30 Days of Thankfulness

On day 2 of November I decided to take part in the 30 days of thankfulness. I knew from the beginning that I would have a hard time doing it on time and that I would probably end up doing multiple days at once at times, but figured it would be good to get partially back into the habit that I had from the beginning of LM's page. When I first started his page every night before I would go to bed I would share something that I was happy LM did or that I was thankful for. With such a busy schedule and late bedtimes where I passed out about the same time as LM it made it more difficult to keep up on it and soon I stopped doing it. Here is the 30 days of thankfulness(encase anyone missed some of it or all of it or just want to review them all together):

First Post:

Day 1: I am thankful for my husband who is hard working, loving, understanding, and a great father which brings me to Day 2: I am thankful for my son who is absolutely wonderful just the way he is, even with the challenges. He is smart, loving, he is my guide on this autism journey.

Second Post:

Day 3 and Day 4:  I am thankful to have found swimming for my son since it helps with his tantrums and meltdowns. With that I am also thankful for such a great instructor (who cares for Josiah so much and absolutely loves his job) and program that we found. I am thankful for ISR because it teaches self-rescue, so he can save himself in the event that he ever jumps into the water that he always finds so interesting. He also had no fear of it in the past and now has grown to have respect for it (like not just jumping in for a toy that he wants or getting in a pool that no one is in).

Third Post:

Guess I have to do thankfulness days 5,6, and 7 now. 5: thankful we can put food on the table. Even if it is rice vs rice noodles because we just can not afford the 6$ box of spaghetti noodles. Yes, sometimes being GF sucks because there are limited places to go out to eat and most are expensive, just like the food in the stores, but in the end our health is better for it and that is the best thing. 6: I am really thankful that we were able to get a scholarship at the the place that LM swims at because it is hard enough to get the 37.5 a month and really do not think we would be able to get the 75 a month that it would otherwise cost without the scholarship. To go with this I am grateful that a couple of people were able to donate some money towards his swimming which has helped out with paying the monthly fee. 7: I am extremely grateful that medicaid and our insurance together has covered the ABA costs. Which is 160 a day, 5 days a week. We are still praying that we are accepted for SSI because that would help pay for all of the other medical bills that are pilled up and other costs we have. I would be over the top thankful if we got that. I can promise everyone that we are not in such a bad money crunch because we are bad at budgeting or live outside our means. I live with my dad and pay rent because we can't afford the rent of an apartment. We only have cable bc other's want it in the house so we split the bill three ways. We never go out to eat(it is just not affordable being gluten free). We do not go out to movies or anything like that. The main things we do for fun are free or we take advantage of stuff we already have to have like the pass to the pool(if Josiah did not need this, we just would not have it). We do have a car payment, but since hubby drives 30 min to 45 min back and forth to work 5 days a week we needed a good reliable used car and not a crappy used car. We do have a cell phone bill, but don't have a house phone. We cloth diaper so there is no diaper cost.

Fourth Post:

Day 8: I am thankful for this FB page and blog with all of you awesome people on it! Thankful for the comments, likes and support that comes with the page. The ability to connect with other moms of your children with autism or just people who love to support people/families with autism. So thank you everyone!

Fifth Post:

Day 9: I am really thankful that I have a camera to take pictures. As you can probably tell I love taking pictures of my son and you can for sure tell the difference between the ones taken with my phone and those taken with my regular camera. We saved money from Christmas, my birthday which was in March, and with a little tax time help, my hubby not only replaced the camera that I had before that no longer worked, but actually got me an awesome upgrade to it! It was a really happy time to see the new camera, so although I am not very materialistic, I love my camera because it can help me capture so many wonderful moment's in my son's life.

Sixth Post:

Day 10: I am thankful for a church that we can volunteer in. I am thankful that they offer the amenities that they do: a special need a room where my son van feel safe and comfortable and a parent child room that we can do in if he isn't having a good day in class or sanctuary, so we can still enjoy service while he can play.

Seventh Post:

Day 11: I am thankful for all the troops. I am thankful I have friends and family: 5 uncles, an uncle in law, an aunts, an aunt in law, a cousin, a cousin in law, a grandparent in law, a brother in law, a step father in law, a great grandpa, and a great grandparent in law who has served in the Navy, Army, Marines, National Guard, and Air Force in times of piece and in WWII, Vietnam and Iraq. I am also thankful for the family who have served in a different way as sheriffs, police officers and firefighters.

