Want to do something cool?

Found on another friends blog, this link to a cool initiative: Books!  Books for Native American kids who might not get access to these books.  Check it out, buy a book or two if you wish.  I was lucky enough to win a book this week so I felt maybe I should pay some of my literary luck forward as it were.  I am sending a book about extreme scientists and a sci fi anthology to the school in NM.

I was a geeky sickly kid.  Books were my ticket out of my bedroom when my body couldn't take me.  Out of the hospital where I felt trapped and alone.  Out of social situations where I knew I was not fitting in.  So I'm helping to give those wings of freedom to another kid, or two.  Like I said, it's really cool.

Showing caring

I have a wicked cold.  It snuck up on me pretending it was allergies (lots of stuff blooming like crazy due to our heat wave)  Because I thought it was allergies at first, I didn't do anything.  Sigh.  If I know I have a cold I have these totally awesome cherry zinc lozenges that really kick a colds butt.  The thing is, I have to take them the first 24 hours of being symptomatic to have them really benefit.  Sigh again.  So by the time I realized that it was not allergies, I was loooooong past the 24 hour window and well on to miserable.  But I digress.

I am not really whining here.  This morning I woke up and I could hardly talk.  It will get a bit better over the course of the day with lots of hot beverages but suffice it to say I don't really sound like myself.  Remember, I am not whining!

What I am doing, is marvelling at the different ways that our kids show caring.  My Chet for instance is not a demonstrative guy.  Yup, he gives me a hug every night but I know it is because it is routine.  I have taught him to hug me before he goes to bed at night.  He does it because routines are safe for him and not because he has this upswelling of love that just has to be expressed.  BUT today when he saw me getting out my clothes for work he asked what i was doing.  I said I was getting my clothes for work. (between you and me I wanted to say "duh" but I am glad I didn't!)  His response was "why was I going to work when I could clearly barely talk."  For Chet, this is caring.  I explained that my boss is having serious medical issues and as the next senior staffer I need to be at work, regardless of my cold.  That made sense and he nodded his head and left.  Someone else who doesn't know Chet wouldn't see that there really is a lot there.  It means he actually observed how I was sounding and acting and since most times, he is so absorbed in his own world this is truly, really huge.

Then there is Rob.  Rob came to us at 5 with a really significant trauma history.  It has become clear that he is reluctant to share emotions and that he is also somewhat reluctant to show empathy.  These situations make him feel vulnerable and he doesn't like that.

I read aloud to the kids at night and right now, Rob and I are at a pretty darn interesting part of the book we are sharing.  Last night, although I did take the kids to the park, my voice was clearly fading and my energies with it.  When it was bedtime he came in and asked if I was going to read to him.  I said that I was going to chug a hot cup of tea and that I promised i would give it a try.  He paused for a moment and said "I know, but it will be okay if you can't and want to take a night off."  Trust me, I felt better than any cold medicine could ever do, hearing those words.

So today I may not be able to talk much, but I am basking in the love that was shown by two of my children for whom this is the most difficult.

Tuesday night telephone

Last night was Fiona's call night and she called right on time.  Very bubbly and excited, but the phone connection was horrible which made for a lot of "huhs" and "what did you says" on our end.  Didn't seem to upset her though, which was my main concern.

She wanted to know when we would visit again and I was so pleased that this time the question was not hard for her to ask.  I also know she will ask it over and over because she has zero time sense and calendars hold no meaning for her. That's okay too.  She wanted to know if we would take an off campus walk when we visit and if we could eat supper there.  I said I would ask Jane if there would be a way to eat lunch there (I suspect there is) and explained that supper would make us getting back to our small city very veeeery late as it was after 5 the last time we went and that was taking the "early" train back.  She was okay with that, so I hope that if we can't have lunch maybe a special snack picnic outside or something could be arranged.  I can bring stuff if need be, so no worries there.  I told her the pattern for the poncho she wants K to make her had just arrived and that we were now looking for fabric for her.  She was very excited about that, and very touched by the fact that KC got to talk to her first because he finished his supper so quickly.

Then I later chatted with my eldest niece who is 25. Her son's first birthday is coming up and we are invited to come to the party.  It is a Saturday, so K can't come, but the kids and I will.  I needed ideas for her little guys present and we had a great chat.  Although I am biologically an older woman, most of my friends are younger moms.  They have kids the same age or there abouts, as mine and our interests and odd happenings are similar.  My actual age contemporaries are all empty nesting for the most part and not living the life that is my focus now.

Then, someone I called as a wrong number called me back because they read the number on their caller ID. So I had a funny conversation with someone named Cathy.  Totally cracked me up that someone would just call back a number that they didn't know, just because it showed up on the caller ID.  Then again, I don't have caller ID!  LOL

Easter Finest!

Here are the kids before we headed out the door to church.  I forgot Lissa's hat and purse but other than that, we all looked good!                                                                                                                      

Sheep Shearing Fun

Yesterday I remembered at 12:30 that our local wildlife sanctuary had a sheep shearing festival.

So after setting honey bunny buns to rise and getting some house things done, we set off.  There were sheep being shorn (they are amazing compliant about this, and Joe does it the old fashioned way which is very cool to watch.  Rob manned the camera, so he is not in any of the shots.  After watching and petting sheep (including a baby lamb), scoping out the wool arts displays, petting puppies and a baby lamb and eyeballing chickens, we went for a hike.

