picky eaters & other quirks

My boys are picky eaters. This is typical with kids with autism. It is one of those things that you learn to work around. The boys were good eaters until the toddler years. All kids go through that. My kids never stopped. In some ways they have gotten worse. 

I understand some of their issues. I am a picky eater too. I do not like steak but I love hamburgers. It is a texture thing. I love tomatoes but hate ketchup. I don't dip fries into ketchup. My boys never learned to dip.  But I know when I have to give in. I once at ate chicken livers when I was in Poland. We hadn't had a decent meal in a couple of days and were out of options. Kids with autism will not give in. They will starve before they give in. 

Some of their food routines... 

Breakfast

Last year, I used to fix Lenders Cinnamon Raisin bagels. I toasted 4 bagels. Andy ate them all. Maybe once a month, Ryan ate 1/2 bagel. On school days, Andy didn't eat much before he left. But he would eat the leftovers when he gets home. They were cold and stale and he would eat them. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I fixed the leftover sausage from Sunday. I used to fix biscuits but Andy stopped eating them so then I just toasted a couple of bagels to go along with the sausage. Andy would eat the sausage but skip the bagels until he got home. 

Then Andy started high school. School starts at 7:30. He has to get up at 6 and catch the bus at 6:50. Andy is not a morning person. He would eat his sausage on Tuesdays and Thursdays but nothing the other days. Andy's lunch doesn't begin until 12:10. It is a long time to go without food. I asked Andy if he would eat sausage if I made every week day. He was excited with that idea. Monday and Tuesday, Andy eats the leftovers from Sundays. I cook up a fresh batch on Wednesday and Andy eats that the next three days. On Saturdays, Andy eats 4 toasted bagels. It takes him all morning the way he grazes. 

On Sundays, we have waffles and sausage. Andy eats 2 waffles and 5 sausages. It is routine. He cannot deviate, unless he is sick.

Ryan usually eats cookies or donut holes. And chocolate milk. Lots of chocolate milk. Ryan will nibble the edges of the cold, plain waffles but nothing else. 

Lunch

At home I fix grilled cheese. Only Andy will eat this. Years ago, when Ryan ate as well, he used to leave the crust. Andy picked up this habit and won't stop. 

When we go out to eat, we do drive thru through two different places. Andy prefers Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets and fries. Ryan will only eat fries from McDonald's. We stop at McDonald's first where Ryan gets medium fries and Andy gets small fries. Then we go to Chick-Fil-A. For years, Ryan's preference was Wendy's until they switched their fries. And there was a time when Ryan preferred Arby's home style fries until they stopped carrying them. Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays so Andy used to hot dogs until he got tired of them. He started eating McDonald's chicken selects until they stopped making the Chicken Selects. I make grilled cheese for Andy. One Sunday, I stopped at Target and got a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza for Andy. He really liked that. But I cannot stop there each week. I told him I will get him pizza every other week. He is OK with that. 

Lunch at School

For Andy's lunch: 1/2 cup Multi-Grain Cheerios, 5 club crackers, 1 cup Whole Grain Goldfish crackers. He usually eats the Goldfish and the cereal, the Club crackers are eaten last. He drinks a thermos os Juicy Juice.

For Ryan's lunch: 1/2 cup Chocolate Cheerios, 5 Club Crackers. He always eats the crackers and about 1/3 of the Cheerios. Ryan drink Capri Sun. It is the only time he will drink juice.

Dinner

Andy eats Tyson Southern Style Chicken Nuggets. Every night. Nothing else. Sometimes Ryan will eat one nugget. Most days, Andy eats the whole box. We rarely eat out for dinner.

Snacks

Ryan eats his cookies and donut holes and chocolate milk. Ryan does not differentiate from snack and meal. Ryan is my chocolate boy. He used to eat plain Hershey Kisses. I had gotten a bag of Dark Chocolate Kisses for me. I noticed the bag on the floor, empty. He ate the whole thing and did not get sick! We moved to caramel kisses and kept them in the refrigerator. I used to keep them on a high shelf then Ryan got tall and smart. I cannot find these locally anymore. I have to go to another Target.  

