12 june 2011

Mary Grace's birthday. I hope she likes her gifts. More importantly, I hope she has a good day.

I did get a card done this morning. For some reason, I just don't want to look at photos. Probably burned myself out with all the layouts and organizing I have done. I did manage to get my POTD done.

I started reading some fiction last night. I am way behind in my book challenge for the year.

I am over thinking. Again. I want to put my POTDs on a layout. I thought I wanted it all on one page but that makes the photos small. I thought about a double page layout which makes more since but should I use a grid? Do I want all my photos or just the best? I even spent too much time making up a new grid.

While I was fixing lunch, I thought maybe one page with all and one page with my favorites so they could be bigger.

Ryan was having trouble with his computer. It is old. He wants to watch race buddy on NASCAR but it requires flash 10.3. His iBook cannot not install the latest flash. I offered him the use of my computer but he doesn't want that. He wants his computer to work like he thinks it should.

Now he wants to live in Europe because he says it is better. He cracks me up and drives me batty all at the same time.

Another 2 hours spent at the computer working on a layout for my POTD. I like how it turned out. I am not sure if I need to do any journaling. It is all on my blog. I did spend some time looking for a 365 brush. I may have to make one up.

Savi came over to get some camera tips. She has to take some group photos. I also showed her some podcasts. Savi is going away for a couple of weeks. She asked Ryan if he would miss her and he said no. Oh man, Ryan is just too honest sometimes.

I read a book this evening, Faking It
">Faking It. It was OK. It made me cry because I am a wuss and hate conflict.

28 january 2010

I am still trying to wrap my brain around this Budget program. I am really going to have to sit down and read the rest of Total Money Makeover in hopes of clarity.

Yesterday, I decided to download my bank transactions in order to make sure I got the little ones I had missed. This wasn't a good idea. I had begun the program account on January 4. But my statement ended December 30.

I deleted the whole thing and started over. I also decided to do my cash differently. I keep track in an iPhone app called Balance. It just helps me see what I spent where and how much I have left. I don't feel the needto keep that in Budget as well. OK, mostly I am lazy and am really getting confused.

On a positive note, I managed to process over 50 images for Bonnie yesterday. Then I came to some images I knew I had already processed. She makes albums for each of her kids. Some photos show up in two or more of the albums. In her Lightroom library, she has the image only once and copies in each child's collection. When she copied the photos for me, she exported the collections so it made redundant copies. I decided not to reprocess the same image so I went to main library folder and arranged the photos by image name. I could easily see the ones that were the same. Then I synched the same images. I also color coded them so I know they have been processed.

Bonnie is using

samsclub.com

to print her images. I can upload them fairly quickly and she can pick them up just a few hours later.

I baked cookies yesterday. Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies by Martha Stewart. I have made them before and they are yummy. I messed them up yesterday. I put it baking soda instead baking powder. They are flat. Chocolate coasters. They taste good but look funny.

I would have made another batch or even brownies but I used up the last of Dutch process cocoa powder. I haven't been able to find anymore. I even thought about going out to the other Target in hopes that they would have the right cocoa powder. I know Williams Sonoma carries Dutch process cocoa powder. But their jar is $15. I am just not willing to pay that much.

I made the mistake at looking at the computer and saw that the Apple Event was happening. You know I live gadgets! I watched and oohed and aahed and made fun of the name iPad. I don't see one in my future anytime soon. I need a new desktop first.

So the cookies would have to do.

I have been walking. And my ankle is really telling me to quit. Bio-freeze does a good job of keeping the pain down to a dull ache.

I went to the other SuperTarget and found the cocoa powder. They had only the Dutch process whereas the SuperTarget near me has only the regular cocoa powder. Did somebody goof?

