Fiora started her clogging class the first Thursday of the month. It was a little crazy that night because she won a district division Reflections award for her book and the trophy ceremony was the same night, so we had to leave class a little early and race to that. Fiora was selected to move to the next level, wow! What a great little writer. Fiora has been practicing her steps in the morning, and I'm so glad I took some clogging lessons in college so I can help her a little, so far she seems to really like it.
We are making a tradition out of going ice fishing every January as a family. Except this year Savanna decided she didn't want to spend all day out in the cold on the ice (?) and stayed home so she could play with her friend. But this time it really wasn't even that cold! We went to Strawberry reservoir and because it hasn't snowed much this year the ice was clear and you could see the frozen water and cracks and it was super slippery, but cool. Weston was so proud because he caught 3 fish! Uncle Justin came with us and I think he got tired of hearing Weston brag about his catch, but he was just so excited! Justin eventually did out-catch Weston. :) Fiora caught one too. I just made hot chocolate and helped watched fishing poles. It was fun pulling the kids on the sled, they pulled me too. It was not so fun trying to find a place to go to the bathroom in privacy on a wide open lake with other fisherpersons every 50 yards or so away. The guy in brown laying down is Justin, he forgot his chair.
Savanna is doing really well. She has been diligent in keeping track of the new shoulder rest she got for Christmas and going to orchestra twice a week in the morning and violin lesson on Tuesday evening. She is really improving on the violin, I think she may get a little discouraged sometimes because the orchestra songs are tough and its harder to play just right in a group. A couple mornings she has adamantly declared, "I'm NOT going to orchestra today!" but then she always goes anyway. I can see how far she has come though and she is doing great. She is still my child who pushes me the most. A friend of mine in the therapy field told me the difference between a child with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and kids like her son (or someone like Savanna) is a patient parent. There are a lot of kids out there that have lots of anger and defiance issues at home, but are great in school or other settings, and its usually because they have parents who love them and validate them and set limits and let them talk about their anger and cry when they are frustrated. It takes a lot more energy than my other kids, but Savanna is worth it. I was scared to tears last week just anticipating what things might be like when she is a teenager, but this week she has been so great! She came up to me and said, "Would you take me out to icecream if I didn't blow up all week?" I said, "Of course, but we need to prepare." Prepare? She asked. You can't just jump into trying to change without anticipating what will set you off. So she and I engaged in one of the best talks we've ever had, SHE was coming up with solutions to the problems and all I was doing was giving her situations. The entire rest of the day was golden. In fact the only slip up she had was when something happened she was not anticipating, so preparing helped. To see that kind of effort in her at this age gave me so much hope for how successful she will be at dealing with larger problems in the future.
Weston has been doing great. He is slowly but surely coming along in his piano. He has a great voice and is willing to sing, he will be singing at my parent's church on Sunday and will sing in our church in February. Its so fun because he begs to practice his songs and sings right out and lets me correct him and seems to love it. Weston still has issues doing his laundry, it seems like folding laundry and putting it away is an emotional decision for him, too overwhelming to start. But boy can that boy organize his legos! Our parenting battle with Weston this month has been training him to get up at 7:30 on his own, and he is doing pretty good. Now the next task is to help him stay on task without constant reminders.
I had a really busy couple weeks of therapy during the holidays, and then in January it died down to 4 clients a week again. I am hoping this parenting seminar I'll be giving in February will spark some word-of-mouth referrals. I'd like to have double the case load I have now, if not more. It helps to keep me constantly researching best practice intervention and helps me not obsess over the few cases I have if I can do 10 or more clients a week. Keven and Melissa Downs have been great to work for, and they have all this confidence in me so its working out great, I'm on their website now successfultherapy.net, check it out!
Jared has been fishing when he can and working hard, and playing basketball every Monday Wednesday and Friday at 6:00 in the morning!!! I think that is somewhat of a miracle considering his aversion to getting up early, aversion to exercising in the morning, and aversion to going bed early. He is trying to lower his cholesterol so he can get better life insurance so he has been staying away from meat and eggs and eating lots of fiber and salad. We even bought a bathroom scale. Its tricky to have him avoiding meat, I personally need lots of protein and making a dinner that accommodates Jared, me, and the kids (who still seem to hate most every vegetable invented) can be wearisome. At least I'm not abstaining from anything anymore, I've reintegrated most everything in my diet, I still eat nasty green shakes, but now I'm trying to change how often I eat (I am 99% sure my issue is hypoglycemia). FUN!
I took all three of my kids to UVU dental Tuesday morning, it is very affordable dental care ($10 per kid), but takes 3 hours!!! I felt so bad for my kids laying in those chairs for so long, but they were really good sports about it. Savanna has two cavities, but otherwise they all looked great! They all got a prize bag after and have been very diligent in brushing and flossing ever since (we'll see how long that lasts.) Savanna keeps asking me when she will be getting braces, but Jared and I are having an issue with which orthodontist to use to it may be a while.
So on with the routine. January goes by so fast, sun comes up and we start again: Exercise, breakfast, get ready, carpool, appointments, callings, babysitting, visiting teaching, cleaning (if I'm lucky), carpool, homework, reading, patience!, dinner, lessons, scriptures, bedtime, hot tub, bed!
Savanna Fiora and Weston all participated in the school Patriotic Sing Assembly this past week. They wore red white and blue. Savanna played "Star Spangled Banner" and "Hymn to the Fallen" in the orchestra, and Wes and Fi sang "Abraham Lincoln" in the school choir. These three also bravely performed "Hymn of Praise" in Sacrament meeting last week, again Sav on violin and Fi/Wes vocal, and did a great job! So brave and talented.
Savanna and I had a very fun Mommy Daughter date this Friday, we got tickets to a community Symphony Orchestra and it was surprisingly really well done! We both enjoyed it, Savanna made comments after each piece, pointing out to me what the violinists had done and telling me what parts she liked best. We both agreed the last piece was our least favorite, and the guitar concerto was our favorite. And bonus, my friend from highschool and college Cami Turpin was performing on viola! What a positive and bonding experience for us. Jared took Wes and Fi to a BYU mens volleyball game that night, they said it was fun but I think we got the better end of the deal!
