Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating this year and to all those celebrating other traditions and holidays.  Hope the magic of this season has come fully into your heart and your home.  Even if it is in very small ways, I hope we all notice the many gifts we have that have nothing to do with presents under a tree. Wishing you all the very best.

Thankful........

Hello everyone, I know it has been a while.  We weathered the last hurricane much better than most.  I had my boys and their significant others here for Milton and it was very nice.  Before the storm I put up all the hurricane protection guards on the windows all by myself, I had one son working and one out of town so it was up to me, and thankfully I could do it.  It was interesting getting them down from the very small attic in my garage but once they were down they were easy to install.  Everyone arrived in time for the storm and we had a good time, playing UNO, eating and maneuvering around each other in this small house.  We never lost power like so many, nor did we have major damage, a tree down in my backyard that was quickly cut up by a neighbor, a small leak in a skylight that was fixed a few weeks after, I had lots of small branches down and a broken light with a sensor that resides on the side of my house but nothing else.  It was nice to see neighbors out helping neighbors and my oldest son's and their partners out helping pick up debris for others as well. I had friends out of power for days, friends with big trees uprooted but for us we were just fine.  It was pretty scary watching Milton swirl out in the Gulf heading towards us, but a late turn south of us really saved this area.  We were blessed when so many weren't, I am grateful and also sad for those still battling to get their homes fixed.

This past month has been about trying to get back to work when I can, I missed 10 days because of Helene and Milton, Little Buddy missed 13 days of school! His school had the gym roof peel back which allowed so much water and wind damage inside.  They opened a week after the public schools in this area.  Still they got his school up and running and they were back in their regular routine which makes all of these neurodiverse children happy, their parent, too!

My favorite place to walk on the beach just opened with limited spaces available yesterday.  As I could not walk at the island I walked on the causeway to the island several times.  This big sailboat blew up in the storm and was just sitting on the sand near the street.  There must have been powerful waves to get this boat stuck way up on shore. My dear Honeymoon Island had devastating destruction, most of the barrier islands did so I am so happy it is partially open now and hope to pay a visit there next weekend.

This week as we celebrated Thanksgiving here in the States, I tried, as I do everyday, to focus on all I am grateful for.  I start every morning with a gratitude practice and end my day with one as well.  I was working on a little 4 1/2 month old baby on Monday and as I helped him fall asleep and began working to shift his skull where it was misshaped due to preference to sleeping with his head to the right, I looked at that sweet sleeping face and was just so grateful I get to do the work I do, so grateful I have my house, family, friends and job of course. Even with the darkness I felt so strongly after the election, I felt grateful for the community I have created that is so supportive of my Little Buddy and his very special and complex needs.  I am not sure those needs will be met in the future with Medicaid reductions and his schooling/scholarship in jeopardy, his educational needs are supported by the Department of Education, the government agency that ensures all children with special needs receive the education they deserve just like their peers.  At this point there is not a lot I can do about it but pray that he and all the children like him are safe with their medical and educational needs.  I often think wouldn't it be nice to not have to pray for these things not to change but to know they are a right that these kids deserve and a right that won't be taken from them.  In the last four years it never occured to me that they would be taken away, but the world we now will be living in will be vastly different from where we have been, and it won't be better in any sense.

I am also grateful that my family was with me yesterday for Thanksgiving.  This is the first time in the last four Thanksgiving's they have been with me.  Thanksgiving has good memories for me as a child but not so good as an adult with the stress it entailed while living with my thankfully ex-husband.  Yesterday was easy and peaceful, the day unfolded with only one behavior issue with Little Buddy and lots of food and conversation later in the day when my older boys came with their significant others, I even quickly spoke to a couple of friends and my sister.  And I am thankful for Zombie masks that help with very bad acne!

I am truly blessed, really and truly blessed and I hope you know I am very thankful for all of you who still visit me here in this space when I can drop in.  Wishing you a wonderful day.  Today we are finishing up decorating for Christmas and going to see Moana 2 at the movie theater, my choice not Little Buddy's, but he is still going along!

Storms and casts...............

