Summer Schedule

Well, it's officially Summer in the Stroud home - almost. ;) Mission Friends and dance are wrapping up, but we're registering for summer camps and activities, so I'm pretty much calling it Summer now.

I have lots of things I'd like to accomplish during our Summer break, and I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed. So, Mary and I created our Summer Schedule this morning:

We decided together in which order to place our 'events,' and then when as we move down the schedule throughout the day, we'll push the event to the Done! side.

Everything on our daily schedule is pretty self-explanatory, but I did want to expound on a couple of things, just in case you're curious.

Proverbs Time has become a very special part of our morning. After the hubs takes Anna to school, Mary and I sit on the living room floor, open our Bibles to the Proverb of the day, and I read while she follows along. We'll stop and talk about certain verses that might mean something to her. A few days ago she really latched on to the verse in chapter 22 about not being friends with angry people. She's talked about that for a few days now! After we read, we pray together, and then we watch what we just read. Hello, visual learners! Remember that marriage retreat the hubs and I went to last month? While we were there, we picked up Dr. S.M. Davis's DVD set of Picture Proverbs.

The entire book of Proverbs is narrated with a picture for each verse (and sometimes sound effects and beautiful classical music). Mary and I love it, and she's even asked that we do it everyday except on special occasions like birthdays. Ha! So, that's why I put it in our daily Summer schedule.

For our CC review, we're using the memory work system from Jaime Gravitt at Homeschool Story:

I downloaded the cards, printed, and laminated, and I'm loving it! If you're looking for a way to systematically review all the memory work and prevent brain drain this Summer, go check it out!

Writing With Ms. Marnie is our handwriting lesson each day from TV Teacher. Ms. Marnie has wonderful five-minute lessons for each letter, and she teaches a cute little chant to help us remember how to write the letters. Up and around, back up, and down is the chant for lowercase 'a.' 

That's about it for our schedule. Summer is looking to be a busy time for us, and it all started earlier this week. Can I share what's going on?

I might ramble. 

I probably will.

Well, we had Anna's first formal evaluation meeting on Monday at her absolutely fantastic preschool. This was the big meeting with all of her therapists, teachers, and all the reports and test scores. I was a little surprised with their results. I know these are just test scores, and scores don't mean anything. I know that. But, all the formal evaluations by trained professionals confirmed that Anna is in fact a 'special needs' child. Gorlin Syndrome has affected her physical and mental development in ways that I wasn't really prepared for, I guess. I don't know... if just feels... I'm not sure. I don't know how I feel about it all. 

Mary and I went to our CC's Park Day on Tuesday, the day after the meeting, and I just couldn't stay. I started feeling very sad, just all of a sudden really. Sad that Anna couldn't be with us enjoying the beautiful sunny weather. Sad that she has so many obstacles to face in life. Sad that I don't know what the future holds for her (pity party, I know, right). Everyone expects their kids to grow up, find a job, move out, get married, etc. Will Anna be physically and mentally able to do those things? We don't know. But, I do know one thing - God is teaching me to fully rely on Him every step of the way. It really becomes a day-by-day, step-by-step reliance. I know that He is sovereign  and He created Anna exactly the way He wants her to be. And He creates everything beautiful (Eccl. 3:11).

Anna's therapists recommended some extra activities to help her, so we've been busy getting her into gymnastics and other things. So, this is what sort of prompted the new schedule. Moving things around and organizing things is how I deal with things sometimes. I think it's about finding something that I can actually control when I feel out of control. Know what I mean? I can control (to an extent, of course) our daily schedule in our home.

Tomorrow morning we go in for Anna's first PDT (photodynamic therapy) to kill the cancer spots on her face. Please pray that she will sit still for the 17 minutes it takes for the light to do it's job. She'll be very sensitive to light for the following two days, so we'll be staying inside and watching her favorite movies. I'll post an update when I can. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Here's a cute, albeit very blurry picture of my beautiful blessings:

God bless you, friends.

UPDATE: Anna's doctor didn't need to do the procedure today! Her spots on her tummy were very small, as were two spots on her face. Instead, we're waiting to check them again in the Fall! One spot on her nose even went away! God is so good! Thank you for keeping our family in your prayers. :)