In So Many Words

Well, I didn’t get much checked off my list this last week – too many other things kept popping up that needed to be done. After going round and round with the DAN! doctor’s office, I have decided to get copies of all the test results we haven’t met to review yet and then cancel the follow-up appointment. It is just not worth the hassles I am dealing with every single time I need insurance paperwork done properly or even to talk to someone at the office. The office manager has been very helpful, but even she can’t make up for the other frustrations I have experienced.

Now I am trying to figure out what route we are going to go. I do have Michael taking a small amount of Essential Fatty Acids as well as Melatonin at bedtime and Liquid Zeolite, which we are trying out with a few other local parents. We are going to be tracking the zeolite on a weekly basis, so I can’t add the other supplements I was holding until the organic acid test was sent in (which is now on hold anyway!).

We have a behavior plan meeting Thursday morning with the school – very excited about that – and our wraparound agency is working on getting a new TSS b/c the current one is just not up to par with what we need.

With everything going on, I think reorganizing my to do list into more of a schedule would make sense and help me to feel less like I am trying to do too many things at once. Hopefully, this will move me closer to a routine like the one that was working so well last summer.

This is where the To-Do List normally goes, but I just still haven’t really figured out how to organize my schedule. So I guess this is really just a Biomed Update!

The behavior plan meeting went well. I’ll post more about that soon. Right now, we’re super excited about going to see They Might Be Giants on Saturday for a kids’ show – although it is supposed to be yucky and rainy. My sister-in-law and her family are planning to come. Two of their girls haven’t been feeling well, so we are hoping they will be better by the weekend.

For more To-Do Tuesday, visit Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

Although I only got a couple of things checked off my published list from last Tuesday, I did get a lot of other things accomplished that weren’t on the list, including watching Zathura with Michael one and a half times. That’s once on Sunday afternoon and again for the last part this evening while he was watching it with Dad. For some reason, it seemed scarier to him at nighttime and without Mom in the room!

Some of the items I planned to get done are going onto the back burner, so here’s my list for this week:

My To Do List

Get Michael’s hair cut.

Buy gifts for upcoming birthdays.

Get organized for family reunion this weekend.

Schedule next week’s Try This Tuesday post.

Start planning itinerary for our Illinois trip with Bob. We’ve discussed starting to plan it and thrown some stuff around, but not really put anything down on paper yet.

Return ASD HOPE materials to VP for storage.

Bring “new” file cabinet home and move files into it. This is halfway done. I did bring the file cabinet home and it’s in the basement waiting for the files, but I have to figure out how to install the side holder thingies first.

What’s on your to-do list??

For more To-Do Tuesday, visit Crazy Adventures in Parenting.

Quite a post title, huh? So I get ready to come back and post again after a month off and find that the subscriber count on both of the blogs has gone up by about 100! I mean, I’ve seen Feedburner fluctuate before, but it usually goes down and makes you wonder what you may have done to offend 50 people all at once.

I did a little digging, and the best I can figure out is that Feedburner is now counting all the lovely people who subscribe to my FriendFeed. For a minute I thought I was more interesting when I wasn’t posting anything.

Well, June has been quite the month. Thanks to everyone who commented while I was away (I was online here and there but not as much as usual by any means). Here’s the shortened version of what I’ve been up to the last few weeks:

• Started working mornings instead of afternoons. Although I’m not a big fan of getting up early, it is really nice to be done with work at 1:00 and move on to the rest of my day. (Especially since I’ll have two hours before my son gets home from camp for the next three weeks!)
• Found a new therapist and talked to my doctor about the medication I have been taking for depression. I am going to be trying out a new combination of meds in an effort to find the balance between complete lethargy and a total state of panic.
• Started major house decluttering, involving much moving around of furniture and getting rid of things. I have discovered Freecycle, and it is awesome! If you ever want to feel really popular, post something great on Freecycle and watch the emails pour in. I am also going to try Craigslist for a few items that may actually be worth something and see how that goes.
• Took my son to a new DAN! doctor. I really liked him and we are doing some testing to see where we are at with everything. I’m waiting for them to resubmit the insurance paperwork with the correct (non-mental health) codes to make sure we will be able to afford to go back, but am hopeful that we can at least get a good picture of his nutritional/gut status and see what supplements and/or treatments he is in need of at this point.
• Switched to paper for my calendar/to do list organizing. Although I liked the electronic/online things I was using, it wasn’t very convenient for sharing with my husband where we were at and what needed to be done. So I got a little weekly planner and a couple of mechanical pencils and am back to writing out a new to do list whenever the old one gets too messy.
• Spent a day with my husband’s family when my nephew had a soccer tournament in the area. His team won, despite playing much of the time in pouring rain!

