Okay, it’s official, I have lost my mind. I think maybe my brain filled up and it can’t take anymore. This is not a braggart moment to say that I am so smart, it is a vulnerable display of my capability to juggle. I am working on getting our Buddy Walk ready for October 19th. It’s amazing how much goes into your own team. On top of that, I am on the Silent auction committee and I am calling out to businesses everyday for donations and making arrangements to go collect them. I think I just hit tilt tonight. What makes me say that? I am glad that you asked…
On top of my juggling act, this last week or so has been filled with TONS and TONS of whine. Unfortunately that is whine with an “h”, not WINE. :cry: Between Sydney learning how to protest, vocally of course, Anthony going through 4 year old whining and sudden hearing loss (selective that is) and the cat running around the house hollering… My poor wits are at an end. Tonight after dinner, I decided to indulge and make a gingerbread cake. After all, I deserve a little something sweet. Well, don’t be impressed by my making a cake, it was Betty Crocker in a box, just add water (no really, that’s it). I mixed it up and started pouring it into the glass dish and realized that I was pouring it into the bowl NEXT to the pyrex dish…. the one with the soaking black beans for dinner the next night. Yes, I REALLY did that! DUH!! Luckily I only lost about a quarter of the batter. I stopped pouring and tilted my head at the ceiling and said to no one in particular:”I have officially lost my mind. Something is wrong with me.” Randall said “No honey”. I protested and said “No, REALLY, you need to come over here and see that something is wrong with me.” He finally came into the kitchen and laughed. We both got a good laugh and I put the cake in the oven to bake what was left. (It smelled great… I haven’t had any yet)
DEEP SIGH. I JUST got the kids in bed (although Anthony opened the door twice while I was writing this) and I am heading downstairs to watch some TV. Then take a hot shower and go to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Lord help me! No, REALLY…. Lord help me!
This week the changing of the seasons is starting to actually happen. We are almost at the end of September, only one more day and then it is October. Although Sept 23rd is “officially” the beginning of Fall, for me it is October 1st. There is something magical about October first. It is the day when it feels Right to put out the Fall decorations. This is my favorite time of the year. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Christmas season, but Fall gets to last longer. It starts in October with all of the wonderful Fall colors, and after a week or two, out come the Halloween decorations, then they go into a box and it is the season of Thanksgiving. For me, it is the time to sit back and reflect on the year before the bustle of Christmas.
Now, I live in Central Texas, so the weather changes are ever so slight. It is “almost” chilly in the morning. (sorry Northerners, that means high 60’s for now, and it IS chilly when you are in shorts and a t-shirt). For me, this slight weather change means the onset of allergies (oh joy!) but that is okay, if I have to suffer allergies to bring on the cooler weather, so be it. I went through the boxes in the kid’s closets and pulled out the jeans and long sleeve shirts. Around here we will start having cool, then cold fronts which will be followed by warm days again. Fall is TOTALLY unpredictable so we need plenty of clothes to be ready. Next weekend we are heading out to the pumpkin patch to get out pumpkins and take some pictures! The kids LOVE it!
I also noticed this week that Sydney is starting a new season. She is no longer my “baby” aka infant (she will ALWAYS be my baby). She is starting to communicate in her own way. She is hugging her baby doll when we say “Awe, nice baby” then hands it to me to do it too. We are starting to do some back-and-forth games and taking turns doing little things like putting rings into a box. You know, sometimes you just look at your kids and realize that they are changing and growing up. (SIGH!) It is exciting and a tinge sad.
One other season that I am not so happy about going into is the final season of life for my cat. My little Wickett is 16 years old and she is starting to “change”. She is black and white with bright gold eyes and a a pink nose. Her eyes are clouding, there is LOTS of white/grey invading her black fur, she is arthritic, and she is slowing down. I took her to the vet this morning because she is walking the house hollering (to know Wickett is to know that she has ALWAYS been loud), this time it is just “not right”. A mother knows. We ran some blood work and I am praying for the best, but I know that we are facing her final season, however long it lasts. I am grateful for her companionship for the last 16 years and look forward to whatever more time I can get.
LuvMyPeanutat What-evah nominated my site for Brilliante Weblog award. Thanks, you are a doll. (BTW, I love your blog name)
According to the rules, I need to pick 7 weblogs to share this award with. This is tough because two of my picks are already taken (LuvMyPeanut and All4MyGals)
So, my picks are:
- Michelle at Big Blueberry Eyes
- Leticia at Cause for Our Joy
- Heidi Marie at Henry’s Mommie
- Tom at NarrowRidge
- Rene at Cooper Dane Johnson
- Sara at Grandmotherhood and Excercise
- Amy at Three men and a Mommy
Now its time to share! Here are the rules for this award: -
1. The winner can (and should, really) put the logo on his/her blog
2. The winner must link to the person from whom they received their award.
3. The winner must nominate at least 7 other blogs for an award.
4. The winner must place links to those blogs on their own blog.
5. The winner must leave a message on the blogs of the people they’ve nominated.
I just got some good news: Yesterday, September 23, 2008 the Senate PASSEDthe Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act,(S. 1810) known as the Kennedy-Brownback bill. Immediate action is needed in the House of Representatives to pass this proposed legislation during this session of Congress. I am not sure what happened, but WOO HOO!!!! This is our best chance to balance the information given to pregnant women to help reduce the 90% termination rate of children with Down syndrome. The bill asks for balanced information to be given at the time of diagnosis to include adoption.
