God, Me, and Angelman Syndrome

     "To live a life of uninterrupted happiness in God, 

looking on every circumstance as coming from God, 

and thanking Him for it-

that is Christian perfection."

Merlin Carothers

      What if I were to say that I am thankful for Angelman Syndrome? I am submitting to the all that read this post today that I, Joanne Baston can truly and honestly and without hesitation praise God for Angelman Syndrome. 

     I can certainly praise God for all the obstacles my beautiful boy has overcome.  He has effectively shattered the list of things we were told he would never be able to do. He can walk and he can run.  He can perform basic tasks like dressing and helping with chores.  He can feed himself and thankfully he is completely toilet trained. He has a "job" he loves and approaches most work related tasks with great purpose and commitment.  I can praise God that his days are filled with meaning and purpose. I can praise God that the seizures, that have taken too many of our angels lives and are common to the syndrome,  have been minimal and for the most part controlled for our boy.

     But believe it or not, in recent months I have starting praising God for all the chaos and even for all the sleepless nights. I can praise Him for the mind-numbing exhaustion and the long days that are filled with enough work to keep ten people busy. I can even praise Him for the rhythmic, torturous, constant slapping of his hand on the leather couch that could make the sanest of the sane seek a psych evaluation. (and yes, he is doing it right now) I can praise Him for the cataclysmic havoc that shakes our house that our little human tornado single handedly has the power to create.

     Although praising God for a smack to the face, a pinch that bruises, and the general spectacle he can make of himself in public proves to be more challenging, but I am working on it.

     Do I wish Scotty did not have Angelman Syndrome? Of course I do, but I wish it for him not for me. Will I support the organizations that are funding research to find a cure? Absolutely...until my dying breath. The hard reality is that no amount of wishing is going to change the fact that my son, at this moment in time, has Angelman Syndrome.

     So who am I to question the motives of our God who wonderfully and perfectly made this boy?

     I joyfully accept the presence of Angelman Syndrome.

     I believe with all my heart that Scotty is exactly the person he is supposed to be and we, through the grace of God, have been blessed beyond measure to be his parents.  His plan is clearly at work in our lives.

For because of our faith he has brought

us into this place of highest priviledge

where we now stand,

and we confidently and joyfully look forward

to actually becoming all that God

has had in mind for us to be.

Romans 5:2

     We all at some point in our lives face a challenge that knocks the wind out of us...a trial that we are sure we don't have the strength to make it through.  But we do, and what is on the other side of the seemingly unscalable mountain of pain is always something more wonderful than anything we could have imagined. After all if our lives were easy how would we ever know the absolute joy that comes when we see first hand God working in our lives?

     I recently read, Power in Praise by Merlin Carothers. In this book that was published in 1971 we are reminded that, "Praise releases the Power of God into our lives and circumstances, because praise is faith in action.  When we trust God fully, He is free to work, and he always brings victory.  By complaining and grumbling we are actually accusing God of mismanaging the details of our day."

     Praise is faith in action.
     Give it a try.  What do you have to lose?
    I can and will continue to praise God for Angelman Syndrome...and mean it.
 

 I will bless the Lord at all times:

his praise shall continually

be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1

A Really Big Moment in the Sandbox

Guess What?

I am taking over my mom's blog this week to

 share some very cool news about my mommy.

She started this little blog about me over a year ago and,

trust me when I tell you that I give her plenty of material.

I don't mean to brag but,

 I think it is safe to say that my shenanigans are EPIC!

When she started this blog her goals were simple:

1. SPREAD AWARENESS FOR ANGELMAN SYNDROME.

2. Be an inspiration and a source of hope 

for others who are struggling

in this very confusing and chaotic life we are living.

3. Maybe, just maybe, someone would be

 interested in her ideas and storytelling 

and fulfill her lifelong desire to be a published author.

SO GUESS WHAT?

(.....humming Jeopardy music....)

If you guessed #3 you got it!

She sold one of her stories 

(she would add the word FINALLY to this sentence)

 about yours truly to 

GUIDEPOSTS online magazine.

