Blink

I've been neglecting my poor little blog of late. Life has really been coming fast lately. I've been sharing some of my progress with the program I'm participating in the gym. Needless to say, it's been taking up a lot of my time leaving little left over for other things.

But God has a way of slowing things down.

Last Monday night we were all enjoying a quiet evening at home together. My hubby and all the boys were sitting on the couch watching TV and I was catching up on email after a busy day running hither and yon. My hubby began complaining of a loud buzzing noise - like the sound of a wind-up toy. He asked the boys to knock it off, but they weren't playing with anything like that. We realized that he had a loud buzzing noise just in his left ear.

We didn't think much of it that night as he's been sick for the last six weeks first with a head cold, than bronchitis, than the norovirus (or whatever that 12-hour nasty thing was called) and he still had a lingering cough. However, things changed in a blink Tuesday morning.

My hubby woke up and had a mild headache (he has migraines from time to time) so he decided to take some ibuprofen and sleep a bit more. When he woke up later in the morning he called me in to the bedroom to tell me he was extremely dizzy and just didn't feel right. In fact, when he tried to stand up, he fell back to the bed. He then told me he had numbness and tingling all down the left-side of his body.

I was thinking it might be an inner ear issue. I, myself, had a similar problem when I was in college. However, the numbness and tingling threw me for a loop so I called my sister for a "medical consult." She's worked as an ER nurse for the last 20 years and I trust her explicitly with questions like this. She felt it would be best to go have things checked out at the ER so off we went.

In the ER, they too felt it was an inner ear issue and gave him meds for his headache and the dizziness. He also had some nausea (and soon some vomiting) so he got some drugs for that as well. To be safe, they did a CAT scan which came back clear. I remember clearly when the PA came in and told us that he had not had a stroke. We thought we'd soon be released to go home. Or at least that was my thought until I realized that the PA only thought the numbness and tingling was in his head region. We explained that it was his entire left side. After she consulted with the neurologist, we were soon admitted to the floor for "observation" and the plan to do a MRI in the morning.

Hubby doesn't remember a lot of Tuesday or Tuesday night simply because he had some "good drugs" on board for his headache and nausea/vomiting. He slept really well that night.

Wednesday morning I arrived and they soon took him down for an MRI. I have to confess, the nurse and I had a bit of fun with the poor man. During his stay, they had him on telemetry to monitor his heart. This means he had to wear those nice little stickers on his chest with the unit hooked to it. In preparation for the MRI, those stickers had to be removed. I will say that the nurse and I had way too much fun doing that to the poor guy. He was a great sport though.

And then - in a blink of an eye - we heard the diagnosis we never thought we'd hear for a 39-year-old man. My hubby had had a minor stroke. The MRI showed that he had four small blood clots in the posterior carotid arteries - the ones that go up the back of the neck. Three were very, very, very tiny, but one was about half the size of my pinky fingertip. Needless to say, it was shocking to think he had had a stroke Monday night.

The PA who took care of him in the hospital was fantastic. She came directly in to us as soon as she had the diagnosis and explained it all to us without talking down to us. She explained about all the tests he would be having and they would be doing them as soon as possible. She was right. Within 15 minutes of her leaving the room, he was off to have another scan (which meant the newly replaced telemetry stickers had to be removed for the second time that morning!), a lot of blood work drawn, an EKG (another set of stickers - seriously I'm not making it up!), and finally an echocardiogram.

The medical staff did not know what caused him to throw the clots so they wanted to check his blood clotting (we're still waiting for those results), his blood flow (the MRA with contrast scan that was done) and his heart (EKG and echo). To date, all of his results have come back negative. So we still do not have a definitive reason for the stroke.

However, for the last 10 years my dear hubby has had borderline high blood pressure and he has sweet talked his way out of many a doctor visit without getting medication for it. This could have been a contributing factor.

He was in the hospital from Tuesday until Friday morning. The extended stay really had a lot to do with his blood pressure. It was simply too high for him to be released. Until they could be sure the meds they had put him on were working, he needed to stay. Added to that, it wasn't until Thursday that the dizziness stopped so he was still a bit unsteady on his feet.

Needless to say, this has been a wake up call for both of us. He is doing very well and is home. He still has some left-sided numbness and tingling (the ride side of the brain controls the left side of the body which is why the clots on the right are affecting his left side) and the buzzing/ringing in his ear. However, that all seems to be getting better which is great.

