Lucky Jeans for Dinghy not Made in China

So you are wondering "What the cuss?"...Maybe you didn't see the Fantastic Mr. Fox...I've always been a huge Dahl fan...

Noah and I drove down to Savannah last Thursday to spend some time with David and do some glasswork on the dinghy we want to use on the big trip back North to North on Nico (the profile says I live in Mathews, VA...if you say that you live in North, Virginia people think you are an idiot...like my third grade teacher in Annapolis did when she asked me where I was moving).

We goofed off Friday. The weather was beautiful. We made banana pancakes, walked Spot and went to the beach at Tybee. Eventually we found ourselves at Fort Pulaski National Monument, a Civil War site. I am not what you would call a Civil War buff, but Noah has been studying it in school... so we went, and had a good walk and some fun finding the not so short cut out... Anyhoo, we didn't get around to lunch until about 3...so no work on the dink.

Saturday was cloudy and cool with a really big chance of gnats. It wasn't good glassing weather. We hung out, went for a few walks and wondered briefly if we should have laid glass the day before. But Friday had been so well spent...it had been a bonding day of other sorts...so the glass work would have to wait for another trip, or so we thought...

And then the clouds drifted away and the sun came out. It got warm, and we decided to get to work. For those of you who have not laid fiberglass with polyester resin, let me tell you it is messy...the kind of mess that just never cleans up. So I decided to change into my favorite ugly jeans...an old pair of torn Lucky Brand jeans I had picked up in some thrift store. I was about to put these on when I discovered...THEY HAD A TAG ON THEM THAT SAID MADE IN THE U.S.A. I almost couldn't believe it. My Levi's are made in Mexico. So I had to save those rags...and I wore David's old shorts instead... which was why Harley was able to praise my style on fb (I love you, Harley).

So the dinghy was glassed, and the American jeans saved. Krista never recovered her fashion sense...she wore her skirt inside out to church on Sunday. No kidding.

And here I am on Tuesday, still in awe of the American jeans and deciding to give myself a little challenge. I am tired of the "Made everywhere but Here". I am especially tired of the "Made in China"...so for the next month I am going to refrain from purchasing anything "Made in China." I am easing myself in to a full on "Buy American" that I hope will last a lifetime. This from the girl who drives a Japanese car made in Canada... Yeah, I am sick of it.

If you have a minute, you can check out http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/ for a list of products we still make at home. I've added to my favorites, become a fan on fb. I am going to use it as a resource. I will accumulate a lot less junk...it seems to all sport the "Made in China" tag.

A Mermaid Day

It is a mermaid day... How could it not be? When the weekend starts early...when there are no meltdowns before breakfast...when I actually find two socks that match (and they are both clean). Yay!

I am highly distracted today...but it is still a mermaid day. I can't share all that has me distracted...someone else's story has to unfold in her own time...but, I am believing it will roll out well...I have hope.

I am driving to Savannah today with Noah after lunch. We are going to see David, and we are both excited! This is another part of the distraction. I don't ever pack well. Good intentions, but then it doesn't carry over...so I have a list of things in my head that I know I didn't pack and a list of the things I am not sure if I packed. Those I know I didn't include a blanket, my toothbrush, and Noah's pillow he can't sleep with out. I will stop by the house to get those. The things I am not sure I packed could cover anything from underwear to medicine, shoes to eyeglasses. I could go out to the car and unzip my bag and look...but I won't do that because that is just who I am. I know I have insulin.

If the distractedness doesn't go away by lunch time I am going to have to use one of Noah's old ADD patches that he doesn't use anymore because he is allergic to the adhesive. I am allergic to the adhesive, too. One square welt on the butt won't kill me though...and they work. We used to call it the focus patch...It is actually some type of ritilin that absorbs through the skin.

I almost forgot. Here is a chance to use some new to me lingo. S.H.I.T.

Hope ya'll have a great weekend!!

My medical calculations

Without insurance I would pay:

Insulin and needles for me, monthly $650
Testing supplies, monthly $50
Medication for Noah, monthly $165 (add $125 during allergy season)
4 Diabetes check-ups yearly...I don't know
4 A1C Tests yearly...I don't know
Colonoscopy every 5 years because my mom is a survivor and my grandad wasn't..I don't know
Well checkups for Noah...I don't know
Sick visits for Noah...I don't know...except one time someone forgot to enter my insurance info at the pharmacy and his antibiotic rang up at $264.00

In other words, I would be choosing between health and a roof over our heads and food on the table... If i didn't choose health, Noah would have a short-time mother. I can not choose not to take it and live long enough to see his story unfold.

I have a personal stake in this healthcare mess. I also know there are many with diabetes who make the choices I avoid today.

This isn't the piece of legislation that I had hoped for once upon a time. It isn't a done deal. I remain optimistic about the direction of our great country. I don't think that bringing affordable healthcare to the masses diminishes us as a nation.

The new old piano, boat people, and my beautiful boy

Noah has been taking piano lessons for the past two years from Diana Allison. I knew from the first lessons that she was a perfect fit for us. Apart from being a great teacher, her conversations with Noah on all matters from history to music did more to build his esteem than any conversation he'd had with the Talking Doctor. Miss Diana is also boat people...by which I mean she is a sailor and works also at one of the marinas in Deltaville...which means she is also good people. She'd been helping us look for a cheap upright for Noah to play at home (Noah has a Yamaha keyboard...his second, but that is another story). Well, she recently found one...her boss at the Marina has a sister...