They sent her a contract and paid her and everything!

It is the real deal!

So please follow the link below and leave a comment

and share it on Google Plus, and Facebook.

Don't forget to mention the blog too if it will let you.

 SHARE, SHARE, SHARE!

Her hope is to make a big splash on the website

so Guideposts will want to print more of her stories

about living with

ANGELMAN SYNDROME!

Can you imagine the impact?

LINK:

Guideposts Mysterious Ways The Longest Prayer

Disclaimer on the actual coolness factor:  I sent them the story...actually I have probably sent them 50 and entered several contests with book ideas.  I got my first taste of editing.  Wow!  Most of my ideas are there and many of my words but....

Don't Put Toothpaste on Your...

Recently a list circulated through the Facebook...

25 Ways You Know You are a Mom.

I thought I would put my own twist

on this theme...Angelman style.

This child of ours, often referred to as an "angel,"

can be anything but angelic.

The term "angel" stems from

Harry Angelman, the British pediatrician who identified 

Angelman Syndrome.
It is not a commentary on their
(at least not Scotty's)
"angelic" personality :)

 You know You Are the 

Mom of an "Angel" Man/Woman If...

1. You have watched the same Disney movie 9,855 times.

2. You can hold a two-sided conversation 

with your non-verbal child

for 16 hours a day and still maintain 

some semblance of sanity...

some, not a lot, but some.

3.  You have scooped poop out of a bathtub with a fish net...

more than once.

4.  You have no need for an alarm clock, because

you WILL be woken up every morning 

at 3:45, 4:45 and 5:45 am.

5.  You refer to drool as holy water.

6.  You haven't been alone in the 

bathroom in the last 27 years.

7.  Your body needs caffeine circulating

 through its veins in the same way

 that it needs blood in order to function properly.

8.  Showering is now a spectator sport,

because you don't dare leave them alone

while you spoil yourself with a

43 second shower.

9.  You can't take one breath without

breathing in your child's exhaled air,

because they are ALWAYS 

standing in your personal space.

10.  You have been wiping another person's 

butt everyday for the last 27 years.

11.  You refer to the bruises that come from

 pinches, jabs and bites on your arms 

and legs as "angel" kisses.

12.  You consider 4 hours of uninterrupted 

slumber a good night's sleep,

and if you get more than that you feel like you

have a wicked hangover.

13. You have caught throw up in your hands

while simultaneously getting your hair pulled

AND kicked in the shin.

14.  You have bought french fries for complete

strangers because your child firmly believes

that any food item within their reach is fair game.

15.  Getting your child showered and dressed in the morning

could be considered an Olympic event

 that requires a three hour recovery period.

16.  You are capable of being on the wrong end of a

strong right hook that makes you see stars

and yet you immediately hug the slugger, 

because you know they are hurting more.

17. It is not beneath you to beg, bribe, plead

or promise that Santa is in the parking lot

 if they will just get off the dirty, 

disgusting floor at Walmart

where they have dramatically thrown themselves

for reasons we can't even begin to imagine

and walk to the car without breaking the store.

18. You expertly avoid eye contact 

with the horrified onlookers as your

child is doing their best to make a complete

spectacle of himself in public.

19.  You repeat the following phrases daily. 

They are commands that are 

for all intents and purposes

never going to happen,

but you never stop trying.

Keep your hands to yourself,

don't bite the dog,

stop licking me,

stop licking the dog,

close the refridgerator,

stop breaking the house,

put that down it is not yours,

STOP (running away from me),

please let me sit for 5 minutes,

Shhhhhhh,

come over here,

please sit still,

and

be patient. Please?

(NEVER gonna happen)

20.  You have a no hugging rule.  

You talk about it endlessly.

You spend 10 minutes before 

someone comes over practicing. 

You ring the doorbell so they can practice

opening the door and

greeting you appropriately with a handshake.

They are ready!

Doorbell rings.  They open the door...

hug the unprepared and unsuspecting bug man 

and top it off with a kiss on the cheek. 

