Thursday, September 18, 2008

Being Flexible

About 2 years ago, I had acquired a list of character qualities from a parenting seminar I had attended. It is titled "Christian Virtues" and has a list of them and next to each one is a rather simplified explanation so that even a small child could figure out what they mean. So, I had this on my refridgerator , and I made a copy for each of my kids and hung it in their rooms. I went over each character quality and their meaning and since then will go back to it when I think that they need to be reminded. I really don't think that they bothered to look at this list at all in the past two years..........until this week.

About 3 days ago, something happened where things didn't go for Kylin as he had planned. Usually for him, that means a meltdown. Kids with a autism or a form of it, really like to have things a certain way and they really don't like to have any kind of change from the status quo. So, anyway, something didn't go as expected and Kylin dealt with it pretty well and then told me, "I am willing to change if change is needed". Well that sounded a bit too grammatically correct for him to come up with that statement on his own. So I asked him if he read that somewhere and he said that it was next to "Flexible". So he finally read something on that list and made a connection. And he was so pleased with himself that he handled the change well.

Then came last night when we went to church. Usually when we go to church on a Wednesday night, he goes to his class at right away. But, we were informed that the kids were going to sit with us during worship and then go to their classes when the parents go to the adult class. That didn't sit well with Kylin, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was angry and trying hard not to have a meltdown. At some point, the children's pastor came by, said "Hello" and reached out to shake his hand and asked how he was doing. Kylin stuck his hand out and said, without any joy, "I'm flexible!". I think that the kids' pastor was amused.

Possibly one day, he'll wish that he never learned what "Flexible" means, and he'll wish that we never knew that he knows what it means.

Lp

Monday, September 8, 2008

School has begun.

We did it. We made it through the first day of school and all of our lessons. I arranged the schedule a bit differently this year in that I had both kids here in the kitchen and I worked with Kylin in getting through his subjects. He was finished in about an hour. Heather who is in 7th grade had all but 3 subjects that needed my undivided attention so I let her wait on those until after lunch, when Kylin went to his room for a couple of hours of "room time" (formerly known as "naptime"). We got through everything except math in the first hour. Her math lesson took up that second hour and she was yawning and telling me how tired she was and just not putting much effort into it. She'd rather stay in her room and read and have "roomtime". I did remind her that if she were going to a regular school, that she'd be in a class or in P.E. at that very moment, so it's not like she was the only 7th grader doing schoolwork at that time. I also reminded her that most kids her age also take schoolwork home to work on in the evenings and they are really tired.

Tomorrow, we get to do it all again. Hopefully, there will be less yawning (and just typing about it makes me yawn)

In other news, it looks like I'll get to be an aunt again! My sister, after confirmation from her doctor, announced that she's expecting her second child in the spring. Her firstborn just turned one just over a month a go. She is going to be sooooo busy, (at least one year of changing two sets of diapers) but she'll be happy too.

So anyway, that's my latest tidbit of news!
Lp

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

School starts........Next week for us.

I decided to postpone the beginning of the school year for us because Kevin is taking this week off as a vacation. When he's home, it's just harder to keep a school schedule when he isn't following any schedule. I do have the first week's lessons planned out and I have some curriculum ordered that should arrive very soon. So I think that I'm about as ready as I can be.

The weather is finally getting a bit cooler. It can still be sunny, but there is a bit of a chill in the air, which of course excites me, because it's "fall-ish", and that means long sleeves, sweaters, jeans, colorful leaves coming, and makes me feel like making soup (potato/cheddar is my favorite).

Recently, Kevin bought a 10 gallon fish tank that he found on Craigslist for $10. Yesterday we went to buy some fish to add to it and wound up needing a heater, new filter, water conditioner and a net. When all was said and done, we wound up spending $$41. About twice as much as what Kevin was expecting to spend. So we named the fish, "Hugh", "Navarre", "Dwight" and "Dex", and an algae eater named "Al". This morning I was informed that "Navarre" had already died. So once again, the pet I personally pick out winds up dying. Kevin is out running errands and he mentioned wanting to get another fish for me. So maybe if he's the one choosing it, it'll live!

This afternoon, I am going to make up some soup to freeze for later lunches and possibly some macaroni & cheese as well. It'll really depend on if I have enough containers.

So, that is the plan. Hopefully I'll have no interruptions and I can carry it out.

Lp