How does your garden grow?

2/7/11 Monday Reflections;

I trust that we are doing the very best for Jewel. The right people who can help her are in her life and as needed will come into her life. I do not want to always be thinking that the grass is greener somewhere else. When I watched The Horse Boy documentary, I realized that most of us can not just pack up and go to the ends of the earth. We have to pray to see the help that is here around us. Become aware and ask for help. I do not want a lot of the help that most people get. We home school our children, we do not subscribe to all the drugs and medicine that is out there. If one of our children needs medicine or surgery, we check every other stone out there to check out all the options. If we can go natural and non invasive that will always be our first choice. I had a friend tell me that I am making my choices for Jewel based on pride and fear. I have looked at this and some times fear based choices are appropriate and I am certain that my family is doing what is best for Jewel at this time. I do not see how strangers in a class room can do better than what we are doing for her. We honor the complete child; soul/spirit/body/mind. I know Jewel best and I am confident in this. We love our children. They are happy, healthy children who are loved and are able to love. They know they are loved.

A hand full of people keep telling me to take her into the ocean. I understand that the ocean is healing and full of good ions. Beware of good advise and never parent out of guilt. For guilt is useless. I am doing the best that I can and going into the ocean every day with Jewel is just not where we are at. Yes water does relax her but we are working on foundational movement to crawling and strength training for riding Cookie Dough. I know that all these people give advise out of good intentions, but they would not last long in my shoes. They would farm Jewel out to school, rasped care and other care givers and services. I am proud to stay that for the past ten years we as a family have cared for Jewel's every needs. We pay for the O/T, speech, P/T and dentist, doctors of our choice all out of pocket. I respect these professionals who have dedicated their lives helping children like Jewel. I am eternally grateful for their help and aid. They have come alongside us in this tremendous and worthwhile journey called life. Life is such a gift. So unless you are able to put your money where your mouth is and help a family, be careful of judging them, giving them unsolicited advise. Unless you are willing to help take Jewel to the beach, why don't you just go to the beach. My father has never helped pay for any of her medical care yet he always says, " is she every going to walk!". The answer is YES Dad, and to everyone else. JEWEL WILL WALK! They said she would never nurse and she did for four years, they said she would always need oxygen assistance and she was off this after a month at home! I am not gonna listen to the unbelieving and the small minded and the negative words of whomever. I believe in miracles, in things yet not seen :) Jewel is a miracle and a gift. Thank you God for Jewel! My children are a gift!

I have learnt to delight in them. Jewel belongs to so many, for so many carry her in their heart as they believe with me for her health, stability & mobility. So many have prayed for her during my pregnancy and in the hospital and during her life thus far. The greatest gift one can give for another is to pray goodness for them. Thank you for all the prayers. Keep praying, keep believing, never tire from doing this sacred work.

Practice

2/7/11 Monday

Jewel had work done with the body worker John, thank you John. It seems Jewel gets so relaxed after a session with the massage therapist or body worker she has an accident. Note to self, take Jewel to the bathroom before and after these sessions.

She had a great O/T session, working on strengthening hips and working on pushing off from sitting on knees to standing on knees position.

Diagonal movements, rolling, mid line control.

Working on reading, slow to recognize all letters and words today, Jewel was a bit frustrated. Raven and I persevered through the lessons and we all lived through it.

It is dinner time. Hope you have a great meal awaiting to nurture and nourish your bodies too. :)

Breaking bread with the family is good.

Birthday planning

2/6/11 Sunday

When I asked Jewel what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said " Ava come, Dwagon cake".

