Things You Might Be Surprised To Learn About Lizzie

It's a weird kind of disjointed day around here. I can't put my finger on it. I'm still looking for my camera and it's not so much the pain of losing another one of my electronic children that bothers me as it is the idea that there's a riddle in all of this that I just can't quite work out. Did I take it to the library last week or did I leave it at home? Did I properly check inside each of the million eco green shopping bags that litter our house or did I inadvertently toss one in the bin? Did I do a recent back-up of my memory card or ere there any embarrassing arms-length self portraits on there that will one day end up on Awkward Family Photos? It's the not knowing that is driving me batty!

To pass the time, here's some bullety magic. I present to you, "Weird Things You Didn't Know About Lizzie"

• Perpetuated by a nickname given to me by my father, I spent much of my early childhood convinced I was The Weather Witch and could predict rain by laying on my back and pointing my toes to the sky like a deranged human Ouija board. The idea being, whichever direction my legs/toes swung, thereafter would produce rainclouds (I did not say all of these things were completely sane...)
  
  
• Pick the wrong answer: I have NOT had a piercing in a) my nose, b) my ears, c) my lower lip or d) my belly button.
  
  
• I will never, ever voluntarily allow tuna to pass my lips (for full explanation, see all the trauma here). In this lifetime or the next (in MY Heaven, tuna is outlawed!)
  
  
• When I put my iPod earbuds in, I can't put the 'L' one in my right ear. They're exactly the same, but I can't do it. It feels wrong.
  
  
• I nearly severed my big toe when I was 3. My parents had a party and someone had dropped a bottle outside which had somehow bounced up and into a drainage ditch. I was riding my trike and fell off, and when I put my leg down to steady myself, my big toe neatly slid into the broken-off neck of the bottle and was promptly cut nearly the whole way around. I have vivid memories of that day, including one particularly lovely image of the top of my big toe popped off the bone like a flip-top lid. The scar is impressive and the story positively delights my boys, who (as boys of that age are apt to do) are totally into blood and gore.
  
  
• I like symmetry. Having just one sidebar on the blog was messing with my head!
  
  
• When I was eight or nine I would regularly read my older siblings (then 15-17) Year 11 or 12 assigned reading novels. For fun. This explains a lot. Siblings were unimpressed.
  
  
• The first two CDs I ever bought was Celine Dion's "The Colour Of My Love" and Madonna's "Something To Remember". I'm glad to report my musical tastes have broadened somewhat.
  
  
• I am right-handed but place my knife and fork in 'reverse' when setting the table (fork in right hand, knife in left).
  
  
• I have twice won the 'design the cover of the class camp workbook' competition - once in Grade 5, the next in Year 10. I won a roll of Lifesavers the first time and free entry to the ice-skating rink for the second :)
  
  
• I'm not a huge fan of icecream. I'll eat it, but not if there's chocolate around to take it's place!
  
  
• When we had Year 11 work experience (1995) I chose the local (country) newspaper and spent a week looking over yellow archived copies and producing the "on this day in (insert old date here)" segment that ran that week. Things I learned from that experience: work experience kids get in the way and are generally put in the least accessible area of the building to compensate, and archive research - at least that covering a rural paper - is boring. There are only so many machinery expos and shows (fairs) one can take.

Plans for the rest of the day? A hot cup of tea and a good book top the list, followed closely by picking the kids up from school and wading through the mire that is All The After School Crazy.

Yay me.

There Are Just A Few Inanimate Objects I Love, But This Is One Of Them

I've lost my camera. Or maybe it's just buried under a pile of clutter. Either way, I can't find it. I'm not even exactly sure when it went missing. I have a vague recollection of taking it with me when I took the kids to the library and shops on the 19th (it's just as likely I brought it home afterward too) but I can't remember if I saw it at home after that.

This is causing me no end of stress. I mean, of all the things I could be worrying about, here I am freaking out over a little pile of plastic and metal. Compounding my distress is that the camera is worth almost $600 and is only nine months old. And there's a reasonable chance that it is, in fact, not buried under clutter here at home but was either dropped or stolen the last time I was at the shopping centre.

Also, I'm married to a lovely man who is very careful with money. To him, if the camera was dropped at/taken from my bag at the store, I may just as well have left six crisp $100 notes on the footpath and walked away.

After this (and the follow up here) just a year ago, you'd be right in assuming Talented Hubby is a wee bit frustrated, LOL.

