So here is the song! Enjoy!
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Speechless Sundays: "Magnificent God"
Today I'm signing a song that is one of my favorites- "Magnificent God" by Big Daddy Weave. I actually had the pleasure of seeing Big Daddy Weave just last year and got to meet the Big Daddy himself :)
So here is the song! Enjoy!
So here is the song! Enjoy!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Protecting the vine
Every Thursday I host a deaf ladies bible study in our home. I love this time since it incorporates my 3 favorite things: The Word of God, Fellowship, and Food.
Today's study was so interesting and so fascinating to me that I just had to share a part of it with you.
The book we're reading is called "A Woman's Walk With God" by Elizabeth George.
Song of Solomon has a verse that says "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." (2:15)
To many times in our lives "little foxes" slip in trying to destroy our vines. These little foxes mess with our fruit-bearing process. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23 These little foxes want to strip away and spoil each of these Godly qualities in us.
What are these "little foxes" anyway? They are thoughts, actions, or attitudes that are contrary to God's character. Surround by the world and the flesh, there are plenty of little foxes out there we need to defend our vineyards (lives) from.
Selfishness spoils love.
Discontent spoils joy.
Anxious thoughts spoil peace.
Impatience spoils patience.
Bitter words spoil kindness.
Indolence spoils goodness.
Doubt spoils faith.
Pride spoils gentleness.
Love of pleasure spoils self-control.
So how do we make sure the little foxes do not creep in? Well three things need to happen.
1. We need to recognize the little foxes.
What are the things that are stealing our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
2. We need to capture the little foxes.
At the times we notice the little foxes slipping in, we need to immediately capture those thoughts, actions, or attitudes.
3. We need to kill the little foxes.
It sounds brutal but the only way we are going to keep those sneaky foxes out of our vineyard is to kill or do away with them. When we recognize, capture the little foxes or attitudes, actions, and thoughts in our lives that are unGodly we need to quickly remove ourselves from the temptations. Come to God and confess our sin and make it right before God.
It's a hard life-long process but one that does get somewhat easier with practice. So ask God today for the wisdom and strength to remove the "little foxes" from your "vineyard".
Grace and Peace,
Erin
Today's study was so interesting and so fascinating to me that I just had to share a part of it with you.
The book we're reading is called "A Woman's Walk With God" by Elizabeth George.
Song of Solomon has a verse that says "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." (2:15)
To many times in our lives "little foxes" slip in trying to destroy our vines. These little foxes mess with our fruit-bearing process. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23 These little foxes want to strip away and spoil each of these Godly qualities in us.
What are these "little foxes" anyway? They are thoughts, actions, or attitudes that are contrary to God's character. Surround by the world and the flesh, there are plenty of little foxes out there we need to defend our vineyards (lives) from.
Selfishness spoils love.
Discontent spoils joy.
Anxious thoughts spoil peace.
Impatience spoils patience.
Bitter words spoil kindness.
Indolence spoils goodness.
Doubt spoils faith.
Pride spoils gentleness.
Love of pleasure spoils self-control.
So how do we make sure the little foxes do not creep in? Well three things need to happen.
1. We need to recognize the little foxes.
What are the things that are stealing our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?
2. We need to capture the little foxes.
At the times we notice the little foxes slipping in, we need to immediately capture those thoughts, actions, or attitudes.
3. We need to kill the little foxes.
It sounds brutal but the only way we are going to keep those sneaky foxes out of our vineyard is to kill or do away with them. When we recognize, capture the little foxes or attitudes, actions, and thoughts in our lives that are unGodly we need to quickly remove ourselves from the temptations. Come to God and confess our sin and make it right before God.
It's a hard life-long process but one that does get somewhat easier with practice. So ask God today for the wisdom and strength to remove the "little foxes" from your "vineyard".
Grace and Peace,
Erin
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Speechless Sundays: Daniel in the Lions Den
Today we have Tamara with Silentheartministries.WordPress.com. She is a dear Deaf friend who wears many hats- she is Deaf Dance Teacher to our girls, ASL teacher to local parents of deaf kids, Volunteer with school systems, Missionary Worker with Deaf in several countries, and sooo much more!
