Recovering Noah

First of all, thank you so much for the sweet comments after my last post. They really meant a lot. I know that I am absolutely terrible about responding to comments, but please know that I read each one and that I love getting them. I always have the best intentions of responding, but unless I do it right away then I forget. So I just wanted to thank everyone who's been commenting on the Days of Giving posts. Thank you! Secondly, wow! Here I thought the Days of Giving were going to be a big life lesson for the kids... had no idea I was the one who was going to learn the lesson. I think in a lot of ways I feel so out of control with what's going on with the kids. We've tried so many different therapies and all and have seen very little progress in most areas. And I guess I just thought that maybe I could at least teach them to be caring. I have no control over most of their special needs and issues going on, but I wanted to at least "leave my mark" and have th...

I haven't done a scrapbook yet for today's Gift of Giving because it hasn't happened yet. All day - and I mean, literally all day , I've been working on some stupid craft project for this family that moved into our neighborhood last month. I was going to make a plate of felt gingerbread men play food and put them on a baking tray and give it to the neighbor's children along with a cute Christmas apron and oven mitt and spatula from Dollar Tree. I thought the little kids would love it. But the problem is... while working hours and hours on end cutting out felt and spending an hour and a half trying to thread embroidry floss through the wrong needle and all that nonsense, I was neglecting my own children. Today has been horrible. I've wasted hours on a craft that didn't pan out. My children have been fighting all day long. Noah has been neglected. And for what? So that I can look all good with my cute little craft and blog about it? Why? What's the poi...

Sorry for the late post. I had to interrupt yesterday's regularly scheduled program for an emotional breakdown. But I'm better now. Yesterday, the kids woke up at 5:30 in the morning and we spent the next three hours making homemade dog treats for the neighborhood dogs. We used this recipe HERE . I don't use bouillon cubes, so we kept that out and substituted chicken broth for the boiling water. We also used applesauce instead of margarine. And we used Christmas Tree and Gingerbread Man cookie cutters to cut them out. Oh my! They were adorable. Oh, and we brushed some chicken broth on top of the cutouts before we put them in the oven and then turned them over after 15 minutes and brushed chicken broth on the other side for 15 minutes. Can I tell you a secret? My kids loved them. That's right. My kids devoured them. One of them actually threw a little temper tantrum because he wanted more. Our family is so jacked up. Now, the truth is, there's nothing in there t...

It's been a pretty rough day today. The kids have been at it all day (and afternoon AND evening). I've been feeling queasy the last two days. Noah's been sick since last Sunday. And to top it off, we went to my mom's today where we found some old VHS tapes of Noah before he had autism. Haven't seen the videos in 7 years. Oh my, they messed me up pretty bad. He was so healthy and so alert and so on target with everything. The memories just came flooding back. I'm pretty much an emotional wreck right now. I'll be back in the morning to blog about our 7 th Day of Giving and then back tomorrow afternoon or evening to blog about the 8 th Day... .although I don't even know what we're doing yet for tomorrow's day. Off to console myself with chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, a hot water bottle, and a Vicar of Dibley marathon. See you in the morning.

First of all - before I get to the 6th Day of Giving - I have to address the white elephant that is in the room.... otherwise known as that sad, sad scrapbook page looming just above. I could blame it all on the kids and say they did it, but really it's nothing more than a thirtysomething mother forgetting how much fun it is to mix glitter with glue. That huge silvery, shiny blob thing is meant to read "DAY 6" and the little white thingies floating around are supposed to be whimsical little snowflakes. It all looked so pretty and perfect in my head. Sadly, it seems that the decorating techniques employed in Miss Shoemaker's Kindergarten Class of 1978 - 79 don't really hold up in modern times. Unless you're 5. Then you can get away with it. But I'm not. However, this would've been hot stuff 30 years ago. If you can tear yourself away from the glitterama, you'll see that two of my little cherubs are holding baskets brimmed with lots of goodies. Those...

