Category Archives: Write 31 Days

31 Days of My World As It Is Sung: The Simple Woman’s Daybook for October 1, 2017

Posted on by

For Today… October 1, 2017

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… sunny now though it was raining earlier and we’ve had a few days of good rain. Weather.Com says it’s 50F and I believe them.

I am thinking… about my Doodle assignment this week.

I am thankful… for classes I like this quarter.

One of my favorite things… when my sports teams win. My Giants beat San Diego and I’m hoping my Niners can beat Arizona.

I am wearing… a grey heather long-sleeved shirt and jeans. Church clothes this morning were a blue-grey long-sleeved shirt, black slacks, and black flats.

I am creating… various Doodle polls.

I am listening to… classical music on a DISH Network channel

I am hoping… Daniel’s appointment with the Autism Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital this week goes well. We’ve been waiting for this appointment for a very long time. (The waiting list for an appointment is over a year long.)

I am learning… about email best practices.

In my kitchen… coq au vin is cooking.

In the school room… Daniel continues to love school.

Post Script… Tesla’s aid to victims of Hurricane Maria.

Shared Quote… “The four sayings that lead to wisdom:
I was wrong
I’m sorry
I don’t know
I need help”
— Louise Penny

A moment from my day… Our anthem today.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

31 Days of My World As It Is Sung

31 Days of My World As It Is Sung: Beginnings

Posted on by

31 Days of My World As It Is Sung

My life is crazy with school, parenting, and church so I decided that adding a blog challenge made *PERFECT* sense. 🙂 Rather than try to be topical this year, I am just blogging about life and trying to post daily for the next 31 days.

The picture was taken of the tulip fields at RoozenGaarde during the Tulip Festival this past April. The title of “My World As It Is Sung” is in reference to the land of Narnia being sung into existence by Aslan in C.S. Lewis’ book, The Magician’s Nephew.

Day 01 — The Simple Woman’s Daybook for October 1, 2017
Day 02 — Kyrie
Day 03 — Country Mouse Visits The City
Day 04 — The Visit Itself
Day 05 — 7 Quick Takes on ADHD, Greek Food, and Other Fun Things
Day 06 — Joffrey Elite
Day 07 — Autism and Changelings
Day 08 — The Simple Woman’s Daybook for October 8, 2017
Day 09 — Hasidism
Day 10 — Pouring From My Empty Cup
Day 11 — The Current Baseball Playoffs
Day 12 — Autumn Quick Takes
Day 13 — Pumpkin Spice Latté
Day 14 — The Rose Ensemble
Day 15 — The Simple Woman’s Daybook for October 15, 2017
Day 16 — Overcoming One of My Fears
Day 17 — Things That Make Me Feel Alive
Day 18 — Source of Traditional Hymnody
Day 19 — Free Speech Edition of My 7 Quick Takes
Day 20 — Down in the River to Pray
Day 21 — The Party
Day 22 — The Simple Woman’s Daybook for October 22, 2017
Day 23 — BTL
Day 24 — A Needed Song
Day 25 — Pumpkin Patch
Day 26 — Hurriedly Coming Up with Quick Takes!
Day 27 — Zombie Frappucino
Day 28 — Great Big Sea
Day 29 — The Simple Woman’s Daybook for October 29, 2017
Day 30 — What Sounds Fun to Me Right Now

Highlights of 2016

Posted on by

It has admittedly been a tough year for me in my personal life and in the life of our country but I thought I’d end this year with my highlights.

[+] The Warriors had the best record in the NBA and made it to the NBA Championships AGAIN!!!

[+] CLEVELAND LOST THE WORLD SERIES!!! (For those who aren’t aware, hating on Ohio sports teams is one of my core values after living in central Ohio for 2 1/2 years and dealing with Ohio sports fans hating on my teams.) My Warriors have been avenged!!!

