I'll Take Some Inner Peace, Master Shifu!

When I was a kid, I looked forward to summer so much! Nights of staying up late playing outside until the fireflies came out, then getting to read in my bed until I nodded off to sleep...lazy days of sleeping in, having breakfast for lunch before a day of climbing trees, reading, playing with the cats and dogs, and finding exciting new places to explore. Summer seemed too short!

HAHAHAHAHA fast forward a few years and now I'm a mom. And now summer is tooooo long!

Don't get me wrong, I ADORE my son. I love Samuel to pieces and would do anything for him. I enjoy pulling him close for hugs and kisses even when he smells like a sweaty boy. However, as discussed in my previous posts, he has high-functioning autism and this means summers are TOO LONG for all of us!

"Look Mommy, I'm Master Shifu!"

Autistic kids thrive (and survive) on routines. Samuel in particular, loves having his days mapped out for the next few weeks, including every activity he may be involved in. He can tell you what he's supposed to do in the days leading up to a fun activity and it would sound something like this; "Wake up, eat pudding, go to school. Come home, take a nap, wake up, watch a movie, play, read books, go to park, take a bath, brush teeth, read a Bible story, say prayers, go to sleep. Then wake up, eat pudding, go to birthday party! Yay!" And this is how our days go, every day. If something is coming up that is unusual, we prepare him for it days or weeks in advance. His teachers create visual calendars showing all the school days, holidays, etc. that they send home with him, knowing he wants to cross off days and look at everything planned out for him in advance.

SO now it's summer. The schedule is 'messed up', regardless of any summer schedule I try to implement. He also thrives on learning so I try to do homeschooling, but he gets through all of that so quickly it's crazy...then he's bored. And a bored boy equals trouble! Add a 2-yr old girl and a baby learning to crawl, and it's no wonder my home looks like an earthquake turned it upside down! And sleep....HAHA what is that??

Anyway, my son is watching Kung Fu Panda 2 and playing with all of his beloved KFP2 action figures from McDonalds. I have to laugh at the movie because of its theme about achieving inner peace. The theory is; if you can achieve inner peace, you can harness the power of the universe. Forget the universe, I'll let God take care of that. I just want to harness the power of having a peaceful home, a peaceful mommy with lots of patience, and oh yes, the inner peace of having a long, interrupted nap.

If Mommy's truly mastered inner peace, can you even IMAGINE what we would be able to get done??? If we weren't so sleep deprived, we'd be unstoppable.