Amy's Crazy Creative Life

Current Goings On

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 May 2017 01:54:00 +0000

Hey out there in the Blogosphere! It has been higher than the typical craziness in the Allen Family recently because I have started a new home business! This is in addition to my Amybug's Attic graphic design business, which has been a little slow lately.

I started designing T-Shirts through Amazon! I'm doing something that I love to do anyway (work in Photoshop and Illustrator). I'm really picky, so it takes me a while to find the right designs to use. And I didn't want to make anything that was crass, or off color. So here's what I have so far! I designed these in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Straight Outta Preschool	Straight Outta Kindergarten
Mama Bear	Fearless Girl This Girl Is On Fire
Fearless Girl Nevertheless She Persisted Color Group #1	Fearless Girl Nevertheless She Persisted Color Group #2
Fearless Girl Girl Power Word Cloud

I'm having a blast! I'll still be scrapbooking and finishing up my December Daily here shortly, stay tuned! Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2016 - here we go!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 03:33:00 +0000

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODEEEEE!

Welcome to another year of my favorite scrapbooking project - December Daily! I've had "record a video for December Daily" on my to-do list for about a week now. And with all of the craziness of my life, I was just able to get it done tonight. But I'm so excited! This is the first Christmas in a long time that I feel "ahead of the game" with decorating, presents, etc.

Without further ado, here is my intro video for this year!

You'll see that this year I'm using a re-purposed encyclopedia again. I love how it's an actual book and the fact that it's red doesn't hurt. I'm really going to hate it when I run out of these books! Thankfully my Dad had about one book for each letter of the alphabet, so I'm set for a little while.

Good luck with your own albums, and remember to give yourself lots of grace! And remember to enjoy the process. This is a keepsake that your family will treasure for years to come!

I'll post another video soon, happy scrapping!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2016 is on it's way!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 07:59:00 +0000

Welcome to another year of December Daily! I have been super busy lately trying to get everything done before the first. And that is no easy task with a two-year old who doesn't sleep very well!

It seems like every year, I feel like I'm behind come Christmas time. And then I feel like I'm constantly catching up, so I don't ever feel like I'm really enjoying the holidays. So this year, I've been diligent about getting as much done as I possibly can beforehand. I started shopping in October (thank you Amazon Prime!) and am simplifying things as much as possible. So far so good, but the real test will be in the next coming weeks!

I'll be recording a video hopefully by tomorrow to go over my album and my "plan of attack" this year. I'm so excited! Stay tuned!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2015 - it's a wrap!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 23:23:00 +0000

I finished my December Daily before August this year! I'm happy with how it turned out and it is all done and finished until next year :)

Here is my wrap up video:

Even though I've done this several years in a row now, I'm still learning as I go. The one thing that I can't stress enough is to BE PREPARED. Next thing to remember is to use a good adhesive! I went back and took a look at some of my old albums and had to reassemble some of the pages because I used a glue stick when I ran out of my regular adhesive. The one I have listed below is the best, longest lasting adhesive that I've found.

I felt like I had a really hard time keeping up with everything this year. Now it could be just because I'm getting used to the craziness of having two kiddos. And I also changed my album at the last minute, which I don't recommend!

This year, I really, really want to be prepared. Which means that you may be seeing 2016 posts soon!

Here are the links to the tools/products I used this year:

Half sized binder mechanism 1" from binding101.com

I also used an old encyclopedia with the pages taken out, and washi tape from eBay.com (by far the cheapest place to find washi tape!).

I hope that you're all doing well on your projects and remember NOT to worry if you're behind or still working on your albums. Give yourself grace and enjoy the process!

Happy scrapbooking!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2015 - chugging along

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 06:35:00 +0000

Christmas is almost here! Here is a quick video on my progress so far with December Daily 2015.

I'm not worrying about getting everything done ASAP, so the journaling and some of the photos will come probably in the next few months. And that's okay! The most important thing to me, is taking time to enjoy the project and still have time for my family and for the holidays.

If I don't post before then, have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe new year!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2015 - here we go!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 07:05:00 +0000

It's normal to switch gears and completely change your album after the project starts, right? Right?

Well that's what I did. I had a new album all whipped up that had a different size and layout....and I changed my mind. I'm not really a fan of change. Here is the album I started out with.

