Days 11-20

(These are accurate for the dates, just hadn't made it on the blog till now ;))

I am thankful for...

11 Children's church workers. Their willingness to volunteer means that I can sit and learn in church instead of trying to occupy the boys. Except for the days I'm one of the volunteers ;) But doing it is a blessing too!

12 Being able to brush Ethan again. I haven't been able to "brush" him (Google Wilbarger protocol if you're interested) in two months because of a hand injury. His behavior went waaay downhill :( His OT gave me a handle for his brush and I can brush him again! By the next day we already could see an improvement in his behavior :) Just in case we thought it wasn't doing any good...

13 A huge blessing... Someone who knew we were in need took me to Walmart and bought us almost $100 of diapers :happytears

14 Cool weather, and yummy chili!

15 Knowledge of food intolerances and their symptoms. Ethan had a severe behavioral reaction to a food. When he was younger, citrus fruits gave him diarrhea and a diaper rash. My mom is allergic, so I thought he might be too. I haven't given him any in a long time. His allergy tests came back negative for citrus. I thought it might be an intolerance he had grown out of. Someone gave us some satsumas off their tree recently. Ethan and I split one. Within a couple minutes after he finished it, he told me his mouth burned. That's the beginning of an allergic reaction for me so I knew what had happened :( Later, when the behavioral reaction kicked in, I recognized it for what it was. Jesse said he was acting like he was possessed. Unfortunately, he's right... Ethan was possessed by a chemical reaction in his body that he couldn't control :( And when he started coming out of it, he realized he was out of control. And he was SCARED. Knowing what was going on enabled me to stay relatively calm and help him through it. It wasn't easy, but we all made it through...

16 Good day with Ethan. After the rough night before, it was incredibly wonderful to have such a great day! He was very even emotionally, happy, curious, etc. It was nice to not have to deal with his issues hardly at all, even if it was just for one day :) (That might sound terrible but parents of special needs children understand exactly what I mean!)

17 Opportunity to bless a teen mom-to-be (daughter of a friend) by attending her baby shower. Yes, she made a mistake. Yes, she still deserves our love and support!

18 Operation Christmas Child. We are struggling so much financially but Jesse found little bit of money for us to do one shoebox this year :) Ethan remembered doing it last year and was excited to do it again!

19 A friend who blesses us with free haircuts :) We find ways to bless her in return but she refuses to accept money for them!

20 Cuddly kiddos <3

I Know, I Know...

I'm slacking! Plenty to be grateful for, but it's not making it to the blog :p I'll catch up soon...

Day 10

I am thankful that our apartment has a dishwasher! Especially when I've been sick and the dishes are piled up...

Day 9

Today I am thankful for books! Sometimes it's nice to lose yourself for a while in a good story :)

And on a related note... I really like having a personal library of hundreds of books at my fingertips ;)

Day 8

Whoops... Forgot :p

I am thankful for medicine! I rarely use it, but I am grateful that it's there when I need it!

Day 7

Today I am thankful that I have two little blessings who call me Mommy <3

Day 6

I am thankful for the right to vote! Nuff said!

Day 5

Today I am thankful for the times I get to enjoy with my mom <3

Day 4

Today I am thankful for generous, compassionate people. Yes, there's a story behind that. No, I'm not making it public ;)

Day 3

Today I am thankful for a little time to myself. I don't get it very often so I really appreciate it!

I Have Some Catching Up to Do!

Things around here have been rough :(

In September, the main company Jesse freelanced for decided they didn't need him anymore. There was no warning. He just woke up one day and had an email and that was that... He had some smaller side jobs, but nothing near what we needed financially. The little bit of savings we had was gone pretty quickly. He's gotten some jobs here and there since then, and got his business website up and running. But if not for the help of family members, who knows where we'd be living. Certainly not here. I don't know how long the help will last, but am extremely grateful for it! We may soon be looking at having to find someone with a spare room who's willing to let us live there for a while till we can get back up on our feet again :'( Jesse is working 70-80 hour weeks right now for very little pay. Which leaves me doing pretty much everything else. At least we have food stamps coming in now so that's definitely helping!

October, we didn't get hardly any school done. The boys were sick. Then I was sick. My anemia got really bad because I reduced my supplements to make them last longer. There is only one type of iron I tolerate well, it's only made (and sold) by one company, and it's not cheap. Between being sick and anemic, my hand/wrist that I strained in September has been extremely slow to heal. I'm still having to wear a brace for most of the day. My chiropractor would probably be able to help, but it's a money issue right now. We ended the month with Jesse not being able to work for almost a week because of having the flu. Sometime in the midst of all that, we found out the place Ethan is getting his occupational therapy is having to shut down :( There is only one other place in this area that accepts Medicaid but it is a lot different. For one, they only do therapy 30 minutes a week instead of the 60 we get now. It's a lot further away. There will be a long waiting list. We can't even get on the waiting list until the current place releases him. His therapist asked me if we wanted her to do the release paperwork so he can get on the waiting list. NO WAY! It's so important to us that Ethan gets as much therapy as he can at his current place, which he's used to, rather than stop there when we don't know if the new place will work out. The therapists at the other place are supposed to be excellent, but Ethan is not the easiest child to work with and I don't know how willing to work with him they will be...

Okay, onto some good things :)

When we've done school, Ethan has enjoyed it :) I jumped ahead a week in the curriculum because he knew what we were covering and was ready to move on. There has only been one day where he couldn't focus well enough to do that day's lesson plan. So I did a review day instead. Gotta love the flexibility of homeschooling ;)

We started a new therapy with Ethan's social worker. It's called Circle of Security http://circleofsecurity.net/ COS is based on attachment theory and is a perfect fit for us! It focuses on what Jesse and I are doing, what our emotional triggers are, and how our relationship with our children is. It's helping me fine-tune things a bit, but Jesse is really getting a lot out of it :) He told me that a lot of what he's "learning" is stuff that I've told him, but it's presented in a way that he understands. One of the main points of COS is that we should be Bigger, Stronger, Wiser, and Kind with our children. It's something I try to keep in mind!

Jesse is taking some time off from worship team. There are good and bad things about this, but right now it's mostly good. Sundays were long, difficult days for me, and his break takes a lot off my shoulders. There were a number of reasons he felt the need to step back for a while and we've seen nothing but good come of it so far :) He talked with the worship leader who was very understanding. I know he misses being on the team but I think the temporary sacrifice has been worth it for him.

Hmmm... I think that's it for now. I'll try to keep up better on here but it's hard with only having one computer! Jesse is taking a few much-needed hours off work to watch some college football on TV (GEAUX RAGIN' CAJUNS!!!!!) so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to be typing much faster on a computer keyboard instead of the touchscreen on my phone ;)

Day 2

Today I am thankful that Jesse's dad and (step)mom make the effort to get all three "children" and their families together every 5-6 weeks. Usually it's at their house, sometimes (like tonight) it's at a restaurant. But either place, it's nice to spend time with everyone :)

Day 1

Today I am thankful for the mental health services we are getting for Ethan. I really need to blog about the new therapy we're doing (it's awesome!) but I get frustrated over how long it takes to do it on my phone :(

Suffice it to say I have ZERO doubt that God led us to the right place, and we have the best people possible working with us! Bonus - Even though it's a state facility, both our case manager and our social worker are both Christians :D

30 Days of Thankfulness

I REALLY need to do it this year...