Wonderful days

After a wonderful visit yesterday with family that I haven't seen in years, I was on cloud nine.  Our boys don't have friends and there aren't any boys around us that are their ages so you can imagine how happy I was to have my aunt and cousin and her family come to visit.  Two of her children are roughly my boys' age and they played so well together!  It wasn't like going to the playground and watching my kids get pushed around by the other kids for being different - it was pure fun... the way kids are supposed to play.  I was able to show my family our farm and do one of my favorite things - cook for them.  I'm sorry, I must pat myself on the back a little here, but I am a pretty good cook.  And I love to do it.  Sure sometimes, usually when I'm cooking for other people, things don't turn out just the way I wanted but every time is a learning experience and I get better with each mistake.  We had roasted chicken (that we raised and butchered ourselves), potato salad (using potatoes, chives, and parsley from our garden and my homemade mayo), a salad (sadly I had to buy the ingredients as we didn't have any in the garden yet - but I bought them at the local farmer's market), homemade apple pie (using apple pie filling that I made from our apples and canned myself.  The crust was made using lard from our pigs.) and homemade ice cream (using raw cow's milk and eggs - from our hens of course).  Everything tasted fabulous!

Then today, Tyler volunteered to get the mail.  He ran back into the house, practically jumping with joy, and exclaimed, "It says 'Tyler Dickson'!"  Sure enough he had received a package.  (My children have inherited my love of the postal service - we all love to get mail/packages.)  To backtrack: I  recently reconnected with an acquaintance from high school on Facebook (it's been 17 years).  After previewing my profile and subsequently seeing my blog, she sent me a message saying how excited her husband was to find someone else who shares a passion for electric poles. (giggle)  She mentioned that her husband was probably somewhere on the spectrum and after reading about Tyler's obsession, he wanted to send him a book.  That was what arrived today.  Upon opening it, he did not react like most children would at the sight of a book, he was intrigued and curious.  I tried to explain it and show him a few pages but after seeing a couple of the pictures, he took the book and set about to reading.  I gave him a couple of minutes before I went looking for  him and I found him like this:

He was actually reading!  He has never shown so much interest in a book!  And here it was, a book about something that he is fascinated with, and he was sounding out words and reading on his own.  This lasted maybe 20-30 minutes but that is infinitely more than he's done before.  I was almost in tears!  Who knew that clicking a simple "Add Friend" button would lead to that?

My children amaze me everyday.  It seems like I learn more from them than they do from me - sometimes.

Tyler, my oldest, has been ....we'll say "focused" ... on different things over the years.  This is common in children with autism.  They find an object or a "thing" and they talk about it, recreate it, draw it, etc, etc, etc.  Sometimes it can be irritating (like when he's in the car talking non-stop about his....whatever).  But for the most part, we just go with it.  We  think that it's a natural learning experience for him because he learns everything he can from the "thing".

It's only been 5 days and it feels like forever....

     I guess I'll start off with one of my observations about my son.  A little background - my oldest son has been "diagnosed" with autism.  I put the quotes there because no one can actually give me a diagnosis of where on the spectrum that he falls, but I'm thinking it must be somewhere around Aspergers (if it were drawn on a line).  Since he was first diagnosed, his favorite meal is chicken and fries.  And not any ol' chicken will do - it MUST be Tyson Chicken strips (used to be nuggets but they changed the way they make them).  He's okay if I change the style of fries, crinkled, crunchy, or shoestring, but the chicken MUST be the same.  I know some of you may be thinking that it sounds normal, children are normally picky eaters or all children love chicken and fries.  This is beyond normal - he'd eat it every night if I let him.  And if it's not the same chicken, the plate and food end up on the walls.  Yes, my 9-year-old son throws his dinner plates. 

     In my 7 years of dealing with an Autistic child, I have come across quite a few articles and other moms who have reported to me that their autistic children are also BIG FANS of chicken and fries for dinner.  I AM NOT A SCIENTIST OR A RESEARCHER but I have to wonder if there is some sort of link between Autism and chicken.  Maybe it provides a protein that they are deficient in.  Or maybe it's just that they prefer really bland food.  I don't know but it's curious to say the least.

     I write this only because my DH came home from work the other night saying that he was talking with a co-worker who he found out has an Autistic son.  By some weird coincidence, his son is also 9 years old and their prenatal care was at the same hospital that we went to.  And YES, his son's favorite meal is chicken and fries - TYSON chicken.   Hmmmm?

     The last few days have been somewhat productive.  My DH and I cut out another garden bed out of our yard and he's currently working on a third (I've got other chores to do).  Our gardens are coming together and he's already talking about being a part of our local farmer's market within the next 2 years.  Not bad - if we can do it.  The plants are ready to move; they are starting to look pretty pathetic in their containers under the grow lights.  If only plants could talk.....

     I've personally been working on moving my chicks to another containment area - in other words, they're getting too big for the cardboard box that they've been kept in up until this point.  Since we moved the chickens to the barn, the old coop was available.  After cleaning it out and putting in new pine shavings, 7 of my chicks moved to their new home.  (I had the same nervous feelings that I had when we moved each of our boys from the crib to a toddler bed.)  It's bigger and easier to clean - not to mention it's outside so it doesn't stink up the shop anymore!  I only moved 7 because they were a week older than the others when I bought them.  The other 5 are still in the cardboard box in the shop, but I gave them new pine shavings too and it smells a LOT better in there.  It's still hard for me to believe that we'll be culling the Cornish X's in 2-4 weeks....  Hopefully it won't be on Mother's Day.

     I am really bad about staying in contact with people.  I made some really wonderful friends while we were in Japan and I feel so bad at the end of the day because I don't keep in touch with them like I should - will they forgive me??  I get reports from them that the cherry blossoms were beautiful this year, but that their season was short lived and that they've been getting some freakishly weird weather there - snowing in April!!  I'd take the snow in exchange for the rain....and the chance to be in Japan again.  Odd that we were only there 2 years and yet it feels like home.  Kate, whose blog you can read here, talks about being homesick for her family and home town.  I completely understand the feeling as I miss Japan that much!

Today was a great day!  I made a Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad for lunch and my oldest son LOVED it!  He ate two bowls of it!  He also is voluntarily doing his schoolwork.  I had errands to run yesterday so I missed our normal learning time (that's what he calls it).  When I got home I found that he had gotten out his worksheets and did his schoolwork on his own - not even my DH knew that he did his schoolwork.  Maybe this homeschooling thing WAS the best thing for him.....