Finally, A Nature Study! (sorta)

We've had a week of going with the flow of life around us and fitting in school when and where we could.  Thankfully, 5th grade is almost complete which means it is a lot less stressful if we do not get the check marks on all of our scheduled subjects.

This week saw the completion of Amber's chimes choir.  The choir had three chimes performances to end their year, starting on Saturday evening, then Sunday morning (yes, I had to drive her up to church on Mother's Day for an abbreviated performance while Fred slept in!), and finally on Monday afternoon.   Not only was Monday the last day of chimes for the school year, but for the 5th graders it was their final year in chimes.  While Amber is excited to be one of the kids graduating to handbells next year, it was also bittersweet to leave the wonderful chimes leader. 

Chimes choir performed at a nursing home on Monday. 

Amber has felt even worse this week than last week with more "sick" days than other weeks.  We were supposed to wait for the 21st of May before we called the GI doctor back with an update, however Amber was doing so poorly on the 14th that I called early.  Thankfully, the doctor was pleased that we did call early because the medication should have been working already.  Amber is now scheduled for a repeat upper endoscopy on May 24th to check the progress of her damage.  Unfortunately for my little girl, she also gets to have a colonoscopy on the same day.  Amber has watched me go through colonoscopy prep, she knows exactly how unpleasant it will be.  There is no sugar coating this for her.

When Amber was able to sit up without feeling dizzy or nauseated we had school lessons at home, mostly on the couch, and also on the floor of our empty house in the subdivision across the street.  Our former home is for sale, after several years of renting, and this week we received an offer on it that eventually turned into a contract! Amber and I have spent a couple of days at the "old house" fixing little things that our last tenants left screwy.  We actually were at Lowe's (for the zillionth time) when the realtor called with the offer.  Most of the work is finished, just a couple more items on our to do list.  Then we will see how inspection goes.  Prayers that this process goes smoothly and the sale completes would be greatly appreciated.

My Mother's Day gift!  Planned, designed, and created by Amber.  Daddy took her shopping and Grandma oversaw assembly.  My favorite color is blue, so the blue flower is the centerpiece. 
And... dinner on the patio at Cheesecake Factory.  It was a last minute decision, but we were near by, hungry, and they had a 5 minute wait.

Amber really was a trooper though, patiently hanging out at the old house working on assignments, trying to help, and napping for the better part of two days.  At one point while she was dusting baseboards, Amber looked out an upstairs window then came running to me all in a tither. "Mom, I can see our house from here... I mean our house we live in."  It is so confusing to own two houses 0.3 miles apart.  I'm also baffled that the child doesn't remember watching the construction crews build our current house.  We had such fun using binoculars, spying out Amber's bedroom window to see how the "new house" was doing. 

This week, when we were home, Amber has practiced piano as much as her tummy allowed.  While she is usually diligent in her piano practice, it is not always enthusiastic.  I'm not sure if it is the looming piano performance at recital, or just the current "fun song", but for whatever reason Amber has been turning down opportunities to play with her toys in favor of practicing piano.  I think it is her new obsession with Phantom of the Opera.  Today, after two hours, (I am not exaggerating) of constantly humming "Angel of Music", I finally had to ask that she find something else.  She moved on to "Phantom of the Opera".  At which point, I decided to mow the yard.

There has also been a lot of bird & wildlife watching by Amber and Biscotti (the kitty).  Our beloved bird feeder, gifted to me by my mom when we moved in here, was broken last year by the lawn mowers (first and only time I hired people to mow my yard. It was disastrous).  We finally have a new, cheap one that I bought as an after thought at the pet store.  Amber has been trying all week to identify the birds landing at the feeder.   Biscotti has been trying to attack the birds through the glass. So far we have seen cardinals, robins, finches, sparrows, crows, and hummingbirds (because the lady next door has a feeder and they occasionally get confused).  However, the best was the rabbit attracted by my roses that detoured to eat the fallen bird seed.  Biscotti spent over half an hour watching this brash critter while running from window to window, pawing, and generally carrying on.  Amber sat perfectly still, trying not to scare the bunny as the cat ran around crazy.  It was pure entertainment.

