Odds and Ends

Predictable is defined by Websters as " to declare or indicate in advance;  especially   :  foretell on the basis of observation, experience, or scientific reason"  Predictions can be made about the weather, animals and of course people. When is it a good thing and when it is a bad thing? It is a bad thing you can accurately predict behaviors that are going to hurt you.  When the things that you can predict are good then they make you smile thinking of them, other things make you cry.  There are patterns that appear in people, some do not realize they have patterns at all. They deny that they have them until you point them out to them. Saying things nicely is difficult when you are trying to  tell someone something straight and to the point. There will be times when you come off as being rude or just plan hateful..when all you mean to do is simply tell them how you feel....... Well, I have work to do, predictable and thoughts on predictable will ...

There is a lot to do this month. I have to get everything together for the IEP meeting, I began today by taking the questions from the school and going over them with the private therapists. I needed input from my ABA therapist and the private speech. Our private OT was her OT in the school this year and she has already put in the goals for inclusion in the IEP.  We can all agree that she needs an aid. The speech therapist will have hers for me soon. I needed us all to collaborate so that I could write out the answers to the questions as detailed and clearly as possible. The goal is to ensure that the IEP is detailed and only has to be done once. I figured out that I need to move my computer. The glare from the windows is too much for me to work through. I have to find a spot that I can charge my computer and hook up my printer with it out of the way when it is not in use. Now that I"m done with the updates for now, I'll go back to working on getting ready for the meetin...

OK the end of this school year is going to be interesting. This year not only will Little bit have an end of the year program that I'm not sure what month it is in but my oldest has a 6th grade graduation. I'm hoping they aren't on the same day, or at least not at the same time. Little bit is going to the graduation with me. If I remember right her end of year program is in the morning before noon. Graduations are typically in the evening unless it's for kindergarten, then they are in the morning. Seven years apart and in different school systems would make like interesting. I have a twelve year old and a five year old in school this year. I wish that they were in the same school system. I have had little bit in the public school system since she turned three years old and we have been to very few activities; there is either not enough notice or it's not something we can all go to and she likes her dad to be included. Miracle league registration I missed because t...

I'm sitting in the speech office trying to kill some time. I figure my ad revenue is at $1 a day this month so far on my articles on one site. That'll mean that I make the $25 minimum payout by the end of the month, I really need to make it before the end of the month. I may promote some that income is something that I use to pay the phone bill. I need it to cover the Internet once again. I'm thinking of putting another blog up dedicated just to articles in a particular niche that I write to...or maybe doing it as a set of series in order to get all of them there. I know I need to check and see which ones I have copies of and which ones I do not. That way I can keep up everything that I have done. I am thinking of going back to school, actually this will be approximately my fourth attempt at finishing my degree and I have no idea what I want to do. I have had the majority of the day off and used it to write some of my own stuff. I also took some time to clean around the...

I am rather exhausted today and I have no clue why. I slept until ten this morning which meant that the first thing I had to do was finish the article that I was working on when I went to bed and throw on a load of laundry. I finished the laundry and hung it outside, while it washed I knocked out the article. Now I have stuff soaking in the sink (delicate hand wash) and some things soaking in the washing machine. The whites are in a bleach soak. I should have checked the weather however. I have a feeling that I may be picking my clothes up out of the neighbor's yard since we are under a wind advisory. I have a feeling that my clothes are going to get dry even with the lower temperatures thanks to the wind. At the moment I am waiting for clarification to a revision request that I got which made no sense since I followed the directions. Well, I'm going over the changes now and I hear that I have more to do after this one so I best get back to work. I'll update my blogs an...

I seem to be obsessed with "Once Upon a Time" and I have no idea why. It's addictive, all it took was watching the shows that I had missed from the beginning during the marathon that was shown. I was hooked. Fairy tales have never been my thing but the fact that these had lost the happy endings was somewhat of a hook for me. I can't explain it but I adore the fact that no one is where they are supposed to be according to the stories that we were read as children. It is like "happily ever after" met a dose of reality. I still want them to get those endings but I like the fact that there are obstacles in the way. Last Sunday's episode was one I particularly enjoyed. The fact that the Oscars are on instead of QUAT would be a bit of a sore point right now. I need a fairy tale even if it's just for a moment. I guess I'll dream of them. Maybe....... Well I want to take a nap, so I'll be going now.

OK life is life and things happen whether you're prepared or not. I got paid for the project I did, an extra article will be paid on the next project. Nice. That's money that will come when I need it more.