At least security footage helped last time and we were able to be compensated the cost of the phone by the individual involved (albeit in fortnightly installments over several months). This time though, if the camera is in the hands of an unsavoury person, it's gone. Insurance won't cover it outside of the house. Poof! $600 down the toilet. Which is ironic considering the postscript to the last story (*wry smile*). We wouldn't be replacing it. At least with the phone we had the benefit of CCTV footage and a witness who identified the lad in question, sigh.

Also gone? 100+ photos - including identifying shots of my highly security-conscious husband, our children, and inside our house. TH works in a field where being randomly identified is not a good thing.

*Seizure*

Pray it hasn't been stolen. Pray it's just time I cleaned house better. Sigh.

A Perfect Day

So it's winter here. Cold, wet and miserable about nine-tenths of the time. Although to be fair, winter in South Australia is laughable when held up against, say, a Canadian winter. I'm pretty sure our summers beat you though.

But today, in a rare glimpse of the spring weather not due for another couple of months, it was all blue skies and gorgeous sunny weather. Still under my preferred temperature, of course, but nice.

The plan was to head out to a local furniture warehouse (we're in desperate need of a sofa bed after our only guest bed - an air mattress - sprung a leak) but thenTalented Hubby announced there was a little place he'd like to go visit, somewhere we hadn't been before, and so we planned to do that afterward.

So that's how we found ourselves at Waterfall Gully.

You know how there are days sometimes when you don't do anything terribly interesting except just drive somewhere, but somehow those days turn out to be the best days of all? The waterfall wasn't very big, as far as waterfalls go, and Lord knows Jay was pushing all my buttons, but the day was just solidly GOOD.

Waterfall Gully reminded me of the place I grew up, in rural Victoria. Lots of hills, tall eucalyptus trees, a babbling creek. It made me think again that perhaps we're doing our kids a disservice by not experiencing the country lifestyle the way both Talented Hubby and I did as children. I even had me a bit of a 'connecting with nature' moment while we were out there, LOL.

Talented Hubby, of course, took his camera. He just bought a fancy filter something-or-other (I've long since given up trying to decipher 'photo-geek-speak', LOL) and was just itching to give it a workout. He took the picture you see above, although this shot makes the falls look enormous when in reality, that little pool was just of 'paddling size'. These were actually the secondary falls with the main waterfall down the hill a little. I could just see one of the kids toppling head over heels into that water and I imagine during summer you'd be hard-pressed getting little kids OUT of the water as it's such a busy spot, but it was the type of place where you'd park yourself with a sandwich and a notebook and just write, or perhaps read a good devotional. Inspiring in the simplest sense, which is the best way to be, in my opinion :)

There won't be too many sunny days (well, predictably sunny, anyway) left in winter and even less that fall on one of TH's days off, but as soon as one pops up we're going to go back with a picnic lunch and our hiking boots. There are walking trails all around the area and it appears to be quite the local fitness haunt. Busy, but not in an oppressive we-should-have-gone-somewhere-else kind of way.

Just a simple, beautiful, calm sort of day. Happy sigh.

Blog Hop '09 - Because An Airfare to BlogHer From Australia Might Be Pushing Things

Hi! Welcome to Lizzie's Home! This is a last minute post to join in Blog Hop '09 so pardon the dust; I'm just now (literally this hour!) uploading a new template so hopefully that won't go pear shaped and totally mess everything up for my new visitors :)

So, here's me in a nutshell: SAHM to three, wife to one, Australian, sometimes crafter and baker, and special needs advocate :) Our eldest, Jay (10), is autistic, a situation which brings about it's own unique challenges and blessings :) Middle child, Boof (just turned 9) is our Little Professor and loves anything science and math-related. Miss Moo (7) is my 'mini me' in just about every regard, including having a penchant for sleeping later than she should.

To get a feel for what is important to me, take a look-see at this collection of posts:

The Mama Bear Files - Index

Those are a collection of posts I've done on special needs parenting. Or, you could scan my archives - I've been blogging since March 2007 so there might be a gem or two hidden in there somewhere :)

My other interests? Big proponent of the Household Notebook/Home Management Binder, price books, menu planning, and other assorted domestic arts. Talented Hubby (sometimes referred to as, funnily enough, TH) works in an incredibly stressful environment as his 'day job' (actually shiftwork) but takes photographs in his 'spare' time. You can see some of his work here.

