Singing Baby to Sleep

When my little red head boy with autism was just a baby, I didn't know what challenges he would face in the next following years. I would try to sing him to sleep just like my mom did with me. I enjoyed singing. I had a rocking chair and I thought that rocking my baby and singing him to sleep was the very picture of happy home life. The trouble was, he never did fall asleep when I did this. It never worked. When he got big enough, about 8 months, he started reaching up and whacking me in the mouth when I sat and rocked and sang to him. I didn't sing around the house much after that.

Fast forward about 2 years later, my son is now newly diagnosed with autism and in an early intervention program with the local school district. They were offering a series of lectures put on by a local woman who is a DIR autism therapy specialist. She explained the nervous system abnormalities that lead to serious sensitivities to stimuli. Her example she used was of her own son who has autism. When he was very young, he was always insisting on wearing hats. He also wanted to wear sunglasses everywhere. This was a big frustration to her, and eventually she just took away all his hats and sunglasses because her son had no language to tell her why he needed them, and she was at wits end and didn't know what else to do.

Fast forward five years later, her son is having a hard time in the class he spends part of the day in for inclusion time. (Although he had an IEP, he still spent acouple of hours each day in a regular classroom.) While they sat at breakfast at a local restaurant, she asked him what was troubling him about the class. He said, (and I wish you could have seen how cute it was how she mimicked her son's unique voice patterns,) "Yeah, I have an allergy to light." She asked him what kind of light, and he pointed straight to a florescent light bulb on the sign of a neighboring shop. She later went to the classroom to discover that a bright florescent bulb was right above his desk. She also discovered why he had his attachment to hats and sunglasses as a tot; her son was sensitive to light to the point where too much was painful to him.

This was a huge eye opener to me. What I discovered is that Eli's sensitivity is sound. Shaking a new garbage bag open around him as a baby led to the saddest display of tears; as well as hearing other children cry. It was not sympathy, it was just that their cries pained him so much to hear. The vacuum always caused an unheard of display of fits, even when he was in the opposite end of the apartment, shut in a room with his father. And this is why he would whack my mouth as an 8 month old.

Although I have been mostly out of the habit of singing for years now, I decided to give it another go. Tonight I sat on the foot of Eli's bed and sang him to sleep. It was the sweetest thing in the world, just as if I were rocking a newborn. There was a bustle going on in the apartment upstairs while he was trying to go to sleep. In such cases he usually listens to a quiet CD, but the CD player was having troubles. Eli's autism symptoms are not what they once were, so I tried singing. I sang him a song from "Signing Time," "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus," and "Little One." And off he drifted to sleep. I could not be a happier mom tonight! Singing my five year old to sleep is like filling in a gap that has long wanted to be filled.

Kitchen Gadgets

Here are some recently acquired kitchen gadgets of mine:


manual grain grinder

I bought the hand grinder at the Provo Macey's for $50. Quite a steal, really. Orem Macey's in Utah Valley charges $69 and I heard the Pleasant Grove charges $79. The whole idea was to save .70 cents on white rice flour and 1 dollar on brown rice flour per pound. Quite a significant savings when taking into consideration the price I can buy the rice for in bulk on a good sale. This does take time and some arm, but for the money it is a great grinder. One day I will be getting a good electric model and using this manual one for emergency/back-up purposes.



apple corer/peeler/slicer

I also got this apple/corer/peeler/slicer gadget at the Provo Macey's grocery store. It was just under $20. I am really really hoping to make some apple sauce this year. I used one of these gadgets to make applesauce with a friend years ago, and have wanted one of my own ever since. Homemade applesauce is so very heavenly! Both gadgets are Victorio brand.

It seems as though I blog quite alot about food or related topics. What can I say? I am always thinking about food. I am always planning, cooking, and cleaning, all because of food. It really is the whole aspect of cutting gluten and other common foods, and then trying to eat this way on a shoe string budget. (Or at least as cheaply as possible, while doing my best to get good nutrition down my family. Trouble is, gluten free/dairy free can be an expensive way to eat.) I am always looking for ways to cut down on the grocery budget without compromising fresh fruits/veggies and without making us bored to death of our food. I have looked into several strategies.

Generally, couponing to save money on groceries does not work really well for me. Usually, coupons put out by manufacturers are not for food that we would normally eat, or for what we should on our diet. However, my husband does get sent to work with lunch food that I used coupons on. (He does not have the diet issues of our son and myself and it helps him resist the urge to buy extra snacks while on the road.)

GF/CF mixes are a no go for me. They are convenient, they save tons of time, but really, they are horrid for my budget, (very expensive,) and usually contain one or more of our "eat seldom and with care" list. (Corn, soy, and sugar are among the "eat with care" list.) I do not even buy flour mixes. I mix my own flours. If rice, I grid it myself, too.