When school begins we will lose our Friday spot for speech. It's being eliminated to prevent checking my child out in the middle of the school morning. That means that we'll have one day that doesn't have any therapy involved at all. Before that happens the speech therapist has decided to work every other Friday at some point in the near future.  I'm looking forward to it. I can remember when we didn't have five days a week of therapy and I loved those days. Little bit made faster progress after we went to five days though. I'm tired and the fact that we've reduced one therapy to every other week is a blessing to me. It's a blessing to my lack of work time too. In fact that every other week therapy session will be eliminated soon. Only one session to go.  When school starts we will likely eliminate ABA whether we want to or not. The time slot isn't going to work with a full day of school to allow the kid to socialize. We should keep four days of ...

I have no idea. I'm almost done with the current project and by the time it is done I'll have learned four new formats. This client is easy to work with so I think I can stay with her for a while, that is if she has consistent work available. This project is supposed to end on Tuesday. There are still three articles to do that I don't have the subjects for just yet but should have them shortly. In the meantime I'm continuing to clean house. There are some cleaners that I need to use up. I'm not sure why I bought them, they aren't what I prefer at all. I mean the smell the comes from this makes me a bit sick to my stomach, gives me a headache and dizziness. Hint to those of you that make dish detergent, laundry supplies and the various other cleaners you attempt to program us that we need have way too much perfume in them. If I wanted everything to smell like perfume I'd buy a bottle of my choice and use it on them. On the bright side spray bottle tops...

I used to make plans and more often than not something went wrong with them. Usually that something was someone popping up and not leaving so I could go. Other times it would storm or something would tear up so I never made it to my destination. I finally gave up and stopped making plans all together. I even stopped making plans for working because despite asking people numerous times to give advanced notice before coming out there were always pop up visitors when I was the busiest. Now that the constant interruptions are gone I can work. That is if I can keep work lined up and deadlines met. I have to make some repairs so that this place lasts a bit longer because the day I get to replace it appears to be slipping further away. I spent some times making plans for repairs; the order they get done in depends on the cost and the time involved. There are a lot of repairs and cosmetic issues that require attention. Hopefully they will be taken care of a little at a time. I have a...

Next fall the baby goes to Kindergarten. I’m not looking forward to it at all. I mean she started school at 3. That means by the time she reaches Kindergarten she’ll have spent two and a half years at the preschool. Time that was originally supposed to be spent at home with mommy; then we got her Autism diagnosis. The rules all changed and now it’s time to transition from the special needs preschool to what I’m hoping will be a mainstream Kindergarten class. April is when we go back to Dr. Cotter to have her Autism re-evaluated. The appointment is in April because the woman did not hear me ask for a June appointment; that or she wasn’t listening. I am not looking forward to the visit with Dr. Cotter. I do not care for her at all. That however is a different story. This summer we will focus on therapy and the recommendations from this re-evaluation. We’ll be hoping that the diagnosis have improved again. I’m hoping that those green sheets are all positive. The therapists, the ...

Recent events have been rather stressful and I started to think about the things that cause me stress. The list is kind of long and there is no end in sight. Well, there is an end in sight; it’s called throwing everything that stresses me out. No, seriously I did take a look at my stress and I think that I can do something about it. At least I hope that I can. Being broke is among the biggest stressors that I have. It’s not enough that I manage to pay take care of expenses and the needs of a special needs child; something has to tear up frequently. I’m tired of having to come up with money that I don’t have to repair or replace things that shouldn’t need either. Working from home has started to cause stress. I took some time off and did what I wanted instead of writing for others. Well, now it feels like I’m being punished for taking time off. Jobs are few and far between most of the time. I had a regular run before the end of the year and more work was to follow but it didn’...

I have been rather spoiled to having central heating and cooling over the years but at the moment I would be at the mercy of space heaters while I wait for my duct work to be repaired. I have noticed that I get hot easier with the space heaters. It'll be the 25th of this month before I know how the heaters have been on the light bill. I can't wait to get the convince of being able to turn on the central unit but I will be turning it on lower now and I may use a space heater or two to keep it a bit warmer while we're awake. They come with automatic shut offs and thermostat setting now. The living room is a bit big to use just one but the bedrooms and bathrooms can be heated nicely with them. I have noticed that I have a few friends, one in particular that I can count on when things get rough. I am thankful for them, I have no idea what I did to deserve them but I am glad that I have them. This month was rough and it shows no signs of getting better but somehow they make it...

I feel spread a bit thin but it seems that is the way that I like it. When I moved over to Word Press I thought that I would leave these three blogs behind but I don't seem ready to do that just yet. So in order to keep myself sane I am writing posts as they come to my head. I am often rambling endless thoughts out loud just to hear intelligent conversation so I'm writing them down now. I spent most of the Christmas vacation working as much as I could. I still have worries of the New Year being thin on funds but that is a hurdle that I will jump when I get to it. I have an appointment book for the New Year that luckily for me started its dating a few days earlier so I could go ahead and leave the one for this year in the drawer. Seeing my appointments all in one place is something I enjoy, it keeps me focused and lets me know just when I can work and can not. OK two calls about appointments, or about the same appointment rather. First they call to cancel it then apparently ...

