on Tuesday afternoons, the only time we could squeeze him in was right during Joseph's flute lesson on Mondays. So we drive down to UT, drop Mosey off, rush over to Joseph's flute teacher (about 10 minutes away), I drive back to speech to pick up Mosey when he's done with his session, rush back to flute to get Joseph. It's a lot of rushing around. But I do think that he is learning some valuable skills there. Advice??
4. Joseph is really good at archery! We went again on Saturday morning, but missed the beginners session because it filled up before we got there. The class starts at 8:00, we were there at 7:45, but the class was full by 7:30! I was dismayed because Joseph had been talking about archery ALL week, and was up really early getting ready to go. But the teacher told him he could go to the intermediate class if there was room. So we went and got breakfast at McDonalds, and then waited for the intermediate session at 9:00. Joseph held his own and did amazingly well. Toward the end of class, the teacher has the kids pin small balloons (water balloon size) to the targets. Last week, Joseph didn't hit any of his balloons, but I think only 1 or maybe 2 kids did. This week, he hit 2 balloons, on his 1st and 2nd try. How fun for him to hit on something he happens to be really good at!
5. I posted this on my blog, but I'll write it here, too. Brigham has perfect pitch! On Tuesday morning I was practicing the piano with Mosey, and Brigham called out from the living room, "Play a note and let me guess what it is!" So we did, and he guessed it right! I thought he was showing some sort of trick-- how he could see the piano from the mirror in the living room, or something, but he wasn't. We tested him on note after note, and he got every single one right! I've known a couple of people who could do that, but it still seems almost magical to me. I ask him how he does it, and the only thing he can say is that the notes just "sound" like what they are. I read a bit about perfect pitch (absolute pitch, technically) on Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge :-)), and it said that for people who have this ability, the sound of notes is as identifiable to them as colors are to the rest of us. Just as blue just looks like blue to us (how else would you describe it?), a G# just sounds like a G# to them! It's a neat trick, anyway. I told him he's in good company with Mozart and Beethoven, who both also apparently had perfect pitch. :-)
6. I am starting a new diet. I've been eating a vegan diet for 7 months, and can't say I've felt or noticed any change in my health. I'm not sure I should after only 7 months, but there it is. But over the past 2 weeks, two different people have asked me about a new diet developed by Dr. Terry Wahls who also has MS. She had a similarly steep progression like I did, and was wheelchair bound within 3 years of her diagnosis. In fact, she was reliant upon a motorized "zero-G" wheelchair which tilted back into a neutral position. After exhausting all the medications and being told there was nothing else to be done, she did a lot of research (she's a physician) and started a very strict dietary regimen along with elecromuscular stimulation therapy. Within a year she was out of the wheelchair, biking to work 6 miles every day. She's currently conducting a clinical trial using this dietary intervention approach. It's a bit more stringent than the vegan diet in that it restricts refined sugar and gluten-containing grains, but shouldn't be too huge of a stretch from what I've already been doing. Her guidelines are to eat 3 cups of leafy green vegetables, 3 cups of other colorful, non-starchy vegetables, and 3 cups of fruit before eating anything else, and going dairy, egg, and gluten free. There's some pretty reasonable medical rationale behind it, so I figure I will give it a try for a few months and see what happens. I don't mind trying dietary stuff as long as it's not blatantly dangerous. What have I got to lose? So wish me luck! Going sugar-free will be the hardest part. Someone dropped off a bunch of cake-balls tonight and that was a bit difficult. :-)
Well, that's it for this week. No pictures today. Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Gabrielle
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