What I’m Thankful For….

This Thanksgiving someone tried to get folks to go around the table and say what they were thankful for. It fell rather flat. Someone said “my good looks,” another person said, “my health,” and then it simply morphed into an eating frenzy that left everyone in a deliciously happy food coma.

I have been thinking about this. If you say you’re thankful for personal things, some think you’re being selfish, but if you say you’re thankful for the typical things, you’re copping out. So I decided to say what I’m thankful for, by category, because I really am thankful for so many things. Life is tough, but when you break it down, it’s a wonderful thing.

#1) “I’m thankful I’m 46.” So many times I’ve been frustrated about aging. But then I read a quote that changed my thinking. It said, “Don’t fret about aging… it’s a gift denied to many.” How true. I’m alive and healthy and on this earth, so I am thankful I’ve been given the gift of time.

#2) “I’m thankful my family is healthy.” It’s true. Is life hard at times? Sure. But I’m thankful my son, who has Asperger’s, is as high functioning as he is. I’m thankful he tells me he loves me and hugs me and is back in the middle school with his twin sister. I’m thankful my daughter is a great athlete. She loves it and her passion is something that is wonderful to see. I’m thankful my husband is healthy and takes care of himself so he can be there for all of us.

#3) I’m thankful I got the guts to put my fiction novels out in market. So many times I believe we stunt our spiritual, emotional and professional growth because we’re scared of how we’ll be perceived by others. I’m thankful for the maturity I’ve finally developed that has allowed me to overlook my fears (or at least ignore them for the moment) to try this dream.

#4, #5, #6 and #7) I’m thankful for budding flowers in the spring, for Facebook, that my ferret is litterbox trained, and I’m thankful for lactaid pills so I can eat all the yummy foods out there.

So, when times are tough, make a list about what you’re thankful for. I think you’ll be surprised that there are so many things you can put down that you didn’t realize. And, hopefully, they’ll make you happy and fulfill you through tough times.

How about you? Give me one thing you’re thankful for – would love to hear it.

How I Turned into Supermom on Friday…

I have spent the past few weeks focussing this blog on writing, but by my subtitle, my blog is really about “Musings of a Type “A” Mom.” As much as I’d love to spend my life writing and cooking, a big part of my world is, of course, my children.

Here was my FB post Friday: DONE! Within 13 hours of deciding Ben was not going back to Camp Kehilla, I interviewed 5 camp directors, went to his old camp to settle things AND get my reimbursement, got medical forms, filled out paperwork, went to his new camp to meet the team, and now he is OFFICIALLY starting Luhi’s Computer program, with swimming, on Monday Morning. BooYa! I should really do this stuff for a living.

Let me explain. My 11 year old son has Asperger’s and camp (and most things) are not his thing. If he had his way, he’d be on the computer for his entire life playing Minecraft or watching crazy youtube videos that range from Team Fortress 2 vignettes to My Little Pony movies. For the past few years, he’s been going to a mainstream camp, but they suddenly closed. We looked at other mainstream camps, but they weren’t good fits (either too much sports, no real supervision, etc) so I selected a special needs camp where all the kids were on the spectrum. I was assured that his group would all be high functioning because my son gets very upset if he believes he’s in a group for kids with needs – especially if they’re lower functioning.

It’s been 3 weeks and needless to say, camp was a disaster. He was upset at the long bus ride, upset at some of the kids who would verbally stim for hours on end, upset that he was bored, not challenged and it was too chaotic. It got to a point that he was begging us not to take him to camp and he started having meltdowns to the point where he’d hurt himself. Camp simply shouldn’t be that way. I don’t blame the camp. We tried, it didn’t work out. My fault would have been to simply leave him there, because it was easy. But this mom doesn’t play that way.

I woke up at 6:00 am Friday morning, July 19th. Called in to work that I was taking off and started my emails. By 9:00 am I had started talking to directors at various camps, made appts at doctors to pick up medical forms for the camps, started downloading forms and started Facebooking about my plans. By noon I had it down to 3 camps. By 1:00 I chose one (one I had not even known about at noon and a FB friend mentioned!) and then dashed out to my son’s camp to let them know he wasn’t coming back, get reimbursement and take him home. (all nicely – I really don’t fault them).

By 4:30 I was at the new camp delivering payment, forms, getting the bus set up and talking to the Director. So, on Monday – only 3 days later on July 22nd, he’ll be starting a new camp, a computer based video gaming development program that “he thinks looks very cool” – there’s food he’ll eat, swimming and sports (hmmm), but they’re aware of his needs and the head of the camp believes he’ll be fine. My son has promised that he “will try” to control his behaviors. I’m hoping he’s motivated because he really wants to be there.

So, now I’m trying to breathe. Most of the time I’m a very tired, confused mess, but where my kids are concerned, I seriously feel like I have some sort of “reserve well” deep inside and have the ability to turn into supermommy when I need to. I mean, what other choice did I have?

Let’s cross our fingers, eyes, toes and whatever other disjointed body parts we have. The good news is, it’s only a 2 week program (I could re-up) but now I also have 2 other camps I can reach out to as well.

Wish us luck!