One of my readers quite correctly pointed out that it's already December 22nd in Australia and their all still there. My question is, did the Mayan's take time zones into account? If so which time zone are we going by?? I'm just trying to be as prepared as possible.   :-p A friend of mine sent this comic to me. Funny....

I have been following this whole Mayan Calander thing with fascination. It think is so interesting and honestly, really sad that so many people are freaking out over something that happened so long ago. So their calander ran out, big deal.  Ours runs out every year.  Does that mean that the world will be ending? Of course not.  Forgive me for saying this but there are really some.....um...interesting people out there.  I've read about people on a mountain in France, waiting for the mother ship to come and take them away. Really? I've also heard about people building panic rooms or fallout shelters in order to survive the pending apocalypse that's what, like 12 hours away?? I'm of the mind frame that anything could happen. However, whatever does happen, probably…

I wanted to keep you all updated on how Gavin has been doing since moving home earlier this week. For those of you new to my blog, Gavin was moved out of the house about 2 months ago for behavioral reasons, and moved into his Grandparents house. Gavin had been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder along with about a dozen other things, all serious. However, at this point in time, the RAD is the most serious of the mental health issues we are dealing with. Gavin has become very, very volatile. We were experiencing massive, house shaking tantrums upto several times a day. The other boys were terrified and Gavin, having no conscience, simply doesn't care. Gavin lacks the capacity to truly feel empathy for anyone and make or maintain…

We have adopted the Philips Sonicare E-Series of toothbrushes and have been using them for well over a year and a half.  They are affordable and work very well with kids on the #autism spectrum. Anyway, we had a problem because we were always removing the brush heads because we shared the bases. The other day, I accidentally discovered that the brush heads stuck to a can of shaving get cream. Yes, I know how magnets work.  I just hadn't thought of doing this particular thing.  As you can see, the brush head are organized, isolated from each other and easily reachable.  I like the fact that they are just laying around and the kids just like the fact that they actually stick to the side of the can. I…

I've written about this before but I'm going to write about it again.  I really feel strongly about trying to use everyday activities as a chance to teach my 3 boys with #autism important life skills. We have some wintery weather blowing in soon and I wanted to pick up a few items at the grocery store, in case we get snowed in. I grabbed Elliott and we headed off to our local Giant Eagle.  I swear it's like we live at that store.  Anyway, Elliott is 6 years old, has aspergers and loves learning new things.  Whenever he comes with me to the store, I always make sure to let him practice things like making good food choices, working within a budget, ringing up the groceries in the self-checkout…

Gavin received his martial arts promotion the other day.  I meant to post this on Tuesday but Gavin ended up in the hospital and subsequently moving home.  Basically, I had other things on my plate and never got around to it.  Gavin did awesome as did Elliott.  Unfortunately, I was at the hospital with Gavin and missed Elliott's promotion but my parents took pictures and when I get them, I'll share them. Here is a collage of pictures from Gavin's promotion on Tuesday.  Please feel free to congratulate him, I know he'll appreciate it.  Please leave only positive feedback.  :-)

Even before I know of what #autism was and certainly before my kids were diagnosed, I had this one wish for them.  Maybe this will sound weird to some people out there and maybe I'm just a dork, but here it goes.  I grew up with a dog for most of my life. I was fortunate enough to experience how that kind of companionship can make a child feel like.  I know how it made me feel.  I found comfort and unconditional love in our dog Dusty. When I had children of my own, that was one of the things I wanted for them. Whether it was a dog or a cat, a fish or a bird, it didn't matter to me.  I wanted my kids to have the bond, …