We’re a “Commercial” Family!

Okay, I’ve given up on “normal” residential soap and towel options for our home!!!

 

We have one main hand washing station where all of the littles wash before each meal, as well as each time their hands are just nasty.  That bathroom is always a mess.  Spilled soap all over the counters, towels stuffed into the sink (or toilet!), the towel rack pulled off the wall (multiple times), soap dispensers breaking regularly, you know, the stuff that goes with large family logistics.

 

I’ve discovered that “residential” products just aren’t meant to be used by large families!  We’re a “commercial” size family!!!

 

So, I’ve moved to commercial options for our powder bathroom!!!  Today we installed a commercial soap dispenser and “residential commercial” (whatever that means!) hand dryer!!!

 

The hand dryer simply plugs into an outlet.  It blows warm air and takes 45 seconds to thoroughly dry wet hands.

 

The soap dispenser can either be installed by mounting it with screws to the wall or using the massively sticky tape that comes with it to adhere it to a smooth surface.  We opted for the tape option because this powder bath doesn’t have much wall space, and I didn’t want the infrared action picking up on toilet use and dispensing soap with each movement!!!

 

We’ll see how this works.  I purchased both on Amazon for really reasonable prices.  Hopefully this will solve our issues. 

 

PS  Will you please check out this link and pray for these children to find a forever family?  Share their story.  I know first-hand that these children CAN do well in a family, they really can.  In my opinion, having Down syndrome is an encouragement that even after years of neglect, abuse, and mistreatment, these children still have a good chance of transitioning to family life.  From what I’ve learned, most people with Down syndrome have some “extra love” on that extra chromosome, even after years and years and years of horrible treatment.  This isn’t always the case, but I’ve seen it first-hand.  I’m believing God has a special family for these three special kiddos.

Nuts and Bolts {Part 1}

Yesterday I received this comment on our blog:

Julia wrote: I really like hearing about the nuts-n-bolts of how you do it. Do you have a system for "semi-clean" clothes? In our house, the clothes that can be washed again are draped on a chair- where they stay for a long time. Do you just wash everything after even a "minor" wear, or do you have a place for these clothes (without putting them back in the drawer? Also, how do you motivate kids to actually do their part with household chores? It's not that our kids are refusing- they are just "head in the clouds" kids, and it takes SO MUCH effort on my part to nag, remind, cajole, etc. for them to get stuff done. I'd also like to hear the nuts-n-bolts about how you have housed everyone- did you move, add-on, or what? How have you decided how to put what kids in what rooms, with whom?

 

This gave me the idea to answer Julia’s questions in a blog post…or two…or three. :-)

 

Today I’ll address the first question:

Do you have a system for "semi-clean" clothes? In our house, the clothes that can be washed again are draped on a chair- where they stay for a long time. Do you just wash everything after even a "minor" wear, or do you have a place for these clothes (without putting them back in the drawer?

 

Regarding “semi-clean” clothes, there’s really no such thing in our house, even if a person only wore it for a few minutes.  If they came out of their room in it, it’s most likely dirty. :-)  Our clothes are pretty much covered in snot, spit up, saliva, dirty handprints, smeared food, dog prints, and sometimes even horse manure!!!  So, you can see why all articles of clothing go into the washer, regardless of how long someone wore it. 

 

If I lived in another country without electricity, a power washing machine, and a clothes dryer, I know I’d feel differently.  I’d probably spot clean the clothes.  I’ve visited enough countries to know that while outside the US, I wear my clothes as many times as possible before washing because washing in a foreign country pretty much means filling the bathtub with water, stomping around on the clothes while they soak in a tub of suds, wringing clothes one by one by hand (takes FOREVER!), then finding places to hang them to dry.  A real pain, especially for a spoiled American!  I probably wouldn’t let me kids get as dirty as they do here on the ranch, just to save laundry loads.  Or maybe I’d just let them wear really dirty clothing over and over again and not even care. :-)

 

Sometimes at our house, when someone wears really nice clothing (fancy dress or something that requires dry cleaning), and we KNOW it’s still clean (most likely because the person walked straight to the vehicle and wasn’t around the littles or the pets!), that item may be hung back in the closet for future wearing without being cleaned first.  That’s a rare occurrence though.