"On the 5 th Day of Giving, my true love gave to me.....One extra book, bought from Kohl's Cares for Kids, For Nandi's Pre -K Christmas parteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee " Do ya'll know about the Kohl's Cares for Kids books? I love them!! About every 3 or 4 months, Kohl's picks 4 hardback children's books and sells them for $5.00 a piece. AND each book comes with an optional matching stuffed animal. AND all the profits go to supporting health and education opportunities for children across the nation. They pick some really great books. Books that would normally cost about $16.99 for a hardback... and they sell them for a fiver. Love it! We usually give these books for Christmas or birthday presents - and one year even donated some to our local library. Sim even brought some with him to Wales when he visited his family last February. I guess you could say I'm slightly obsessed with them. Anyway, Nandi's teacher sent out a letter asking us to bring one...

For the 4th Day of Giving, our family is sponsoring one of the Heartline Runners - my friend, Corey - for the 2010 Disney World Marathon. Some of you may be familiar with Corey from that rather embarrassing, and certainly deluded, Jillian Michaels reference from a few weeks back. And if you recall, Corey and an equally crazy team of runners have all signed up to compete in a marathon next month to raise money for an emergency vehicle for Heartline Ministries, which operates in Haiti. They have an amazing BLOG that lets you meet all the runners (did I mention they're crazy?) and the blog does a great job on updating on what Heartline is doing in Haiti. Have you had your daily cry or your daily dose of inspiration yet? Well, then just stop on by! Anyway, we had budgeted to sponsor Corey for the race (and you can help sponsor her by visiting her blog . You'll also be entered in her raffle, but you'd better hurry because she's drawing names on Friday!) but I forgot to send...

On the 3rd Day of Giving, the kids decided to help make Christmas candy to give to the Neurology Department at Scottish Rite Hospital. Well, let me rephrase that. Nandi wanted to make candy. Eli wanted to eat it. And we had to keep swatting Noah (aka: Candy Cane Stealer) away from the kitchen. In the end, Nandi made a wonderful, but small, batch of White Chocolate Peppermint Bark Christmas Trees. Actually, it was a rather large batch, but, you know, we had to taste it, right? And let me just tell you. Nandi is getting really good at making desserts. I swear she's just like Betty Crocker. Well, you know, if Betty Crocker had RAD. I'm sure Betty Crocker had full kitchen privileges which allowed her to handle knives, can openers, and rolling pins. Anyway, this is the recipe we used. PEPPERMINT BARK Oooh! Oooh! And Dollar Tree has the Christmas tree molds in stock. Grab 'em up! (We also had enough leftover chocolate to make chocolate dipped candy canes to give to a friend'...

I know I haven't mentioned much about one of the charities we support, Mayan Families, but I just couldn't read about this family and not pass on the information. Mayan Families is a WONDERFUL organization in Guatemala that is doing great work with, well, Mayan families in Guatemala. Our little Eli is Mayan, so this is a charity that is very close to our heart. There are two ways to learn about Mayan Families. You can go straight to their WEBSITE and get all the information you to need to know. It's also the place where you make your donations. But the best source, in my opinion, is straight from their BLOG . That's how I found out about Josefa and her family. For $35, you can give them a traditional tamale basket for Christmas. It comes loaded with food. Also, for $35, you can give them a basket of food that will last for about 2 weeks. This is not some piddly little basket. We just sent some money for our sponsor student's family and they gave us a picture of the...

I have to tell you something. I love old people. I'm not sure if that's politically correct or not. Maybe I'm supposed to say elderly. Or aged. Or pensioners. But, basically, I love anyone over the age of 70. And I chose 70 and up b/c my dad entered his 60's this year and I can't bear to put anyone in their 60's in the old/elderly/aged/pensioners category. The day my dad is officially classified as "old" is the day I'll cry myself to sleep. I can't bear the thought of my parents aging. But that's besides the point. The point is that I heart old people. I think they're fascinating. I think you can learn a lot from them. I think they're smart, educated, and super wise and that it would do us all a bit of good to sit at an older person's feet once in a while. I am utterly fascinated by the early 1900's up to 1949. I think it's amazing how differently my in-laws lived during WWII in England vs my grandparent's in rural T...