[+] The Cubs had one of the biggest gatherings in human history for their victory parade. Not to mention, the Cubs winning the Series is so much of a BETTER ending than it would be if Cleveland had won because the Cubs have had the longer drought and were a much better team.

[+] I achieved one of my dreams of living in Washington when I moved up here in June 2016.

[+] Hillary Clinton was the first female to win the nomination of a major political party and won the popular vote.

[+] I was able to go back to school this fall, discovered a deep love of Accounting, and had a 4.0 for my first quarter!

[+] My Huskies made it to the semi-final game against Alabama!

[+] My Giants made it to the play-offs.

[+] THE DODGERS SUCKED IN THE NLCS!!!!

[+] MY NINERS HAVE A BETTER RECORD THAN THE CLEVELAND BROWNS! (Granted, they have the second worst record in the NFL but at least they’re better than the Browns.)

[+] I rocked the Write 31 Days challenge!

[+] I got a Fitbit (finally!!!!) and won a few challenges.

[+] I got to introduce my little beach boy to snow!

[+] I discovered that my school district here in Washington had a YUGE team ready to work with Daniel when we arrived. TWELVE PEOPLE were at the IEP meeting SPECIFICALLY for Daniel. His PT and OT were at his parent-teacher conference and are positively smitten with my little monster. 🙂

[+] I joined a FABULOUS parish up here. I’m seriously still being sustained by the joy from the Christ Mass on Christmas Eve night.

[+] Daniel WILLINGLY takes his ADHD meds without us having to restrain him. He just asked for peanut butter and meds. 🙂 (Granted, he asked for M&M’s two seconds after getting his meds but I’ll allow that.)

I’m looking forward to a FABULOUS 2017!

7 Quick Takes: Things I Resolve To Do in 2017

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Make healthier choices. I’ll be doing a plank challenge with some friends starting on January 1st and I’ll be trying to hit my college’s gym once I get over this stupid cold. I’m also going to try and cook more of my own food from scratch.

— 2 —

Annoy the crap out of T-Rump and his administration. I have the freedom to petition and I plan on making good use of it. 🙂 All of my favorite petition sites are locked and loaded and I have plans to attend a few protest marches.

— 3 —

Fill out a boatload of scholarship applications. I don’t qualify for grant-based aid because I already have a B.A. and I’d like to get as much of my Accounting program paid for without having to take out loans.

— 4 —

Get through as much of my Accounting program as I can. I am soooo excited for classes to start next week!!! I’m taking the second classes in my Practical Accounting series, a class on records management, and a class on Microsoft Word. The class on Word should be easy but I’ll appreciate that with two other classes.

— 5 —

Participate in Write 31 Days again. I have had so much fun in the last two years of participating in the challenge that I’d really like to do it again.

— 6 —

Finish some crocheting projects. I’d like to start some new projects but that means finishing some other ones first! First on the list to finish: my mom’s Christmas socks from last year.

— 7 —

Not eat any yellow paint. This one is a tribute to my friend Rick. He passed away four years ago and he used to resolve not to eat any [insert color] paint every year.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: More Asthma Exacerbation Edition

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Sigh… Trick-or-treating on my cul-de-sac almost killed me because of asthma exacerbation (thank God Daniel only wanted to do five houses!) and I had to stay home from class on Tuesday to rest my lungs. I hate missing class but I also didn’t want to be puking from the asthma attack I would get from walking to the classroom from my car. Thankfully, it wasn’t a quiz day so I didn’t lose points for being absent.

— 2 —

World Series. My back-up boys have prevailed and Cleveland is back to stinking at sports! My only regret is that the Cubs didn’t sweep them; but at least they triumphed in Game 7 while playing *IN* Cleveland. (For those who are wondering, I hate all Cleveland sports teams and root against them at every turn. Thank various seminary classmates and obnoxious bloggers for this one.) Here’s hoping this is the beginning of some baseball dominance for the Cubs! They definitely deserve it. I’m so excited for my Illinois friends who are headed to a victory parade that has been a long time in coming. 🙂

And seriously, the rain delay was a joke. These men are being paid millions of dollars — if volunteer softball teams can play in the rain and football teams can play in -20F weather with blowing snow, baseball players can man up and play in the rain! I mean, are they going to melt?