Here is the album I'm going with this year, like previous years I'm using a repurposed encyclopedia with the pages taken out and a binder mechanism riveted in.

With the new album the pages are a larger 6" x 9.75" with room for a 5"x7" photo on the main page. I'll keep the old album on hand and will probably use it in the next few years.

I'll be uploading another video in the next week or so with my progress. Stay tuned!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2015 is coming soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 14:07:00 +0000

Between power outages and sick kiddos, things have been NUTS at the Allen household. My December Daily 2015 posts are coming soon, I can tell you that I've had a change of heart with my album, I really want to stay with the larger sized photos and pages.

I did have to order new cardstock for the inside of my album so I'm hoping to have things put together and ready to go by this Sunday.

Stay tuned!

How to weigh down foam pumpkins

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 23:57:00 +0000

Our family lives east of Seattle in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Between the beautiful mountain views and the wildlife, we absolutely love living here.

But there is one thing about living here that can cause a few problems. In fall and winter we get super strong winds. We have to secure anything and everything outside unless we want it to show up two blocks away after a storm.

That means securing any decorations that we have up for the current holiday. Right now, that means weighing down the foam pumpkins that we have on our front porch.

I played around with a few different methods before I came up with the one below. This only works with foam pumpkins that are uncarved. I'm still working on a foolproof method for carved foam pumpkins.

Here are the tools you'll need to weigh down your uncarved foam pumpkins:

drill - I use a Porter Cable PC1800D that was a Consumer Reports best buy at the time. I highly recommend Porter Cable drills and it looks like this one is the comparable version available today. You definitely want to get the two battery model so you can charge one battery while using another.
2"+ hole saw drill bit (the ones I use are a bit older and are orange)
piece of paper or a funnel
heavy duty large plastic bags - I used lawn and leaf bags from Costco (for large pumpkins) or gallon sized freezer bags (for smaller pumpkins)
heavy duty craft scissors
fine sand - I used paving sand

Make sure that you work outside in a well ventilated area. This produces a lot of dust!

First, turn your foam pumpkin over on your lap (protect the stem!). If your pumpkin already has a hole at the bottom, you can skip this step. Use the drill to drill a hole into the bottom of your pumpkin. NOTE: this is a lot harder said than done and it produces a lot of dust. I recommend easing up on the choke so you're not going at it full throttle. It cuts much easier that way.

This will get foam dust everywhere! I had to shake my pants out when I was finished.

Then take your plastic bag and stuff it into the pumpkin with the open end facing out.

Next, take your funnel or piece of paper and roll it up to fit in the hole. I used a large cup to slowly pour the sand in. Make sure that you go slowly! This produces a lot of dust, and if you go too fast you'll plug up your funnel.

Every few cup fulls, I'll pick up the pumpkin and feel how heavy it is. My goal is to make it as heavy as an actual pumpkin.

When you've got it as heavy as you'd like, get as much air out of the plastic bag as you can and twist up the rest of the bag like this:

Now knot it at least twice, and as close to the sand as possible. You want it super secure so that no sand leaks out. Then cut off the excess bag with your scissors and tuck the knotted part in. I like to also push the knot to one side so that it's not always coming out when you pick up the pumpkin.

If you're using a gallon sized freezer bag for smaller pumpkins, just seal up bag tightly and tuck the end in.

Turn the pumpkin over and put it wherever you like. And make sure that you never ever pick up your pumpkin by the stem! If you do have a stem break off, this glue works best to secure it back on.

You now have a weighted pumpkin that you can use year after year and won't blow off your porch during a storm.

Happy decorating!

a plethora of pumpkins

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 19:45:00 +0000

It's officially fall! I've had my pumpkins out on my porch since school started a few weeks ago. I'm just a wee bit obsessed with anything pumpkin. And autumn. And pumpkin. You get the idea.

I love the look of pumpkins on a front porch. And not just one or two. I mean 10+ pumpkins. And if you buy real pumpkins year after year, it gets expensive fast.

My solution? Artificial pumpkins that you can use year after year. You just need to have a good place to store them in the off seasons. I've found the best artificial pumpkins are made by Funkins. They are relatively easy to carve and you can easily make them weighted so they don't blow away in the wind - more on that in tomorrow's post.

