Thursday, November 3, 2011

More and More Things Are Happening

This post is COMPLETELY about me. I have dropped one activity to pick up another (with a bigger time commitment) and feel absolutely rejuvenated!!!! And then I'm preparing for Simon's IEP Meeting next week. And we are experiencing one breakthrough (and breakdown) after another. My head feels like it's about to explode!!!!

First of all, I made the difficult decision to resign from the Executive Board of my local chapter of MOMS Club International. It is such a good group and they have helped me in so many ways that I felt I needed to repay them, so I joined the board about 18 months ago. But my kids no longer do anything with the group. They are all in school full time and the organization really is designed for Stay-at-Home-Moms with kids who are home with them. Yes, there are parent-only events and yes, there are events (again for parents [usually] in the evenings, but our bedtime routine is so strict that I haven't been taking advantage of these. I am not contributing and was standing in the way of people who could help. So, I decided to step down. I will continue to stay active with them until my membership expires (relatively) early next year at which time I will make the decision of whether I should drop it all together. At this point, I have to say I'm thinking of doing just that.

But almost as soon as I decided to drop the board position, something came along that I had to jump at. A friend whom I met through Facebook is looking to do a regular webcast about parenting individuals with autism. We may have had a hard time getting together to really discuss it, but we have had a couple of brief meetings over the last few days and are really going to make this happen. We are planning on doing a "dry run" this weekend to see if we have the technical side of this under control. Once we do this, these broadcasts will be available on YouTube. Who knows how many will see this and how many people we can potentially help? I'm so happy that she's such a "go-getter" otherwise this would never get off the ground. She had a plan long before she reached out to me and is ready to run with it all. I'm really looking forward to this, even though I know this is going to take a significant amount of time.

Then there's everything else that's been happening. I continue to be active in the PTA for Daniel's school. I enjoy working with them and really think I'm doing some good. It's not too much of a time commitment, but it's definitely there. Thus far, I've been able to dedicate a particular day for "PTA Volunteer Stuff" and been getting it done. I really think that'll be fine, but I just started another part of this job that I need to organize. Again, once I do, I think my 1-day-a-week thing will work just fine, but I have to do just that.

And, to top it all off, Simon's IEP Meeting is coming up on November 10. He is where we have so many questions. I now know that we aren't going to be discussing his placement for next year (now that I've had that discussion with Rachel's team), but I still need to make sure that the goals that we write and develop will help facilitate his placement into the typical elementary school located down the street from our house. I know he isn't going to be ready for a typical classroom. I know he's not even close right now. But I do want him in this building. I do want him working with this particular teacher in kindergarten, just like Rachel. I think they will do better there than in the other programs, based on the little I know of them. And I want them together (yes, this part is selfish). I want to no longer have to deal with the Transportation Office. I want them in their "home school".

So, now that my head is about ready to explode, I'm going to head upstairs and break up about 20 Lego projects in Daniel's room so he can start them all over again and this will allow me to access his closet. Yes, when my head is ready to explode, I feel the need to make other things explode, and Lego projects will suffice today.

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