Doing my part to take care of the Earth. My son was diagnosed with Autism in June of 2009. Awed by the fact that God entrusted me with a special needs child. I was recently diagnosed with PCOS & through eating real food and foods that help control PCOS symptoms, I have recently become pregnant after 5 years of trying! Welcome to my little piece of the world.
Sorry for the delay. 2 month delay to be exact. After losing my job and acclimating to the SAHM position again, I was more like a chicken with its head cut off than a smooth-writing blogger. But I'm back now that my big Kindergartener is all settled in school and I have a bit of breathing room. Today's post is just a little silly but something to fill the page and catch you up on our summer while I organize my posts for next week.
To start, here is me on my first day home, unsure of what to do with myself now that I'm home...
I decided to make bread and Boogie watched intently:
We went on Walkersville's Southern Railroad for the 4th of July, Boogie brought Stitch and Sweetgirl brought a MH doll:
We went to see Daddy/Hubbs sing with the Waterboyz for Jesus at Keys Stadium:
Getting comfy while we wait to go in the stadium
No pictures, please!
Boogie got a haircut:
My aunt and uncle came to visit from Germany and this was my favorite family photo taken while they were here:
Boogie got to meet Bob the Tomato at the Family Christian Bookstore grand opening:
We went to the beach and celebrated Sweetgirl's 12th birthday while there:
We had a Monster High Sleepover party when we got home for Sweetgirl:
And finally... Boogie started Kindergarten!
~~Joy
(c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson All Rights Reserved.
Oooooh... he thinks he's sneaky. He thinks he's smart. He thinks he can derail me, deter me, scare me, push me away. Look at what he's done in the past couple of days:
The announcement was made of my job loss happening this week rather than later in the year (due to merger).
The company that bought us decided to play into a loophole of letting us go when we are "their" employees in order to give us their dinky severance package rather than the one that was negotiated by our company.
My bank account was hacked into and subsequently I had to shut down my debit card, so no card for 7-10 days. Business days.
During this past crazy storm, part of our tree fell and busted our pool. Our brand-new pool.
What he didn't count on....me and my faith. God is showing me again and again that the Holy Spirit is guiding me. With the perspective from God, THIS is how I see it:
I have the luxury of knowing ahead of time that I'm losing my job. It's a job that served its purpose in helping sustain our family when Hubby was out of work. It's run its course and it's time for me to go.
I'm getting a severance package. Whatever money I receive is a blessing and will help carry us through the summer. A summer I get to spend with Boogie before he becomes a big Kindergarten boy.
I found the issue right away. My bank is making it easy to fix the issue. I'll have a beauteous new debit card since mine is worn down anyway. It wasn't my last dime they took.
The tree missed our bedroom by inches. Hubby, Boogie & I were all dead asleep when the tree cracked and fell. Had it hit the bedroom, we wouldn't have heard it in time. We also have insurance on the pool. Who gets insurance on a pool from Wal-Mart? We do and we'll actually get our money's worth.
Really looking back at it, these are all first-world problems anyway. These are nothing compared to the real sadness and suffering I see around me; friends losing all they own and their home due to a house fire, losing their fathers, getting their possessions stolen, having no money to eat for several days, suffering with tremendous health issues, preparing for surgeries, testing for cancer, laying to rest beloved pets, preparing funerals for their children...
My problems aren't really problems at all in comparison.
~~Joy
(c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson. All Rights Reserved.
For those of you who know what's been happening in my life lately- you might understand this reference:
THE HUNGER GAMES HAVE STARTED AND MY NAME WAS CALLED AS TRIBUTE.
Yup. My name was on the list.
I am losing my job.
(Caveat: I am NOT losing my job due to lack of performance or anything...there are "overlapping positions" due to a merger).
I really am blessed to have had the job fall in my lap when Hubby lost his job last year. It did what we needed it to do. It helped our family stay on its feet. That is, IF family had feet...it would be on them. And not on its butt.