Currently she is teaching "Sign Me a Story" at our church on Tuesday nights and I thought it'd be fun to video her (without her knowing till later :) doing her Daniel in the Lions Den story.
Well- she did GREAT! But I didn't :blush: The video quality is horrible, the angle is bad, and MY 1 year old kept walking into the screen :double blush:!
However- there is a neat story to be seen and hopefully next time I'll do better on the video (and leave the 1 year old home with Grandma :)
Enjoy!
Currently she is teaching "Sign Me a Story" at our church on Tuesday nights and I thought it'd be fun to video her (without her knowing till later :) doing her Daniel in the Lions Den story.
Well- she did GREAT! But I didn't :blush: The video quality is horrible, the angle is bad, and MY 1 year old kept walking into the screen :double blush:!
However- there is a neat story to be seen and hopefully next time I'll do better on the video (and leave the 1 year old home with Grandma :)
Enjoy!
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Concentration Fatigue in Deaf
I read a very interesting article recently and thought it would be a good topic to bring up here- Concentration Fatigue in Deaf. You can read the original article here:
http://limpingchicken.com/2013/06/28/ian-noon-concentration-fatigue/
The fact of the matter is that concentration fatigue is very real for Deaf whether signing or lip-reading.
Personally I think lip-reading is even worse since the brain has to fill in the gaps where with ASL you don't necessarily. Only 30-40% of the English language is visible on the lips (less than 1/2 !) So there is obviously a LOT of guess work and filling in the spaces with lip-reading. Not only does it cause tiredness, but also headaches, eye fatigue, and other physical pain. Lip-reading is not a very friendly mode of communication, even if you get "used" to doing it- it becomes like squinting when you don't have glasses. Even for people who have hearing aids or cochlear implants, there is still a measure of language that has to be matched with lip-reading. Obviously the more "loss" you have the more work at lip-reading you will have to do.
All of this work leads to- you guessed it- Concentration Fatigue. With adults- we just brush it off and count it as another long day. But with kids... different story.
We need to be mindful with our Deaf/ Hard of Hearing Children about concentration fatigue. In school (public or homeschool), in every day life, and especially after playdates, conferences, and events. There is so much visual going on and they have to take it all in through the eyes.
We need to be sensitive to our kids needs even more during these type of days. Maybe that "bad attitude" is fatigue. Maybe that "I'm tired" is true.
I'm not saying they can get away with murder (or even sassy attitudes) but we need to be mindful.
Anyway- my random thought of the day :) Join us tomorrow for another guest on Speechless Sundays- Mrs. Tamara! She is signing a kids story- Daniel in the Lions' Den. See you tomorrow!
http://limpingchicken.com/2013/06/28/ian-noon-concentration-fatigue/
The fact of the matter is that concentration fatigue is very real for Deaf whether signing or lip-reading.
Personally I think lip-reading is even worse since the brain has to fill in the gaps where with ASL you don't necessarily. Only 30-40% of the English language is visible on the lips (less than 1/2 !) So there is obviously a LOT of guess work and filling in the spaces with lip-reading. Not only does it cause tiredness, but also headaches, eye fatigue, and other physical pain. Lip-reading is not a very friendly mode of communication, even if you get "used" to doing it- it becomes like squinting when you don't have glasses. Even for people who have hearing aids or cochlear implants, there is still a measure of language that has to be matched with lip-reading. Obviously the more "loss" you have the more work at lip-reading you will have to do.
All of this work leads to- you guessed it- Concentration Fatigue. With adults- we just brush it off and count it as another long day. But with kids... different story.
We need to be mindful with our Deaf/ Hard of Hearing Children about concentration fatigue. In school (public or homeschool), in every day life, and especially after playdates, conferences, and events. There is so much visual going on and they have to take it all in through the eyes.