Does this count as nature study, or entertainment?

Ordering for next year's school curriculum has already begun too.  I finalized most of our curriculum decisions last month and have been waiting for some sales on the items we needed.  This past week I managed to find quite a few good deals on books we will need as well as some curriculum sales.  Once all my shipments arrive, we actually will almost be set for 6th grade.  This lets me plan at my leisure over the summer, instead of rushing at the last minute.

This week I had an ultrasound of several organs looking for the cause of my 4 year long right side pain.  Again, it showed nothing... because it's in my intestines.  On the positive side, that means there aren't any unknown tumors or growths hanging out.  I'm still waiting the results of the blood tests.  They took 9 vials of blood!  I almost wanted to ask if they needed donations that badly, or was it really necessary to draw that much.  But I kept my sarcastic comment to myself, and instead thanked the nice lady with the needle in my arm for not injuring me.

Today, Amber and I are hoping for a day of relaxation and some shopping, but it depends on how she feels and if plumber has received the special order part needed for a repair at the old house. 

Happy weekend everyone!

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Doctors and The Phantom

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here, yet it still feels like we have accomplished very little. 

Our house certainly looks like we haven't been keeping up on the cleaning.  Oh, the vacuuming, dishes, laundry, and bathrooms have been kept up (mostly), but there is no way the house is at our usual standards.  And please don't swipe your finger across any surfaces, you'll disturb our evenly distributed dust.

What exactly have we been doing?  Many, many doctor visits for all members of our family, and keeping up our previous home which is (thankfully) tenant free and for sale. 

On an extremely positive note, my husband Fred has been declared "cured" of his pheochromocytoma by the team of endocrinologists overseeing his care.  It will be one year on Mother's day (May 12th) since he fell ill.  Last year, right about this time, we were anticipating Amber's dance recital with no clue how life changing it would truly be.  After suffering a massive coronary that started during Amber's dance recital and progressed to kidney failure, respiratory failure, heart failure, liver failure, and oxygen deprivation my husband slipped into a coma in the wee hours of Mother day.

Now, one year later, Fred is fully restored to health with no detectable effects from his ordeal.  As the attending endocrinologist said "You dodged a pheochromocytoma, and now have to deal with the normal effects of aging like the rest of us."  Fred does still have genetic testing to complete this summer, to ensure the pheo was not the beginning of a nasty disease.  However, it appears unlikely.

On our way to yet another appointment.  But she wore sunglasses for the first time in years.  No more transitions glasses.

Amber and I have been going to doctors' appointments for the two of us as well.   We still don't know why Amber is having such tummy and intestinal troubles, but her GI doctor and mine are working together now.  It appears the progressive mystery illness that I've had for years, which was dumped into the general bucket of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), might be something genetic.  Amber has additional symptoms making her quite similar to the early progression of my symptoms. I hope between the two doctors they can decide what we have, because I don't want Amber to have the rapidly degrading quality of life I've had for the past 4 years.

Amber is on two new medications to heal the damage already done to her stomach.  I hope it helps her, but one of those medications didn't work for me in the past.  Amber also had more tests run this week and we await the results.  I am on one new medication (same as one of Amber's), and I have an impressive array of blood tests scheduled for Monday along with an ultrasound.  There are definitely a few of those tests that I would really like to see come back negative, Crohn's being one of them.

Crummy in the tummy, but has a kitty buddy.

Ironically, during the past few weeks we began 6th grade Biology in science, and it has not exactly been a spectacular start.  This is no fault of the curriculum which we actually do like, in theory.  It's the topic that is the problem.  Amber has found that she is more disturbed by biological images and topics than she originally thought.

