Saturday August 7th

Finished Project
Dode finished up the handrail Friday night.  Brother Gaskin brought over his big drill and they drilled out the holes for the bolts.  It doesn't look fancy but it's also not an eyesore.

Increased Security
William makes much better choices when he's being supervised.  That means, he's in line of sight observation most of the day, mostly from me.  When he's left on his own, his judgement goes down hill rapidly.  Spending the day keeping track of him, day in and day out, can be exhausting but it's much better than having him destroy things or do things that will endanger himself.  We bought a video baby monitor a few years ago so we could keep track of what was happening in his room when he went to bed and his behavior all day long improved.  He wasn't sure how I knew what he was doing, he just knew that somehow I was keeping tabs on him. 

We were able to go to bed at night with the assurance that we'd survived another day with no huge crisis.  He never seemed to realize that there was nothing keeping him in his room.  Well, that all came to a screeching halt a few weeks ago.  Isaac was sleeping downstairs and after the fourth or fifth time being woken up by someone turning on the lights downstairs, he realized it was William.  We realized that he'd squirreled quite a bit of things in his room in his nocturnal exploration, things that had a high value to his siblings.  I don't know how many times he'd made the nighttime journey, but this time he was caught.  After realizing he was now getting out of bed when the rest of us were sleeping, I couldn't sleep.  How was I going to keep the him and the house safe?  Both Dode and I independently contemplated sleeping in the hall outside his room and we both independently realized that that solution just wasn't going to work.  But what to do?   A motion sensor to the rescue. 

Now, if he gets out of bed, a loud alarm alerts us what's going on.  The thing with William and rules is, if the rule is enforced 100% of the time, he won't break the rule.  If he can get away with it even 10% of the time, he figures it's worth the gamble and the rule means nothing to him.  With the motion sensor, we have 100% enforcement of staying in bed.  We can sleep again!

Miriam contemplates school
Miriam is a fearless girl and for months she was talking about going to school with William in the fall.  Earlier this week, completely on her own, she brought up the subject and told me that she decided she wants to be home schooled.   Today I brought it up with her again and our conversation went like this, "So,  you don't want to go to kindergarten?"  Miriam, "They teach you stuff like how to be nice to other people and listen and I'm already good at that."  (That's what she figures William goes to school for and for the most part, she's right.)  Mom, "I think they teach you how to read too".  Miriam, "I'm ok with you reading books to me."  Mom, "What about riding the school bus?"  Miriam, "I'll do that when I'm big like Anastaya."

William finishes summer school
Due to William's learning disabilities, he qualifies for summer school.  Very few children in the school district in elementary school qualify to receive this service, in fact there are two.  William and another child who is blind.   Friday was his last day and the teacher patted me on the shoulder and said, "I don't know what's going on in that brain of his.  Sometimes I think he's got it, but then realize he doesn't."  Although he is only six years old, he's already learned how to compensate for his disability by being a very good guesser.   He's a keen observer and by watching people and going very slow when giving an answer, he can quickly tell if he's headed in the right direction or if he needs to try again.

Our very busy front porch
The front door area of our house leaves a lot to be desired.  In fact, I think it's just plain ugly.  The house we used to live in had a quaint entry area as you walked down a brick path surrounded on both sides by flowers to get to the front door of our small yellow and white farmhouse.  Here, it's acres of asphalt and cement right up to the door.  But, the large covered car port does come in handy.

ready for the day, notice the rain drops?

produce arrives

sorting the produce

picking up produce

all that's left of 1664 pounds of produce are green beans, scattered everywhere!

ready for the party

 see the handrail on the stairs? 

time to eat

lots of visiting

cleaning up

a busy day behind us

bedtime

Family Party

Today was our family party and of course the weather just could not cooperate with us.  The forecast was for low 60's with rain "at times".  The times they meant were the entire time of our party.  But, even though it was cold and wet, we all had a great time.  We even had a few surprise guests, Dode's cousin Susanne and her husband Dean were in town for her 25 year reunion and they stopped in for a while.  Janice ran into some friends of hers from Everett when she ran to Haggen for an emergency watermelon and invited them over.  I just love that our house is welcoming for everyone and feels like a place anyone can come to.

Dode cooked up the burgers on the BBQ

this is the 1st time the cousins have seen each other in a few months

grandma and grandpa were able to stay warm on the swing with the help of some blankets,

that just sounds wrong for  AUGUST

don't they look warm!

these jeeps got a lot of use

Seth looking his happy self, but he cried when it was time to leave

Allison showing Anastaya her skills

the fire pole is always a hit

the girls are made of hardier stuff than the boys, they don't look like they were freezing and they stayed in the pool much longer.

Savanah getting help from William on the zip line

1 jeep + 1 wagon,

 6 cousins having fun

it was a wild game of badminton with the volleyball net

Aunt Viv had fun with the wii

Thank you to everyone who came and helped us have a wonderful party!  We hope you'll join us again next year, maybe it will feel more like August in 2011!  Jacob's been gone since early Wednesday morning on a scout camp out. He came home tonight, sick with the same thing Miriam has had.

Miriam snapped our photo