My present for Titus

This is what i have made for my soon to be 1 year old

We plan on doing a firehouse theme for the boys room...I am happy how it turned out. It needs a little fine tuning but you get the jist!

Please Consider....

You may or may not know that I am participating in the walk for Autism Speaks at the end of September, but if you have been reading my blog, you know about our struggles and victories with autism. You have been there for me: as an encouragement, a prayer, a simple "like" on facebook when we have a victory, you have rejoiced with me in my joy, you have had compassion in my sorrow, and I have never felt alone because i know i am not. And thank you for that, really truly. Not an artificial "thank you" but coming straight from my heart, THANK YOU!!!

I feel so funny about asking for support. But the main pull for the walk is to raise money for Autism Speaks. We need answers for this disability. And I will walk proudly for my Elijah. Would you consider supporting me? You can follow the link i will post below. The smallest donation you can pay online is $20 which i  think is a lot of money, i was hoping 30 of my friends would donate $5 a piece and i would reach my goal of $150, so if you would like to donate less than $20, just ask for my address and you can mail it to me! Anything would be a blessing.

If you can not donate money, consider walking with me. It costs nothing and i would love the company!! You do not need to raise support...I understand if you cannot donate at this time, our family has often wanted to give to various things but could not. Come on out to Frontier Field...lets walk for Elijah, and his CARD team: we would love to have you! I think it would be a ton of fun :) :)

Click here to visit my donation page

If you would like to walk with me it is absolutely free, you do not have to raise money, the walk is like a half hour and you can bring whom ever you would like! You can register at the team CARD page (Elijah's therapist said this was OK, so don't hesitate)..or just let me know you plan on coming! Hope to see you there!

Follow this link if you want info on the walk

For my 3 "I love yous"

You are my I love you {FULL VERSION}

Author: Maryann K Cusimano

I am your parent you are my child
I am your quiet place, you are my wild
I am your calm face, you are my giggle
I am your wait, you are my wiggle
I am your audience, you are my clown
I am your London Bridge, you are my falling down
I am your Carrot Sticks, you are my licorice
I am your dandelion, you are my first wish
I am your water wings, you are my deep
I am your open arms, you are my running leap
I am your way home, you are my new path
I am your dry towel, you are my wet bath
I am your dinner you are my chocolate cake
I am your bedtime, you are my wide awake
I am your finish line, you are my race
I am your praying hands, you are my saving grace
I am your favourite book, you are my new lines
I am your nightlight, you are my sunshine
I am your lullaby, you are my peek-a-boo
I am your kiss goodnight, you are my I love you

A Mommys Heart

Excuse my emotionalism, Julia came up to me today and asked me a question. "Mommy, did i have teachers when i was little?" We call Elijah's therapist his "teachers"  The question caught me off guard. I have braced and prepared my self mentally/emotionally for many situations, surrounding autism. I try to pre think situations, what could possibly happen and mentally pre pare for them. This is one issue, i am kinda stumped on. I do not want to label Elijah in his siblings eyes quite yet. We want to see where exactly he falls on the spectrum before we make an issue of it. Life with autism right now is just regular life for us..as you can see by Julias question, sometimes it is hard to remember a time before this all happened. It made me a little sad, not because it bothers me per say..just that it sometimes reminds me how different our lives really are. I still struggle with this from time to time, missing the "normal", the way things were. Before we had 3 to 4 therapist a day every day coming into the house. I tried explaining to her the best i could in simple terms and not making a big deal of it, that Elijah gets his teachers because his brain doesn't learn how to speak the way our brain does. And his teachers help him learn that. And because her brain does learn to speak, she doesn't need them (teachers). She was ok with that answer and went on her merry way...but it left me with a small lump in my throat. a little wistful a little sad. ......And then Elijah's therapist came to me and said he had fallen asleep during therapy.....

                                                                             

So i went and carried my silent warrior to the couch and made him a little more comfortable, with a heavy heart just stared at his sweet sleeping face. This week, he has had 6 to 7 hours of therapy a day, its worn him out. And i have my days of feeling so guilty.

I didn't write this post to be a downer, i just wrote what IS. Our life with autism has many many ups and this isn't really a down. Its just a mommy feeling a little sappy and sad for her hard working baby.

As Promised

I promised a couple friends i would post the following..and i thought you may want to see too :)

My Gyro Recipe!
Well, its kinda a conglomeration, i will try to explain best i can!
I first made my own homemade greek yogurt..but i am sure you can use store bought no problem!
Click here for Tzatziki Sauce recipe

My only adaptation to it, i do not puree the cucumber, i find it makes a really watery sauce, instead i Finally chop it, salt it and drain it in a cheese cloth to get all the access moister out. and then add to the recipe, trust me, do this instead it turns out much better.

My next thing i do is marinate my chicken tenderloins in Italian dressing overnight (i am sure you can use Caesar, but i like the sweetness of Italian opposed to the tang of Caesar) Fry chicken along with onions and peppers...

