Exciting Cleaning Discoveries

I recently discovered how to clean a moldy water bottle that is tall and has a smaller opening, thus making it difficult to clean and a dishwasher that has hard water build-up.

Moldy Bottle Solution: go to http://www.ehow.com/how_4763280_clean-moldy-water-bottle.html
and

check out this site for all the ways you can use vinegar including the hard water stains in your dishwasher. http://www.vinegartips.com/Scripts

I am excited to learn new ways to clean and fix things so that I don't have to go and buy new. If I get the point of thinking about throwing things away to replace with something new I ponder my carbon footprint hoping for a good future for my children.

Their world and Ours

Isaac: "Mom can you call Grandma and Grandpa and Dad RIGHT NOW so that they can come see the horses before they have surgery?"

Me: "Do you really think I should call Grandma, Grandpa, and Dad so that they can stop everything RIGHT NOW to come and participate in your pretend world?"

Isaac: "Yeah!" (big smile)

Me: "No not gonna happen."

I've been somewhat irritated lately how the pretend world exists on the same level as real life and how the pretend world creates so much bickering between the boys when one of their worlds doesn't mesh with the others. For example, when they are arguing over whether or not you can feed a horse a peppermint or if one wins a pretend world race and the other loses.

My latest statement: "If you pretend world doesn't bring joy, than that pretend world cannot exist." Not sure if that is a good statement to make yet because I am still sorting it all out in my head since I do love their creativity and want to celebrate it.

Isaac's First Hospital Visit

Isaac had a loss of appetite on Friday night. Then on Saturday he began having intermittent severe abdominal pain. He had similar pain a few months back with a case of the flu so we thought we just needed to wait for the diarrhea to begin. Sunday the pain become worse throughout the day but still off and on and still no other flu symptoms. He was more tired than normal and sleeping more. The pain wasn't keeping him from sleeping. On Monday we took him to the doctor and she recommended an ultrasound at All Children's Hospital. The ultrasound confirmed that Isaac had intussusception in the small bowel. Basically his small bowel had telescoped into itself. The likely cause is a virus with enlarged stomach lymph nodes that pushed the small intestine inward just enough for it to collapse within itself.

The two possible procedures to correct the problem is an air enema or surgery. The surgeons decided to have the radiologist try the air enema first. They pass a tube up the rectum and blow air in the intestines. They gave only a 20% chance of it working given Isaac's age (usually intussusception happens in children younger than 2 years), the location of the blockage, and the duration of time it had been blocked (2 days). Within 5 minutes the air enema worked!!! The radiologists were shocked. Isaac was completely pain free and just a little tired from the days of pain before and procedure.

After the procedure Isaac and I stayed at the hospital for about 24 hours so that they could observe any changes that may occur when he ate. Next week Isaac will have another ultrasound to help determine if it was only a lymph node/ virus that caused the blockage or if there is something else that caused the problem.

Isaac and I are both happy to be home. We are grateful for the good hospital experience: a brand new hospital, nice nurses and doctors, and TV viewing.

Cullums Under Construction

Happy Advent, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

The year 2010 has brough the Cullums "Under Construction".

September we began building our new house. The house is located on 102nd Ave in Seminole Florida about 5 minutes from our current house and 1 minute from Kyle's parents. It is the same land where Kyle lived with his parents from elementary school through high school. We are trying to do a lot of the work ourselves so we anticipate completion to be around Thanksgiving 2011. It has been an entire family project with Kyle, myself, all 3 of our children, Kyle's parents and Kyle's brother and cousin helping out. Isaac and Eli have loved playing in the dirt and riding on the backhoe with Grandpa Cullum. We are extremely grateful to have this opportunity to build a home that meets our needs and helps us continue with our goals for our family.

Kyle rode a 100 mile bike ride with his brother Sam in October and I am in the process of training for a half marathon on January 8th with my sister in law Amber Cullum. Both the rides and runs have pushed us past our limits but its always good to complete something you never thought you could.

We are so grateful that Florida Electrical Service continues to find work this year. We continue to hear of more and more construction based companies down sizing and closing in PInellas County. Kyle, David and Steve have worked long hours this year in hopes of continuing to find work for the company.

In May I was approached to direct our homeschool community Classical Conversations Largo. I took on the job and have been busy throughout the year making sure our school days run well and the community is healthy. It has been a lot of work and forced me to continue to strengthen my weak areas of leadership. We continue to be so thankful for the Classical Conversations community and how it holds us accountable to academic excellence and has brought great people into our lives.

Prema at 11 years old started middle school in the fall. She is in a self contained special education classroom for students with multiple disabilities. She remains in 2 joining classrooms most of the day and is fully supervised whenever she is mainstreamed with other students. In the mornings her curriculum focuses on academics and in the afternoons she is learning life skills. Prema is loving school this year. The new environment brings some challenges as she is the only deaf student and therefore a full time interpreter is required. On the positive side she is functioning at the same level as her peers so she is able to be instructed in small groups providing her the socialization she craves. Prema started her 2 year braces treatment in January 2010 and got her first set of glasses in September 2010. She is looking very mature.

