Weekend Madness

How does time go by so fast?! Here I was a week ago, all bitten with the blog bug, and a week has gone by! It might have something to do with the fact that I'm shadowing Braden at school (that will be a post some day, not ready to share that drama yet), working on my real job for NCVPS, and, oh, all the mundane things you have to do on a regular basis, like cook dinner, do laundry, etc. Oh well, here I am, that's the important thing, right?

First things first - I have narrowed down a new title for the blog. Here are the hard to choose from ideas:

• For the Love of Sprinkles (my only creative idea)
• When Life Hands You Sprinkles (courtesy of my creative friend, Colleen!)
• Sprinklelicious (courtesy of my creative friend, Colleen!)
• Just Add Sprinkles (courtesy of my creative friend, Colleen! See a pattern?)

What do you think? Make sure to place your vote in the comments. I can't be held responsible if I don't choose the one you like the most unless you vote.

Now, on to today's topic - what the heck do you do with your kids on the weekends, especially in the winter and when you don't want to blow your money on some ridiculously priced activity that your kid may or may not enjoy? I feel like the last few weekends we have been zombies, moping around the house, glued to the TV or some video game. This weekend I am determined to break out of this rut!

I've been pinning pins on Pintrest (say that 3 times fast!) like a mad woman, searching for fun and cheap kid activities. Because, I don't know about you, but my brain is fried by the end of the week. You can't expect me to have any real thought process on a Saturday morning. BUT, I'm ahead of the game this week! I've planned some activities for this weekend and pinned them onto my Fun Kid Activities Board on Pintrest (you can follow me if you'd like, hint, hint.) I thought it might be fun to write about this weekly, what my activities are for the upcoming weekend and highlight how the activities from the weekend before went. Obviously, since I am just starting this, I can't delight you with my embarrassing attempts to have fun, yet. But, this time next week, I should be ready to have you rolling on the floor with pictures and anecdotes of our attempts. (Hopefully it won't be all that bad, but what would make you come back next week, perfect projects or terrifying attempts? I like to watch train wrecks sometimes, so why not watch mine?)

Here are my messy and hopefully fun activities that I have planned for this weekend. Looks like I have accidentally planned a scientific exploration day and an outdoor adventure day.
(I've included the link to make sure I give proper credit for the wonderful ideas)

March 1-3 Weekend Activities

• St. Patrick Day Window Clings
• Science experiment: Elephant Toothpaste
• Hopefully I can find some 6% Hydrogen Peroxide like she suggests....
• Rainbow Density Cylinder
• Nature Scavenger Hunt 
• Shoot some hoops at the basketball court. Braden has been showing some interest in playing Bball lately. I'm sure Braden's daddy can have a blast giving him a point or two.
• Play date - while Braden was attending Brain Balance he made a friend, someone who looks to Braden as a role model. Braden actually pulled this little boy out of his shell a bit, would continually say hi or bye or call his name. At first, the little boy would not respond. But Braden was persistent and eventually the little boy responded. Braden shouts "Finally, he told me bye!" Braden naturally was persistent and supportive to the little boy, encouraging him daily for the last few weeks we were there. The little boy's mom told me that her son finally was excited to come to the center, and she thought it was because of Braden. Hoping to keep that little spark in our new friend, so hopefully we will be able to plan a play date.

Guess that's it for now. Make sure to check in next week for the results of our fabulous weekend! In the meantime, add a comment or two and share what your plans are for the weekend. And don't forget to vote for your favorite title!

Sprinkle-fully yours,
Heather

Bug Bites

 I have been bitten, bitten by a writing/blogging bug. I'm not sure where this came from. It may have been inspired by my friend Colleen, who is writing a YA trilogy and Tweets/Facebooks/Pintrests all these really cool updates! She is an up and coming author, so make sure to check her out at on her blog http://cmalbert.blogspot.com/. It could also be inspired by all of the totally awesome blogs I have been visiting, courtesy of Pintrest. I am fascinated by these (most of them have been women but I don't want to discredit any men) women who have coordinated informative blogs on everything from gluten free casein free recipes to organization to crafts! (And let me just add that I have also been bitten by the crochet bug, but that can be another topic another day!) It could also be that I have family and friends' voices echoing in my head: "You should write a book, share what you know and what you have done." Now, the thought of a book scares the bejesus out of me! I will never say never but I certainly have not been bitten by the book bug. Now, are you asking yourself, at this very moment, what in the world could Heather contribute and what could she ever write enough about in a book?