 

Hello everyone!  We are in the middle of hurricane and cast season here, both of which stink.  Hurricane Helene came in with catastrophic flooding to my area in Florida and all over the south as you have all seen.  As of now 15 people have died in my county, three on a street I work on.  So many are devastated, it is so sad.  We are fine, sailed through another one with no flooding or loss of power but just a mile away they lost power for 5 days.  It seems minor compared to the devastation in this area and north of us.  And hooray we have a rain system on the way ready to drop 4-7 inches into already water logged areas starting Sunday.  This system or the one after it will be a tropical storm or hurricane by the time it hits us as we are directly in the path of its expected arrival.  There are apparently at least two out there that will affect us. I am not worried for us, but those who have lost everything and are just cleaning up are going to be affected again.  Of course the loss of life and destruction in Georgia, North and South Carolina and Western Virginia is just horrific, but it is pretty rough here as well.  My beautiful Honeymoon Island is decimated, all the beaches on the barrier islands are simply gone, the buildings at these parks are ruined, the electrical systems and roads are gone.  Some homes near the water but on the mainland had 10-12 feet of water in them and people did not have time to get away because the forecast was for a storm surge but nothing of this capacity.  It is just so sad all around. 

Little Buddy is currently completing week two of casting with another new casting day on Monday.  This will be a 6-8 week process.  He is already showing signs of improvement which is better than we had hoped for at this point.  It is a big deal for him to get around, taking him longer to get places and really making him tired by the end of the day.  I have to remind myself to be really patient with him because fatigue might be the issue rather than difficult behavior by the afternoon. The casts must be soaked daily for 3-5 minutes so that is a lot of fun.  You do not want to picture me getting him in the tub to soak, up on his shower chair to take a shower, or help him navigate getting his clothes over the casts.  I am thankful he is who he is and doesn't get embarrassed that his Mom is helping him at the age of 13.

I am forcing myself to crochet.  Literally making myself do it on the weekends.  I hope to make Ariana by Berroco if the plans work out.  I had all the yarn minus the red which I purchased last week. I have lost my creative mojo for far too long.  It was such a big part of who I thought I was but now realize I created or had yarn in my hands much of the time to self soothe throughout much of my marriage.  Things will never settle down as long as I have this special needs child that we share so I think it is time to try and get back in the saddle and create, I don't want to lose that part of myself as well.

Please stay safe out there my friends. From all of us here including my granddog Luna, who is here for the weekend and another week of storms, stay safe. 

Updated:  Looks like Milton will be a category 2 hurricane heading our way.

Suddenly it is late September...........

 

Hello everyone, hope you are all well.

Little Buddy started 7th grade weeks ago, time has flown by so fast. He is enjoying it so far and only causing a little bit of a ruckus in his classes.  He has to change classes four times a day, just like big kids do.  He isn't one to do well with transitions so I am keeping my fingers crossed it continues to go well.

I had to get new sod in once again.  It is so frustrating when you see your new sod turning brown and that horrible brown spreading and spreading. I took pictures week after week to show its demise, but even with that it was a fight to get new sod put down.  They blamed not enough watering although it was watered nightly for 8 weeks and we have had plenty of rain, even a tropical storm. I even removed a large area of sod and put in stepping stones and mulch, that little project gave me an intense two week headache from the lifting. The sod guy and I finally made a deal I paid for the new sod again but not any of the labor, I'm just happy it looks good after 5 days.

My friend Holly turned me onto this great cookbook.  I have been experimenting with some good and some bad results.  The thumbprint cookies are excellent, the brownies looked fantastic but were very bland.  Still it's fun to experiment with no gluten, no dairy, no eggs and dates and bananas or unsweetened applesauce for a sweetner. 

There were some walks on the beach a few weeks ago, I barely remember them now.  My favorite beach, Honeymoon Island State Park has had so much sand erosion from all the storms.  It has changed in shape and the end is now completely cut off from the main island.  It is sad and fascinating to see all at the same time.  I fear it will be underwater in a few years if climate change and these big storms don't slow down.

