What’s the best way to share a life update after a waaaayy too long blogging hiatus? With a Quick Takes post, of course!
(P.S. See blog title if you don’t want to read this whole thing.)
One: Last month I began working part-time with a non-profit organization – Pure and Simple Health Education, Inc! Pure and Simple seeks to build strong families by teaching youth and their families the importance of making healthy choices and abstaining from unhealthy ones – drugs, alcohol abuse, and sexual activity outside of marriage.
Two: So far, it’s going well! I can work at home or at the office, I’ve taken my kids with me – my five-year-old helped me sort papers last week. It’s been a really great blessing. And – I get to be a part of the “solution” for youth and families and our community. Win!
Three: On that subject, have you heard of this cool ONE-DAY movie event coming up Tuesday, April 17th? It’s called The Dating Project Movie and it’s playing in theatres nationwide this Tuesday only! I really hope they make a DVD or streaming available for it later because it looks like a great movie to have on hand.
Here’s the premise: Half of America is single. The way people seek and find love has radically changed. The hook-up, texting and social media culture have profoundly altered the dating landscape. Traditional dating has become “outdated,” yet men and women still seek meaningful relationships. People are frustrated in love, but does anyone really know how to connect in today’s virtual world?
THE DATING PROJECT is a new non-fiction film from executive producer Steve McEveety (The Passion of the Christ, Braveheart), produced by Paulist Productions, Mpower Pictures and Family Theater Productions that follows five single people ages 18-40 as they navigate beyond the hookup culture to traditional dating. Professor Kerry Cronin from Boston College is featured throughout as she teaches ad encourages her students to return to traditional dating. There is no script. There are no actors. These are real people trying to find love and happiness in an age of swiping left or right.
For Tickets & More Info, visit: TheDatingProjectMovie.com or enter to win a ticket giveaway http://woobox.com/93aodz!
FOUR: I haven’t written about our autism journey for a while because well, see #1 above and family life is full and good. We began OT (occupational therapy – I feel smarter now that I finally know what OT is!) and I think that’s been very helpful. He and we have been learning about appropriate ways to respond instead of react in various situations. There’s a lot more I could say about it but for now I’ll just say that if you have a child who struggles with finding healthy, appropriate, and respectful ways to respond to annoying situations (or annoying siblings), look into what OT may have to offer.
FIVE: OT has been great for our son because it’s for him. He is the one who goes to the sessions and he is the one learning what he can do to help himself. But what about us – the parents? A friend suggested we look into Asperger Experts and, so far, it is the most helpful of all the resources we’ve found for parental support. Danny Raede, the founder, himself was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome when he was twelve so he has and does live with it every.single.day. So he knows. I started out by watching his YouTube videos and knew this was exactly what my husband and I needed for us – to better understand the why so we could better understand the how to help. They’ve all been super helpful, especially this one – Walking on Eggshells,Walking On Eggshells, Child Emotionally Abusing Parents & Getting Exhausted .
SIX: Even with all the above going on, we’ve also been working on updating our master bathroom! We began ripping the carpet out of the bathroom – eww, carpet in bathroom right?! – back in November and then decided we should update the shower tile before laying the new floor down. Loooong story shorter, we finally got that started a couple weeks ago and the tile work should start this week. We’ve been without a shower for a couple weeks and so we have been sharing one shower for all six of us. I know, “First World Problems” but I’ll be incredibly grateful to have our shower back soon! Follow me on Instagram for more exciting bathroom updates! (You’re super excited, I can tell.)
SEVEN: Lastly, I have to take a moment just say that I really love the Microsoft lock screen images. They’re all so beautiful and truly make me pause before I log in and get sucked into the computer. Here’s this mornings – wherever it is, I’d like to live there!
