Bento Boxes Are My New Crack

I'm not sure why. It started with someone on Plurk getting one. And loving it. Then other people on plurk got them, and people started talking about them and posting pics of them.
And I am kind of addicted to the idea of getting one now.

In terms of portion control they're a win. But, there is something about them that just says LUNCH CAN BE FUN.

I love the idea of filling it with something tasty and good and making it a challenge to see how much goodness can go inside.

It is entirely possible that I only want them because they are cute.
Is that wrong?

I am ordering one that I've painstakingly picked out from all the choices available on the web.

I will let you know if this is actually enough food to feed a 42 year old American mother of 4!
I'm totally excited to find out.

I can't remember the last time I was this fascinated with something. Bizarre, eh?

Bento Boxes Are My New Crack

I'm not sure why. It started with someone on Plurk getting one. And loving it. Then other people on plurk got them, and people started talking about them and posting pics of them.
And I am kind of addicted to the idea of getting one now.

In terms of portion control they're a win. But, there is something about them that just says LUNCH CAN BE FUN.

I love the idea of filling it with something tasty and good and making it a challenge to see how much goodness can go inside.

It is entirely possible that I only want them because they are cute.
Is that wrong?

I am ordering one that I've painstakingly picked out from all the choices available on the web.

I will let you know if this is actually enough food to feed a 42 year old American mother of 4!
I'm totally excited to find out.

I can't remember the last time I was this fascinated with something. Bizarre, eh?

Delicious Is...

My friend Xta used to sing the praises of a place called Locopops when she lived in North Carolina. I've always wanted to go but either timing or time of year always prevented us from getting there for the past two years.

However this past weekend, the stars were aligned and we made the short drive over to Durham from UNC to partake of frozen goodness.

It was AMAZING.
Even better than her many tales of the delicious pops had led me to believe!
Among the six of us, we had white chocolate sesame, cherry limeade, cucumber mint, mango chili, chocolate fudge, rhubarb raspberry and mexican chocolate. I think that is all of them. The mango chili was both sweet and fruity and fiery hot.
The girl child thought the cherry limeade was tart, as you can see.

All in all, a total win.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend looking up the Locopops! They are AMAZING!

Delicious Is...

My friend Xta used to sing the praises of a place called Locopops when she lived in North Carolina. I've always wanted to go but either timing or time of year always prevented us from getting there for the past two years.

However this past weekend, the stars were aligned and we made the short drive over to Durham from UNC to partake of frozen goodness.

It was AMAZING.
Even better than her many tales of the delicious pops had led me to believe!
Among the six of us, we had white chocolate sesame, cherry limeade, cucumber mint, mango chili, chocolate fudge, rhubarb raspberry and mexican chocolate. I think that is all of them. The mango chili was both sweet and fruity and fiery hot.
The girl child thought the cherry limeade was tart, as you can see.

All in all, a total win.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend looking up the Locopops! They are AMAZING!

What Do Y'all DO Over in North Carolina?

Most people know that we go over to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill every few months for an Autism Study that we're part of. But what do we DO?

Well I'd like to say it's complicated but it's not. However, lots of people have asked me what we do while there.

Basically it works like this. In between visits, Charlie has a powder added to his food or drink three times a day. It's an enzyme. It's a SECRET enzyme formula. However I looked it up and spent a lot of time reading before we went on it and it's basically the enzyme that you and I make to help our bodies break down and flush out "large cell proteins".

Translation - Gluten.

I mean I'm sure it's MORE than that. But that's sort of it, in a nutshell. Rather than put him on a restrictive diet and ourselves as well (seriously have you MET us? We're not going on a diet) he gets this additive usually in his drink.

Then the day or two before we go over to North Carolina, my husband has the horrific job of collection about ONE CUP of poop sample and dividing it up into various little containers and cups.

I guess these are to verify that the enzyme is doing what it's supposed to. We had to provide a sample of the poop to qualify him as someone whose body wasn't producing the proper levels OF the enzyme BEFORE the study.

When we go, we arrive HERE - the University of North Carolina Medical Center.

