Warning! Graphic post surgery pictures

I just wanted to give a post surgical update on Katie's hand and leg.  These photos are not for the squeamish, but they're not too terrible.  My hope is that they will show the realities of Amniotic Banding for those who might be considering adopting a child with this need.  

2 weeks post surgery.  The procedure she had was called Z-plasty.

As you can see, she's looking really good here.  Some stitches have fallen out, a little bruising, a little redness, but no ooze, swelling, or blood.

I was really pleased with our first glimpse of the site.  I wrapped it back up and the next time we saw it, it looked like this:

A little scabby/crusty, but otherwise, moving right along.

The stitches are pretty long, so they poke out a bit.

Again, we wrapped it back up, and kept it wrapped until her 1 month post op visit.

It was very exciting to get to unwrap her hand at Shriners while the resident unwrapped her leg, because I hadn't seen the hand at all.

I got to see her wiggle her fingers and spread them for the first time ever!

The scabs on her hand have all come off, and she is using it with no problems at all.

The doctor at Shriners was pleased with both sites and told us to go home and have a long bath to help soak the stitches out.

Katie was thrilled because she loves baths, and has really missed them, going without for a month.

After a couple of baths, you can see, it's really looking better.  Still some stitches poking out, and certainly some dry skin!  But things are progressing.

After I took these pictures, I gooped up her leg with Organic Healing Balm from Honest Company.  I think it's looking better every day.  Once all the stitches have dissolved, I plan to use essential oils to help reduce scarring.

I had her wear leggings to Apple Hill, just to keep dirt/hay out of it, but she's been wearing shorts & dresses around the house.  She and Hannah wore really long dresses to church Sunday, just because I didn't want to deal with gasps and, "Omigosh, what happened to her??"

Fortunately, she's pretty stinkin' cute, whatever she wears, and is taking it all in stride.

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6 Dice Games for Your Homeschool

Games are a great teaching tool.  Ask any group of kids if they'd rather do a worksheet or play a game, and you can guess what their answer is going to be.  Here are a few games you can play with dice to work on various math skills, as well as quick decision making, fine motor skills, and just plain fun!

Over the summer, I came across these Dice In Dice and thought they'd make a fun addition to our math games collection.  

The kids found them before school started, and decided they were for playing with.

Many towers and structures were built.  Which, you can look at one of two ways:  You can get all cranky that they're not "doing math" with the math toys; or you can think of it as fine motor skills, engineering, and all that instead.  I chose to go with the latter.

Even the older kids thought these Dice in Dice were cool.

Pretty soon, they were making up their own games and hoarding them by color.  It's nice that they come in a tub of 72, so that there are plenty to share.  

Once school started, I brought them out to play math games with.  

At first, we did all the usual games:  adding the two numbers together (trying to see who can say their problem and answer first), multiplying the two numbers, etc.  This was a fun variation from our ordinary math work, and even more interesting than flash cards, I thought.  With the little girls, I can use these for addition and subtraction facts.

Later, we tried a game I call Put and Take, using our pouch lids as playing pieces.  We each started with 6 lids.

We'd roll the dice, and the outside number was how many we put IN the kitty, and the inside number was how many we'd take OUT.

The object of the game was to have the most lids when the kitty ran dry.  The first time we played, Eli won, then Jack, and I lost.  The second time we played, we had to extend Jack credit a few times in order for him to keep playing, which made for good conversation, and record keeping and reasoning practice in trying to figure out his score at the end.

Another game for Dice In Dice is to make 2 columns on a page.  I used markers to write the names of the colors of dice we used.

Each player rolls 2 dice.

The outside number is the tens place, and the inside number is the ones place.

Put the resulting 2 digit number in it's column and then indicate greater than, less than, or equal to.

This was a lot of fun, and led to a discussion of what the highest possible number to roll was, and the lowest possible number to roll, and what the probability was of getting to use equal to.

Tenzi is another fun game you can do with batches of dice.  Each player gets 10 dice.  In using our Dice in Dice, we each pick a different color to keep things straight.  Everyone rolls all 10 dice.  This works best if you're rolling into a controlled area.  You can use tray lids, or jelly roll pans (a cookie sheet with sides) or any similarly shaped area with shallow edges would work.  I found this to be a little noisy on our plastic table, so you might consider a felt lined surface to keep the sound down.

