happy being trevy

Nature hikes and read alouds have become an important part of our lifestyle thanks to my infatuation with one Miss. Charlotte Mason.  I've been surprised with how much Trevor loves our nature expeditions. The heat holds him back during the warm months, but once the air gets chilly his stamina increases. He's usually the one begging to go for a nature hike every.single.day. I've been equally impressed with how much he loves reading aloud...and books, generally.  We recently started reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe during our daily morning meeting. The morning meeting is when all of us gather in the living room for "together work". Last week we read the part where Edmund meets the White Witch who was riding by in her sleigh. During our walk today, Trevor plopped himself in this hollowed out tree, which with applied imagination does resemble a sleigh, and declared... Look me! I'm the witch from Nar...

A lesson I've learned while walking beside and loving my child with catastrophic epilepsy... He is far braver than words can capture and his words will always fail to fully enlighten us to all the complicated thoughts and memories he carries inside. We told him we needed to run an errand this morning. We didn't tell him it was to the lab for bloodwork. Clearly, some internal warning system had red flags waving because his anxiety was climbing. As we were walking to the car he began getting weepy. He was wringing his hands, with a wild look in his eye and saying, repetitively, "I don't know where we're going, though. I don't know where." I knew the moment to tell him had come. We are always honest with him about these things, though we do delay the process to save him as much anxiety as possible. I squatted down to eye level. Grabbed both his hands in mine. And told him we were headed to the lab. The words hung there between us. I could see ...

Lesson I've learned while walking beside and loving my child with catastrophic epilepsy... It's okay... even more than okay... it's crucial... to acknowledge his limitations.  There are so many things that Trevor can do. So many things we never thought he'd be able to. But... there are also many things he can't do. Crowds and noise, for example. I thought we might have to leave his sister's ballet recital the other day because he was *this* close to losing his marbles. Once the marbles are lost, there is no calming him. Thankfully, I'd packed his noise canceling headphones. It was really an after-thought because they're not usually enough. He's always surprising us, though, and somehow he pulled himself together and even managed a forced smile for me.  This is only one example, but the face is we are face-to-face with various limitations and challenges he faces, both physical and intellectual, ...

My super power is self-doubt and second guessing. It can eat me for breakfast if I'm not careful. Which is why I make an effort to fill my heart with Truth and lovely things to build immunity against wallowing in the sludge of my own head. Even still...sometimes my flesh is weak. Today was a self-doubt day. I worried  about bills. I worried about college for kids and how to fund it. I worried about bills. I worried about this and about that. I worried about Trevor. I worried about my choice to home educate him and was it the best or am I failing him. He has a way of always proving me wrong exactly when I need it. This is a picture of today's copywork... And this is a picture from the beginning of the year... Today's was incredibly beautiful and shows tangible improvement from the beginning of the year. It made me a big sap ball. He LOVES making me sappy. Which only intensifies the sap-fest. I mean, seriously, how can I n...

I couldn't decide between captioning this photo "The Trouble with Independence" or "Why Trevy isn't Ready to Stay Home Alone...and May Never Be" or "Special Needs Prankster". Bristel left her bagels on the counter to be creamed while we ran downstairs for a quick lesson on using the washing machine. I'd left Trevor upstairs with his brother. They were both busy doing meaningful things and I thought the couple minutes it'd take would be too short for mischief.  I realised my mistake when Trevor's cheeky giggle came floating down the stairs ahead of him. The basement is accessible right off the kitchen. He was descending while carrying (precariously, I might add!) the plate he'd prepared for his sister. When asked what in the world he was thinking, his response was simply, "Me think it be yummy!" The twinkle in his eye coupled with his unwillingness to taste his creation begged to differ. The jury is out on wh...

This is purely anecdotal. Trevor had a horrible, rotten, no good day yesterday. It started with a 2am waking and coming to "the big bed" because he felt sick. Thankfully he slept until the morning. ABA was a nightmare and the rest of the day wasn't much better. We pushed through and completed mommy school. Then tried to attend a local free karate class. We've been trying it out to see if karate could be a good fit for him. Yesterday we had to leave early. He was freaking out that it was "too loud". Covering his ears and curled in a fetal ball at my feet. I'd managed to tackle him before he bolted right out the door. The class wasn't even loud. All day long, I carried a pit in my stomach. A seizure mom pit. Something was off. It's a strange and heavy burden to carry. Wondering if your child's brain is being assaulted from within but having little to no tangible external evidence. Not everyone considers "behavior...

We've been going to the market on Tuesdays after dropping Bristel at her ballet ride. Trevor is learning how to navigate the aisles, read labels, compare prices, and engage with humanity. This has allowed us to organically incorporate essential life skills, along with speech practice, ot, pt, and even orientation and mobility work into his home education goals. Today he did an excellent job finding items we were looking for and practicing his, "My name is Trevor, what's your name?" memorized sentence. Here's the thing. I use his handicap placard to park. I don't use it everywhere or all the time, but the Walmart parking lot is a zoo and for his safety and my sanity, I use it. It's probably in my head, but I felt like the elderly woman and caregiver or daughter parked next to us were giving us the stink eye. The daughter stood outside the vehicle with her cell phone in hand until we left. She appeared to be texting. I found myself wond...