Here’s Michael with all his cousins at Red Robin:

And with the “young cousins” and Uncle Andrew on our cuddle chair (reclining chair and a half):

Not very exciting stuff, I know! Anyway, I’d love to hear from all of you how you are doing this summer. I got a little carried away cleaning out my Google Reader and may have deleted too many feeds, so please leave me a comment so I can make sure I am still subscribed to you.

If you’re interested in seeing what Michael’s visual schedule for kindergarten looks like, I have it posted over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs today.

He likes it so much that I pulled out the whiteboard we have with the days of the week on it to write out our schedule for this week. We had gotten out of the habit of using it over the summer, but now that we have different activities in the mornings, it was really needed again.

Hopefully I am not being too optimistic, posting this so early in the day, but today is shaping up to be a much better day than yesterday. After the fiasco yesterday, I did sit down last night and make a schedule for this morning’s routine.

Since I didn’t feel like laminating and we are almost out of Velcro, I improvised by mounting the pictures on card stock and using circles of removable tape to adhere them to the dry-erase board we have for our weekly schedule. I didn’t even make an all done pocket. I put them at the top to cover the days of the week so the extra text wouldn’t cause any confusion, and that turned out to be a great idea.

As soon as I walked into the Little Guy’s room this morning, he said “I’m trying to sleep!” I said, “But I made something for you!” He wanted to see it right away, so I turned on his lamp. He looked at the first one and said, “Wake up, check,” and moved the card to the lower portion of the dry-erase surface. Cool, the problem of what to do with the finished ones is solved and I am glad I didn’t just put them in the center of the board.

We went through the rest of the routine in record time, including going potty and eating breakfast – he even improvised a morning picnic for us on a blanket that I had left on the living room floor. When we got to the last item, car, he made me carry the schedule out to the car so we could check it off when we got to daycare. Another thing, he was willing to take a movie today!! (On Fridays, his class can bring DVD’s and they vote on what to watch; the Little Guy usually won’t take a video because it is too upsetting if they don’t pick his.)

As if this isn’t enough good news, this morning the TSS mentioned that LG had really wanted to go back to the pet store they visited a couple of weeks ago and asked if she could pick him up from daycare, so I have another 2 hours to work extra and/or be home alone! Then tonight we have someone coming for respite and are meeting some friends for dinner. I was still feeling very tired this morning, but now I feel totally energized. Hope you all are having a great Friday as well!!

Today has felt like a bit of a roller coaster, so inspired by this post, I am making a good and bad list for today.

Bad: Got up early to pack the Little Guy’s backpack with all the stuff he needs for daycare and playgroup. (Bad because I keep telling myself to pack it the night before, but never do.)
Good: Since I was up, packed tortilla chips and leftover BBQ meatballs from stamp party to share with training class at work. (They were very yummy and everyone was happy to get them.)

Bad: After several directions to get ready and discussions about the fact that we don’t have the choice to stay home and play today, screamed (yes, screamed, not just yelled) at Little Guy to go potty so I wouldn’t be late for work.
Good: Went into daycare with LG walking nicely beside me instead of dragging him in still in his pajamas like yesterday when he refused to get up and said I was hurting his brain by saying that he had to go to school. (So do the ends justify the means?)

Bad: Spent morning at work complaining about all the bugs in computer system that cause my job to take three times as long as it should.
Good: Got to work an extra hour and a half, since Thursday is playgroup and I don’t have to pick up LG from daycare, and actually got a couple of things done.

Bad: Spent the other two hours before the Little Guy got home from playgroup reading and on the computer instead of washing the mounds of dishes that are waiting in the kitchen. (They really need to be done!)
Good: Spent the other two hours before the Little Guy got home from playgroup on the computer instead of washing the mounds of dishes that are waiting in the kitchen. (Besides reading email and blogs, I got some much needed ASD HOPE stuff out of the way.)

Bad: Lost most of a day being angry and resentful.
Good: Repented of my attitude, met the van at the curb so the driver didn’t have to honk and wait for me, sat down and watched PBS Kids with the Little Guy instead of disappearing into another room, washed two sinkfuls of dishes and still had time to sit down and write this.

I am so thankful that God doesn’t lose patience and scream at me when I am not listening to Him. He just keeps reminding me of what He wants me to do and giving me chances to get back on track. So tonight before I go to bed and after I pack the backpack, I will dig out the old picture icons and make a new visual schedule for the morning routine. Maybe that will get me out of the trap of thinking that just because he’s “doing so well”, he doesn’t need the extra supports we had been giving him to process and respond to the world around him appropriately. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.