Well, I have discovered an effective way of getting Luke and Brett more into picking up. After getting Eliana’s room painted, it looked so inviting, the younger two boys decided to TRASH IT! They had the pile of loner socks thrown about. Some cheerios and nachos randomly skewn, and Eliana’s diapers in the four corners of the room. Plus some toys and blocks just to add to the chaos. Wednesday night I was having a moment of fighting tears at the state of my house, when Greg picked up on it. After finding out what the tears were about, he took the boys all to Ellie’s room, and gave ‘em a lecture, he did! He made sure they understood how this upset me, how it’s not fair to have to clean after cleaning, and how this has to stop. So we ended the family huddle with a warning that next morning, Luke, Brett and myself were going to clean it all up.

I pondered how I was going to do this without yelling. I tend to stress out in about five minutes flat, and need to take numerous time-outs for me to regain composure. I admit it: I don’t relish hearing my own voice repeating the same phrases for an hour or more. “Luke, you’re not picking up. Please pick up.” “Brett, we’re not finished, you can’t leave yet.” “Let’s go guys. Let’s get this done.” So I schemed. What would make it easier.

In our house, the boys respond so well to racing the clock, or each other. I don’t want to get to into competition between them, as you well know, the youngest usually lose. However, I fully intend on purchasing a timer for each boy.

An example of how this works:

It is bedtime. Time for brushing teeth, potty, and getting in pajamas. Oftentimes, we’ll say “Ok, guys, time to get on your jammies, brush teeth, etc.” When we get through putting Ellie to bed, and come down, nothing has been done. So we end up getting very frustrated and more often than not yelling. So one night out of desperation, I counted to ten for Luke to get his pajamas on. Well, my land, did he ever respond. And then the other two boys were asking me to count for them. So I need to get to a dollar store, and get them each their own timer.

Yesterday while working with Luke and Brett, I discovered another VERY effective method. I cut several lengths of yarn, and made each of them into a circle on the floor. One became the sock circle, one for the blocks, one for diapers, and one for toys/books. I’m telling you, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. I suppose it’s the same idea as a basket or box for each thing, but Luke esp. loves shapes, and I was thinking we could have even more fun with it, and make triangles, rectangles, etc. With the girth that I am currently captive to, I find it very difficult next to impossible to bend over and pick things up. Having them pick it all up into one pile made such a difference. And for them to know that there was a circle to put each item, it ended up taking approximately ten minutes for them to be finished. I was then able to scoop up what was in each pile and deal with it. So much easier, faster and stress-free.

Two days ago, Luke crawled into bed with me in the morning. I was very much not awake. At one point, he sat up and pulled the blanket over his head. I asked him what he was doing. He said, “Mom, I’m going to pray.” He then proceeded with something that I forgot, and had to ask him. As he told me I remembered. He had prayed, “Dear God. Thank You for letters and shapes and numbers.” I know he said more, and I could kick myself for not being able to get fully awake to take it in. Later in the day he was singing, “My Saviour was, my Saviour is, my Saviour’s always gonna be…” I’ve heard this song numerous times on the radio, but we haven’t heard it lately, and so I was curious as to where he’d heard it. He told me Grandma and Grandpa’s church. Well, we had visited there in January and there was a ladies’ trio that sang that song! This is so healing for me because on Luke’s report cards from preschool last year, they marked him in the social and academic sections, but when it came to the spiritual growth section, they marked him n/a. That was so painful for me. I know they can’t gauge where he’s at spiritually, esp. at the point, where his communication was really still developing in the basic areas. But it hurt. And yet, Luke has shown us, autism or not, that he does respond to things spiritual. What a refreshing and healing moment for this oft-time discouraged momma.

The weather has been sunny for two days now. We are getting upper teens for temperatures. I am so glad to know spring is getting serious about showing up, and I think today will be a good day.