Hope to see some of you back here in the next few weeks - comment liberally! I get notified of new comments even on older posts so don't hesitate to ask questions.

Looking forward to returning the visit!

Who Knew Unloading Groceries Could Be So Educational?

"Mum, what's this?" Moo asked.

I'd just returned home from the supermarket and was unloading the groceries onto the bench top. Distracted by the decision about whether to put the canned tomatoes on the second or third pantry shelf (it's an legitimate organizational dilemma folks!), I quickly did a mental stocktake (nope, no 'special toiletries' purchased today) and glanced over. She was holding the new razor I'd just bought.

"Well, that's a razor sweetie."

"But it's pink. I don't think Dad will like it much."

"Oh it's not for Dad, it's for me."

Moo looked at me incredulously, like I'd just told her cows were indeed neon green and spurt chocolate milk from their eyeballs.

"But you don't have a beard!"

I giggled inwardly. If only she knew what's in store for her in a few years, hair-removal-wise.

"No, but I have hair in other places." Her eyes widened. "Like my legs." (See, I kept it clean - no need to traumatize her just yet).

"You've got hair on your LEGS?!!"

"Well not all the time. I don't like it much so I shave it off, like Daddy trims his beard."

"Ewwwwww!"

Oh angel, if only you knew the real reason Mummy wears jeans so much in winter...

Lizzie Revisited...And A Mild Rant

Wow, winter must really affect me - this time last year I was in the middle of a similar hibernation period, blog-wise. Going 'off the radar', so to speak, has not been planned but has been very much needed and enjoyed.

I have a blog makeover in the works and I'm hoping to fire up the creative juices once that goes live, but here's a post I did about this time last year. Read it, then come back, because I have some thoughts.

Blogging, Subscriptions and Ethics...Oh My

It's interesting that this post should be about a year old now, because I did eventually return to reading the 'soon to be unsubscribed from' blog it references. The allure of one of her two main posting themes drew me back in, although this time, I could no longer find an RSS feed and when questioned, she denied knowing how all that stuff worked (despite a background in computers, hmmm). I left it at that and just visited the site directly every few days, gleaned what I needed, and then ignored all the bits I didn't agree with.

This woman definitely has Bloggityville divided. The other main topic she posts about - and perhaps the one she is most, uh, notorious for - was the main reason I unsubscribed the first time around. Such is her passion for this subject, her thoughts on which are often misguided, that there are actual whole rebuttal sites directed at her blog (yes, I've been to those sites and while I agree with their sentiment, I couldn't personally refute someone else in that same manner). It was on one of those sites that I heard quite a disturbing account of her behaviour online.

For the record, the exchange has been well documented. Slanted, perhaps, in that I heard it first on one of the rebuttal sites, but the whole exchange (several emails worth) was posted in its entirety and I believe it to be true enough.

Ms Blogger, in an effort to explain her online dealings (she is fond of getting into email 'discussions' but rarely lets an opposing view into her comments section, preferring to mass-block anyone who doesn't one-hundred percent agree with her), said that she had self-diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome. It was said in such a way as to back-pedal out of a situation, but slam dunk, I promptly deleted the link to her blog and will not be returning.

I'm sick of hearing about stories like this!!!

Asperger's (and autism) can only be diagnosed by recognised, trained individuals. If you're relying on the internet to diagnose yourself or your children (for anything!) - YOU ARE NOT GETTING THE FULL PICTURE and will most likely end up with an INCORRECT DIAGNOSIS.

Case in point? A commenter a week or so ago mentioned a well-known celebrity autism advocate and asked if I'd read her book. I hadn't, but I followed the link to the website and eventually found myself doing the partial (there's your first clue!) assessment questionnaire.

Something became apparent very quickly. Based on this very narrow set of questions and his current behaviour, my son isn't autistic. He doesn't even 'qualify' for Asperger's! Let me let you in on a little secret - the constant daily struggles we are going through right now tell me otherwise! We're currently fighting battles I wouldn't wish on anyone. Don't be in a hurry to self-diagnose. PLEASE!