We need to be sensitive to our kids needs even more during these type of days. Maybe that "bad attitude" is fatigue. Maybe that "I'm tired" is true.
I'm not saying they can get away with murder (or even sassy attitudes) but we need to be mindful.
Anyway- my random thought of the day :) Join us tomorrow for another guest on Speechless Sundays- Mrs. Tamara! She is signing a kids story- Daniel in the Lions' Den. See you tomorrow!
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Speechless Sundays: Have faith in God!
Sorry its been slow around here on the blog! I wanted to make it up with a special Speechless Sunday with a guest we've had before- Vickie! I love seeing Vickie do her songs not only because she's very gifted with insight on ASL translations, but because she is 100% Deaf and that blows my mind! She signs all her songs without EVER having heard them in her life! Amazing!
Proof to me that Deaf can and do worship God in song :)
So without more words-
Enjoy!
Proof to me that Deaf can and do worship God in song :)
So without more words-
Enjoy!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Booth testing (an experience)
Recently our 5th kiddo had a check-up hearing test. I talked about what made me suspect a loss yesterday and wanted to talk about the test process today.
He had an ABR when he was 4 months old (since he was born at home there was no at-birth test). His first ABR test showed "something" but the audiologist was not sure if it was loss or fluid or a fluke.
Fast forward to the end of June. Caleb is 17 months old and I just KNOW something is up.
So we go in- do a booth test. Not my first choice since ABR is accurate and booth tests are... well... not. But as with most "professionals" the parents have no say.
We get into the booth and if you've ever been a booth test with a small child you know how it is. They first put tubes in each ear, play some sounds, call the child's name, then flash a picture on a screen on either side of them (train and condition). Once they feel the kid understands how this works (like Pavlov's dogs), then they start the test. Usually one audiologist in the booth with mom and child, and one out of the booth administering the test.
Once the test starts the audiologist outside of the booth will play a sound, wait a second and see if there's a response (either the child looks to the screens, looks up, or pauses whatever game he's playing), then they flash a picture on the screen as a "reward".
Here's the problem I have with booth testing at this age- the audiologist inside the booth is suppose to be engaging the child. Not so much that the child is distracted from hearing sounds, but enough that the child isn't looking at the screens BEFORE the sound goes off.
That's a challenge. So normally what the person in the booth ends up doing almost out of habit is stops when there's a sound, looks at the child, and says or face shows this question- "Did you hear a sound???" Ok- some kids might not pick up on this subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) mark. But some kids are actually bright. And kids with hearing loss are often times much or visually aware then hearing kids so they pick up these marks very easily. They end up being conditioned to something other than sound= picture on the screen. They learn- funny face= picture on the screen.
Therefore booth tests are pretty often invalid.
Just as I'd suspected. Our outcome was "I think there might be hearing loss in high frequencies but I'm not sure so let's schedule an ABR in 2 months".
All in all, we don't care either way. Sure having another deaf child would be nice, but we're happy no matter. And I know without her telling me, Caleb has some loss so at this point it's more about what type of loss and how much.
We'll see... in August :)
He had an ABR when he was 4 months old (since he was born at home there was no at-birth test). His first ABR test showed "something" but the audiologist was not sure if it was loss or fluid or a fluke.
Fast forward to the end of June. Caleb is 17 months old and I just KNOW something is up.
So we go in- do a booth test. Not my first choice since ABR is accurate and booth tests are... well... not. But as with most "professionals" the parents have no say.
We get into the booth and if you've ever been a booth test with a small child you know how it is. They first put tubes in each ear, play some sounds, call the child's name, then flash a picture on a screen on either side of them (train and condition). Once they feel the kid understands how this works (like Pavlov's dogs), then they start the test. Usually one audiologist in the booth with mom and child, and one out of the booth administering the test.
Once the test starts the audiologist outside of the booth will play a sound, wait a second and see if there's a response (either the child looks to the screens, looks up, or pauses whatever game he's playing), then they flash a picture on the screen as a "reward".
