Saturday, April 30, 2016

Growing and Changing

So much growth!

My cute girl is now 9.  She's a third grader....soon to be a 4th grader!  Last night, she participated in the school talent show.  This was a HUGE deal!  Kids on the autism spectrum don't get jokes the way the rest of us do.  It took a great deal of effort to find jokes she thought were funny and so did other people.

It also took quite a bit of explaining what a talent show is, what you could do, why it is not appropriate to train a cat to sit, and why eating rice with chopsticks is great but would be hard for the audience to see.

Here are her jokes:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Interupting cow.
Interupting ......Mooo!!!

Why is six afraid of seven?
Why?
Because seven, eight, nine.

Why do cows have bells?
Why?
Because their horns don't work.


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Friday, January 24, 2014

Quality World

To be happy, your Quality World needs to match reality.  If you've never heard of Quality World, research Choice Theory.  It's good stuff.

I'm learning that my Quality World isn't matching my reality, so I'm out to make some changes.  First change is to disable my sewing "shop" on etsy.  I'm thinking I'll leave it there, just for special requests, but I'm taking out the items that I've not yet made.

I'm also ready to purge more stuff from our house.  Less stuff = less to put away.  I was watching some old video & was shocked to see how much tidier my house was a few years ago.  Granted, the "baby" really was a baby & not a busy three year old, but this is crazy.  We can't have this anymore.

The majority of Ava's meltdowns happen because her Quality World doesn't match reality.  It's so easy for me to say that, but it's not so easy for her to see it herself.  I think this is true of a lot of people, not just those with autism spectrum disorders.  We'll be working on that at our house.  And maybe I'll start blogging again.  But not sewing.  Not for now, anyway.

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Saturday, October 13, 2012

Survival Mode

Some days around here, we're just in survival mode.  We have so much fun, and it ends in a meltdown.  I know that basic housekeeping rules say to tidy up every night - I just can't get to that point.  Instead, I treasure every quiet moment I get.  I use it to take care of me, so that I can have the strength to take care of the rest of the family.

So here's what I do to survive.....

I start construction projects.  I don't always think them through.  I often get stuck.  Or bored.  Or busy.  They rarely are finished in a timely manner, but they do get finished eventually.  Here is my kitchen "before."  This is a space that once held a refrigerator.  The previous owners moved the fridge and added this counter. All it did was collect clutter.  So I put in a pantry!  It looks better now than it does in this photo, but you get the idea.  I need custom made doors & a shelf for that big open area.  There's a tambour door to hide the microwave.  Its all been painted so hopefully its not so noticeable that the doors don't match the rest of the cabinets.  I also need two small trim pieces to fit as fillers between the new & the existing.


 

Sometimes, I do domestic things - like canning.  This is apricot jelly & apricot syrup.  Six batches of it!  I'd like to be making pickles and canning a few more things but haven't gotten my stuff together yet.




This is what happens in every room, every day.  It won't always look quite like this, but its always something.  At first glance, its just a big mess.  Clothes & blankets on the floor...you're not allowed to pick it up.  Then you ask, WHY?  And I am told something brilliant.  This particular mess was Ava playing "Church Camp."  Em was ready to head off to camp, so Ava was pretending to go too.  Notice she packed only dresses & skirts - must be a fancy camp.  The family room was clean for approximately 15 minutes that night before she found it.

I like to take on big projects that I don't have time for.  If I'm busy with someone else's stuff, I forget how overwhelmed I am with my own life.  This is a bouquet of flowers for a bride's maid.  I recently arranged all the flowers.  As in ALL the flowers.  Bride, Groom, attendants, parents.....then I decided to help with the decorating the day before the wedding.  Yes, Ava had a meltdown.  But it was worth it.  For a few hours, I was a hero.  There's nothing I love more than to be appreciated and to fix things.


Every now & then, when I'm feeling really good - we have a Martha Stewart moment around here.  This is a butterfly made from pancakes & maple sausage links.  Sometimes its an over the top birthday cake.  We recently threw together a last minute birthday party when the girls made their own soft pretzels.  You really just never know what I might do!




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