When we had Jay's first autism assessment, way back in October 2001, it was a whole-day affair conducted by a highly-specialised child assessment team run out of a city hospital. We answered more questions than there are hairs on our heads, and all of those answers were melded together to provide the information that eventually led to his diagnosis. I just wouldn't trust a general practitioner, or a counsellor, or a pastor (sorry!) and definitely not your neighbour's sister's friend. Nor would I trust what I see on TV or read in the paper when it comes to Autism Spectrum Disorders in general. Not when it comes to finding a diagnosis for something that will, let's be honest, be there forever. BE SURE. We had two assessments 6mo apart. I would advocate the same, if it's at all possible (and I understand waiting lists might prevent this) - but at the very least, a specialist should do the signing on the dotted line, not a ridiculous internet questionnaire.

Can you tell I'm fired up about this? You betcha!

Back to Ms Blogger. She is often held up as the epitome of what it means to be a homemaker, and is 'followed' by many. You either love her or you hate her. I was prepared to at least like some of her, because her homemaking information was interesting and unique. I could even look past her narrow-minded religious beliefs - I do have my own 'speck', after all, and nobody's perfect. But this Asperger's thing? I just can't do it anymore. Asperger's isn't an excuse! Stop using it as one! It's not the diagnosis du jour!

If you believe you, or someone you love, might be on the spectrum, please visit your GP for a referral to a specialist. And then pray that your concerns are unwarranted.

Sigh.

Works For Me Wednesday ~ Doing More By Expecting Less

Sometimes, in my ever-present quest to simplify and create more efficiency in my life, I actually end up grossly over-complicating it. I know, it's an enviable skill and you're probably wondering how, LOL. Read on folks, read on.

I'm a micro-manager from way back. I love making lists, planning, creating printables - if anything promises to offer the solution to whatever housekeeping crisis I happen to be embroiled in that week, then I'm all over it.

Ultimately, most of my 'pet projects' die a swift death, only to be replaced with a new organizing or homekeeping obsession. Some of these new projects are legitimate (menu planning, laundry routines and the like) and some are, quite frankly, a complete waste of time.

Here's an example, offered for no other reason than to prove that everyone is flawed, LOL.

My three children, angels though they are, have not received an allowance for several months. Both Talented Hubby and I agree that money is a privilege to be earned, and to be honest, not enough effort has been shown in the area of the kids' personal development lately to warrant being rewarded.

That's right. The Bank of Mum and Dad shut up shop.

Honestly, we expected little mini Mother Teresas to spring forth within a week, lamenting their lack of funds and promising to do better next time. But save for the occasional whine over this or that toy and a couple of terse replies that ran along the lines of "Sorry bud, but if you can't afford it yourself, it ain't getting bought", there wasn't much of a protest. For months.

Okay. So that backfired. Now what?

It was Mummy who broke down first. I mean, what's the point of having offspring if you can't exploit them every now and then? LOL. I decided it was high time we reintroduced - dum dum dum DAH! - chore charts.

I spent a couple of days mulling over strategies in my head. And, like any true micro-manager, I made lists. Lots of them. The kids would each have nine core tasks per day, plus four additional chores. Thirteen total. I would run their lives like a drill sergeant and by golly, they were going to like it or remain destitute for the rest of their days.

We lasted a day and a half.

Then I realised what I colossal mistake I had made.

For starters, I spent ten minutes out of every hour directing children to check their charts and referee-ing as to what could be ticked off and what couldn't. If they cleaned their room, could they count that as both a 'tidy your bedroom' and a 'room rescue'? If it rained today, did that mean they could eliminate 'water the plants'? And who exactly was on laundry duty again? I explained, at least twice that I can recall, why they could not give both of the dog's meals in the morning and thus tick off the entire day's duty. And I spent a hefty chunk of time breaking up fights because someone had taken someone else's cup to the sink when "it wasn't their turn, Mum!"

Deep breath.

My solution to the 'chore wars' was, in the end, embarrassingly simple. I sat down with a pen and some paper and had me a bit of a contemplation session. What skills did I especially want my children to develop and grow in? Was thirteen daily tasks, itemised in such a way for the poor little dears so as to induce an early ulcer, really what I needed from them?

Why no. No it wasn't.

I came up with a list of just five items. FIVE. This doesn't mean they only complete those five tasks and then they skip off happily to create havoc for the rest of the day - not a chance. It just means that these are our focus tasks each day. Many of them, as you'll read below, incorporate several 'mini tasks' anyway.