Of course, I have the best intentions to "keep my chin up" and trust in God but I'm sure I'll have some days where it'll be hard to keep the "great attitude". Especially when Hubby doesn't have enough jobs one month to cover all the bills or when we have to start giving stuff up and selling stuff to make ends meet. Then...I'll wish someone volunteered as tribute for me.
Seriously though, God is amazing. I know, for a fact, that He did not want me there. I know what it is he wants me to do. And He sent me a love song on the way home today just to remind me (I chose the one with lyrics so you could get it):
Now comes the real test. Do I just sing along or will I live it out?:
Anything I would give up for you
Everything I'd give it all away...
P.S. I'm a pretty awesome car-singer. People in the lane next to me agree.
Oh, and for those of you who were on the edge of your seats wondering...yes, I made my midnight deadline for my first essay. :) Pretty good essay, if I say so myself...and because I actually am an AUTISM EVANGELIST...oh yeah- I worked autism into my essay about psychological theories and our worldview. Hmmm, maybe I'll post my essay tomorrow in lieu of a blog.
~~Joy
(c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson All Rights Reserved.
My son is OFF THE HOOK! I mean, really? Everything I say or do results in him stomping, screaming, running (or attempting to before I grab ahold of him), yelling, yelling, yelling, hitting, head-butting...ENOUGH ALREADY!
I figured this would be a hard week because it's the first week out of school and not at the beach. I get it. It sucks to not be at the beach...I miss it too kiddo. Seriously, I do. Especially the not-having-to-do-anything part.
Oh yeah...I miss my sandy toes
Yesterday we went to my sis-in-law's friend's farm to meet our turkey. The farm was awesome! And the baby turkeys were adorbs!
One of these cute baby turkeys will be on our Thanksgiving table this year.
No dice. Boogie was ridiculously nasty to the point that I had to send him to the car. I chalked it up to the heat (it was a scorcher yesterday).
Grumpy, grumpy guy...
It was so hard to handle him and he had me at my wit's end but I remained calm because 1.) there were witnesses and 2.) I was hot and irritable too so if I am, then he must be ten-fold.
So, I have to be nice. And calm. But it is not easy. Not when today I make him homemade apple chips and he throws a fit about it and spits them out. Not when I then make him chocolate banana popcorn and he yells at me because the chocolate is white rather than brown. Not when every 30 minutes he literally gets in my face to yell that he's hungry again. Not when he flips because the ketchup is touching the macaroni. Or when he throws his bowl because I made the mistake of telling him the cereal goes in the bowl before the milk.
I am at my wit's end. At this rate- THIS is where Boogie will be spending his summer:
Calm Down Step
Yesterday was a bad meltdown day. Today was a REALLY bad meltdown day. Top that with a nasty phone call from a family member ending with her hanging up on me...sigh...WHITE FLAG!!
~~Joy (c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson All Rights Reserved.
The family is on vacation! With that in mind, please note that I am blogging from my phone and can't promise how pretty the final product will be!
The last few days have been filled with beach lounging, family bike rides, pool-time, game playing, movies galore, bad tv (The wildest police chases, Dumb criminals, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars...you get my drift), book reading, Instagramming (including a few IG wars!), sleeping in, eating together, ice cream eating, and playground playing. And a thought occurred to me: why don't we do this more? Why do we store it up for vacation? I mean, some of it you just can't do like the sleeping in and the beach lounging (if you don't live on the beach) but what about the rest of it?
Why don't we play more games or watch more movies together? We do these things but certainly not as often as I intend to. You know what I mean? When you really want to do something fun for a weekend and before you know it after all the errands and silly things you wasted time on (like cleaning- boo!) Monday morning is upon you like a bad habit. I'm not saying you shouldn't clean- you should, please do! But I know for me I have a problem with allowing tedious things to get in the way of memory making.
I can't continue to let life slip away. Every second wasted can't be recovered. And sometimes lounging is the best way to spend my time with the family. So...here's to memory making- let's make this life a good one!
~~Joy (c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson all rights reserved.
