I’m struggling a bit tonight

I'm getting divorced on Tuesday morning and there are a few things Lizze wanted from the house. It was kinda like a scavanger hunt because I couldn't find some of these things at first. After a few phones calls back and forth, I managed to locate most of what she was looking for. There are some items in the attic but they're staying there until I gut it, hopefully this spring. Anyway, I emptied my closet completely for the first time since she left and I came across quite a few memories that hurt to remember. They would otherwise be positive memories, and perhaps with time, someday they will be again. Everything is collected into about four or five boxes and they're just sitting in my room, waiting to be…

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I got some health related news today

It's stressful day but I ended up getting some really good news. Since being on lockdown, I haven't been to see my doctor. The last time I was seen was September of 2019. I was not in a good place at that point because my wife had just left and I was feeling completely lost trying to raise the kids on my own. When I was seen for a routine checkup, I have my routine labs run and while they weren't super bad, they were bad for me. My glucose was high, my cholesterol was high, my triglycerides were high and I was pretty much a hot mess. I was not in a good place emotionally and I that certainly wasn't helpful. I was supposed to return for a routine…

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I solved a simple but nagging problem

I've been back in my makeshift studio recording season 4 of my podcast and I've had this one nagging problem that I haven't been able to fix. That's not exactly true. The truth is, I haven't been willing to take the time needed to fix it properly. It's not a huge deal but it's annoying as all get out. Part of the reason for the delay in properly repairing was that I wanted to enlist Emmett's help in troubleshooting and see if he could come up with a working solution. If you look at the underside of my table, you'll see a mess of cables. I wanted to make the table include everything without having multiple cords plugged into the limited outlets in my room. I ran one powers trip…

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My life will forever change next week but I’m going to be okay

I realized this morning that my marriage will officially be over in a week. I'm sure it will be the main topic in therapy this week. This whole thing is a mixed bag for me because letting go of something that was so important to me is incredibly difficult. There's a roller coaster of emotions surrounding this and as I'm laying here on the couch, listening to my kids kids playing upstairs, I'm getting emotional. I've been talking to my therapist about this a lot and last week, she was pretty blunt with me. She's a little concerned that while I may be doing okay right now, next Tuesday could be a very different story. I'm managing my depression as well as can be expected under all these insane conditions.…

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Teachable moments can be so f*cking exhausting

I'm really frustrated with one Mr. Gavin today.  He can be so difficult to coexist with sometimes because he basically lives in his own world and the rest of us are just along for the ride. It can be very challenging to get Gavin on the same page as everyone else. He might say that he gets it but in reality, he knows that what he's supposed to say and he probably still doesn't get it on any meaningful level. He made so much amazing progress and has improved in many areas. I'm very proud of him but there are still things we need to work on. Last night, he and Elliott got into it because Gavin said something about Elliott being in a bad mood. Elliott wasn't actually in…

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I love sharing good news

I wanted to share a couple of updates that are actually quite positive for a change. For those who don't know, Gavin's absolute favorite snack in the entire world is Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. They're simply his thing and have been for as long as I can remember. For his 21st birthday, I wanted to surprise him with a whole bunch of Swiss Rolls. I ordered a case on Amazon and it finally showed up. There's about 100 Swiss Rolls and he was in heaven. 😂 Being the sweetheart that he is, he wanted to share with his brothers and gave them each a box. He wanted to give them more but I limited it to one box each because I really want this to be for Gavin. Before the…

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The nomadiQ Ultimate Lightweight Portable Propane Grill (Review)

I get review items in all the time but every once in awhile, something like the nomadiQ grill comes in that I'm super excited about. This is one such item and while there's really no direct tie to special needs parenting, it's nonetheless very useful. So let's just jump in with both feet. About 2 weeks ago, I received a interesting looking package and it turned out to be a portable propane grill from nomadiQ. Considering we haven't had a working grill for most of COVID lockdown, this was really exciting. I had my doubts about this little grill because it costs about $300 and I was concerned that it just wouldn't work as well as I was hoping it would. The grill is extremely well built and out of…

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Huge thank you to my friends at the Stark County Health Department and here’s why

It's been kind of a whirlwind day in The Autism Dad household. I had 2 interviews scheduled this afternoon and ended up having to reschedule one of them for a later date. I hate inconveniencing my guests but it was unavoidable. Eariler this week, I received the callback I had been waiting for in regards to Gavin's first dose of the COVID vaccine. He was scheduled for 3:40pm this afternoon. That sorta turned our day upside down because not only did it mean breaking quarantine, but we'd be going somewhere with a lot of other people. It was a calculated risk and one that we couldn't avoid. I was able to get my first interview done before shutting down and making sure Gavin was ready to go. He was so…

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