Camp Weekend

  We attended a family weekend at the camp with Hands and Voices.  It was so fun.  I work for Hands and Voices so it was more fun for me, having a role.  I love the location, the family time, the deaf community.  It is really beautiful.  Some sign, some don't.  We're all parents with deaf kids and accepting differences is important.  I make so many important professional connections working for Hands and Voices.  I have a clear vision of how to move forward.  One lady challenged me to come up with a catchy name.  I did.  So she challenged me to come up with a solid mission statement.  I'm working on that now too.  So good. 

M is amazing.  Her friend in the band has a little brother with hearing loss and special needs.  He has accepted M as part of his crew.  I'm glad she is such a decent human being.

 

professional photos

 Our school takes senior photos via a professional photographer.  I felt like it was kind of a racket.  It's expensive, but also, the quality is amazing.  I took the photo on the left under florscent lights as we waited for her minute with the photographer.  She had a sunburn from band camp and was feeling not thrilled.  But they took about 10 pictures and then we got to choose which one to use.  In the end I'm glad the school forces families to get a high quality photo of their children.  These are way better than the senior photos I had taken on the stage when I was a kid.

Keeping the Sabbath & Getting A’s

 I often have exams on Monday.  I am learning to study as hard and deep as I can Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Sunday I rest.  I try not to even think about the material.  Monday I may or may not wake early and review.  

I’m taking a running leap and the stress of having a deadline Saturday makes me work harder/smarter.  Then the day of rest lets it all get sorted out in my subconscious.  So cool.

Overlap

 I'm doing training to provide child care for GBYS and a lot of those trainings have overlap with my church calling and language development class.  I have an internship at CRS and that has a lot of overlap with my articulation, language development, and other classes.  It's a fun time where so many new ideas are being reinforced by real life experiences.  

I'm planning to teach a Relief Society mini-lesson about Early Intervention and child development that would help current moms and community members be better educated about available services and red flags.

I did a lesson with the missionaries recently and their friend had a 2.5 year old with only 5 years.  His delay is significant.  He's in speech but they declined Early Intervention and that is going to be a barrier for him attending a pre-k program for special needs.  

M has had some hard times but she plans to work at a summer camp this summer and go to college in the fall.  I'm excited for all she is working toward.  She's a great young woman.

Stand stand

 We have 5 stands!  They were taking up a lot of space so I built this little stand for them.  It just barely holds the three manhasset stands that are ours.  We have one of those stands that has adjustable knobs, terrible but better than the wire things.  We also accidentally brought an extra one home from the Christmas music festival.  I sent an email to the organizers and they say nobody has asked about it.  Bummer.  We love manhasset stands.  

Our first manhasset stand was from P's school when they were throwing away the old ones.  Last year I drove to Decatur to get another one since we would both be needing good stands for the Christmas festival.  While in Florida for spring break I found another for $10.  So we brought it home too.  Now we have more than we need on a daily basis but will never have to use a bad stand again.

I used the knob adjusting one just the other day as a stand for holding the container as I ground some wheat.  It's good for that sort of job.  But when you want something to hold music, manhasset stands are my one elephant.

banners

 

I volunteer at a preschool for children with hearing loss.  It seems like a nice job but I'm a total communication kind of girls.  I'm learning all I can to help kids communicate.  I do a lot of cutting and laminating.  One of the teachers learned that I can draw so she asked me to amek pictures for the class.  That has been fun.  It always reminds me of my mom when I do artistic things.  I feel like this picture captures the idea of enclosures without blocking the view of the animals too much.

School is going well.  I just got an A on a test we were all stressed about.  I'm so grateful that P is so loving and supportive of all that I do.

We got some new teachers called to primary and that is very exciting.  We had our big spring activity on Saturday and it was great.  I get all worked up over things sometimes and I don't need to...  Life.  

The sweet gum trees drop a lot of spiky balls and I've enjoyed burning them in our solo fire pit.  That has been fun but now I think I'll just bundle the rest up for yard debris or trash because I don't have all day to tend the fire.  Enough!