I stumbled on this interesting article. I can’t say in our case why or how my son developed PDD. But I think that more studies and keeping the general public talking about it helps. Unfortunately not nearly enough people understand what autism looks like.
Monthly Archives: June 2008
Muffins..mmm…yummy!
This morning I realized that I had bananas, strawberries, and some raspberries that no one was going to be eating anytime soon. So I decided to make muffins for breakfast and the freezer. I found this delicious recipe for strawberry-banana muffins. They are wonderful!!! For my raspberry muffins I tried a different recipe, but it wasn’t quite as yummy as the first recipe. Next time I will probably use the first recipe, but switch out the fruits. The second recipe had a slight aftertaste that the first didn’t have.
I also used the flour mixture from Sneaky Chef. It is a combination of white and whole wheat flour as well as wheat germ. My super picky eater ate the strawberry-banana muffins!
Not to mention my house smelled so good!
Good Friends, Good Food, Perfect Weather
Entertaining at my home is not something that I do well. I tend to stress myself out until no one wants to be around me. Today was not like that. Today was beautiful. Everyone had a good time, ate until they were full and enjoyed each other’s company.
We had Todd’s band and their families (plus a few others) over for a picnic. Nothing to extreme, just hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. Chris and Julie found a recipe for homemade KFC coleslaw and I found a recipe for a cake very similiar to Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake. I also realized that there are a lot of youtube videos to help you learn how to make frosting roses! However, I forgot to take a picture of the cake to show you all. 😦 But they were pretty good. Course the biggest hit was probably Todd’s homemade salsa. I will put the recipe on another day, because it truly is amazing.
We had a great time playing Monster Volleyball. Some of these kids are really good.
Noah got out the face paints and painted his friends faces.
One of our favorite moments though had to do with this:
What do you say when someone calls and asks, “What do you like more, corn or cowboy boots?” Sounded pretty scary at the time. We like the corn!
We are Iowans. What did you expect?
I stopped myself just in time
I tend to set some weird deadlines for myself. For example, this weekend we are having 20 or so people over after church on Sunday. As much as I would love to be the perfect homemaker, that isn’t me. I can’t lie to you people. You’ve seen pictures! So all week I have had this list of things that I am going to get done before Sunday. Including, but not limited to, deep cleaning many parts of my house, cleaning the yard and deck, painting the bathroom, and creating all the food.
I’ve actually done pretty well. The house looks great! I just need to do a quick round of pick up and vacuum. The yard will be done tomorrow. I have all the food, but still need to make it.
So here it is 3:00 Friday afternoon. I head upstairs to the bathroom to begin taping it off. I am taking things off the walls when I realize that this means I will have to finish the bathroom tomorrow, do all the cooking, clean the yard, and do that final house cleaning.
I turned around and hung everything back up. If I try to do that I will be stressed, rushed, and most likely angry for the whole weekend. I don’t want that.
So if you are coming to my house for a cookout on Sunday, don’t be surprised when you look in the upstairs bathroom. It is still that weird shade of white with a hint of green. There are places that you can see where my darling painted the ceiling for me last weekend. There are places were he put in the new shower and drywall that obviously haven’t been painted. That’s OK. You will all like me better than you would have like my bathroom.
However, if you want to stop around the 4th of July. It will be painted. 🙂
Moral of this story? Realize your limits and listen to them.
Rainy Day, Lazy Day
It rained all day.
We actually had severe storms all morning, and so we stayed home. However our hearts were with my oldest son as we were thinking about him out in this mess at Boy Scout camp. So here is what we did.
We babysat the cutest little boy in the world.
Waited a lllllooonnnggg time to get dressed. Choosing instead to read and play a video game.
Took a nap. 🙂
Baked cookies to take to Boy Scout camp tonight. (Yes in the rain. It is parent night.)
Licked the batter of the mixer. ( Yes, I know you are not supposed to eat raw cookie dough, but it tastes SO GOOD!)
