beatitudes for friends of special children

Blessed are you who take the time to listen to difficult speech, for you help me to know that if I persevere I can be understood. 

Blessed are you who never bid me to "hurry up" and take my tasks from me and do them for me, for often I need time rather than help. 

Blessed are you who stand beside me as I enter new untried ventures, for my failures will be outweighed by the times I surprise myself and you. 

Blessed are you who asked me for my help, for my greatest need is to be needed. 

Blessed are you who understand that it is difficult for me to put my thoughts into words. 

Blessed are you whom with a smile, encourage me to try once more. 

Blessed are you who never remind me that today I asked the same question two times. 

Blessed are you who respect me and love me as I am-Just as I am, and not like you wish I were. 

i have been having a hard time with emily again.  its really not good timing with hubs starting his part time job.  i just feel stressed and weak.  i found that little passage above in emily's school handbook this year.  sometimes we all need a little reminder to put things into perspective.

i know that this rough patch will pass, just as they all do. 

fire prevention success!

hubs had a blast doing fire prevention for emily's school!  he could not stop smiling when he got home!  the kids and teachers had a great time!
i thought everyone could use a treat, so i made cupcakes with chocolate fire hats!

i had ordered fire truck molds to make lolly pops, but they came one day too late!  dang it!  so i used the chocolate melts to "draw" fire hats!  i'm not sure i'd recommend this!  i was all out of whack from being hunched over these things!  i was so concerned with finishing them, that i forgot to take pics!   ugh.  in essence, i printed off a bunch of fire hat pics from microsoft word's clip art.  then with wax paper over a cookie sheet, i traced them with the melted milk chocolate in a zippie bag with a very small hole clipped in the corner of the bag.  next i filled in with the red, then the white.  it was seriously time consuming, but i like the way they turned out! 

mentally preparing...and its fire prevention week!

tonight my hubs starts his new part time job.  he'll be a sales associate @ walmart in the electronics dept.  he's excited about it.  i'm feeling a little overwhelmed.  i'm happy about the extra income...we absolutely, 100% need the money.  but his hours are 5pm-12am.  that means he won't have enough time to stop home after his full time job.  that means i'll be on my own with the kids.  emily is least tolerant of david from the hours of 4pm-bedtime.  and they both have colds.  not to mention he'll be working weekends.  this week its saturday and sunday, next week he'll have sunday off.  its scary.  maybe i should have gotten the part time job(we've both been applying, but he got the first call--actually, i haven't even gotten one call!).  i know that if i ask my parents to come over to help, they will.  i just feel like its my responsibility.  i wish i didn't worry so much!  this really is a good thing.  he's amazing for doing this...for taking care of us. 

anyway.  i'll be fine.  lol

did you know that this week is fire prevention week?  ok, so thursday is a little late to be reminding you, but better late than never, right?  hubs is taking a fire truck over to emily's school tomorrow!  he's very excited to be able to do it for them.  and the school is super excited that he offered.  for some reason they have not participated in fire prevention in a few years.  i think the old principal dropped the ball.  the new principal is awesome though, and very welcoming to fun ideas and suggestions.    hopefully we'll get some pics.  david and i won't be able to attend because we have his IFSP planning meeting for early intervention.  services should be able to start in about a week after we set is goals up.

talk to the kiddos about escape routes and stop drop and roll.  don't forget to check the batteries in your smoke and CO alarms ans test them regularly!

you can also check out the NFPA for more tips and activities for the kids!

shouldn't it be friday by now?

this week is at a stand still!  it hasn't been a bad week, just long.  tomorrow is back to school night at emily's school.  i'm hoping to meet the parents of her three new classmates. 
 i stopped in for a therapy session yesterday at the request of her OT and PT.   she's doing terrific, and they're excited that emily is becoming more aware of her surroundings!  she has basically been in survival mode for the last year and a half, and she's just now really "seeing" the school.  the textures on the wall, the doors, the pictures, etc.  they gave me some great playful activities to do with her @ home to give her more body awareness.  it may sound weird to most, but she's just now realizing that she's got a mouth, and a nose, and that its her hand holding the spoon.  its exciting stuff!   she's ready to have us challenge her now in a way that will make her other senses work hard!  its going to take some time for the "whole package"(emily's body and senses fight with each other!) to come together, but we are very encouraged! 

