This week’s One Word Photo Challenge is, eigengrau. This was a color I had to look up so that I could help you understand the color better by describing it.
She loves her superheros!
My sister and I took our kiddos to see the Christmas lights at Garvin Gardens. Of course, I had mini me up on my shoulders. So much easier to keep up with her that way, lol!
Earlier today, I caught my daughter going through everyone’s stocking. I know she’s anxiously waiting for Christmas, but I had to again, tell her that she has to wait for Christmas day to open presents, and to also leave the stockings alone as they’re not all for her; she didn’t bother getting into hers, which is on the other side of the tree, with her name on it. I thought I had put them up high enough, but I’m guessing she stood on the back of the couch and got them down, then dumped them all out. I know she particularly liked what my nephew is getting, as she was wearing it. I had to tell her that was for Hunter, which she put back with no arguments. The two of them are really close, like brother and sister.
She still hasn’t found my new hiding spot for all the presents, thank goodness. Guess the third time is the charm, or maybe it’s the really heavy container I put in front of the closet door for good measure. If I have a problem moving that thing, she won’t be able to budge it an inch. Maybe I should knock on wood…*knock, knock, knock*…wait the desk is fake wood…
Each time she found my hiding spot, she would open all the presents, carefully putting the empty packages into the trash can, then run around playing with everything she got out. I wasn’t home when this had happened, or it would’ve been prevented when she got too close to where I was hiding everything. When I walked inside the house, she immediately rushed up to me and showed me what she got with all the excitement of a four year old. Of course I knew where she got the toys and inside I was screaming ‘NO!”, but on the outside, I was smiling and just agreed to let her have them. There was no way I was going to take toys away from a child with autism. So, I just simply found a new hiding spot for the next round of presents, twice.
I didn’t buy that much for her to open each time I had moved to each hiding spot, but now that it’s closing in on the big day, there’s no way she’s going to get into them now, Mommy is broke, er, I mean Santa is broke, so he put this heavy 20 gallon container in front of the door, hiding all gifts from small and crafty hands. I’m so lucky she can’t read this, lol!
I was talking to one of my cousins, and we both agreed that peeking at our presents before Christmas, runs in our family, so I know I’m getting paid for my raising. My sisters and I would open our presents early. Our parents would put a few under the tree and it would bug us, not knowing what was in those wrapped packages. I had unwrapping presents down to a science. Steaming the tape just so and then peal it off without tearing the wrapping. Though once we got a peek at the contents, we weren’t at all happy, so when Christmas arrived, we weren’t all that excited to open anything. Let’s just say, kids aren’t all that happy to receive clothes for Christmas, that wasn’t what we told Santa what we wanted. So what happened? It wasn’t until later when we found out that our little scheme wasn’t much of a secret and that was why the early presents under the tree were nothing but clothes.
Well played.
Now I know how to deal with that when my daughter gets a little bit older, but how to deal with her now is the fun part. I can’t even get her to leave the ornaments on the tree alone. She takes off with them, plays with them, then I can’t find the things when I notice they’re gone. Usually, they’re hanging on the Venetian blinds in the living room, but I guess she got tired of me taking them down and putting them back on the tree because they’re now MIA.
How does everyone react where you live, when the weatherman/woman says the forecast is calling for snow? Here in central Arkansas it’s like an Apocalypse is coming. Everyone rushes out to the store to clear the shelves of bread and milk.
This was taken today at Walmart here in Bryant, Arkansas. This is suppose to be the bread aisle, but as you can see, the bread has been wiped out.
A few days ago, our very own weatherman said it was supposed to snow today – it didn’t. Though that didn’t stop everyone from clearing the shelves at the local grocery store. I just happened to go to the store myself, but it was for a few items my grandmother needed for a recipe. I also ran out of grape jelly and my daughter was almost out of her cereal. I usually don’t pay much attention to the forecast, unless it calls for several inches of snow and/ or that it’s going to snow for a few days straight. So when I got to the store this morning I found it crowded on the grocery side of the store and most of the shelves were either empty or looking a little bare.
