Renaissance life in a post-modern world
Posted in Family and Children on May 6th, 2009
After Franky had recovered from his surgery, he began speech therapy. His speech therapists used a strictly audio-verbal method. This meant that they required children to develop speech and comprehension independent of cues like lip-reading or hand signals.
For some children, this works successfully. However, for Franky, it was a frustrating and fruitless process. After many [...]
Posted in Family and Children on May 1st, 2009
We are a family of clean freaks. In our house, hands are washed before eating dinner, after eating dinner, before working on the computer, after touching dirty laundry, before handling food, after unloading groceries . . . and on and on and on.
We also love those handy waterless cleansers. Pumps can be found in the [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Apr 29th, 2009
Franky was born into a world of silence. Stark, empty silence. He couldn’t hear our clamoring voices as we held him for the first time. He couldn’t hear the piano notes that drummed endlessly under the fingers of six older siblings. He couldn’t even hear his own cry.
Franky’s only access to the world of sound [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Dec 13th, 2008
Our family packed up yesterday morning and headed up to our Michigan home. It was lovely drive filled with vibrant conversations, music and talk radio. Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh helped us digest bailout woes, naughty Chicago politics and the potential outcome of the Steeler - Raven game (not that I care about the latter).
All [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Dec 3rd, 2008
The year was 1993. We had just begun home educating our children. It was exciting and, yet, terribly frightening. We considered ourselves “settlers” as opposed to the giants that had braved the frontier before us: the Farris family, the Moore family, the Swan family, and the myriad of “pioneers” like them. Those stalwart family warriors had braved the [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Nov 27th, 2008
“All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Posted in Family and Children on Nov 14th, 2008
After the fractured fairy-tale weekend, the “boys” gated the road leading up to our home. It was bitter sweet. I love the look. It reminds me of Texas where everyone gates their roads, and I love Texas. However, it represents a new era in our lives. My dear neighbors (I only see some of these [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Nov 5th, 2008
Our modern world contains an unlimited selection of toys. We could entertain our children ad infinitum and never see the same toy on any given day if cost and over-indulgence were not issues. So, we must choose - wisely.
Playmobil. That is my choice hands down. Playmobil consists of small, somewhat flexible, plastic figures centered around [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Oct 17th, 2008
Children have fabulous imaginations. Their little minds are always working overtime as creative juices billow forth with new and fantastic ideas as they enliven the world around them.
My young children may be left alone playing for only a few moments and yet create blanket hide-aways, intricate “school rooms”, restaurants complete with lovely menus, and trains ready to [...]
Posted in Family and Children on Oct 14th, 2008
I have this awful habit of scheduling airplane flights that depart at the crack of dawn. This is complicated by the fact that ten or eleven of us travel together (always!). Then, throw into the mix the fact that my absolutely wonderful husband is usually not himself and becomes quite uptight when we are traveling via [...]