Little buddy has a friend at school he sits with at lunch.  She wrote me a note with her mother's number on it stating they would like to go to the movies.  I sent the lovely Mom a text and they ended up meeting us at a small farm yesterday.  It was cute feeding the goats, petting the bunnies and just getting to know two very brave women who adopted this lovely and complex little girl with a lot of trauma in her past.  How beautiful that so many wonderful and dedicated people step up and adopt these kids in need.  Their story warmed my heart.  And it is always good to have a friend when you are Little Buddy and friendships are hard to make.

Little Buddy has some rough weeks ahead of him.  We are getting casting done of his ankles and lower legs to stretch out those super tight heel cords this week.  His bones are growing faster than his muscles and tendons can keep up.  This is a pretty normal thing for kids with Cerebral Palsy, I guess we have been lucky so far in that area.  Still I am sad he will have to endure this and this is just a band aid until he will need surgery. One step at a time, right?

Hope you are all well.  Happy Autumn!

a last part of summer trip..........

 Little Buddy and I had a late summer trip, we went over to Titusville to stay as close to the Kennedy Space Center as possible.  We arrived Thursday evening after back to school/meet the teacher afternoon. It was a long drive as traffic is always horrible in Tampa and all the way to Orlando, but we made it and headed up to the rooftop restaurant for dinner which was very exciting.  

Friday we made it a whole 5 1/2 hours at Kennedy Space Center before one little guy was almost crying because he was so tired.  That is a long time for him to be walking and standing.  I'd say the whole place was amazing. I think with all the rockets going off funded by little boy billionaires playing around we forget how amazing space travel really is.  Seeing the Atlantis was just incredible. Seeing the IMAX production about The James Webb Telescope was so fascinating, how it was created and the truly unimaginable pictures it sends back, well it was incredible as well.  We walked all the way over to see a rocket launch that got canceled at the last minute.  The whole place is very large, lots of walking on a hot day, but with most of the venues inside it made it bearable. At the 5 1/2 hour mark this guy got very tired, not even a scoop of dippin dots ice cream could make it better.  So we made our way back to the car and back to the hotel.  After making it in the door and we both took a much deserved nap.  Funny I spent so much time online looking at hotels, I wanted a pool for us to go swimming in, a restaurant and something very close to Kennedy Space Center.  Well we did make it to the rooftop restaurant with a speedy express elevator that counts down to lift off, but not to the pool, we were way, way to tired. It was a big adventure for both of us.  

I am pretty much solely financially responsible for this little one so taking time off from work is really hard for me.  Missing the income and of course the expense of hotels, parking, eating out and of course tickets is hard for me to swallow.  But I also feel it is important that he knows Mom can do this with him and it isn't always Dad who takes him away on extravagant trips, some of which he could care less to even go on.  So in a way I am proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone, taming down my anxiety a bit and making the plans for our adventure.  He had a great time, and while I was fascinated by it all, this trip was for my amazing boy, with the amazing brain who just loves facts.  And the big bonus is we rode on an elevator he had never even heard of.  I thought the elevator fascination stage was over with but apparently a new brand of elevator is still very exciting.

Monday starts the school year.  Little Buddy will be in 7th grade and will be changing classes four times a day.  Thats big stuff! Luckily it is all with teachers he knows and trusts and he will have a behavior therapist with him most of the time making transitioning easier for him, and for me if I am honest! We are having a family pizza night tomorrow with big brothers and their partners to celebrate!

Hope you are all having a wonderful end of your summer and you are staying safe from the remnants of Tropical Storm Debbie, she packed a punch here last Sunday and Monday. I was happy to see her move on, but that is just another day living in Florida and frankly once we knew she was sailing past us and heading north for landfall we didn't even blink.  It was actually cozy to be forced to stay in with the rain and wind howling outside. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week

This and that, again.............

 

My little house has had a major update.  I finally got my brown house painted and the 1970's painted black wood has been taken down.  I replaced that area with this beautiful stonework.   My old neighbor Tony is a contractor and has helped me with plumbing issues and hired people to paint.  He did the stomework himself.  The new pathway is where I had a six foot hole for over six weeks for my major plumbing repair.  I replanted and landscaped several weeks ago and things are finally growing back. I even got new lights and numbers for the house.  The old lights were wooden 70's originals and seriously looked like black bat houses.

