I think the most solid foundation for a healthy, mutually-fulfilling relationship is good communication. Fortunately, being a writer-type-person who likes to make many word-like squawkings with both my hands and my face-hole, PLUS given the importance I place on really listening to similar transmissions from the ones I love, I've got this one down pat. My family never has to feel like we don't all understand each other. I mean... uhhhh... unless one of us has been doing math for 10+ hours straight and another of us has been trying offer support for said unholy amount of time devoted to said...
Something kind of exciting happened here this week, and I wrote about it over at Alpha Mom. I'll give you a hint: My teenagers are no longer speaking to each other in person using their mouthparts. Our electronic overlords have taken over! And in a weird way, I guess I'm okay with that. Mostly.
Phil departed the premises last night. It was time. (It was long PAST time, but I'm working pretty hard on this whole "saying yes" thing.) No tears were shed. Any residual sadness has been smoothed over with frozen dairy confection, and our house is once again a blessedly bug-free zone. By way of partial explanation as to why I ever allowed that in the first place, I offer you a summer manifesto for the big kids, over at Alpha Mom. 'Tis the season to say yes, to build skills, and to chill out. All at once! I THINK THAT WOULD BE EASIER WITH A FUNCTIONAL POOL, but regardless, we're working on...
Summer vacation, man. Things are crazy already, and it's only the second day. I think tomorrow I'll be able to direct you to a post about my summer philosophy (spoiler: Now with fewer Give A Craps!), but for today all I can tell you is that we ate all the strawberries we picked last week and we had to go pick some more. Also there are more teenagers lurking around here than I remember giving birth to, but I am a little afraid to do a headcount. Everyone seems happy, so it's okay. Also we have a lot of strawberries. ALSO my darling daughter has completely lost her mind discovered her...
So in the midst of everything else, we thought it would be a supergreat and totally not at all crazy idea to change Monkey's schooling YET AGAIN. Because what Aspies love more than anything else is CHANGE! Yes. Except no. And lord knows things have just been SO BORING 'round here. (The alternate version of this story is that Hippie School---lovingly dubbed thus two years ago when it was still mostly a joke---is undergoing some changes and growing pains, and after careful consideration, we feel the program which has so nurtured him for the past two years is just not going to meet his needs...
If you've been around here for any length of time, you know that food and I enjoy a close, fulfilling relationship. Other than that whole gluten thing, food has generally been good to me (maybe a little TOO good to my thighs, but it means well) and I love to eat. I eat just about everything. Food good! Food delicious! I very much like food! (I'm not sure how or why I turned into a bizarre cross between Cookie Monster and the Hulk just then. Forgive me.) Having a kid who has a complicated relationship with food has been one of those things where my internal How To Handle It computer simply...
You know what's weird? This coming weekend will mark Otto's and my 6th year wedding anniversary. Married for six years! And still speaking to each other! And also making out occasionally (you know, when there's nothing good on television)! This makes me an expert on all things remarriage and such, of course. Except not. At all. Naturally this means that I have a new post up over at Alpha Mom, all about the secret to successfully blending a family. My advice is worth exactly what it costs you! (I hope you'll come check it out, anyway.)
I'm coming to a place where I believe the teenage brain may indeed be so hormone-addled that basic connections of common sense and cause-and-effect are suspended until further notice. MRI imagining would reveal that teen brains light up when shown caramel brownies, but those same brains can look at unfinished homework and angry teachers and ask what's on television, and also, hey, are any of those brownies left? You would think that having once BEEN a teenager would allow a parent to better understand this phase, but you would be wrong. I can't follow their logic, no matter how hard I try....
... that that STOOPID parenting CD I had to listen to may have actually had a couple of good ideas. New post over at Alpha Mom, about getting teens to cooperate. (Now that I've written it, of course, everything is going to blow up in my face. That's how it works!)