Canning is something I have taken to this season. When you know people who can hook you up with free fruit for the picking, that is a great way to fill the pantry. True, it is not the same as eating fresh, but there are many wonderful, tasty, and nutritious things that can be made from my stockpile.

My ultimate solution for our diet/budget situation: eat simple food, and make everything from scratch. Eating simple is for my sanity, our health, and our budget. Making it all myself insures that I know what is in it, and that I am spending even less.

Love One Another

Marker Eposide

I love it when we get Eli new markers. He loves them and he goes through lots of paper as he draws. I have always referred to his drawings as "shapes." That is exactly what so many of them are, which makes them so abstract and wonderful. It is so fun telling him what I like about each "shape" when he brings his work to me.I honestly do not even encourage representational drawing much at all.





One evening I was away from home and I got back just after my husband and Eli had gotten to bed. This is what the refrigerator looked like. I stood there in awe of Eli's little gallery! I was so inspired, (and maybe a little jealous!)



This "mural" Eli drew in the corner above his bed is completely gorgeous. What awesome use of color and space. (Of course, I can't tell him I think it is beautiful and I regret that he will have to wash it off with me because those are the terms and conditions of wall writing in our house. I still love it.)











I am interested to know what these drawings mean in terms of his development. I know for his age it is not normal for so many of his drawings to be non representational. However, I feel that his use of space is advanced. I am going to look into this more and hopefully discover more about my son's unique abilities.

Personal Hair Dresser

Eli had a wonderful weekend. That is not to say that we did not have our moments. (I think when I woke up to the bathroom flooding this morning was my favorite part of those moments. Not. What can I say? I guess he will be a five year old boy.)

Eli has just been so happy. His tummy has shown no signs of bloating. He feels well, and we can see it in is smile. Today in church he sat on my lap and pretended to be my hairdresser, whispering to me about color choices, giving me a little trim around the bottom edges, and I think he said something about staples and glue. (!) Good thing it was pretend!

After these last few years of working on healing his gut, I think we may be at a good place now. That is not to say that he does not have bloaty days. There are times when we are not careful enough about his diet, (meaning that we have had times when we don't realize that too much GF yeast bread would make his belly bloat, and other similar instances.) The true miracle is that his belly will go back to normal on it's own in time when we go back to normal diet. I can't explain how huge this is. I feel such gratitude that I can't express.

On Saturday a man we met at the park said to us, "He is just a bundle of love, isn't he?" He just found Eli so very friendly and sweet. I hope I remember that forever.

Garden Veggie Zucchini Casserole

So much zucchini! I have even let the squash bugs have at it these last few weeks, and we still have so much. Here is dinner idea that I have been using throughout this plentiful season.

It all started with some ideas I gleaned from "The Classic Zucchini Cookbook" by Nancy Ralston, Marynor Jordan, and Andrea Chesman. In this book they describe how to make "Born again Zucchini." For this dish I use this same idea, also incorporating potatoes. I also found some great tips on baking time.

There are no measurements. I never measure when I make this.

First, slice thinly clean potatoes, zucchini (small to medium size,) white or yellow onions, and tomatoes.

Place the zucchini and potatoes in a bowl, toss in 1/2 to 1 teaspoon coarse salt. Let this sit for 15-30 minutes, and afterward drain and blot dry with towel. Now you have "Born Again Zucchini," (and potatoes,) with less water in the squash, it is much more recipe ready.

Next, stir and coat pieces in a prepared tomato based sauce. This is where you can really customize to your own taste. Personally, I start with a pizza sauce base, and start stirring things in. Here are some ideas I like to add:

minced garlic
finely grated cheese (I use soy)
dried sweet basil leaves
salt
pepper

Stack the coated veggies in glass pan, adding here and there a slice of tomato and onion. Here is a picture of mine all ready to go for the oven.



I like to spoon whatever sauce is left over the casserole.

Bake at 350 degrees. The trick I have learned is that the typical 45 minutes to 1 hour used for typical like dishes is not enough for this special veggie dish. An additional 45 minutes or so is needed to really caramelize the veggies. (Always keep an eye on the oven, of course!)

I have even made this in a dutch oven outside my back door with tasty results. :)

Greenwear

My journey with autism in my family has taught me to look at earth conservation in a new light. I believe that many of our current epidemics that effect our children, (such as severe allergies, asthma, and autism,) are brought upon us by the environment, or our lack of care for it.

Here are some creations of mine that I have been running around town in over the summer. These are both made out of recycled fabrics. Now that the summer is sadly over, I just need to make me some recycled goodness for cooler weather. :)


This one I call my hippie skirt. It is made from old flare jeans and linens.



This skirt has been so fun and cool to wear in hot weather. It is made from old t-shirts and cotton jersey linens.