Mobile Home Park Life

Growing up, I imagined being a successful person, with a good job, a big house, a nice car, and travels that would take me all over the world.  I studied hard in school, got degrees, and then had a child with multiple disabilities.  My priorities changed, my financial situation changed, and we became a one income household, with my husband working hard so I could stay home and be available at all times for anything our children might need.  With help, we were able to move into a mobile home.  I struggled with feelings of failure and envy of others who had large houses, took expensive vacations, had all the latest gadgets for their kids, and what seemed to be a much easier life.  As time has gone on, I have reconnected to Jesus and trusted that He has me where I belong, doing what I'm supposed to do... that my vision of my life was not His vision for my life, and that this change was not failure, but just change.
Recently in church, the pastor spoke about how different the world of today is for children.  How children don't play outside, how they only have friends on the internet and have no personal relationships, how both parents often work and often leave children to raise themselves as latchkey kids.  It was then that I truly appreciated where we are.  Our houses are pretty close together...not as close as houses are in Queens where I grew up, but close enough for children to be able to arrange play organically by calling for one another.  We have a playground across the street.  We live with a dead end at the terminus of the park where the children love to play and can do so safely.  We are up against state land with fields, woods, and a creek.  This provides for plenty of exploration opportunities, more safe places to play, and interaction with all sorts of wildlife and nature.  Most houses have front porches where people sit and talk, and where the children play.  Most mothers are home, so when the children are home and playing, there is always someone with an eye on them.  In some ways, I suppose we're in a bit of a lost world where time has stood still.  People wave to one another while they drive by, stop to talk as they walk by, and parents know one another and one another's children.  I'm really grateful to be where we are, and am so glad that God knew exactly where we should be...where our children could thrive...where they could be children.

Watching a solar eclipse, playing in the pool, pretending to use a leaf blower, discovering a blue bird nest

Great American Eclipse 2017

The Great American Eclipse of 2017 was a great science lesson, but we weren't going to be in the path of totality, and we couldn't get to a place that was, so we were excited but reserved.  We were invited to a party, but yet again, we couldn't go someplace because DS was sick...with an oozing infection that knocked him out.  Anyway, DD and I made some eclipse viewers, which was fun.  We watched the news coverage to see what it looked like in areas where there was totality.  We got to see the corona and learned about the sun.  We marveled out how beautiful it was, and how awesome it is that God created a moon that was 400 times closer than the sun and 400 times smaller than the sun.  Cool.  So, it was a beautiful day, and we had fun looking through the eclipse viewer, but it didn't seem to work well...I don't know why.  We followed the directions.  Anyway, DH called to tell us that someone from his job had brought in eclipse glasses, so we quickly went over there...too quickly.  Half way there, my daughter said, "Mommy, I'm hungry."  That was no surprise because her lunch was still in the oven at home.  So, we made a U-turn, I ran into the house, took her lunch out of the oven, put it onto a plate, turned off the oven, ran back out, and off we went again.  We arrived, my daughter no longer hungry, and by then we were really excited to get a good look after our failure at home.  We all got a turn to look through the glasses, and it was just beautiful.  It was so much more beautiful than I anticipated...even without the full coverage.
So, the next total solar eclipse is going to be in April 2024, and I hope we can get to the path of totality then...it should be pretty easy, since we'll only have to travel 5 or 6 hours instead of a day.

Where Has the Time Gone?

Playing horseshoes at the family picnic

Playing volleyball with the cousins at the family picnic

Rides at the community day fair

Nature hike at the harvest festival

Cool mushroom we found on our nature hike

Oh my! It's been a month since my last post. It's been a busy month with kindergarten starting for my son and all of us passing around a cold. It's my turn right now. Yuck. At least my son didn't get horrifically ill this time. Usually when he gets a cold, he winds up with asthma and on antibiotics for MONTHS. He still has a runny nose and coughs once in awhile, but that's it. At least we dodged one bullet. :)

Since my last post, we went to my girl friend's wedding, which was wonderful. They provided daycare at the reception, and so my husband and I were able to relax, eat, spend time together, and talk to all our friends at our table. It was wonderful. After the wedding, they had a bonfire and fireworks. My daughter said the fireworks were "cool". She's too much.

