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walkitoutI took T. to martial arts. I had planned to do Duo and play my game, but there were people who wanted to chat, so I chatted instead, which is nice.
A. found some tinted lip gloss from Burt's Bees that I have and asked for some. I had some unopened and she was excited about having lipstick like stuff. I said we could do her eyes and she was inordinately excited about that, so we did liner and shadow (mascara just sounded like asking for trouble).
T. and R. took T.'s old dresser to Household Goods after I got a picture of it. The end of an era! R. and I bought that at Fred Meyer when I was pregnant with T., and it has been his dresser since. Not bad for flat pack furniture.
T. worked on his homework when we got home and resisted discussing lunch plans. So I air fryered some eggplant slices, heated up a chicken breast R. had grilled last week thinking it would be for T.'s weekend meals (but which he then ignored), along with the last of the tomatoes, and some more ciabatta roll made up with bruschetta. I also cooked some mushrooms in olive oil and the quintinye vermouth (I think I used the extra dry but it might have been the blanc), and included that. It was really good, but T. would not stop telling me that I _had_ to sign a piece of paper asking for him to be exempted from sex ed. I did NOT want him exempted, and had already sent this particular piece of paper back with a note saying how happy I was to have him included. And T. would not leave it alone. His teacher said I _had_ to sign it. I completely lost it. I was like, if they are trying to keep you out of that class, it is on _them_ and I will sue them if they do. But I'm not going to sign an exemption form.
T. would not leave it alone, and harassed R. who was out in the yard with the chainsaw. I finished most of my lunch, and finally gave up and emailed and Remind'ed (<-- app) the health teacher and T.'s classroom teacher to ask what was going on. They got back to me very quickly (middle of the day on a Saturday! Heroes!) to say, oops, thought it was an opt-in not an opt-out, no, don't sign it and We're a Go on T. for health class, no worries, respectively.
But while I was waiting to hear back from them, I had T. come back in, sat him down and insisted he eat something (some of the chicken breast, some freezer fries I ran through the air fryer, and some green apple), because I concluded that a lot of what was going on here was actually Hangry. Sure enough, once there were some calories on board, he was much more civilized.
I had _tried_ to make a lunch plan with him, and then given up and just made my own lunch and A.'s. Next time, I'm going to insist. He usually has lunch at 11 a.m. at school, and waiting until noon on weekend days is _bad_.
Once everyone was in a better mood, I talked both kids into going to Target with me. A. had virtually no warm weather night time clothes (and wow, it's suddenly warm here). That was the main thing, but I was looking in general for her, and also looking for a couple nice tops for me. In the event, I also picked up a jacket for myself and A. and I now have matching small handbags (hers is pink and mine is lavender). We _almost_ got matching dresses, because I can now fit into the top of the main women's size range at Target, and she fits nicely into the bottom of that size range. But that dress did not look good on me. Maybe next time! We could be Those People.
T. tried to pull the same I Don't Want to Plan nonsense with dinner, so I told him that I would make a decision. We went through the same thing last week and I wound up eating and then also taking him to Julie's Place. I ate and drank way too much that night and did not want a repeat. He picked NYAJ, and A. decided that was fine if they had chicken fingers. I said 4:30 at the latest; we probably should have gone even earlier, because everyone was starving and tired and not motivated to do anything else. While we were there, I talked to T. for a bit about what he wanted to do in general about meals on Saturday: eat zero, one or two out. I pointed out that I was working very hard to get away from having every possibility teed up and ready to go at a moment's notice, but that meant _he_ had to do some planning. It's easy to feed A. at home, and that's all she ever wants to do anyway. I can plan my own meals either in or out, but I need to know ahead of time. R. is perfectly capable of playing along with whatever else is happening, or just having cheese and bread. T. said -- I'm not making this up -- "You can have a Sun Basket meal." I was flabbergasted. Right, so the meal kit meals are _always_ cooked by the end of the day on Friday, because they are starting to go bad at that point (Plated is a Sunday delivery, Sun Basket is Monday). But T.'s nonchalant, oh, here, I have a solution you haven't thought of was so perfectly Every Asshole I Lived With Before R. (and quite a large number who I wasn't living with). It explains so much: they must have all been 12 year old boys with autism.
Meal planning turns out not to actually be hard. The difficulties lie in getting all the people who will be eating those meals to tell you ahead of time which meals they will be present for and, if they are prone to complaining, enough information about what they want to be eating so their preferences can be accommodated. I know you can do this as a command system (that's what I grew up with), but those actually don't work very well (people start not showing up for meals as soon as they have alternatives, and they don't eat the food prepared, thus making the point of the planning -- avoiding waste -- moot). I'm going to bash at this for a few more weeks and see what's possible at this point in our collective life.
After we got back, A. and I scootered around the block and had a great time. We looked around for a bigger scooter for her, but she really wants three wheels and the choices are limited. Altho swing scooters look kind of awesome, I've never tried one.
ETA: Two long phone calls, one with my sister, one with a sister-in-law. Both very pleasant, altho the content of the one with my sister was a bit of a bummer, as it involved a night-time trip to the ER. Everyone seems fine now, tho, fingers crossed.
