Spontaneity and Autism

On Valentine's Day I surprised the kids by taking them right out the door the second they got home from school to the movies. We saw the new Lego Batman movie and it was fun. The kids were hilarious though—they were like, “We can’t go to the movies, we need to do our homework first.” I told them that we could do homework later. They are so used to their schedule that they have a hard time when I change it (even for something fun). I later asked Jacob if he enjoyed mom being spontaneous and just taking him to a movie after school. He said, “No. I need to do my homework first. But if I have to go to a movie you need to let me know before.” Yup—autism and sticking to the schedule. That is pretty important. Parenting kids on the spectrum makes me giggle sometimes.

Gratitude for Founding Fathers

Yesterday I was working with Jacob on his Citizenship in the Nation merit badge for scouting. As we talked about the different branches of government and their functions and then the system of checks and balances I realized that we had a perfect example of that this week in politics--the Trump's ban and then the judge ruling that it was unconstitutional. No matter what side of the issue you are on, be thankful that our founding fathers set up this system of checks and balances so that no branch of our government can overstep its bounds without another branch checking it. I am glad to be an American and am thankful for our founding fathers! Glad to see the process still working.

Birthday Boy

Nathan turned 18 this week! Happy Birthday to my boy. I can honestly say I am so thankful that God sent us this wonderful son. Although having a child with autism was never on my agenda, it is a journey I am so thankful to have taken.