You can buy them online off of the funkins website, but they don't offer the savings that I can find in a larger retailer. So far, JoAnn fabrics is the best place I've found to buy them. I started ~~stalking~~ visiting Joann Fabrics' website (joann.com) on or shortly after Halloween when they have their Funkins on sale for at least 60% off. Then I use a coupon code from Fat Wallet to save even more money. If you do any shopping online and aren't already using Fat Wallet, sign up asap! I've saved well over four hundred dollars by going through their website over the years. It's free money and I like free money :)

Occasionally I'll visit a JoAnns store and see if I can find a good deal. Today I found Funkins for 40% off plus I had a 20% off my entire purchase coupon (sale AND regular price...SCORE!) by signing up for deal alerts on my smartphone by texting THREAD to 56266.

Over the years I've amassed a plethora of pumpkins. And they end up paying for themselves after a couple of years. I've carved some of the Funkins, but the majority I haven't so that I can use them for both fall and Halloween. We still get real pumpkins at our local farm, but only five or so, at least one per family member. We carve the real pumpkins and put them out amongst the uncarved Funkins and it looks great!

I absolutely love my pumpkins.

Do you have any tips or tricks to save money on real or fake pumpkins? If so, I'd love to hear it!

December Daily 2014 - it's a wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 22:26:00 +0000

Truthfully I finished this album back in July, made the video in August and am just now putting this post up in September! Here is a December Daily 2014 recap and a sneak peek of December Daily 2015!

DD 2015 will be here before we know it! In the meantime I am enjoying the season change and will be posting more of a family update in the next couple of days. Thanks always for reading! Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2014 - Base Pages and Album

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 02:22:00 +0000

Would you believe that it's taken me about 25 times to get this video done?

Holy smokes, life is CRAZY right now!

Who would've thought having a baby would change things so much ;)

Here is my video that goes over my base pages and album for this year's December Daily project.

If you have any questions just comment or send me an email. Thanks for watching!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2014 is coming!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 03:41:00 +0000

It has been a "crazier-than-normal" year for us in the Allen household.
Meet baby Vivian!

You'll see that she's changed quite a bit from her first picture in my February post :)

I really wanted to do December Daily again this year, but I knew that having a new baby would make things difficult, if not impossible, to do anything extra. And I was right! Things are crazy and chaotic...which makes me very glad that I made my album ahead of time back in June. Hey, even I thought it was nuts doing it that early. But I'm glad that I did. The fabulous Miss "V" came at the tail end of August and things have been nutso ever since!

So stay tuned for an introduction video which will be coming in the next few days!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2013 - it's a wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 01:52:00 +0000

I finally have all my ducks in a row! Here is my official wrap up of December Daily 2013. I did end up doing things a little bit differently than I thought I would so you'll see some differences between the finished pages and the base pages.

I also realized that by trying to make things easier on myself, I actually ended up making them harder! So next year I will definitely be going back to the format I did in 2010 and 2012. And because I'll have a new baby in the mix next year, I'll also be doing my prep waaaay in advanced to make sure that the project actually gets done. I'm someone who gets overwhelmed very easily so I want to be proactive and as organized as possible.

Here is the website I talk about in my video that has the free rustic graphics that I put in my chalkboard elements: http://www.welivedhappilyeverafter.com/2013/11/12-stunning-free-rustic-graphics.html. Thank you Hannah from We Lived Happily Ever After, they are beautiful!

Thank you for sticking with me on this project! My morning sickness was definitely worse this time around so I appreciate your patience while I finished everything up.

Coming up soon on my blog - there are LOTS of home crafting projects brewing in my head! My nesting instinct is kicking in and so is my creativity so stay tuned for some fun sign/palette projects!

Love and Craziness,

Hello little miracle

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 21:39:00 +0000

One thing I've learned in the last few years is that you can't plan everything. It's actually a hard concept for someone with autism - especially if you've been a planner your entire life. When we were first married, we had a five-year plan to start a family. And everything went according to plan and our son Roman was born just before our sixth anniversary.

We had always planned to have two children. So we tried for another kiddo when Roman was about three. And....nothing happened. For years. Then I was diagnosed with celiac disease and my life changed forever. Celiac disease is an auto-immune condition that causes infertility and miscarriage. "That was it" I thought. That's my cue that we were going to be a one-child family.

We started giving our baby things away. I started going to counseling to help me deal with letting go of having a second child. I even went back on the birth control pill for even more closure.

And I got pregnant. Completely out of the blue. Without trying.

