I Wish I Had More Energy

Lately, it seems that I only have time to quickly blog at nighttime, while everyones asleep. I'm lucky to do some catching up on my most favorite bloggers that I love to follow. I've put the sweet everyday devotional bloggers to the side like 5 Minutes of Faith for Moms, Joyce Meyers and Beth Moore. It's so easy to cut out the important spiritual messages, that I should be reading, to make time to read about the newest creative ways to entertain. This morning as I'm breezing through my Reading List, I noticed "5 Minutes of Faith" had a new post "Wishes-Glimmers of Hope." This time, I made time to read and reflect my life. I can relate to the quote below. "I Wish!"

I wish I were a better mother.

I wish I had more time to be home with my children.

I wish I could ask forgiveness easier.

I wish I wasn’t so distracted.

I wish I could keep up with the housework.

I wish I could paint better, sing better, pray better.

I wish…I wish…I wish!

I hope you will find the time to read this devotion from Barbie at "5 Minutes of Faith," just CLICK HERE!

Katie News
A few weeks ago, Dr. Green found a small cavity on one of Katie's molars.  Before I was even going to ask about sealants, Dr. Green brought up the subject.  This is the second time Katie's had a tiny cavity in her teeth.  Ugh!  It's very discouraging as a parent.  He said it's probably because her back teeth are such a tight fit between each other.  We floss, but let's get real.  Yeah, we might miss a day or two of flossing and I can't control her flossing when she's off spending the night with someone.  I know I had weak teeth that is why I wanted her to get the sealants, to help. 

Yesterday was the big day to get her tooth filled and receive sealants.  I've never had sealants before, way after my time, so I didn't know what to expect.  I was just going by what the hygienist explained to me, while I was scheduling the appointment.  Easy, breezy!  Right?  Well, I picked Katie up just before school let out to take her to the dentist appointment.  She knew what to expect.  She wasn't thrilled, but she was alright with it.  I let her take her favorite toy, usually a doll, to hang on to while having her teeth cleaned or in this case, get her teeth worked on.  She held on to her Smurfette and my hand, while the hygienist was applying the sealants.  I have to tell you, there is a lot to get sealants applied to your teeth.  Bless her heart.  First, you have to put your head way up on the head rest and lean it back as far as possible.  They have the little cotton swabs along your bottom jaw and a thin wide cotton patch along the upper and side cheek.  You have to keep your mouth wide open with all this stuff in your mouth.  Let's not forget the suction tube to keep your saliva away from your molars, so the sealant will dry onto your back teeth.  UGH!  Poor baby.  The hygienist explained to me and Katie what to expect before the procedure, but you still couldn't gather until you saw with your own eyes, what it really entails.  Katie did so good, but after the third time of applying sealants, she was getting scared.  They tried to get the fourth set done, but we all think she couldn't continue with it.  She tried very hard to keep her head back and mouth wide open, but was too tired.  She ended up tasting the cleaning solution, which is soap for your teeth.  Yuck!  She said it tasted disgusting and kept wanting to spit it out.  Dr. Green hurriedly washed the soap off her fourth set of teeth and said lets schedule another time to finish the sealant and fill the cavity.  He and his family have become friends of mine, so he told me that if I could get her in the morning time for cleanings and filling, it would be better on her.  He was too afraid to continue for fear that he would scare her too much, by pushing her.  Afterwards, he spent about 5 minutes talking with her about "The Smurfs" movie, which she loves.  They also talked about his little girl EK and how much she likes school.  EK was in Katie's ballet class last year.  Dr. Green and his wife are such sweet people and down to earth.  EK and Katie go to the same school, but they only get to see each other during recess and lunch. 

When we left, Katie was a little disappointed in herself because she didn't want to have to go back.  I took her to Walmart and I was preparing to get out when I could hear Katie snubbing.  I quickly turned around to see what was the matter.  She told me, she was sorry that she wasn't good during her dentist appointment.  Y'all my heart sunk.  I felt so bad for her.  I hugged on her and told her that she did an excellent job and how brave she was to go through something so scary.  She admitted, she was beginning to get scared.  I assured her that was why Dr. Green decided to stop because he could see she was getting uncomfortable and scared. 

We could tell Walmart was getting ready, in the Toy Department,  for Christmas with all the new toys.  I'm just one of the kids when it comes to new toys, checking them out.  A while back when "The Smurfs" movie first came out, I told Katie how I was a big Smurfs fan when I was little.  How I use to have a big Smurf stuffed animal that I slept with during the night.  I use to have the Smurf glasses that you would get at fast food restaurants and small plastic figurines.  While looking at all the toys and making out our Christmas wish lists, what should I see?  On the side of the aisle were stuffed Smurfs of all kinds and sizes.  I got Katie's attention from the aisle over.  I wished you could have seen her eyes.  I had her pick out a Smurf for her and one for Dash.  She couldn't believe it.  She didn't have to wait until Christmas to get a stuffed Smurf.  LOL!  She loves her Smurfette so much.  I was sort of surprised how Dash liked his Clumsy.  He drug that Smurf all over the house last night and made sure he was in bed with him last night for bedtime. 

Katie is doing great in school.  They had their DIBELS testing last week.  Just as a reminder.  DIBELS stands for: Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.  The instructors are looking for Initial Sounds Fluency - identify a picture by its beginning sound by pointing to the picture or naming it.  Letter Naming Fluency - recognize upper and lowercase letters out of order.  Phoneme Segmentation Fluency - tell all the sounds heard in spoken words.  And lastly, Nonsense Word Fluency - blends sounds together that make nonsense words. I received Katie's results and they are as follows:
Letter Naming = 57 (expected to know 37 by beginning of school year)
Phoneme Seg. = 61 (expected to know 35 or more)
Nonsense Words = 47 (expected to know 50 by January 2012)

She had her first spelling test yesterday and made a 100.  Mrs. G is only working on three letter words right now.  I was kind of wondering how she would give a test and it was easier on the kids that I first thought. 

You may not be able to see Katie's pencil writing,

but you can see her grade - 100

She made sure to show daddy her test score last night.  We are so proud of her.  I hope she will keep up the good work.   

The homework has pretty much taken over our evenings.  We have two random books, two stories from her small workbook and the same stories from her weekly reader to read each night.  She has to go over her two sheets of words, plus her weekly vocabulary words.  This week the vocab words are disgusting, compliment and amazed.  As parents, we have to help her to understand the meanings of each word and how we would use them in a sentence.  Yeah, this is first grade homework.  For math, she works on side B of the worksheet every night for a grade the next day.  For her Social Studies, all students are encouraged to practice good manners.  As parents, we're expected to help our children to exercise these good behaviors.  She also has three songs to memorize: Just Good Manners, Months of the Year and Days of the Week. I felt bad yesterday for having her take back one of the books she got from the Library last week.  According to the newsletter I received,  the first graders get to check out two books a week instead of just one.  YAY!  The problem we're having to work out is finding time to read both books in a week.  So, last week we had time to read the one book, but ran out of time to read the second one.  Ugh!  Please pray for me. 

Have a great day!