7 Quick Takes - July 24th (Volume 9)

~ 1 ~

On Thursday, all of the kids got up early, and I was still sleepy. It was my mistake to sit in the recliner while they played, because I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I felt something on my head. I was startled and reached up to feel a giant gerbera daisy hair clip right in the front of my hair.

The funny thing is, I talked to Molly several times while I slept for about 20 minutes. However, I have absolutely no recollection of her putting it in my hair. Eric says I need to watch out for more hazing when she gets old enough for makeup.

~ 2 ~

This week, we used our blender for probably the first time ever. We also got to use cucumbers, lettuce, and grape tomatoes all from the garden. We used them all to make these faux-Gyros (aka Mediterranean Beef Pitas) from Home Ec 101.

Holy Pitas, Batman -- these were good! The cucumber sauce (which I left the garlic out of, because that's just how we roll) was amazing. I had leftovers of the pitas today for lunch and then just sat and dipped chips in the leftover sauce. This was definitely one meal to add to our regulars list.

~ 3 ~

Speaking of making meals in, Eric and I have begun to wonder why it is that we eat so many meals from out (usually at least a couple of times per week, sometimes even three or four, as ashamed as I am to say it, although they aren't all dinners, sometimes lunch).

The funny thing is, we have really been commenting about how much we enjoy the meals that we make at home. We feel better after we eat them, and we tend to just enjoy them more. Food from out often sounds better than it actually tastes.

We both vote that we're just being lazy. (Although my working many week nights right at meal times surely adds to it.)

~ 4 ~

As long as I'm on the subject of being lazy, it reminds me of something that I wanted to share. First, let me say, yeah -- I know that the blogosphere needs another weekly meme like...well...it doesn't need it. But, this one is for me. I need to be more accountable, and hopefully the blog will help me do it. And, just maybe, other people need the same accountability, so I'll put up a MckLinky.

Here's the thing -- I really put off a whole lot of creating that I want to do. From cool desserts that I read about on blogs to finally sewing some rice socks that I have been meaning to do to making a few rosaries to starting on the Christmas gifts that I have had the materials for since last November or December to working on the mixed media painting that has been in my head for months. I even have a teeny tiny craft room in my house, but it mostly just collects things that have no home, and I don't visit it.

I put off all of this under the guise of there simply not being enough time. But, I can apparently find plenty of time for blogging (reading and writing), Facebook, and any other attention sucker I can find.

I finally realized one day while I was sitting at the computer, thinking about that painting, "I need to create more, and compute less." I vowed to find time to do just that.

You know what? I haven't.

So, I am going to be accountable here and now. And, maybe you'll want to join me. Come back on Monday (Sunday late night), and I'm praying that I have something that I actually created (a special meal, a craft project, a home redecoration, a piece of art -- something!) in the past week. Maybe you'll have something to post too.

~ 5 ~

Being a computer kind of gal, I keep trying different ways to be more organized. I have tried all kinds of different programs with "to do" list-types of options.

This week, I just looked lovingly at the "Things to Do Today" notepad that I bought from Miller Pad and Paper while at a homeschool conference. Then I realized -- it's okay to love writing a "to do" list on a piece of paper with a pen. I love making other notes on the paper, and I love checking off the little boxes (or crossing things off when I used to use a spiral notebook instead).

I gave myself permission to not seek out a computerized option for something I enjoy using a pen and paper for, and I am much happier now.

~ 6 ~

I have been trying to get more exercise, though I've not always been sucessful at making sure to do so. But, hands down, my favorite exercise to do in the house is the 10 minute Super Hula Hoop on the Wii Fit.

It kills my stomach muscles sometimes (especially when I haven't done it in days), but I love it!

Sadly, I cannot do a real hula hoop for longer than about 20 seconds. I'm not what one would call graceful.

~ 7 ~

We are bad. We let our almost 10 year old drink soda, though we limit it. He asked for one today, and I had to tell him that we were out of his brand. He was fine with drinking ice water, and I promised him I would buy more soda soon.

When the grocery store ads came in the mail, I told him, "Good news, Noah -- soda is on sale this week!"

"Oh, oh, oh!" he exclaimed. "This must be the greatest day of the year!"

Gosh, I love that boy. He is just so genuine, and he does love a good sale.

photos by Angie @ Many Little Blessings, freakgirl (daisies), and katiescrapbooklady (Wii Board).

Encouraging Kids to Try a Wider Variety of Foods (WFMW #65)

I have a confession to make about something that is working for me. And, do you know what? I refuse to be ashamed.