21.  You have to remind them every day NOT

to pull their pants down whenever 

and wherever it occurs to 

them that they need to go potty.

22.  You still say "potty" to your 27 year old.

23.  You have to turn the Three Stooges off

because they laugh so hard they stop breathing.

24.  Every time the phone rings they go into a feeding

frenzy and have to have a banana

NOW!

And #25...drumroll...

25.  You use combinations of words in sentences

that you never would have dreamed 

could or should go together.

My personal best...

"Oh buddy, don't put toothpaste on your penis !"

And that folks is just a small 

sample of life with an "angel".

This weekend is our National walk for Angelman Syndrome.

Please join us side by side or virtually.

Every little bit helps to further research and get us

closer to finding a cure.

To donate click here

"Jesus is God's Show and Tell"

These words, uttered by a small child,

are by far the best piece of theology I have

 read in a very long time.

During Lent this year I picked up The Genesis Trilogy, by

Madeleine L'Engle of A Wrinkle in Time fame.

It is unbelievable to me that in my 55 years

of being a voracious reader who literally eats books

that this particular book has never been in my hands.
It is magnificent and will be added to my
list of books to read over and over again.

The sentence above was relayed to her by a teacher

who was attending one of her writing workshops.

(Again, how did I not know this book existed???)

Jesus is God's show and tell.
Just take a deep, deep breath and
 let that sentence wash over you
and settle into your heart.

In our own imperfect way aren't we all called
 to be God's show and tell?

We have been shown and we have been told.

In our every thought,

in our every word,

 in our every action,
and in our every reaction

we can reveal God's message to others.

For once I will not bore you with the
 seemingly endless stream of hyperconsciousness
 this one sentence has produced in my
already cluttered mind.
 Suffice it to say that I have filled pages

and pages with thoughts and images that 

this one simple sentence has unleashed...

But I keep going back to one.

I am humbled to be witness to moments
of God's show and tell,
like this one, every single day.
This quiet moment of peace and contentment
was preceded by a moment (more like fifteen)
of screaming and banging and covering his ears
because I asked him to put his shoes on.

Yet this boy of ours,
this yelly, bangy, breaky whirling dervish
of a human being,
 is the embodiment of what it means

to be God's show and tell.

He is forced to live in a world where he will never truly fit in.
It is a place, that for him, is full of chaos and confusion.
He must try to cope with the frustration that boils up inside,
because no one understands him.
He must suffer inside a body that often betrays him.
He must endure the isolation that comes
from living in the margins of life,
and the sadness and heartbreak he must feel.

And still he is able to find so many moments of joy.

This boy can find joy in the simplest of pleasures.
A trip to Lowe's, an unexpected gummy worm in his cereal,
facetiming with family or a stolen banana are all
good enough reasons for him to jump for joy.

This boy calms to the soothing
sounds of  his "church" music,
  clutches his bible to his heart for much of the day, and
will drop to his knees for no apparent reason and pray.
This boy sat at my friend Karen's dinner table,
folded his hands and waited to eat until she prayed with him.
This boy who has been given a small handful of words,
and yet three of them are Amen, Alleluia, and I love you.

This boy who loves so hard and
 with such profound emotion is
a perfect example of God's Show and Tell.

I sense something deeper here...
something reverent...
something holy.

It is there in the moments of yelling and banging,
and it is in the moments of peace and contentment.

Through him I am shown God's message,
so in my every thought, in my every word,
in my every action, and in my every reaction,

I am inspired 

to be a better show and tell.

For Scotty's birthday this year we got him a butterfly habitat.
For the last few weeks we have watched
 our caterpillars turn into beautiful painted lady butterflies.
It was time to release them today just in time for Easter.
For some strange reason Scotty is terrified of butterflies.
He loves zombies,vampires,snakes and crocodiles,
but butterflies make him scream like a girl!
I was very surprised today that he wasn't freaked out.
Perhaps because they have been living in the kitchen for a few weeks???

Butterflies are the perfect symbol of the tomb Christ conquered
and every Christian's hope of their own rebirth.

