Insomnia Strikes Again

It's almost 4:45 am and I'm still not tired...sigh. After I write this post I'm going to go to bed anyway, I'll at least get some rest before the kids get up.

Today M. (son's fiancee), Joseph and I went to the local library near our cottage. I got a couple children's DVDs for the kids to hopefully teach them some sign language. We left our Signing Times DVDs at home, they don't have them at our local library here, so I got the only two they do have. We'll see what they look like later today, after they wake up.

M. got a couple books, one on how to teach yourself to knit. I haven't knit since I was young and I didn't cast on/off or decrease or increase the number of stitches, so I really am no help to her.

Joseph got some books on Mythology and Medieval Weapons, he wants to write a book/cartoon series. Anything to get him to write both for his creative writing needs, but also for his penmanship. He is going into 8th grade but writes like a first grader, I should say prints, he can't do cursive at all! He has a learning disability that makes it difficult for him to write mechanically. He is capable of reading at a 10th-12th grade level (some college) and is intelligent in Science and History, but ask him to write, spell or remember where he put anything...well, you might as well forget it. But, he wants to write this book, so I gave him a composition notebook and told him to write it down. He was going to try and remember it all (which is NOT beyond his abilities), but I told him to get it down on paper was a much better plan, he's willing to, so I'm hopeful. He has taken the summer off of homeschooling, but has read all summer long. His behavior has caused us many challenges and much grief this summer, so he has been grounded from all forms of electronics this entire summer. It didn't start that way, but it has continued to progress that way. It's difficult to be that consistent for that length of time, it feels like cruel and unusual punishment, but believe me, it isn't and hasn't been, it's just the consequences of sinning and poor decisions on his part KNOWING ahead of time what the consequences will be. He has been seeing a counselor and will be seeing a psychiatrist to see if there is a medical reason for his behavior which may require medication, either way he will continue counseling with our pastor (he is also a christian counselor) since it is a sin issue bottom line.

Jonathan has turned in to such a Momma's boy...oh my gosh, he won't leave me alone for a second. I love him dearly, but I don't get a second to myself the whole day! If I go out of sight he starts banging his head. We still have the helmet on him and have tried all kinds of behavior modifications, without success. He will be having a professional evaluation by a behavioral specialist some time in September. We have also started doing brush therapy which works while we do it, but doesn't last long.

We also got approval for Anah to go to an autism play day type thing at our nearby college twice a month. We'll see how it goes, it's totally voluntary on our part, nothing she is committed to, but I hope it may help her with initiating play and imaginative play as well.

I still haven't sent in my end of the year fourth quarter reports for Joseph and Anah, I have to get on that, as well as my letter of intent and IHIP for Joseph for the upcoming school year.

Oh, and did I mention that it all is on my lap top that crashed yesterday?! We brought it to a computer guru and the hard drive has crashed...ugh, so we either have to buy a new hard drive and get it installed and have the files transferred, or get a new lap top. Of course money is a huge consideration, so it's on hold for a while until we can find a good deal on a hard drive and go home and get my operating system CD for my computer. Life is never dull in our household, of that you can be certain!!