Family Picnic

This past Friday we went to Buck Creek State Park

in Springfield for a picnic dinner.

It was a beautiful evening with nice temps

and low humidity.  And the beach was practically 

empty so we had lots of space to ourselves!

Not exactly the ocean, but not bad for Ohio!

Goose prints!

Alex

All the guys!

Me trying to get Spencer to take a picture with me.

He would step away just as I would click the shutter.  haha.

The seagulls are very friendly, and expect you to

share your food.  

The Mister and Alex.

A few boats passed by.

The only shells I could find up on the shore.

Guess I needed to get in the water but it was a little chilly!

Up the hill to the parking area!

Bye!

♥

Around Here, Lately

1. We've been missing our aquarium for a few years now and recently decided to have one built to fit into a strangely shaped alcove in our living room!  While we wait for the tank, we've been looking at fish!  Here I am last week taking selfies with some friendly lion fish.  They didn't make the cut for favorites, but they were fun to look at!  Photo credit to The Mister.
2. Feels like spring!  Crazy for Ohio in February that is for sure!  Maybe the groundhog got it wrong this year!  We have warm rains, green grass and the bulbs are sprouting from the ground!  We can have snow into April, so this is weird!  I'm feeling gypped from my proper winter!  This winter loving girl needs her full three months!
3. We're still under bathroom renovations with the boys' bath being finished this week!  Then our contractor goes on vacation for 3 weeks so the master bath will start late March.  It's been very slow going but what is completed looks really good.  Before and After pics to come, probably next week!
4. The boys are doing great.  A few of you have been kind enough to ask.  No good/bad/ugly things to report...haha....just plugging along every day and doing fine.  We've all been sharing a bathroom for 2 months now and they have been very flexible and good about it, even when they prefer a bath to a shower and have had to go with the showers in our master all this time.

What's happening with you?

♥

Today

Like my hat?

The big kids gave it to me as part of my 

Mother's Day gift this year.

Two of the guys woke up with a fever this morning

so we cancelled the day program and had a day off.

I still had to go pick up the groceries (so thankful for Kroger

ClickList) so we all piled in the Jeep after lunch and made the

trip, stopping at the thrift store to drop off a few boxes beforehand. 

After Kroger we drove through McDonald's for

fries for the guys and a coke for me.

While we were waiting in the drive-thru I got rear-ended!

That white car behind me ran right into us.

I got out and she got out.  The nose of her car was

jammed under the back on my Jeep.

She was upset, said her son was screaming for a

hamburger and she wasn't paying attention.

I asked her to back up a little so we could see exactly

what the damage was and when she did it didn't show

much.  I had a little scratch on my bumper and she

had a little worse scrape on hers.  We agreed it wasn't enough

to make a fuss over and I assured her it was fine.

She looked relieved and as I got back in the Jeep I

thought how she looked like she was having a terrible

day.  I thought I'd do a nice thing for her and pay for

the Happy Meal for her son when I paid for our stuff.

But before we could even get much further in the line

(it was very long and slow moving) she cut out of line

and left.  I guess the stress of waiting was more than

that family could bear.   I remember days like that.

So we got fries and a coke and were on our way.

Fevers are better tonight and we're going to take another

vacation day tomorrow just to make sure everyone

feels better.  I mean, fries cure everything, right?

♥

Auction Stories

Once in a while I see something at an auction that just

HAS to come home with me!  You should have seen the

guys when they came home and saw this in their room!

♥

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a really nice trip to Pennsylvania to visit Taylor

and Lauren!  We took the boys on a train ride,

the two men went golfing and the girls went wine tasting!

Lauren's parents, who live in a nearby city came over one

evening so we could go out to dinner with our big kids, which

was extremely nice and much appreciated!

And there was lots of racing for our race car loving family

with Formula 1, Indy 500, and Nascar all in one day.

The train ride was in Millertown, a beautiful little town that was

decked out in lovely banners that paid tribute to their hometown

military heroes, hanging baskets of flowers and American flags.

The best part of driving home was the sky!

We started out with fog in the mountains and then it broke

into sun, blue sky and tons of big puffy clouds. 

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a beautiful route to take and

the boys loved the tunnels cutting through the mountains. 

It made a 7 hour drive very tolerable!

The kitties held down the fort while we were gone!

I didn't have anyone check on them...we just put out

plenty of food and water.  They can come and go as they

please with their cat flap, of course.

They sure were excited to see us when we got home!

Most were out lounging on the back porch and when I stepped

out there it was hilarious to see them all come running!

