Wordless Wednesday - Our Trip to the Paint Store

We went to the paint store, but got these instead!

Pin It

Gluten Free Rice Crispy Treats with Frosting

 My boys had a big carnival fundraiser at their school this past weekend. The school asked for volunteers and since I couldn't really give my time I offered to make food for the cake walk and bake sale. I made a gluten free yellow cake with chocolate frosting for the cake walk, just incase the boys actually won and went to pick a cake. For the bake sale I again made something gluten free thinking the boys may wish to purchase a snack while we were at the event and I wanted to make sure they had a safe and delicious choice. 

But I am pretty busy and didn't feel up to making gluten free cookies and the cake for the cake walk. So I opted to make Gluten Free Rice Crispy Treats. I really wanted to offer something more than just traditional rice crispy treats since that is a some what normal in-home treat. I didn't want to make anything with an artificial colored candy add in so I decided I'd make a chocolate "frosting", but the treats had to be packed into baggies which meant I couldn't use a soft icing. I needed something that would stay firm and not stick to the wrapping.

GF Rice Crispy Treats with Chocolate Frosting

Rice Crispy Treat

10 oz bag of mini marshmallows - verify they are GF

6 Tbs of butter

5 To 6 Cups of Gluten Free Rice Crispy Cereal - note that most rice crispy cereals are NOT GF!

Following the traditional method I melted the butter and marshmallows then stirred in the cereal. I pressed the mixture into a buttered, glass rectangular pan and allowed it to cool. 

While the cereal bars cooled I prepared the frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

8 oz of dark chocolate chips - I used 60% Ghirardelli chocolate chips

1 to 2 Tbs milk

1 to 2 Tbs powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. This should only take 30 seconds to 90 seconds depending on microwave strength. Make sure all chips are melted. Add 1 Tbs of milk and 1 Tbs of powered sugar. The mixture will stiffen. Add additional milk and sugar if needed. Immediately frost the cereal bars. Allow to cool fully, then cut and serve.

Pin It

IEP - What a Buzz Kill

 Every single time we have an IEP meeting of any sort at the school, no matter how well it goes, I'm always left feeling dazed and down. This week we met with Matthew's school team to discuss Extended School Year (ESY) which is a fancy way of saying Summer School for Special Ed children. The meeting went as well as we could have hoped. His whole team was in agreement that he needs the ESY program for social skills. This is the first time ESY has been offered to him since previous years only addressed academic problems, which isn't really his issue. 

Although the outcome of this meeting went in the direction we would have wanted, and provided him with services he certainly needs, my husband and I are left feeling sad, alone, scared, unsure and not a little angry. It is extremely difficult to sit through meeting after meeting, year after year, hearing where your child doesn't measure up. We wonder just where this will leave him in years to come, and some how we feel as if we have failed. Failed him, failed us, failed our family. Autism can take hold of a family and hold it hostage. There are so few answers to so many questions. I'm sure most extrodinary situations leave the participants feeling similarly, but I only know autism.

So even with a positive IEP experience we are still left feeling rather negative. The one shining light is that we are doing everything we can think of to help and it does seem to be working, in slow, methodical increments. But increments none the less. In a day or two my brain will have processed all the information and will have filed it away, and I will be able to press on. We always do. We always will.

Stay well.

Pin It

Summer is on the Way

 I'm heading to Brandcation this year and it is on the beach in Pensacola, Florida! That means bathing suits are on my mind. Being the mom of 3 little boys means I need a real, functional bathing suit, but being a woman means I want a good looking one too. Lands' End has all of that, and more!

DIVE INTO SWIM SEASON WITH LANDS' END

ANNUAL SWIM SAVINGS EVENT - 25% OFF AND FREE SHIPPING WITH $50 PURCHASE

Lands' End is helping families get ready to dive into swim season! The annual Swim Event offers 25% off of the company's legendary regular-priced swimsuits and swim accessories. The sale inspires families to shop early to find swim favorites such as collections featuring vintage island prints or bold pops of color.

WHAT: Lands' End Swim Event - 25% off all regular-priced swimsuits for women, men's and kids and swim accessories including:

* Sandals

*Totes

* Beach Towels

*Watershoes

FREE SHIPPING: Sale includes free shipping with a $50 minimum purchase

WHEN: Friday, March 16 - Monday, March 19, 2012

WHERE: www.landsend.com

 

You know me, I LOVE free shipping. And I'm totally digging the bright bold patterns!

