Souper You Giveaway

One thing that I have been trying to do for awhile is to lose weight for what feels like forever.  Slowly but surely , I am getting there. I wish it was faster but I didn't get fat overnight either.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Besides my new habit of running, I have discovered the great taste of Progresso Soup.  I was blessed to receive a box from Progresso containing 4 cans of soup and a Biggest Loser workout dvd to try out.  Yay!  Currently they are running a contest for a makeover too.

With 40 delicious soups with 100 calories or less per serving, Progresso Soup has a variety of offerings that help you beat diet boredom and satisfy your taste cravings, while helping you stick to your weight management calorie goals. Progresso soups are packed with hearty ingredients like pasta, beans, rice, meat and vegetables that suit your taste buds and make you feel good about including it in your meal choices.







This year, the Souper You® Contest will provide three lucky winners with an ultimate makeover experience in Hollywood; this includes a trip for 2 to Los Angeles, California where the winner will receive a head-to-toe makeover including hair and makeup, guided shopping spree with a $1,000 fashion retailer gift card, $1,000 spending money and 2 tickets to this season’s live finale of NBC’s The Biggest Loser


Progresso is asking fans to visit www.SouperYou.com  and submit their photo with a brief essay about why they love Progresso soups and why they deserve a makeover, by no later than February 22nd


Fans can check back on March 12th for the announcement of the top ten finalists, and to vote for their favorite finalist until March 25th


In addition, visit http://bit.ly/ProgressoCoup  to download a printable coupon for $1.25 off the purchase of four (4) cans of Progresso Soup today!


Also, tune into The Biggest Loser on NBC Tuesdays at 8/7c

For all my gluten free friends, you will be ecstatic to find out that Progresso has a whole line of gluten free soups.  I no longer have to make gluten free cream of mushroom soup.  Yay!!  They even have a gluten free New England clam chowder.  How awesome is that!

Progresso has also offered a great giveaway for my readers through My Blog Spark.  Enter to win a prize pack that includes :

(2) VIP Coupons for Progresso Soup


(1) copy of “The Biggest Loser” Workout DVD
 
 
We use the workout dvd in our homeschool P.E. classes so it worked out for everyone! To enter to win you only have to do 2 things.  Easy peasy!
 

1. Become a follower of my blog either through subscription or Google Friend Connect.  Leave me a comment telling me .
2. Hop over to my Facebook page, Our Crazy Adventures in Autismland and "like" my page. Leave me a comment on that page telling me your favorite kind of soup!

Thanks for reading my blog and good luck to everyone!  The contest will run until Sunday , Feb. 19th 2012 at 10 PM EST.  I will post the winner on my Facebook page Monday morning . 

“Disclosure: The Progresso^® Souper You^® prize pack, information, coupon, and giveaway have been provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark.”

An angel among us

Isn't she beautiful?  I am a bit biased but I do believe she is the most beautiful 9 year old on the planet.  The fact that she has such a tender servant's heart for Jesus makes her beauty shine all that much more brighter. 

Grammy brought her a phenomenal pendant that you open up and put a prayer inside.  Madison was so excited to get it.  She ooohed and aaahed over it when Grammy was here all while talking about how she had the perfect necklace for it.  We were very busy visiting with Grammy among other things that day so she was unable to put her prayer for a few days. 

When she did bring it to me to put her prayer inside, she took my breath away with her simple request.  She wanted to put Grampa's name inside the necklace since he was in heaven. Whenever she got to missing him so much that it hurt, she could put on her necklace and feel that he was there with her. It  brings  her comfort to know that he is an angel in heaven watching over her.  She could touch her necklace to feel him near.  Simple as that.  Oh to have the faith of a child.

It is not that simple for me.  I don't know that he accepted Jesus as his personal Savior before he died.  I regret not being bold and courageous enough to ask him.  It was him and I in that room when the doctors came in to tell him that his best option was to go home to be with his family for his final days. It was the perfect opportunity to ask him.  I neglected to do it out of fear of rejection.  I put it off to do later but he passed away within days.  Something I will reget for the rest of my own days. 

This last paragraph is hard for me to write.  It is not my intention to bring pain to anyone , especially my kind and loving mother in law who faithfully reads my blog (Hi Barbara!) or my precious Aunt in law who also is so kind to read as well ( Hi Aunt Diane!) .  These are simply my feelings that I have been struggling to verbalize.  I love you both and if this post brought you any unhappiness then I apologize profusely.  Love you both like a fat kid loves a chocolate fountain!

Week 4: The one where we actually finish all our work!

Ha!  I started this post at the beginning of the week.  The thought process was that if I made the title beforehand then we would finish all the work.  Well, we kinda did just that.  A week has been completely highlighted in my planner. That means we have finished all of the assigned work.  Unfortunately, it was week 1 of the term.  As you can see by the title, we should be finishing week 4.  Alas, I am not worried.  We will continue at our pace hopefully getting everything highlighted in the end.  We have 3 weeks off in April where we could finish the together work.

