Finnegan is graduating 5th grade!!

This smile!!!! He is thrilled to be going to a new school with new adventures!

Finnegan is leaving Elementary School and going to Middle School!!

So proud of him!! He is passing with flying colors, inspite of his brain and eye troubles this year! God has been so good to us!

This year will be so different, having 3 kids in 3 schools (Lochlan will be moving up to High School!). We are so thankful for this time with our kids. Watching them grow up and cheerleading them on!!!

Screwtape Proposes a Toast

So completely blown away by the insightfulness of C.S. Lewis in the

Screwtape Proposes a Toast.  It makes me push into Jesus even more so that I won't succumb to the tendency to think "I am as good as you" and thus no longer strive for excellency.

This comes after The Scewtape Letters and is a toast given by the Uncle. Here is the synopsis of The Screwtape Letters: "The Screwtape Letters comprises 31 letters written by a senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood (named after a star in Revelation), a younger and less experienced demon, charged with guiding a man (called "the Patient") toward "Our Father Below" (Devil / Satan) from "the Enemy" (God)."

Here is a link of you want to read it yourself. Copy and paste it and the pdf should download...

https://www.samizdat.qc.ca/arts/lit/Toast_CSL.pdf

Below are the portions that really stood out to me. If I'd had a highlighter I'd have highlighted these :)

Virtue and Child Training Bible

Done! I finished assembling this beauty!

I'm so excited about this!!! Each virtue has at least 10 scriptures and now everything is in our 1 Bible (before I had printouts of scriptures that related to different topics).

We use this to help our kids when they're struggling with negative behaviors or character defaults. 

It feels so good and right for them to be touching the Bible and using it, conditioning and training them to go to the Word in times of need.

The colored tabs correspond to each virtue or training color. 

If you're interested in more information here is their link.

http://www.virtuetrainingbible.com/?m=1

Finnegan and his Brain

Hi all!

Back in August Finn was running at school, tripped over a buddy, fell and landed on his head. The resulting end being he sees double both vertically and horizontally and is not able to focus his eyes.  It was recommended to us to watch and wait to see if there would be improvement and healing on his own with the help of glasses that have prisms (to reduce the double vision) while he reads and does screen work. After 2 months there was a 50% improvement and it was then recommended that we wait another 2 or 3 month and see if there was more improvement. This time there wasn't, and Finn was referred to concussion therapy. 

There is no concussion clinic in Aberdeen, so we went to Sioux Falls to see a specialist regarding concussions and therapy. It has been determined that he does indeed need concussion therapy and that we will need to go to Sioux Falls every week for a minimum of 16wks. He will do therapy at home every day. 

The Vision Therapist/Doctor cannot get his eyesight better than 20/40 even with all the correction she can apply, she isnt sure exactly why, but thinks that it may be because his eyes are so tight and stressed they cannot (currently) relax enough to get to 20/20 vision. It is paramount that we get that fixed, else he wont be able to get a driver's license when he is older.

There is an issue with him thinking he is seeing double vision even when looking with only 1 eye, which isn't physiologically possible, so she is a bit stumped there as well...

The good news is that all of his physical structures look good and healthy, the bad news is that it means it's his brain.

John and I are a bit shellshocked and sad, trying not to be fearful for our sweet boy and his future.

Tricare may not cover the cost of therapy, so please pray for that and also for a slot to open on Friday  (8am might be available and we will make it work, it just makes for an extremely early morning, 4:30am) and prayers for Finn's brain and eyes to heal. 

Thank you so much for your prayers as we fervently ask for healing for our sweet boy!

State Swim Championship Meet 2021

 State Swim Championship Meet 2021 for 13 and up! 

Lochlan qualified for state in the 50 Freestyle  and the 100 Freestyle. He also competed in 2 relays while we were there. We were only able to attend Friday and Saturday, so he did not swim the 50 Freestyle that would have been on Sunday.

He swam so well and beat his own previous times!

 We thought about going to the movies, but decided to go back to or airBnB Room.  He watched season 3 of Stranger Things and I read my book 🤣🤣 We also got ice cream! 

His relay team!

They won their heat! ASC= Aberdeen Swim Club

Breakfast of Champions! Ha!

So proud of him!!!

These next pictures are from a swim meet we had in Aberdeen .

Winter Camping at BSA Camp Iyataka

The Boys and John went to Camp Iyataka this last weekend! They camped with their troop, Troop 188. They had sled races, a chili cook-off (Lochlans tasted the best according to sources, ha), sledding, and a potato whittling contest. They also had a Fire starting contest and a First Aid scenario involving a motor vehicle "accident" and a patient.

John ran the First Aid station :) 

Chili Cook-off!

Finn with his troops Scoutmaster and a buddie

The Line Up of all participating troops.

Great teamwork!

Airborn!

Love these action shots!

They came home tired and happy!!

Love that they enjoyed themselves so thoroughly!