Pin It

ESY and Social Skills

 We had our ESY IEP meeting today. I guess, if you are of the one opinion, it went very well. That is, his school team felt he qualified for the social skills extended school year (ESY) program. This was a first for us because in previous years he has never qualified for summer services. Come to find out that is because at the pre-school and kindergarten level they only offer the academic course, but once a child reaches first grade there is another critical life skill being addressed: social skills. 

We had always known that Matthew needed additional summer services and could not understand why he was not offered ESY previously, until this year when it was explained to us that the younger children need to have academic problems, but social problems were not considered critical. In first grade they are. So it was agreed that he will join other children in our county's social skills program. 

I'm pleased by this decision as I know Matthew needs this help, and because social interaction will be the primary goal for all the children in the program. The number of service hours daily, along with the actual number of school days will offer him a much more intense social skills setting than anything we can provide during the school year. He currently attends a private social skills group, but it only meets for one hour per week and runs for only 8 weeks. That just isn't enough time to master the skills necessary, nor does it help us learn how to help him.

We will also start seeing a private psychologist to help him develop these same skills. We are hoping the one-on-one attention will promote a faster, more specialized learning atmosphere for Matthew. I am also hoping during the family sessions she will help us expand our parenting toolbox and teach us how to deal with his unique personality and learning style. The very typical disciplinary tools most parents use are not effective with Matthew and we have exhausted our knowledge of methods for getting through to him. This has left me very frustrated, angry and fearful, as I'm unsure of how to help my own son.

I know these programs will not solve all our problems, but I am hoping,they will help us peel back another layer of this onion called autism and get that much closer to the real Matthew waiting to be revealed!

 

Stay well.

Pin It

For the Love of a Dishwasher

 We have had, by far, the worst luck with dishwashers in this house. The one that came with our newly built home never seemed to really clean anything so after less than a year we replaced it with a Kitchen Aid model that was supposed to be pretty good. That lasted less than 3 years. It ended up being a pretty bad replacement and some of the interior pieces even began to break and fall off. What a waste of money. Thank goodness we hadn't thrown out the original machine, so my handy husband swapped them out but we have been complaining about the original one ever since. You practically had to hand wash every item or it would merely redistribute the food particles to other items and then bake them into the tableware. It was gross. Half the time it wouldn't fully empty the soap dispenser and instead would creat a baked on soap cake that was impossible to chip off. I hated it, especially after the amazing Miele we had installed in our previous home. I had been so spoiled. 

So my wonderful husband did a bit of research and came up with a new machine, a Bosch, and ordered it. It was delivered last week. Larry really is very handy around the house so he took one evening to swap the old dishwasher for the new Bosch. Matthew was very aware of what was going on, often running over to see what his dad was doing. But as it approached his bed time he began to get visibly upset. He started to beg us to put the old dishwasher in our basement for safe storage. We explained that it was worthless and needed to go to the dump. His face crumbled and he cried. I took him to bed and had to promise that we would not take it to the dump until he had a chance to say goodbye. I comforted him with his favorite song, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, and suggested we take his picture with the dishwasher so he would always have good memories of it. He said he was going to miss it so much because they were best friends.

I could possibly overlook this behavior if it didn't mirror what had happened a few weeks ago on the last day of February. He got terribly upset as he went to bed because February was ending and he said he felt lonely when it wasn't February. I worked my hardest to make March sound great telling him Rita's opened that weekend and that St. Patrick's Day was in March, but I finally had to resort to crawling into his bunked with him, which I was sure I would break, and cradle him while I sang to him.

He certainly acts more like this when he is tired, but I also know it is all part and parcel when it comes to autism. Nothing is simple and nothing is normal. He is either weepy or angry and neither are my beautiful sweet boy. 

I promise I will bring you through this. I promise.

Stay well.

 

Pin It

Wordless Wednesday - Kombucha Bottles Swing Tops

To continue the Kombucha theme on WW, I'm including a pic of my new Swing Top bottles I will use for the kombucha's second ferment. I'm going to try and get fancy and add juice to the kombucha, seal it in the swing tops and ferment a second time. It should produce a flavored kombucha that is slightly effervescent!

Pin It