1. Homework or Reading

This is a non-negotiable item. If they don't have assigned homework that day (and oftentimes Moo, who is in Grade 2, doesn't) then they read for 15-20 minutes. No excuses. We've promoted this for quite some time unofficially and as a result, we have three great readers who consistently read for pleasure and above their age brackets. It warms a (voracious childhood reader) mama's heart :)

2. Tidy bedroom

Their bedrooms are their own domains. Mum just doesn't have the time or inclination to clean up around their complicated toy, game and 'blanket fort' arrangements anymore (an example? The other day, Boof and Moo decided to criss-cross each of their rooms with knitting yarn and decorate them with homemade Chinese paper lanterns. It kept them occupied for most of an afternoon, but I'm not going to clean it up!) They're all responsible for keeping their bedroom clutter to a reasonable amount (ie, daily pickup) with a deep clean whenever Mum deems it appropriate. Keeping a tidy room also includes things like daily bed making and putting laundry in the basket, both items that were kept separate on the previous chore chart disaster.

3. Special Area

This is a new approach for us. After reading about various chore systems on a myriad of blogs and websites, I came to the conclusion that perhaps I was going about the act of task allocation all wrong. My first attempt at reintroducing the chore charts this week included things like 'floor patrol' and 'dust patrol'. In other words, the kids were expected to flitter about from room to room doing the same job in each. Confusing for them, and ultimately hard to keep track of for me, as to tick of the item required several rooms worth of checking for Mum. The new routine includes assigning an area of the house to each child - for example, the loungeroom, the family room or the bathroom. For one week, they're responsible for tidying up, cleaning, vacuuming - whatever needs doing - in that one room. Eventually I'll post a checklist for each room so they know exactly what constitutes a 'clean' room. Because their Special Area rotates each week, over time they'll get to learn a good range of general up-keep skills, from dusting and mopping to straightening and vacuuming.

4. Kitchen Chore

This is pretty self explanatory. One kid is the Meal Helper, one kid sets the table and one kid clears the table. The Meal Helper is Mum's 'right hand' for snack and meal prep for two main meals per day plus snacks (they're already getting themselves breakfast most mornings - yay!) They keep this task for a week, just like their Special Area, and then they rotate. Simple. In the process, they learn beginner cooking skills, serving and cleaning.

5. A Good Attitude

If my kids could consistently achieve numbers 1-4 I'd be a happy woman indeed. If they throw in number 5 as well - then I'm sure manna would fall from the sky because a miracle would have occurred!

Special Focus Task

I think the kids are old enough now - even Moo, who is 7½ - to begin doing their own laundry, start to finish. Granted, this will take some time, and Mum will have to help quite a lot at first, but the expectation is that within a few months, they'll be able to sort their own washing, work the washing machine (including setting the right controls), transfer to the dryer or hang on the clothesline, fold or use hangers, and return the clothes to their wardrobes - all on their own. I'll write up a set of instructions and post them in the laundry room to make things easier, of course.

Keeping required tasks to just five items has already greatly simplified our lives, and we're only a couple of days into the new system. The kids are not randomly running around the house trying to complete an exhaustive chore list and I get to direct their behaviour and resourcefulness into the areas that I think they need to work in the most. And we're free to change things up as we go along.

For an easy printable chore chart with room for five tasks, check out this site. As they are, the charts print blank but hand them to your kids to personalise by colouring and they'll love it. You can also do 'save image as' to your computer and then re-open in Paint or Photoshop to 'colour' using the fill tool* before printing. Then drag out your trusty laminator (you've got one, right? They're a mama's best friend!), run it through and ta-da! You've got your very own wipeable chore chart (if you wait until after you've laminated before writing in the chores, you've got the option to alter them as your needs change from one week to the next, without having to reprint a new chart). If you don't want to use this one, there are plenty of alternative printable chore charts available on the net, so go to town!

Happy chorin'!

For more Works For Me Wednesday goodness, drop in at We Are THAT Family.

* I'm not sure if this will affect anyone else, but when I first went to use the colour fill tool in Photoshop CS3 (ie, the bucket tool), it coloured everything grey no matter what colour I'd selected. Talented Hubby told me to head to Image in the menu bar, then Mode. The option that was originally ticked was 'Indexed Color' - change this to 'RGB Color' and you're good to go :)

It's Winter And I'm Hibernating, Okay?

It's not that I envy my Texan friends with their hundred-plus temperatures this week (um, hello? Exhibit A) but a little more warmth would be lovely. You know, so my bones don't seize up like a little old lady's when my feet hit the floor each morning.