Here's the problem I have with booth testing at this age- the audiologist inside the booth is suppose to be engaging the child. Not so much that the child is distracted from hearing sounds, but enough that the child isn't looking at the screens BEFORE the sound goes off.
That's a challenge. So normally what the person in the booth ends up doing almost out of habit is stops when there's a sound, looks at the child, and says or face shows this question- "Did you hear a sound???" Ok- some kids might not pick up on this subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) mark. But some kids are actually bright. And kids with hearing loss are often times much or visually aware then hearing kids so they pick up these marks very easily. They end up being conditioned to something other than sound= picture on the screen. They learn- funny face= picture on the screen.
Therefore booth tests are pretty often invalid.
Just as I'd suspected. Our outcome was "I think there might be hearing loss in high frequencies but I'm not sure so let's schedule an ABR in 2 months".
All in all, we don't care either way. Sure having another deaf child would be nice, but we're happy no matter. And I know without her telling me, Caleb has some loss so at this point it's more about what type of loss and how much.
We'll see... in August :)
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Suspecting a hearing loss in your child
Ever since having our 5th baby we wondered if this one would be hearing, hard of hearing, or deaf. His first ABR test when he was 4 months old showed as the audiologist put it "something".
By the professional's suggestion we went ahead with tubes in case "something" was just fluid in the ears. We'd been down that road before with daughter 2. Her fluid caused monthly ear infections which lead to her complete hearing loss so we decided to be pro-active this time and do tubes early.
Caleb had tubes put in when he was 6 months old. Let me tell you- not fun.
As he grew so did my speculations. As we approached the age of 1 (the same age as when I realized our first daughter was deaf), I noticed the tell-tell signs.
They are subtle. Hard to notice if you aren't looking for them.
1. No response. Even though Caleb does respond to sounds, he doesn't respond to all or even a majority of sounds. So vacuums, loud voices, even regular pitched voices he notices, but not quiet sounds or high pitch sounds.
2. No understandable spoken language. When other babies are starting to say words, Caleb is still babbling. And even though kids develop at all different ages, this was a different kind of babbling. For example- some kids just are not talkers. They make very little sounds at all. Only Caleb was making lots of sounds. But it was more like he was trying to speak another language all together- say Chinese not English. And even the words that we could understand (Mama) sounded like certain letters were missing or changed.
3. The scare factor. This one is interesting. Caleb would be fine with loud noises as long as they were not near him. However if I was holding him or sitting next to him and called for someone he would start looking around frantically or cry, or both. He'd almost dive into my lap to get away from whatever that big scary sound was. My thoughts is that sound to him were not constantly surrounding him and when they were amplified (from being close up and loud) they were too surprising for him to handle. This was the biggest indicator to me that he had hearing loss since all 3 of my girls did this.
4. The silent mouth. Daughter 2 has always been really big on this one and Caleb started doing this so it made me wonder. He will move his mouth like he's talking but there's no sound- like an old silent film.
5. Very visual. Everything has to be seen to be understood. If I sign a word, he picks it up in a flash and heads for the door or to the fridge for whatever I signed but when I just use my voice- nothing.
I'm sure there are more signs that I just haven't put into words. There were just too many to ignore and something tugging in my mind/gut saying he's hard of hearing. Not deaf but definitely hard of hearing.
When in doubt- go with the gut feeling. It's almost always right.
Tomorrow I'll tell about our audiology appointment. Join us for the next post to hear "the rest of the story"!
By the professional's suggestion we went ahead with tubes in case "something" was just fluid in the ears. We'd been down that road before with daughter 2. Her fluid caused monthly ear infections which lead to her complete hearing loss so we decided to be pro-active this time and do tubes early.
Caleb had tubes put in when he was 6 months old. Let me tell you- not fun.
As he grew so did my speculations. As we approached the age of 1 (the same age as when I realized our first daughter was deaf), I noticed the tell-tell signs.
They are subtle. Hard to notice if you aren't looking for them.
