Our Daily Drive

Lately I've just been madly in love with our morning drive to school! It takes us about 20 mins and we take the back roads through beautiful country. The sun is rising and everything looks so lovely and soft in the morning light! My favorite spots to see on the drive are:

The little red barn with tin roof set among the field of evergreens.

The old gray farm house set perfectly between two trees (that looked amazing in the fall!), surrounded by a white fence. (iphone photo below, fails in comparison to the real thing)

The llamas and chickens next to the filbert orchard. (The kids' favorite spot.)

And on the way home we often see Mt. Hood, with a field and little "pond" (flooded field?) below, and often with ducks or geese flying over the "pond". Today it just looked unreal. I WISHED I had my camera with me. It was so beautiful.

I keep telling myself I'm going to stop and photograph these spots one of these days with my telephoto lens.

The other special thing about our drive is the kids and our conversations and what songs they request. They love JJ Heller's most recent album. I love hearing Selah sing her songs and know the words. This is one of our favorites to sing along to:

They kids also love listening to "the babies who play classical music", when really it's a cd of classical music for babies. ;) 

This January we've begun to use our drive time as the perfect time for Jude to do his sound therapy (therapeutic listening... click on this link to see a short video about it)! It's such a great time because he's strapped in his seat and has nothing better to do than just listen. :) And we've finally landed on a great set of music that he recognizes and loves and it's been wonderful for him. Yesterday his teacher said to me with a big smile, "Wow, Jude is doing really well right now. He's been engaging with other children. Today he sat at a table with other kids and did his work with them. He's much more calm and he's listening and following directions." It made me soooo happy to hear! We just started back up at sensory therapy with Miss M. in January, and he's been regularly doing his sound therapy, and I love seeing these bursts of growth/progress in Jude! Again, I just have to give thanks to God. Last year I had prayed so much for God's help with Jude, and for God to provide the perfect school situation for him, and God has blown me away with the support we have from Miss M. and Jude's school. They are soooo loving and caring and have gone to great lengths to help him succeed and thrive there! It's humbling to be on the receiving end of such care.