Blame it on the Rain?

OK so my kids have been CRAZY this week!  Just not themselves at all.  It is hard enough to get them to do what they need to do on a daily basis with their typical behaviors let alone under these conditions.  I was talking with one of their aides at school and she pointed out that it has been a full moon this week.   Not to mention the high pressure with the terrible storms that we have been having over the last couple of days.  I found an interesting blurb on another autism blog that that you can check out  here about how weather affects kids with autism. I really can't believe that no one has done any scientific research into this phenomenon but glad to know that I am not just making up these erratic behaviors in my kids.  Any thoughts?

Crocheted Sporty Sandals

I made these by modifying the Sporty Sandals pattern on CrochetDreamz blog.  Bright for spring!  I like that this is a unisex pattern.  I have a few patterns in my Etsy shop right now and I have been selling my baby shoes and hats at a local shop called Market Boutique on Main.  Kind of trying to decide how much I can do, what I want to do and my niche market.  There are so many things to crochet and so little time in the day!

The Best Kind of Different

During the holidays last year, I finished reading a wonderful book called The Best Kind of Different by Shonda Schilling. Jacob's teacher had let me borrow it and she had read it because she has an adult daughter with Asperger's.  I was so glad that I took her up on it!  It is Shonda and her family's journey towards getting their son diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome while being the wife of a famous baseball player and being in the public eye.  I loved it because it wasn't from a professional or research standpoint, it is just an honest picture of how she felt as a mom struggling to figure out her son and what was best for him.  I could relate in so many ways!  My children can appear so normal at times because they are all pretty high functioning, so to speak, so it can be easy to forget at moments that they really don't think the same way that I do.  That's when  I have to stop and change my point of view and try to look at things through their eyes.  Easier said than done!  But when I try to make an effort and step back and figure out what's really going on, things usually go more smoothly.  I really loved this passage from the book:

Curt Schilling’s Top Ten Things You Learn or Experience with an Asperger’s Child

10. It is humanly possible to say “Stop” four hundred times in a ten-second time frame.
9. You know the exact time you will be exhausted everyday: within fifteen seconds of waking up your child with Asperger’s.
8. At fifteen your Asperger’s child will likely have an IQ twice as high as yours and let you know exactly when and how you were wrong every day.
7. Everyone at the grocery store, swimming pool, or other public gathering place knows your child’s name, even if you didn’t tell anyone.
6. Be prepared to never have the last word in any conversation, ever.
5. Pray that if they have any nervous tics or habits, they don’t include picking their nose.
4. Be prepared to be presented with more information than any human has the right to know about Legos, Star Wars, bulldogs, Bakugan, Pokemon, dinosaurs, Yu-Gi-Oh!, World of Warcraft, Webkinz, the human skin, bowel movements, and body hair – and hope your child only picks one.
3. Do not fart in public if you don’t want everyone within earshot to know who, where, and what just happened.
2. Get ready for a serious dose of unconditional love. The heart of an Asperger’s child is not bound by society’s norms, not limited to lessons we were told or taught, not confused or embarrassed by anything the heart emits. Theirs is a brand of unconditional love we should all pray at night to be exposed to, or to be able to extend ourselves.
1. Be prepared to go further than you dreamed, work harder than you thought possible, to love, and to cry, but at the end of the day wrap your arms around a true gift from God.

Here is a link to the web page for the book: http://thebestkindofdifferent.com/

I love the phrase she used for the title of the book and I would agree that my kids are also the best kind of different.  I highly recommend it!

Jenny

Welcome!

In an effort to streamline my internet time and the dominant things in my life, I am starting this brand new blog. What will you find here? Eventually, I want to share the story of my journey with my 4 sons and their autism spectrum disorders, good books and resources that I have found, my crochet creations and designs and maybe a few recipes and other random things here and there. These are the things in my life and I want to be able to share what I love and hopefully help, encourage, and inspire other people. Welcome!