If you take a look at earlier posts (um, yes, that would be way earlier. Oops, I fell off the blog wagon a while ago.) you will read about my beginning journey with Braden who had autism. Had you ask? Well, last year we had Braden reevaluated. It was a three year mark and I wanted to see, touch, analyze how far we had come with him. I knew that he had made progress. I knew that he could keep up with his peers, I knew that academically this kid was right on, I knew that he could make friendships and healthy ones at that. But sometimes you just need to see it on paper. And, a little voice was ringing in my head from our initial evaluation: "some children who have been diagnosed early grow out of the diagnosis over time." At the time I thought, ya right, don't give me false hope. But, with Braden, as his language grew and I saw him interact with friends, I began to hope just a little. After a month of testing, with multiple days of testing and observations of him at his school, the psychologist came back with hope. She said that he had traits of autism (lack of eye contact, trouble with transitions) but that he no longer actually fit the diagnosis, he no longer ticked all the criteria for autism. I love how she described it. She said that he is sprinkled with autism and she felt that an anxiety disorder would probably better fit him at this point. Now, did we jump up and start dancing on the ceiling? No, we were skeptical. We talked to her about all the implications of this and how this would affect Braden. We talked about the services he was currently getting and if they would be impacted. But everywhere we looked, we could not see how this would hurt him. All of the therapies he is receiving were private and paid for by us. He is attending a private school where IEPs are not governed by IDEA. (Let me just say that his school, although not governed by IDEA, has been wonderful and has worked with us to make Braden successful.) So maybe this is the beginning of where those voices started: share what you know, share what you did and even if it just helps one person, it will be one person who has been touched.

Has everything been peachy keen and roses and smiles since this reevaluation? No. We still have our issues and we still fight for Braden everyday. We even had a huge set back this fall that we are still fighting to overcome. Because, remember, he is sprinkled with autism. There are still issues there that "normal" (whatever normal is) kids don't have to contend with.

And for me, sprinkled with autism has been coined a term of affection for me. These sprinkles are sprinkles of special love, sprinkles that have made this family a better family, sprinkles that have made me a better mom and sprinkles that have made me try to be a better person. All of these sprinkles leads me to an idea for another post... I am playing around with the title of my blog and have been tinkering with this word, sprinkles. What do you think? Do you think I should incorporate "sprinkles" into a new title for my blog, to mark this blog bug bite? AND, for all those creative thinkers out there, any ideas for a new title? Sprinkles, special, love, family...I would love to hear any ideas you have! I promise to give credit! Share your ideas with me in the comments below.

Until next time, I hope your day is sprinkled with whatever you need: love, hope, or maid services ;)

The Hardest Job

Came across this unfinished post. I think I had some good thoughts here...but alas, it was never finished. I thought it important to add because at the time it was something I needed to write about.


Being a mom is the hardest job ever! Throw in a mom with a special needs child and it becomes 100% harder. Today was Braden's first official back to school day and it has not been a good day. Yes, he did go to preschool Monday and Tuesday, but it wasn't officially school...because he gets CBRS he was able to attend and have class with the CBRS workers. So today he went to his new class and his new teacher and did not set a good first impression. But let me back up...

1. He is used to going to school an hour early and receiving CBRS for an hour and then transitioning to class. Today was different, he only receives CBRS for 2 days. So...he walked right into class this morning and he does not deal well with new transitions.


2. His new teacher is the teacher who watched him Monday, the one that he had already set an impression with when he shoved another child into a cupboard and left a mark and also threw a chair. (CBRS days are already tough for him, different environment, not structured, a wide range of school age children in the same room with him).


3. This morning, before school, did not reflect a cozy, aaahhh, it's your first day back kind of morning. We struggled with Braden to eat, Bob yelled at Braden while trying to support me which caused Braden to start to cry and joke on his donut, and me reprimanding Bob about upsetting Braden.