I have begun bribing my kids to eat fruits and vegetables, as well as to try new foods.

Yep -- I pay them, and I am not shy about telling you that.

I have very picky (and sensory sensitive) sons, and then a daughter who is typically a lot more willing to eat a variety of things. So, this is easy money for her. And, really, that's what I thought it would end with -- some easy money for the four year old.

Instead, for the low, low price of one dime, my kids who often shunned healthy food are now trying things that I would never have dreamed they would try. And, the way I figure it, even if I am giving them a dime at each meal, it is costing me less than $1.00 a day to widen their food horizons. And, as far as I'm concerned -- it's worth it.

Now, I will note that there are some ground rules to this. I declare what is the money earning item at any given meal and I also say how much has to be eaten to get that dime. For instance, when we were having baby carrots they other day, they had to eat at least one baby carrot. So, there is no bitty bites for money.

I realize that some people may find this horrific, but I'm keeping it real here. As long as the kids are willing to work for peanuts dimes, then I'll keep passing them out. Because, really -- in just a week's time, they are finding things that they never wanted to eat that they are saying, "Wow -- that tastes pretty good."

So, I guess that means that...well...bribery works for me. But, watching my picky, Autistic son down a carrot works for me too. And, that's worth way more than a dime.

For more tips, tricks, and ideas from around the blogosphere, check out Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer.

photo by photobunny

A helpful boy

On a recent trip to Walmart with my parents, Noah went through the line with them, and Eric and the other kids and I all went through another line. When we met up, my Mom filled me in on what happened at their check out.

She told me that Noah had been doing little things to try to help the cashier. At the end, she commented on what a helpful boy he is.

And do you know what my beautifully sweet boy said to her?

"I just like to be helpful. That's just the way I'm being raised."

Needless to say, even though pride is a sin, I was beaming with it as we walked out of Walmart, while saying a prayer of thanks for being blessed with such a wonderful son.


(On a side note, I have to say that I sometimes hate the way people stare at Noah when he is stimming from his Autism, but his truly geniune nature is one of the many reasons that I wouldn't take away the Autism if someone offered it up as a possibility tomorrow. How blessed our lives are to have him!)

Hey! He has brown skin!

Today, we were fortunate to get to have a lunch out with some women from church. We met at a McDonalds with an indoor play area and let our kids play while we all got to visit. It was just what I needed!

While we were there, Noah had to coo over the new baby ("J") of one of my friends from church. It is not the first time that we've seen "J." Heck, Noah has even held him before. But, today, Noah was excited to notice something that he hadn't noticed before.

"Hey!" He said to my friend, with a big, excited smile on his face. "He has brown skin!"

"Well, yes he does," my friend (who, for the purposes of this story, I will add that she is white) said to Noah, with a smile. (It's hard not to smile when Noah is so excited, because he is just so darn genuine.)

Noah continued to smile in the way that you smile about things that are super sweet, you know, like a picture of a little curly haired girl holding a kitten and eating an ice cream cone under a rainbow-filled sky.

He lovingly looked at baby "J" and said, "That reminds me of my bestest buddy Colin," and then he excitedly told my friend, "He has brown skin too!"

It's hard to know what my favorite part of this was. Was it that it took seeing baby "J" so many times before he noticed the color of his skin, or was it that it made him so excited? I'm not sure.

But, either way, I know that when people tell us "Oh, I'm sorry" or "That must be hard" when they find out that we have a son with Autism, that they don't know how fully God has blessed our lives with that boy.

You mean I get to take Communion EVERY week?

I'll write more about this general topic, but I am please to announce that Noah, our eldest, and the child that we worried so much about communion for, because of his Autism (Asperger's Syndrome), has officially made his First Holy Communion!

I still can get teary-eyed right now as I remember singing along to the hymn, "...and I will raise you up on the last day...", while watching him receive the Eucharist for the very first time. What a blessing!

Another blessing happened on our trip to the church though, and it continues to bring a smile to my face when I think of it.

Noah and I were discussing about the First Communion, and I said, "Isn't it cool, buddy, that you'll be able to take Communion every time we go to church now?"

"WHAT?!?!?!?!" He excitedly exclaimed from the back of the minivan.

I recognized what he was asking/exclaiming by the tone of his voice. I realized that perhaps we hadn't pointed out to him (as is sometimes necessary because of, well, the Autism again) that it's called First Communion because it is only the first time, not the only time.

I told him, "Yeah -- every time now. This is just the very first time. But, now when we go to Mass together, or you go with your CCD class, you will get to take Communion."

