30 Days of Me: Day 30 – My Goals

Day 30 – Your goals for the next 30 days

Hmmm…I’ve always found it so difficult to write down goals.  Writing them down makes one accountable to achieve them.  Then to share them…?  That’s even tougher.  So, here goes…

• Get a good routine down now that school and IBI are in full swing
• Hang things up on the walls at home. A house doesn’t seem like a “home” without photos and decorations on the walls.
• Get back into the habit of writing in my journal
• Get to bed before 11pm at least 2 nights per week

Have you set any goals for October?  What are they?

Check out any days you missed in this 30 Days of Me series:

http://imamomtoo.wordpress.com/30-days-about-me/

Fill in the Blanks Friday – 09/30

1.   My current obsession is talking about my son starting IBI! Really, is there anything else happening in the world?  Who cares! He’s in IBI!!

 

2.  My kids make me happy, except for when my daughter and I are battling it out for who is the more stubborn redhead.

 

3.  My greatest strength is putting others at ease, and treating everyone equally.

 

4.  My ability to get “stuck” when a task doesn’t go the way I planned it would is my greatest weakness.

 

5.  My life is chaotic and calm at the same time, filled with:

• 2 different school bus routes, with 3 busses total
• 2 schools
• 2 Parent Councils
• appointments
• play dates
• approx 1 hour of paperwork and/or reading every night for the kids’ schools and IBI
• not eating until 2pm hen I forget to pack my own lunch
• laundry is constant, and right now I have a mountain of clean clothes to fold and put away
• helping my parents in the family business
• looking for part time work outside the home a field I haven’t worked in since I was a teenager
• rebuilding our social network since we moved in July
• still changing diapers…6 years and counting

Despite the chaos though, I find time EVERY DAY to have quiet cuddles with each of my kids, one-on-one conversations with them, and quiet snuggles for bedtime.

 
6.  In high school, I was an A student AND a band geek…even worse, I’m a redhead that played flute (NO, I didn’t go to band camp).  Before you judge my band geek-ness, were you able to go travel throughoutOntario, plus go to Montreal, Quebec City, England, Denmark and Sweden while you were in highschool?  I did…because I was in the band and those were our trips to perform worldwide!

 

7. When I’m super tired, I have almost perfected the ability to fall asleep sitting up.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

2 Truths 1 Lie 9/30 LINK UP!

I’ve joined the Blog Hop at Randomosity called 2 Truths, 1 Lie.  I thought it was cute, so here I go!

_____________________

You know the game you play as an “icebreaker” in a new class or maybe at a new job. Make a post, telling two truths and one lie. Leave the link to that post here. Then your readers (and fellow blog hoppers) will guess which one is the lie.

Update the post within 24 hours to tell which is which (I’ll be honest and say that I have a Girl’s Night tonight, so it may not be 24 hours for me…just saying…)

Simple enough, right? Just LINK TO YOUR 2 TRUTHS 1 LIE POST!

2 Truths 1 Lie 9/30 LINK UP!

 

MY 2 TRUTHS AND 1 LIE:

1) I’ve ridden a horse.

2) I’ve ridden an elephant.

3) I’ve ridden an upside down rollercoaster.

So, which one is the lie?

30 Days of Me: Day 29 – Dinner Party Guests

Day 29 – List 10 people, dead or alive, you would invite to dinner. Include the dinner menu.

Honestly, I’ve been dreading this post for the whole month!  I’m drawing a complete blank on this one.  Do I invite all hotties (it’s my party and I can drool if I want to)?  Intellectuals?  Academics?  Inspirational speakers?  Sports figures (wait, I don’t follow sports anymore)?  Business leaders?  Politicians?  Stay at home parents?  Parents of kids with special needs, or neurotypical kids?  People from all over the world, or only those in Canada?  All men or all women?  Dead or alive?

At the end of great reflection, I still can’t determine who I would invite BUT, I was toying with the idea of inviting my childhood-self and my future-self.  I would then be able to see again where I’ve come from, and where I’m going.  Might be nice to invite my childrens’ future-selves too; to see who they become, and be able to fully support them in that journey.

In regards to the menu, I’m not sure about that either, but if I’m inviting past and future selves and my kids’, I would lean towards old family favourites, which include my Great, Great Aunt Elsie’s casserole (a recipe she created and  actually has measurements in pounds!), and my infamous pumpkin loaf, that my kids have grown up on.

Who would you invite to your dinner party?

 

30 Days of Me: Day 28 – Something I miss

Day 28 – Something that you miss

Even though I love being with my kids full time (especially since I only stayed home for the first 3 months of the 1-year maternity leave we are blessed with in Canada because I didn’t have benefits), I miss working outside the home.  I miss having my own paycheque and the independence it gave me.

I also miss falling asleep beside someone, hearing their subtle sleep breathing/light snoring.  Thankfully, some nights I can hear my son’s sleep noises because our rooms are beside eachother.

What I don’t miss though, is the person I became in the last couple of years of my marriage.  Hope to never see her again.  Prefer who I am right now.

What do you miss?

 

My Son Started!

My son FINALLY started IBI yesterday!  Even better, he loves it!  IBI is the “be all and end all” of therapy for children with Autism.  Unfortunately, not all children qualify for IBI but my son met all the requirements to qualify, so then we were placed on the standard waitlist in the Autism field.  The technical definition of IBI (according to KidsAbility) is a program that…

• uses systematic behavioural teaching methods
• has clearly defined strategies & goals
• is individualized to the needs of each child
• incorporates changes based upon direct measurement of each child’s learning

Basically, this means that my son will benefit from 21 hours PER WEEK for at least a YEAR of a combination of one-on-one and small group interactions with speech therapy, behavioural therapy, and occupational therapy.  When he finishes the program (ie: he’s met all the markers along the way to continue his developmental progress), there is a 6-month reintegration program in full-time school.  This means, he is now attending IBI 3 days per week in the nearby city, and is at school 2 days per week for Grade 1.  IBI is considered by the Board of Education to be his primary instruction so he will receive a special code instead of being “absent” from class.

