UPDATE: https://www.theautismdad.com/2017/07/24/why-our-kids-with-autism-wont-be-attending-the-funeral/ Over the weekend, our family lost a truly amazing person. She was my Great Aunt and my Grandmother's sister. She was like a second Mother to my Dad, and a huge part of my life growing up. Please keep my family, especially my Grandmother, in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Thank you.
I don't know about any of you, but when we manage to get a break from the kids, we're usually completely exhausted. Thankfully, we get somewhat regular breaks, because the boys have very active Grandparents. That's an absolute blessing. Having said that, when we get a break, my wife and I are so far beyond tired, all we want to do is crash. When I go without sleep (or quality sleep anyway) for as long as I do, the first thing I do when the boys leave, is go to sleep. I know that I can't actually make up for lost sleep, but my body certainly tries. Whenever we get a break, we also face a conundrum. Do we rest, or get caught up on things around the house? Trying…
Lizze and I did something we haven't done in years. We binge watched Underworld, Underworld Evolution, Underworld Rise of the Lycans, Underworld Awakening, and Underworld Blood Wars. We were super lazy but it was awesome. I can't remember the last time we've done anything like this. Sometimes it's nice to do absolutely nothing, for much longer than we should. It's been a long, stressful week and I feel like we've earned a night of nothing. ☺
Life isn't easy on the best of days, let alone the rest. I know how hard it can be to continue moving forward when things get so overwhelming that it's hard to think straight. I've been there so many times, I should just by property and build a second house. Unfortunately, this is just the way it is sometimes, and there isn't anything we can do about it. The reality is, we're all going to have good days/weeks/months or even years, as well as bad ones. It's part of being human. When you toss in things like Autism or any other form of mental/physical health challenges, life becomes even more challenging than before. All we can do is take care of ourselves, our kids, utilize any available help, and trust…
The boys left a little while ago and we will have a break until sometime tomorrow. Lizze is currently sleeping and I've decided to catch-up on some work while I watch the Underworld series from the beginning. Underworld is one of my all time favorite movies. ☺ I don't think Lizze is feeling up to going anywhere tonight, and that's fine. A quiet night without bedtime battles sounds good to me. I've not been sleeping good and I can actually take something to helpe tonight. That sounds like a win to me. ☺
I'm pretty sure the boys will be going to Lizze's parents today. There hasn't been any confirmation yet, but we'll make do either way. If the boys end up going, Lizze and I will get some time to ourselves. We've been under a great deal of stress this week. There's no one thing that's really weighing on us. It's more like a combination of things. The point is, all this stress has introduced some tension into the mix and that's not something either one of us want. Getting a break would mean that we can have some time, outside of all this Autism and Special Needs parenting stress. These breaks, are good for us, both as individuals, and as a couple. As I always like to stress, not everyone is…
As Gavin begins to struggle more and more with life, I find myself in a position once again, where I'm unsure of what to do. Yesterday was a bit rough for Gavin. I had to make changes to the way he was doing things and he didn't take it well. Lizze and I never nitpick any of our kids, especially when it comes to Gavin. While we don't nitpick, there are times we have to correct him. These kinds of corrections are usually the result of safety concerns. Sometimes these corrections are an attempt to avoid him breaking something, or accidentally hurting someone, himself included. Gavin would never do either of those things on purpose. What I'm finding is that Gavin is less able to deal with these or any…
Sometimes, we are totally blessed by the things that happen in our lives, and today was one of those days. As we approach the end of the month, things get tighter financially. I was settling in for a week of tightly managing our grocery budget, when some amazing news arrived. Actually, we received two pieces of good news. The first piece of life saving news came in the mail this afternoon. Apparently, we overpaid our auto and home owners insurance by a relatively significant amount, and State Farm issued us a refund check. Surprise... ☺ About the exact same time, I received an email notice that Google had made my monthly deposit. This was a surprise as well because according to my records, I missed the threshold for payout by…