Then kindergarten started. I'm not fond of the bus driver. She's unfriendly and drives too fast. Other than that, my son is doing extremely well. He's talking more, he has told me twice about things he's done in school, and his teacher says he's doing very well in the class. We're still working on toilet training. We went through a lot of confusion with where to send my son's medical forms, immunization forms, and therapy prescriptions because he's going to a school outside of our district, so the district and the school both needed the forms...we eventually worked everything out.

We started behavioral therapy with my son. The therapist has given us a lot of great tools that have been very helpful. I'll have to write a separate post just about that.

Our babysitter is back from being home in NJ over the summer. We had another babysitter who was very good, but we just connected with her more. As a matter of fact, she stopped over yesterday with her boyfriend to drop off little pumpkins and apples for us and the kids. She's just a really nice girl, and we love her.

She still comes occasionally during the day to hang out with the kids so I can catch up on some cleaning, and she's coming over Wednesday nights so that my husband and I can attend a marriage workshop at our church. Although we're doing well, we want to keep it that way. :) Especially with how difficult it is to be parents of an autistic child and how easy it is to get so wrapped up in parenting and get so tired that you forget your relationship with one another.

We also love our church. That was a huge decision, and I suppose that's another post too. We had gone on a Tres Dias weekend, and since then, we've really had God as the center of our lives more than ever before, and it's made such a difference. That's another post too.

My son just started a new medication. It's similar to the one he's been on, but this one is extended release so it's not supposed to make him as tired. So far, it's only been two days, but he doesn't seem too tired and he seems a little more focused. Time will tell.

My husband's parents were up for a visit, and we got to see them a couple of times. We had the annual family picnic, which was a lot of fun, and then we spent another day over my sister in law's house just hanging out and eating way too much. My WONDERFUL nephews gave my son one of their drum sets from Rock Band, which my son has been using every single day...it's so nice to have something for him to drum on that's not the table, the lamps, my head...

I also got to go out to lunch again with my cousin, Carole to the CIA. That's another post too. We're going out again this week for lunch with my Mom and her Dad.

Sheesh, I have a lot of catching up to do.

I really should update the blog a lot more often. It's so nice to go back and read about things. It's like a journal. There are even services where they'll print out your blog as a book.

Well, I'll post more later, but at least that's a little bit of what we've been up to. :)

Tornado?

No, it wasn't a tornado, but it sure seemed like it at the time. The same storm did spawn a tornado in Connecticut. This damage is just from a down burst with wind speeds around 100 miles per hour. I was just turning into our apartment complex, and the sky suddenly darkened dramatically. The wind hit the car like a bullet. I pulled into the parking lot by the local deli right in the middle away from any trees. I was proud of myself for keeping a clear head. Huge trees fell all around us as the wind roared and the rain flew sideways all around the car. My daughter was in the car with me, and she was screaming and reaching out to be held. I stroked her leg instead, knowing that she would be safer in the car seat. Of course the safest place would have been in a basement somewhere, or laying flat in a ditch, but it came on so fast that there wasn't time to do anything, and thankfully, it wasn't a tornado. It blew through in just a couple of minutes and then the sun came out. As I pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the driveway toward the apartment, I had to drive over the grass as trees had fallen across the road and onto other people's cars. Huge trees were pulled out by the roots and snapped in half. Some trees were sheared at the top. I was grateful that nobody was hurt. Everyone who saw the storm was sure it was a tornado, because that's what it looked and felt like, but according to the National Weather Service, there was no rotation. It was sure scary though. I'm grateful to God for keeping us safe. The down burst occurred at 1:30 pm when my son was safely in school, my husband was safely at work. Thank God!

Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick

We went hiking yesterday. It was a little windy and cool, but it was still a beautiful day. My son did not want to go. He wanted to stay home. So I forced him to go. I had to nearly drag him down the trail...after about five minutes, he was just fine, and then it was nearly impossible to get him to leave afterwards. As any typical boy, he was always on the lookout for a good stick to carry, and so long as he didn't swing them around, I let him. He found a pretty large branch that he dragged behind him like a rake. His little sister, always looking up to her big brother, also found herself a suitable stick to carry. They had a lot of fun, and how cute!!!!!

