25 July 2025

D made this in art class last year! It was an activity where they were illuminating slang words. He chose "cap".

19 July 2025

We went to pick peaches with our friends the Bloods.  In about 15 minutes, we acquired 60 lbs of peaches.  Fun but didn't take that much time.

Here they are after being washed in the kitchen.  Also the four quarts of blackberries that we picked to make jam (yum).  We made peach jam, froze them in slices, and also dried them in the food dryer.  We are also eating them fresh.  I don't think they're going to last very long!

 

17 July 2025

Rosebud was in love with this tiny package of Doritos that she was given as a snack at a baptism after church, and she asked me to immortalize it.

My day lilies were amazing this year.  So were the iris.  Also D was amazing.  Actually he is still amazing, although he never believes me when I tell him.

I added two small azalea bushes to the flower bed in front, and three colorful iris plants (pink, blue and purple).  We'll see if they bloom next spring.  The raspberry bushes in back are bearing this year - not a ton, but we are really enjoying the berries we're getting.

 

11 July 2025

The library gives us coupons for summer reading. This afternoon we decided to combine using coupons with a couple errands! First, we got free Italian ices from Rita's! Yum! That was followed by a stop at Lowe's, where we stayed cool in garden center by finishing our ices. Then we swung by the library to pick up some holds, but it was closed. 😞 The bakery we had planned to stop at next had also closed, so we proceeded to the pretzel place and picked up free pretzels! We followed that with picking up pizza and heading home to eat. D was super courageous to try something new and picked up the pizza himself with only minimal assistance from me. All in all, a fun Friday afternoon/evening. 

7 July 2025

My brother and his family took a trip up to our area of the country, and Rosebud and I ran up to my parents' house to see them!  D had just come home from a week at camp with his church group and didn't want to leave the house.  On the way up on Friday afternoon, we ended up behind a red Kia minivan with Georgia plates driving north on the state highway we were on.  I was sure it was my brother's family and we followed it closely.  About 30 minutes away from my parents' house, it turned off into a restaurant parking lot, so I pulled in after it, and a guy got out who was not my brother.  Oops.

Grandpa took us to buy fireworks, and we had a cookout for dinner.  Everyone else went to a fireworks show, and Rosebud and I went to bed.  My parents paid for a hotel for us, because their house was full.  Rosebud was so pleased to be in the hotel.  She unpacked all her clothes and hung them up, and lined up her shoes in the closet.  She said that she knew it was just for a couple days, but she wanted "to be comfortable".  It was so sweet to see her experience new things in the world.

On Saturday we hung out and played Uno No Mercy a bunch.  Grandma took us for ice cream at her favorite place, in an old mill by a creek.  Grandpa let me drive his Mustang over there.  It's a lot more fun to drive than my car!  

In the afternoon, I took the girls back to the hotel and they went swimming in the pool together.  D logged on from home and played Minecraft with his cousin who is exactly his age.  (actually, one day younger)  They had a great time together.  D was a little sorry he didn't come.  

My sister-in-law made pulled pork for dinner to celebrate a birthday.  My brother suggested that the girls make an anniversary card for my parents, whose anniversary was the next day.  They were very engaged with it - so fun to watch them.  After my parents got back from visiting friends, they took the kids for a bike ride.  Rosebud and her cousins caught fireflies in the backyard together for awhile... usually she's not allowed up that late.  She really loved that.

When it got dark enough for fireworks, we abandoned the fireflies and set off the fireworks we'd chosen the previous day.  It was a ton of fun!  So many different kinds and so many crazy arrangements of explosives.  I love that Grandpa enjoys fireworks so much and shares them with us.

On Sunday, we went to church together and hung out in the afternoon.  More Uno No Mercy. We gave the card to Grandma and Grandpa, along with some chocolates and a pineapple (for hospitality).

Mid-afternoon, Rosebud and I left for home. (I had to be at work the next day!)  Rosebud cried halfway home over leaving her cousins.  She was so sad to be leaving them, and upset at how people are always coming and going in her life.  "If I ever see them again," she said, "it won't be the same because they'll be older and I'll be older and we'll be different."  I was so sad for her.  I remember similar feelings when I was her age too.  I am really glad that we got to see them though.  It was a very fun visit, and it was really nice to talk shop with my brother and sister-in-law about having neurodivergent kids.

5 July 2025

This week the young men at church went camping together.  When they started planning the activity, I asked D if he wanted to go, and he thought hard about it, and after some agonizing, he told me that he did want to go, but that he was probably going to change his mind and I should not let him.  When it did get to be time to go, he did indeed change his mind, and we had many conversations about it for the two days before he finally decided the night before that he was going to go and we got everything packed and ready to go.

When he came home, it turned out that he'd kept a journal during the trip.  He helped me decipher his handwriting so I can include his record here. 

6/30/25 Monday, First day at camp

Today we got there with an extra hour lost because of a replacement windmill piece was ... taking up both lanes. When we got there we chose camping spots, & set up tents. I set up the tent ... pretty easily, but it took me a ... 15 minutes of work.  I sat around, wishing we had a better shelter from the drizzle. We have a tarp that was strung over 2 picnic talbes pushed togher. Kiliohu showed up & I helped set up his tent.  Skip forward 30 minutes of effort and we are huddled beneath the tarp eating food.  5 minutes later the rain pauses.  For a long time & all the teachers & ... decide to go the the lake.  No one returns.

...for an hour, & then me & Kiliohu decide to go check on them and we get ....their & we see Andrew & Carter who are running back.

Can't sleep. Rain too hard. 4:30 pm

(followed a graph of 'fun' over 'time')

All time is an approximation. .......  

Tuesday 7/1/25

We went caving & had breakfast. Caving was fun. Afterwards we played baseball with an oversized corkscrew made out of wood.  We went to the river & caught some fish. The cave w as cold.  We went 17 ..... Carter is & was a ... feeb hitting .. hard in the back.

(followed a graph of 'fun' over 'time')

Drive.. Cave... Drive Back

All I remember is that it was cold. Don't remember which ... ace is

So mom couldn't go cause her hands would ... We did an adventure.  We had a ..... direction in the cave and had to get there in pitch pblack.  There was two crawl spaces. very fun. I got clay from 17 .... ... to the surface (to .........) & then lost it.

There are two Ds at camp. D B (me!) D T (mean)

Wednesday

Lost clay. Went lake = fun, best

too sunburnt too write more

(Names of various boat drivers)

1. Brother Young aka Nightmare

2. Workman

3. Guy I don't know

Diagrams of how the boats were driven with the tubes being dragged behind.
-------------

Overall, he did have a good time.  He loved the caving and the boating.  I loved the graphs he included to show fun over time for each day.  While boating, he didn't put on any sunscreen and came home with a terribly painful sunburn. But he had fun.  I'm so glad that there are men who camp that will take him camping.  A few photos: