Fall Days Farm Ways at the Pantego Academy Historical Museum

Saturday we had the pleasure of attending an annual event at the Pantego Academy Historical Museum called "Fall Days Farm Ways."  Built in 1874, the old school is now a museum is located in the town of Pantego, which is in the eastern part of North Carolina.  (You can see the Academy's website here and their Facebook page here.)   My mother-in-law is on the board at the museum and I always enjoy hearing about their latest events.  So it was fun to participate in the one they had this weekend.

What would be farming without tractors?  Or as Solomon pronounces it "trac-tor."  Sitting on some of the old tractors on display was Solomon's very favorite part.

Solomon loves the feel of the wheel in his hands.  He had fun in the old Belhaven firetruck too.

Hunter's very favorite part was watching how the machines worked and asking questions about them.  He doesn't really like loud noises so he was hesitant in getting too close, but he was fascinated and spent much of his time in the area where they were set up.

Hunter had fun with the corn sheller too:

Solomon liked the table full of corn and little things to play with:

Tabby found milking the "cow" ridiculously easy.  (Remember she milks 2 goats every day.)

There was a "cow train" ride for the kids.  Hunter thought it was fun:

Solomon did not.  (I took him back out before the ride even started.)

There was cotton candy, popcorn, soups, sandwiches, and desserts, all for a donation.

After getting jacked up on sugars and dyes, is the "perfect" time to get in some school work:

There was also gourd painting.  Solomon really liked this.  But unfortunately, when we went back to get his finished gourd, we found someone had mistakenly taken it.

A famous N.C. pirate came back to life to join in the festivities.  Blackbeard - and his wife! - were sighted:

Blackbeard is played by Ben Cherry, a local man famous across the country for bringing Blackbeard to life.  (Here is a newspaper article about him.)   We studied Blackbeard in school, so it was fun to see him and listen to him.  We couldn't pass up a family picture opportunity with him:

Blackbeard put his arm around Solomon and I which made Solomon jump and turn around.  Thankfully the picture was over before Solomon burst into tears!  My mother-in-law with Blackbeard and his wife:

There was an auction in the afternoon.  Blackbeard started it off auctioning off items from his treasure chest.  Tabby and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him - he was very funny:

All in all, it was a fun day.  We hope to go back next year.  And Tabby and I hope to join the vendors and sell our goat milk soap.  :)

Is that a LIVE CHICKEN in my sink??!!

This past Monday, we attended a 4-H meeting.  The children were to bring something that they would enter at the North Carolina state fair if they could.  (Turned out some of the children at the meeting really were planning to enter the things they presented.)

When I think of fair entries, I think of livestock, food, or craft type items.  Hunter, of course, thinks of electricity.  He built one of his favorite snap circuit projects to present at the meeting:

Hunter with his "angles and distance" snap circuit project

Tabby, of course!, planned to take one of her Silkie Bantam chickens.  But oh the agony - which one??!!  After much pondering, she decided on a white one, named "Padme."  Monday afternoon I heard a tremendous squawking outside and then a minute later, Tabby triumphantly entered the house with Padme in her arms.  She marched over to the kitchen sink, talking about the beautification process Padme was getting ready to under go.

Let me just say, it was hilarious.  (Though not to the chicken, I'm sure.)

Tabby couldn't resist giving Padme a punk hairdo:

Padme shook her head.  No.  Spiked hair was not funny for an elegant queen.

Tabby used a little dog shampoo to lather up Padme.  And then in her rinse water, she borrowed a little of the glycerin I use in tinctures, to add a "glossy shine" to Padme's feathers.

Finally the water torture ended, and Tabby towel dried the humiliated looking chicken.

As Tabby plugged in her hairdryer, she informed me that her chicken magazines said chickens liked having their feathers blow dried.  (She subscribes to both Backyard Poultry and Poultry World and devours each issue when they arrive.)

Finally the chicken began to look like a super clean and extra fluffy version of her original self:

This look says it all:

"What are you looking at?!"

It was all worth it though, for Padme.  She was a big hit at the 4-H meeting, with both parents and children.

Just two activities; various homeschool and art books

I wasn't very good at putting together new Montessori activities for Solomon last week.  In fact, I only made one new one.  He is still enjoying his blue and green color activity, so I put together a red and yellow color sorting activity. He saw it the night I did it and was too excited to wait until the next morning to try it:

The next morning he did the color sorting activity again, and then added the blue and green color sorting pieces too.  It is a good activity, though he still seems to get colors mixed up when he talks about them.  He wants everything to be "green" or "light blue."

I just wanted to share that even though many days Solomon is very focused with his activities and quiet for awhile, there are other days he isn't very interested, and interrupts my school time with Hunter. A lot.  He can say "Mommy?" every 5 seconds.  Literally.  So all you homeschooling moms with little ones - don't think that we have some magic going here that you don't!  We have our good days and our frustrating days too.  ;)

A quick tip for getting ideas for some Montessori activities is to request a mail order catalog from a Montessori company.  I have several, but by far, my favorite is the catalog from "Montessori Services."  I have many pages dog-eared in this catalog with ideas of activities to put together for Solomon.  Of course as with most things, there are some things in the catalog I don't agree with, like their triology on the "Big Bang," evolution, and the earth's story.

Solomon really likes playing with cards.  Matching them or just spreading them out to look at.  He often plays with some of the cards I use for math drills with Hunter:

As an aside, I got printed these cards from Ray's Arithmetics and Helps by Sherry Hayes.  I printed them from the e-book on card stock and laminated them.  (I have a laminator and love it.  It is just so useful!)  Sherry Hayes is a homeschooling mother of 15 and has such useful advice, on so many things.  She blogs at:  http://largefamilymothering.wordpress.com.

I also have her e-book McGuffey's Primer Flashcards, Helps and Hints which is good, but I am not using it right now as Hunter doesn't currently want anything to do with the McGuffey Readers.  (I have two sets of the old McGuffey Readers:  McGuffey's Eclectic Readers Revised Editions and The Original McGuffey's Eclectic Readers.  We used both for reading last school year.)  Instead, we are using another old book series by Yesterday's Classics.  He just finished The Primer and is now reading through the First Reader. (There is also a Second Reader and Third Reader.)

Finally, Sherry Hayes also has a very helpful and inspiring book called Homeschool Sanity: Large Family Mothering's Practical Guide to Redemptive Home Education (available in print or as an e-book).  I tend to re-read this book twice a year, to get ideas.

When I was in elementary school, I had a copy of Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals.  (The 1974 Scholastic version. I remembering filling out a Scholastic order form to buy it.)  I remember I loved drawing pictures from it and also using an inkpad to make the fingerprint pictures.

Not long ago, I came across a scanned copy of an old book online called What to Draw and How to Draw It by E. G. Lutz.  Its style is similar to Ed Emberley's books but the drawings are more realistic.  It was published in 1913.  The pages are filled with how to draw things like lighthouses, animals, and people.  But they are also quaint as they have that "early 1900s" look.  I thought we would use this book some in art for school this year.  I downloaded and printed a copy from here:  http://ia350617.us.archive.org/1/items/whattodrawhowtod00lutz/whattodrawhowtod00lutz.pdf
Note: this blog post talks about the book, gives ideas of how to use it, and the blog author gives links to several versions of the book here.  (You can buy printed copy on amazon here.)

I took my printed copy, hole punched it, and put it in a half-inch sized binder.  Do you print e-books?  If so - how do you like to store them?  I've been thinking about trying book binding and I'm always looking for tips!

Finally, I had a little while yesterday afternoon to just hold my napping boy and read.  What a simple delight:

"So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, . . ." - Hebrews 4:9

Little Mary-Margaret (Trisomy 18) is one week old

Mary-Margaret

Recently I mentioned in a post that I was in contact with a mom who was pregnant with a baby girl with Trisomy 18, and she had received one of the angel boxes we made and donated to UNC Hospital.

I am delighted that little Mary-Margaret is one week old today!  She was born via a scheduled c-section at 37.5 weeks gestation.  She weighed 3 lbs. 6 oz.  Miss Mary-Margaret needed the CPAP to help with breathing for a few hours after birth, but then came off that and has been breathing well on her own ever since.  She has an NG tube for feeding.

In spite of doctors continuing their typical Trisomy 18 warning -she'll die within a few days - she is doing just fine and is making plans to leave the NICU and go home very soon.

Mary Margaret

Making it to two weeks old is a milestone for Trisomy 18 babies.  Then 2 months is the next marker.  Then 6 months, etc.  (Of course we count the days, celebrate the weeks, and every month.)

Please pray with me that little Mary-Margaret lives for a long time!

You'll noticed that Mary-Margaret has her hands lightly clenched in these pictures, typical of a baby with Trisomy 18.  But I have seen pictures of Mary-Margaret where she has her hands opened normally.

I remember Lilly's hands were purplish when she was born because she clenched hers shut so hard.  They remained super tight for quite some time.  My second blogpost I wrote showed how we stuffed cottonballs in her hands to try and help her open them a little.

Lilly clenching cottonballs

Like many children with Trisomy 18, Lilly eventually got hand splints to help hold her hands open.  I called them her "boxing gloves" and she wore them at night:

Lilly modeling her "boxing gloves" the day she got them

Jumping from a Lilly flashback up to Solomon, I wrote in a post last week that his lead levels had come back elevated again.  We had follow up testing done at LabCorp where they checked for lead at a deeper level.  (Cellular level.)  Thankfully that test came back much better, showing a level of only 3.0.  Which means lead is not a concern for him now after all.  Thank you God!  :)

Solomon matching farm animal cards

I was thinking about the 3 children pictured in this post today: Mary-Margaret, Lilly, and Solomon.  All are different and all have similarities.  All created perfectly by God, for His purpose.

“(13) For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
(14) I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
(15) My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
(16) Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.” - Psalm 139:13-16

I HEARD a HERD of goats

Earlier this month, our goats had a fun surprise.

Our goats (left to right): Nutmeg, Pippi, Christa

They got to have a goat family reunion out in our goat pen.  The L. family brought their goats over for us to take care of while they were out of town.  The goats really enjoyed it as it was a big family reunion for them.

Christa got to see her daughter Daisy and meet her new granddaughter Buttercup:

Nutmeg, Buttercup, Daisy

Nutmeg liked butting heads with Buttercup, all in fun:

Nutmeg & Buttercup

Nutmeg got to see her sister Cloves.  She found out she was also an aunt.  Their Spice Girl family had grown as Cloves had two babies - Coriander and Cocoa.

Cocoa, Coriander, Cloves, Nutmeg, and Buttercup(in back)

I especially enjoyed having the baby goats.  They were fun to watch.  Buttercup was fascinated by Solomon for some reason.  The L family's goats wore bells which made a neat sound.  Whenever we'd bring them some shrubbery to eat, they'd all run towards us and the sound of all those hooves running was just cool.  :)

When the goats when back home, our goats seemed to really miss them!

The above pictures did not turn out very good at all.  The sun was too bright for my camera I guess.  I am not having an easy time with the camera I bought earlier this year.  Lighting, and motion, are my struggles with this camera. (I find many of the pictures I take of the kids turn out blurry - even if I try and focus first.)  I took this picture, right before the above goat pictures, and it turned out fine - I guess because the animals were in a shady part of the yard:

Sherlotta, Exhaust Pipe, Dixie.  Part of Tabby's flock of chickens.

I think the below picture of the guineas is funny.  I find them fascinating how they are ALWAYS together.  Amazingly they all seem to get along with each other.  Unlike people!  When they walk across the yard in this formation it reminds me of the old cowboy movies where the cowboys all lined up, ready for a gun fight.

On a different note, I am always coming up with ideas of things we can make to try and sell.  (I seriously need to open an Etsy shop soon!)  An idea I had recently was to make cinnamon scented pine cones.  I first shared the idea with Tabby.  She wanted nothing to do with it.  However Hunter was interested.  So he got busy collecting pine cones.  I found this recipe online how to make them.  We went outside and collected pine cones to try a batch.  Yummmmm .... they turned out wonderful.  Hunter sold two bags of them right away.

Then we advertised and within 2 days, Hunter had orders for 9 bags.  (We put 24 pine cones in each bag along with several cinnamon sticks.)  Sold for $5.00 a bag.  Bam!  Hunter made $55 in less than a week!

I gotta tell you though - that was a lot of pine cones!  :)

Today is Mesothelioma Awareness Day

Earlier this week, Solomon's lead levels were tested again.  Unfortunately, this time, they were back up.  To 5.3 which puts him back in the "we need to find out what is going on" stage.  This level is not dangerous - it would need to be much much higher for him to suffer brain damage.  But it was high enough that we had to go back to LabCorp a few days later for a re-test, at a deeper cellular level.  Assuming those results don't come back under 3.0, that means it's time to try and find the source again.  I am praying that the county worker with the "lead gun" will finally get motivated to come out and do the investigation for us.

But why?  Why does Solomon have an elevated lead level when Hunter was tested and does not?  They're both young and live in this house.  I've been continuing Solomon's detox.  But one thing I completely slacked off on since this summer is that I have not been damp mopping the floors every other day like I was.  Did this contribute?  Lord willing we will find out more soon.

What makes some people more susceptible to some things and not others?  Why did Lilly have that 3rd copy of the 18th chromosome but most other babies in the world don't?  God knows, but we haven't figured it out yet.

