Sharing of some Old Farmer's Advice:

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.

Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway.

Don't judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer..

Live a good, honorable life.. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

Don't interfere with somethin' or someone that ain't bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around..

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.
Speak ki ndly. Leave the rest to God.
--
Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight,
he'll just kill you.

Sleeplessness

My son has a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep where he usually keeps the whole house up or at least hinders our quality of sleep. Being tired or exhausted does not make it easy to tolerate and handle properly his tantrums and obsessive behaviors. I believe that he does not understand what the feeling of being tired is. It confuses him and he becomes easily set off into one of his tantrums or worse yet one of his meltdowns. I wish I could explain it to him or rock him to sleep when he gets into this condition. Of course he fights being held and rocked and he is too strong to make him let you do it anyway. One night of poor sleep is felt for a day or two by his whole family and his bus drivers, teachers and kids in school. He is a grumpy bear to be around when the boy is sleep deprived. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen too often.

PETE, REPETE, PETE, REPETE……….
A little window into my son’s world, he has autism and therefore he repeats nearly everything, what he says and what he does. I mean EVERYTHING. Did you ever have to learn to tune things out? For example when reading in school and there would be background noise……WELL, being around my son it is nearly impossible to tune him out. He makes sure he is heard by turning up his volume or getting in very close proximity to usually your face and trying to get his point across. In the morning, when he wakes up it’s “CHOCK MIK, CHOCK MIK, CHOCK MIK, CHOCK, MIK….” Over and over and over until you get up and get it for him.
Opening and shutting the door, “OPEN, SHUT, OPEN, SHUT…..ETC” for hours.
Pushing any of his push toys back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth….etc.
Leading our dog, Nell, around by her collar for hours and hours, and she follows obediently.
Lining his Matchbox cars and ertl tractors and machinery on the tables and counters, continuously hooking and unhooking them together.
With his limited vocabulary and tendency to just take you to what he wants it is hard to sometimes please him, therefore he becomes frustrated to the point of screaming and then a meltdown. More about meltdowns in the near future.
His repetitive behaviors are very comforting to him, and they are sometimes go unnoticeable to others who don’t understand what autism is. His “stimming” is usually not bothersome to me, but to others in the family it is hard for them to tolerate. I have a hard time dealing correctly with his meltdowns……later on that subject matter.
Patience is indeed one of two most important virtues when being a parent to a special needs child. The other is SHOWING them you love them…..because loving them is a given.

BEFORE I WAS A MOTHER....

I the spirit of Mother's Day, another horribly over retailed holiday, I decided to do something for myself as an overworked mother. I have been wanting to get some therapy for the stressors in my life. I cannot afford the retail therapy, don't have time for massage therapy, worried that they would commit me if I went in for pysch-analysis. So I hope that this blog will touch others around the world who deal with the same things as I do. For me this blog will be my public journal, a therapy of sorts to help preserve my sanity. Hopefully to those of you that read this regularly, it will make you smile, cry or even laugh out loud.

Before I was a mother...........
I was selfish,
I had free time,
I used the bathroom ALONE,
I walked out the door with only my purse,
I didn't know what I was missing.

Now that I am a mother.........
I have become unselfish,
I now have very little free time, if any,
When I need to use the facilities, I have little people watching,
When I leave to run errands, I need more than two hands,
my heart is now complete and full of a love I never understood until now........
now that I am a mother.