Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Plans

Each day, Jack and I have a conversation that goes something like this -

Me - "I am going to take a shower now."
J - "And after you take a shower?"
Me - "I am going to get ready."
J - "And after you get ready?"
Me - "I am going to do laundry."
J - "And after you do laundry?"
Me - "You will get dressed."
J - "And after I get dressed?"
Me - "I don't know!"
J - "And after I don't know?"
Me - "Jack, I don't know what we're doing today."
J - "And after I don't know?"
Me - "I DON'T KNOW!"
J - "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This can go on for hours. Jack will keep asking me "and after....?" until he gets a satisfactory answer. I often have to make things up, just so I can give him an answer that will appease him for the time being. Such a fun game!

When we can, Lonnie and I try very hard to make specific plans about where we are going to go, what order they are going to go in, and who is going to be present while we're going to these places. Why? Because Jack needs it that way. If we don't make a very specific plan about our activities for the day, Jack feels completely lost and out of control. He needs to know exactly what is going on. He is constantly wondering what activity is going to come next. In a world where not every waking minute can be planned or scheduled, this makes life a little challenging!

This week has been especially hard since school is out for winter break. School is a huge part of Jack's schedule and is kind of what we base our routine around. He knows that when he has school, every day pretty much looks the same. Without school, the days have less structure and more "free" time. This is so hard. While I try to be as scheduled as I can, there are days when there just isn't a schedule to go by! I have things to do around the house, we don't have any errands to run, it's snowing outside....the "nothingness" creates chaos!

So, here I go - back to answer the questions of "and after....?" We have plans for this afternoon. I can give him a concrete answer for a few hours. And soon enough, it will be time to start planning for tomorrow.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Discipline

I recently saw the question on Facebook - "What's your one word for this next year?" I thought that was a really good question. One word to describe my hopes for the upcoming year. There are so many things I want to do - so many goals I want to set for myself - but, could I condense them all into one word? The word immediately came to my mind - DISCIPLINE. I am horrible at being disciplined. Whether it's sticking to a diet or exercise, instituting a new schedule/routine, or being consistent with Jack, I usually give up pretty quickly!

In past years, I have been somewhat "anti-resolutions" when it comes to the New Year. I think that in part, it has been my way of allowing myself to slack off. Another excuse to put off goals that I really need to be setting for myself. This year, that changes. I have several goals that I want to set for myself, but I think that I will be keeping most of them private for now. The one goal that has really been on my heart and mind though is losing weight and being healthier. My hot husband has recently lost over 50 lbs. and that has become a motivating factor.

So...here is my goal...50 by 30. Huh? I am turning 30 in September. My goal is to lose 50 lbs. by the time I turn 30 years old. That's less than 1.5 lbs./week. Totally doable. I am contemplating starting up another blog to keep track of all of this, but haven't decided if I'm willing to put in the time/effort (since I'm already a slacker at keeping up this blog!).

I've joined The Recipe Girl's Ten in '10 Challenge and I am excited about that! My goals for 10 weeks are to cut out refined sugar and exercise at least 3 times/week. I am currently on sugar-overload from the holidays and it will be so good for my body to have a break from all of it. Tough, but I've done it before and I know I can do it again. We'll see where I want to go from there...probably have to increase the exercise or something.

Alrighty - I'm putting it out there! 50 by 30!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Jack Update

We have not had a "good" nights' sleep for almost a year. Jack has been waking up multiple times at night and waking for the day usually between 3 - 5 am. We are all exhausted. Jack's behavior and attitude reflect his exhaustion on most days. So, we are taking him for a sleep study at Mayo Clinic. Ack! I am pretty nervous about this and of course wonder if we're doing the right thing. One parent will be able to stay at the clinic with him, so that is reassuring. I am just worried that he'll absolutely freak out about having things attached to him. But, hopefully we can get some questions answered and find out if there's some help for us.

Jack is also going to have eye surgery coming up. It has come to the point where his esotropia cannot be corrected by glasses and surgery is necessary to correct the muscles in his eye. There is a possibility that they will need to do surgery on both eyes, but we're not quite certain of that yet. We haven't met with the surgeon, but hopefully will do so in the next couple of weeks.

School is going really well and he continues to enjoy it. His teacher is fabulous and we couldn't have asked for a better teacher for Jack. He has started to have more recognition of letters and has been able to start sounding out some words! This is really exciting! I love watching him sound out letters and figure out how words are put together.

Jack has also been doing occupational therapy and speech therapy once a week for the past couple of months. That has also been going really well. His therapists are wonderful and seem to really "get" Jack.

So...we've been busy! Tired and busy. :)

Thursday, December 10, 2009

A Little Contest-Happy

So, there are several blog contests going on for an HP TouchSmart computer. I am blogging about them to get more entries into the contest. Sorry.

But, seriously, this computer looks AWESOME and I can't even begin to tell you how excited Lonnie would be if we won one.

Check them out!

http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/12/hp-touchsmart-giveaway.html

http://boomama.net/hp-touchsmart-600-giveaway/

http://totallytogetherreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/hp-touchsmart-computer-review-and-give.html

http://kellyskornerreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/hey-who-wants-to-win-free-computer.html