a good reason to homeschool

our local schools were in session today. i have started going to the local high school a couple mornings a week to walk before matt leaves for work. this morning, after locating the van underneath probably a half foot of snow, i proceeded to plow through at least that much on our street. at least it was fluffy. underneath the snow, however, was a sheet of ice. my tires slid as i rounded the corner, and i almost slipped again on my walk through the high school parking lot. our street (we live about a block from an elementary school and a middle school) remained unplowed upon my return home.

that was this morning... and the above picture of our van was taken at about 4:00 this afternoon. remember, i have already cleared it of snow once today!

p.s.--someday, it would be nice to have a garage. :)

c.s. lewis quote

"there are no such things as interruptions in life.
they are the real life that God brings us day by day."

food for thought

my sidebar book features haven't been quite accurate as of late -- my reading has been much more of a buffet style these days. these are the books i have nibbled from at one point or another over the past week or so. they are giving me a lot to chew on. (all puns intended)

• Learning All the Time: How small children begin to read, write, count, and investigate the world, without being taught -John Holt
• I Saw the Angel in the Marble (A collection of essays on homeschooling) -Chris & Ellyn Davis
• When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling -R.C. Sproul, Jr.
• Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger -Ron Sider
• Created to Be His Help Meet -Debi Pearl

levi's story -- part 2

that helicopter ride was one of the worst experiences of my entire life, as i sat across from my screaming 1-week-old son in an incubator, unable to help him or soothe him, and so unsure of what lay ahead.

arriving atop the mater children's hospital in brisbane, we were directed to the ICU once again. it was such a frightening and stressful time. i instantly understood much more about the pain my parents had felt a few years earlier as they sat at their only son's bedside as he suffered, as well as about the fear they must have felt at the possibility of losing him.

we remained there in brisbane for a total of about a week and a half, and within that time levi received more pokes and prods than i care to recall, as they ran numerous tests trying to figure out what was going on with him. about halfway into our time there, my parents were scheduled to leave the country and go back home. they considered extending their stay, but finally made the hard decision to board their return flight from brisbane. we were granted a leave from the hospital in order to see them off at the airport --that was a hard goodbye -- and then headed back to our hospital room, which would now also include miriam's port-a-cot (aussie term for pack & play).

while in the hospital, they would not take levi off the oxygen, yet they would not send us home with it. while on the oxygen, he was not having the apnea episodes. when we finally decided to try venturing home, with nothing but a refresher in cpr and resuscitation under our belts, he had at least 3 more episodes during our 3 hour drive.

matt and i took shifts for the next while (i don't remember how long) -- one of us would be up through the day and the other through the night -- as we did not want to take our eyes off him. as time went on, we must have come to trust his heart monitor more and more (which he was hooked to for the first 2-3 months of his life), and slowly began to get more sleep. the last episode that we know of occurred when levi was about 3 weeks of age, which was actually not long after our return from brisbane. it's just that we lived in fear of it happening again for quite some time after that.

so many prayers were going up for levi throughout this time, and from both sides of the globe. that was an incredible feeling. we still don't know if it was just something that he suddenly stopped doing at 3 weeks, or if God miraculously healed him. the best explanation the doctors could give us was that he was born with an underdeveloped respiratory/neurological connection -- his brain wasn't always getting the message to his body to take the next breath. they also termed him a "near-SIDS" baby at one point.

the whole ordeal, in addition to being overseas and away from familiar family and friends, definitely took its toll on my emotional state for some time afterwards, but we thank God that levi is a strong, healthy boy and a vital part of our family. makes me all the more thankful for him. (God must have known we would be needing that kind of reminder some days...!) his life is truly a gift.

narnia

(i will get around to posting part 2 to levi's story hopefully in the next day or two...)