— 3 —

The Write 31 Days challenge. I have prevailed over the Write 31 Days challenge! I need to do one more post aggregating all of the resources I linked but I’m glad I managed to write every day in October, even when I really didn’t want to write or when I was bogged down with homework.

— 4 —

Daniel and ENT fun. The munchkin had an early ENT appointment on Wednesday and was pretty good until we had to restrain him so that the doctor could examine his ears under the microscope. (To be fair, I’d hate to be restrained and have someone poking things into various orifices so I don’t really blame him.) He’s got serious ear wax preventing them from being able to do a decent exam and they couldn’t get it out so they’re going to have to sedate him to clean it out. This should be… interesting.

— 5 —

Election blah. I am so sick of the election that I’m pausing and then fast-forwarding through anything election-related on TV. I voted almost three weeks ago because everyone registered in Washington gets their ballot in the mail and they can choose to mail it back or drop it off in person. Seriously, there should be some chip in the ballot that automatically gets rid of political ads and all political content from TV once a person votes because this is too much.

— 6 —

Interesting… A small town in Macedonia has become a hub for pro-Trump websites. It’s a bit disturbing that Macedonian people are profiting off our electoral dysfunction.

— 7 —

*facepalm* I heard from one of my favorite $tarbux baristas that she had people whining about not having eggnog lattés on Halloween and that there’s some controversy about the green pre-holidays cup. Seriously?!?!?!?!? Eggnog lattés are foul-tasting and it’s not like it’s even Advent yet, let alone Christmas.

Some people seriously destroy my faith in humanity and I’m not even talking about Trump supporters with this one!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs: Vaccines and Autism

Posted on by

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs

I saved this particularly scary topic (at least for some people) for Halloween. For those with a delicate constitution who are going to be easily offended by me disagreeing with them, I recommend something more soothing to read… like maybe a science book! For everyone else, go look under the cut.

Continue reading →

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs: Food Issues

Posted on by

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs

If you have a kid who was born prematurely, there’s a good chance that they have some texture issues in their mouth. Add in autism or sensory processing disorders (SPD) and you have a kid who refuses to eat what you put in front of them. As frustrating as this is, here’s how I’ve coped.

[+] Supplement with Pediasure or Boost. It is almost impossible to get enough calories into Daniel so that he can gain weight. A nutritionist put him on Pediasure when he was 2 years old and they were finally able to plot him on the growth chart. It’s not ideal for kids to get most of their calories that way but it sure does help.

[+] Gummy vitamins. If your kid likes fruit snacks, this is a way to get extra vitamins in. Again, it’s not ideal but it works.

[+] Pick your battles. Your kid only eats food shaped like a dinosaur? Congratulations! They’re typical. Order a dinosaur-shaped cookie cutter for sandwiches, stock up on those chicken nuggets, and explain that the broccoli on their plate are palm trees. No kid is perfect and it’s likely that they won’t eat what you put in front of them every time. If it is making mealtimes into battles, rethink your strategy.

[+] Find whatever you can get your kid to ingest and stick with it. Daniel has his own peanut butter jar because we use it to give him his meds and because the kid eats it out out the jar with a spoon! We allow it because it’s extra fat and calories for him, two things that my painfully thin kid needs! He loves whole milk so that’s why we buy. (I find that my crabby gut tolerates whole milk while nonfat milk makes it stabby. Lactose-free milk is twice as expensive which is why it isn’t in the budget.) We go through tons of bananas and shortbread cookies because that’s what he likes. Ditto with goldfish, cheese sticks (calcium and protein!), fruit snacks, apple juice.

[+] Model good habits. If your kids see you eating your broccoli, they are more likely to try it.