Salutations!
Welcome to my little spot in the vast world of the interwebz. I'm just starting this one out, so bear with me, posts will come. There's never a dull moment around here, or a lack of a good story, that's for sure. LOL
I'm a stay-at-home mom of 3 beautiful babes. My husband is a photographer and I'm the editor of all his freelance material. I homeschool my kiddos and in my free time I love to be creative and make crafty things.
I've been blessed with some challenges; I have some chronic health problems and was recently diagnosed with Auto-Immune Hepatitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. It's been a long road and it's still not over (not by a long shot) but I feel that through God's help I have come to terms with it all and am learning to manage it. It's given me a real chance to learn to "praise him in the storm".
I've also been blessed with the challenge of having a child with special needs. My oldest son was born prematurely and has some issues that stem from that. He has problems with his immune system and Asthma that gets really bad during the winter. He doesn't fight infections very well and has had mononucleosis twice (yes, twice) in his 8 years of being alive.
He is also Autistic. When he was first diagnosed, he was very low-functioning. My husband and I, along with his therapists have all worked diligently down through the years with him and his function level has improved GREATLY.
We treat him as we do our other children--he's expected to be polite and act like a gentleman, he's held accountable for his actions and he is given the same opportunities, challenges, discipline and rewards as the others. He's come out of his shell and become this wonderful, bright, pleasant, loving and sweet child. I have had many people tell me that you wouldn't be able to tell he's autistic if you didn't know it. I love knowing that I've played a part in that. :-)
My other two children are "normal" (does that even really mean anything?) and two great big handfuls of chaos and fun.
My youngest son, who is 4, is my little Rogue. He is smart, sneaky and QUICK--a deadly combination.
When I buy treats for the kids, even if I leave them in the car and don't bring them in the house, he knows they are there somehow. I have to wait till he is asleep to bring them in and put them away and it's always an adventure. I have to pick a different spot every time, and get creative with how I hide them. And sadly, despite doing things such as wrapping them up in different bags and sticking them in the back of the highest cabinet, or hiding them in inconspicuous containers (Surely he wouldn't look in the old laundry soap box!) he somehow manages to have said treats found and devoured/mutilated/strewn about by morning before everyone else wakes up. I don't know how he does it--he must have a sixth sense for them. LOL
He also has this uncanny ability to know where ANYTHING is at anytime. Lost keys? Ask Gavin. Looking for your hat you haven't seen since last week? Gavin will tell you where exactly to find it. ("It's in your closet on your top shelf, Dad.") My husband and I swear up and down that he gets up in the middle of the night and takes inventory of the entire house...NOTHING gets hidden from this kid.
My daughter, the youngest, is the quintessential "Princess". She is my blonde beauty and loves to dress up "pretty". She's into fairies and frills, pink and purple and is very prissy. She will scream bloody murder if she sees a fly, ant or any other kind of bug. She can't stand to be dirty (unless it's food on her face, then she doesn't care--what's up with that?) and loves to wash her hands.
She is INCREDIBLY smart. She can count to 15,and identify her numbers. She also knows her alphabet, can identify EVERY letter AND the sound it makes. She knows all her colors, along with what primary colors make secondary ones--I.E. "Blue and yellow make green", "Red and white make pink", etc. She can also do simple addition, like 1+1=2. Oh, you're not impressed? She is TWO. Yes, Two. As of February. Yeah, I'm gonna have trouble with this one... LOL
So, there you have it--My life, in a nutshell. Getting back to the blog...
My purpose for this blog is for it to be both an outlet for my creativity, along with a way for family members and friends to stay caught up with us. I'll be posting lots of the different crafty things I like to make, along with some tutorials, instructions or patterns for those who wish to learn to make them. My ultimate goal is to start a small home business with all this stuff, but we'll see if that's in God's plan for me. :-) I'll also post from time to time to keep everyone updated on the heppenings in our crazy household.
I hope that you will enjoy the tutorials and reading about our little adventures! Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
~Michelle