And, then excited giggling came from the back.

"Oh, oh! Oh, Mom! I am a lucky boy!" and then he continued with his excited giggling.

Not only was his First Communion a blessing, but wow -- what a blessing for him to be so excited that he would continue to receive Jesus every week.

I prayed so many times that he would be willing to take Communion. I talked to our priest about it worriedly. I let my stomach churn as I envisioned his sensory sensitivity making him refuse this sacrament.

But, in the end, I apparently just needed to worry less and trust God a whole lot more, and my prayers were answered well beyond what I could have hoped for.

a tardy is a tardy is a tardy...kind of

On Thursday morning, I was already planning on driving the boys to school. They were having Fall Parties in their classes, and I was sending in a refreshment for one class and cupcakes for another, so I didn't want them to try to take them on the bus with them.


But, well...I'm sick. And, I'm tired. And, I perhaps, slept in just a tad. Then I thought, "Hey -- 5 minutes late is tardy, and so is 30 minutes late." And, so I slept some more. Hey...a tardy is a tardy, right?


Well, except I was reminded when I got to school that a tardy is not just a tardy where we are concerned. We bopped into the office to sign in, and we were noticed immediately. In my kids' school of almost a thousand students, there was a murmur of, "Oh, Noah is here today," and then a quick picking up of a phone.


You see, I am usually very good about calling if we will be late and always calling early if we will be absent because Noah has a one-on-one aide (paraprofessional) with him at all times. So, his aide had already been told to do some other task in the building, assuming that Noah wasn't coming. When they saw him, they knew they had to find her and have her head back to his classroom. So, apparently a tardy isn't just a tardy for us.


Oh, and then on a funny note, at least to me, was the look of absolute worry on the teacher's face in his room. His teacher wasn't present today, so there was a substitute who had never been in their class before. She said, "Oh...um...this is Noah???" Now, that wouldn't be funny that she was worried, except I knew she was worried that there wasn't an aide there right then, and really -- Noah is pretty independent. So, I could understand her worry without knowing him, but it was funny to me, because I knew he would be fine until they sent his aide back down. (But, I did pop by the office on the way out to say that I thought the sub was worried, and had they already found his aide.)


So, I need to make a mental note -- the next time I say, "Oh well -- 5 minutes late is the same as 30 minutes late" -- I need to call the school and alert them to my bad mothering habits first.

7 Random Things Meme

I was tagged by my friend Becca for the Seven Random Things Meme. I have done this before, and cannot remember what I wrote before. I will try to be sure to write things I think I would not have listed before.

1. I finally broke down and bought a pair of Crocs a couple of months ago, and I love them. The only problem is that I am apparently pretty hard on one side of them, and broke the "button" thingee on the side. Rather than return them, I used a hot glue gun to fix them.

2. When Eric and I were first married/about to be married, I told him I thought that I wanted us to have five kids. While I still don't think that would have been bad, it also boggles my mind at the same time. (Kudos to you Moms of 5+ kids!!!)

3. In my senior year of college (when I was about 23 years old), I laughed when the professor of my special ed class (the first one I had taken -- long before I ever, ever, ever thought I would actually go back and get a masters in spcial ed) said the term Asperger's Syndrome. I didn't laugh out loud, but I did chuckle in my head. Hey -- it sounds funny, especially if you mispronounce it just a bit. I only remember this specifically because I thought years later that God surely was chuckling at me saying, "Oh....just wait. It won't sound so funny later, Angela." (Yes, I think God probably did use my proper first name right then.)

4. Once, in a crazy pregnant haze (I do get kind of crazy during and after pregnancy), since I was mad at Eric, I bolted out of our on campus apartment around midnight one summer night and just started randomly walking around the outskirts of campus (after initially running to get a head start). It took him about 20 - 30 minutes to find me. Part of that reason might have been that I thought I would have to go home soon to go to the bathroom, so stopped trying to make myself hard to find.

5. I drink way too much Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Yeah...I know...no lectures needed.

And I tag...whomever wants to be tagged. ;)

Maybe you'd like to be a priest when you grow up...

Last night during RCIA, my boys ended up being brought over to me. (Noah got scared and declared that "the church is creepy at night," since they had gone to play outside with Jim (one of the RCIA organizers). I felt bad that Jim looked like he felt bad that Noah cried, but I tried to tell him that sometimes it's just hard to know what will upset Noah, and to not feel bad.