1. No response. Even though Caleb does respond to sounds, he doesn't respond to all or even a majority of sounds. So vacuums, loud voices, even regular pitched voices he notices, but not quiet sounds or high pitch sounds.
2. No understandable spoken language. When other babies are starting to say words, Caleb is still babbling. And even though kids develop at all different ages, this was a different kind of babbling. For example- some kids just are not talkers. They make very little sounds at all. Only Caleb was making lots of sounds. But it was more like he was trying to speak another language all together- say Chinese not English. And even the words that we could understand (Mama) sounded like certain letters were missing or changed.
3. The scare factor. This one is interesting. Caleb would be fine with loud noises as long as they were not near him. However if I was holding him or sitting next to him and called for someone he would start looking around frantically or cry, or both. He'd almost dive into my lap to get away from whatever that big scary sound was. My thoughts is that sound to him were not constantly surrounding him and when they were amplified (from being close up and loud) they were too surprising for him to handle. This was the biggest indicator to me that he had hearing loss since all 3 of my girls did this.
4. The silent mouth. Daughter 2 has always been really big on this one and Caleb started doing this so it made me wonder. He will move his mouth like he's talking but there's no sound- like an old silent film.
5. Very visual. Everything has to be seen to be understood. If I sign a word, he picks it up in a flash and heads for the door or to the fridge for whatever I signed but when I just use my voice- nothing.
 |
| Caleb taking in the world around him |
I'm sure there are more signs that I just haven't put into words. There were just too many to ignore and something tugging in my mind/gut saying he's hard of hearing. Not deaf but definitely hard of hearing.
When in doubt- go with the gut feeling. It's almost always right.
Tomorrow I'll tell about our audiology appointment. Join us for the next post to hear "the rest of the story"!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Weighloss Journey: The Beginning
I've been busy with a new phase. Ok so that sounds horrible but reality is I know myself. If I try to get all "This is the new me!" I'll be lying through my teeth. The best I can hope for is this is a phase and I sure hope it lasts.
For the last 3 weeks I've been back into South Beach Diet mode (did this in 2010 for 3 months and lost 30 lbs till I got pregnant with baby number 6, then 7, then baby 8- yeah it was a hard year so you can see why I gained all of those 30 lbs back in 2011).
Since baby 8 came (living baby 5), I've lacked the motivation to really get back on track again even though the knowledge of how never left. I had a good thing once and I knew what to do- it's just...well...doing it.
So finally in June I decided to just go. Just do it!
And here I am 3 weeks later and already 18 lbs lighter :woot: But it doesn't end here. I have a LONG road to walk. For those of you that know me I have a good 100 lbs to lose.
So pray with me. It's isn't necessarily harder for a Deaf person to lose weight but in some ways even in weight loss Deaf do have a disadvantage. I can't just run to a church near by and sign up for a free Zumba class. Any organized gym classes in fact would be pretty hard to follow when you can't hear the teachers. So it's entirely up to me. I have to read, research, learn how to use weights over again (high school was a long time ago after all), learn what to eat, etc. Everything all on my own since communication is pretty scarce.
But most of all I just need encouragement I think. Just like anyone else. I think I can therefore I can!
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Excuse the mess
Yep it's been another crazy week! First we had sick kids, then we had sick mom (and anyone will tell you THAT'S not good). Then we had a 50th anniversary party to throw for a wonderful deaf couple in our church. That was AMAZING!
Now this week is Fourth of July week and we're having a party so that means cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning.
But hopefully next week we will back to our regular blogging schedule. And back to video posting. I might even have a special guest in the next week or two!
So for now- though things are slow, we haven't disappeared- just missing in action for a few days so bear with us and excuse the mess ;)
Now this week is Fourth of July week and we're having a party so that means cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning.
But hopefully next week we will back to our regular blogging schedule. And back to video posting. I might even have a special guest in the next week or two!
So for now- though things are slow, we haven't disappeared- just missing in action for a few days so bear with us and excuse the mess ;)
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