Run For It

I meet myself coming and going quite a bit. I get myself turned around. I find myself upside down. Quite often I am overwhelmed. Life will get easier, right?

My sister got the front door painted lightening bug yellow a few weeks ago. She gave me a new wreath for my birthday, too. Isn't the combination pretty?

The kids have been playing in the leaves this weekend. Princess even sorted the leaves by color.

Last weekend, I carved the family's pumpkin. Somehow a deer bone is now sticking out from its mouth.

I won a free book a few weeks ago. It arrived last weekend: The Stress Cure: Praying Your Way to Personal Peace by Linda Evans Shepherd. Thank you Baker Publishing and Proverbs31. The book is fascinating and a down-to-earth. It centers on managing stress through prayer and scripture. I have only made it through three chapters so far, but I do enjoy the fact that information is related in easy to understand examples. Chapter Two was about being overwhelmed. That me, OVERWHELMED!

I have been taking some nature photography.

 

I have wrangled with the health insurance company about Pumpkin's specialist. Turns out that I was right and she is in-network. So the insurance company has five visits over the last year to correct. A sixty dollar co-pay is a big difference when it is a two hundred dollar (3) or five hundred dollar (2) per visit bill.

I had the opportunity to attend an ADHD & Special Needs training last week. I have gleaned some information that I can use with Pumpkin. I need to find the time to really sit down and read over all of the handouts. The speaker was very nice, informative, and engaging.

A few weeks ago we took Princess to a neuro-opthomologist in a neighboring town. We were sent by our eye doctor for a second opinion. Good news! Her eyes are healthy and there are no underlying causes for her atypically vision problems. Her glasses are within the acceptable range for what she needs right now. We were referred back to our eye doctor for a 6-month January check-up.

Pumpkin went grocery shopping with me this afternoon. He decided to ride in the cart. Then he strategically stacked and built structures with the groceries as they went into the cart. Gotta love the quirks of autism at times.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Don't forget Spotlight Sunday is tomorrow!

Spotlight Sunday

I am issuing a challenge:

Every Sunday from now (October 19) through the end of November, I challenge you to spotlight something positive happening in your community on some form of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.). Hence, Spotlight Sunday!

I am concerned about all of the negativity that I see on social media. Usually it is picked up from what people see or hear through the media or acquaintances. There is just as much positive as there is negative for every community, but what seems to get selected to share is more often than not negative. Every single community across this world has at least one, if not more, positive things that often is overlooked. If you want to change how others view your community, then change must first happen within yourself. 

We need to start the change. So what is great and positive about your community? During the upcoming week look for something unique, wonderful, positive about your community to share with your friends, then each Sunday post, tweet, pin what you found. It is a fun treasure hunt and maybe you can even convince your friends to join along, together we can change negativity into positivity one post at time. Are you up for the challenge?

Happiness in the Small Things

Ahh!! New sheets! 

So fresh, so crisp, so wonderful! 

Nothing like new sheets! 

I splurged with my birthday money a few weeks ago and purchased a new set of sheets from Target. We just finally put them on the bed last night. 

I love the burnt orange color and white pattern that runs across the fabric. 

So fall like and not too girly!

Heaven! A freshly made bed is just heaven! 

We even took the time to rotate the mattress. We should do this more often, I woke up without my back hurting. Yay!

Besides these wonderful new sheets, I also like new hot-off-the-press books. The smell of a fresh new book is glorious and is also a rare treat! 

What do you like to have that is new?

Saturdays

I like Saturdays. Saturdays are laid back. Saturdays are typically the day of the week with the least amount of stress. A day to sleep-in, to relax a bit, and best of all NO homework.

Instead of sleeping in this morning, Pumpkin was up at the crack of dawn. He definitely did not have a volume control. I may need to take him to the doctor and make sure that his ear are okay. He has always been our stealth infection child in the past. Pumpkin kept himself busy exploring the kitchen cabinets and pulling out materials for some unknown creation. I found straws, duct tape, and a toilet paper tube abandoned on the great room floor.

I did not tackle any laundry today. Darn the luck! But Grandma, the kids, and I went to a few stores and grab some groceries. I cooked the kids macaroni and cheese for lunch by request. We used the last box of Phineas & Ferb macaroni and cheese, so we will have to use trial and error from this point on. Pumpkin can tell if it is not to his liking and will remember for the next time, shunning it forever. The joys of sensory processing disorder. I have learned the hard way when I attempt to switch the butter to another brand- his smell, taste, and sight are very fine tuned.

Princess decided to do my hair this afternoon. She placed twelve hair clips in my hair. Six in rainbow order on one side of my head and another six in rainbow order on the opposite side. Then she decorated her hair with nine hair clips. Little girls are quite interesting at this age.

I cooked a hot dinner for the first time since last weekend. It is hard to cook during the week with our homework hurtles. We either have leftovers, grab something out, or daddy makes cheese toasties. Pumpkin needs someone with him the entire time while working on homework. The homework table that I designated in the kitchen lasted for about a month. Right now his preferred place to do homework is in the sun room.  We need to figure out the key to unlocking the autism for dummies handbook soon before I lose my mind. Earlier this week Pumpkin flipped out when Uncle B, a close friend, dropped by to visit for a few minutes. Pumpkin jumped up and closed the curtains and was screaming that the Uncle B could not come into the house. So hubby and I chatted with Uncle B outside. When I asked Pumpkin about it later, he said that he did not want Uncle B seeing him doing his homework. Ack! It has to get better, right?

Anyway, this evening I baked a whole chicken in the guardian service seasoned with real butter and a fresh lemon. I also cooked frozen peas and made egg noddles with jarred alfredo sauce. We had sliced French bread, then I made grandma's sugar pies for dessert. 

It will be my turn for family dinner night this week. I am going to make cheese soup. It is always better the next day, so I will make a batch up tomorrow to cure in the refrigerator. I will figured out the rest of the meal later. Well better get moving on to the next thing on my to-do list.