david has qualified for speech therapy through the early intervention program.  i really didn't think that he's qualify--i was expecting them to tell me that he's just "stubborn".  he's actually only at a 14 month level, he's 28 months old.  he flew through all of the major milestones, except this one!  he'll get it...he's a smart kid!  we have two more meetings before services can start, i think he'll enjoy it--he loves the attention! lol

hubs just landed a part time job @ walmart in the electronics dept.  seriously, we need the extra income, so we're both excited!   its going to be tough...i don't think he'll be home to help me with dinner, and baths, and bed time.  we have to make it work for right now though.  i can always call my mom or sissy for a hand.  fingers are crossed that it will give us to boost we need.

well, that's the story with us this week!  like i said, not a bad week--just looong!  my mom and i are taking emily out for the day on saturday, definitely looking forward to that!

new blog!

i wanted to let you all know that i am taking my sewing adventures over to a new blog---with my sissy!!  we're both very excited about this.  now that we are both old married women, we thought this would be a great thing to do together!  her hubs has to work on some saturdays, and my hubs is so awesome that he stays with the kids all day so that we can get our sew on!  yesterday, we didn't get much sewing done, we were braistorming for our new blog....please stop on over to The Clumsy Spider! 

its a work in progress, but we can't wait to start sharing about our times together as well as solo projects.  i hope you'll stop over and follow along!  i'll continue posting about the kiddos, hubs and recipes right here though! 

pumpkin muffins...on the lighter side

i've been trying to make healthier choices lately...but its hard.  you see...this is the BEST baking season EVER!  the apples, the pumpkins...the candy!   next to baking christmas cookies, this is when i love to bake the most.   i had some leftover canned pumpkin after last weeks pumpkin chip cookies for the reunion.  lately with money being tight, i hate to waste anything.   hubs is not big on pumpkin at all, so i knew it would be me handling the bulk of these babies.  i stumbled upon a recipe at allrecipes.com(where else?!)  however, it wasn't exactly what i was looking for, so i just used it as an outline.  here we go...
Pumpkin Muffins(makes 18 muffins)

1 1/3 c all purpose flour
1c plus 1 tbs whole wheat flour
2 c sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp ground cloves
3 eggs
1/2 of 29 oz canned pumpkin
1/2 c unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 c butterscotch chips1/2 c chopped walnuts


pre heat oven to 350.  grease muffin tins or line with papers.  in a large bowl combine sugar, eggs, pumpkin and applesauce.  in a medium bowl combine all dry ingredients and spices.  next,  incorporate  the dry and the wet.  add butterscotch chips and walnuts(or if you'd like, use your own additions: raisins, pecans, craisins etc!)   scoop into muffin tins and bake for 30-35 mins, or until toothpick comes out clean. 


9 of these muffins fit comfortably in a large freezer bag.  now when i need a snack, i can just take one out and pop it in the microwave!! 


*feel free to use all whole wheat flour, all purpose, or use sugar substitute!  this recipe is easy to mix and match!

a reunion and an anniversary

on saturday we had a little "reunion" with my dad's side of the family.  we gathered @ high point state park and really enjoyed the day.  good food and good people...what more could you ask for?  the kids were amazing!  they were both up early, and had no naps.  i couldn't believe we got there @ 11:30 am and stayed until almost 7pm...with no major incidents!  there were plenty of people to hang with the kids, so i even got to relax a bit myself!  hubs was still away for work, so i missed him...but i really enjoyed myself. 

i made a huge tray of cookies!!  i love having a reason to bake!!

(i had a crappy night of sleep...can you tell?!)

yesterday, hubs and i celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary!!  ok, so there wasn't much "celebrating" going on...it was a monday, i was overwhelmed with david's first gyminee crickets class, david has a cold-which makes him grumpy and whiny, so i was kind of grumpy too!  we don't usually exchange gifts, but he stopped and got me a nice card and a mum.  made me cry!  my parents are going to watch the kiddos on friday night so we can go out to dinner.  

justin, should you see this...you are an amazing husband and father!   you make me smile, you make my heart skip a beat, and i still get butterflies when i think about you.  

now i have to go yell at your son to get out of the refrigerator.....