 

I think if we had “semi-clean” clothes that we were willing to wear again, we’d probably just put them back in the drawers/closets.  If they’re clean enough to wear again, they’re clean enough to put away.  Or maybe we’d require the semi-clean clothes to be worn the following day until they’re nice and dirty. :-)  I don’t think I’d like semi-clean clothes draped over chairs where they sit for a long time, so I’d suggest either putting them away with the rest of the clothes or enforcing a rule to wear those clothes the following day, or just laundering them.  Many times I ask myself the Dr. Phil question, “How’s that workin’ for ya?”  If it’s not working, I change it.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Stay tuned for more Silly Songs with Larry…oh, I mean, more Nuts and Bolts with Lorraine.  See ya next time!

Laundry

Nope, I’m not talking about the election today.

Instead, I’m talking about laundry because laundry is something everyone can pretty much agree upon.   Everyone has laundry.  Not everyone loves doing laundry.

It’s inevitable that large families will have tons of laundry.  Kids who love to get messy outside, kids with special needs who regularly need changes of clothing due to reflux and accidents, then the regular ole laundry of daily clothing, hand towels, bath towels, etc., well, it’s a lot to keep up with.

I like the way our system works, so I thought I’d share it here in case it’s helpful to anyone out there who’s struggling to keep up with the never-ending mounds of laundry.

It helps tremendously that we have two washing machines and two dryers, but prior to this year, we operated with one of each.

We have one laundry room where we keep two bins for clothing.  We only separate it into lights and darks to save time and to reduce laundry loads.

Every capable person in our family is responsible for putting his/her laundry into the correct laundry bin in the laundry room.  No one is allowed to keep dirty laundry anywhere else—it must go into the laundry bins or it won’t get laundered.

To save time with sorting the laundry, each person must be responsible for making sure his/her laundry gets put into the correct bin of lights or darks.  (This is not a no-fail system because inevitably someone puts an item into the wrong bin, but for the most part, this saves gobs of sorting time.)

To help the kids facilitate the sorting process, I made a color coded sorting chart and taped it to the front of each laundry bin.


The labels are crooked and the Contact paper has bubbles in it, but, hey, it gets the job done!

Since we have a two-story home and our laundry room is upstairs (where all of our bedrooms are and most of the clothes-changing occurs), I keep smaller containers on the stairs to collect various laundry throughout the day.  When we have a dirty washrag or a dirty sock or a dirty bib during the day, instead of running it upstairs to the laundry bins, we toss it into one of these containers on the stairs.  (The containers on the stairs are just shoe-box sized clear containers that we set on the bottom two steps of our stairs, out of the way of traffic.)  At the end of the day, my hubby takes the containers to our laundry room for me.  Love him.

Every morning, I toss the bin of darks into one washing machine and the bin of lights into the other washing machine.  At or before lunch (lunch is the reminder in case we forget!), both wet loads get tossed into the dryers.  By early afternoon, the laundry’s ready to be folded.

Each of the older girls has taken turns as the laundry folding person, but recently Naomi (age 20) volunteered to always fold the laundry and deliver it.  What a blessing this has been!

I labeled laundry baskets with the names of each person in our family to assist with the task of sorting laundry as it’s folded.  Each basket has two names on it, coordinated by who shares bedrooms/closets.  As Naomi folds a piece of laundry, she sets it into the proper owner’s basket.  Then, once the last piece of laundry is folded, all of the clean laundry is already sorted and ready to be delivered.

Each basket is delivered to the appropriate bedroom, and it is the laundry owner’s responsibility to put his/her laundry away every evening.  I put away the laundry for Selah, Cooper, and Conner since they’re unable to do this chore. 