The second picture is one Rob took of some tadpoles that appeared to be fighting one another.  I didn't know tadpoles would do that!  The pond was overfull and some of the water seeping through the granite around the edge and under the ground where you could see it reappear as a stream to the lower bog.  The kids were fasincated and we spent a long time there watching tadpoles, fish and searching for turtles (none of those yet!) 

Then we hiked a bit more but the trails were really too wet for us to do too much.  Lissa did not want to go home.  She said that we could go and just leave here there!  Yeah, right. LOL  But all my kids have felt that deep connection to this place.  This sanctuary was an old working farm and it blends those old time farm remnants with all that nature has reclaimed in the many years since the farm's closure.  About 12 years ago beavers moved into the area and flooded a lower part of the trail system.  We were one of the last people allowed to hike the trail (which actually involved wading through thigh deep water at that point!) and then in later years you actually could canoe there.  Now the beavers have begun to move on and their structures are deteriorating and long missing trails are again becoming visible.  Maybe my younger kids will walk on those trails yet! 

Rob took this last shot just before we headed home. You can't really tell but it is a chair made out of a stump and it sits right under a huge spreading hemlock tree where zillions of birds and squirrels come to the feeders strung there.  If you sit quietly enough, they don't even notice you after a while!

Quiet Saturday!

I am lying--they are NEVER quiet Saturdays!  LOL  Up at 6 and shopping with the kids for groceries by 7:30.  Got tulip plants while we were out--one for my mom which K will bring up tomorrow and one for the elderly couple that live next door to us. They are sweet to our kids and the wife has alzheimers and mobility issues so I thought the bright yellow blooms would brighten their day.

Then off to the post office to mail some things out to Fiona and my tax return.  And then the library and dance class.  We are home now and enjoying the glorious weather.  In between dashing out to bask in the unseasonably warm sun and temperate breezes, I have cleaned the kitchen, including my former computer area and put on dough for making sweet bunny buns for tomorrows breakfast.  Eggs are boiling for dying later, dessert for tonights supper is chillin' in the fridge.  Things are chugging right along at their 'slow' pace!  LOL

K re-did Lissa's braids yesterday and used some new, larger pony beads that I got at http://www.snapaholics.com/   Steph has the most amazing collection of beads and my girl probably has way more beads than she needs because I am always finding a cute color or style to add to our stash.  With these slightly larger beads though we didn't need to do millions of tiny braids and the whole style process was literally cut in half.  Lissa sits well for this, but she very much appreciated the quicker turn around time for her "do."

One of the moms at KC's dance class just had a baby. That, coupled with our next door neighbors just having another have given me baby fever.  However I am the only one with baby fever.  I keep hinting at K that 'maybe just one more" and she keeps looking at me like I am demented.  Which I probably am.  But oh my goodness I love having a larger family.  And cuddling babies.  Like I pretty much never put them down.  I wear them often but put them down?  Not often.

Off to soak up more vitamin D!

Autism Awareness Day

I opened up my reader this a.m. to see that today is autism awareness day.  I actually laughed.  Every day is autism awareness day at my house.  On the one hand, my eldest has Aspergers and in some ways is definately not as significantly impacted as others with autism.  But he is still impacted in some profound ways and simple living when you are talking about autism isn't simple at all.

There are the charts that hang on our fridge to help cue him for daily routines.  Because without it, he won't shave.  He won't remember to eat unless I call him to a meal.  If he is given the opportunity to make a meal on his own without our input it will be 3 carrots and a piece of cheese with a piece of fruit.  Great if you are trying to diet I guess.  If you are prone to getting dizzy and passing out from low blood sugar, not so much.

There was the conversation I had with him this week regarding church.  The director of the RE program called and explained she had received a call from a concerned parent.  The parent has a teen daughter who felt intimidated when Chet stood too close to her at fellowship.  He talked with her extensively and the girl felt she could not readily break away from him.  On the plus side, the parents involved don't think Chet was deliberately trying to intimidate or sexually harrass their daughter.  They get that he is disabled.  On the negative side, that does not mean that this type of behavior is acceptable.

I spoke with Chet about it and it was predictably hard to explain.  "But I was just being friendly the way I am to everyone," is his perception.  And in many ways this is true.  He has always had space issues. He is about 6 inches from you when he is engaged in conversation.  Truthfully, it doesn't bother me.  I have so many things that I need to correct him about that when he is talking with me  I don't stress him being on top of me.  If he gets what I am saying, that is enough for me.  But I have always explained that others have a space bubble, and that he needs to remember that.  Also, where he is tall, at over 6 feet, when he is close to a shorter person and talking, it feeling to them like he is looming over them.  But despite the conversation, it means that for a while I will need to watch him more closely at fellowship time to make sure that this is not happening and to reinforce what we have been talking about at home.  I know he needs that, but I hurt for him when this happens.  He is 24 but not an adult in the truest sense of the word.  And he is intelligent enough to feel discomfort at the level of involvement that is sometimes necessary to keep him safe and others comfortable with him.

And yet, he is in his own way, thoughtful, giving and very intelligent.  And I am thankful that he is my son.