Anyway, we were listening to Father do a walk through the Mass. I sometimes whispered things to the boys that I wanted them to pay attention to. At one point, I whispered to Jack, "Maybe you'd like to be a priest when you grow up."

He thought for a moment and tilted his head all the way to one side, "Hmmm...no, I don't think so, Mom. But, that would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, it would be nice."

And, then his eyes got wide, and he added, "Because it would be really great if we got to own our own church."

I stiffled my laughter, and decided that I would wait to explain it until afterwards that the priests do not, in fact, own the churches they are at.

A little slice of "normal"

I don't think I think too often about ways our lives are different from other families. Sure -- every so often when someone we know talks about taking a trip to a petting zoo or how much their kids loved going to an amusement park and riding all the rides, I think, "Isn't it funny how they do those things without ever thinking about what it would be like to not be able to do those things?" But, I try to not let Autism have its way with our lives too much. (This is probably me just being clueless though, because I'm sure I have molded our lives to Autism's whims without even realizing it.)

Another one of those things that makes me feel different is when my kids talk someone's ear off about a movie that has just come out to the theaters. They talk about different scenes or things that made them laugh. And, of course, the person assumes we saw the movie. But, we didn't. We'll wait for it to come out on DVD. Everything my kids know about it comes from commercials and if they found a website about it. Neither Jack nor Molly have ever been to a movie theater. Noah has been twice. The first time, we left after just a few minutes. It was far too overwhelming for him, and as he began to cry and held his ears shut tight, we scurried out of the theater. A couple of years later, we tried again. We *did* stay the whole time, but Noah kept his hands over his ears for a lot of it. When we left, he looked like he had been beaten. He looked miserable, even though he had "wanted" to stay for the whole movie.

Well...this weekend, we had a little slice of "normal." My family saw a movie, and my kids were THRILLED! It's official -- now when my kids talk about Ratatouille, it will be because they actually saw it!

Now, I will say -- we did not go the route that one might expect though. On Saturday morning, I happened to be clicking around on my bookmarks, and happened upon the link to a drive-in movie theater that is about 45 minutes away. I don't know what made me click on it, but it was surely divine intervention. Imagine my shock that just the night before, Ratatouille had started running there! My kids had been talking so much about it, and here was our opportunity!

We put together some snacks, and headed out on a road trip to the drive in when it was already getting close to bed time. But, the kids had a great time! Noah said, "This was WAY better than the movie theater!"

I will admit, I stayed busy keeping Molly entertained and probably had the least comfortable seat of all of us, but it was definitely the highlight of my week. For at least one night, Autism wouldn't stop my family from seeing a movie at "the theater" (kind of, anyway), and for that, I am thankful.

Truly Random Reflections (long posting)

I haven't had a chance to get on for a few days, and so, from the Random Reflections from Angie blog come some Truly Random Reflections from the last several days...

*I think I have whiplash. Seriously. I was shopping at Target on Saturday afternoon and was going to leave. I was about to pull on to a two lane highway, and then all the sudden realized, "Wait! That car is in the lane I want, not the lane farther over." So, I stopped. And then I thought, "Hang on...it just feels like I got hit, but I didn't pull out." Needless to say, I had quite the moment of confusion before I realized -- I got rear-ended! Both myself and the gal who hit the car jumped out, and there didn't appear to even be the slightest bit of damage. Bad, I know, but we didn't then exchange information. I know...don't lecture me, if you feel so inclined. I was able, however, to write down her license plate number after the fact, since she got in a different lane than me. I did notice that my neck hurt, but it has been hurting for days, so no big deal. Well...now it hurts in a different way. I'm not in horrible pain, but it is uncomfortable. Oh well -- what can ya do? At least everyone was okay and I was in the car alone.

*Gray's Anatomy was excellent this past Thursday night. But, really...c'mon..."to be continued?" Seriously. *Sigh* Unfortunately, we are quite certain that George's Dad will die. Too sad!

*Something that I always thought would happen isn't going to happen now, and that is hard to get my mind around. I always thought we would adopt from China. Really...I've thought it for years now. However, I had to be 30 before I could do it (their rules). And, then three days after my birthday, China put into effect new rules for adoption. I thought, "Okay, I think we're still good." Well, then this weekend, I happened to have a reason to look them up, and I saw one thing that I hadn't seen before about a net worth requirement that we just don't meet (and probably won't for a long time, I would imagine). This has been pretty disheartening for me. Here, after years of thinking this was something we would do, when it is finally time that we might be able to actually think about it, it's gone as a possibility. That sucks.

