Almost Done

I hope that it's okay that I start counting down the hours 'til the weekend on Thursday! Who am I kidding?! I probably start on Monday! It's not that we do anything particularly exciting on the weekends,... but I'm just happy to not have to get JG anywhere for 2 whole days. So, only one more morning struggle left before I get a 2 day reprieve. These are the thoughts that get me through a day.

JG had a much better day at school yesterday. His tics had settled down quite a bit after a good night's rest on Tuesday night. He does seem extremely tired, though - even more than he did during the first week of school. It concerns me, but I'm doing all that I can do. He has had 3 nights in a row that he's fallen asleep instantly, and that is absolutely not the norm!

I have scheduled a meeting w/ a woman for horseback riding lessons for JG. She lives right down the road, and we're going to meet w/ her on Friday afternoon. She said that she teaches them everything, not just how to ride. He'll learn how to brush the horses, how to clean their hooves, and all of the parts of caring for them, in addition to slowly learning how to ride. She doesn't have any particular experience w/ Asperger's children, but she seems very open to learning about JG. She asked some particulars, and she said that she was going to do some research about his difficulties. She has, however, worked w/ other children w/ various special needs. So,... it looks like we'll be teaching her, as well. I can't wait to tell him!

Also, I've realized that I'm not posting as much information about food as I had planned on doing, so here's a little re-cap.

Tuesday night I cooked spaghetti w/ organic meat, Newman's Own sauce, & corn pasta & it was a hit!! Spaghetti is one of JG's all time favorites, and it has been a long time since he has gotten to have some. I've warmed some up to put in to a thermos for the past two days for his lunch at school. (I also cut it up to make it easier to eat out of a thermos.)

Last night we had breakfast for dinner, and we had pancakes made from a Bob's Red Mill mix, Jones Dairy Farm turkey sausage, and cantaloupe. Everyone was happy! It amazes me that those pancakes are soooo much better fresh! FYI: We use Earth Balance spread as our butter replacement & Log Cabin syrup.

And this morning the kiddos had Van's waffles for breakfast, which has actually been requested repeatedly by my non-Aspie son! I cut up a little bit of cantaloupe on the side, and all the plates were cleaned!

The boys are going to get a special treat for their snack at school today, as I threw together a package of Betty Crocker Gluten Free brownies last night after dinner. And I also did some couponing yesterday in order to purchase some LaCroix Sparkling Water, in the lemon and orange flavors, so that the boys could have something else new & exciting in their lunchboxes! I'll be anxious to hear how they like them, but they were already excited just based on the fact that they were getting to take something that resembled a soda!!

Two Steps Back

So, today started out really great! I managed to get up and fix eggs & grits w/ cantaloupe for breakfast, pack lunches for the boys, get them dressed & out the door for the bus, and make up 3 of the 4 beds all before I woke up Sleeping Beauty for her preschool "meet the teacher". Then I got her fed & dressed & myself showered & dressed w/in 45 minutes so that we could arrive at the preschool by 9:00. I know that that may not seem too impressive to anyone else, but I was mighty impressed w/ myself - especially w/ the craziness that is my life!

Well, I must not have knocked on wood hard enough or long enough when I was emailing TD about the morning, b/c the afternoon went downhill in record time! Naturally the trip south happened to coincide w/ the boys' arrival home from school. JG came in & immediately started telling me about how he got to take a nap at school b/c he was stuck in a yawn (& really thirsty). As he was telling me this, I noticed how bad his tics were & put 2&2 together. He was describing his tics, quite appropriately, as being stuck in a yawn!

I must admit that I was really upset. Going by JG's description of the day, I thought that his tics had become really bad & his resource teacher had decided to talk to him about them. Since his tics began about a month ago, I have made sure that NO ONE talks about them, as that will just stress him out & make them worse. However, it was that his tics became so frequent & uncontrollable that his teacher called for his resource teacher to come to take him to the sensory room. JG came up w/ his own description for them, which means that they were so straining that he was finally noticing them! It's heartbreaking!! I called his resource teacher, and she told me about everything that had occurred w/ JG & his tics. She even let him curl up in a bean bag chair to rest, and he slept for 20 minutes! She said that his tics slowed down some, but they never completely came to a stop during his nap.

Needless to say, our evening has been difficult. I wanted to keep everything as calm & relaxing as possible so that JG's tics might settle down a little bit, but that's easier said than done w/ 3 kids. I did, however, manage to get them all to bed by 8:00, and they all fell asleep instantly. My prayers tonight will be that my sweet boy's body will be released from these fitful tics, & that God will guard him from the stress that is worsening the situation.