We are using Elemental Science's Biology for the Logic Stage.  Amber has no problem with the definitions, timeline work, reading the text and note taking, or even some of the experiments.  Unfortunately, the images in the books and the weekly sketches are causing some definite issues.  Just looking at the pictures of cells, and having to label the parts, was too much for Amber.  In her words, the images of the cells in the Encyclopedia of Nature were "wrong looking and too organic to see".  Then, I had her try one of the other recommended spine books, The Usborne Science Encyclopedia.  Let's just say that their graphics would normally be considered better than the Encyclopedia of Nature.  In our situation, this was not a bonus.

I'm at a loss as to what to do for the problem, because in all honestly, I feel exactly like Amber and have no desire at all to look at anything organic or biological.  There was a reason I went into physics and computer science.  We are attempting to forge ahead in biology, but will probably end up doing more of an overview instead of the planned course of study.

The microscope was a big hit, especially since she doesn't have to deal with glasses anymore.

Amber has been plugging along in the rest of her subjects and is nearing the end of 5th grade.  She has 10 lessons left in Saxon Math 7/6.  Given her scores to date, and the recommendations given by Art Reed in his newsletters, I am almost certain that Amber will proceed to Algebra 1/2 next year.  It is daunting to have a 6th grader in Algebra 1/2, however Amber is actually quite gifted mathematically.    We will simply have to let her guide the speed at which we complete Algebra 1/2.

Grammar, Social Studies, Literature, Spelling, and Writing are all on target to finish on or before May 31st.  Thankfully.   Latin will continue through the summer, alternating days with Biology.  We have never given up school completely over the summers, even when Amber was in parochial school.  While we don't have a set summer school schedule, we do try to work on something each day.  But some times you just gotta have a lazy, goof off, forget about everything except fun day.

Math in the kitchen, to enjoy a day of sunshine

We have also followed Amber's interest to study the musical Phantom of the Opera, but don't tell Amber because she doesn't realize she's learning.  Amber has been practicing "Angel of Music" for her piano recital in June, but she didn't really understand the song and that affected her playing.  I chose this song for Amber to play in recital as a gift for her dad.  He has LOVED Phantom of the Opera for almost as long as I have known him and now he is able to share this interest with Amber.

Amber and I have been discussing the plot and listening to the soundtrack (with Michael Crawford).  It took quite a bit more discussing than I planned, though.  I ended up having to explain the role of opera in France at the time of the story, as well as the social structure. Amber has so many questions about historic time periods that it is easy to get side tracked.  Still, it has been a fun learning experience and Amber's musicality on the piece has improved.

This weekend we are going to watch a couple of video / movie versions of Phantom, so that Amber can see the musical, besides just hearing it.  The first is the 25th anniversary celebration of  Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall.  Unfortunately, Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford only make appearances, but it still is a great version to watch.   We are also going to watch the 2005 movie version staring Gerard Butler.  I've heard it's not as bad as I might expect, so we will give it a try.  

That is our past two weeks in a nutshell.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend.

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A Planetarium Trip, a Brave Change, and a Good Change

This has been an eventful, yet still, slow week for us.  Mostly we plodded along with various school subjects, trying to accommodate Amber's unhappy tummy and intestines.  She feels good for a day or so, then awful for a couple of days.  Her next GI appointment can't come soon enough.  Meanwhile, I've been reading all I can about gluten free diets.  I can't wait to start, for both of our sakes.

On a good tummy day for Amber, we finally took the many time postponed field trip to the St. Louis Planetarium and Science Center!  Due to severe weather several weeks in a row, we have been continually rescheduling the field trip that was supposed to occur during Amber's astronomy unit.

Halfway through the Planetarium I remembered to take pictures... duhh.  So, no there aren't any pictures of the Mercury or Gemini capsules (real ones that went into space).  There aren't any pictures of the cool launch checklist used in an actual capsule launch, nor any of the other space artifacts.  Sigh.  But, we did get a personal tour of the artifacts section by a very sweet older man, who works for the planetarium.  Unfortunately, he became scarce as soon as a school bus load of some of the worst behaved children and their parent leaders arrived.  Poor man, he ran for the back room and never came out again.  I wish we could have gone with him.