Horror

I didn't finish cleaning my terrace after having our food outside, and we had sherbet that had melted. I didn't realize that it had leaked out of the container. When I came inside this afternoon from getting my son off the bus, I was horrified to see a little bird struggling in a pool of syrup...it was completely stuck to the floor, it couldn't move, and in its desperation, its movement was pulling out its feathers. I didn't know if it had broken its wings, and I really didn't think it was going to live.

My mind went immediately to a commercial on television for Dawn dish detergent where they were washing a duck that had gotten stuck in an oil slick. So I got a little cup of warm water and put a little Dawn in it, and poured a little bit over the poor bird. This loosened his feathers, and he was able to move. I then poured some plain warm water over him to try to dissolve the rest of the syrup in the feathers.

The poor thing hid in a corner, and I thought for sure that it was hiding so that it could die.

I went into the apartment to get a bucket of warm soapy water and a brush to clean the terrace so that I wouldn't torture another poor birdie, and the bird disappeared.

I finally found him in the fallen tree outside. This was a good thing...it meant it could fly. As the bird preened and preened, I could see that it was a tufted titmouse. He's been back to the feeder, and I think as long as he can fly and eat, he should be okay. I put a shallow bowl of water outside in case he should like to take a bath, but he hasn't used it. I really hope he's okay. I love birdies, and the last think I would ever want to do is hurt a birdie. I feel so guilty that it was because of my own negligence that the birdie was hurt, but I am happy that I think I managed to save the poor thing.

Maple Sugar Tour

This is the syrup they had for sale at the nature preserve where we took our tour. It's available for purchase from Justus Asthalter Maple Syrup Inc.

We went on a maple sugar tour at a local nature preserve. This weekend we were still sick, but not too sick, and it was the first nice days in ages...temperatures were in the forties and it was sunny. Also, it was my husband's birthday weekend, so we wanted to spend some family time together.

The tour began with story time around a fire. The storyteller told two American Indian stories about the origins of the use of maple syrup.

The first one is about how maple syrup used to drip from the trees and the people sat under the streams and got fat and lazy. Manabohzo, a Native American Hero thought this just wasn't right, and poured water into all the trees so the people had to work hard to turn the sap into syrup.

The second story was about a chief who threw his axe into a tree out of anger, and sap poured out. His wife caught it in a birch bark bowl, and used it to cook because she thought it was water. The food became very sweet, and that is how they discovered that the "water" could be turned into sweet syrup.

Each child received a small pouch that they wore around their neck, and with each stop on the tour, they received a small, laminated picture to remind them of the stories they learned. Here they received a picture of a birch bark bowl.

Here we learned to identify a sugar maple tree. We need to look for ovals, faces, and "Y"'s. The silhouette of the sugar maple is oval. The bark of the tree is shaggy, and you can see faces in it. Every branch forms a Y all the way from the trunk to the smallest twig. Here, the children received little twigs to put into their story pouch.

My husband is in the plaid jacket carrying our son in this picture.
Then we learned how to tap the sap. A hole is drilled that can only go about 2 inches deep so as not to hurt the tree. A hollow piece of wood or metal is put into the hole. A pail is hung or placed underneath, and the sap drips out. A cover is put onto the pail to keep out water and critters.

Here is what the sap looks like. It looks like water. We even got to taste some, and it tasted like slightly sweet water. Sap is 97% water, and only 3% sugar, so it takes a lot of sap and time to make maple syrup.

Here the children received a picture of a drop of sap for their story pouches.

Here is the heating element they use to boil down the sap into syrup. They keep it over low heat until the water evaporates. Different grades of syrup from Grade A Fancy to Grade B are achieved by using sap from different times during the season (there are grades in between these as well). Grade A Fancy is a light amber syrup from sap collected early in the season (right around now), and Grade B is from sap collected near the end of the season, which lasts for about 4-6 weeks.

Here is where the heating element is located, in the Sugar Shack.

After the tour, I bought some maple sugar candy and maple syrup. I am going to make up a story board for my son's class and send in the maple sugar candy so they can all taste it. Then we went out to dinner for pancakes and waffles, and I brought in the maple syrup. Boy, it was delicious! If you've never tasted real maple syrup, it has a thinner consistency than pancake syrup, it doesn't have the sickening sweet smell, and it has a wonderful depth of flavor, so you don't need to use as much. It's much more expensive because it's so labor intensive, but for a treat, it's wonderful.

