Give Thanks

 Happy Sabbath

God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. It's been a good week.

It's been a busy week. 

Next week will be even busier.

I don't know how I am going to manage it but I will hand it over to God to help me cover everything I am responsible for.  I will admit, I have dropped the ball a bit at work. I haven't paid attention to the directions given and as a result, my last two weeks of this month are absolutely packed and hectic as I rush around to put out every fire that is beginning to burn. My direct supervisor is returning on thursday and unlike the boss and her supervisor who have looked a little at what I do, my direct supervisor will know how much I have dropped things and will speak on all.  

I will accept my failures and take responsibility for them.  Really as this month rolled around, I realized how much I relied on her as much as I didn't care much for her.  She really helped hold things together and kept me on track and I really do need her back because my brain just doesn't have the capacity these days.

For my part time job, I am doing what I can to shrug off the garment of struggle and frustration they are trying to make everyone wear.  New people come in with a new set of unrealistic rules and I see so many people balk at the orders and complain for hours off to the side.  I remind myself and them when they start to bring that talk over to me that we finish at 7am and after that, what is it?  It's not our responsibility.  Do what you are able to do and don't worry about the rest.  People can't say they don't pay them enough to do this or that because in all reality, they do. They pay more than I think they should for us to do the work we do.  I have no complaints.  So I am preparing my body to work tonight and God willing, will get through it. Get through it without smudging up my Adidas or Nikes or what ever I decide to put on.  I am thinking of a combo of black pink white and royal blue so the white and blue Adidas are on my mind at the moment.  If rain is in the forecast, I'll wear the tims. 

I am thankful that I was able to get through a longer fast period. I have not challenged myself to do something like this in such a long time.  I usually punk out and can't even get to 3 days but this time I went 3.5 days plush 45 min..what ever that is after the decimal point.  To break my 3.5 day fast, I had a delicious afghan meal I prepared components of the day before. I zested and squeezed the lemon, I dried and crunched up my mint, prepared my eggplant on my new griddle in a healthier way instead of frying in all that oil like I did  before.  It was delicious in that oil, but the person who gave me the recipe was right. Eggplant is a total sponge and soaked up all the oil. I happily ate all of the oil soaked eggplant too. I set out my ingredients in ziploc bags from minced garlic, sliced onions to be browned, tomato paste...it was a lot of preparation and I cooked that meal Friday morning and enjoyed half of it. I just finished the other half today. I am looking forward to trying more Afghan and really any middle eastern/asian recipes at home.  

I am thankful that although my son is still struggling with his egg allergy, it appears that he overcame his soy allergy completely.  It was him drinking soy milk when he was 2 or 3 years old that brought us to the hospital and trying to figure out the cause of the rashes and breathing difficulty.  He has another allergy test coming in december and I am hoping to scratch off other things from the allergy list.  I went to Trader Joes for the first time in a hot minute and picked up two tubs of my favorite soy ice cream because I don't do dairy and have not for some years.  He asked to try it and I gave him a small spoonful. He was fine in an hour. Two weeks before he had a small bite of a muffin and that lead to immediate stomach upset and a hospital visit. His throat was numb as well for hours.  Egg did that.  

He tried a small ice cream cone with the ice cream and next thing I know, he has finished one of the tubs and is working on my second one.  These ice creams were supposed to be for me, not him!  He also likes some yogurt from there and I like this watermelon jerky thing they have going on.  For my icecream, I add the pumpkin butter (they want to call it pumpkin spread and market it for meat/savory dishes and then say they are coming out with pumpkin butter on October 4th, but I am certain what ever they present will be the exact same thing, just a different label and higher price).  I layer the pumpkin butter with the ice cream and it is so delicious. I am thankful that he is not allergic because now I can give him tofu and other things I eat on a regular basis.  His diet is expanding and I'm excited for him.  He is growing and enjoying life (going to school, playing with friends, communicating better and coming into his own).  It's a joy to see and it would not be possible if it were not for God because as I was telling my son, I saw autism when he was 2.  I saw it and knew I had to take action immediately.  God had me in a course where I was learning about autism and other developmental disabilities in young children and we had to learn to diagnose all of these conditions.  I saw the signs as he developed and I studied and bought him a tablet because I knew that children with autism do best when given things with repetition.  I found many learning videos and free programs and threw everything I could at him, hoping he would pick it up. My father felt the things I gave him at one point were too advanced for him but I ignored his complaints and gave them to my son and he sponged everything up. My mother and I got the occupational and physical therapists involved. We got him in an early childhood education program at the school when he was 3 and by the time he hit kindergarten, he was not only talking up a storm and minimized stimming behavior but he was at a 2nd grade reading level, understood alphabets and some words from other languages, doing 1st-2nd grade level math and ahead with all of his other academics.  He was physically aggressive and would engage in property destruction when he didn't get his way or misunderstood his teachers/classmates so he was moved from one school to another and moved eventually into a class that had 2nd-4th graders. He was a 1st grader at the time.  He is now in 3rd grade with 3rd and 4th graders in a small autism class but anyone who didn't know him would never guess he had autism.  He no longer presents as someone who does but he still needs help and he is getting the support in this setting.  Because he is in this program we get door to door service with the bus. Bus comes and he runs down the drive way and I am able to kiss my son and see him off to school and return either tired or with a smile on his face and pictures he wants to show me.  He is doing so well.  Thank you Lord for your timing.  Thank you Lord for giving me the resources to help him.  I am confident he will be fine and I have no interest even now to see about getting him SSI because he is so intelligent and capable, he will be able to make it on his own as he grows up.  

So there is much I am thankful for.  It is 3pm.  He is sleeping on my bed and I need to take a nap myself.  I have to buy him a comforter like mine so he will get his little butt out of my room.  All the other bedding I bought for him and he prefers to come and sit on my bed because of my fluffy cloud of a comforter.  I'll see if I can find one that compliments his room. 

God is good.  Thank Him today :)