They chatted, wrapped around my legs and rolled over my feet.

The Mister stepped out and said, "Oh my gosh, you really do look

like a crazy cat lady!" haha.  All 13 were here, healthy and fine.

Oh, and Sterling appeared a little later....let himself in and stayed

long enough for some food, fresh flea control and a little attention.

So, I hope you had a good weekend.

Did you do anything special?

♥  

On Folding Socks

The guys have always taken everything off wrong side out.

Everything.  That means every shirt, sock, pair of shorts,

pants and underwear goes into the laundry wrong side out.

So folding laundry for me has always had a little extra

step in there to put everything right again.  Now I don't do

this for The Mister and I didn't do it for Taylor.  They are

capable of doing that for themselves! But the guys 

just don't notice.  I mean, seriously.  I have to make sure

they don't put their clothes on backwards much less

wrong side out!  Underwear has been known to be on

backwards and inside out.  I mean really....wouldn't a guy

notice that right off?  Seems like it would a little...uncomfortable!

But back to folding laundry.  It's a little tedious to turn each

sock right side out before folding a pair together!  So today

when by some sort of miracle the last two socks in a

pile of a couple dozen were already right side out, 

I did a double-take!  What?

I think I heard the Hallelujah Chorus!

Ah, yes....it really is the little things that make me happy.

♥

In The Autism World, Lately

Alex, today.

Alex has super sensitive hearing with his autism.

The other boys are only bothered by sound and noise

occasionally, especially when out in public, but they

seem to handle it much better than Alex.  I remember 

the first time we noticed this was a problem.  We took

the whole family into Lowe's when the triplets were about

4 or 5 years old.  Alex cried and held his ears

until we left the store.  It took another trip there for

us to figure out it was the humming of the fluorescent lights...

something we normally don't even notice!  Alex again covered

his ears and cried!  We avoided family trips to Lowes and he

seemed fine but a few years later, the sensitivity seemed wide

 spread, and he would live most of his days covering his

ears, which made doing things with his hands difficult,

interfered with school, eating, etc.

Months later I learned about the benefits of a sound 

muffling headset from an autism parent chat room

 and that helped immensely!  Ironic thing...

we got them at Lowe's. haha.  

Well, here we are 15-18 years later and he's still wearing

them!  He only takes them off to get into the tub, but

compensates for this by laying back and submerging the back

of his head in the water, including his ears!  I go in and slip

the headset off his head after he's fallen asleep at night

 and recently he's left them off all night.

Because of the constant warm, moist environment around his

ears, we have to be careful of yeast infections.  We have several

pairs that we rotate so they can dry out and have resorted to

a prescription cream, Ciclopirox Olamine, to keep his skin

healthy.  Kind of crazy, huh?  His head has even

grown with an indented shape around his ears!  

Lately, I've been trying to gradually get him to keep the headset

off at home.  This works only if he's in the family room alone

and there isn't any noise around, like television or vacuum.

At first he could only last a few minutes, but with lots of

praise, he's gotten better and better.

I purposefully turned the sound down on his iPad so he

would feel like he could hear it better without the headset.

He's been doing very well!  A few times he let me take the

headset off when he got into bed, but that only works if his

brothers are already settled and quiet. :)

This past weekend he went almost the whole time with it off.

One never knows how much of it is habit or a security thing

and how much is really a sound sensitivity at this point.

But we do know that he is terribly attached to them!

I had to snap the photo above because it's a pleasantly

different sight to see him without that big thing on his head!

He looks so much better without it! haha.

 ♥

♥

This quote always comes to mind when thinking about

 about life with my boys, especially on this 

National Autism Awareness Day. 

To all my friends and followers who live with

autism every day, my very best wishes,

love and prayers.

♥

Tickly Whiskers

Harry, watching himself in my cell camera.

He laughs whenever I ask for a kiss and then giggle

and tell him his whiskers are tickly.

♥

Merry Christmas!

♥

Pillow Talk

Most mornings the boys get up earlier than necessary.

I'm still asleep and the mister is usually up and on

the treadmill.  Spencer gets on his computer and blasts

music, Alex lays on the couch and gets on his iPad.

And Harry crawls into our bed!  I am usually so sound

asleep and don't even hear him come into our room.

He gets about 20 more minutes of sleep while I wake up

and drink a cup of coffee.  I guess you could say on

most days, I go to bed with one man........

and wake up with another!  hahaha.

♥

♥

♪♪♫♫♪

Happy Birthday, Boys!

Our babies turn 23 on Tuesday!