Granted at the time, we were "between" pill packs so there was an opportunity for something to happen. We were surprised but excited! Unfortunately it was short lived and I miscarried at six weeks.

I thought for sure that was it. That was my closure. We had one kiddo and it was going to stay that way. We were so, so lucky to have one amazing and beautiful child.

And then this December I found out that I was pregnant AGAIN. While we were on the pill (granted it was the mini-pill which is less effective than the regular pill). At 36 years old. And the kicker? It was a slow month for us - we were both really busy so there was a grand total of ONE time that this could've happened. And it did. Incredibly enough I was pregnant again. Holy crap.

I kept expecting something crazy to happen. "There's no way that I could have another baby right now, we didn't plan it!" kept running through my mind. But as the weeks passed and I started getting symptoms, it became very clear. I was pregnant and staying that way.

So this is our official announcement - we are having another baby! We are due August 21st. I just had my 12 week ultrasound and everything looked great. So welcome sweet little miracle. We can't wait to meet you!

Love and Craziness,
P.S. - I WILL be doing another post shortly wrapping up December Daily 2013. I couldn't say before, but I have been really sick with this pregnancy so everything has fallen to the wayside in the last two months. Thanks for your patience ;)

December Daily 2013, halfway there...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 03:15:00 +0000

Well hello there! I hope you all had a wonderful, safe, and very Merry Christmas.

I finally have a new video out! I talk about my progress so far and also about how I made a BIG mistake this year when I tried to make things easier :P

The finished album is coming soon! Thanks for watching!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2013...chugging along

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 06:21:00 +0000

I'm chugging along with my December Daily album and wanted to share a some pictures from the last few days. I love the photo I took below - my kid is awesome. Sadly, I was hoping to use this image for day three and not day two. The image was even titled "day three". Oh my aching brain.

Hello mountains!

This poor little guy's usual feeder had frozen completely solid with our crazy cold temperatures. So I changed the ratio of water to sugar (three to one instead of four to one). Once I put the new solution out he jumped on it and stayed like this for a good ten minutes. Alternating between drinking and just resting.

I think of these birds almost like part of our family. They don't mind me in the least and buzz all around me when I'm outside :)

More December Daily to come! Remember to give yourself LOTS of grace this busy time of year!

Love and Craziness,

Amazing deal on Amazon for the Silhouette Cameo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 05:11:00 +0000

Right now Amazon has the Silhouette Cameo on sale for $194.99! That's $75 off their usual price. This is the cutting machine that I used to make the fun elements in my December Daily 2013 album.

I'm not sure how long it'll be at that price so check it out!

http://goo.gl/OyalIK

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2013 Video Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 23:15:00 +0000

My video is up! Learn about what I'm doing this year and hear about my attitude towards December Daily this year.

Also check out the

that I have listed below!

Links to the items in the video

(all links open in a new window)

Heavy duty corner rounder

Silhouette

Printable Patterns

I printed both the front and back of plain white cardstock for most of my elements.
All pages are letter sized, 8.5" x 11".

Chevron Print

Red Small

Gray Small

Teal Small

Red Large

Gray Large

Teal Large

Striped Print

Red

Gray

Teal

I downloaded the chalkboard background from this gal here:

http://www.bigredclifford.com/2013/01/free-chalkboard-fonts-printable.html

More to come soon!

Love and Craziness,

December Daily 2013 coming soon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 03:53:00 +0000

So, I'm pretty much in denial that today is December third.

If I'm being completely honest, I'm kinda still wondering where October went :/

But I am definitely doing DD again this year and am really excited about the simplified approach I'm taking! Last year I committed not to buy any outside supplies, this year I am buying a few things (less than $20 worth). Would you believe that I've never used Washi tape? That's one thing that I ordered from eBay but it may not get here until a few weeks from now, so I may do a re-cap video of all the finished pages later on.

I'm not usually a "trendy" type crafter/scrapbooker but I'm incorporating two things in my DD this year that are super popular right now - chevron prints and chalkboard. I love the look of both and I actually printed my own chevron print pages this year which I'll have available for free download in the next few days.