*Friday was report card day. In our house, report card day sucks. I can remember when I was a kid (heck -- even when I was in college!), report card day was awesome. I never really had to work at school (even in college), and I got good grades. And, here we have boys that struggle in school. Even when they try hard, the results are not always so great. We promised Noah earlier in the week that maybe he could get a video game that he had been wanting if he did a bit better on the next report card. Duh -- we weren't even thinking that the next one would be coming out that same week! Most of the grades stayed the same (including the nasty stupid "F" in spelling, even with the modifications that we put in place), although math went from a B- to a C+ (not a huge difference), and the writing grade (with modifications in place, since this was one of the main areas of concern) went up from a D- to a C. I decided that was a good enough "improvement" and told Noah he could get the game. I thought that would be good enough for him, but then all of the sudden, as we were driving to a haircut (right after opening the report card), he BURST into tears. He said, "I keep working and working. Why can't I get A's?" It felt like my heart had been ripped right out of my chest. Oh geez!

On the way to the haircut that night was the first time I shared with him the big "A" in our household -- Autism. How do you explain that to a seven year old? I told him, "You have something called Autism." He wanted to know, "What's an autism?" I wasn't really sure how to explain it to him, but just told him that something in his brain works differently than some of the other kids in his class. And, because of that, school might be harder for him sometimes. I told him, "I know that stinks. It's not fair at all, but that's just the way it is, and I'm sorry." Of course, I was starting to cry by then. I did point out though that this was why he gets to take breaks at school, why he gets to chill out in the resource room sometimes, why sometimes his tests look different than the other kids, and this is also why he has his "helpers" (what he calls all the people who work as one-on-one paraprofessionals with him). I told him all of that is because everyone wants him to do well, and they want to help. He was pretty on edge for the next several hours and seemed to cry at the drop of a hat. I don't think he really got what I was trying to tell him, but hopefully it plants a seed, and we'll revisit it again later. I don't want him to feel like it's an excuse, but he also needs to know that there *is* a reason that this seems so hard.

*I put in an entire year's worth of book keeping into my new Quickbooks Simple Start for one of my businesses this weekend. Whew! Glad to have that done! (Not so glad though that I have to remit my sales tax for the whole last year and I haven't been setting it aside. Blech!) Oh...and on the money front, I actually balanced the checkbook last week for the month of December. Wow! I'm such a big girl. *wink* (Oh, this was, of course, using the +/- $10 method. LOL)

*I'll end with a little funny (at least I thought it was funny), since the things that I have written about seem kind of down. I got Jack (age 5) dressed the other day for school. I put a rugby type shirt on him (with a collar, etc.). He said, "Are we going to church today?" I said, "No, just school." He said, "Then why am I wearing such a handsome shirt?" LOL!!!!!

*Shoot -- one more thing to add. I had a meeting with the school on Friday *finally* about Jack. I had felt like it was like pulling teeth to get them to finally meet, and here he has been struggling in kindergarten for an entire semester. I was not expecting the meeting to be so positive, but it really was. The people there were: me & Molly (who watched a Blue's Clues video on our portable DVD player, and also handed me feminine supplies occassionally from my purse), the speech therapist, the occupational therapist, Jack's teacher, the elementary special ed facilitator, and the assistant principal. It was great that we got to talking about things, and really were all on the same page about Jack's strengths and difficulties. His current "label" is Communication Disorder, but that isn't accurate at all. (Heck -- they figure he might not get to receive speech soon because he is doing so well in that way.) They will finish up some testing and we will meet again near the end of February for an annual case conference review. It is a bit early for that, but since we may be changing his "label," they wanted to do that. They are looking into if he qualifies for an Emotional Disability (because of his sometimes extreme anxiety/distractability), Learning Disability, or Autism Spectrum Disorder (which is what one psychologist said before, but nobody else has seemed to agree). We all agree that it is hard to pin down Jack for labeling needs (for him to get services). There was also some discussion about alternate programming for him next year, such as half day in kindergarten and half day in 1st grade or half day in kindergarten and half day in the resource room, but to consider him a 1st grader. This would be because his school district doesn't hold back kindergartners. He just barely made the cut off this year (because of a law change that moved back the date), and so he is one of the very youngest in his class. As the facilitator said, "And, this means he is *always* going to be one of the youngest." So, we'll have to wait and see. I just hope that if that comes to pass that he will take it in stride. I suspect it is really the best option though, and then for him to start "real" 1st grade the following year. Keep him in your thoughts, if you are inclined!