♥

Slice of Life Saturday #2

♥

Around Here, Lately

1. The Big Kids.  They can't take a bad photo, can they?  I stole this one from them from their vacation last month.  They have all the exciting news lately!  They both recently turned 25! And Taylor took a new job in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago! They are already there, staying with in-laws while Lauren finds a job and they get an apartment.  All huge changes and it feels like it all happened in the blink of an eye!  We'll miss seeing them every week but are happy for them!
2. The boys.  They've been to the doctor for annual checkups and we survived getting poked, prodded and lots of blood work.  Then we decided to torture them further with trips to the dentist this morning. haha ... But everyone got great checkups and test results so we are super happy about that.
3. I saw the first lightning bugs of the season over the weekend. Those magical things always amaze me.  Fun memories of childhood, too, running through the dark summer evenings trying to catch them!
4. We usually do some kind of home improvement during the late spring/early summer.  This year it's the garage doors that need to be replaced.  I flipped through my trusty gardening/landscaping Pinterest board and showed The Mister some ideas I had tucked away.  Turns out he likes my ideas, including a wall pergola above the doors!  Well, now!  That excites me! haha.  The doors are ordered, so it won't happen for a week or two but I'll keep you posted.  I need to take a 'before' picture, too. They look sad. Very sad. haha.
5. It was so cool and rainy here over the holiday weekend that I actually changed into jeans and a sweater to go shopping.  What on earth! haha.  Never has that happened in July!
6. My blog doesn't seem to be updating on blogrolls.  Anyone else having that problem?

Well, I think that's all the news for now.

How's your summer going so far?

Is your garden growing?

Are you staying cool?  

♥

Annual Checkups

I took the boys to the doctor this morning.

It was time for their annual checkups.

We all survived the exams....and blood work....

even me.  haha.  Whew!

♥

So, April Was Autism Awareness Month....

...and I didn't post about it.  Not that I didn't think about it, though.

I guess I felt like having a pity party instead of celebrating this year. 

And as my Instagram feed was inundated with messages to spread

autism awareness every day, I got to thinking that really the messages

were to encourage those of us that deal with autism on such a personal 

level.  Lots of messages like "Autism moms are super heroes" and

"Autism parents.  They don't want your pity.  They want a nap."  

Usually, I'm right there with those sentiments....the ever positive girl,

 looking on the bright side.  But once in a while this whole life begins

to feel so big and...well, hard!  There are so many things to hate about

 autism.  I hate that my boys' bright minds are trapped in an injured

body that makes it so hard for them to communicate and socialize.

I hate how autism handicaps an entire family, making doing most 

things other families take for granted very difficult or impossible.

I hate how alone it makes you feel.

I hate the sense of loss of all the things that won't happen...

sending them off as adults to find their way in the world...college,

marriage, jobs, children of their own.  I hate how autism consumes

every part of a day from what we do to where we go.  I hate how

unhelpful and insensitive people can be.  My, have we experienced

some terrible things in our journey, mainly from highly educated

people in the field of education or in ministry.

But lately, I mostly hate the fear I have for the future.  I always joke

that I have to live forever.  I mean, seriously...nobody, not even The  

Mister, can read our boys like I can.  And nobody will sacrifice or care

for them that doesn't have that mother's love, which really is the only

thing that can drive such a vehicle through this difficult journey.  My

 heart almost stops when I think of having to give up guardianship of

 them as I become elderly and cannot care for them here in our home.

Not only do I hate eventually giving up my role there, but I hate

to ask someone else to take on something like that.

As I've been thinking on these things in recent days, and having a

full blown pity party this morning, something amazing happened.

 A line from a song we sing in church came to mind.

  I hadn't heard it in years.  It had to be straight from God.

A little miracle just for me to keep things in perspective.  It was...

"...because I know he holds the future"

by David Crowder

and then this one a few minutes later....

 "...God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

He works in ways we cannot see.  He will make a way for me"  

by Don Moen.  

No promises of an easy life.  No promises of a painless journey.

But this mama bird caring for a nest full of adult babies isn't

alone.  She doesn't need to be worrying about things that

won't happen for 20 years.  She doesn't need to be worrying

that the journey is taking turns she didn't want or expect.

So...a deep breath, a prayer to God and a pep talk to myself to get

back to taking one day at a time.  I'm not to be worrying about things

that won't happen for years, especially when I'm not the one in

charge and not the one that knows the future.

God dropped a clear reminder right in my lap today when

I needed it most.  And I'm so thankful for that.

♥