Well, Christmas is soon. It's starting to look like a little blonde kid is getting a stocking full of coal. She's having tantrums at everything that is said or done lately. It could be the lack of therapy, the lack of school or the lack of outside this time of year. I'm tired and I still have to wrap the few presents that they are getting this year. I'm hoping that next Christmas will be better. If the last few years are any indication there is a lot of work to be done. After the first of the year I have some long neglected repairs to do by myself before school lets out for the summer. I hope to get my divorce filed by then. It dawned on me today that I had been neglecting opportunities and that is being corrected as I type. I'm still working on the book but there are some details to iron out of it yet. I just want to scream but that's not going to help. I have a lot of work to do and a bunch of laundry backed up to do. I large walking useless piece of furni...

The realization that I have yet to wrap what few gifts that I managed to get my girls this year hit me all of a sudden. I was in shock that I had not bother to wrap them but I still did not hurry to do so. This year did not go as planned. I was getting a bit too comfortable though. I've come to associate the time at the end of the year when people typically celebrate the holidays to someone dying. This year was no exception and now four children will not have their mother this holiday season. I am not sure if it was supposed to be this way or not but it does not seem fair. There is nothing that seems fair lately, especially the fact that at the rate I'm going I will never again have the time to sit and enjoy life. I used to enjoy sitting on the front porch (provide me one with shade) to look around at the world. Not so much anymore. My front porch is in direct sunlight during the hours of the day that I'd like to sit on it and my back porch which I need the most is about ...

I am broke and it's not funny anymore. I can't manage to make ends meet. My bank account is empty and my change jar is down to less than a $1. I have a video camera in the pawn shop. Luckily it is only $25 to get it out. I just scrounged together change to get gas after therapy for tomorrow had to be cancelled. The soon to be ex and the kid ran out on their way back. All I had to do was pay attention and give them gas money to put gas in on the way, then they'd have made it home and little bit would have therapy tomorrow. I've been thinking that the five days a week is starting to take it's toll on the budget and I'm probably right. There is one day she has to be picked up from school. At least the bus picks her up and brings her home the other three days. That helps but what happens if the school budgets get cut? She's the only child her age down this way, I'll have to take her and pick her up. I think that I have to reduce her therapy slowly becaus...

OK so a while back I transferred all my posts to Word Press to get a blog there started without losing all of these. With much thought I decided to maintain these three, my weebly and the word press instead of doing away with them all but the Word Press just yet. I have had a lot of ups and down this year, I'm hoping that next year is uneventful and boring. A year with just one funeral is one too many. I wrote an opinion piece of sorts this morning. After spending most of the week trying to wake up I had to get the emotions down and instead of keeping them to myself I put them out for the world to see. It was an article about the  Reality of Death  I'm sure some will disagree but I don't care right now. It is all true. I buried a friend I've known since the 5th grade this week, she was one day younger than I am. She had been through a lot, she had six children and buried two of them. Her mother has breast cancer, over a year ago they were told they only had six months...

That's what it is all right. There will not be a holiday dinner in this house, instead it is just a day like any other with laundry and dishes to be done. Once that is done there are still baby clothes to box up for a friend that is about to have a little girl. I have tons of small baby blankets that are simply taking up room in her dressers but are no longer used. I still have to print proofs out for the recent applications that are to be filled out. I am updating  Dazed and Confused  on a regular basis, I like it's layout. Eventually I want to move these other three over there as archives to have it all in one place and simply redirect everything over there. That is going to be a long time consuming process so I think one post at a time, or a couple a day will get it all done eventually. I am tired but that's besides the point. My vacation is truly a working vacation. So I best get back to it. 

It is Monday and I can certainly tell. At 4:30 this morning I was woken up by a four legged, meowing alarm clock that had let himself in for what appeared to be no other reason than to tell me he was hungry. It was not long after I took care of his food wishes and put him back outside that I realized I have a nice painful toothache. I also don't know why I have a toothache but my lower jaw would feel slightly swollen. I get to put the kid on the bus then see if I can find a dentist that will work with me to go see later in the week. I would also want to make sure that they will not pull it if it is infected but treat the infection first. Pulling a tooth that is infected hurts, I know I've had it done and I never want to feel that amount of pain in my mouth again. I managed to get some work done this weekend and am hoping that the rest of this week goes as well as planned. I hope to make sure that all four of my blogs are as current as possible, finish the two new hubs I began...