We cut though the buildings in the North Carolina heat, starting at the Cancer center. We walk past people wearing masks and covered in blankets despite it being 90 degrees outside. People waiting for their chemo and other treatments.

People who have far worse stuff than us going on.

We walk nearly the length of the building above on the right - to that back right corner and take the elevator up one floor where the neurosciences department is and go into the Aspire Research Center. We meet with our case manager and a neurologist and we fill out survey questions and talk to them and they interview us and the boys and they do vitals and stuff.

It's sort of odd. We've known these people over two years now. They KNOW us. I kind of look forward to seeing them. They notice when things change with the twins.

So that is what we do. We spend the night in a hotel at a special rate thanks to the amazingness of the Ronald McDonal House charities and we try to get in at ALOFT because it's pretty much the most amazing hotel on the Earth. We LOVE that place.

So that's what we do. We give the enzyme all month. We collect poop (we meaning the Husband). And we travel to North Carolina where they monitor our progress and changes.

Has it helped?

There are things it has made better. Charlie used to live in a state of near constant constipation and obviously if your tummy hurts it impacts your personality when it's long term. So he goes now without any issue and truly, one of the first changes that we noticed was that he went from being a tantrum thrower 24/7 to being a pretty happy child.

Does he still do the autism flip out?

Yep. But it's usually more manageable, and we get less of the "OMG WHY IS HE SCREAMING" sort of tantrums. Usually you can tell what's going on. It doesn't always make sense, but you can puzzle it out.

I think it's helped but now I think that it's going to make potty training, which is on the agenda for this summer, a real challenge. Because not to be too gross - but we don't get terribly SOLID poops now. We've kind of gone too far the other way.

But we'll figure it out.

I hope that this enzyme makes a difference in other people's lives. It's been fast tracked for FDA approval so we'll see. I'll be interested to see what it does on a larger scale. Right now only 175 kids in the country (or at least that was the launch number) are on it. And we're in the first group.

And now you know what we do in North Carolina. Fascinating, eh?

What Do Y'all DO Over in North Carolina?

Most people know that we go over to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill every few months for an Autism Study that we're part of. But what do we DO?

Well I'd like to say it's complicated but it's not. However, lots of people have asked me what we do while there.

Basically it works like this. In between visits, Charlie has a powder added to his food or drink three times a day. It's an enzyme. It's a SECRET enzyme formula. However I looked it up and spent a lot of time reading before we went on it and it's basically the enzyme that you and I make to help our bodies break down and flush out "large cell proteins".

Translation - Gluten.

I mean I'm sure it's MORE than that. But that's sort of it, in a nutshell. Rather than put him on a restrictive diet and ourselves as well (seriously have you MET us? We're not going on a diet) he gets this additive usually in his drink.

Then the day or two before we go over to North Carolina, my husband has the horrific job of collection about ONE CUP of poop sample and dividing it up into various little containers and cups.

I guess these are to verify that the enzyme is doing what it's supposed to. We had to provide a sample of the poop to qualify him as someone whose body wasn't producing the proper levels OF the enzyme BEFORE the study.

When we go, we arrive HERE - the University of North Carolina Medical Center.

We cut though the buildings in the North Carolina heat, starting at the Cancer center. We walk past people wearing masks and covered in blankets despite it being 90 degrees outside. People waiting for their chemo and other treatments.

People who have far worse stuff than us going on.

We walk nearly the length of the building above on the right - to that back right corner and take the elevator up one floor where the neurosciences department is and go into the Aspire Research Center. We meet with our case manager and a neurologist and we fill out survey questions and talk to them and they interview us and the boys and they do vitals and stuff.

It's sort of odd. We've known these people over two years now. They KNOW us. I kind of look forward to seeing them. They notice when things change with the twins.

So that is what we do. We spend the night in a hotel at a special rate thanks to the amazingness of the Ronald McDonal House charities and we try to get in at ALOFT because it's pretty much the most amazing hotel on the Earth. We LOVE that place.

So that's what we do. We give the enzyme all month. We collect poop (we meaning the Husband). And we travel to North Carolina where they monitor our progress and changes.