Then a new day comes and so does a new round of laundry.   I’ve found that if I don’t do laundry daily, I feel like I’m constantly playing catch up and can’t ever get on top of the laundry loads.  For us, one day of laundry fills the bin of darks and half fills the bin of lights, but I can’t wait to wash the lights because much of it is wet washrags that will mildew if not washed daily.  (We use white washrags to clean each of our little ones’ faces and hands after each meal, as well as to wipe down the table and countertops after each meal.)

Towels/linens are laundered once per week in the afternoons, once the regular daily laundry bins are moved from the washer to the dryer.  I don’t have a set day for towels/linens because of my crazy schedule with doctor’s appointments and therapies.  I just do it whenever I have an afternoon at home and it works fine for us.

I’d love to hear your laundry tips—leave a comment!

Love This!

Indeed, adoption is a beautiful thing.

 

Click HERE to view one of my new favorite adoption designs.  I got my shirt in the mail yesterday and I LOVE it!!!!!  You can order your “Adoption is Beautiful” gear HERE and support this family in bringing their little one home.

 

 

 

In honor of National Adoption Awareness Month, I’d love to gather a collection of links to adoption merchandise.  If you are selling something adoption/orphan related or know of someone who is, please leave a comment and give a link to the merchandise.  Thanks so much!

Depraved Indifference

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.

 

Watch the video.

 

Pray.

 

Be an advocate for the orphan.

 

Be a voice for the voiceless.

 

Because orphans matter.

Grants for iPads?

See that black thing Conner is holding onto with his right hand?  Any idea what that is?

 

It’s his big brother’s iPad, in a case, taped to the hospital crib railing.  (This photo was taken when Conner was hospitalized with Salmonella.)

 

This iPad his been such a life-saver for many of our children, particularly our children who have special needs.  Doctor’s visits, hospital stays, blood draws, driving here and there…the iPad is always right there to the rescue!!!

 

“Our” iPad isn’t really “ours”--it belongs to our 12-year-old son, Sawyer.  He bought it back in 2010, with his own money, shortly after we gave this iPad away.

 

We’re so grateful that it’s Sawyer who owns the iPad in our family because he has such a generous heart that he always allows his mommy and his siblings to borrow his iPad.  Unfortunately, many of his siblings with special needs are super duper rough on the iPad.   As much as I’ve tried to protect Sawyer’s iPad, it’s been thrown countless times, stomped on, chewed on, even vomited on!!!

 

As our children with special needs are requiring/wanting more and more and more of Sawyer’s iPad, I finally decided to go on a mission to get an iPad for our children with special needs to share.  With Selah’s upcoming trip to Baltimore to see Dr. Ben Carson, I’d like to get another iPad QUICKLY!!!  Selah doesn’t sit still…ever…and we’ll have about 6-8 hours of travel.  The iPad will be our best bet at helping Selah survive the sitting still time required when traveling!!!  I’m sure Sawyer will let us borrow his iPad for Selah’s trip, but it would be awesome if I didn’t need to borrow his, as he uses it daily. 

 

So, my question for y’all today is:

Do you know of organizations granting iPads to children with special needs?

 

If so, please leave a comment to let me know how to apply.  (Or you may email me at BossYourHeart (at) gmail (dot) com.) 

 

I asked about this once on my Facebook (I think back in August).  I was told that Texas supplies iPads to children with communication disorders through Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services.  Cooper and Conner both qualify since they’re non-verbal, but DARS apparently requires the applicant be able to push a button to communicate a thought.  Cooper and Conner cannot do that yet—that would be something many of the iPad apps would teach them to do over time.  The more they can work with speech generating apps, the more opportunities they’ll have to succeed at this, but they’re not there yet.

 

Y’all always have such great advice, suggestions, recommendations, and wisdom.  You’re better than Google!!!  I look forward to hearing from you regarding what grants might be available to our children with special needs.  Thanks SOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!

 

PS  If there are eligibility requirements regarding specific types of disabilities, here’s a list of some of the disabilities in our family (we have at least 6 kids with special needs who would benefit greatly from a variety of apps geared toward special needs):  non-verbal, speech/language delays, mentally disabled/mentally challenged, learning delays, communication delays, global developmental delays, Dyslexia, fine motor delays, receptive language delays…there are more, but maybe it’s best to just get a list of all of the possibilities for grants, then apply based upon each child’s needs.