Ignoring the inner number for this game, you look over your dice to see what number you have the most of and re-roll the other dice until all your dice have the same number showing.

This was a speedy and fun one that even Josiah joined in on--on the condition that I not photograph him, of course.

Got graph paper?  Then you can add geometry to your dice play.  I call this one Square Footage.

Each die becomes dimensions.  We chose to use different colors for each die.

If your orange roll is a 4 with a 6 inside you color an orange 4x6 rectangle on your graph paper.  We talked about multiplying Length times Width to find square footage.

See if you can fill your page without going over.  The kids liked this one because it was kind of like Tetris.

As you can see, Dice in Dice have been a lot of fun for our family.  There's also a giant version available.

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Our Sixth Week of School

Busy week, but not really much in the way of "school" pictures.  This week we learned about Roman bridges and architecture, the origins of our days of the week and months of the year, and Biblical prophesies of the birth, life, and death & resurrection of Jesus.  In art, we drew cereal boxes and paper bags, but I somehow missed taking photos.

Sam sprained his ankle at the football game last weekend and spent this week on crutches.  The novelty wore off quickly, and he was begging to be rid of them by Friday.

We celebrated Miss Katie's birthday!  I love that she's already got her FORK in her hand in this cake picture.

I'd ordered wedding clothes for Eli & Jack, but they didn't fit when they arrived.  Eli's are too small.

And Jack's are too big.  So I can't salvage the situation by switching them, unfortunately.

This is actually something for Katie, but Jack and Eli wanted in on the fun.  Watch for a review of Montessori By Mom coming soon!

Also, Katie got her bandages off this week, and we went to Apple Hill on Friday, so I've got a couple more picture posts brewing.

Looking forward, we're getting to the birth of Jesus in history, and learning about hearing, sound, balance, and ears in science this week.

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The Sea House

Today's book is The Sea House, by Elisabesth Gifford.  Honestly, I had a hard time getting into this book.  It has an overcast feel to it, and the main character is mentally unstable.

This book takes place in two time periods, the 1860s and the 1990s, in Scotland.  Since one of my favorite book series involves Scotland in two time periods, I felt like I should have liked this book.

Ruth and Michael buy an old house on the coast and make a startling discovery underneath it during renovations.  But the spirit haunting Ruth has nothing to do with the tiny skeleton, but stems from her own tumultuous childhood.

Once I got past the first several chapters, I could get into the story and was interested to find out what happened with the priest of the 1800s from his journals and letters, provided to Ruth by the current vicar on the island.

The priest's maid was my favorite character in the book.  She survives horrific loss, and unlike Ruth, becomes strong and determined in it's wake.  After the priest deserts her, she goes on to make something of herself as a school teacher.  I'm glad she got the two things she wanted in the end.

There is evolutionary content in this story, and the priest has a sort of hero worship for Darwin, which I didn't care for.  Also, in the beginning of the story, the main character kills and dissects a lizard, postulating that we all have a lizard (or very primitive) brain within us.

The end of the story is a bit ambiguous, and I found myself flipping back through the whole book, searching for the last name of Matthew and Fanny.  Once I started paying attention to last names, I realized that Ruth's maiden name was her uncle's last name.  Did Ruth's mother give Ruth her father's last name even though they weren't married?  Or was Ruth's mum another of many Macleods on the island?  I guess we'll never know.  I felt like the author could have wrapped it up with a bow, if she'd linked Ruth and the laird of the past through Anna.



Don't miss The Sea House, a stunning fiction debut from the UK. Set in a house on the windswept coast of the Outer Hebrides, Elisabeth Gifford's haunting tale effortlessly bridges a gap of more than a century. Adeptly interweaving two tales involving residents of the titular house, Gifford sets up an absorbing mystery revolving around local lore and myths about mermaids, selkies, and sealmen. Stretching seamlessly back and forth through time, layers upon layers of secrets are slowly and effectively peeled away in this evocative debut (Booklist).

Celebrate with Elisabeth by entering her Kindle giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A Kindle Fire
• The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford

Enter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on October 19th. Winner will be announced October 20th at Elisabeth's Blog.

Watch the trailer:

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