Here we go again...

Long time no post!

So many things have been happening in the last few months and I am excited to tell you all about it! First things first - ROMAN HAS AUTISM SERVICES AGAIN! Starbucks announced in early April that they have lifted the seven year age restriction for autism services. Unfortunately this is only Premera Blue Cross through Starbucks. My good friend and sister in mothering a child with autism also has Premera Blue Cross but she is still battling to get her son services. So it's a bittersweet victory, but something I am immensely grateful for.

I am also trying to give myself permission to be human. Being human is being imperfect. I haven't kept up on scrapbooking. I stopped doing Project Life this year starting in January. And I haven't posted my finished my December Daily pictures to my blog. I was talking to my friend about this, saying how bad I felt for not keeping up with everything. She said something that really hit home.

 

"You are not Ali Edwards. You don't have staff."

She was right. I don't have staff. I homeschool. We drive to autism therapies three days a week and our homeschool group the other two days. I cook. I clean. I do laundry. I go grocery shopping. I work part-time. Scrapbooking isn't my job.

I am human. And that's okay.

Most recently I've been trying to listen to my body. About what my body needs. I've been ignoring something for a really, really long time. My body hates dairy. Let me get one thing straight, I am addicted to dairy. I can drink a gallon of milk in two days. If given the opportunity I'll eat an entire block of cheese. But it wasn't until cutting it completely out that I realized what it does to me. My intense cravings stopped. They completely stopped. I eat, get full and don't want food for a good four hours. Whereas before, I would eat large quantities and then two hours later, be ravenous for more. My chronic fatigue decreased significantly.

So we'll see how it goes! Right now I'm doing just fine. I'm eating more fruits and vegetables and they actually satisfy my hunger, something that has never, ever happened before.

So in a nutshell, we are doing great. And I have more opportunities for "me" time on Tuesdays and Thursdays during my son's homeschool group. So more posts and updates are coming soon! Stay tuned!

Aloha

Hello from Maui!

Our whole family is here for my little sister's wedding.

So thankful for this great trip.

Thankful that we could use miles for our tickets.

Thankful that my parents could use their timeshare for our room.

Thankful for my new brother in law.

Thankful that Roman is having a great time after a rocky start.

Thankful for amazing friends watching our animals while we're gone.

Thankful for relaxation and the ability to take it easy.

I have taken about 500 pictures so far. Yes, 500. Thankfully my father brought his laptop so I could empty the camera every day and go through our photos so it won't be so daunting when we get home.  Before we left, I took the Scrapbook on the Road class from Ali Edwards.  She had some great tips as far as what to do to make sure that you document your trip.

I've been making sure to keep everything and write everything down, if not during the day then when we get home at night. There are so many stories that I've written down that I know I would forget about if I waited until I got home. Lots of writing going on over here.

I've been happy to see the amount of local artists here, able to make a living from tourism. Although for every artist here, that are twice as many "discount" shops selling the same products made in china (which is really weird to me). I found one gal who makes and sells macaroons (gluten free!). Let me start by saying that I've never liked macaroons. I LOVE her macaroons. Love them. So fresh and light and good. Just another example of how you get what you pay for.

While it has been fun on vacation, I'm really looking forward to coming home. I miss our house, our weather (I may be the only one on the planet who likes cold weather), our pets and my graphic design work.

Until next time...aloha and mahalo for visiting!

the benefits of celiac disease & money matters

Happy February everyone!  Well it has been a full two weeks since we have had any take out for dinner. While this may not be a big feat for most, it is unfortunately, for me.

While I am good at many things, cooking isn't one of them.

But since my celiac diagnosis in November, I had to choose between learning how to cook and bake or spend twice as much at the grocery store. Because the latter wasn't an option for us, I opened up to a new world of cooking and baking.

And you know what?  I kind of like it.

My parents got us a bread maker for Christmas and I absolutely love it.  I've made about two loaves per week since we got it (my son LOVES the homemade GF bread).  And as far as dinners go, its been pretty easy - most of the stuff I made was gluten-free anyway.  But I did have to make some substitutions, which is totally okay.

But the good news is that we are keeping our grocery/eating out bills at a minimum.  After moving to our new house, we have a larger mortgage which is much harder to get used to than I thought it would be (we live in an expensive part of the country. Not California expensive, but close). So we are looking at all of our options to save money and focus on what matters most.

We cancelled cable. We use our cell phones as our home phone. We stopped any and all unnecessary spending. We cook more. We stopped eating out. We lowered the thermostat.

