One blog - Two topics

Greetings to you all. I am in the best of moods today, and it is for two reasons. The first......distance learning will be in effect for the county I live in from the beginning of the school year until January 29, 2021, and revisiting whether they will go in for 2 days out of the week with the rest distance learning from February 1, 2021, until the end of the school year.

I am incredibly excited about this for many reasons. Homeschooling was easier for my daughter than sending her to school. I am considering this full time, but I do want her to experience middle school as it is a lot different than elementary. It may allow her to feel a little more independent or maybe just a little older and not so much like a little kid anymore. However, if an outside learning environment isn't her thing, then home she shall be. I am also happy about it because I can further keep an eye on Jordan and his dietary restrictions. I am aware that at school, he was receiving things he should not have. While we are continuing to work on repairing the gut, I want to make sure we are keeping all problematic foods away. We have further expanded the security on the refrigerator and cabinets by giving everyone their own key instead of letting them stay in a remote area where anyone can get to them. I also do not bring in a lot of snacks that he would like to go for when we are not around.

I am fortunate to be in a position to stay home with my kids during this time. I have been a stay at home mom since Jordan was about 1 year old. I did not do it because of his disability because I did not know it at the time. I did it because when I went on maternity leave, I decided when I came back to work the nights. But with my husband and his unknown schedule each day, sometimes I would not make it on time. So we decided I should just stay home. It just so happened that a couple of years later, he was diagnosed with Autism. Many people do not have the luxury of being with their children, and I understand their issues, but I think this is time for the community to come together. I'm sure there are other stay-at-home moms in their area where they could possibly work out something with that parent that their child goes to that house to do distance learning. As long as they provide their child with food and maybe a little monetary help if their child has to be there longer than learning hours, I think it is an option to look into. I understand working to make money and live, but the health of your child is essential, and distance learning should be applauded and make other arrangements for your kid or kids. That is just my take.

Reason number two, Jordan's birthday! My big guy will be 16 on Saturday. Almost every year for his birthday and Christmas, I struggle with what we will do, what we will get him, etc. We always come up with good ideas, so at this point, it is not going to be a worry anymore. A few weeks ago, I was thinking of buying him a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. It will be right around the corner soon enough. But while on the phone with hubby, I thought it might be best to do it for his birthday being as though he has beat all of his Wii games, and they are not making new games for it anymore. It was a good thing too, I ended up getting the last one in stock close to me, and the next closest one to me went out of stock the next day. 

I did ask Jordan what he wanted for his birthday, and his responses are almost always the same; pizza and cake. I mentioned it to his second oldest sister, and she asked if I was going to allow him to have a cheat day. My response was no at first, but then I thought about how well he did after having that Kit Kat. Although it took him forever to go to sleep that night and the night after, his behaviors did not change. So I thought, let's do this. Let's give him what he wants for his birthday. However, we will not throw everything out of the window. We will buy him a gluten-free pizza, and we will purchase a small cake so he will not have a whole lot. I also purchased some enzymes I will implement pretty soon, so whatever should be a problem will have some help with getting broken down.

I think he will have a good birthday. He loves video games and food. I think he deserves both. This will also give me a better idea of how his body is still progressing during this repairing his leaky gut process. Because I have been giving him supplements to help with it, I became a little curious about how much longer this would have to go on. After researching, I found that it varies from person to person on how fast the gut will help. Some can be weeks, some can be years. I am leaning toward years with him because we can see he is not being affected by certain foods so much, but he is still not getting all the nutrients he should from what he consumes. The key is to just be patient and stay consistent. 2 Chronicles 15:7 says it best; "But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded."