Wasilla Alaska

I see from sitemeter that I have a visitor who lives in Wasilla, AK. Welcome. Are you an adoptive parent? I'd never heard of Wasilla until a few weeks ago.

Homeschooling in CA

I got this link from a friend...

>>(NaturalNews) A California appeals court has ruled that homeschooling of children is illegal unless their parents have teaching credentials from the state.

"California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home," said Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The court overturned a lower court's finding that homeschooling did not constitute a violation of child welfare laws.

"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said.

The decision stunned parents of the state's roughly 166,000 homeschooled children. While the court claimed that it was merely clarifying an existing law and not making a new one, the decision leaves the parents of homeschooled children at risk of arrest and criminal prosecution.

"At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " homeschool parent Loren Mavromati said. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation."

Parents' reasons for homeschooling their children range from religious beliefs to dissatisfaction with the education received at public or private schools. But according to the court, all California children between the ages of 6 and 18 must attend either a full-time public or private school or be taught by a tutor credentialed for their specific grade level.

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation," Croskey wrote.

California's largest teachers union welcomed the decision as did the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles.

According to the law center's executive director, Leslie Heimov, children should not be educated at home, because they need to be "in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."<<

Uhhhh...who has the highest desire to ensure their children's safety?? PARENTS, DUH- My daughter with Down Syndrome walked away from her classmates as they went to the auditorium yesterday. They found her outside sitting down out on the track. That wouldn't have happened with ME in charge of her.

Lapsed Ideals

I've forgotten my own rules that I learned from The Secret and the Law of Attraction. . I know that this message is 100% true, but I haven't been following it the past week or two. I am now.

I had fallen into the habit of letting negative political talk on my favorite mailing list get to me. And I've felt the need to reply to those negative posts. I was wrong, and I'm deeply sorry. One will always be exposed to words that anger us. And those negative thoughts, whether spoken or read, go out in the universe and bring negative things into your own life.

NOTHING GOOD EVER COMES FROM EITHER SPEAKING, EMAILING OR LISTENING TO NEGATIVITY.

Speaking or emailing negativity only produces more negativity in one's life. Listening to, reading, or replying to negativity only produces negative situations in your life.

What is the answer to every difficult circumstance in life?

Take the positive path.

Choosing the positive path can be easy at some times in our life and more difficult at other times. When everything is going along well, when we are on a roll, choosing the positive path just flows through us as an easy, natural choice. When something negative comes along it can be far more challenging for us to choose the positive path.

But choose it we must! No matter how challenging the negativity may be, there is simply no other way to bring our lives back into positivity so that our lives will

If negative situations appear, you must use your will and refuse to lower yourself to those negative thoughts, words, actions, and emotions. Use your will and decide that not only will you focus on the positive, but you will ramp up the positive in every thought, word, and action of your day.

It takes determination, strength, faith, and the power of your will to focus on the positive when intense negativity descends, but remember that the Universe and the law of attraction are with you.

As you focus on the positive, focus more on the positive, think of the positive, speak of the positive, and take positive and good actions, the law of attraction will give your life wings. Suddenly you will look around you and you will find that the negativity has gone, and that your life has been filled with goodness and joy.

And that's where I'm going to be from now on.

Slaves to What You Don't know

I don't know how he does it but the daily emails I get from Neale Donald Walsch are amazingly appropriate for whatever I'm thinking about. Here's today's email:

>>

On this day of your life, (my name), I believe God wants you to know...

...that you are slaves to whatever you don't understand.

Vernon Howard said that, and he was right. So do not

avoid hearing, or even studying, other points of view.

Indeed, do so rigorously.

The more that you oppose

something, the more you will benefit from looking into

it deeply -- with an open mind, not cynically.

This is excellent advice right now if you live in the

United States and are deciding upon a person for whom

to vote in the upcoming election...

Love, Your Friend....
<<

Election 2008

I'm a mother of a large adoptive family with special needs kids. I'm a Christian. So why am I voting for Obama?

I didn't want to go into that here on this blog, so I started another. I have taken the info from each candidate's webpage and compared what they have to offer. It's easy reading as I've cut to the chase on each issue. My info comes directly from McCain's an Obama's webpages, and from the candidates' voting records.