Jesus said to her,
I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me,
though he die, yet shall live.
John 11:25

May you all have a blessed Easter.
Jesus IS God's show and tell...
Remember to pay attention.

I Give Up...

The Lenten season is upon us once again.

As Catholics Lent is a special time of prayer, 

penance, sacrifice and 

good works in preparation 

of the celebration of Easter. 

For many, including me, this often translates 

into giving up something you love, a sacrifice...

For God.

I have done it all...

Chocolate

Wine

Sugar

Diet Coke

Fast food

Cursing

Gossiping

TV

Facebook

and 

Coffee.

Regrettably,

in all my previous attempts I have failed.

 The coffee was a tragic error in judgement
on my part 

in my extremely sleep deprived life.

In truth I almost killed a man.

In a last startling moment of lucidity I 

realized that my darling husband
can't help it if he needs to chew
his oatmeal at the breakfast
table with the same deafening cacophony of
someone who is chomping on gravel.

And so his life was spared.

This year I have struggled to find my sacrifice.

I am already reading my bible every day,

eating well, exercising, watching less TV,

spending less time on the computer,

so these are in no way suitable for a sacrifice.

I have always wondered if it really

mattered to God whether I ate chocolate, drank wine,

perused Facebook or watched TV.

Last week our priest confirmed that it does not.

He also advised us to not give up something

that makes the lives of those

 around us miserable.

Let's say coffee for example.

It is clear to me that I am missing the point.

 So, I sat in mass this morning,

still unsure of my Lenten plans,

just waiting for some divine intervention

that would lead me to the perfect sacrifice.

And suddenly there it was...

 It was in the face of this guy. 

I watched his face as he peered 

over his dad's shoulder

watching him receive his ashes. 

His face was shining with joy and anticipation.

His expression said, 

"Oh you are so lucky!  I can't wait for my turn!"

I want that.

I want the kind of joy that bubbles up inside of you

and when it spills over it

 impacts everyone around you. 

 So this year I am giving up making promises to 

God that through my own human weakness

I am unable to keep.

This year I am going to give up and let go 

of all the things that take away my joy.

Isn't that exactly what the word sacrifice means?

This year I want to find my joy.

The kind of joy that bubbles up inside of me

and makes others thirst for it too.
The joy that comes from being a child of God.

To my sweet boy who has an endless

supply of joy...

thank you for helping me yearn for mine.

Oh my son, you are so lucky and

I can't wait for my turn!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy

 and peace as you trust in him, 

so that you may overflow with hope

 by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13 

ENOUGH

 

ENOUGH

sufficient, acceptable, full, abundant,

over-flowing, plentiful, unlimited,

cup runs over with

I have recently started using the word "ENOUGH"

often and with great purpose,

although not in the way one might suspect.

Not in the ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

or

the I HAVE HAD ENOUGH way.

It is the kind of ENOUGH that 

Mother Teresa speaks of in the above quote.

The kind of ENOUGH that lets me find
moments of blessing in  

 every single day.

It is the kind of ENOUGH that reminds me 

that I don't need anything 

more than what I have right now.

 Now is ENOUGH.

It is the kind of ENOUGH that makes my heart

beat in a rhythm of calmness and contentment. 

It is the kind of ENOUGH that fills my soul 

with gratefulness and peace.

ENOUGH.

I love this photo.
It is us in a flower pot.
Lopsided, misshapen, battered, gnarled,
and moving in a
completely different direction
than all the other trees...
Yet it continues to grow and thrive
despite its asymmetric and seemingly
unbalanced trunk.


 I have very rarely felt strong ENOUGH 
for my very out of the ordinary life,
but I have faith
like the little tree above,
that Steve and I are
 more than strong ENOUGH
to keep this whole thing from tipping over.

In turning my new philosophy into action I wanted

to share a wondrous moment of blessing.

An awe-inspiring moment of gratefulness.

An extraordinary moment of ENOUGH.

Monday is laundry day.

My usual routine is to fold all the laundry

and make piles on the couch to be carried upstairs later.