A. found some tinted lip gloss from Burt's Bees that I have and asked for some. I had some unopened and she was excited about having lipstick like stuff. I said we could do her eyes and she was inordinately excited about that, so we did liner and shadow (mascara just sounded like asking for trouble).
T. and R. took T.'s old dresser to Household Goods after I got a picture of it. The end of an era! R. and I bought that at Fred Meyer when I was pregnant with T., and it has been his dresser since. Not bad for flat pack furniture.
T. worked on his homework when we got home and resisted discussing lunch plans. So I air fryered some eggplant slices, heated up a chicken breast R. had grilled last week thinking it would be for T.'s weekend meals (but which he then ignored), along with the last of the tomatoes, and some more ciabatta roll made up with bruschetta. I also cooked some mushrooms in olive oil and the quintinye vermouth (I think I used the extra dry but it might have been the blanc), and included that. It was really good, but T. would not stop telling me that I _had_ to sign a piece of paper asking for him to be exempted from sex ed. I did NOT want him exempted, and had already sent this particular piece of paper back with a note saying how happy I was to have him included. And T. would not leave it alone. His teacher said I _had_ to sign it. I completely lost it. I was like, if they are trying to keep you out of that class, it is on _them_ and I will sue them if they do. But I'm not going to sign an exemption form.
T. would not leave it alone, and harassed R. who was out in the yard with the chainsaw. I finished most of my lunch, and finally gave up and emailed and Remind'ed (<-- app) the health teacher and T.'s classroom teacher to ask what was going on. They got back to me very quickly (middle of the day on a Saturday! Heroes!) to say, oops, thought it was an opt-in not an opt-out, no, don't sign it and We're a Go on T. for health class, no worries, respectively.
But while I was waiting to hear back from them, I had T. come back in, sat him down and insisted he eat something (some of the chicken breast, some freezer fries I ran through the air fryer, and some green apple), because I concluded that a lot of what was going on here was actually Hangry. Sure enough, once there were some calories on board, he was much more civilized.
I had _tried_ to make a lunch plan with him, and then given up and just made my own lunch and A.'s. Next time, I'm going to insist. He usually has lunch at 11 a.m. at school, and waiting until noon on weekend days is _bad_.
Once everyone was in a better mood, I talked both kids into going to Target with me. A. had virtually no warm weather night time clothes (and wow, it's suddenly warm here). That was the main thing, but I was looking in general for her, and also looking for a couple nice tops for me. In the event, I also picked up a jacket for myself and A. and I now have matching small handbags (hers is pink and mine is lavender). We _almost_ got matching dresses, because I can now fit into the top of the main women's size range at Target, and she fits nicely into the bottom of that size range. But that dress did not look good on me. Maybe next time! We could be Those People.
T. tried to pull the same I Don't Want to Plan nonsense with dinner, so I told him that I would make a decision. We went through the same thing last week and I wound up eating and then also taking him to Julie's Place. I ate and drank way too much that night and did not want a repeat. He picked NYAJ, and A. decided that was fine if they had chicken fingers. I said 4:30 at the latest; we probably should have gone even earlier, because everyone was starving and tired and not motivated to do anything else. While we were there, I talked to T. for a bit about what he wanted to do in general about meals on Saturday: eat zero, one or two out. I pointed out that I was working very hard to get away from having every possibility teed up and ready to go at a moment's notice, but that meant _he_ had to do some planning. It's easy to feed A. at home, and that's all she ever wants to do anyway. I can plan my own meals either in or out, but I need to know ahead of time. R. is perfectly capable of playing along with whatever else is happening, or just having cheese and bread. T. said -- I'm not making this up -- "You can have a Sun Basket meal." I was flabbergasted. Right, so the meal kit meals are _always_ cooked by the end of the day on Friday, because they are starting to go bad at that point (Plated is a Sunday delivery, Sun Basket is Monday). But T.'s nonchalant, oh, here, I have a solution you haven't thought of was so perfectly Every Asshole I Lived With Before R. (and quite a large number who I wasn't living with). It explains so much: they must have all been 12 year old boys with autism.
Meal planning turns out not to actually be hard. The difficulties lie in getting all the people who will be eating those meals to tell you ahead of time which meals they will be present for and, if they are prone to complaining, enough information about what they want to be eating so their preferences can be accommodated. I know you can do this as a command system (that's what I grew up with), but those actually don't work very well (people start not showing up for meals as soon as they have alternatives, and they don't eat the food prepared, thus making the point of the planning -- avoiding waste -- moot). I'm going to bash at this for a few more weeks and see what's possible at this point in our collective life.
After we got back, A. and I scootered around the block and had a great time. We looked around for a bigger scooter for her, but she really wants three wheels and the choices are limited. Altho swing scooters look kind of awesome, I've never tried one.
ETA: Two long phone calls, one with my sister, one with a sister-in-law. Both very pleasant, altho the content of the one with my sister was a bit of a bummer, as it involved a night-time trip to the ER. Everyone seems fine now, tho, fingers crossed.