Has it helped?

There are things it has made better. Charlie used to live in a state of near constant constipation and obviously if your tummy hurts it impacts your personality when it's long term. So he goes now without any issue and truly, one of the first changes that we noticed was that he went from being a tantrum thrower 24/7 to being a pretty happy child.

Does he still do the autism flip out?

Yep. But it's usually more manageable, and we get less of the "OMG WHY IS HE SCREAMING" sort of tantrums. Usually you can tell what's going on. It doesn't always make sense, but you can puzzle it out.

I think it's helped but now I think that it's going to make potty training, which is on the agenda for this summer, a real challenge. Because not to be too gross - but we don't get terribly SOLID poops now. We've kind of gone too far the other way.

But we'll figure it out.

I hope that this enzyme makes a difference in other people's lives. It's been fast tracked for FDA approval so we'll see. I'll be interested to see what it does on a larger scale. Right now only 175 kids in the country (or at least that was the launch number) are on it. And we're in the first group.

And now you know what we do in North Carolina. Fascinating, eh?

What Would We Do....

A few nights ago, the line of storms that wrought hell across the country moved through Atlanta. We were assured by the salivating weathermen that our chances of tornadoes were "slim" and just to expect bad thunderstorms.
We did have the thunderboomers as expected, and driving rains. I drove home in between a patch of them and made it safely indoors before the next round of amazing gulleywashers rolled through.
(I'm using all my favorite storm terms from the weatherman of my childhood - Stan Wood.)
Anyway...the storms were bad but really at my house anyway, not so bad. Just thunderstorms. Anyone who grew up in a big flat place like me and the husband would barely pass a second glance at the storm. There are storms and there are STORMS, this was the former.
But right as we were getting ready to put food on the table - we lost power.

For the first time in my children's memory - we had no electricity at night. It's happened before, but they didn't remember it.

I was glad of the digital world as I downloaded the flashlight app for my iPhone a while back so I whipped it out and made my way upstairs to find real flaghlights and camping lanterns. We set up dinner with our candles (and my husband mocked that three wick candle I got him for Father's day years ago!) and ate our dinner in the calm of candlelight, with the curtains blowing in cool air from the rain that was still pouring outside.

Georgia Power said not to expect electricity back before 11pm, so after supper we were stumped for what to do.

We're fairly digital people. Right now I'm logged into a virtual world holding six cats so that they'll be happy and loved. Digitally loved. I'm also uploading about 300 pictures to snapfish. I'm talking on Plurk to my plurkies and I Facebooked and tweeted today. I'm also blogging (obviously).

So what to do when your digital options are rendered dark? We could've played with the cell phone except I didn't want to run down the battery in case of emergency.

We returned to one of the most excellent choices on the Earth, since oh, the written word was invented.

My husband read to us.

First we read King HawksBeak and then he broke out one of my favorite books from childhood, THE BORROWERS. As he read to us, I fell asleep on the sofa listening to the tale of Pod, Homily and Arrietty combined with the rain pouring down outside.

About 10:30pm the lights came back on and we bustled the kids off to bed. The oldest boy, who had been the BIGGEST complainer about how TERRIBLE our night was going to be, smiled at me as I tucked him in and said "That was kind of nice, reading stories. We should do that again some time."

He's right. We should.

What Would We Do....

A few nights ago, the line of storms that wrought hell across the country moved through Atlanta. We were assured by the salivating weathermen that our chances of tornadoes were "slim" and just to expect bad thunderstorms.
We did have the thunderboomers as expected, and driving rains. I drove home in between a patch of them and made it safely indoors before the next round of amazing gulleywashers rolled through.
(I'm using all my favorite storm terms from the weatherman of my childhood - Stan Wood.)
Anyway...the storms were bad but really at my house anyway, not so bad. Just thunderstorms. Anyone who grew up in a big flat place like me and the husband would barely pass a second glance at the storm. There are storms and there are STORMS, this was the former.
But right as we were getting ready to put food on the table - we lost power.