Andy will eat Entenmann's Pop'Ems if he is hungry between meals. Or Club Crackers. 

Special Meals

Andy likes pizza. He prefers Papa John's thin crust with cheese only. Andy will eat half of a large pizza. He will not eat leftover pizza. Ryan has not eaten pizza since he was 5 years old. 

Foods they used to eat

Chips: Ryan used to bring home snack bags of chips. He got them from his teacher for being good. He used to eat them. He preferred the rippled kind. Then he stopped eating them. Andy used to love Pringles in his lunch but he stopped eating them. 

Cookies: Ryan has always been my sweet eater. And he would try different cookies. Especially if he picked them out at the grocery store. He loved Oreo Uh-ohs. He liked chocolate chip cookies. He even tried Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies. He won't eat any of these anymore.

Candy: Andy has never liked candy. His teacher used to use it for rewards. Some kids used to try to sneak it. She started putting it by Andy because he wouldn't eat it not would he let the other kids eat it. Ryan used to use m&m's. He is the only kid who got messy eating them.

Packaging

The boys don't like change. 

Manufacturers love to change the design of the packages. This was always a problem. I had to show the kids it was the same and they were OK. Mostly. Then Keebler changed the cookie! Andy used to eat EL Fudge cookies. The front of the cookie is the front of the elf. The back of the cookie, was the back of the elf. Then they changed the back to some words. Andy would not eat them anymore.

Other Quirks

Ryan does not like to sit inside restaurants. The exception is  McDonald's at DisneyWorld where they show old Disney cartoons. Andy likes to eat inside. We eat inside when Ryan is not with us. 

tools

I think the thing that really got me to start writing in my journals again is listening to podcasts and reading blogs about pens and paper. I love pens and paper. I have always been drawn to stationary stores and even their small sections in larger stores. I would go to the neighborhood drug store not to buy snacks or comic books but to gaze at the pens, pencils and other tools available on the 6 foot length of aisle. My first shoplifting was a 6" ruler. Who steals a ruler?

I know that tools don't matter. I have heard the arguments of photographers and their cameras. It is how you wield the weapon is what results you can expect. But I still listen to the Pen Addict Podcast and look at what new pen or journal they are talking about. Many pen aficionados talk about fountain pens. I had one once. I bought it because I liked the design of the pen. It was from Shaeffer and had a jungle scene with a lion and a rainbow. I was a tween, of course I love rainbows. This pen used disposable cartridges of ink. I don't remember anything about the writing experience.

I understand that using a fountain pen can be a wonderful experience. But I also know they need to be maintained. I grumble when I have to change the refill on my roller ball pen, I do not want to think about ink, eye droppers and cleaning nibs. My years in architecture have taught me that cleaning pens is a hassle and not worth the effort. Yes, I know cleaning fountain pens is much easier than cleaning drafting pens with their minuscule needles, but I just want to get the writing done with minimal effort. I use mechanical pencils so I don't have to stop and sharpen them.

Regarding paper, my first journals were purchased because of the cloth covers. I just liked the way they looked. The paper didn't matter to me. When I moved to a digital planner, I no longer had extra pages for journaling and I jumped on the Moleskine bandwagon. I like the look of the books and the paper is once to write on. I have purchased a number of Field Notes but am not a collector. I am not a [Field Addict] (http://www.70decibels.com/thepenaddict/2013/4/23/episode-51-the-things-that-people-love-the-most-are-wrong.html). They are good to have when you need to write something quickly and don't take up a lot of space in your bag. I had purchased a Rhodia notebook back in 2011. I started using it again and love the dotted grid. If Moleskine had a dotted grid, I would not switch. The Rhodia covers feel like buttery smooth leather and the paper is a dream to write on. They are not ubiquitous like Moleskine so they are not as cheap.