Ironically, both Talented Hubby and I have been a little sick this week. My sickness could be exacerbated by cabin fever, sure, but 'lousy' is definitely the order of the day at the moment. After a long, hot, dry summer, this winter is turning out to be decidedly wet and it's raining nearly every day. I should have taken advantage of the beautiful sunny day on Thursday and hung some washing to dry. I should have, but I didn't. As a result we are drowning in unwashed laundry. I am still searching for the Perfect Laundry System. Alas, the quest remains.

It's school holidays at the moment. Here in Australia our school year runs from the last week in January until around mid-December. There are four terms consisting of about 10 weeks each (give or take) with a two week break in between each one, except at Christmas, when the break is 6 weeks over the main part of our summer. So we're about halfway through our school year at the moment. Boof turned 9 last weekend and hosted his first sleepover (just the one friend - and it just might have been the smartest thing I've done all year!) but other than that, we've not done too much. The kids have been fairly well behaved despite being cooped up, but we are going through a bit of a testing patch with Jay at the moment which is frustrating. Talented Hubby has some time off next week so we'll try to cram in some fun stuff then. Hopefully we'll both be operating on full steam.

I've also been working (yet again!) on my Price Book this week. I've decided to stop trying to make it small and cute and neat and just go with a full size binder with pages printed from OrganizedHome.com. Of course, I had to do everything the wrong way before I worked out the right, easy way, but whatever, LOL. Boof once again reprised his role of Chief Unit Price Calculator (I love that he loves this! A true geek after my own heart!) and away we went. It's amazing what becomes interesting after a solid week of children's television!

My to-do list for today? Go to my second home (aka the supermarket) for some basics, give the kids a simple recipe to make all on their own, and get stuck into that massive pile of laundry.

It almost makes me long for Spring.

The Mama Bear Files ~ Index

I hope these pieces on autism and special needs parenting give encouragement to anyone who needs it :) I'll be updating as the urge strikes - feel free to leave comments on this post or on any of the individual posts listed :)

Nineteen Year Old Lizzie? Your Life Is About To Get Real Hard, Real Soon

Miracles In The Flaws

Raindrops & Respite

A Cliff - And We Just Jumped Without A Parachute

Toilet Training The 'Special' Kid

More to come soon...

It's Not All Rainman & Mercury Rising

At the very core of who I am as a person (and strongly influencing how I parent) is the sweet face you see above. Meet Jay. Born November 1998 to parents just 19 and 20 years old, he was to change our entire world.

Jay is autistic. I don't like to say 'he has autism' because I've always felt that's kind of like saying 'he has the chicken pox' or 'he has red hair' - things that, given time or circumstances, could be changed. Jim Sinclair, in his essay "Don't Mourn For Us" says it in the most wonderful and concise way:

Autism is not an appendage. Autism isn't something a person has, or a "shell" that a person is trapped inside. There's no normal child hidden behind the autism. Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence. It is not possible to separate the autism from the person--and if it were possible, the person you'd have left would not be the same person you started with.

This is important, so take a moment to consider it: Autism is a way of being. It is not possible to separate the person from the autism.

Therefore, when parents say, "I wish my child did not have autism," what they're really saying is, "I wish the autistic child I have did not exist, and I had a different (non-autistic) child instead."

Read that again.

This is what we hear when you mourn over our existence. This is what we hear when you pray for a cure. This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces.

I'm not an expert on autism, but as soon as I read that, in that dark, murky period right after we were diagnosed in 2002, I knew it was true.

We are so lucky. It scares me sometimes to think how lucky we are. We know many families living on the spectrum and life really can be deep-in-your-bones, how-are-we-ever-going-to-come-through-this-fire-alive tough. Jay, over the years, has proven all the naysayers wrong - from toilet training (he was finally out of nappies around his 6th birthday), to speech (he said his first discernable word at 2½ and was 4 before he had functional speech, but is now quite the chatterbox!), social interaction (don't believe the media hype - many autistic individuals love interacting with people) and intellect (he has been recognised as high-functioning autistic and on par - or even a little beyond! - his peers academically).

Yes, we have been truly blessed.

But life on the spectrum is never easy. Clicking on "The Mama Bear Files" link in the navbar above will take you to a small collection of print articles and past Lizzie's Home posts about our experiences with a special needs kid. I hope these pieces offer a small insight into the condition, but more than that, I hope that they encourage and build up others who might also be struggling within this world of ours.