Welcome to the 1st Day of Christmas Giving! In all fairness, we actually did this yesterday and scrapbooked it today. We went to Dollar Tree and sitting outside in the cold, rainy weather was a woman with two children who were huddled under a blanket. They had a made a few pies and were trying to sell them to raise money for a single mother that they know. Having done bake sales before, and knowing how crushing it is when no one wants to buy anything, I'm now a certified sucker for any bake sale that I come across. This was a tiny little one, and honestly, it looked horrible. I completely judged the lady at first. (I'm very ashamed of it). She was chain smoking , had make-up smudged all over face, and was missing her front teeth. My immediate reaction was that there was no way I was going to eat anything from that bake sale. My next reaction was that no one else would buy anything either, and that broke my heart. So, we forked over $2.00 for a sack of four mini muffins and gav...

Well, in the spirit of "Christmas Shoes" (ah, I couldn't resist.... you all know how I feel about that song ), our family is celebrating 12 Days of Christmas Giving. The kids will be doing a good deed for each of the 12 days leading up to Christmas starting this Sunday, Dec 13 and ending on Christmas Eve, with a big celebration in honor Christ's birthday on Christmas Day. Okay, well, before I tell you a bit more, my lovely British husband would like to interrupt for a minute and inform everyone that the real 12 days of Christmas are celebrated after Christmas in honor of the Feast of the Epiphany. Which is true, but, we're going to spend the 12 days before Christmas doing our 12 Days of Giving. So, here's the deal. We have a very spoiled child in our midst. I won't go into all the details, but will say that we've decided to really tackle the issue this year. We really do believe that the best thing you can do for your child is teach them to have a s...

One of my Facebook friends from high school just posted this on her status update: (From her SIL).... I work with special needs 1st-5th graders. The kids would love to get Christmas cards from all around the United States. This will teach them about geography, friendship as well as, how awesome it feels to get a piece of mail. You can mail ...cards to: T.E. Baxter 1050 Park Place Blvd. Midlothian, TX 76065 C/O CBI Class. THANK YOU !!! If any of you have a moment, would you please send a Christmas card to these special little kids? Wouldn't it be awesome to flood the school with cards that are specifically addressed to the CBI class? You know... the class that probably always gets left out. Let's let everyone know that kids with special needs are precisely that... SPECIAL! Thank you so much!!! Oh, and if you do send a card, can you let me know so that I can get all emotional and weepy? Because as you all know, I love nothing better than a good ol' cry brought on by a good d...

Okay, call me a Scrooge. Call me the Grinch. Call me heartless. In fact, call me any name you like... but I cannot stand that annoying Christmas Shoes song. And, along the same lines, I absolutely detest that whole Butterfly Kisses song, too. I know. I know. Someone take away my Mom Card. Here's the thing. They are sappy, overly sentimental, and designed specifically to tug at your heartstrings. You know, like things that I normally love. Like Hallmark Card commericals and puppies and KLTY's "Christmas Wishes" that give me rivers of running mascara every morning. But Christmas Shoes ? To me, I just imagine a bunch of songwriters sitting around thinking, " Hey! Let's write a song about a little boy whose mommy is dying and how he wants to buy her some special shoes before she goes to meet Jesus. Yeah, yeah! And we'll have this scrooge guy get really touched by the little boy and buy the shoes for him. Oooooh, we'll heavily market it and make milli...

This is for the legion of readers who've flocked over here from Corey's blog because for some unknown reason she mentioned that I look (and the caps are all hers) JUST LIKE JILLIAN MICHAELS from The Biggest Loser. What? You don't buy it? You think that picture looks suspiciously like Jenny McCarthy's body from her Shape cover last spring?? Oh, Corey. You do have some smart readers. Okay, I confess. My friend Chantelle did kinda get really, really creative with the photoshop after reading my lament about Jenny McCarthy's "yoga inspired body" in one of last April's blog posts. But what am I meant to do? I have tons and tons of Corey readers coming over here simply because Corey took too much NyQuil (or something) and decided to blog. I mean... have you actually seen what Jillian Michaels looks like? In my defense, I know this is a tiny picture, but I was afraid that if I posted a close-up, you'd really be able to see that the only things we have in ...