What can you do? Make one or two phone calls. Call Congresswoman Pelosi (D.CA) and Congressman Hoyer (D.MD) and say “Please take up and pass S. 1810 under unanimous consent or suspension of the rules by the end of the week.”
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, House of Representatives, 202-225-0100
Congressman Steny Hoyer, Majority Leader, House of Representatives, 202-225-3130,
Please take 10 minutes to help this bill, and help thousands of women get updated and balanced information on life with Down syndrome. And give some of these children a chance.
Hey mom… check out this cool toy…. all these little pieces of stuff to throw around the kitchen. Oh, and look a cool water jug that keeps giving me more water, no matter how much I splash on the floor! Weeee, what fun! Great toy mom, thanks! (BTW, why do the dogs keep staring at me?) Huh? What was that? NO, NO?!?! What do you mean No No!?!?
The Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act was voted down by one lone Senator, Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The blog Cause-of-our-joy has posted Senator Sam Bronwnback’s senate floor speech on the bill that he and Senator Kennedy wrote and proposed. The gist is that the bill was presented for a unanimous vote and Senator Bernie Sanders defeated it with his only dissenting vote. Please jump over the site and read the speech. Then tell Senator Bernie Sanders what you think.
Today Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) came out to give her one year eval. Jan, Sydney’s ECI specialist, came and brought Kathy, a Physical Therapist that worked with Sydney last year, a Speech Therapist and an Observer. The eval took about two hours. Basically they asked a lot of questions about Sydney’s day. What does she do, how does she do it, how does she respond when I do things, etc. Sydney just sat and played (actually being observed) and enjoyed being the center of attention. Anthony was bouncing off of the walls until the neighbor, Angie, came over and asked to take him to her house to play with his friend Olivia. (Angie is so sweet!) Anyway, Sydney’s eval went very well. Her overall evaluation was that she was on target. Basically between her gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive skills and communication skills, she is ranking between 10 and 15 months. Seeing how she is 14 months old, that is fabulous. Her communication skills were rated low, but Jan and the speech therapist disagreed with the results since she has a lot of vowel and consonant sounds, she has lots of inflection, and she changes sounds (ba ba ba to da da da to ma ma ma to the Sydney signature sound Blocka-blocka). The test is a series of questions that you fill out the answers to on a sheet. At the end, you add up the answers and it gives you an age range for the results.
The end result is to stay with business as usual. Jan (ECI) will still come out every other week and Sydney does not need any additional resources like Speech therapy or physical therapy. We will continue to work on consistently signing and emphasizing words (like Ball, eat, milk, etc.) and getting her to stand as much as she will allow.
YEAH! Go baby, go baby!!
I was not feeling great today. (Allergies+High mold count=misery) He knew that I wasn’t feeling great and he walked into the door from work with some bags in his hand and said:
“I thought that you might like a cold diet coke and your husband to come home and take care of dinner.”
What a guy! I looked up at Randall and I swear I saw a halo around his head! I am so lucky.:-D
I have been working on a Special Needs Sunday school curriculum for the past few weeks and I have been diving into scripture. So, due to this I pose the question to the cyberworld… What is your favorite scripture(s)? And Why? I have a few… Here are mine.
Psalm 46:10
“Be Still and Know that I am God”
When my life gets hectic, this passage goes through my mind. I even had it on a stone at my desk when I worked at Dell and Sears. It is something I strive for, finding queit time to give to God. It is not something I am good at, but it is a goal.
Philippians 4:4-7 4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This scripture is very powerful for me. It has gotten me through many troubled times. When I went through my divorce (many years ago), my life was obviously turned upside down. My mind was reeling from all the what ifs, and shoulda - couldas. All I wanted was peace in my mind. The King James version of verse 7 went through my head as a mantra. Every Sunday at church when I was growing up, I heard “the peace which passes all understanding”. At the time of my divorce, I had not been attending church for nearly a decade. I knew that I wanted peace, so back to church I went. Happily, I found that peace. No, my life didn’t instantly get better, but I had found “peace” which was what I was seeking.
In more recent years, and in my second life, I have leaned more on the first part of this passage. “6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” I spent the first 30 years of my life as a professional worrier. No, really, I was a certified pro. I could worry about pretty much everything. I learned through some hard knocks that I couldn’t please everyone, and I learned that I didn’t need to or frankly want to. I also learned that all critiques of me were not always about me. Sometimes a harsh comment was more of a reflection of the giver’s feelings than my character (very hard lesson for me). Most of all, especially with my pregnancy with Sydney, I learned to put things into God’s hands. There are things in life that are just too big for me, so why not give them to someone bigger and better equiped to handle it? I gave Sydney to God, and he has done a fine job with her (an me). Now, don’t get me wrong, I have a few areas in my life where I still struggle with this concept of handing things over…. but through prayer and petition and (here’s the tough one) with thanksgiving, I am presenting my requests to God.
Today, I told Anthony that our friend Sarah was giving him and easel. He asked what an easel was, so I explained. He sat there for a minute pondering my description, then popped out with “Mama, it’s called an easel because it is easy to paint and draw, right?” By George, I think I might have a genius on my hands. (hee hee) I just smiled and said, “You are probably right baby.”
Sydney’s humor is a little more straightforward…..
Before
After: Yes, toes do add flavor