This year my theme is clear-ish (for lack of a better term). Meaning all my pages are either regular old clear, non-printed transparencies or are sized-down and hole punched divided page protectors. So you can see through most of the pages to the next day. Which I think is kind of fun :) But that also means that you can see the backs of photos/pages so I'm backing everything with chevron or striped print paper. And I'm also not using adhesive to secure things to the transparencies (I don't like that you can see the adhesive spots on the other side) so I'll be using my Tiny Attacher or flat stapler for that job.

I'm also using my Martha Stewart snowflake punches and my Silhouette Cameo to cut out elements for my pages. Then (usually) I use the negative image on the actual pages, but I'm sure that I'll be using some cut-out parts as well later on.

So stay tuned! I'm hoping to have videos or photos up tomorrow so you get a better idea of the direction I'm going this year. I am so excited to do this. Also please feel free to post links to your own blog so I can take a look at your album too. Share the love!

Love and Craziness,

There's a new blog for Amybug's Attic

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 05:50:00 +0000

Hello everyone out there, I have an announcement! There is a new blog in town that focuses more on my graphic design business Amybug's Attic. It'll also be a spotlight on my fabulous customers and their shops :)

http://amybugsattic.blogspot.com/

Here is the link - be sure and check it out! And if you're here for the Giggleswick Halloween Blog Hop, you'll want to hop on over to my new blog as that's where the party shall be.

Thanks everyone!

Here we go again...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Long time no post!

So many things have been happening in the last few months and I am excited to tell you all about it! First things first - ROMAN HAS AUTISM SERVICES AGAIN! Starbucks announced in early April that they have lifted the seven year age restriction for autism services. Unfortunately this is only Premera Blue Cross through Starbucks. My good friend and sister in mothering a child with autism also has Premera Blue Cross but she is still battling to get her son services. So it's a bittersweet victory, but something I am immensely grateful for.

I am also trying to give myself permission to be human. Being human is being imperfect. I haven't kept up on scrapbooking. I stopped doing Project Life this year starting in January. And I haven't posted my finished my December Daily pictures to my blog. I was talking to my friend about this, saying how bad I felt for not keeping up with everything. She said something that really hit home.

"You are not Ali Edwards. You don't have staff."

She was right. I don't have staff. I homeschool. We drive to autism therapies three days a week and our homeschool group the other two days. I cook. I clean. I do laundry. I go grocery shopping. I work part-time. Scrapbooking isn't my job.

I am human. And that's okay.

Most recently I've been trying to listen to my body. About what my body needs. I've been ignoring something for a really, really long time. My body hates dairy. Let me get one thing straight, I am addicted to dairy. I can drink a gallon of milk in two days. If given the opportunity I'll eat an entire block of cheese. But it wasn't until cutting it completely out that I realized what it does to me. My intense cravings stopped. They completely stopped. I eat, get full and don't want food for a good four hours. Whereas before, I would eat large quantities and then two hours later, be ravenous for more. My chronic fatigue decreased significantly.

So we'll see how it goes! Right now I'm doing just fine. I'm eating more fruits and vegetables and they actually satisfy my hunger, something that has never, ever happened before.

So in a nutshell, we are doing great. And I have more opportunities for "me" time on Tuesdays and Thursdays during my son's homeschool group. So more posts and updates are coming soon! Stay tuned!

Thank you

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 06:00:00 +0000

...to everyone who has left a comment or has emailed me. Whether it's regarding December Daily or my recent post about my little boy. Thank you for taking time out of YOUR busy life to let me know that I'm not alone :)

My December Daily 2012 is officially done! For the three years prior to this one I've printed my pictures for DD at home. Doing that really helped me be "on the ball", there were several days that I finished that day's page later on that evening.

This year, my photo printer is out of toner and we're in a tight financial situation. So that $120 for new toner is going towards more important things! So I had my pictures printed at our local Costco and worked on several days at a time. This way worked out just fine, although it did seem to take me a little bit longer. And I don't know about you, but finishing up my December Daily in January is hard.

But it's done! I've gotten a few requests to take photos of my pages this year and I think I'll have time to do that tomorrow. I really, really love Pinterest and I think it's a great resource so I'd love to get some of my pages pinned up!

Stay tuned sports fans!

December Daily 2012 is here

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:21:00 +0000

Seriously though, where did November go?

It's that time of year again! One of my very favorite projects is here...December Daily 2012!

If you're new to December Daily, please check out Ali Edwards' blog here:

http://aliedwards.com/2009/12/december-daily-compilation.html

She is the gal that started this whole crazy thing. A month of memories and a fun creative outlet for the memory keeper in the family.