I chop up peppers and onions and add chicken, put a little extra virgin olive oil in a fry pan, fry them for a lil bit, and then add a little less than a tsp of sugar to the mix and fry a little longer. this sweetens the onions and caramelizes them, this is what takes the recipe over the top!

Of course you must have feta cheese and i like to use the Arnold's flat bread as my pita bread, i bought mine at (wal mart)    pile all ingredients in the lightly toasted (i just do that in the fry pan) flat bread and enjoy!

One of many pages of my binder

My next thing to post is...My Recipe Binder is almost done!!!! yay! I just have to buy some more inserts and i will be done, well, i am sure i will never be completely done, seeing i will always be adding new recipes but you get the idea,

This is a binder divider, you can not see but it has a clear pocket to put "to be sorted" recipes in the proper category

My dividers are labeled as followed, poultry main dishes, non poultry main dishes, sides, appetizers, and misc (marinades, jelly's punches etc, this work for me the best) its over simplified and only the category's i use most

My printed out recipes received hole reinforcers

Allot of work, but so happy it is done!!!

what we have been up to!

What a fun filled summer, sleep overs and play dates and birthday party's. I have been working on purging and simplifying my life, so the house has easier up keep, we have counted almost 30 trash bags full!!! not including stuff that wont fit in trash bags..that's allot of stuff!!

The next project i have going in order to become more organized.......

Is getting my recipes in order!! Holy cow do i have a whole lotta them!!! So i at down with my recipe box (who is now in the trash) and compiled them all, the pile above is the pile after i sorted and threw away allot. And now i am putting a recipe binder together, i still have to figure out the best way to compile and sort but i am over half way there! yay!!

Speaking of recipes, a new family favorite is home made gyros. I have to admit the desire to make these came from jealousy, while on jury duty my husband had a gyro down town he raved about...so i had to then make my own, of course ;) I found a recipe for homemade tzatziki sauce, and as some of you know i make my own home made yogurt...and tweaked the sauce a bit and made the gyros with caramelized onions and oh my!!! yum yum yum!!! They are too good :) I highly recommend you try making them. I will have to post a recipe sometime.     

This little girl made me so proud the other day. She came running out of my bed room (which is normally not a good thing! )    And said to me, mommy i made your bed!!!  And she did! so well, i was so impressed! WOW, a reminder she is growing up way to quickly :( So i had to take a picture. She is also doing so well in school. we are nearing being half done with kindergarten (probably in the next month) and her reading is taking off! i will have to post a video sometime, i can not believe she is old enough to read, and well....her hand writing has gotten much better also. I love knowing i taught her all of that. It must be the "must do everything myself" part of me. lol.

And this little boy, besides getting, how to tie a big boy tie lessons from his daddy has been doing pretty well :)     He takes himself to the potty on his own, rarely has an accident and is pretty proud of that fact. We just had a huge breakthrough with discipline and now threatening him with a consequence is starting to get him to control himself (thank God) His naughty tempers are starting to become little more normal, more like a typical child, and i can tell he is now learning his lesson, which is a huge answer to prayer and means his progress will  be huge!!! He is trying to sing the alphabet, its very hard to understand but the tune is there and it is so cute!! Along with other songs, it does make me a little sad to hear him try but normally if Elijah is willing to try he eventually masters it, keep on growing little man,mommy i proud of the progress you made and celebrates each victory!

And Titus has now gotten tall enough to pull his breakfast off the table  on the floor and to play in it ;) He walks everywhere repeats quite a bit considering his age and just yesterday was trying to sing "eieio" from old McDonald had a farm. He Loves to color on the magna-doodle, and his first tooth should be poking through any day now (mommy is a lil sleep deprived) I can not believe he will be one in less than a month, where did this year go?? I walked in on this sweet moment and had to take a pic (of course) awe, my kids are so blessed with the best daddy!! I love him just a *little* bit.

And Kristofer has big woodworking plans for Christmas so he is busy blueprinting and scheming, so he is a happy clam!! I am so blessed with such a kindhearted husband, always thinking of his family, that man.

Any way that's what we have been up to!

                                                                                         

I have missed blogging!

I can not believe how bad i have been at keeping this whole blog thing up..shame on me!! I started the blog because i herd there is this neat company who will print your blog like a book, i thought what a cool way to "journal" my family! I have been so busy with Homeschooling, Elijah therapy, taking care of my baby boy and the love of my life that i let this go by the way side :(

 bv b vvb    n gnun  9kjm, km9,.O8ol9.yz5qn sK%AAAAAAASx;uffufuddfat (that short little bit was written by elijah while i stepped away from the computer)

Any-who, i am gonna try to re dedicate my self to writing more often, because i think its important.
I have spent this entire summer doing a crazy amount of projects, my next one is to organize my recipes. I love to cook/bake etc, i really need to get these recipes whittled down and easy access so my meal planning goes smoother! I will keep you updated on the method i chose!! Wish me luck!