Well last week, after weeks of losing phone numbers, and probably trying Miss Diana's patience in my repeated requests for the same, I found (for probably the fifth or sixth time) the number of the boss' sister I was to contact and I actually made the call. And, wow, what a call, and connection on so many levels. Connie couldn't have been more kind...and then there came the comment/ question that almost blew my mind... "so you have the boy with autism?" My brain went blank...After a few seconds, I stumbled back to thinking..."Noah may have Ausberger's syndrome," I heard myself saying, "but there has never been a diagnosis." Yes, my boy is a special boy. He walks to a different beat. I'd heard when he was in pre-school and again in kindergarten..."sometimes he dances and sings like he is in his own world"...school has been a struggle at times...he has had fantastic teachers who have been very understanding...We've been blessed. Noah went thru testing for the Special Education program...He has a high I.Q. He has ADD like me. Learning to read was a struggle at first; handwriting outrageous, math is a mystery.

But, Noah could teach a class in creating sculpture from found objects. He loves to build, invents great gadgets... could tell you anything you want to know about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or pirates or sea creatures...and can identify almost any song on the radio in the first three seconds of lead in. He brings joy to my life daily. His favorite line this week: "Hey, Mom, you know what you look like today?" Me: "A monkey?" Noah: "No...the best mom in the world."

That is my beautiful boy.

Well...I went to see the piano on Friday. It is a beautiful, old piano with a rich history in the family who owns it. Connie lives in a house like mine. It was built by her grandparents who once operated it as a general store in Gloucester. It is old and cluttered with life. We laughed about the obstacles we've both traversed in dealing with old houses (these will go unmentioned to preserve our mutual peace of mind). She even gave me a tip on some heated mattress pads that might keep us from freezing next winter. I made a new friend.

So, we are getting a new old piano. It is beautiful, and perfect for Noah. I just need to sort out where it should go. Noah's Yamaha has its spot on the dining room table; his electric guitar is the instrument of choice in the living room along with Rockband... and he is saving space for drums (yeah right). I guess when it comes...wherever it goes, there it will be...and we will be blessed to have it as part of our lives.

The Bucket List

So I got another of those emails with the "bucket list" of things you are supposed to want to do in your lifetime...only I don't give a rat's ass about camping in an RV (oxymoron in my book) or jumping out of an airplane or visiting Niagra Falls (although I am sure it's nice there when it isn't cold). In fact, everytime I get one of those emails, I feel like a big dork (just like the dork that hopes a friend is okay when she posts S.H.I.T. on fb on a Thursday). My "bucket list" just doesn't seem to include things that can be completed all at once. I'm wondering if thats just another grand feature of my ADD, or if I really am a dork, or if it is just that I am still a "big picture" person, or whatever! So here are 3 things from my big picture bucket list. Please feel free to comment or share some of yours... I promise not to be offended if you call me a dork. :-)

1. To face a great fear on faith and live to tell the story. This will happen at some point in an ocean crossing with David on Nico. I love sailing, but have a profound fear of the Atlantic. Profound FEAR!!! I trust David, however...and when he says we are ready, I will gladly go...just hoping for the moment that there are more than a few years in waiting.

2. To make a life-long friendship with someone in a land far away who I will never meet, living a life quite different from my own and to have lasting impact on eachother's lives.

3. To help one child break the cycle of poverty. I believe this is within reach... and it's part of the reason I stick with the job I have.

Have a great weekend eveyone! It just became Friday. T.G.I.F. :-)

Our Crazy Kitchen

I said it in my last post...I love crazy. Noah and I both have ADD, vivid imaginations, and incurable curiosity...See...I can feel my friends smiling already. It makes life interesting. It transforms my living space. It propels us into sometimes loony adventures, and makes possible new discoveries. But, sometimes it is just plain frustrating.

Tonight Noah's kitchen experiment went awry. Who knew you can't cook spaghetti in a ziplock bag in the microwave? I guess at 5 minutes the pasta wasn't done, and at 8 minutes it became a brown brick. And when I went to clean up the mess...yes, a big mess...I discovered that he had been too impatient to see if the box of noodles had been opened...so he opened the other end...which, of course, led to almost two pounds of noodles on the floor...stray ones are still crunching beneath my feet.

So I asked, "Why didn't you look to see if it was already open before opening the other end?"

And he smiled back at me "Why didn't you look to see that both ends were open before you picked it up?" and then a slightly more humble, "my food experiment didn't work out so well."

I try to be patient, but the kitchen is a wreck. His second food experiment was microwaved pineapple. It was tasty, and also messy, and we may get food poisoning because he cut it with the same knife I used to cut raw chicken earlier. But I can't complain...I still remember making peanut butter and jelly casserole when I was a little older than Noah, and I am pretty sure I tried to serve it for dinner when it was my night to cook.

David, get ready for the kitchen experiments. There is one coming to a boat near you. He says he has an appetizer experiment. I will make sure he leaves the soda and mentos behind!