We are very thankful it wasn't worse. He never lost motor control, muscle control, or speech. It was, however, a cerbrovascular accident (CVA) otherwise known as a stroke. He left the hospital on four meds (two for his blood pressure, one for his cholesterol, and a high dose aspirin). He is taking it easy this week - no driving and no more than half a day of work. He's only  planning to go in to the office two days but he is putting in some hours at home. He's taking the week to recover and rest. We realize that even though it was minor it was still a stroke. We are thankful for God's providence in caring for him though and we are using it to make some changes in our lives.

{TOS Crew Review} Progeny Press

 

From time to time I have been blessed to try out a product that I have been hearing a lot about over my homeschooling years. Progeny Press was on my short "to buy" list and one I was eager to see if all I had heard was true.

Progeny Press has over 100 literature study guides covering books for children all the way from kindergarten to high school. I appreciate the company's goal wholeheartedly...

"Our goal is to teach our children to think clearly, 

to understand literature, 

and to rely on scripture for truth and values, 

and enjoy themselves while they do it!"

The study guides come in four levels covering lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school and high school. They also cover a variety of genres making it easy for parents to chose which one would work best for their course of study. The guides are available either as a printed version, a pdf file on CD or a pdf file as an email attachment. Progeny Press has also begun selling interactive pdf guides. This means the student can type their answers directly into the typeable pdf. This is the type of guide we reviewed. The guides range in price from $10.99-$27.99.

 

The guide that we used here was the one for The Bronze Bow ($16.99). You can see a sample of the guide by clicking HERE. This is a middle school level book and I had my oldest son try it out. We were able to use the interactive guide and I have to say, I thought it was a great innovation. I have three boys and writing is not one of their favorite things to do. The fact that my son could simply type in his answers was wonderful. I emailed him the guide and he would save and email it back to me. Super easy for both of us.

My oldest isn't very talkative about school. He rarely wants to admit that he likes something that I have him do for his coursework. While he wouldn't come right out and admit he liked this product, I could tell that it was a hit with him or as much of a hit as anything is with him that is related to school. This truly is a high compliment to the product.

I have decided that I wish I had tried out Progeny Press long before now. I will definitely be buying more of these guides for all of my boys and recommending them to other homeschoolers.

Be sure to check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what other Crew members had to say about the guides.

 

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product. 

{TOS Crew Review} Classic Academic Press: The Art of Argument

 

Just as the name of the company suggests, Classical Academic Press, sells curriculum to support a classic education. The company is perhaps best known for its Latin curriculum. In fact, I did a review of that last year. However, they offer more than just Latin. This year I was given the opportunity to review their logic program called - The Art of Argument.

 

Crew members received the student text (pictured above) which sells for $21.95, the teacher edition which sells for $24.95, and the first DVD which covers the introduction to the course and the first six fallacies presented. The DVDs are sold in a set of five with more than eight hours of conversation that covers all 28 fallacies presented. The DVD set retails for $54.95. Alternatively, you can purchase all the products mentioned above as a bundle for $88.95. 

 

So what exactly is The Art of Argument and what does it cover? Just as the subtitle suggests, it is an introduction to "informal fallacies." Okay, so what are "informal fallacies?" Wikipedia defines a fallacy as "usually an improper argumentation in reasoning resulting in a misconception or presumption." 

Young teens, actually all consumers, are bombarded with arguments via the media. They see them as they are shopping in stores, watching TV, listening to the radio, virtually everywhere they look they are told why they need a product. Given that this is an election year, it's not unheard of that they will also hear arguments why a certain candidate should be chosen. But are these sound and logical arguments? Many are not. So how does one tell the difference? By learning what the common fallacies are in order to analyze the arguments.  The Art of Argument helps the student learn what these are and how to identify them. 


The Art of Argument is a beginning logic course. It is designed to be used with students in grades seventh through ninth if they are already following a classical model of education. It can also be easily used for children a bit older who have never been exposed to the study of logic. Samples of both the student text, teacher edition, and even the DVD can be viewed on their website before you buy. The sample of the DVD lesson is a full lesson as well.


I had my 15-year-old son try out this program. He has never really done any logic study. I liked how easy it was to implement this curriculum. It really does work as an "open-and-go" style. I didn't need to spend a lot of time figuring out how it all played together. We took it in very small bites since this is new to him. I loved having the DVDs since it frees me up a bit. And honestly, this is not a subject I could teach in the depth that is needed to fully understand fallacies, how to identify them, and how to refute them.


While I don't think this is one of my son's favorite subjects, it's one that I see merit in continuing. In fact, we will be continuing to use this product and Classical Academic Press has also made it easy for TOS Crew Members to purchase the remaining DVDs that cover the rest of the program. I really like this company and all it has to offer. Just as their motto says...."classic subjects....creatively taught."


Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what other Crew members had to say about this product.

 

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.  

Weight Loss Update

Week six is half over at the gym. Our challenge this week was to complete 10 miles the fastest as a team. Each person needed to do 2.5 miles. This challenge has changed some since we were originally told about it. Originally we were going to try to do it as a group challenge at an indoor track, but that didn't pan out due to logistics and injuries (some of us - myself included - are developing shin splints so hard surfaces are, well, hard on our shins). So instead as we met with our trainer this week, we completed it however they chose to have us do it. In other words, we all did it in various ways on different machines. Except yesterday it was almost 60 degrees here in Maine. It was an absolutely beautiful spring day. As such, my trainer decided we were heading outside. Another girl on my team and I completed our 2.5 miles outside and yes, my shins really hurt now, but I did not train for this challenge as some had so I wasn't planning to run it. I did run some, but I walked the majority of it. I finished it in just over 37 minutes. I thought I could do it in 40 minutes so I actually finished a tad bit faster.

I wanted to share my weights and measurements. I'm pretty pleased with how far I've come in only six weeks. I remember watching The Biggest Loser or reading about people who have lost weight. They would weigh more than me, but wear a smaller dress size. Now I know why...they were overall leaner - they had lost inches.

So to date I have lost.....

• 1.5 inches off my chest
• 1 inch off my right arm
• 3/4 inch off my left arm 
• 4.5 inches off my waist
• 2 inches off my hips
• 2.5 inches off my right thigh
• 1-3/4 inches off my left thigh

That's a grand total of 14 inches lost overall...in six weeks.

As for my body fat, I have lost....

• 12mm from my tricep
• 5 mm from my scapula
• 16 mm from my abs
• 18 mm from my hips (illium)
• 18 mm from my quad

That's a grand total of 69 mm overall which correlates to me gaining almost 13 pounds in lean muscle weight and loosing 16 pounds of fat.

We have two weeks left. I was pleased to go in this week and find out that all the teams were rewarded for last week's challenge - meeting our daily fiber requirements. I only missed it on one day and I had a lot going on here at the farm that had me distracted. On average, I met the goal of 25g a day. The reward was a free one month pass to the gym. I had planned to continue at the gym once the competition was over, so now I can do that for free.

I need to continue to train. Not only to get healthy, but in October, I will be riding in the Dempsey Challenge. Patrick Dempsey (yes, that Patrick Dempsey) is originally from Maine. Hubby & I used to live in the same area he grew up in. He has started a cancer center in Lewiston, Maine and started this Challenge two years ago. All the money raised by the participants (runners and walkers), 100% of what is raised, goes to the clinic for free cancer care. Since my mom passed away from cancer, this is definitely something close to my heart. I'll be riding the 70-mile bike ride and hoping for a glimpse of Patrick along the way. If you might like to sponsor my ride, you can do that by clicking here. And if you are interested in participating, I have a team, just let me know and all are welcome to join.

{Review} Three Hearts

 

Most parents will do anything to keep their children safe. In fact, there is a recent story circulating the Internet about a mom who lost both her legs while shielding her two young children during a tornado.  Many moms who read that story would have done the same thing without hesitation. We have a strong instinct to protect our children at all costs.


But what if there was nothing you could do to save your child? Imagine if your child had a congenital heart defect that could be repaired with surgery, but you live in a country where there are no medical facilities that do the surgery?


I recently had the chance to watch a movie called Three Hearts. It follows three Mongolian children with congenital heart defects who come to the United States in order to have the surgery necessary to fix their hearts. The story begins with background on the Children's Heart Project through Samaritian Purse. Cissie Graham Lynch, granddaughter of Billy Graham, is just starting an internship with the project. She is tasked with bringing the children to the US and helping the families through the process.


Due to family obligations, Cissie is unable to get them.  In her place, a family from Texas is given the chance to go. The young boy is himself a heart patient. Once he heard about the Children's Heart Project, he began raising money to help other children. Their goal was to raise enough money to help one child...$2,200. Instead they ended up with raising over $8,000 and they are still continuing to raise funds.


The movie was fantastic. It was great to see these three children get a new lease on life, in more ways than one. Two are older boys, ages 16 and 18. It was amazing they were even still alive. The third child is an adorable three year old girl. Neeedless to say, it is an emotional movie and I recommend a box of tissues. It's amazing to see how so many people become Jesus to those in need. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.