Will a better pen or a better notebook make me a better writer? No, but I might enjoy the process more and therefore write more. Like some bloggers prefer a clicky keyboard, I love the feel of smooth paper and pens that glide without effort. Only writing a lot will make me a better writer.

computer less. the last day

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I was getting pretty antsy to get back to my computer. I thought about cleaning my desk but never got around to it. I did vacuum to large dust bunnies last week. Even with the computer to distract me, there is plenty for me to do other than what I should do.

I was waiting all day for the call. Dinner came and went. I got an email after 6 telling me that my computer was ready. An email? Sure, OK.

I asked Ryan if I should go since he is almost as anxious for me to get the computer back. “What time will you get home?” I thought I should be back by 7:30. He said OK and I left. I had to wait about 5 minutes for someone to help. They are always busy at the apple store. I was back home at 7:37.

I loaded up my extra ram and booted the iMac. I was expecting a generic computer but they managed to put almost everything on the new drive. I quickly connected all my hard drives and started syncing my iPad. I got a message that I needed to authorize iTunes, so I entered in my password. Only to have another dialogue box say that this computer is already authorized. Silly computer.

I backed and synced the devices and some other maintenance. SuperDuper! is running its backup. And CrashPlan is figuring out what is different as well. Happy.

computer less day 6

I didn't miss my computer much today. I don't use it too much on Sundays. Once my POTD is posted, I rarely go back until eyeing when I plug in my devices.

The stuff I will need to do is piling up. But without a job I will have plenty of time to get it done.

computer less day 5

Ryan was upset that we still don't have the computer back. "I'll never be allowed to sync.” I offered to set up iTunes on his computer using my back up drives. “But that will take too long.” Actually, it won't take long if I just use my boot drive. But he doesn't want me to use his computer. Today he is learning patience. Next we will work on compromise and sharing.

catch up

Saturday is the day I catch up on some computer tasks. I download Year of Icons for the week. I add the week’s worth of photo of the day to the monthly layout. I make a digital card to add to be printed folder.

web transactions

One of my domains was due for renewal. It is registered at NameCheap. I went to 1Password to renew it. I logged in OK but each time I click to renew, I got sent back to login. I went to Safari and logged in. It worked this time and I got to the checkout screen. I chose PayPal knowing it would be less fields to fill in.

blogging

The same problems occur with the SquareSpace app. The iPhone app does not have the option to flip to Markdown. I wanted to try to fix it using the web app but cannot login using cut and paste. I will not enter the long password manually. My bank is the same way. Why do these sites make it more difficult to use safer passwords?

computer less day 3

I am finding it easier to be without a computer only because I know I will have mine back in a few days.

Because I knew I couldn't upload my photo of the day, I didn't even take the shot until 5 pm.

Today I miss being able to order online easily. I use 1Password and it is simple to fill in logins, passwords and credit card information when using a computer. 1Password is available on the iPhone and iPad, but it is not as easy to fill in some of the information. I went to JetPens and found that password field would not accept a copy and paste. My passwords are not easy to remember which is the point of 1Password and I sure didn't want to try to remember that 12 hexadecimal password. Or better yet, write it down so I could type it again into the password field. But I found that if I used the link to JetPens from 1Password, it filled in the information when it got to the page. But how will it work with credit card information?

computer less day 2

There are so many little ways I miss my computer.

music playlists

While I walk, I listen to songs which Tangerine chose for my pace. Tangerine isn't perfect so I rate songs that work well for walking and those that don't. Some don't work at all and I skip them. When I get back home, I look at my walking playlist and remove those with low ratings or skips. While walking this morning, a song came up on shuffle and I didn't like it for walking. I skipped it to go to the next song. I realized that I would not be able to take that out of my walking playlist. Well, I could remove it from my iPhone but what happens when I sync?

tv episodes

I watch TV episodes on my iPad. I purchase episodes through iTunes on my computer and download them there then sync to my iPad. I only keep current seasons that I am watching. On my iPad, I only keep the latest unwatched episode. Two of my current favorite shows are Bones and Castle which air on Mondays. I wasn't able to get the new shows before the computer problems. I decided to try to download to my iPad using wifi. It is a slow process and my iPad 1 tends to crash while in iTunes app.

