Thrift

January 13, 2013

Today is the thirteenth. I love that number. I was born on a 13 and so was my second boy! It's always been super lucky for me so No fear there at all.

I  went grocery shopping in under an hour (it was crazy in Market Basket)My family will eat this week 3 meals and 2 snacks each day for under 100$. I spent my day setting things up for the week. I baked a bunch of stuff for Sammy's snacks for the week.  I packaged my Bone broth I made in gallon freezer bags (with help from AJ). I made dinner. I made a menu. I am so glad that I have the ability to do this for my family. My husband works so hard to make ends meet, I feel bad sometimes. This is my contribution to our house.

I don't want the kids to ever feel like they miss out on things simply because we don't have a ton of money. So I make it work.

I make my own bread (thank you MMIL for the bread maker)
I make all of our snacks, cookies, cakes, and treats.
I reuse what I can.
I cook in bulk to save me time and energy.
We don't eat a ton of meat in our house. I Love it, don't get me wrong but I think as Americans we tend to go overboard on that stuff.
No one complains really. Though I would really love a good thick juicy steak sometimes.

I work hard to be as thrifty as I am and I really feel like it is one of the gifts God has given me. It makes me feel blessed to be able to bless my family like this.

hands free homework

The little neighbor girl lives with her Nana. He mom moved out a while ago. She spends a lot of time here and we love on her. Today her Nana sent her over because she couldn't understand the homework the kids had. She is in second grade with Sammy but in different classes. Same homework.

They sat together and Little Miss caught on fast after we went over it. Sammy was obsessing over snack and chewing his pencil. Once snack came out he got work done. he ate and worked diligently but only on that one paper. I let him save the second one for after dinner.

I reminded him later in the evening about the paper. No argument,no fight nothing just "ok mom" before the paper was even in front of him however he was asking for help. Then something amazing happened
he stopped.Looked at it and said "nope,never mind I got this" and proceeded to do about 3/4 of his math paper alone. WOW. what an awesome night.

it's those little things. the tiny steps that mean so much to parents of special kids. the things most parents take for granted, or loose the wonder of. I know I did before Sammy.

snapshots

Sammy is gorgeous. perhaps it is simply my love for him that makes him so. Often we run into people amazed by how handsome and physically perfect he is. Across the board I find a lot of parents of kids like Sammy are told the same thing. Perhaps it is some sort of survival mechanism for them? Who knows. I take a ton of photos of Sammy, almost daily in fact. I love pictures of Sammy, especially the ones where you catch the fleeting glimps of who he is behind the autism. Every once in a while we get "that" photo. The one where autism lets my son come out and play. I love those photos.

Sammy has started grabbing the camera and taking pictures of his world, his view and his ideas. often it's an unfocused picture of his fingers flying and stimming, or someone's knees, or books out of place. But a few times now he has caught an excellent picture that makes us smile. We are going to encourage this with him. I want him to find something he loves. If that means going off in every possible direction just so he can find his. I am there 100%

picture of grace taken by sammy

drawing boards

Sammy likes to draw pictures. He often sits and colors page after page after page. He loves it so much he has even stopped eating the crayons, which for Sammy is an amazing feat. A  few days ago he began drawing something that resembled a funnel and an ant farm combined. I asked him about it. Turns out my son was drawing a water treatment facility powered by a tornado that made drinking water and filtered out poop. I have no idea where he learned this or figured this out. I was pretty amazed honestly. What have your kids said or done that has amazed you?

Edit ~ I noticed this post has become very popular. How did you find your way here today? drop me a comment or send me an email to let me know silentnight913@yahoo.com