Our Move is Over and now "My Kids Turn"

Our move is over and I am beginning to feel more settled. For the first 2 weeks I was feeling like I was in a beautiful hotel and I was the maid. We are still working on little things, well I really mean big things in some cases. Our backyard is as large as a small city park. We have many trees and with that comes trimming. Tim has trimmed and hauled brush to the city landfill once and now we are good until fall. The work left to do is pretty much that which will be on going during the summer growing season.

It feels really good to have it all behind us so that I can concentrate on enjoying our home and the other parts of my life.

In the office at Essdack, we are kicking off a busy summer. Jane Seward and Jodi Case are presenting a 2 day "Spaces and Places" where teachers of the young child are learning tips on creating interesting learning spaces. They are having fun creating colorful places for children to learn.

Michelle Flaming and Renee' Smith have been working hard this week planning for a 2 week "Increasing Mathematical Understanding" grant facilitation training. It will be fun to see the same teachers for 2 weeks in the office learning and having fun.

Jane Seward has 5 days of "Pathways to Reading" beginning next week. The calls are rolling in to sign up!

I have mentioned in a previous blog that I am so fortunate to work where learning is always happening. There are always new buzz words related to learning or education which means there might be something new coming down the pike.

A very exciting thing happening at Essdack are "you tube videos" on mykidsturn.com

"My Kids Turn" is a website really designed to help a parent with their child's learning at home. It is a great website that addresses many of the things that children struggle with in school. Here is a list of the topics to check out:

Just Desserts
Learn Grow and Bloom
Raising Digital Kids
Art Snacks
By the Numbers
Magic Spell
Great Games Better Brains

As I have had the opportunity to check out what the staff here at Essdack has done with this learning opportunity, I have certainly learned a lot of new things that I can enjoy with my grandchildren. Our staff has shared tools and tips to help children at home continue learning and also have fun doing it. We believe that learning should be fun!

Enjoy learning something new everyday.

Traveling Down Memory Lane

The preparation for the move to our new home is in full swing. The garage sale is over and it was certainly prosperous for all of us involved. I met my financial rewards with what I had hoped to earn. What a wonderful, gratifying feeling to have that behind me. Preparing our move has certainly been "a trip down memory lane." As I have taken the time to look into every box it has brought with it a lot of emotions that go clear back to my childhood. That is a lot of years, folks! Some things were more easily thrown out or sold than one item in imperticualr

My Dad always enjoyed making things for me anytime of the year. It did not have to be Christmas or some other special day on the calendar. However, one year probably as far back as fifteen years he made my sister and I an outdoor two-wheeled cart. He used old lumber that he always had lying around from some other project. The cool thing about the cart was that he used old antique wheels given to him by a really good friend of his. That made it even better for him to make something for us. Every spring since that time I have always enjoyed it in my yard with flowers. The wood on the cart suffers damage every year from the weather. Tim has spent time keeping it together by replacing some of the original wood. I have given it a fresh coat of paint every spring so that it may continue to be a bright spot in our yard. Needless to say, I truly hope that the cart will stay with me or my children and their families for a very long time. I am looking forward to moving the flower cart with us to our new home, so that I and others that visit us will also enjoy a true labor of love from my precious Dad. Enjoying the out of doors was his favorite thing in the whole world. That is why keeping something made by him that can be enjoyed outdoors is so special to me.
Traveling down memory lane has been fun and also comforting. There are simply certain special things in our lives that will always connect us to someone close to our heart.

The Dawn of a New Day

Here it is "the dawn of a new day". On my last post I blogged on moving from my home of 22 plus years to a newer ranch home. Our home has been on the MLS listing for 17 days and has shown all but 2 days of that time. We have had 2 potential buyers back for the second time and tonight we have the 3rd second time potential buyers coming back to take another look. In my mind I have moved on to our new home. I am thinking about how to decorate, what colors for the walls, and where I will actually store all of our things. Last weekend was the big basement purge! I and a co-worker are having a huge garage sale soon. Tim and I have moved items from the basement to the garage for lack of a better place to go. Sadly, it is very gratifying to be pitching things that at one time I couldn't even begin to part with. Old things of my adult children. I know when I decided to keep it 25 plus years ago in my mind I jut knew that my children would certainly want the valuables of their childhood. Wrong!

We really do live in a very disposable world. What once meant the world to us doesn't mean a thing months or years down the road. The majority in the present generation of young adults do not have the sentiments that some of us have on items that were made by grandma, grandpa or even the generation of "greats". My generation has a better understanding of the labor of love that went in to homemade items. Now that a move is in store for Tim and Jenny it is time to clear our lives and become free of stuff taking up space.
The "dawn of a new day" brings a chance to make memories, reminisce, cherish valuable moments no matter what we are doing. The stuff in our lives, is just stuff! What is the most meaningful are relationships of all those at home, work, and wherever else we hang out.

My new uncluttered existence is feeling really good.