rss

I use Reeder on my computer and iPad and sometimes on my iPhone. I subscribe to too many feeds. In the morning, the unread count is high and I can go through a lot of feeds quicker on my computer using keyboard shortcuts. Using the iPad is OK but slower.

tumblr

I love to look through tumblr and if I have away for a while, it is best to use the computer. Again, keyboard shortcuts are key. The tumblr app is OK but I miss being able to click on link in another tab. If I go out to safari, then go back to tumblr, it takes me back to the top of the dashboard. It is annoying having the scroll through all the read posts. Tumblr app on my iPad 1 will crash if I try to move it along too quickly.

watching Internet videos

Some videos are just not compatible with iOS. And some are too long or are slow to load. With those I save them to Instapaper to view on my computer. I will have a bunch to view next week. And many will no longer be timely.

computer less

Every evening before I go to bed, I connect my devices to their chargers for the night. I do this at my computer so they can sync at the same time and so that I do not use them in bed.

Monday night, I noticed that SuperDuper! failed to back up my hard drive. I set it to try to copy again but didn't wait to see if it worked. Backing up my hard drive to a boot drive takes a while, about 20 minutes. I wasn't too concerned since I back up nightly and I also have a Time Machine backup. I went to bed.

I got up the next morning to a gray screen. My first thought it is that it was stuck between awake and sleep and needed a nudge. I tried the track pad and tried the mouse. Nothing worked. I had to force shut down my machine. I restarted the iMac and it took forever to boot up. Then it seemed stuck in one of the login items. Force quit was not working so I had to force shut down again. This time I opened in safe mode. It took a while but did get me to the login screen. I tried my account and had the same hang ups. Repeat. This time I logged into my Test account. It seemed to work a little faster since I don't have any start up items. I clicked on safari and it took forever! Force quite took minutes to show up, minutes to allow me to click on anything.

More restarts resulted in the same thing. I tried using Disk Warrior but it ejected the disk when I tried to reboot. I tried resetting PRaM. Finally I took out the added ram and made an appointment with the Apple Genius.

I got my iMac in early 2010 but it is a model introduced in late 2009. A few months ago, there was a recall on those iMacs to replace the hard drive. I did not take it in because I wasn't having any problems. I didn't want to be without a computer for a few days. And the iMac is heavy to haul somewhere. It is only 21.5" and after taking it in Tuesday, I was glad I didn't get the 24". Jonathan was my Apple Store genius. He tried to boot up the computer and then ran diagnostics. He said that the hard drive was covered under the recall and that they would replace it then test to make sure everything worked. He asked if I had a back up. I have two. The bad news is that it would 4-5 days for the repair. Ugh.

The boys noticed right away when they got home from school. They weren't too concerned since their computers work and so does the wifi. Then Ryan remembered that he syncs his iPod on Wednesday mornings. He backs up his iPod and then chooses his music for the week. In typical Ryan fashion, he said he would never be allowed to sync again. I told him that would could sync if I set up iTunes through his computer. He thought about it but didn't want me using his computer. I understand his reluctance and I am doing my best not to need to use his computer. Ryan said he would OK for a week with not syncing.

I miss my computer but am OK with my iPad and iPhone. There are a few things I miss and cannot do on my devices. I cannot use Lightroom nor Photoshop so POTD, Project Life, scrapbooking and cards will have to wait for a few days.

doodling tools

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After starting my Doodle365 project on dot grid paper, I am sold on the format. Dot grid is a great compromise between ruled and grid papers. I can use the grid when I need it, but it doesn't have the vertical lines to get in the way of writing. Dot grid is not very popular yet. Moleskine does not have any products with dot grid. The Field Notes Day Game books I was using are not a standard option. I remembered that I had purchased a small Rhodia notebook with dot grid. But the pocket size notebooks are too small for my doodles.