The other day as I waited on load four to dry

I decided to jump on the treadmill for the last ten minutes...

And Scotty let me...

Hmmm.....extremely unusual.

When the buzzer went off and I went to check 

the dryer and glanced at the couch.

It was completely empty?

There was not so much as a sock 

anywhere to be found.

I couldn't even wrap my brain around it.

 As I began to question my sanity I heard

Scotty galloping down the stairs

laughing and jumping up and down

with sheer happiness.

Clearly he was beside himself with excitement.

He grabbed my hand and dragged 

me upstairs where he proudly 

and with great flourish presented to me

  my previously neatly folded and sorted laundry...

 in a giant heap at the top of the stairs. 

His beautiful smile was literally from ear to ear. 

He wore his pride like a badge of honor.

He helped...

I didn't ask. I didn't beg. I didn't bribe.

My sweet little man, 

did something for me,
FOR ME

all by himself

and left us both laughing and 
jumping up and down

with sheer happiness.

And it was more than ENOUGH.

God has dealt graciously with me

and I have ENOUGH.

Genesis 33:12

A little shout out to all my fellow angel mamas 

who are having a difficult time right now...

 

But seek first His kingdom and 

His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  

So do not worry about tomorrow; 

for tomorrow will care for itself. 

Each day has ENOUGH trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:33-34

Angel "Kisses"

As a rule I have tried  to balance the monumental challenges with the extraordinary blessings that come with raising a child with special needs in this blog. Some weeks naturally weigh more heavily on one side or the other, but in fact to me they are one in the same.

You see without the challenges the blessings would not seem so sweet, and without the blessings the challenges would be too much to bear.

In my posts I have tried to keep it honest and real, but the fact remains that much of it has been somewhat sugar-coated, because quite honestly most people couldn't handle the truth! Not many people want to read about how we spent four hours cleaning up poop from every, and I do mean every surface in Scotty's bedroom and from every square inch of his body. 

Thank God this little pastime of his ended many years ago, but the horror of the memory lingers on...and on...and on.

So when he gets up at 3am we can  acknowledge our exhaustion, but be so thankful that he didn't use poop as an artistic medium to redecorate his room.   So there you go...without the challenge the blessing would not be nearly so easy to recognize.

A few years ago I joined the Facebook. For most people it is a place to keep in touch with friends, share jokes, recipes, political opinions and some general silliness. Personally, Facebook has changed my life. I have been blessed to have found a group of parents, who like us are living a very extraordinary life with an angel.  A life that defies description with mere words or photos...a life much different than the one we had all planned.

These families inspire me with their stories, with their courage, and with the fierce love they have for their children. Our stories though similar are each unique and in sharing our challenges with one another our blessings have now been multiplied. 

Today's blog is not at all the one I had intended to write, but it is the one I needed to write. Yesterday a fellow "angel momma" Kristi Murray, wrote a post about her son Nicholas who is a 12 year old angel. Her sweet boy had given her a few "angel kisses" on her hands for all the world to see.  A visual that couldn't be covered up or sugar-coated.

Angel "kisses", by my definition, can come in the form of bruises, bites, sprains, pinches, pulled hair and some pretty impressive hits and kicks from these children of ours who have extremely low muscle tone.

Her son, like mine, is only able to express himself through his actions. Anger, frustration, sadness and even happiness can result in a very painful "angel kiss".  There is no malice or hatred behind it...it is just their way.

Yes...it hurts.  There is pain involved.  More often than not it hurts my feelings more than actual physical pain.  Okay, that is probably sugar-coating...getting my hair pulled by a 165 pound man really does hurt an awful lot, but the kiss on the top of my head afterwards is so incredibly sweet.

Day by day we soldier on holding one another up and reminding each other to find the blessings in our challenges.

So thank you Kristi for allowing me to share your post and your beautiful, beautiful boy on the blog today.

Thank you for your words yesterday that showed up on my wall just when I needed them.

Let all that you do be done in love. 