Last week I finally got new sod in my backyard to replace all the weeds and big patches of dirt.  I freshened up the pathways that I made two years ago and helped to disperse a mountain of new mulch on Friday.  This weekend I hauled 50 bags of marble rocks for the borders and now it is finished.  A project I have been working on getting done since January has finally been completed. I was not expecting a huge plumbing repair in there stalling it all but I guess that is home ownership. 

On my fifth trip of the weekend yesterday to Lowe's for rocks I bought these fellas.  I am not a big statue person but I had a problem area right in front of my tree in front of my house.  Nothing would grow there because it was so dense with roots.   I thought these two would make a nice visually pleasing distraction from the big bare spot that was there.

Last weekend Little Buddy and I went to a car museum very close to our home.  It is the largest privately owned museum for older antique cars.  The family is French so many of these cars were from France and Germany. They had seventeen one of a kinds including prototypes that were never manufactured.  

 

 

And because Little Buddy is cute and adorable when he wants to be, the kind man walking around answering questions asked if he would like to sit in the Delorean.  Well of course he did.  Sorry the picture is so blurry.  When we came home I put on the movie Back to the Future and about 15 minutes in realized there was a lot of swearing, like way too much for a boy who has difficulty with impulse control, so off it went.  He was incensed there was so much swearing, which is funny because he swears when he is having a behavioral episode.  I explained it was the 80's, things were wild and crazy back then. 

The fur boys wanted to say hello.

Hope you are all doing well and enjoying your summer.  Thank you for continuing to visit this space of mine.  You are all the best.

This and that...............

 

Lots of little things going on here in my neck of the woods.  This beautiful boy came to visit us overnight a few weeks back.  This is Oben, another Irish Doodle, he lives with one of the families I work with.  He is a darling boy, full grown but still very much of a puppy.  They had a bit of an emergency so he came to stay the night.  A good time was had by all but I am sure he was happy to see his family again, he was very concerned that he might be here forever!

There have been loads of walks on the beach.  I take Little Buddy fairly frequently to visit the beach to play in the sand and swim, last week we got run off early because a storm was heading in.  I have to be careful when he is with me as it takes us a long time to get back to the car, we can't just all make a mad dash in the rain.  I go to the beach to walk and today on my walk I saw this beautiful pelican flying and diving head first into the water. I always visit Honeymoon Island State Park, it is so beautiful and serene, and only a 20 minute drive from my house.  On the weekends I am alone I try to make it once if not twice.  Due to severe storms last year half of the upper most part of the island is now cut off from the main island so my walks are much shorter but still beautiful.  It is probably better that way with the intense heat even as early as 8 in the morning I find I am walking slower and shorter distances.

I bought a new car back in March, a Kia Sorento hybrid and I am in love with it.  My poor Subaru Outback had 186,000 miles on it and was frequently breaking down.  The day I turned it in I actually kept it running for three hours because I thought it might not start back up if I turned it off.  A week ago I got a notice my left rear tire was low, it has happened so many times before to me because I drive so much I just stayed on the main road.  When I was able to pull over I was at the barely being able to move stage.  This was a blow out that could have been very dangerous.  A big blade had shredded the tire. Roadside assistance from Kia came within an hour, checking on me all through the process and put on my spare. I had to buy a new $250 tire but it is nice to know I am not alone out there on the streets and help will soon be on the way if needed.  It was a blessing Little Buddy was not with me as well.

The lavender Crepe Myrtle in my backyard is always slow to bloom but when it does it puts on a beautiful show.  Little petals float off of it making it look like a light lavender snowfall.  My grass has little lavender petals sprinkled all over it. 

Little Buddy had a wonderful birthday that seemed to last for days.  He deserves it afterall you only turn, "thir", once in your life! Thank you for his birthday wishes.

I have been a crazy person doing so many chores this weekend, like washing all the draperies, all the sheets and floors.  The boys got haircuts yesterday, you can see they were not happy with the experience, but I was because that is when I went on the crazy cleaning spree.

Have a wonderful week. Hope you are all well and having a wonderful week/weekend.