InOntario, IBI is offered as a Direct Service Option or Direct Funding Option.  Because I don’t have the $70,000 extra to select the DFO option that was offered to him in May (the government does reimburse a small percentage of that but still…), moving back to my small town meant that my son was moved up the waitlist for the DSO option as his diagnosis date was in 2007, and in the new region, they were working with children with diagnosis dates in 2009.

Waitlists are “normal” in this field.  Ironically, when he qualified for IBI 3 years ago, I just *knew* that he would be starting IBI at the beginning of Grade 1 and, thankfully, that is exactly what happened.  He’s “ready” for it now.  His verbal and written (via his iPad) communication has been cascading since we moved. He’s become even more aware of what’s going on around him, and the routines that are natural to others…and therefore are starting to become more natural to him too.  He’s using echolalia now, and is mimicking things and people around him.

Even better, he gets excited whenever I mention KidsAbility, which is where he receives IBI. 

In fact, last night, my daughter even said:

Daughter:    “Mommy, I wish I had Autism.”

Me:             “Pardon?  Why hunny?”

Daughter:    “Because then I could go play at KidsAbility too.”

I’m so happy that BOTH of my kids are excited about my son starting IBI.  He’s ready, he’s willing, and he’s excited!  Can’t get much better than that!

 

PS – I would love to hear about your journey with getting services for your child with Autism, positive AND negative. If there are enough people who would like to share, I would love to start a guest post series on my blog. Message me at imamomtoo.meghan@gmail.com if you are interested. We all have different stories to offer, and I want to help facilitate communication.

 

The Shoes Make The Woman

I read the blog posted last night by The Clothespring Adventures of a WAHM entitled “Shoes I Wish I Could Rock”.  My ex-husband is 2” shorter than me, so I was always conscious of how much taller I was than him, especially when the occasion required high heels.  I visited dear friends in Vancouver, and had an eye-opening discussion with a very wise friend, who stated that a woman is never completely “finished” unless she has fantastic shoes. (For the record, this wise friend is a heterosexual male friend).  I then started noticing that certain outfits “required” a certain height of heel and style of shoe.

I don’t have a shoe obsession…I own less than 20 pairs of shoes (not bad for a female, if I may say!), but I do have very specific heels, none of which are lower than 2.5”.  Ok, I may have had a “ceremony” getting rid of any heels I owned that were lower than that after my ex and I split…tee hee.

Now that I’m a SAHM though, I hardly ever have the opportunity to wear anything other than my Crocs, because then I can still chase the kids:

 

 But I REALLY miss wearing these shoes that I bought a few months ago, with the tallest heels I’ve bought so far:

 

I’m thinking I need a Girls Night Out, and SOON!

 

30 Days of Me: Day 27 – Former problems

Day 27 – A problem you have or have had in the past

A problem I have is being too trusting of others. I want to believe that everyone wants to help others, and I was brought up to firmly believe in community and “doing unto others…”.  In the last couple of years, I have learnt to be trusting AND unfortunately, also being prepared for the worst.

At the other end of the spectrum, another problem I used to have is being too negative. It was great in my former career of being an event planner because I could immediately determine what risks were involved in any new event before even doing the walk-through.

After hearing a few too many times from many people that things always just seem to happen to me, I was finally receptive to hearing what a dear friend told me about how she turned her life and marriage around…she started listing what she was thankful every night and asking her Higher Power for guidance.  Sounded kind of strange (weird, hokey, New Age, and yet also really hard!) to me but I thought I would give it a try.  At first, all I could find to be thankful for was my kids and my friends who had helped stabilize me after the end of my marriage.  Soon, my “daily thankfuls” were expanding to the little things we were experiencing every day, to being able to list off many things that had happened each day.

Eventually I was asking Spirit for guidance, strength and help for others, and now I’m able to silently go through my “daily thankfuls” and even ask for help and guidance for myself and my life, and immediately fall asleep into a blissful sleep.  I notice I have strange dreams on nights when I fall asleep before I can go through my “daily thankfuls”.

What problems have been holding you back, and how did you resolve them?

 

30 Days of Me: Day 26 – If I had a Million Dollars…

 

Day 26 – If you had a million $ to spend, how would you spend it?

If I had a million dollars to spend, I would:

• pay off my debt and debt of family and close friends
• buy a house for us and pay all land taxes (is that possible?)
• set up education savings plans for my kids
• go back to university
• send my mom to university
• pay for additional supports for my son
• donate to Autism support services
• go on an amazing vacation
• hire a maid (tee hee!)
• savings! Boring, I know, but need to keep some for a rainy day
• some people would use the money to earn a degree from one of the online colleges.

What would you do with a million dollars?

 

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30 Days of Me: Day 25 – Fascinating People

Day 25 – Someone who fascinates you and why

Simply put, my kids fascinate me.

I’m fascinated by how curious my daughter is about the world and that she’s a great combination of a tom-boy who loves dresses and playing with Barbies.  Because I’m adopted, I’m also fascinated by how much she looks like me (never having seen familial resemblance before having kids), and how similar our personalities are to the other, whether that’s good or bad.  

I’m fascinated by how my son’s brain works, and how he views the world through Autism glasses.  It amazes me that the world is so chaotic for him, and yet he’s the happiest child I’ve ever met!

Who fascinates you?