This is Lilo, our dog. She parks herself in the kitchen when I am working, because she knows I will drop something that she can gobble up. Of course I did, and then she did. 🙂
I told her to strike a pose, and this is what she did! I found this hysterical.
Something New: What do you think Wednesdays
I have been listening to Craft Sanity podcasts like crazy this week. As I clean parts of my house I am listening to my podcasts. Yesterday I discovered that the women that blog The Angry Chicken and Soulemama were interviewed on Craft Sanity. So of course I downloaded these straight away, and listened as I deep cleaned the front hall closet. (No pictures this time.)
Anyway Amy Karol, aka Angry Chicken, had two great interviews. She really made me stop and think. She sounds so fun! The kind of friend that would always keep you on your toes. She discussed during this interview about what kind of superhero she would be.
It made me think, what kind of superhero would I want to be? I would want wings. I would want to fly by gently like a butterfly. I think I would wear purple tights. 🙂 No cape, that would get in the way of my wings.
So how about you? What kind of superhero do you want to be? Are you a tights wearer? How about a cape? What colors?
Reflections on the Theatre
I have been spending a lot of time at the theatre. This is not new. I just finished a great run of Jack and the Beanstalk. I loved it! I will say that the character of Jack’s mother probably didn’t stretch me too far, but I had a great time. I’m not sure when the next time will be that I will get back on stage again. I know we are doing Pooh Bear in December, but I will probably be producing.
Right now though we are busy developing some summer workshops for the next couple of years. I love this aspect and am really looking forward to watching it mature from an idea to a reality. I’m also very excited that we have a new person joining our group. One thing about our theatre is that we need more bodies. We don’t have enough worker bees. Sometimes we are on the verge of collapsing due to that shortage.
Having a new person brought out some new ideas. One that I am very excited about. I think we are going to do some improv nights with our teenagers. I am thinking they will love this!!! It could be really fun. I hope to do it sooner rather than later. There is so much potential in this market.
Happy Birthday Honey!
Today is my dear husband’s birthday. We met 14years ago at a coffee shop that a mutual friend was playing at that night. My then roommate took me down. I remember I was wearing my black stir-up pants, a white turtleneck, my Dad’s suit coat and this adorable brown hat. I remember thinking I looked really good that night.
As soon as he walked in I felt something. I was hitting Megan’s arm asking, “Who is that?” When she noticed him, she jumped up and ran over to sit in his lap. I was left across the room wondering. He was wearing a leather jacket and had long dark curly hair. He was laughing and talking to everyone. He seemed to be the center of attention.
Later as we were leaving Megan finally introduced us, and I found out that he was her ex-boyfriend’s best friend. Interestingly enough, I later found out that he thought I was a lesbian. 🙂
Thankfully both of our first impressions were a little bit off. He is not by any means Mr. Outgoing and is actually exactly the opposite. Same for me with the whole lesbian thing, but it makes a great story.
Hard to believe that 14 years has passed so quickly. Happy Birthday!
Nervous Energy Gets Weekly Goal Finally Completed!
My children have went away to camp for the last 5 years, and every year I have some anxiety issues. Two summers ago I actually think I had an anxiety attack. The one thing I always do is clean their rooms top to bottom. I pretty much work from the moment I wake up until 10, 11 12 at night. I am not cleaning their rooms this time. I am going to make them help with that in the next few weeks. So today here is what I did:
Actually my whole kitchen now looks awesome. Plus I even labelled the art drawers. 🙂 Tomorrow is another day, but I am planning some other activities than cleaning. I have one child home with me this week. He and I will be spending some special times together. It will be nice to concentrate on him.
Sending oldest son to camp today
I am sending my oldest son to camp today. I’m not going to lie. I am more than a bit worried. We are expecting severe storms during the middle of the week, and when I brought this up to my sister she said, “Don’t worry. I know a deep narrow ravine.” A ravine does not calm a mother’s nerves.
I don’t handle camp well anyway, but a ravine???? I want to know that he will be safetly put between very thick concrete walls underground. I’m not happy about this. Please keep all of them in your prayers.
Just a glimpse 