Eighth Post:

Feeling really drained and stomach not feeling the best, so the debate comes as to stay home or go to school....I think school. Home I will have a toddler jumping all over me. Which reminds me I am behind on my days of thankfulness. Need to do 12, 13, and now 14. Day 12: I am thankful for school where I can learn more about 1. God (go to a Christian college) 2. more about early childhood 3. get to take extra classes in art like: pottery which I already did and next semester it is photography. 4. also thankful that because I am going to school I can go hide there from my toddler to maybe feel a little bit better when I get home because going to class right now is the only break I will get. Day 13: I am thankful that I was able to continue breastfeeding my son even through all of the tough times. It was a lot of hard work to do what I felt was best for him and to continue to do so with support from some and negativity from others. Day 14: I am thankful for my 12 year old cat, that I got when I was 12. He is so patient and kind with Josiah. He puts up with so much from him and still comes around and still lets Josiah touch him. I am thankful that he was there with me for years through all kinds of ups and downs in my life. I am a little sad he is getting up in age now, but will enjoy every day, week and year I have left with him and getting to see him and Josiah love each other.

Ninth Post:

Day 15, 16, and 17: I will start with something that just happened as #15 Thankful there is not a whole in the side of the house as we just had our very own earthquake caused by a tree falling down and hitting the side of the house. Not seeing any leaks, no broken windows, smashed our new gutters though. Now we just need to find someone with a chain saw, so we can be thankful for the borrowed equipment and or help. #16 Is thankful that Josiah learned his colors. If you say can you hand me the ___ M&M he can do it, but if you say what color is this M&M he won't tel you the color. If you say the name of the color he can repeat it back to us. #17 Really thankful for cloth diapers because we can just wash and reuse instead of spending a ton of money on diapers. Otherwise we would be going through so many diapers lately IDK what we would do. We honestly could not could not afford diapers anyways.

Tenth Post:

An update and then my days of thankfulness are at the end: Yay! so we did end up getting medicaid to pick up LM's ABA cost that was not covered by our insurance. We are thankful we have insurance and medicaid bc otherwise ABA is 160 a day, 5 days a week. We also just might be getting SSI. We got a call saying we would temporary receive some benefits(IDK if this month or next as we still have more papers to fill out about rent and how much Jason receives in wages) while waiting for the medical side to approve him, we are hopeful that the medical side will approve him and we will continue to get benefits. We are aware some people started receiving and then got denied and stopped getting payment and had to reapply then get approved. I am praying we are not one of those cases. The benefits we receive will be much appreciated, as we have a TON of unpaid medical bills for things that are just not covered by insurance or medicaid(in LM's case). We also have other monthly medical expenses like LM's drink thinkener every month that is of course even though it is needed to keep him out of the hospital is not considered medical. We are not sure of the amount we will be getting yet, but anything will help. I am hoping we have enough to help pay of medical bills and make it a little easier to afford rent, food and Josiah's swimming pass at kroc. We also are reapplying for food stamps in hopes that we do not have to say well we can not get that extra stuff LM needs bc we can not afford it this week(so once we are officially approved for SSI and or food stamps we need to get back with the other and let them know we are receiving the other one). Kind of behind on my days of thankfulness as well have 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 to do. I will say 18 and 19 are pretty much covered by medicaid and temp SSI which is still helpful even if we do not get full approval right now. Day 20: Thankful for a warm roof over my head Day 21: Thankful for my dad who helps to get us some places after Jason goes to work, so we do not always have to take the bus. Day 22: Thankful for people who accept my son for who he is and love him. So thank you to all the family, friends, people on this page who don't have to care about LM but make the choice to. I am thankful that Lolo plays with LM when he is swimming with Michael (swim instructor) and that they both care so much about him and that LM cares about and even misses them both when he is not swimming with him. I am sure Josiah can not wait until he gets to see Lolo again.

Eleventh Post:

Day 23 and 24 of thankfulness: Day 23 I am thankful for the overtime hubby has been getting lately, will make Christmas a bit easier. Day 24: I am thankful that the new really cheap waterproof phone cover not only tested well phone free before hand but took amazing video today at the pool. Going to have to upload to YouTube to share with everyone in the page.

Twelfth Post:

Day 25: I am thankful I have a husband who can cook. he made some yummy pizza and I do not mean he threw a frozen pizza in the oven. I mean made the dough then added toppings and placed in oven. Josiah loved it so much he was made his fork was not working for him so he would take some pieces out to eat and other times he had his face right in the bowl eating.

Last few days of thankfulness:

Day 26-30. Day 26: Thankful LM is too young to realize that one of the fish died. Day 27: Thankful we were able to find and successfully make a crestless pumpkin pie. Day 28: Thankful we were able to spend time with Jason's family for thanksgiving and that Josiah had fun. Josiah might have not ate much, but he still enjoyed seeing his uncles, papa, nana and a cousin. Day 29: Thankful I was able to spend some time with my sister and mother and get some really great deals in the process. Got things for a price I would rather spend on items then what is normally expected for items we were in need of for Christmas or just otherwise in need of, like socks. Day 30: Thankful LM  was so great with helping put up ornaments and let mommy clean the tree(had to clean each individual branch bc it was never in a container when put in the basement last year). Also, thankful that when he found and held a glass bulb too tight that he did not actually get a piece of glass in his hand.