Last year, around Christmas, we actually received a lot of snow, as well as ice. The trees became top heavy and limbs began snapping, falling on power-lines and across roadways. Many were without power for days, some without power for weeks. My family and I were actually stuck in our house as our giant Magnolia tree in our front yard split. One giant limb fell across the driveway, then another fell across the yard and on part of the wheelchair ramp (was built for my grandfather years ago), blocking us in completely. There was also a limb that fell against the house, pulling one of the wires out of the wall, knocking our electric out. We had trouble getting the power company to come out here to look at it, as they wanted us to have an electrician check it first.
I called an electrician and was put on a long waiting list. Some electrician’s were without electricity themselves, so those they did have electricity, found themselves busy busy. After a few days someone showed up and said we were good to go. Now the wait for the power company to come turn the power back on. That in turn took a few more days. All the while the house was almost as cold inside, as it was outside. We all bundled up under a huge pile of blankets in the living room, sealing off the rest of the house. After about eight days we finally got our power turned on. It was like this across most of the state.
The weatherman did call for several inches of snow and some ice. I had stocked up on food, but what I didn’t expect was the power to go out. Everything here is electric. Now we are better prepared; I have a little camping stove, bottled water, lanterns, and batteries.
Our giant magnolia tree
This weeks photo challenge is supposed to be about joy. I think every picture, well almost every picture, I take of my daughter represents some form of joy. Here is a picture I took myself of her with Christmas lights. The night of Christmas I drove around town and through the back roads into the country, showing her houses decorated in brightly colored lights and other Christmas decorations. To hear her gasps and repeatedly say how pretty each house was made my night.
From my family to yours, have a very merry Christmas!
This week my daughter’s daycare is having ‘Spirit Week’. Monday was Red and Green day, Tuesday was Ugly Sweaters, and today is Wacky Wednesday. The wearer’s outfit is not suppose to match, so two different socks, polka dot shirt with stripped pants, that sort of thing.
I opened my daughter’s drawers to look for something ‘interesting’ or ‘wacky’. I looked at her and told her she needed to wear something silly today for school. She then helped me pick something out for her to wear – her Supergirl costume with a red tutu. Looks wacky, yet awesome!
historical view of Heidelberg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In Sociology class we are learning a little bit about religion in society. One particular religion that we discussed, other than Christianity, was sun worship. How ancient societies would worship the sun, until science came along and explained the world and it’s surroundings to us. I wrote a response paper on a particular sun worshiping group that I had seen on a TV show a few months ago. I had to do some research to make sure what I was saying was accurate, as always. Enjoy!
I love watching the History channel. Some of the shows on there always catch my attention, especially when it comes to talking about historical items in the museum, archeology, or historical exploration. Last year I started watching a show called America Unearthed. Scott Wolter, a world renowned forensic geologist is often called to check out some rock or stone someone has found. Usually that stone has some history relevance to a past society or tied to a particular group of people.
According to Wolter’s show, “these groups of people or societies are relatively known to have lived there, so history says, but with the evidence that’s being found today and the evidence that’s been looked at again from the past, says otherwise. Such as the Mayan’s built temples in Georgia, Egyptian tribes once lived in Oklahoma, the Knights Templar roaming in the Nevada desert. All of these groups of people past history says is inaccurate, but evidence being brought forth shows otherwise.”
The show is primarily based on correcting the history that we’ve been taught in school. Scott Wolter travels all over America, even across Europe, trying to put an answer to some of the items that are brought to his attention.
In Sociology class, we talked about a particular religion where people worship the sun. It reminded me of an episode I saw of America Unearthed called ‘A Deadly Sacrifice’. Evidence of a particular group called Mithraism was found in Oklahoma. Wolter says, “Mithraism is an ancient Egyptian cult of the Apis bull.” However, that is incorrect.
Mithraism was it was a secretive sect. It is part of the Zoroastrianism religion that was founded in the 6th century BC. What is known is that it dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
Mithras was a very important Persian god. He was a sun god and a bull slayer. Images are often found of Mithras slaying a bull. It is believed that those in the Mithraism sect sacrificed a bull to honor Mithras, but the blood was used to baptized newcomers.
This particular group would have been outcast in America as they were very different from Christianity. However, archeological evidence shows that Christianity and Mithraism influenced one another. They both developed in the same area of the world. They both have communal meals and have similar beliefs and practices. It is believed that Christianity adopted one aspect of Mithraism, Christmas Day.
Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th; he was born sometime in the fall. December 25th is the day of the birth of the sun, or the sun god, to which is closely related to Mithras.
When Constantine converted to Christianity from Mithraism, he decided to change December 25th to Christ’s birthday, rather than Mithras’ birthday. Mithraism eventually died out in the 4th century AD when Constantine converted to Christianity.
This post is being brought to my attention and is not at all seen as what I was trying to get across. It seems that I will have to correct some errors.
I’ve started to notice my daughter’s Autism progressing more. She’s more sound sensitive, even more scared of the washer, blender, and vacuum cleaner than she was before. The sounds of fireworks terrify her to the point she’s screaming with fright. She’s even more attractive to things with bright, flashing lights, like glow sticks or the light up wands you would find at Halloween or at concession stands at parades or carnivals.
Last night we had our Christmas parade here in Bryant, my hometown. I didn’t take her due to her reaction to the Christmas parade we went to in Benton the night before; Benton is the town next to us. She showed interest in the floats, decorated with bright Christmas lights, with cheerful people waving and shouting ‘Merry Christmas’. My daughter cheered and waved back at each one as they passed by us. Then she started to push away when the band started coming near us. I calmly walked behind the crowd of people that was around us, but started to dance along with the band’s music, showing her that it was okay.
As soon as the band passed by I put her up on top of my shoulders, where she would sit for majority of the parade. She resumed her clapping, waving, and cheering at the brightly lit floats driving past us, until the motorcycles started to approach us. She started to scream and try to climb down from my shoulders. I cuddled her as best I could, trying to comfort her as she hid her head in my chest, covering her ears and whimpering. I placed my hand over her head, bringing her into my chest and covering her ears as best as I could, telling her all will be okay. The more the motorcycles revved up their engines, the more she stirred and cried.
I continued to stay at the back of the crowd, far from the parade procession. Though as each loud group that passed by us, I would put her back up on my shoulders so she could enjoy the rest of the parade. It was soon coming to an end and it was time for the firetrucks to make their appearance, followed by the fat jolly man on top of the last firetruck. It wasn’t hard to tell they were nearing as each one would blast their sirens, causing it to echo off of the buildings, making it sound louder and louder as the approached. It was our Que to leave.
I didn’t need to stay any longer to see Santa and I knew she could care less if he was approaching or not. It was the loud sirens that had her terrified and her wanting to leave. So leave we did. She loves firetrucks, has several firetruck toys at home. She just doesn’t like the loud sirens that they have.
Children don’t come with handbooks or manuals, nor does Autism. It’s all a learning process. A few years ago I had to learn from these similar reactions that fireworks aren’t something that we’ll be into viewing each fourth of July. Every fourth we’ll go to the carnival, but we return home way before the crowd shows for the fireworks display. I try to distract her with cartoons, puzzles, and games on her kindle as each whistle, pop, and crackle noise is made from the neighbors setting off their own little fireworks.
Parades and fireworks won’t stop us from enjoying ourselves. We might not go off to watch it in person, but that won’t stop us from finding something else to entertain ourselves, such as a Disney movie in the comfort of our own home.
Yesterday, I received my Dana’s First Fish coloring books. And yesterday I decided to start a little contest on my author page on Facebook. All it takes to enter into the contest is to ‘like’ and ‘share’ a picture of the cover of Dana’s First Fish from my Facebook wall. Then post in the comments section below to say that you have ‘liked’ and ‘shared’. One winner will be randomly picked and I will announce the winner on my Facebook page. I will then contact that person to let them know they have won so that I can get their mailing address from them in order to ship them their gift bag.
The gift bag give away will include a Dana’s First Fish story book and coloring book, along with a few fishy toys. I will pick one winner each week from now until the week before Christmas – 8 Nov – 19 Dec. It makes a great Christmas present for that special little one you have in mind.
Come stop by my Facebook page for your chance to win a copy of my book, Dana’s First Fish http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenniferNAdams
Dana’s First Fish tells the story about a little girl whose mom is taking her to get her first pet. Dana has decided that she wants to get a goldfish. But where do goldfish come from? Dana and her mom go on an adventurous journey to find out!
Author Jennifer N. Adams 