I've been doing this project since 2009 and each year I learn something new. If you'd like to take a peek at my past posts for those projects, scroll down until you see "projects" on the left and then click on the graphics below.

Like my album last year, this year I'm repurposing an old encyclopedia. Here is a run down of the album before I added the binder mechanism:

And after:

Now onto finishing the outside of the album (with my photobombing cat):

And here are the interior pages, you'll want to watch both videos as I accidentally cut off the end of the first video:

Here are some of the products that I used in this project,

And here are links to the shops that I talked about in the video,

http://www.skybluepink.com/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/everyjotandtittle

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CariKraft?ref=seller_info

http://www.createwithchristine.com/

As always if you have any questions, just send me an email or leave a comment here on my blog.

Thanks for visiting!

Holy "I-Never-Update-My-Blog" Batman

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 05:40:00 +0000

Wowsers.

A look back at the past year would tell me that so much happened in our lives, but none of it got on this blog.

But then I remember that so much DID happen to us. We were really busy. Which is why I have one post so far for the year 2012.

When I first started this blog, I saw it not only as a creative outlet, but a way for far away friends and family to catch up on our family. And I've done a really bad job so far.

But I want to change that. We have had some big challenges this year. Here's our story so far.

Roman started first grade this year. My baby is growing into such a big boy and will be outgrowing me very, very soon. We made the choice to homeschool this year for several reasons.

Last year, I volunteered almost every week in his Kindergarten class. And every single time I volunteered, I saw my son get behind. Not because he wasn't smart enough, but because he was distracted by something or someone. Something that happens to kiddos with autism a lot. When he finally got started on the task at hand, they were already on to something else. He never used his pencil grip, which is something that he needs to hold the pencil correctly because of his low muscle tone.

During recess, he would often fall and get hurt. He has poor balance because of his motor delay and low muscle tone. But he has an adventurous spirit and always wants to do what the other kids were doing. Like climbing on the big toys and swinging. But unlike other kids, if he gets distracted or bumped by another child, he'll fall. I know that children get hurt. I know that it's a normal part of life. But when it's every day, every time, it's a different story.

Roman is such a unique and awesome child. But he is different. And even in a "no bullying" school, he still got picked on. And he started to see himself not so much as "unique and awesome", but more of "different and unlikeable". And that's where I draw the line. He is an amazing, smart, wonderful kid. A friend of mine put it perfectly about her daughter who was homeschooled,

"She knows about teasing now; she didn't go through her entire life naive and oblivious to the social structure of Americans, she just got to figure out who she was a bit before she was blasted by those who told her that she was somehow insufficient."

Amazing. And dead on.

But our primary reason for homeschooling was to be able to keep him enrolled in autism therapies outside of school, three to four days a week. There he would get the social interaction from other homeschooled kiddos and the continued help for his challenges in life.

It was a perfect plan.

All that changed when we called our insurance company about a bill we received a few weeks after his seventh birthday. We learned that his autism coverage had been completely cut off the day he turned seven years old.

We were in shock. We couldn't believe that they would deny medical care to a child who legitmately needs it, just because of his age. We learned that Washington was one of several states that don't require insurance companies to pay for autism care after age seven.

It's ridiculous.

The reasoning behind it is that the public schools offer occupational, physical and speech therapy to children who qualify. But there's the kicker...."who qualify".

I learned early on when Roman was in developmental preschool that the public school system denies eligible children. They do it every single day. And even my child, who has the large motor skills of a child half his age, was turned down the first time. It's only if you push and push and push that they will listen to you. The squeaky wheel indeed, gets the grease.

And when the children do qualify, they get a half an hour of services per week, usually with another child. In comparison to what he was getting before (nine hours per week of quality autism care), it's a microscopic speck on a drop in the ocean.

We learned that because of Roman's hypotonia (low muscle tone), our insurance company will pay for 60 visits per year of physical, occupational, or speech therapy. And by "pay for", I mean they will cover everything outside of our $30 a session copay.

We also learned that to pay out of pocket for the therapies he was getting before he was cut off would be $4,000 a month. That's not a typo. $4,000 a month.

We applied for state assistance right after we learned that he was cut off. He was approved right away, which was great news! But then we learned that the waiting list for services was three years long. Three long, critical years.

