Our new blog

This is the first post of our new blog.  Times have changed and I think we need something fresh and new.  This is about keeping normal in a not so normal life.  We are a family just like any other.  We have struggles.  We have two boys one is 6 and one is 4.  They are wonderful and challenged by a little thing called Autism.  I wanted to share our struggles, milestones, and keeping sanity as well as keeping this Mommy happy despite all the craziness that is injected in our everyday life.  I want this blog to be about how I keep it together.  What things as a Mom have helped me.  Because honestly being a Mommy in general is somewhat consuming but being a Special needs Mom is an entirely different journey.  It's complex, it's extremely self sacrificing and let's face it it costs a lot of money as well as your sanity if you don't take care of yourself and your marriage too.  We spend money on things an average family would use for vacations, new homes, vehicles and fancy clothes, and whatever other luxuries we are now giving up.  But you can still save money, meet your needs and your families needs.  You just have to get creative.  Pick your battles, and make the decision that your gonna make it just fine and so are your kids.  You just have to look through a different lens.  Stop and smell the roses.  Keep your faith.  Be balanced, organized and let yourself fall apart sometimes.  Does that sound like you?  The average Mom?  Some may say yes others no.  But I think we are very similar if you just step inside my shoes and see things through my lenses.  Which by the way I do wear glasses.

A little more about our story resides in this blog which started 6 years ago.  It's a tough read at the beginning through the middle and for some maybe even as recent as two years ago.  But if you want the back story it resides at www.braden-kaleigh.blogspot.com.

Both of our boys received their autism diagnosis last year.  Since then we have been making lots of changes to assist in our every day living.  B is our 6 year old non-verbal son.  We took him out of public school this year and put him in a private school called Illuminate Academy.  They have an intensive ABA program and have made B stronger, more independant, and overall much happier.  Isn't that what's most important a happy child?  We think so and that's one of our biggest goals.  Ultimately we feel B is growing in ways he wasn't able to in public school.  He needs lots of one on one and does much better in a smaller group.  Braden has classic non-verbal autism.  According to his diagnosis he is moderate to severe.  I guess that may be but we feel he is moderate.  If you read about his history and other reasons why he is unable to speak you may understand more fully why we feel the way we do.  B is mild tempered, sweet, loving and will give hugs and kisses sometimes at random.  He enjoys family very much and especially hanging with his cousins of similiar age.  He loves movies, disney, Mickey Mouse, Cars, Veggietales, Leap frog.  He does great on the ipad with learning apps and angry birds.  He uses a Dynavox to communicate and just got his T10 a few months ago.  He is really great at matching and association,  has a really good memory, can do anything he wants to but his want to is alot of times broken.  That's our biggest battle with him.  He is easy going and less demanding than G but he does require a significant amount of help in everyday task.

G is our high functioning we suspect would be considered Aspergers child if they hadn't changed the label to just autism.  He is extremely bright in many areas.  He has been able to read since the age of 2 years and 10 months.  He has also been able to count to 100 since then... now he is 4 and can write extremely well.  He is drawing in more detail and is complete sponge.  He can be aggressive, needs lots of sensory input, doesn't always want to follow directions but will tell others too, everything is always the opposite of what you ask or decide for him to do.  He is also sweet, love able, gives lots of hugs and kisses and is adorable most of the time.  You just have to keep him busy.  He is at a new school, public school but a different one than B went too.  They have been fabulous to G this year and his teacher is awesome.  B had G's teacher for one year and he did great in her class as well.  But this school has really come together for our G and that is an added bonus.  We are hoping to keep him there despite not being zoned for this particular school.

I am a stay at home Mom.  I am 45 years old and my list of careers before this one have been numerous.  Let's just say I am a master of many trades but my best job was being an admin assistant to a few different VP's at a few different major companies.  I have been a supervisor in my past and didn't love the stress of it all.   I guess that's fitting considering my new unexpected career.  I do miss working occasionally but realistically in my world if I have to pay someone to do what I do how is working gonna benefit us?  In the long run it's just a vicious cycle of paying out what I would take in and missing out on our boys growing up.  So my husband takes on all the stress of the bills and I just try to spend wisely and save us money whenever I can.  I will admit last year hit me hard.  I actually went to get a prescription to help with stress but I found the side effects were not helping or worth the exchange.  So now I am using Doterra oils not only on our boys but on myself.  I love the oils.  They have helped with allergies, calm in the house, grounding of the kids and they also help provide a sensory rich environment for the boys.

Things I do for fun.  Make lunch dates with friends while the boys are in school. Ditch the housework.  People rarely come over so it's worth a little messy for some adult conversation.  I also love my fall TV shows and like to relax at home by myself watching a good movie or some of my shows while the boys are at school.  I have become an online shopper because let's face it little boys do not really enjoy clothes shopping.  :-)  I do my own pedicures and manicures most of the time but I find it relaxing and a nice quite escape after the kiddos go to bed.  I absolutely love pinterest.  I have lots of great ideas that I have obtained on this site.  My pinterest link is at the top left of our blog take a look and follow me.  I will post the activities and other things we have tried on pinterest and share what success we have had with it.  I also want to share my style from home to dress and what the boys wear.  You can still enjoy dressing your kids.  I am constantly organizing and reorganizing.  I will share many of my strategies to keeping peace and order in and out of the house.  I am a firm believer that being organized is worth the time it takes to set the organization up.  It will keep you happier as well as the rest of your family because it actually simplifies your life in the end.  It will also ensure your kids happiness and make for fewer meltdowns.  I will share all of those ideas and what we do as well.  I will do product reviews, website reviews and share all things we have found helpful in our journey.