Ten on Tuesday

1. I may or may not have become a hockey fan. Specifically, Blackhawks hockey. It’s this kid’s fault.

He got all caught up in the Stanley Cup finals. He begged me to watch every game, insisted on his own t-shirt which I had to wash so he could wear during every game. He wanted so badly for them to win. And last night, hits wish came true.

2. The humidity in the air has me feeling like my hair looks something like this:

3. There has been so much rain this summer that I lost count of how many makeup baseball/soccer games we have to do. We may be playing until Halloween.

4. Four days left of Christopher’s summer school. Then the fun begins. Poor kid is so ready to be done.

5. Our list of super awesome things to do this summer is largely untouched. We’ve done nothing except go to the zoo. Which we did before we made the list.

6. We are growing butterflies. They are in their chrysalides cocoons right now. I hope they make it.

7. I’m running my first official 5k in less than two weeks. Is one of those where they throw colored stuff at you. Which means there will probably be a lot of stopping to wipe my face and not as much running. Perfect!

8. So far, this summer, I’ve yet to finish a cup of coffee while its still hot. It’s on MY list of super awesome things to do.

9. There is still a pile of rotting, leftover school supplies sitting in a corner of my house. I’m thinking I’m gonna reuse some. But probably not. I’m just scared too lazy to go through them.

10. Go Blackhawks! When does hockey season start up again?

In the thick of things

Summer is here.

We have activities scheduled nearly every night. Yes, I said night. Baseball, soccer, music classes-all in the evening. Except for this week, when my boylie has his bike camp. We did bike camp last year, it was called “Lose the Training Wheels.” It’s a special, week-long camp for kids with special needs. It is designed to teach them how to ride a two-wheeler, using specially adapted bikes. You can see them in the photos. Last year he did great, although it was tough to keep up with after he finished, and we never really got him consistently riding. This year we’re going to follow up with some extra lessons and lots of practice at home. They’ve changed the name of the camp to iCan Bike, and the organization that runs the camps, all over the country, is called iCan Shine. These people are amazing. I can’t say enough about them. Even if he doesn’t learn to ride completely by the end of camp, the experiences of success and the positive feelings he gets from camp are invaluable.

On Tuesday they got each kid on a tandem bike, to get a feel for what it’s like to ride a two wheeled bike, it helps them feel the turns, feel the breeze on their face, and also let’s the volunteers feel how the kids are doing on the bike. It’s pretty awesome.

We have two days left of camp, today they are going to “launch” him on a two wheeler. Can’t wait to see who it goes.

Soooo, what’s up?

Yeah.

So, it’s been awhile. I decided to take a peek at the old blog to see when my last post was. I knew it was a long time ago. Nearly a year. Last June. I’m not even sure how it got to be so long. I think I got busy, and kept putting it off and then it got longerandlonger and I finally figured it was not. gonna. happen.

So, what brings me back? Not sure. Is not like things have gotten less busy. Most definitely it is the opposite. I haven’t miraculously gotten more organized. I think I missed the brain dumping that happens when I write stuff here, in this space. ‘Cause that’s really what happens here.

So, I’ve decided to give it another go.

So, see you soon.

Scenes from summer and Project Life update

Yeah, it’s busy ’round here.

Summer school is over. Christopher finished a week long bike camp and is so much more confident on his bike. We have baseball and music camp and firework watching and movies to see. It’s good. But I’m exhausted. We also finally got Christopher back into OT (insurance sucks, long story), and we also have him in a social group. Lots of taxi driving. AND we are in the market for a new van. Yikes. But all in all, still good. And we’re not even halfway through!

So, Project Life. I have not given up. I’m still managing to work on it semi-regularly, and am really only three weeks behind. It’s just too much to keep up with on the blog. So I’ve decided to not post them weekly (obviously). If I have a particular week that I love I may throw it up here, but there’s no way I can get all of the weeks up. Just. Too. Crazybusy. I love looking at everyone else’s, though, and I will still be checking everyone out.

So, off I go, back to the van. Someone has to go somewhere this afternoon, I’m sure of it.