So where are we now?

We made the decision to go ahead and homeschool Roman this year. If not for the reason that he'll be in outside therapy, but for the many reason I listed above it. And we are loving it. It's amazing to see his eyes light up when he understands something. Like really understands something.

We are paying out of pocket for a social group for special needs children for Roman. We really can't afford it financially, but we also know that we can't afford not to do it. We also have him enrolled in two other social outlets that are working out nicely.

We are still trying to get services through the school district. The woman I was in contact with through our homeschool program left her job without our knowledge and we got left behind. We have a meeting hopefully this Tuesday to discuss our options and I'm hoping and praying that it goes well.

In the middle of all this, we have been going through a major financial crisis. When I was diagnosed with celiac disease two years ago, our medical and food bills doubled. No more could I get a loaf of bread for $.99, now it was $6.00 for a small loaf that tasted like cardboard. There was a lot of adjusting. Add that plus our out of pocket expenses for Roman's autism care (keep in mind that this was when it was covered by insurance) and we were digging ourselves into a hole every single month.

We had to make some drastic changes in our life as a family. Zach's parents bought us a membership to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, a class that reteaches you how to manage your money. It was one of the best gifts we've ever received.

I re-learned the power of a dollar. As the homemaker in our family (in my opinion, a kind of defective one at that), I realized the huge impact that I can have on my family's success.

So I cut back on Starbucks to once a week. I started making everything from scratch. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Waffles, bread, salad dressing, tortillas, pumpkin spice sauce for my coffee, everything. Having celiac disease, the two choices are make your own, or pay out the nose for something premade. I even started buying flours and starches in bulk and mixing my own gluten free flour mix, which costs me a quarter of what a premade mix costs.

Did I mention that I'm a defective homemaker? Well I am. I hate to cook. I hate to clean. I don't live to serve others. I work. I require an artistic outlet lest I go insane. And now I homeschool a first grader to boot.

Did I also mention that I'm insanely busy?

But this is where my crazy organizing skills come into play. I love to organize. I live to organize. Organizing is my friend. I actually had someone tell me once, "you're too damn organized". Of course I laughed because you can never be too organized. But I digress...

In the midst of all of this craziness, I didn't make time to post on my blog. Because I've been teaching. And baking. And cooking. And cleaning. And working. And banging my head against the wall. And scraping together some time to do something - anything - creative to keep from going bat poop crazy. And many days, falling into a deep depression because everything seems so overwhelming. And so unfair to my innocent little boy.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. All the hard work I've been doing with our finances have been paying off. We are now spending.......drumroll please.....less than half what we were before on groceries and eating out. And I'm hoping to get it down even further. Eventually. Baby steps.

I've been able to work with Roman on his fine motor skills through handwriting. And because we are homeschooling, I can make sure that he uses his pencil grip every single time. And make sure that he is having a great time learning. We also started using a chart where Roman can earn "Superflex bonus points", a.k.a. quarters. If he does something flexible, something outside of his usual comfort zone, then he gets a bonus point. Seeing what lego sets he can learn by being flexible has really helped him grow. Tonight he even tried sweet and sour sauce! Which is huge - this is a kid who doesn't like sauce, frosting or glaze at all. Even on his birthday, his cupcake had to be frosting-free. His occupational therapist would be proud :)

So....in a really long, wordy, drawn-out nutshell, that's what's been going on with us recently. But we are happy, healthy and grateful for all the blessings that we have in our life. With the holidays fast approaching, my favorite creative outlet of all is coming, December Daily. I am so excited!

So stay tuned, I'll be uploading a few videos about my album this year in the next few days. I've challenged myself to only use materials that I have on hand. That's right, I'm not allowed to buy anything this year. Not even a piece of paper. Nada. Zip. Challenge accepted. Bring it on.

one of my favorite sites, one of my favorite things to do...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:06:00 +0000

redecorate! In this case, re-paint!

The Graphics Fairy has a huge giveaway from Sherwin Williams on her blog...this is REALLY inspiring to me because I have a huger than huge two story entryway that is in desperate need of painting. I'm not a fan of white walls and I love the grays she has featured on her blog:

http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2012/06/perfect-palette-time-to-redecorate-huge.html

Sherwin Williams also has this new fun tool called "Chip It". See a photo you like online? Run it through Chip it and get personalized paint colors. Amazing :)