On a more positive note, both children are relatively up to date on their independent work.  That is another reason why I am not all that worried about the together work. As long as they continue this trend, they will be completely term 1 at the beginning of April.  Term 2 in the Rogers Academy starts the first Monday in May. All is good.

Logan continues to adapt well to high school.  We are still tweaking the plan but I am very pleased with his progress so far.  His workload has increased quite a bit .  He has risen to the occasion spectacularly.  He is struggling a bit with algebra.  Michael and I really feel that this is more due to his being intimidated by the thought of doing algebra than actually being confused.  As his confidence increases, his "confusion" will lessen.  I am finishing up the post about what we are using for high school this week.

Madison is also adjusting well.  Her workload has increased as well but not as drastic as Logan's .  She is reading a complete chapter in her read a loud book per week now.  She has quite a plethora of books to read for her various subjects.  I discovered that she does much better if she has a mixture of read a louds and audiobooks to get all the work completed.  Lack of focus is still an issue with her. One we will continue to work on for sure.  Her curriculum post is in the works too.

We ended the week with park day with our local homeschool co op.  There were lots and lots of unsocialized homeschoolers there exchanging valentines.  This was our month to eat lunch at the park and stay later than we normally would.  Logan gets a little overloaded out there so we normally have to leave early.  Every 2 months or so, I let him know that we will be staying later so Madison can play longer with her friends.  He can bring a book or withdraw to a quiet spot if he would like but he can not complain that he is ready to leave.  This is true for Madison as well on the other months when we have to leave early.

It was a productive week for us.  Check out what other homeschool families are doing over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers where Kris hosts the Weekly Wrap Up.

Mixing art appreciation with art concepts

My kids have two entirely different concepts of art. 

Logan is content to just do art appreciation.  He will look at all the paintings I want him to as long as I don't ask him to draw.  Of course, this is partly because of his autism.  His brain is wired different . It doesn't  help that he is most definitely left brained.  Math is easy for him. Art , not so much.

Yes, that is all art supplies!

Madison would draw the day away.  She is always writing notes and drawing pictures.  She likes art so much that Santa brought her massive amounts of art supplies for Christmas along with a mobile easel.  She was beyond ecstatic.  She gets very disappointed when we do artist study where there is no actual drawing or crafting involved. 

Madison's recreation of Caspar David Friedrich sunset

To keep both of them happy, I have started doing a mixture of art appreciation or artist study along with art concepts.  Pretty basic stuff.  These activities have to be short (less than 15 minutes) but have enough meat to make it fun.  Nothing that would completely frustrate Logan but enough to satisfy Madison.  At the end of the term, they have to recreate their favorite painting. Madison loves that part of the term.

There are several things you could do for a quick and easy activity. You can make color wheels. 

Of course , you could blend colors using your color wheel.


Dover has a ton of coloring books for the great artists. They are phenomenally done.  We color a page from our artist using different mediums.  Watercolor, pastels, paint, markers.  etc.  We learn what these mediums do and how they react to different things you do.  All while  learning about the artist as well.

Family Tree Tiles at Picassoz Cup

I also like to sign up for local art classes at a nearby pottery studio.  This affords us the opportunity to learn about different mediums cheaply but in a fun way.  If you have friends join you , it's even better.

When Social Stories Go Wrong

For his 13th birthday, Logan finally received his own personal cell phone.  We really had to talk up how awesome this was as he was oblivious to why he would want one.  It helped that his little sister thought this was the coolest gift on the face of the planet. 

It would have been a perfect gift for Madison to tell the truth. Unfortunately for her, Logan was the one who needed it.  He was going off more on his own with our church youth group.  It made me feel better that if he needed me, he could call on his own. While it was not his favorite gift, we managed to make it cool thanks to help from several youth at church giving him his number.

It became apparent really fast that we had a problem though.  A serious problem that needed a plan of action asap.    When Logan used his phone, he used the scenario that he had learned in social skills group years ago.  He went through the steps like clockwork. The problem came when someone deviated from the scenario.  Logan looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He simply didn't know what to do with himself.  Since he didn't know what to do, he shut down. As in , said nothing.  Not a word.  He waited for the person to answer how he was taught in the social story.  It was horrid.

I should have seen this coming.  We had  encountered this before with introductions.  We practiced how to introduce yourself and what not.  This was all well and good until the other person decided to answer differently .  Logan was much younger then so he would have a meltdown because he didn't know what else to do.  I remember working on that for what seemed like forever.  Finally, after practicing it for what seemed like years with many silly answers, he became comfortable

This is one of those times when I say thank God for grandparents.  I enlisted both sets of grandparents to call or be called by Logan.  This worked well for us since they didn't know the social story.  Since they didn't know how Logan was expecting them to answer, they always answered differently. I must admit that I didn't tell them why at first other than Logan needed the practice.  They heard a lot of me in the background telling him how to answer.   Micheal and I randomly called him for no reason and with no purpose.  Eventually, he got better at it and was able to function relatively properly on the phone. A year later, he is a walking, talking, texting machine.  He has the phone down pat now. 