And that is exactly what we did, we invited her friend Ava to come celebrate Jewel's birthday and we made a Dragon cake for her. It took three practice drawings on paper, one practice with icing on a plate, and then scraping it off the cake three times before Jewel was content and it looked more like a dragon than a grasshopper! Friendships are important, they come as gifts in many forms and personalities but they are the fragrance of life. We all need to take time to have friends and nurture our friendships :) Some of the Aunties came because with out Aunties life is grey and dull. Aunties are important. All these women love Jewel and the female energy was so wonderful and so powerful and healing. A safe circle. This was one too many female for Gary so he feed all the Aunties hot dogs and left us to our bonding. I wish I could invite every one I love but I do not do well in groups, I am more of a one on one & small group person. Jewel got the most perfectly thoughtful and wonderful gifts, and Grace was right there sitting at her side. Grace is the best "sister" and Nanny to Jewel, well she is also a Dwagon now, but a lovely addition to our family and another faithful friend to Jewel! I encourage you to prioritize time with your friends because they are important to you soul's well being.

Contentment

2/5/2011 Saturday

I woke up this morning feeling happy and content. I was not tired. I believe it is because my spirit was uplifted by watching The horse Boy documentary of the Isaacson family. This family travel to the end of the earth for their son's healing. The father believes and so does the mother or else they would not have gone to Mongolia to the horse shamans. Their son Rowan has the autistic label. The parents want healing for their son and each one verbalizes a wish, the father for the son to be able to ride on a horse independently and the mother wishes that her son can use the toilet to go number two. Their doubts come up along the journey yet they are still united as a family which is their strength. Rowan is healed of his tantrums and incontinence. He integrates in play with other children in Mongolia. Upon their return to Texas Rowan learns to ride a horse independently. Their dreaming, believing paid off! In the process of their journey the parents come closer to each other and watch a miracle happen as Rowan goes to the bathroom with intention :)

This fueled my spirit because it validates that the impossible is absolutely possible, just do not ever give up and keep looking and believing!

Tonight we watched Secretariat another great movie based on a true story and once again, against all odds the impossible becomes a reality. Every one says it is soo far fetched and the odds are against this family, this horse, this woman but she keeps her dream alive and she fights for her dream and never gives up. She shows me to focus with intention and attention, walking tall and taking chances in spite of what others may say. There will always be nay-sayers. Believe any way. Narrow the focus and make every action count towards the end goal and have some fun too. We learn through the fun and good times as well.

I realized that I have a follower, thank you Anne and Makena. I think any more would make me self-conscious and edit my self for them, I do not want this. I already have so much peer pressure that I feel. Today someone said to be careful about blogging because it could be dangerous and bring on a law suit. I live on this planet, and we are all interdependent at some point with each other. I rely on the organic farmer to be kind to his cows and feed them non GMO alfalfa so that I can buy his milk. The milk passes so many hands to get to my house and I am grateful for this, thank you organic farmers! I feel it is okay to mention people and their first names and omit last names to be respectful. I am not completely isolated so to be fair to to my post I need to be honest and transparent. Mentioning the people who are woven into our circle of life is only just.

Thank you to these extreme people who never give up and keep holding on to their dreams. You give me courage and light, being a great example and inspiration to me, and showing me the hard work that is entailed in making dreams come true.

I have traveled to the ends of the earth emotionally and I am on a spiritual journey keeping Jewel healthy & happy. We are a family that does almost everything together, though my older children are growing up I will not be sad or fearful because I believe that God is good and life is wonderful. I am thankful for our lives and the journey that we are on. I know that Jewel is making gains as she sleeps right now. It is day five that she is now going all day in her big girlie panties and on this wonderful note I bid you all to dream well, dream deep, dream high! xo

Ponderings

2/4/2011 Thur.

Aloha, just a short posting.

Well I have no followers, and I have decided that this is okay because I am posting this for me as well, and if it happens to help anyone then super! I guess this is a record of sorts, makes me slow down and think, reflect, feel and just be honest. Which can be scary because I have avoided looking at certain things like the possibility that Jewel will need help, some sort of aid for the rest of her life. This appears weak and weakness makes me fearful and vulnerable, especially since this is my heart. All our children are a form of our hearts walking around being lovely, being vulnerable to the world. And it is a mother's job to protect. How can I protect, provide for her always? The big questions are daunting. So I will just take it one day at a time and hope that the good Lord leads and provides. I will celebrate Jewel's gains, how ever small, to me they will be large like Olympic gold medals!