Enjoy :)

* And as always, please feel free to drop me a comment on the 'index' Mama Bear Files post in the navbar above, or on any of the individual posts. Love you guys!

First Foray Into Online Grocery Shopping

I am a nerd from way back. If there's a way to do something that involves spreadsheets or a computer, I've probably tried it. So it should come as no surprise that when supermarket chain Coles finally opened online shopping in my city I was ready to jump right in. Online grocery shopping (via Coles and rival Woolworths, that is) has been available in the eastern states of Australia for a while now, but Adelaide is kind of in the middle of the country (along the southern coast - look for the missing chunk of land) and for reasons completely unfathomable to us Croweaters, we're generally considered a 'backwater' when it comes to things like Aldi, Costco (who are launching - or have already launched? - in Oz soon, but nowhere near me!) and concerts (you should have seen the hullabaloo our new Ikea store caused a couple of years ago!) There are a couple of companies who offer a sort of random type of online grocery experience but these are generally the produce-only sites, or their prices are horrendous, with nowhere near the range of products a major national chain could sustain.

One of the main points that tipped the scale for me this week was that Coles Online matches catalogue prices (and for the most part, regular store prices) - which sounds like a no-brainer but isn't. Free delivery (at least for another couple of weeks) rounded everything off nicely. One niggly sticking-point? Multi-buys (2 for $4, buy 3 get 1 free etc) aren't honored online. I'm reserving judgment on that one - if I'm continually missing out on great specials then there won't be much point in continuing, but at least for this initial shopping 'trip', which consisted mostly of meat, produce and key basics, it was all good.

So what about the quality? Well, since each item is hand-selected from your nearest store's shelves (or so the website tells me), it's just like you walked in there and picked the items yourself. The meat looks great, the produce excellent and exactly as represented online. Everything looks wonderful!

Meat and produce prices are supplied as a 'pretty accurate guesstimation' online. While beef mince (ground beef) might be represented in 500g (a pound-ish) packages, the final price is dependent on the actual weight of product in the package - so if your mince is labelled 435g but is priced at $5 pkg/$10kg online, you only pay for 435g, not the stated 500g price, if that makes sense. Ditto for loose vegies and fruit (prices are adjusted when the order is packaged and you are charged accordingly, which means your total could differ slighly from the 'online checkout price') Another example: Royal Gala apples were listed two ways online - as a 'per kilo' price, and as a rough 'each' price (in this case, 80c). I didn't pay 80c for each of my 6 apples, but whatever the equivalent was in price-per-kilo (I just checked - each apple averages at 72c, in case you were wondering, LOL). Both of the 'produce-only' online companies I've played with before stick with a standard 'each' price - totally unacceptable to this cynic who would convince herself she was being given weeny little apples on purpose. Not so with Coles Online.

My order today was large - $222 for 59 items (including a $22 'seasonal vegetable box' that I forgot to remove after individually adding my produce needs elsewhere in the order, LOL). But of that, I ended up with about 10 days worth of meat (possibly 2 weeks worth, if I stretch it creatively) and all the fruit and veg we'll need for probably 3 weeks. It is under our budget (which is somewhat large-ish at Talented Hubby's suggestion) by quite a lot, if you average it all out and approximate what a month's worth of groceries would total based on what we got today. There was even a sample packet and mini cookbook - totally an advertising ploy, but nice nonetheless!

Would we do it again? The proof will be in the pudding, or as the case may be, in the quality of the meat (my standard guage for worthiness/value, LOL) If the meat was horrible and stringy (I can't see why, it looks beautiful) or if the milk was delivered really close to the use by date (it wasn't) or if the vegies looked a bit wilty (they don't), then probably not. The convenience was a big plus however, and though it might seem strange doing an online grocery shopping session when we have a large, fully-stocked Woolworths right down the street, I'm quite liking the idea that I now have options when it comes to where I can shop. I can now buy the loss leaders and other bulky items from Coles and have them delivered, whereas before, I'd have to toss the catalogue right in the recycling bin because I had no way of getting all those groceries home. And of course I'll still have access to the local supermarket for impromptu trips. Or the other way around, for that matter! It will only take one or two loss leaders, bought in bulk to the stated maximums, to justify the Coles delivery fee once it begins being charged, and I can do my regular shopping locally. Options folks! I love options!

P.S. Vegetable/salad/side dish recipes please? LOL. I see a lot of soup in our future!