It was a lot of fun to go on the tour, and great to get some fresh air for a change. Boy oh boy did we have cabin fever. If you have a chance to go on a maple sugar tour, you should definitely go! :)

Winter Wonderland

I Love Autumn!

I'm so excited about all the things there are to do in the autumn in New York State for children. We've participated in the events over the past two years, and are eager to do it again! Apple picking, pumpkin picking, Halloween Parades, Fall Festivals, and hiking. I can't wait!

We have our Halloween costumes all ready too. My daughter is going to be a pink unicorn, and my son is going to be James, one of Thomas' friends. His favorite color is red, and I figured that there wouldn't be too many other kids dressed up like James. It should be lots of fun!

Welcome Autumn! It Was a Great Day!

This is a long post because a great day deserves a longer post than a lousy day.

Today was a great day. A GREAT day. It's so nice to be able to say that today was a great day! My daughter slept all night, so I woke up refreshed and chock full of patience. I haven't been singing to my son to wake him up very often, but I did today, and he loves it. "Good morning, good morning! It's nice to see you smile! Good morning, good morning to you! Good morning, good morning, my Boo!" He always looks so handsome when I dress him for school and put spray conditioner in his hair and brush it nicely. He did slap his father in the face when my husband tried to kiss him goodbye. We're still working on the physical. I know he just doesn't want his father to leave, but we're working on right and wrong ways to express our feelings. It's a project. However, I choose not to allow that to be a blemish.

My daughter slept until 8:45...I had to wake her up. I sang to her too, and she loved it. We played, we read books, I played the flute and guitar for her, I sang some more, we played some more, and then she actually took a nap! It wasn't a long nap, but I had a nice peaceful lunch and took a shower. That's a big deal! Then it was time to get Big Brother off the bus! My daughter is always very excited when Big Brother comes home, and when she sees the bus, her little arms and legs kick and swing, and she squeals.

My son had a great day at school, and his physical therapist said that he'd "grown up" a lot over the summer. How nice to read! Then we went to the bank to deposit money (always a good thing), and I had promised my son I would wait for him because the lady in the window always gives him a blue lollipop. Then we went to our favorite place, the playground with the cars. By the time we got there, my son was properly blue and very happy. It was sunny and in the low 70's. My son behaved beautifully, and even opened up the gate for a mother coming through with a stroller...nobody asked him, he just did it. He got hugs, kisses, a high five, and lots of praise. My daughter scooted all over the mulch portion of the playground on her bottom exploring, and left a little trail where she had dragged her bottom through the mulch and exposed the soil. It was so cute. Then Daddy met us at the park, and we went out to eat at a restaurant near the railroad tracks. My son kept calling the trains saying, "Choo-choo, where are you?" How adorable. My son usually eats ketchup and nothing else. Tonight, he wanted cocktail sauce, convinced we were withholding ketchup. I tried to explain that it was hot and spicy, and not ketchup, but ketchup with horseradish. He still wanted it, so we thought, why not let him try. He put a great big spoonful into his mouth, and screamed. He took a big drink of water and then proceeded to wipe off his tongue with his napkin. My son has a great sense of humor, and laughed along with Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Sister after he had put out the fire. I hated to laugh, but I couldn't help myself, and well, we've all been there at one time or another, haven't we? What better lesson to learn than to be able to laugh at yourself?

Then we went home, and did our usual bedtime routine. My son had no nap, so he was pretty wound up. So, I sang "Beautiful Boy" by John Lennon and gave him tickle rubs. His eyes were rolling back in his head. Daddy read "Goodnight Moon", and he fell asleep right away.

Then we went on to my daughter, and we read "Goodnight Moon" to her as well. She pointed to the "two little kittens" and said, "niiiice". Nice is her word for cats. She also has started saying, "Dada", and loves to call Daddy. She's also pointing out all sorts of things wherever we go, and points to things that she wants as well. It's fantastic to watch her. Now that she's sleeping, I can really enjoy her.