My dad brought home the

wrong oatmeal

. I prefer

McCann's Quick & Easy Steel Cut Oats

. He said they didn't have any. I went to a different Publix and found that they carry Quaker Oats Steel Cut Oatmeal but didn't have any McCann's. The woman working there told me it was in the GreenWise section which is organic. I wonder if that's where they moved the Steel Cut Oats at our Publix?

Andy is playing Jeaopardy. He is using his stuffed animals and pals as the contestants. He is playing Alex Trebeck. And he is recording it with his iPod.

Andy's teacher called today while I was walking. Seems that Andy has qualified for the state level Special Olympics in basketball. This is quite a surpise to me. I didn't know he knew how to play. The event is February 12-14 at USF. They will be staying at a hotel with chaperones. I am hoping I can go at least for part of the event.

guilt

It's mother's day and guilt nags me.

Am I a good mom? I am not trying for any mom of the year but I do hope I doing right by these boys. I hope they will have more good memories than bad.

Did I do enough to help the boys with their autism? Should I have done more?

I started thinking about my friend, J. She has 3 kids. Her middle son, A, has autism. His was of the regressive kind. He seemed to be developing normally then stopped talking and walked funny sometimes. They thought he might have had a stroke and did a ton of tests on him. They did not label him with autism because their insurance wouldn't pay for treatments with that diagnosis. J did a lot with A. She took him to a DAN doctor and tried all kind of things with his diet. The whole family changed their dynamic in order to help A get through this. J seemed to have endless energy devoted to A and his therapies. I haven't seen A in years since they moved but it sounds like he is doing really well. He is doing a lot more than my boys combined including sports and cub scouts.

Should I have done more? Should I have tried the gluten free/casein free diet? I don't know. I don't think I could have done much more than I did. We stopped doing outside speech therapy when the boys fussed about going and added so much stress to the day. I certainly don't have the support system J has. Nor am I as organized and she is. I applaud her efforts but still feel bad about my own.

Guilt sucks.

You understand?

Tell me. How do you understand how it is to raise kids with autism? You, a man. Do you have a kid with autism? Do you even HAVE kids? Are you a widower? DON'T tell me you understand until you have spent a a day in my birks. I'm not looking for pity or sympathy and I certainly don't need your patronizing attitude. Respect? That may be asking for too much but one can hope.

2006.05.28 bed head

I started blogging back in 2004 with iWeb. I thought I had the entries saved but cannot find them. I found a few entries from 2006 when I blogged with TypePad.

I don’t typically suffered from bed head. Andy does. And so does my sister in law, Laurie. That was always a fun part to spending weekends at the cottage, waiting to see how funky Laurie’s hair was each morning. But last night, I took a shower before I went to bed since I had forgotten to do so all day (we’ll get to my lazy day in a moment). I knew my hair my be a bit unkempt but I was unprepared for the swirling mass of curls and tangles that I have today. It gave me a good chuckle until I realized that the brushing was only making it fluffier. Thank goodness for barrettes.

10 weeks, 1 day (in case you are keeping track as well)

I am so incredibly lazy right now but nothing beats yesterday. Yes, I did get out of bed but only because I have these boys who refuse to be self-sufficient. Once I made them some bagels, I sat in my chair and started to read. Oh my eyes were heavy. I then drifted in and out of sleep from 10 am until noon. I forced myself up but I SO wanted to be back in bed. 

I had told myself that I wasn’t going to do any linnecards work but would make some cards. (I am SO behind, it ain’t pretty.) But I’m sure that my mind took over realizing that I have a huge mess to clean up around my desk before I can get working. So I did some linnecards work since the area around my computer is accessible. Then I watched the rest of Strangers with Candy, Seasons 2 and 3. Funny but it would have been much better watching it with someone who understood the irony. (Ryan just thinks it’s funny when the someone gets hurt.)

Now it is 11 am and I have finally made waffles & sausage for Andy & me. (Ryan won’t eat sausage anymore and will only eat the waffles when they are cold.) I really have to get something done today. But then again, tomorrow IS a holiday.