Anyway, the kids all wore life jackets and had so much fun playing and floating! There's even an old rope tied to a giant oak for swinging out on. I didn't even attempt it; I'm sure my upper body strength is not what it use to be, plus I had a very bad experience once as a teenager jumping off a rope into our pond (I got awful rope burn on my arm and decided maybe jumping off a rope wasn't as much fun as people made it out to be!). Amazingly, though, Elisa actually did it! She's become a very good swimmer this summer and passed the deep end test at the public pool, but she's been too scared to actually go off the diving board. I honestly was sure she would chicken out with the rope!
We plan on going back at the end of the week.
In other little news, I made a sleep tincture today for Reece. What is a tincture, you might ask? Well, its a concentrated herbal syrup. Its more potent than a tea. They are very easy to make in the crock pot. Reece has been having a VERY difficult time sleeping this summer (not uncommon for autistic children). He would be put to bed at 9 pm (and we have a very strict bedtime routine), but then would proceed to get out of bed, literally, every 10 seconds. So, our policy is you go straight back to bed. I would take him back to bed like this until about 11:30pm or so. Oh, he'd get spanked, too (we believe in Biblical discipline). Then, he'd sleep for a few hours and wake up about 3 am. So, I'd get up again and put him back to bed. Some nights he'd go back so sleep, but many nights he wouldn't! It was awful! At first I was sooooo tired, but like what happens when you have a newborn, my body adjusted. Sure, it wasn't fun, but I could still function during the day. I figured that eventually, Reece would get the idea that I was more stubborn than he and so he'd stay in bed and sleep all night. He does have spurts where he's a very good sleeper. Anyway, after continuing this routine for the entire month of July, I decided to try some herbs that I'd never used on him before. I love using herbs and, although I'm no expert, I research them and have learned a lot and have seen how well they can work! So, I had this stuff from the Bulk Herb Store (check them out online; wonderful place!) called a Snooze Tincture. It was actually the dried herbs (chamomile, oatstraw, lemon balm, hops, passion flower) mixed together. You add vegetable glycerin and a little water and cook it for 3 days. But, before I went to the trouble of making a whole tincture, I decided to just make a hot tea for him using these herbs. Reece loves hot tea! Well, coincidence or not, the first night we tried this, he only got out of bed twice and slept all night! Hhhhmmmm..... maybe we were on to something. But, I wasn't a believer yet. So, for a whole week now we've been drinking the tea and he only gets out of bed about twice and only sometimes wakes up at night, but if does, he always falls back asleep! During the day, its like I have a whole different child! His language has improved and he's not NEARLY as moody as he had been. Then, to top it all off, tonight I tried a very small dose of the tincture AND had him drink the tea, and he NEVER got up once!!!! So, we'll if he sleeps all night.... let me tell you, though, just to have him stay in bed and fall asleep right away is a blessing :-) So, I'm off to enjoy my peaceful and relaxing evening..... Good night!
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