The boys have kept us very very busy this year with their endless creativity and energy. Isaac at 5 years old continues to do well in his school work. He is really enjoying math this year. He is always leading Eli and other children in complex imaginary play usually pertaining to be Kings and Knights, farming, playing a Rocker baseball game, living in the land of Narnia, etc. Eli at 3 years old loves to join in Isaac's imaginary worlds as the comic relief such as the mascot at baseball games or the wild horse. Eli is still fascinated with living creatures such as bugs, insects, and other animals. He often tells us he wants a pet. He is a very deep thinker and asks us all the hard questions about faith and death.

Even though the letter seems to paint a really "beautiful" picture of our family, our character is constantly "under construction." We have 5 VERY strong willed people living together. We have been tested in our obedience, patience, acceptance, perseverance, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, orderliness, joyfulness, and faith. We pray that through the process we really are becoming beautiful for each other.

We look forward to what 2011 brings.

Blessings,
Michelle for Kyle, Prema, Isaac and Eli

Eli had been helping Kyle fill in the sides of the footer



Sam and Kyle working with the cement pump man and Chuck



Isaac proud he helped pile the wood


Prema pulling cut tree roots from the foundation sand


Eli riding with Grandpa Cullum in the Backhoe


Isaac and Prema riding on the swing in the backyard tree (interesting story we wanted to remove the tree but the city said we'd have to pay them $10,000 to remove the tree. So instead we changed up the house plans and are happier with the tree and house designs now.)



Frog Prema caught. She loves to spend time catching frogs and lizards and tame them to sit on her shoulder or arm.



Dirty faces we see often these days!

Another Embarrassing Eli Moment

Eli was at the top of the play structure on a fairly busy Sunday at the park. He decides to pull down the front of his pants and pee right through the climbing wall landing. We saw it coming. We shouted "Eli don't..." and the stream arched its way down to the ground. Thankfully no one was directly under him so everyone seemed to be dry.

Cranky Kids and Their Imaginations

Isaac and Eli have been cranky the past few days. Prema's brain just doesn't seem to be functioning very well. A lot of it probably has to do with the time change and waking up earlier since it is brighter in the morning.

Our sons have wonderful imaginations. Here is a sample in regards to why Isaac has been cranky the last few days.

A few days ago in the morning I asked Isaac "Why is it that you are so cranky today?"

Isaac: "Well I am just so tired."

Me: "if you are so tired why don't you just sleep in a bit longer."

Isaac: "I have had to wake up for winter training the past few days."

Me: "Winter training? Last night you were talking about waking up early to sheer the sheep." (Isaac and Eli have a "farm" with lots of animals that they tend to throughout the day. We are reading Farmer Boy by L.I. Wilder so they are acting out all the things they here Almanzo doing in the book.)

Isaac: "Nope it is winter training time but tomorrow morning I have a break so I can sleep in a bit longer and not be so cranky."

then last night Isaac was tell Grandpa Cullum that he has winter training right now. Grandpa Cullum thought it was training season for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, as did I. Last night Isaac informed us that the winter training is for his Rockers Baseball team which practices in the winter and not in the spring. Isaac has a pretend Rockers teach, which rarely loses and made it to the World Series. They play games just about every day. Eli is their mascot. The colors are blue, gold, yellow and red. For each adults birthday recently Isaac has made each person tickets to the Rockers home opener on April 1 2011 vs the Devils. The game happens to be on his own birthday.

We love their imaginations. There is something new everyday that we chuckle at listening to them at play. The only bad part is that sometimes their imagination can lead to more work for us as we discover that "plowing the field" means ripping out all the grass in an area of our lawn or "ice skating" means throwing dirt all over something so they can slide with their feet. I just take deep breaths and remind myself to cherish the memories and am thankful their brains are working instead of sitting idle in front of the TV.

Things We've Been Thinking About

We are so busy that I haven't had time to post much the past year. I thought I would post just a few of the things we've been thinking/ discussing/ reading about individually and as a family.

Hot Dogs


Eli loves to make people laugh. One of his most common jokes is "HOT DOG". He uses it as a silly name, punch line, you name it. He doesn't enjoy eating hot dogs so I think he must either like the sound of the words or it reminds him of his other favorite thing, his penis.


Aslan to our Hurray!!


Isaac LOVES the Chronicles of Narnia. We have the best audio CDs of all the books performed in Radio Theater by Focus on the Family. Isaac has been listening to these CDs for about a year every night before bed and during rest time. He knows them so well that he often speaks in Narnia lingo during regular conversation.

Parenting/ Behavior Management

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Love and Logic
Shepherding a Child's Heart
The Learning Parent (Character Training)


Our children keep us on our toes. We learn more about ourselves and are challenged to train/ mold our children into the best that they can be. We pick what works best for our family given Kyle and my personality and the personality and needs of our children from all the resources we come across (books and people).

Education

We are homeschooling Isaac for the second year using the Classical model. We are so grateful to have found Classical Conversations Christian Community. Through CC we have learned so much about how to truly educate the classical way and have support and weekly connection with other families who are also classically educating their children. This is a nation wide organization, check it out in your area!

We also just finished reading The Core by Leigh Bortins the founder of Classical Conversations. It is a wonderful resource for educating classically and also spurs great conversations about American Education.

Largo Middle School
Prema started middle school yesterday. She is in a self contained special education classroom that does academics in the morning and life skills in the afternoon. Prema has known that she is going to a new school for a few months. The anxiety and excitement has resulted in her constantly saying "Largo middle school 6th grade fall me" aka I am going to Largo Middle School in the fall. I will be in 6th grade.

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