And so, it's 10:45 pm, and I am off to bed with both children asleep. After doing the usual nightly hygiene activities, I will spray my pillow with my Bath and Body Works Black Chamomile aromatherapy relaxation pillow spray, put in my ear plugs (I can't hear my husband snore, but I can still hear the baby...go figure), and slip into crisp sheets next to my husband where I will be joined almost immediately by one of my cats. Then I will read a few pages from "My Life in France" by Julia Child and slip off to dreamland. Heaven.

Spring Peepers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Springpeepers.ogg
To hear a Spring Peeper, click on the link, and look near the top of the page for a white triangle in a blue circle...this is the play button. Hit that to listen to a Spring Peeper chorus.
(Photo also from Wikipedia)

I just love Spring Peepers. As you can tell from the picture, they are frogs. They are tiny, about 3/4" to 1" long, and they have a black "X" on their backs. They make the cutest little peep sound, and when thousands of them are together during the early spring mating season, they make a beautiful chorus. When I used to live in Queens, NY, I would drive an hour or so out to Huntington just to listen to peepers. On Route 25 in Huntington, there is a diner, and next to it is a pond that's chock full of Spring Peepers in the springtime.

Now that I live upstate, I hear them everywhere. My husband and I drive around with the windows open, pulling over to listen to particularly vociferous peeper groups. Tonight I went to the local Stewart's store for milk, and next to the building is a wetland full of peepers. We had a pretty violent thunderstorm tonight. It was pouring, there was a tremendous amount of lightening, and among the sounds of thunder and rain was the sound of Spring Peepers, who were too busy attracting a mate to care about a silly old storm.

Bird Feeder Visitors, Poor Memory, and Tuesday Weigh In

Bird Feeder Visitors Pine Siskin

Tufted Titmouse

Downy Woodpecker

We've also had black capped chickadees, white breasted nuthatches, and dark eyed juncos. AND we had either a sharp shinned hawk or a Cooper's hawk land right on our terrace...he or she came and left too quickly for me to make a solid ID...allll of a sudden all the birdies were gone...I don't think the hawk was here for the bird food. :)

Also, I've been so frustrated lately because my memory has been awful, and I've been feeling like I'm in a fog.

I found out yesterday that my thyroid hormones are low, and a symptom of hypothyroidism is memory loss. I've had hypothyroidism for years, but symptoms can pop up if it's not being properly treated. So, my medication has been upped, and I'm hoping that this will help. I chalked it up to being unemployed and spending all day every day with people under the age of 4, but any improvement would be much appreciated.

I even wrote a whole blog about it here...http://drmomsspot.blogspot.com/2009/02/out-out.html

Lastly, as you may have guessed since I left it for last, I gained a pound again this week. I'm disgusted, but I'm hoping that with the higher thyroid meds, it will get better, since that will boost my metabolism a little bit. I'm bringing my tracker (the book I write EVERY SINGLE THING I EAT in, with measurements, weights, and point values of EVERY SINGLE THING I EAT) in to my WW leader so that she can have a look to see if there's anything else I can possibly do, since I have been following the program religiously, and only ate 8 of my 35 bonus points this week. Arghhhhh.

Thank God for National Geographic

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, Black Holes and Astrostuff, and the post was about specials coming up on the National Geographic channel about the fastest, smallest, biggest, and most explosive. You can read the entire blog entry here:

http://blackholesandastrostuff.blogspot.com/2009/02/fastest-smallest-biggest-and-most.html

The show, "Known Universe" begins on the National Geographic Channel Sunday night at 8pm EST.

Yee ha, brains of steel, here I come! :D

Beautiful Day!

Today is such a beautiful day for a walk. Why don't you come along?




The view from the top of our hill.

Another gorgeous view from the top of our hill.

It looks like maybe a plane left a trail through the clouds.

Here's a little squirrel nest. My husband noticed that you can see the entrance near the bottom. My father liked looking at the squirrel nests. Being able to see all the little critter nests in the trees unobstructed by leaves is one of the best things about winter.

Some geese came for a visit.

There's finally even some ground visible!

A perfect blue sky. My Grandfather always loved to look at the sky.

A bald eagle even flew over us, but it was so quick I didn't have time to take a picture. What a perfect way to end a walk!