Looking online, there are few options for dot grid notebooks. Rhodia makes the most options but they are not cheap. JetPens has the best price if you buy 2 books at a time. I ordered two A5 Webnotebook with the orange cover. I like the orange cover. The color is great and doesn't look like just another Moleskine.

My love for Moleskine grows dim. After using the Rhodia Webnotebooks, Moleskine paper just doesn't feel as good. And the covers have not been holding up.

I did try a Leuchtturm1917 Medium Notebook. They are available in ruled, squared, dotted and plain papers. They are also available in a variety of colors but I have only seen black. The pages are numbered and there is an index in the front for keeping track of what your write. I think this might be a good option for my journaling so I do not need to thumb through the book to find a specific entry. The books are not quite as nice as the Rhodia Webnotebooks. I am going to use the Leuchhturm1917 Notebook for journaling rather than doodling. 

One issue I have with doodling is taking a photo after I am done to post on the web. Most notebooks do not lie flat. I decided to try a Rhodia Dot Pad. It is less expensive that the Webnotebooks and has perforated pages. The paper is a bit thinner but seems to be working out OK. I have not yet removed any pages to photograph them. I like having all my doodles together. I have removed a couple of pages that I messed up.

Pens.

I had some Sakura Pigma Micron pens from my scrapbooking days. They seem to work well for doodling. I got a second set to keep in my bag but I find I don't doodle often when I am out. I read about drawing pens and decided to try the Staedtler Pigment Liners. I find I like them better. They seem to write a bit smoother and last longer than the Sakura pens. They are not as easy to find as the Sakura pens. I have only found the Staedtler pens locally in sets.

journaling

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I started keeping a journal in 1990 when things were beyond my control and I needed a place to vent and daily phone calls to my mom were expensive. It may have been those cute pocket size journals with cloth plaid covers that made me want to write. Eventually I switched to larger journals. When I started carrying a planner, I used extra pages in there. Even though I started using a Palm Pilot in 2002, I didn't go digital with my journal until 2011. I have several Moleskine journals filled with my thoughts and rants.

Some people say a blog can be an online journal. Not for me. Journal writing is something else. Mostly just bits of facts from my day or sometimes I random thought I should explore later. 

I started journaling when I was miserable. I used it to vent my frustration with my life. When I tried blogging this stuff and got yelled at by my sister. She didn't think it should be online and that I was wrong. 

I journaled less as I became friends with B. She called daily and I got most of those thoughts out into the world. Blogging wasn't as important anymore. 

As I get older, I have less to kvetch about. But I feel the need the need to share my thoughts. Maybe not share but get them down on "paper." Bonnie doesn't call every day. She doesn't even call every week. She is busy. I am not. 

My days are filled with little unimportant tasks to everyone but me. 

I was in another scrapbooking frenzy wanting to get it all done. I want the photos and stories recorded. There are a lot of stories that have no photos and they are still important to record and treasure. OK maybe not treasure. I mean who will want to read about me in 20 years? Fifty years?  Sometimes, I don't even want to read them next week.  

When I moved to digital, I started with Momento on my iPhone. Then I moved to DayOne for iOS and MacOS. I love DayOne but I tend not write long entries. I use it more for general notes and quotes I want to remember for later. I still use Momento as an aggregator of my web activity and FourSquare logging. (I know that Brett Terpstra made something to aggregate those things in DayOne but I have not tried it. I am too anxious about doing things in coding.)

When I have an idea for a longer journal entry, I note it in Drafts. I add notes until I am ready to write.

I am not a writer and think of writing a chore. I tend to try to get it out of the way and done. I have never been one to read and reread and school essay and make revisions. I was lucky to write it once and then a final time to correct typos. I am so old that we didn't even have an electric typewriter let alone a computer or word processor. When I blogged, I would type something up, scan quickly for typos and post.

Writing is not something I enjoy like photography or drawing. I never enter FLOW. I enjoy the physical aspects of writing, of forming letters by hand. At least until my carpal tunnel acts up and my hand begins to tingle.

But I do like getting thoughts out of my head and onto paper.