Today and yesterday her sessions with Crystal the O/T were phenomenal. She is working on siting up on her knees and then down again, yes I will assist as little as possible, but my protecting hands will be there to help :) 

Jewel's cold is leaving her body nicely.

Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark Syrup seems to be helping.

I hope being transparent helps you be honest and enjoy being you!

congestion and O/T

2/2/11 Wednesday

Jewel is still congested. She is enjoying her new barbie mermaid and Ken's new clothes. She wants us to play barbies with her all day. Her speech pathologist came today and they had a great session. Raven always joins in to help. They are working on her R sound in words and it is coming along nicely. Beth is a great therapist, she is fun, kind and excellent. They played Trouble at the end of the session and Jewel won, for real! :)

Then the O/T came, she had a wonderful session with Jewel. I wish that I was that purposeful with each movement with Jewel. Grace joint the session and it was fun. Jewel worked real hard on her strength movements, I could tell that Crystal was so proud of her. They are a great team together, Crystal understands Jewel and can get her to do real difficult things. Jewel hardly ever whines or complains, and when she does Crystal never gets sucked into it, maybe it is because Crystal comes from a large family. This lady was born to be an O/T, she is amazingly intuitive and gifted. She is very strong and does cross over with some massage and other techniques on Jewel. We will miss her dearly when she leaves in April xo

But for now I will concentrate on being present, positive and doing the best I can with what is in front of me. Still nursing Jewels cold and it looks like it is improving!

Take care of you, maybe we will all have a cup of warm tea, come join us.

Ten

2/2/2011 Tues.

Jewel turned double digits today! A double cool and amazing 10!

She got books 3,4,5 and 6 in the, How to train your Dragon series.

She also got another mermaid, yeah Jewel! Some new clothes for ken and barbie too.

We had a nice day. Jewel got to see her body worker, I was working so Gary and Raven got to go.

John said it was a nice change with out me because I tend to hover, what ever could he mean, hee hee. I will have to work on this thing called letting go! It does not come naturally to me, I even tend to help the horse when he trips, instead of just stepping back. Jewel got to have her massage today and Jimmy said to give her a tea spoon or raw honey every morning. This is meant to wake up the digestive track and is good for the immune system. Jimmy got to work on her neck, chest and stomach. He showed Raven and I how to begin strengthening her hips, this will help eliminate pain and bring some better function to this area. So we will do this.

We had a nice BBQ at our pool and my worker aka calabash mother was there to join us. Jenny charmed her way into my families heart, as I knew she would. We took Jewel's wheel chair down to the pool, her service dog aka sister aka ' dwagon' was tethered to the pole and we all enjoyed a nice meal together. Simple is always better for Jewel, she is so easy to please.

I will have a small celebration for her on sunday, her request was a dragon cake and one friend, see so easy and simple! She knows how to have fun! Thank you Jewel for teaching us how to enjoy all the things we call simple :)

Oh I forgot, I ran into one of the fathers who has an autistic labeled son. He said that the Wii game technology has helped his son with concentration and small muscle co-ordination. He highly recommended that I try to get Jewel to one and see how she does. There are many games and the physical range needed may very from game to game. Note to self: must check out a Wii game and implement Honey in the mornings and hip strengthening into daily program. Thank you to Jimmy and John for working on Jewel, both of these men are so talented in their gifting and craft and they do not charge or take payment for working on Jewel. Blessings to you and your house hold. Today Jewel is so much better, still taking her natural medicine, eating well and had a good number two after the massage. All the laughter and good times with her sissies make for good medicine. Her relatives called today to wish her a happy birthday, which makes her feel so loved, special and connected, thank you family xx

Books and to bed.