Recently I was contacted by a family who's mission is to spread awareness about Mesothelioma cancer. This is an aggressive cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, that affects the membrane lining of the lungs and abdomen. The family asked if I would write a blogpost sharing their story.  I was intrigued.  I have heard of people getting cancer from asbestos, but didn't know it was called Mesothelioma cancer and didn't know anything else about it.

Cameron, Lily, Heather

When Heather Von St. James was 36, she diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. ) She had been feeling really, really awful and had been losing 5-7 pounds a week.  Then she began to feel like a truck had parked on her chest and she couldn't breathe.  The diagnosis came only 3 months after she gave birth to a little baby girl named Lily Rose.  She was told she had about 15 months to live.  Thankfully she had good doctors and finally was able to have surgery.  One of her lungs was removed.

mother & daughter - still together

This happened 8 years ago.  Heather is incredibly fortunate to be a survivor and her daughter is so blessed to still have her mother.  With her husband Cameron, Heather seeks to share information about asbestos and mesothelioma.  Below are some things that I learned, from information they sent me.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral in the earth.  So it will always be here.  However, it sounds like we need to leave it alone and not use it, as it has been classified as a human carcinogen.  About 30 million pounds of asbestos are used in building materials each year in the United States.  It surrounds us as it is in many homes, schools, and buildings.

In spite of the 30 million pounds of asbestos still being used every year, that number is actually down.  Asbestos use was at its peak from the 1930s through late 1970s.  During that time it was also commonly used in over 3000 consumer products including toasters and hairdryers.

Mesothelioma is most commonly diagnosed in men between the ages of 50-70.  However it is on the rise among women.  Those with the highest probability of having asbestos related health problems are U.S. Navy veterans who served during World War II and the Korean war.

I find it strange that it takes so long for mesothelioma to surface - it is dormant in the body for 20-50 years after exposure to asbestos.

Heather's diagnosis was rather unusual since she was a young female.  But cases like hers are on the increase, due to second hand exposure.  When Heather was a little girl, she often put on her father's work jacket when she went outside.  Her dad worked in construction and would come home from work with drywall dust just coating his jacket.  So Heather's exposure to asbestos was second hand, through her father's jacket.  (Heather's dad died earlier this year, from kidney cancer.  Was it related to his work with asbestos?  Doctors don't know.)

Every year, between 2,500 - 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma.  On average, they are given 10 months to live.  This number seems" low," compared to the huge amount of people that must be exposed to it every day.  But why?  Why the 2,500-3,000?  Why not more?  Again doctors don't know.  I asked Heather for her opinion.  She replied:  "I imagine genetics play a huge part.  Amount of exposure, type of asbestos exposed to, etc etc ... Too many factors to weigh ..."

There is currently no cure.  In fact, it is tricky to even diagnose because it mimics so many other respiratory conditions.  Symptoms include: chest pain, chronic cough, effusions of the chest and abdomen, and the presence of blood in lung fluid.

However, once the mesothelioma diagnosis is confirmed, chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery can help.  Heather's removal of her lung certainly helped her and she continues to feel great, 8 years after.  I think her obvious optimistic attitude and fighting spirit helped her too.

To learn more, here are a few links:

1) Heather's mesothelioma awareness website:  http://www.mesothelioma.com/heather/awareness/
Be sure to watch Heather's video of her story - this makes it all so real:  http://www.mesothelioma.com/heather/

2) Mesothelioma informational website, for patients and their families:  http://www.mesothelioma.com/mesothelioma/

3)  Direct link from the above site, about treatment: http://www.mesothelioma.com/treatment/

Heather says she and Lily are inseparable

I pray none of you reading this ever receive the mesothelioma diagnosis.  I'm sure many - if not most of us have been exposed to asbestos many, many times.  I am not sure but I seem to recall my dad saying he was exposed to it during his years of construction work in his youth.  I wonder about our wonderful old farmhouse we live in - it was rescued from it's dilapidated state and redone in the 1970s.  What about the stores we shop at, the offices we work at, the schools we attend, etc. etc.?

Of course we are not to live in fear.  But it is good to stay armed with information so that we can make wise decisions.  Just like with Lilly's 17 months of life.  I wish I had had more knowledge and wisdom about Trisomy 18 when she was born.  But I did the best I could and now, like Heather and her husband, our family seeks to spread awareness.

Thank you Heather and Cameron, for sharing your story with me and in turn, everyone reading this blog.  May God continue to bless you to touch many lives in your awareness work.