Juggling summer camp

We are busier that ever this summer and it's been with mostly VERY fun activities.  Our whole family really settled into a new summer routine that includes late night bedtimes and more relaxed mornings.  This week, though, camp started for Julia and Emma started back to school for her summer session - both things the girls were looking forward to and love by the way!

Lazy morning earlier in the summer.  PJs on all morning and plenty of time to do science experiments!

I didn't realize how crazy adding in camp/school would make our schedule.  Since we aren't traveling as a pack like we were earlier in the summer it seems everyone has a different place to be and a lot of it is at the exact.same.time.

Here is how we kicked off our life with camp on Monday:

• Get girls up and fed and out the door by 8:15.  Drop Julia off at camp at 8:45 and head to another town for Emma's 10am PT appointment (more on that later).
• Drive Emma to yet another town to drop her off for school.  Try to feed her a bit of lunch in the parking lot but she is too busy looking around for her wonderful one-on-one aide, Erica.  She really missed her!  She told me so on her talker several times over the break.  When Erica arrives Emma decides it is time to immediately head into school and lunch can wait.  
• Leave Emma at school and head back to my town for a chiropractor appointment.
• After my treatment head to Julia's camp (if you guessed it's in another town you would be right!) to pick her up and head home in time for Emma's bus to drop her off at school.

We left the house at 8:15am.  I returned home with Julia ~3:20pm.  I drove just under 100 miles and went pretty much nowhere- ouch!  Luckily that was the busiest day of the week for me with it getting a bit better each day.  I'm happy to say I'm not contributing to global warming nearly as much now :-)

There are 3 days/week during camp that Julia and Emma need to be somewhere at 9am and they are in completely different towns or states.  One week it will be easy since there is a before care option that opens at 8am.  The other two weeks we've figured out a way to get everyone where they need to be on time.  

Who knew summer could be so crazy??!!  It sure will be nice in September when Emma goes to a school in our local school district.  Having her closer to home will be a very welcome change from the 35 minute drive to her current pre-school.

You might ask:  Emma starts school at 11:50am so why does she have to be somewhere at 9am?  Well, we decided to have her change PT places for about 6 weeks so she can use the Biodex Unweighting System that is housed at a different location.  What we do is suspend Emma with a harness over a treadmill and work on her walking.  The tone in her legs is just so very high that it makes it very difficult for her to walk in a gait trainer and she wants to walk so badly.  We thought we could try and train her muscles if we unweight her a bit to help her learn the movement without as much effort.  It's a pretty interesting concept and we're not sure if it will work but wanted to give it a shot.  She has a lot of tone to overcome so we're going to try and go 2x/week for 6 weeks and then evaluate the effect.  What we are seeing so far is that she starts out really tight and it's hard for the PT to help her bend and move her legs but that she gets better during the session.  And it's clear to everyone that she LOVES getting in the harness and walking on the treadmill.  She is one giggly girl!  

Here is a video of her using the Biodex unweighting system for the first time:

In about 3 weeks our schedule will settle down and we'll be back to summer without camp.  We will travel as a group and enjoy lots of fun activities together again.  Until then, I'll keep up the juggling act!

Quiet

At this moment my house is relatively quiet.  I'm listening to one of my favorite CDs while the dishwasher runs in the background.  The doors and windows are open but not much of a breeze is coming through since we are in the middle of a heat wave.  The window unit air conditioner is off and the girls are off having lots of fun at camp.  I have 3.5 hours all alone today.  It's quiet.  This is my first bit of alone time since Julia's school let out 5 1/2 weeks ago and we were busy doing so many fun things during those weeks.  Oh, the fun of summer!!!!!!

So, I have a bit of time on my hands to spend as I please.  I've used a bit of that time to send out thank you notes, a letter to a young man we don't know but who has CP and is in the hospital for a lengthy stay and wants some cards to hang up, send a couple belated Birthday cards, made a few phone calls, cooked taco meat.  It's amazing how quickly I completed it all.  I still have a long list of things I would like to do.  Clean the bathrooms, run to the grocery store for the tortillas for tonight's taco dinner, pay bills, tend the garden, write, etc.  The to do list is never ending and I find comfort in that.  No matter how much or little I accomplish there will still be more on the list so I don't need to rush to complete most of them.  I guess getting tortilla has to be done before dinner but other than that it can all wait.......because I've decided to set aside the list and head to the gym.

The gym.  It's good for my body and good for my soul.  I never used to enjoy going to the gym at all.  Lately, though, I'm finding that I look forward to my workouts.  I have aches and pains where there weren't any a few years ago.  Carrying around an almost 5 year old is very different than carrying around an infant and I need to keep up a workout routine to avoid injury and keep my muscles in shape.  My body always feels better after a workout - less aches and pains and my mind is clear.  It's been too long since I've worked out during the day since only one of the girls looks forward to going in the gym's child minding play center.  I can't enjoy working out knowing one of my children is crying and unhappy in another section of the building.  So we opt for exercising together instead and go on bike rides, walks, swimming and have lots of fun.

But since I have a bit of time to myself now I'm heading to the gym.  The to-do list can wait.  Remember that if you come over and notice the house looks very lived in :-)

My monthly Hopeful Parents post is up

My Monthly post is up at Hopeful Parents.

CLICK HERE to read my post titled:  Wheelchairs and steps are not a match made in heaven

Happy Birthday, America!

Julia had a sleep over at a friend's house last night so this morning Emma had me and Chris all to herself and loved it!  I took a few photos of our patriotic gal and had to post this.

We met up with Julia at our traditional 4th of July bar-b-q with friends and I was able to take our traditional photos of the girls and all the children and I'll share some of them soon.

Today would have been Finnegan's 11th birthday.  I missed her more than usual today.  Hope you enjoyed the Fireworks from your new view, Finney!!!!!  We love you and miss you!

SUMMER Fun!!

This summer we've been doing so many fun things that it leaves little time for me to document it.  This fact really just makes me smile!  After all, isn't life all about participating in it ;-)  Here are some photos from our adventures.  Enjoy!

• Mommy/Julia date day to pick strawberries.  

 I just adore her!

• Daddy/Daughter fishing fun

Julia LOVED fishing!

Emma was more interested in the people watching than the fishing or the fish

Chris had a bit of fun by chasing Julia with the fish he caught!  I LOVE this photo!

• The girls had some fun on a recent rainy day

Playing some computer games

Emma figured out how to move the screen door open and closed.  It took my breath away!  Love how she is using her arms a bit more even if it is to try and bust out of the house into the rain :-)

• Swimming.  I'd say lots of swimming while the girls would say there is never enough swimming!  My girls take to the water like fish.

Julia's underwater handstand is getting really good!

• Sleep-overs followed by sidewalk chalk art

Note:  Emma was in the wagon while I took photos.  When not taking pictures I held her in a sitting position on the blanket so she could join in the fun.

• Boardwalk and beach adventures, where Julia proudly helped Emma on some rides even though her arm was sometimes crushed and hurt proving yet again that she is the BEST BIG SISTER EVER!!!!!