Essdack Small Fry on "The Big Move"

Several weeks ago I wrote a blog on "un-nesting my home". I felt when I started the process there was a reason that I would find out later. Well, the reason is staring me right in the face. A "for sale" sign in my yard and a contract on a new home is in store and right around the corner. I have lived through one full week of a rat race of showings, an open house for realtors and an open house for the public. Now all we need is a good solid offer on our home of 20 plus years. One can only imagine the archives of stuff and junk that has been accumulated. I am a tosser, so I can't imagine what would be looking back at me if I wasn't. I feel overwhelmed ! However, Tim and I are very organized people, so organized it is amazing that we survive each other. When you raise your family and then the kids go and then have kids of there own, you start thinking it's time for a different house. We live in a 2 story colonial home and are moving to a ranch with a great basement. I am so excited to have plenty of plug-ins and an attached garage. I have stood at my back door in driving rain, blizzards and intense heat, waiting to unlock and enter.

I look around my home and I think to myself where am I going to put all this stuff and what should I not have at all. I know when it is done it will be good and I will have a great sense of accomplishment that I made it, well I should say we have made it. My list of duties has started and we have hit the ground running for this brand new venture.

Life is good.

Essdack Small Fry on "Time Change Again"

I really do desire that the time of the "world clock" would stay one way or the other. It is so messy to do the hour thing twice a year. I know it is simple "spring forward and fall back". I do get that part. You all know that change happens this weekend March 14th, don't you? It is now daylight in the mornings and is so nice to get up and get going. Sunday morning it will be dark when it is time to get up and still be light in the night. Our biological clock will spend a week or two being confused. I remember with children at home it was always difficult to get them to bed because it was not dark. However, they did eventually adjust to it until it was time to do it again.

I do admit that extra hour of light in the evenings gives us all more time to enjoy the outdoors. The change of time in the spring means new life and re- birth for all things dormant from the long winter. My favorite thing in the spring is to be outdoors in the early mornings, coffee in hand, for the sunrise. This is a time when possible, I enjoyed with my precious Dad. He so loved those early mornings in the spring. I have such fond memories of those scenes in my life.

Once again, Sunday morning at 2:00 am approximately 70 countries will alter their lives and biological clocks for the big spring change. Look at it as a great chance to enjoy the outdoors as we have all had a long cold winter.

Ambassador for Asperger's

Ambassador, what does that mean to most of us? Well, one definition I found on -line is the following: an authorized representative or messenger b : an unofficial representative

As I think of the term, I think of someone that is spreading positive information about something they are passionate about. For me personally, I am an "ambassador" for my Grandson Zachary. He is 9 soon to be 10 this summer and is in the 4th grade. Four years ago he was diagnosed with Asperger's which is high functioning Autism.

Zachary is a kiddo of high intelligence and has some of the greatest gifts that you could ever want in a kid. He does however have some quirks that can be very frustrating at times. As he has gotten older many of the social things that were a problem are kinda disappearing. Life with Zachary is always fun because he is so witty. He uses big words and his ability to communicate has always been way above what his age reflects. One of the things that a child with Asperger's deals with is not understanding social cues. He is likely to say exactly what he sees and it may not be exactly appropriate. We spend a lot of time explaining a more acceptable response. The great thing about him is that he has fabulous manners. He is never remiss at being kind when things are offered to him or he is given a gift. Needless to say, the entire family has said things that we all would understand and Zachary takes it literally. Like "it's raining cats and dogs." I chuckled to myself when he wondered where the cats and dogs were.

His diet has always and still is a challenge for all of us all the time. A child with Aspergers finds 3 or 4 things they will eat for a very long time. It is often times food that is not very healthy. We have all spent countless hours trying to find the next new food for his taste buds. We are now beginning a new plan of action where food is involved. After countless hours of research and concern of his diet, as a family, Zachary is going to begin to try very small bites of new things. This will be a challenge but worth fighting for a healthier diet and better brain food.

Being an"ambassador" for a kid is so much fun for me. It comes with some frustration but the gift of happiness that he brings those that love him far out ways the hurdles. Every second that I spend with him I am richly blessed by his huge heart and his sincere love for me, his "Grammy." My heart is so full and I am richly blessed being an "ambassador" for this kiddo.

Essdacks Small Fry "Un-nesting my home"

Many of you have heard the term "I am nesting". Many women expecting babies "nest" as their delivery date nears. They organize, clean and prepare for that little one to enter their home and more importantly their lives. Well, I am "un-nesting" my home! I am not sure if "un-nesting" is actually a word in Webster's, but it works for what I am doing. Tim and I have been in our 2-story 1924 colonial home for 22 years. Needless to say a family accumulates many things in their lives together. Even though my children have been gone from this home for 15 plus years there are still things of theirs and ours that need to be removed. I began yesterday with a decluttering plan starting with the second story and plan on working down to the basement. All of this is an effort to bring peace of mind to me that everything has been cleaned out. If it is possible for Tim and I to agree on the home, at some point in the future we will move to a ranch style house, to be enjoyed as much as we have enjoyed our 2-story colonial.

I know that it is much harder for some to get rid of stuff than others. For me, I figure I have all the memories of all the stuff so I don't actually need to see it. For others it is total torture and painful to throw away or give away their stuff. I am constantly aware that everything has value to someone, especially to those I love the most. Of course, my children have moved on and are accumulating their own stuff so they don't want their old stuff. Well, at this point in time, some executive decisions will have to be made, and guess who will make those decisions. That would be me, "Mom". Someday they will thank me for my actions.

To all of you have an awesome day! Enjoy the wonderful sunshine.