I have been able to take advantage of some time between clients to work on what my company calls "The Bench." This is time when I get to learn new technologies and skills to make myself more marketable while my company both pays my salary and tries to get me lined up with another client as soon as possible. I hear from my management that it's likely that I'll be on the bench through the end of the year, and after that, lots of clients will have new budgets and no more holiday slowdowns to deal with, and engagements should pick up again. It's been nice to be able to learn new things while also not having a lot of deadlines to deal with because my family has been having other issues to deal with. It's also been nice because I have been able to take some more time to learn from some investing classes, one that I bought about two years ago and have been slowly working on, and another from the same company that they asked me to beta test for them in exchange for free access to the class. I feel bad that I haven't taken better advantage of the opportunities to learn that I've had over the past few years, so I've been working harder to take advantage of these opportunities now.
My wife has been dealing with her online business, www.ctr-ring.com, taking care of our four kids with special needs, helping her father deal with his medical and work issues, and dealing with her own health problems. She has been dealing with a chronic sinus infection, along with other general aches and pains. She may need to have surgery at some point to straighten a deviated septum, but we've had so many medical bills this year that she is trying to postpone that for now. She is a real trooper to put up with all of the things going on, but I can tell that it exhausts her.
Her father is unable to pay his rent on the disability income he is getting from his employer right now, so he is going to work on getting loose ends tied up where he is and move in with us in the next month or so. We will charge him less rent and help with food and utilities expenses while he works on getting his pain management and disability issues ironed out. The hope is that he can be settled down and into a new job based on the amount of social security disability income he can get in 3 to 4 months.
My oldest son has had emotional ups and downs as we deal with new medicines, a new school year, and new routines. We've switched off from one of his two new medicines as it seemed to make him more anxious rather than less, and we've put him back onto his old medicine for the time being. The other new medicine continues to appear to be working well for him. He is trying to learn how to deal with the way the Aspergers causes him to interpret the things that are happening in his life, and that can be a stress for him and us. Overall, though, he seems to be much more like his old, wonderful self, with far less inclination to carry thoughts to extremes.
My second son has had emotional ups and downs as we deal with my older son, a new school year, and new routines. He sometimes seems to have middle child syndrome, where he feels that he is being overlooked since so many other things require so much of our attention. He loves to go on dates with us, but he also likes to try to avoid doing his chores and other responsibilities in order to earn those dates and other rewards. He is a good worker when he puts his mind to the task, though. He recently got to move to the basement along with his baby brother, and he seems to be enjoying being the one "in control" of the room, except when he has to clean it. He continues to do very well in school and being the charmer in his classes.
My daughter has been getting several evaluations recently to see if she has Asperger Syndrome, now that we know what it looks like. All indications so far point to her having it. She scored higher in the academic testing than any other child her age that this doctor had ever tested, and she scored pretty low in the social skills testing, which is very typical of Aspergers. We don't think that she has the Tourette Syndrome that our oldest has, so at least it's a little bit easier in that regard. At this point, there doesn't appear to be any need for medications, but we continue to work toward getting an official diagnosis so that we can arrange other services for her help, especially once she starts school next fall. She loves to dance and be a princess, and she is usually quite helpful when she's not tired. She too loves to go on dates, especially when she can convince us to take her to McDonald's so she can play in the playground and eat ice cream.
My youngest son continues to have occasional bouts with asthma, though we are getting a little better at treating him before we have to end up in the ER for oxygen. The last time we went to the ER, his oxygen levels were low, but not quite low enough to keep him there for as long as we have had to in the past. He was given oxygen as a preventative measure while the medicines kicked in to open up his airways. He is learning to talk a lot more, though, as the youngest, he doesn't feel a lot of drive to learn everything right now. He says what he wants to say, and he just goes and does what he feels like he wants to do if he has to. He has learned to push chairs and other objects to where ever he needs to climb up on something, and we find him having obtained many items we had thought to be out of his reach. We also notice a slow decline in the amount of our silverware as he tends to throw away his fork or spoon after using them, especially if he was having something off a paper plate or bowl. He hates diaper changes and struggles to escape them, but he loves the attention when we play with him to distract him from the changing.
Overall, we are certainly faced with our fair share of struggles and trials, but it's our fair share and not more. We feel the Lord blessing us each day. On the worst days, we manage stay alive AND not kill each other. Most days are even better than that! *grin* In all honesty, as I read over what I've reported, I recognize that I have called out a lot of the hardships and fewer of the blessings, but I have to say that, thanks to the Lord and His gospel, we are a happy family. We are blessed with the strength to make it through these trials, to continue striving to do better each day, and to help those around us as we are able. I'm very thankful to have these blessings - they are the glue that keeps us together.
On that note, I share with you a picture of a pamphlet we received from a local Christian church that we do not belong to that made me laugh.
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