And you know what?  Its working out. Having a tight budget feeds my creativity.  I used to think that it would hinder it (not being able to spend money on scrapbooking supplies, or artsy stuff), but being limited to what you have on hand and making it work takes a lot of creativity. And thankfully, I have plenty of that to spread around.

So I am off to bake yet another loaf of gluten-free bread and to get some laundry done before I pick up Roman from school. I hope you all have a creative day and are able to focus on what matters most to you and your family today.

we have successfully moved out

As of 7:30pm, we are officially homeless!  I am typing this on my Dad's laptop as I sit in my old room at my parents' house. We are staying with them until our new house closes - that's right we get to move not once...but twice!

The good news is that most everything so far has gone smoothly. The bad news is that our computer may be toast. Which is very, very bad news for my customers and my business. Not good at all.  Zach and my Dad are trying to fix it right now, I am hoping that we can get it up and running asap - I don't like being away from my email for too long!

So if you have emailed me in the last couple of days and havent heard back, I will get back to you as soon as I can!  And to my customers, I appreciate your patience and will get your order filled asap. Updates to come as they happen!

keeping the peace

the past few days have been...challenging around here. Roman has been having a hard time transitioning between playing and...anything really. It is especially hard to get him on the potty these days too, each time he we try to put him on he throws a fit and sometimes even cries because he says he is busy.

Yesterday morning I was at my wits end when we finally got to Occuptional Therapy (late of course). I told Roman's therapist about the issues that we have been having lately and she recommended putting together a schedule to help him transition a bit better. She also recommended reinstating the potty chart (which didn't seem to be working) in addition to giving M&M's as rewards.

So last night I got to work and this is what I came up with, (the squares you see above his schedule are the completed activities for the day)

I made 3x3 squares in photoshop and typed his activities for the day along with a corresponding picture (thank you Microsoft Clip Art!). I printed them out then laminated them with sturdy 10 mil sleeves (my favorite thickness), cut them out, rounded the corners, then added a strip of velcro to the back along with a magnet, the velcro is white and hard to see against the white paper so I added black lines to show where it is.

Then I laminated an 11x17 sheet of paper, rounded the corners and added three strips of velcro for his squares. Last night I made up his schedule for the day and left it on the fridge for him to see the next morning.

The result? Today has been incredible! He loves taking his squares off his schedule and putting them up on the fridge after we're done doing something. We have had zero complaints about going potty today and get this...zero accidents! I also made another potty chart for him too, the one we were using had 20 boxes across and was a bit overwhelming to look at. This one only has ten, everything seems to be working - wahoo! I even made a special square for our "nothing" days: that would be the "Go To Starbucks" square. He is a sucker for hot cocoa and lemon loaf lol. So far so good, will keep you posted!

happy birthday to me

I am official 32 years old as of yesterday. And I couldn't be happier about it. My 20's were all about establishing myself, getting married and having one of two kiddos. My 30's are all about my family and finding my real joys in life. Did I ever think that I would be an at-home Mom with a graphic design business? No. But it is the best job I could ever have. Being a Mom is....amazing. Truly the best thing in the world. Being a Mom and having amazing creative outlets? I couldn't ask for more.

Speaking of creative outlets....I was given the most amazing birthday present ever. In the history of birthday presents. A present that will span many birthdays and a Christmas or two. Or three. Or four. This is a Canon Digital Rebel SLR T1i. 15.1 megapixels. 3 frames per second. Amazing camera. I should say that I am the unofficial family photo historian in the family. I have our family history scrapbooked to the mid 1800's. I scrapbook almost every single day and take a ton of pictures.

I realized about two years ago that I had some major limitations with a point and shoot - camera shake was a huge one. I don't like using the flash, I love the look of natural light pictures. But my pictures always turned out blurry. That and I needed a higher mega pixel, I use a lot of 12x12 and above pictures in my layouts. Here is my first layout from my new camera featuring a 9x14 photo: The picture is clear, crisp and I didn't have to stretch the photo to fit. When I think about the amazing pictures I can take from here on out, I almost hyperventilate I get so excited. I am one deliriously happy girl.

welcome sweet baby girl

eight pounds, six ounces. completely irresistable. I am such a proud and happy auntie.

("Welcome sweet baby" text scraplifted from the great ali edwards)

on baby duty

while my husband and son are in Wenatchee visiting family, I am home on baby duty. today is my sister's due date and still no sign of baby. Will keep you posted.