Strabismus

OK, ignore the dirty/snotty face in these pictures.  I hadn’t planned to take Selah’s picture, but she saw my camera and wanted me to photograph her, which is RARE for Selah.  So, of course I took advantage of the “right here, right now” opportunity and snapped some pics of Selah while she was cooperative.

 

Oh, ignore the matted crazy hair, too.  Remember, I didn’t realize anyone would ever see these photos of Selah!!!

 

So, the reason I’m posting these snotty-nosed, dirty-faced, matted-hair pictures of Selah is because I want to talk about strabismus.

OK, remember to ignore the distractions of the dirty/snotty face! 

 

Do you notice how Selah’s left eye turns inward just a tad in the photo above?  That’s a type of strabismus.

 

Selah saw her ophthalmologist yesterday to discuss her strabismus and lack of depth perception.  Selah’s occupational therapist has mentioned this issue to us several times, and her pediatrician mentioned it at her 2-year-old well check, recommending we see Selah’s ophthalmologist immediately.

 

Selah’s ophthalmologist determined that Selah’s left eye is much weaker than her right eye.  The eye doctor believes Selah’s brain has “turned off” Selah’s left eye completely, most likely because it was seeing double at some point.  Did you know children’s brains are able to do that—simply tell one eye that it no longer sees at all so that it won’t see blurry and/or double?!?!

 

Once the brain “turns off” the eye, it becomes weak and lazy.  We’ve started to notice Selah’s left eye laziness more and more often lately, particularly in photos.  It’s challenging to watch Selah’s eyes during the day because we’re focused on following her around and keeping her safe.  When Selah sits in her high chair at meals, I notice it lots more because Selah’s sitting still and facing me. 

 

There are also times that both eyes cross somewhat, as in the photo above.  I’m not sure why this happens.

 

And in this photo, Selah’s right eye appears to be the one that is crossed while the left eye appears normal.  Matt (my hubby) thinks it appears this way in this photo because Selah is actually looking at something off to her left side (in the direction that her right eye is looking), but Selah’s left eye is too weak and no longer working, so it can’t look as far over to the side as Selah’s right eye is able to do.  Clear as mud?

 

There are a variety of reasons behind strabismus, so we’re not positive that Selah’s strabismus is due to her left eye seeing poorly in the past, thus the brain turning it off, or if it’s due to a variety of other reasons.  It might be due to increased intracranial pressure, or it could be due to Selah’s brain malformations.  It’s going to take some trial and error to figure it out.

 

The starting point to curing Selah’s weak eye begins with forcing her to no longer depend upon her strong eye (her right eye).  Many children with strabismus will use a patch to cover the strong eye, forcing the weaker eye to become stronger, helping the brain to turn the weak eye back on.

 

We knew there was no way Selah would ever leave a patch on her eye.  In fact, Selah’s pediatrician laughed and mumbled, “Good luck trying to patch that girl!” when he noticed that her left eye was weaker than her right eye.

 

So, Selah’s ophthalmologist explained another method to help strengthen the weak eye by using dilation drops in the stronger eye.  This disables the clear vision in the stronger eye, which then forces the brain to turn the weaker eye back on, thus strengthening it.

 

The ophthalmologist explained that Selah isn’t going to like either technique (patching or drops), but that’s the first step in determining if her strabismus can be cured without surgery.

 

So, tomorrow Selah will start using the dilation drops.  We will only use them in the evenings, beginning at 6PM.  The eye will only be dilated for a few hours before she falls asleep, but hopefully those few hours of forcing Selah’s left eye to turn on and try to work will be enough to help Selah’s strabismus.  The eye doctor warned me that Selah’s going to HATE these eye drops, but this is necessary.

 

If you have any experience with strabismus, I’d love to hear from you!!!  This is a new one for us.   And, as always, thanks for praying for Selah!!!