1 Corinthians 16:14

From Kristi:

This morning, at the Women's Bible Study I attend with my mom, I happened to look down and saw this pitiful sight.

Check out my hand. THIS is what a special needs mom looks like. This is the outcome of having a child who can't communicate and needs to pinch you to get your attention or let you know he doesn't like what's on TV.

I can slap on a cute bracelet and ring…but the scars are still there.

And that's ok.

Because the topic in our class today was how God is WITH and IN His believers. We have HIS power to get through times and situations that aren't pretty.

I can do this. WE can do this, Angel Mommas. And if you are a Believer, we have the POWER of The One who loved us so much, He died for us and left us the Spirit inside us to endure.

And that makes this woman sigh with relief.

"I have carried you since you were born.
I have taken care of you from your birth.
Even when you are old, I will be the same.
Even when your hair has turned gray,
I will take care of you.
I made you and will take care of you.
I will carry you and save you."
-God
Isaiah 46:3-4

So good to know.

Angelman Syndrome

Please take a moment to go to the White House website

 and sign the petition to increase funding for Angelman Syndrome.  

Angelman Syndrome is a rare neurogenetic syndrome.

Most people have not heard of AS. In fact, many doctors haven't.

The symptoms of AS are extremely severe. Mental retardation, nearly complete lack of speech, and severe difficulty with motor control occur in all individuals. Seizures occur in almost all individuals.

Individuals with AS and their family members are enduring incredible hardship. However, there is hope.

A cure for AS is on the horizon. The cause is now well understood - a rarity amongst genetic syndromes.

All that is required now is the funding to make a cure possible.

In 2010, the National Institutes of Health spent less than $500,000 on Angelman Syndrome research.

We ask, simply, that funding towards Angelman Syndrome research be greatly increased.

It just takes a minute.  You do have to sign up in order to sign the petition.

Click Here

Research for a Cure for Angelman Syndrome

A New Year Experiment

A few weeks ago this popped up on the Facebook feed:

In my ongoing quest to be more organized and less scattered I decided to give it a shot! I thought this looked simple enough even for someone of my advanced age and athletic ability.

Monday

1.De-clutter

2. Dishes

3. Make Bed

4.Clean 2 & 1/2 baths 

Seems reasonable...

Unless of course your Monday begins at 3:45 am.
That my friends makes this a little more challenging.
I spent the first two and a half hours
of my day
 repeating some version of the following phrase:

"Lay down and close your eyes...No, we can't have a banana
(go bye-bye, get a surprise, watch a parade,
order pizza, go to work, get a donut...)
until the sun comes up."

7:30- 9:30 Drink coffee, get breakfast, feed the dogs, empty the dishwasher and try to have a semi-coherent conversation with my husband before he leaves for work.
Goal #2 Dishes accomplished!
I am off to a promising start.

Finally ready to begin and I estimated that even
with interruptions I could do all three bathrooms,
 including cleaning Millie's cage, in one hour.

I went looking for my much too quiet helper.

NOW he sleeps!

Hmm...I could tackle a bathroom, but instead decide to jump on the treadmill for a few minutes and try to accomplish my other resolution...walk 10,000 steps. Of course that was all sleeping beauty needed to get off the floor. He pulled me off the treadmill and insisted on a 15 minute dance party and then I had to  I listen to him "play"  the
 theme from Titanic on the piano.
And it went on and on...

10:00- Now we are ready.
Bathroom #1 which is rarely used but,
 it is the one where smelly Millie lives.
Although he loves to hold Millie we still had
 to endure the usual 15 minutes of yelling,
banging and throwing things on the floor in response
to the question,
"Scotty will you hold Millie for me?"

10:15- Okay now we are ready.
Bathroom #1 took me 48 minutes to clean because...
I had to sit with Scotty so he could show me how cute Millie is
and then take some pictures to show dad.

Oh she is cute alright and, but oh so smelly.
She is currently in the running for the
 worlds oldest living guinea pig.
Yea?