Mixed feelings

We’re only 5 days away from the first day of school. Everyone I bump into mentions how fast the summer has gone, but isn’t that always the case? We start out in June wondering how we will fill the days ahead, and end up wishing for just a few more. Running around for school supplies, last minute shoe shopping, because I can’t believe how much their feet have grown in three months, the dreaded school physicals that I put off until the last minute, for their sakes and mine.

The last couple of weeks I feel as though I’ve let the kids become almost slug-like. In between the “Mommywaitedtilthelastminute” errands, there has been an awful lot of computer playing and video gaming and staying in pajamas until lunchtime. I think part of the reason is, let’s face it, I’m freakin’ tired. It’s dang hard filling all of these hours with purposeful, healthy, educational activity. It’s alot of hours, times three kids, times completely different abilities and interests, divided by one.tired.mama. The other part of it is, that I kinda feel like I wanna let them (us) chill for a bit, before the craziness of early school bus pick-ups and schedules and homework begins. The school year is hard for me but it’s hard for them, too. I have a girlie starting sixth grade, who somehow believes that this is going to be the hardest school year of her life. Things are changing in her world, big time, right about now. So although she doesn’t fear the school work, there is definitely some anxiety about, well, sixth grade girl stuff. My 8 year old is facing a new classroom, new teacher and aide, a classroom full of new kids and noises and smells and routines. It’s stressful for him. I feel like we have a good team set up for him this year, but a new school year for a kid with Autism is different than for a typical kid. And my youngest is starting Kindergarten. I don’t think I even need to talk about how this makes me feel.

So, happy and sad and anxious and exhausted. But grateful. We made it through the summer, still all liking each other (enough) and without catastrophe. And the next few days will be spent happily playing whatever we want to play, inside or outside, in pajamas or whatever we can find clean. So what?

Plans gone awry

I had this vision in my mind about how I was gonna get my workouts in this summer. I have to get up early to get boylie on the bus for summer school, so I could squeeze a morning workout in just as I did when the kids were in school. Right? Of course not. For some reason, my brain has figured out that we’re on a summer schedule here, and is putting the brakes on any early exercise dreams I had. My backup plan, was to get two workouts in during girlie’s cross country camp sessions. We signed up for six weeks. Two nights a week we head over to get a walk/run in. Except it’s been two weeks and we’ve gone twice. Why? BECAUSE IT’S RAINING. Almost every.single.day.

See this?

I’ve been skipping my morning workouts figuring I’d get a workout in at camp. And then camp gets cancelled, and it’s getting later and I’m notsogood at fitting it in later. And now, my poor girlie has hurt her foot, and we may be skipping this week (at least) to give it some rest. So I’m back to fitting those workouts in bright and early. But it’s sooooo haaard. (cue violin music)

The scale has not been kind to me. It’s not going up so much but it’s not going down either. But let’s face it, I haven’t been putting in as much effort as I should. I’m struggling. I read this today and it totally nailed my struggle right now. Do I keep obsessing over the stupid number on the scale? Even though I know I feel a thousand times better than I have in a long time. Or do I accept where I am, and just let things happen as they may, as long as it takes, just living my life. My clothes fit. I don’t cringe when I see my reflection. I can climb stairs without losing a lung. All good things, right? The more I obsess, the more disappointed I get, and when I get bummed out the goldfish crackers start to disappear rapidly.

I don’t know how long it’s gonna take to get to that elusive “goal.” And what does it matter, anyway? Do I stop taking care of myself altogether once I get there? Nope. So what difference does it make? Grrrrr.

I’ll say one thing for sure. When I finally do get to my goal, I’m gonna kick ass at the maintenance part. I’ve been maintaining like a badass.

How I spent my summer vacation. Week one

It’s been just over a week since the kids started their summer break. I’m still alive, but I’m already exhausted. Here’s what we’ve done so far…

Been to the movies-3 times
Kung Fu Panda
Judy Moody
Pirates of the Carribbean

Guess which was my favorite?

Playdates-3 plus one birthday party

Rainy days-too many

Number of times “I’m bored ” was muttered-see above

2 haircuts

1 swimming lesson

2 cross country camp sessions

Number of times I’ve successfully worked out-4 (that counts the cross country camp)

Number of times I’ve checked the calendar…to see when school starts..nevermind.

One trip to the zoo, today.

It was a lovely day. Probably the best so far. Gives me hope for the rest of the summer.