Getting ready for the week...

So what have I been up to?

Friday I took Leiah to the Brain Gym lady again and she did wonderful! The lady was soooo excited about her progress and told me she thought we would really begin to see some good changes in Leiah. It takes time though.

Anyways, she also writes curriculum for preschools and elementary grades and had some great ideas for activities. One of which, you won't believe how simple and cheap it is. Take an empty bottle, such as a syrup bottle with a lid that has a big enough hole for a piece of yarn. Make sure it's cleaned and dry, then get about two feet of yarn, knot both ends, and feed it through the hold in the lid of the bottle. After it's all in there, 'squirt' the bottle and the yarn comes shooting out. Part of the game is to get them to practice threading the yarn in the hole. My nephew played with it all afternoon, and he is a high energy kid.

Another thing we did over the weekend was take some plastic bottles, such as those for water or soda, but not liter sized. We filled one with water, added some food coloring, glitter, colored foil bits (I found it in the birthday section of walmart) various small objects (I raided the girls' dress up box and hair accesory boxes) then glued the lid. It's supposed to be a 'calming' toy and it's fun to shake it up and see all the glittering objects. The other we filled with half blue water and half baby oil so the objects 'floated' like boats. I couldn't find any small fish, shells or boats anywhere at walmart though! We keep them up high so curious hands don't get them without us knowing and somehow bust it open :)

We now have less than two weeks before we drive to the UP. (upper Michigan) It is terribly cold there I've heard, and it's in the 70s here! I need to start making packing lists and get that going so there won't be so much to do the day before.

This week I am trying to figure out how to fit everything in that needs to be done while taking Leiah to speech. It's just one day a week for now, but it still takes me an hour one way to get there, so it pretty much takes up half the day, plus any other errands I need to run. I think the only way I will be able to do it all is wake up at 5am!

My FIRM tapes made it in! I have to start this week even though I don't have hand weights or a step stool thingie. If I don't I won't be able to sled or ski much in the snow later.

I'm also looking for a new hairdo. This time last year I cut my very long hair pretty short. I liked it for awhile, then got tired of it, then was stuck with the growing out stage. Now it's considered 'long'-a few inches past my shoulders. I don't consider that long. Anyways, I may try a straight hair style with bangs- do you know I haven't had bangs since the early 90s when we curled them and poofed them out and sprayed hairspray all over? Maybe I should start that trend up again, ha,ha. I couldn't let myself go out in public like that!

Just for kicks, my husband found a free tool on the internet that let me upload my picture and it would put different 'celebrity' hairstyles on my head. You can even change the color and highlight it. Let's just say blond is not me :) We put dh and the kids' faces in there too, silly us!

Busy week ahead! I'm going to try 3 Week Cleaning from Candy's website. (keeping the home)

There is of course the usual cooking, tidying, bed-making, table chores, school, brain gym, sewing, Bible study, blogging, new exercise routine, etc... I also plan to work in a fun Valentine craft in there somewhere, if not this week then for sure next week. Oooh, the brain gym therapist also gave me some GREAT recipes for kids- silly putty, edible playdough, face paint etc. If anyone is interested I can post them.

Gotta go- maybe I can sew a bit on Alexa's dress before bed.