For the first time in my children's memory - we had no electricity at night. It's happened before, but they didn't remember it.

I was glad of the digital world as I downloaded the flashlight app for my iPhone a while back so I whipped it out and made my way upstairs to find real flaghlights and camping lanterns. We set up dinner with our candles (and my husband mocked that three wick candle I got him for Father's day years ago!) and ate our dinner in the calm of candlelight, with the curtains blowing in cool air from the rain that was still pouring outside.

Georgia Power said not to expect electricity back before 11pm, so after supper we were stumped for what to do.

We're fairly digital people. Right now I'm logged into a virtual world holding six cats so that they'll be happy and loved. Digitally loved. I'm also uploading about 300 pictures to snapfish. I'm talking on Plurk to my plurkies and I Facebooked and tweeted today. I'm also blogging (obviously).

So what to do when your digital options are rendered dark? We could've played with the cell phone except I didn't want to run down the battery in case of emergency.

We returned to one of the most excellent choices on the Earth, since oh, the written word was invented.

My husband read to us.

First we read King HawksBeak and then he broke out one of my favorite books from childhood, THE BORROWERS. As he read to us, I fell asleep on the sofa listening to the tale of Pod, Homily and Arrietty combined with the rain pouring down outside.

About 10:30pm the lights came back on and we bustled the kids off to bed. The oldest boy, who had been the BIGGEST complainer about how TERRIBLE our night was going to be, smiled at me as I tucked him in and said "That was kind of nice, reading stories. We should do that again some time."

He's right. We should.

It Started Off Innocently Enough

I had some flowers to plant and then to water. The kids were outside playing with sidewalk chalk on the drive. So when I went to water my new future flowers, the kids wanted to play in the hose.

This seemed like a good enough idea to me.

I spent entire summers with muddy feet playing in hoses and running through sprinklers. Hell we used to DRINK from the hose but now I hear you aren't supposed to do that. I'm not sure why. Historically that was the coldest, best water in the world. I guess now we know more about ground pollution or something.

Regardless, the kids thought it was about the perfect Sunday afternoon, I'm pretty sure.
But there is always something there to remind me that life with special needs kids is just a little bit different from life where everyone falls into the typical range.

For instance, on this perfect day where we had sidewalk chalk and playing in the hose, as I was peeling their soaking clothes off them to send them to the bath, Charlie says to me "My hand."
I was busy with a different child, plus since I turned 40 my close vision isn't what it used to be so I couldn't quite see what he was on about, I just said "ok baby one moment"
At which point he repeated himself - waving him hand in front of me.
I still couldn't see what he was trying to show me, moving object at close range isn't my forte.
"Ok baby give Mommy a sec...."
at which point he stuck his fingers in my mouth - fingers which were covered in poop.

Yeah you heard me.

Poop.

Welcome to my world.

It Started Off Innocently Enough

I had some flowers to plant and then to water. The kids were outside playing with sidewalk chalk on the drive. So when I went to water my new future flowers, the kids wanted to play in the hose.

This seemed like a good enough idea to me.

I spent entire summers with muddy feet playing in hoses and running through sprinklers. Hell we used to DRINK from the hose but now I hear you aren't supposed to do that. I'm not sure why. Historically that was the coldest, best water in the world. I guess now we know more about ground pollution or something.

Regardless, the kids thought it was about the perfect Sunday afternoon, I'm pretty sure.
But there is always something there to remind me that life with special needs kids is just a little bit different from life where everyone falls into the typical range.

For instance, on this perfect day where we had sidewalk chalk and playing in the hose, as I was peeling their soaking clothes off them to send them to the bath, Charlie says to me "My hand."
I was busy with a different child, plus since I turned 40 my close vision isn't what it used to be so I couldn't quite see what he was on about, I just said "ok baby one moment"
At which point he repeated himself - waving him hand in front of me.
I still couldn't see what he was trying to show me, moving object at close range isn't my forte.
"Ok baby give Mommy a sec...."
at which point he stuck his fingers in my mouth - fingers which were covered in poop.

Yeah you heard me.

Poop.

Welcome to my world.