... but i just had to say that today is a very exciting day in the dietsche household! not only are we celebrating levi's birthday with various festivities, but tonight we embark on a much-anticipated journey together. we are beginning our reading of the chronicles of narnia. matt has been waiting a long time for this, but we kept telling the kids we would wait until levi turned 4 (on miriam's 4th birthday was when we began reading through the little house on the prairie series). my sister is a kindergarten teacher and i picked up the set through one of her book orders for around $18. they are just about to get started upstairs, so i better go join them!

levi's story -- part 1

4 years ago this friday, levi david was born in lismore, new south wales, australia. he is named after his dad ("matthew" is greek, "levi" is the same name in hebrew) and his uncle matt, who left this earth at the age of 16 after a very brave battle with cancer. we also had david of the OT in mind when we named him, a worshipper and a man after God's own heart (1 Sam. 13:14).

everything about my pregnancy with levi and his birth seemed normal. we were paying out of pocket for our hospital stay, so within 24 hours after he was born we were packing up to go home. we just had to wait for the pediatrician to come and check him over before we left. but as i was standing in the room watching his examination, with our car packed and waiting in the parking lot, i noticed that my baby did not look right. i commented to the doc, who then realized that levi had gone limp and had stopped breathing for a few moments. so much for the packed car -- we weren't going anywhere yet.

he proceeded to have at least one more similar episode not too long after that. assuring us that these brief, yet terrifying, spells were most likely due to some leftover mucous in his throat from birth, the doctors wanted to keep him in the children's ICU until the next day to monitor him. they hooked our 1-day-old up to oxygen tubes and a heart rate monitor, and we watched and waited anxiously through the night as his numbers would go up and down.

thankfully, my parents had flown over from the states a few days earlier in order to be there for levi's arrival, so they were able to stay at our flat with miriam throughout our time in the hospital. levi was released from the ICU the next day, and the doctor's initial evaluation of the situation seemed to be suffice...

until a week later, when i was handing levi over to my mom at one point, and again he did not look right. he was having another apnea episode -- limp, discolored body, not breathing, followed moments later by a gasp for air, and then falling fast asleep. we called the ambulance, and landed right back in lismore hospital. only this time, levi's episodes where much more frequent, and the nurses and doctors there were at a loss as to what to do with him. at one point, the doc told us he may be having epileptic seisures, and considered medicating him for that (which i am so glad we did not agree to).

finally, they decided that we should be transferred to a bigger hospital in brisbane, about 3 hours north. levi and i would go by helicopter, and matt would follow by car with miriam and my parents... (to be continued)

lonely

it's actually been a pretty good week. i have felt fairly productive around the house and with the kids, and i have felt more emotionally stable in general lately -- must be my hormones are finally getting back to normal after spending the better part of the last two years pregnant or nursing. i've just been alone alot this past week (not counting my kids, of course), and today it's really starting to get to me. monday night matt had a meeting and i went to the mall alone with the kids. tuesday night i stayed home with sawyer while matt took miriam and levi to miriam's soccer practice. wednesday night i had to get groceries -- i hate grocery shopping -- so matt stayed home with the kids, and then when i got home he went back to work for the rest of the evening. tonight he's going back to work again for a few hours -- he's been swamped there lately. and my days have been pretty quiet this week, as well. i think the only real outing was going to Target with the kids and getting popcorn and a soda for $1. too bad i forgot to do two out of the four things i originally went there to do!

it's not that i lack people that i could go and hang out with or talk to, but sometimes the effort it takes to coordinate everything is just too daunting a thought. one good thing is that i have been feeling more at home lately with just being home. i struggled for a long time with being really restless. i still get bored at times, but usually i have the opposite problem with feeling that there is just so much to be done!

so why am i spending my time sending these thoughts out into the blogosphere when i could be calling up a friend to chat and not be so lonely? good question.

3 kids and a little less hair later...

alright, make that a lot less hair later. i thought i'd post this photo of me with my husband-gone-completely bald... and then i couldn't resist posting a comparison shot from our wedding day 8 1/2 years ago. i heard on the news one day a couple of months ago that "bald is sexy" -- and if it's on the today show you know it MUST be true -- and that afternoon matt shaved his head. :) (there wasn't that much there to shave off anyway.) i like it.

another year "behind" us

(note: the above picture was not a set-up.)

just thought i'd share a couple photos of the kids sporting their christmas gifts from aunt laura and uncle javier... chicago bears jerseys! matt's a big fan, and it looks like they just might be headed for the super bowl this year.