Archive for April, 2008
From the Word
1Pe 4:12-19 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. (13) But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. (14) If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. (15) If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. (16) However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. (17) For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (18) And,
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (19) So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Looking for modest girls’ swimsuits?
Ones that are actually ATTRACTIVE???????
Far too many times the modest swimwear I've seen are actually IMmodest since they draw an insane amount of attention to the wearer. But these are just super, SUPER cute!!!!!
Answers
I have been feeling less than stellar lately. About 5 years ago I was diagnosed by my GP with postpartum thyroiditis, and I've been taking .5 mg of either Synthroid or some other synthetic T4 ever since. Since I never felt any different (I never felt BAD to begin with...my midwife found some nodules on my thyroid, which is what led to my diagnosis) and since my GP just checked my TSH levels every so often with an "everything's normal" result, I didn't really think I was being treated properly. So I took our move as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh.
So two months ago I went off my meds, to establish a baseline, and Monday I went to an endocrinologist who is listed on the Top Thyroid Doc list. I ended up seeing a nurse practitioner since the dr. is on vacation, but this guy was still awesome. He explained everything to me, and he said the glorious words, "We use labs as a guide, but how we treat depends on how you feel." I had only heard that such doctors (or NPs
) exist...I've never actually experienced it myself.He called today with the results. (He called me PERSONALLY, by the way. I am in love.) My TSH is 10. Normal is .3-3.0. (But even if my TSH HAD been within normal limits, if I felt like garbage, he would have treated me. Have I mentioned I love this NP?????) My free T4 was normal, and my free T3 was on the very low end of normal, so he doesn't think it would stay normal long, if I stayed off my meds.
My antibody test was positive, so he is pretty sure I have Hashimoto's, rather than thyroiditis (the numbers would be way higher with thyroiditis). That means that my hypothyroidism won't be going away. So he's starting me back up on .5 mg of synthetic T4. He said we'll probably have to adjust meds some, once we figure out where I feel good. He said he has a whole bag of tricks up his sleeve...synthetic T3, Armour, etc. THAT is refreshing as well...all the other doctors I've had have solely relied on synthetic T4 and that's it.
I go back at the end of May.I feel so encouraged. There really IS something wrong with me. My aches may not be from lying in weird positions due to my co-sleeping baby (which I am not a fan of). My semi-fatigue and lack of energy may not be from nursing through the night and not getting a full-night's sleep. My lack of concentration and brain fog may not be from lack of sleep and/or lots o' stuff going on in my life. My hair falling out may not just be postpartum hair loss. My dry skin may not be from living where I do. (OK, it probably is...the rest of my family experiences the same thing.) And other assorted symptoms....
I'm not losing my mind!!!!!
(Well, about this anyway.)
A Week in Tapestry of Grace
I thought I'd share what a week looks like for us for history.
Tapestry of Grace recommends a Monday-Friday week. I've also heard of some families doing Friday-Thursday so that the children can read over the weekend. At this point in our school, we have found it best to just be flexible, so we don't have a set length of how long we spend on a TOG Week. Sometimes it only takes us 3 days to get through the material, and other times it takes us 7 days. It varies. It's a bonus when I can plan a week Monday-Friday, but sometimes we'll finish things up the next Monday or Tuesday and then go ahead and start the next Week in TOG.
I try to read the Teacher's Notes over the weekend prior to starting a new Week. This past week we did Week 15 in Year 1, which is The Promised Land: Conquest and Settlement.
Day 1:
I literally copied this from the Student Threads from the yellow Overview section. I do not include the people/vocabulary words because I learned early on this year that our reading assignments may or may not cover those people/vocabulary words, and I got tired of dealing with that. So I gave up LOL.
I read this aloud off the board.
Then we moved on to geography. I used the geography assignment from the Student Assignment Pages. I try to do the geography assignments earlier in the week so that as we read, my children already have a vague familiarity with the locations. This also allows us to refer back to any maps that we have worked on.
I broke down and bought this earlier in the year:
It is a rhetoric level resource, but IMO it's a necessary one for even LG. I wish they would list it as such. My UG child filled out his map according to the assignment:
while I helped my LG students fill out theirs. Usually I print out the teacher's map from the MapAids CD, but this week's teacher's map is wrong (I have been told they have corrected CDs available, but I don't have one), so this week I printed out maps for them and then filled it out for them as we all did it together. (Too much writing.)
Then we did a color-coded map for the tribes of Israel:
There is an example map in the Teacher's Notes, but no black-line map, so I had to make my own. I have Uncle Josh's outline map book, so I copied an Ancient Israel map and drew in the tribal boundaries with Sharpie and then copied them all for my dc. We did all of this together, using the map from the Teacher's Notes as a guide.
(Come to find out there is a tribal map on the MapAids CD for week *16*. I will have to mark that in my IG for week 15 so I know to look there next time around!)
Day 2:
Read from
TOG recommends another child's Bible, but I hated it and started using this one instead.
Day 3:
Read from
and put together a salt map of Israel (instructions are in Old Testment Days):
They will paint it next week after it dries (this is included in the TOG assignments).
There were a few other hands-on activities we could have done, but I'm not a very "hands-on" mom, so my kids thought I was awesome for letting them do this.
Day 4:
We filled out the booklets for our Unit 2 lapbooks:
and then we went over the threads, people, and vocabulary for the week, as a review:
This was a lightish week, so that is why we only did it for 4 days.