If you haven't taken an in depth look at the candidates' stands on the issues, then this is an easy way to do that. Take a Look at http://candidatescompared.blogspot.com

Just voting your chosen party isn't doing your duty as a citizen. Knowing what each candidate stands for before you vote is.

Not giving my daughter enough credit

Sometimes I think we just don't give our adult children with Down Syndrome enough credit. Like this weekend. My 16 year old, Ross is in the hospital with another kidney infection. Yesterday he was bored and called his sister Danielle on the phone. Danielle hung up without giving Jennifer (23, DS) a chance to talk. So Jennifer grabs the phone and looks for the last number on the caller ID and calls the hospital and asks for her brother by name and gets connected.

I didn't think she knew how to do that, or that the operator would understand her. But it worked. She called him again today. That gives me some hope that she will do OK on her own someday. By on her own, I mean in a group home setting, after we're gone. Not that she'll be leaving this house. We designed this house so that it would make a perfect group home. Someday we'll incorporate it non profit, get a board and hire staff so that the kids can all stay together (The 9 here now are all developmentally delayed.) It would really hurt each one of them if they couldn't live with their siblings.

The Broken House

Well it does seem like we will have to board up the window between the kitchen and the family room. Jeremy pulled out another post and was able to squeeze his 15 year old body through and steal stuff from the kitchen. And again, upon being caught he went on a rampage.

Yesterday I don't even remember what set him off. But he did a great job of ripping up the playroom bathroom. Tore the toilet seat off, ripped down the shower curtain, etc.

I don't even know who knocked down the framed picture of Ethan, our late son, and the already beaten up framed print over the loveseat. But it was Jeremy who threw a shoe at his ceiling light and busted that.

The state has "tiers" of need for developmentally delayed kids, and those tiers determine how much help a child gets at home. We got the new tiers the other day and Jeremy is only the lowest tier-the one where kids who need the least services are. This after we had put in for a one on one at home to follow him around and prevent him from doing all this damage. I guess that is off the table now.

Is it worth it to keep trying to have a nicely decorated hole-free home? I'm not talking showcase decorating here. Just a status quo decorating. I've seen homes in really poor, tough neighborhoods that had nicer interior rooms than mine. You know, a couch and a loveseat, a recliner, an end table and a coffee table. A couple lamps, some framed prints on the walls. A floor that hasn't been torn up bit by bit, doors that haven't been kicked in...

All it takes is one little devil. We've got two. Love them both, but come on guys!

This is why my grandsons refer to our place as "The Broken House."

This is hard to do (The Secret)

I've been working extra hard to come up with a good way to make a full time income from home. I design webpages for people, for about $300-500, but that's not something that I can count on. I'm slowly getting back into the real estate investment game, but buyers are few these days. Who the heck wants to buy a house now when next year it could be worth 20% less than they paid for it?

Neale Donald Walsch's daily message today was exactly what I needed to hear. Here it is:

On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know...

. ..that desire is a powerful force that can be used to

make things happen.

Marcia Weider said that, and she was right. Yet do

not confuse desire with expectation, or with need.

Desire has an entirely different quality to it. You can

desire something without needing or requiring it.

That little difference makes everything work. That

little difference is the whole trick. Desire, do not

Require. To desire propels. To require compels. Life

will not be compelled, but it can be coaxed...

Whoever or whatever you are trying to compel today,

stop it. Just...fall back into the soft cotton of desire.

OK, so I've got to get it straight. All I really have to do is DESIRE something. That's easy. I've got to trust God that he will hear my desire and provide the way. I have to stop trying to MAKE things happen. THAT part is difficult.

I also have to stop WORRYING about finances. Because the Law of Attraction says we get what we give thought to. So if my thoughts are "I don't have enough money" then all I'll get back from the universe is more not enough money.

Another thing I have to get straight is that trying to change someone's mind is impossible. And by railing against John McCain I'm putting my thoughts on him, and improving his chances. Luckily there seem to be far more Republican Obama haters working to get Obama elected by their attention to him :)