So, a brief (haha - you know it's going to be long) recap of our Thanksgiving week and the beginning of our Christmas festivities... Our Thanksgiving was pretty quiet. My mom had foot surgery and can't put weight on her foot for 12 weeks, so she wasn't able to go to my aunt's this year (too crowdedfor her wheelchair). So, being the good daughter I am, I decided that we would go to her house instead and that's what we did. (Although we missed you, Aunt Jane!) It was just me, Sim, and the kids with my mom and dad. It was nice. The kids ate their fair share of cool whip, played the Wii until Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving came on, and I took a 3 hour nap. Now, that's something to be thankful for! Oh yeah. And Eli informed us that he's a vegetarian - which he demonstrated by completing bypassing the Thanksgiving turkey this year. He says he's no longer a T-Rex. He is now a gentle Stegosaurus. I don't know what to think about my 6 year old still believ...

Weird title, huh? So, a few days I ago I was in the library looking for some books to read and I came across some by Sophie Kinsella. She's the one who wrote Confessions of a Shopaholic . I'd never read the book, but loved the movie, so I checked out the two books that the library had... The Undomestic Goddess and Remember Me ?. I finished them each in one day. They are THAT good. Am so loving her at the moment. She's my new favorite author. Good, fun, pure, chick-lit. Love it. Anyway, so last night I finished Remember Me? which is about a lady who's in an accident and can't remember anything from the last three years... including the fact that she's got a gorgeous husband. After I read it, it made me think what would happen if my husband got amnesia, woke up and found me standing over his bed saying that I was his wife. I mean, I would be a stranger to him, right? He'd have no idea that we've shared the past 15 1/2 years together. He'd have to fa...

Well, we had our bake sale and raffle on Saturday. We didn't make a lot on the bake sale, but coupled with the raffle tickets that we've been selling for the last few weeks, we made about $2150! THANK YOU!! We held our drawing at 2:00pm and all winners have already been notified. 1st prize: Emmitt Smith Football went to Julie H . 2nd prize: iPod Touch went to Steve K . 3rd prize: Wii went to Amy B . I really, really wish that everyone could have won. It broke my heart that we had to stop drawing names after three... but I have to remember that we raised a lot of money for Sarah's kids and that was the purpose of the raffle. We're talking with Sarah about her "wish list" for the kids and I believe the money raised will go a long way to purchasing items off the list. I'll take pictures of all the things we're bringing and post them here closer to to time to leave. And, in case you haven't checked out Sarah's blog , she's not going to be rec...

Tomorrow's our big bake sale and raffle for Sarah's Covenant Homes. If you missed the original post, you can find it HERE . Our goal was to raise $1500 for Sarah's kids and so far we've raised $1315!! $380 of that was through online donations and $935 was raised locally or through generous bloggers who sent money through the mail. Thank you so much!! We are $185 short of our goal. If anyone would like to buy a ticket (s) online, you would need to do so by 7:30 CST tomorrow MORNING. We'll be leaving shortly after that to set up the bake sale, so all online tickets need to be purchased soon. We'll be holding the drawing at 2:00pm tomorrow afternoon at a local grocery store and all winners will be notified by 5:00pm CST. I'll also announce first names and locations on my blog. Thanks again to everyone who has helped make this fundraiser a success. I cannot begin to express how in awe I am of everyone who has stepped up to help. There have been so many heartwa...

Wow, what's up with me and the absentee blogging, huh? Maybe I'm just in a blogging funk or something, but I just haven't felt like getting on here lately. Nothing's wrong - nothing like that - but I do get this way from time to time and I guess this is one of those times. Of course, this probably means that I'll be blogging like a mad fiend for the next week or so... that's kind of my pattern. :-) So now, instead of writing short little posts about this or that, I have to cram everything into a very lengthy, very wordy, possibly sleep-inducing post. Let's see. What's been going on? Well, RAD behaviors are on the rise in our little household. If I'm gone from blogging for awhile, you can generally assume that it's something behavior related. Nandi received botox injections a week ago and I swear her RAD behaviors have gone through the roof. Things had gotten 90% better over the last month. 90%!! She was such a joy to be around... it was like the ...