I do have pictures of Amber playing in the laser light show area.  She selected music for her light show, Tom Sawyer by Rush, and then pushed buttons and levers to make a customized light show.  It was fun to make and cool to watch.

We then walked from the Planetarium, across the bridge over the interstate, to the Science Center.  Amber always loves that bridge. There are glass cutouts in the floor so you can watch the road below, along with radar speedometers to see how fast the cars are going.  I, personally, always slow down a bit by the Science Center when I'm going by :-)

We didn't go too far into the Science Center since our field trip was mainly for the Planetarium, but Amber can't make a trip to the Science Center without watching the huge ball contraption in the center.  It mesmerizes her every time.  Even my mom enjoyed watching the various ball systems.

Mom and Amber building various style arches.  There is a whole display on the St. Louis Arch. 
And, of course, the huge ball contraption.

On a not so good tummy day this week Amber had her yearly opthamologist appointment.  This time she was actually looking forward to going because she had gotten up the nerve to ask for contacts!  After 4 years of wearing glasses, on Tuesday morning Amber put in her first pair of contacts.  It was a long awaited day for her and she felt so liberated, especially since it was raining when we left.  No drips on her glasses!  Unfortunately, the first set of contacts were not the correct contact prescription.

Turns out contacts prescriptions and glasses prescriptions are different.  They just kinda guess (in a scientific way) at the contacts prescription based on the glasses.  I learned something new this week.   Thankfully, the contacts fitting fee covers this kind of problem.  Amber wasn't able to wear the contacts Wednesday or Thursday because the first set generated migraines and "made the floor wavy".  Finally, today we made it back in for another fitting.  They found the right prescription and she was set!  I had to force Amber to take out the contacts this evening when she had completed her time for the day.  She will have to build up wearing time, but it won't take very long until she is wearing them all day.

Contacts!
Left is Tuesday, when she wasn't seeing well with them.  Right is Friday, when she finally got the right ones.
She still has the "I used to wear glasses" look to her, but that will fade over time. 

Today Amber also graduated from weekly sensory therapy to every other week!  It was a such a wonderful achievement, but done with so little fanfare.  She has come a great distance in her sensory therapy and I can't hardly believe all the positive changes we have seen in the last 10 months. Amber hasn't had a meltdown since November!  These days, I sometimes forget that she ever even had them.  Today was Amber's first step in graduating from therapy completely.  This phase does not last as long as the initial weekly phase, but we haven't told Amber that.  She hasn't quite yet realized that sooner, rather than later, she will be done with therapy and not see her wonderful therapist anymore.

In school we finally started the dreaded biology, hoping to get an early start on 6th grade science. We will run through the summer and fall with biology and plan to finish before January.  Amber was excited to use the new curriculum.  It's always exciting to get a new book.  The excitement didn't last long.  The first lesson was on cells.  She wasn't enthused, especially after viewing the pictures.  Amber and I both have issues with organic "things".  They disturb us.  I thought it was just me.

Just this past weekend, I had a bottle of Diet Caffeine Free Coke and when I opened it the bubbles came up, but they all lined up so neatly in perfect rows around the top of the bottle. It as very weird and organic looking.  Amber was standing next to me when it happened.  She jumped back and said "Eww.. I don't like the way that looks.  It's freaky.  Too living-y".  That's my girl. We won't even get into my aversion to fish.  The gills just totally freak me out!   This biology subject is going to be a trial for us both.  I foresee it being "Biology-lite".  

Also due to Amber's often crummy-tummy she has been working on a lot of history, because it can easily be done while reclining.  Miraculously, we are more than caught up in history.  We originally had a very full and rigorous plan for history, but lately it looked like we were going to have to sum up the late 20th century pretty fast.  As of today, we can enjoy the 1950's and forward at a more appropriate pace.

Overall, it was a good week academically with just the right amount of excitement thrown in.  Next week threatens to be a bit stressful, so I plan to relax this weekend and store up happy memories for the coming week.

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