I wouldn't do social stories again for Logan.  Maybe to  introduce a new situation but definitely not in a rigid format as in I say this then you say that.  It's not worth in in my opinion.  We are teaching them to function in a fluid typical environment.  We are setting them up for failure when the response in not what they practiced.  Keep that in mind before you submit you and your child to that.  Believe me.  The end result is not pretty.

Weekly Wrap Up: Week 1 which means that high school has begun!

Well, I survived week 1 of high school.  I can't even believe that I wrote that! Yes, I have a high schooler.  You know what?  I really don't know what's scarier.  The fact that my precious baby boy is beginning high school or the fact that I am going to be the one teaching him high school subjects.  Yikes!

Once I talked myself off the ledge, which means that I drank more coffee than I care to admit, we began the week.  I made out the assignment sheet and off we went.  Wish me luck!

The week didn't go as well as planned. I am still struggling with getting all the together work done .  Jimmie over at Jimmie's Collage did give me some advice that I am going to implement in an effort to change that.  Both children are doing their independent work fairly well.  I write it out on a daily schedule for Madison but Logan gets the weekly work and makes his own schedule.  I am going to work with both of them  this term on really taking ownership of their education.

I'll post our curriculum choices for Term 1 next week.  I need to work out our schedules too.  We have a ton of extra curricular activities so we will need a workable schedule to get through this term for sure!  Oh and I have to get first day of school pictures as well.  Guess they'll be second week of school pictures!  Next week I promise not to be a slacker and have pics for my post next Friday!

Being Jesus

I recently got a part time job as a substitute crossing guard.  It's only a little more than 2 hours a day .  A hour and a half in the morning when everyone in the house is still asleep and 45 minutes in the afternoon.  The children take a break or do their chores while I'm gone.  It's decent money that we are putting toward our old debt in our goal to become debt free.

Now that you know why I was standing on the corner this past Tuesday, I must share a story. It was bitterly cold that day.  As in 30 something degrees with a terrible wind that made it about 15. I live in Florida for a reason.  To be warm all year round.  Tuesday was the day to stay inside and never leave the house.  Yet, here I was at 7 in the morning helping children cross the street. 

A group of brothers approached my corner.  As we waited for the light to change to red, I noticed that the oldest boy didn't have gloves on.  The light turned red so I entered the street to let them cross. We had this conversation which lasted about 3 seconds as he walked past me in the road.

Me: Where are your gloves? Your hands must be cold.
Him: I don't have any. I'll be alright.

At that point, I felt the Spirit lead me to give  him my gloves.  BUT, it was really cold.  It was the beginning of my shift.  I would be incredibly uncomfortable for at least an hour .  At that moment, I was not obedient to the Spirit.   I was not willing to make myself uncomfortable. By the time I was willing to do it more than 20 seconds or more had passed.  The boys had been horsing around and chasing each other down the sidewalk. They were clearly too far for me to go after without leaving my post. Not my best moment to say the least.

I thought of that boy all day.  I was going to give him my gloves that afternoon.  Him and his  brothers were nowhere to be seen though.  Not the next day either.  Come Thursday morning, I was seriously feeling guilty. The devil was having a field day with me at this point.  It was still cold as I stood out there .  I should mention that I was substituting all week at the same corner. Cold but not as cold as Tuesday.

A little girl approached on her bike.  What got my attention was that she kept almost wrecking her bike because she was trying to ride with her jacket sleeves over her hands.  You better believe that I took my gloves off immediately and gave them to her.  Her little face lit up when I gave them to her. She had them on her hands as soon as she crossed the street.  I felt better but still thought of the boy from Tuesday.

That afternoon, I crossed the same little girl to get home.  She had the gloves on her little hands.  As she passed me, I told her I would see her tomorrow.  She yelled back over her shoulder,  " See you in the morning Jesus."  It took my breath away.  I was Jesus to her that morning by giving my gloves.  I was humbled beyond measure.

As I sat in Bible study that evening listening to Beth Moore talk about the Holy Spirit, I had a revelation. Maybe the lesson Tuesday wasn't about giving my gloves up to that little boy.  Possibly the Spirit was preparing me for Thursday morning when I would need to give my gloves to that little girl.  It had bothered me so much that I hadn't seen that little boy  again.  But that was not the person that needed to be blessed.  It was the little girl who needed someone to bless her unconditionally. 

We are to always listen to the Spirit.  If God calls us to give something, we should give it regardless of our comfort level.  I should have given the gloves Tuesday morning when I felt the Spirit lead me to do it. Every now and then, we get a second chance to be Jesus to someone.  It's the best feeling in the world.

An addendum to my story above:  Friday morning was warmer so I wore a different jacket.  As I reached into the pockets, I felt something.  Another pair of gloves for me to wear that morning. I almost cried when I pulled them out.  And the little boy appeared again that morning.  When I asked him where he'd been since Tuesday, he remarked that his mom had been driving him since it was so cold.  Those gloves were meant for that little girl the whole time.