5 Positive Things 29 Jul 2010

In an effort to focus more on the positive, I plan to post positive happenings in my day periodically.

1. Luke got out of the van for school today, even though he didn't want to.  No one had to drag him out, we just had to gently coax him.  And by the time we were done (me and his special ed teacher), he was smiling and walked into the building on his own (with her trailing him to be sure he made it to his room).
   
   
2. I took a shower.  To most people that will not sound like a big deal.  I have two things working against me taking a shower most days.  #1 - I work from home and don't have the motivation for being very clean that being around other people provides.  #2 - my motivation has been very low for awhile now, especially concerning daily grooming.  I am improving in this area, but have had a set-back over the last week or so.
   
   
3. Because I showered, I was able to finish epilating my legs (best results are obtained after a shower / exfoliating).  I hate to shave, so I use an epilator.  It is a little machine that rips the hairs out, like plucking.  But it is much quicker.  The results are smooth legs for about 4 weeks, maybe more for people with fine, light hair.  It can be uncomfortable, possibly painful the first time or if the hairs are too long.  So it takes me about 3 to 5 sessions over a span of a week to do this.
   
   
4. Ryan was in a good mood most of the day.  He was having a problem hearing his teacher at school.  He's usually pretty nervous about teachers, but he handled the problem very well.  He told her about it and they came to a solution that he felt good about.  I'm very proud of him for that.
   
   
5. Luke is showing HUGE signs of improvement in his reading skills.  He is supposed to bring a book home from school every day, but forgot it yesterday.  The books are ones he has seen several times with VERY obvious picture clues.  So he either has them memorized or can figure it out pretty easily by looking at the pictures.  When he forgets his school book, we pick one of our own.  I told him that he could be my assistant reader and he really bought into that idea.  I would point to a lot of the words I thought he knew, but he was reading even more of the words than I intended.  And a few of them I would never have guessed that he already knew.

That's it for now.  Stay tuned for the next edition of 5 Positive Things!

Introductions

Hello, my name is Eilene.  I wanted to begin sharing the joys and sorrows of family life with Asperger's and mood disorders.  I am one of the ones suffering from a mood disorder and tend to focus on the negative.  This is going to help me to see more of the positive in my life.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of stress when dealing with these problems, so some of my posts will be related to stress.

Let me start with myself, since I'm the blog author.  I am a 40-something full-time working mom & wife.  My main role at work is to develop web-based training, a variety of topics.  I work for a major corporation in manufacturing, but will never say the name of the company.  My job role will be changing for the remainder of this year.  I will still be developing training that needs to stay in-house (privacy data and such), but will be evolving into more of a leadership role.  I will be working more with internal customers who need web-based training.  I'm looking forward to that, but a little nervous.

I have a few hobbies, but I find it hard to stick with them for long periods of time.  I like genealogy and have expanded much of the information that I got from my mother and mother-in-law.  One of the genealogical related projects I finished a few years ago was very interesting.  I was able to find the link in my mom's and dad's Swedish ancestry and research the Swedish church records.  Unfortunately my dad's ancestors came from a parish that didn't start keeping records until late in the game.

I love to read.  I read a lot of fantasy for pure enjoyment.  I also read a lot on psychological disorders, since we have that problem in our family.  I received a Kindle for my birthday last year and I read even more since then.  It is so easy to just bring it with me and read away.

Now on to my family.  I've been married to Aaron for nearly 17 years.  He's a great guy and I figure I will be done training him when we're in our 70's!  His big interests are guns and motorcycles, so I may be mentioning those periodically, especially if I'm involved in one of his activities.

I have two boys.  Ryan is 9 and in 4th grade.  He is a very intelligent youngster.  He loves to read and excels in that subject at school.  He does very well with other subjects too.  He is caring and loves to help people.  Although he doesn't have a diagnosis, I've come to the conclusion that he has tendencies towards ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) and a few characteristics of Asperger's.  This makes it hard for him to make friends.  I think he probably has more friends than he believes, but sometimes he feels like no one likes him.

Luke is 6 and in 1st grade.  He is our little comedian.  He is usually pretty happy and always trying to get people to laugh.  He's affectionate and loves BIG hugs.  He is my Asperger's guy.  This will probably be the subject of many of my posts.  Asperger's is a very high-functioning form of Autism.  He has difficulty reading social cues.  Has no concept of personal space, unless it is HIS personal space.  He struggles in communication arts at school, so has an IEP (individual education plan).  He also struggles with social aspects of school, enough to where they are looking into social programs for him.

We also have a dog named Max and a cat named Angel.  Angel is a sweet old girl.  You probably won't be hearing much about her, since she's pretty laid back.  Max is a high strung Louisiana Catahoula.  That is a popular dog down south and is a herding dog. 

That's it for now!