OF COURSE as soon as I finished Scotty
desperately needed to use the bathroom...
the clean one.
Not the one 15 feet down the hall that was next on the list.
Oh no, it had to be the sparkling clean one. Sigh!

In the end I decided Millie's cage didn't smell that bad
 after all and could last another day or two.

11:03 Ready to begin bathroom #2.
I decided to stick him in the tub
and kill two birds with one stone,
because at 11:03 we were still not dressed.
Again he had to go through his usual shenanigans
in response to the quietly and cautiously spoken statement,
"Scotty time to get dressed."
20 minutes later...

I would have posted a video of his ridiculous shenanigans,
but I hadn't accomplished goal #3 ...
Make Bed.

Finally, smiley boy is submerged in his now lukewarm
Epsom salt/Monsters University bubble bath...
Which he loves, but still finds the need
 to say no to everything
including those things he loves.

 Including shenanigans it took 50 minutes to clean
the entire bathroom.
 It took an additional 22 minutes
for Scotty to get dressed.

 It went something like this...
Me: Put your socks on please.
Scotty: Points to the TV
Me: We will watch a movie later.
Put your socks on buddy.
Scotty: Points to his sister's picture and signs airplane.
Me:  Next time Stevi comes home
you can pick her up at the airport.
Please put your socks on.
Scotty: Points at Sarah's picture and signs dog.
Me:  Her dog is downstairs and you can see him when you
put your socks on.
Scotty:  I want a treat.
Me: As soon as you PUT YOUR SOCKS ON.
Etc, etc, etc.

In a rare magical moment of cooperation
my little helper loaded the washing machine.


12:35 Need more coffee
Scotty was contentedly watching a DVD so I
jumped back on the treadmill.
Current step count1246

12:36  Scotty wants lunch...and he wants it now.
Current step count 1256
This is a good hour long process because he has to help
 prepare and clean up his meal.

1:36 Time to walk the dogs...
30 minutes of complaining...
20 minutes of walking.

2:40 I decide to jump back on the treadmill
before I tackle bathroom #3.
Current step count 3342.

2:41 Scotty gets in the pantry and steals a banana and
two peppermint patties.
Chased him around the house.
Current step count 3398.

3:00 I need a nap.
I put in his favorite movie, Little Miss Sunshine,
because certainly he is exhausted
and will sit still for 90 minutes.

3:00-4:30 I read 11 pages of The Book Thief for book club...
At which time I start asking my
scoochie son to please sit still
and end up pleading, begging and bribing
him to sit still until the movie is over.


4:33 I turn off the movie and try to muster up some energy and patience.
I notice Mr. Noisy pants is unusually quiet.
Really?
NOW he sleeps!

I don't think so.
I roused the sleeping bear off the couch
so he could help me try to accomplish
goal #1 De-clutter.

5:18  Steve calls to say he is on his way home.
Crap.

1. Downstairs bathroom is still not done.
2.Towels are still in the washer.
3. I have only walked 5002 steps.
4.I still haven't taken a shower (no towels anyway)
 and am really questioning if I have even brushed my teeth.
5.The Easy Chicken Corn Chowder I was going to make
has a prep time of 25 minutes...
obviously I need to triple that
plus a cook time of 30 minutes.
Sandwiches it is then.

 I  realize a few things from my little experiment.

1. I am pretty sure I can classify
this resolution as an epic fail.
2.This is way more cleaning than
I can manage to do in one day
and I didn't even finish my assigned tasks.
As I write this a day later...
those towels are still sitting in the dryer
and the downstairs bathroom isn't clean.
3. I am never going to make it to 10,000 steps.
4. I really need to get a shower before noon.
This should probably be #1.
5. Lastly, I am very aware of where all my time goes.
It doesn't go into my messy house obviously,

but into this beautiful, brown-eyed

bundle of energy instead who

even prays when he sleeps♥

 I will never be able to measure my
accomplishments by how many tasks I complete,
but it is abundantly clear to me that
every moment spent caring for Scotty
will always be more important  than
chasing dust bunnies.

Whatever you do, work heartily, 
as for the Lord and not for men
Colossians 3:23