End of Year 2013

2013 Has been a year from H-E-double hockey sticks. There were some good things that happened in the last 12 months, mostly it has been a year of endurance. The bad stuff has included natural disasters in our backyard. Wildfires followed by flash flooding in and near our city. Luckily our home has not suffered damage from either of these. Our city and surrounding areas have been effected by the natural disasters. In turn the local economy has taken a hit because of the disasters. Several restaurants and stores have closed their doors. My husband has tried several times to be self-employed and it has not resulted in a positive outcome. In July of this year he was terminated from his job. He has since applied and interviewed at numerous places around the city. Only to be told that he is either way over-qualified or under-qualified. He recently accepted a job with Aflac insurane. However, it is commission only and he has not received any commissions yet.

I continue to work two part time jobs and a majority of my time is with my son. He has showed tremendous gains in the last 12 months. He has been discharged out of physical therapy, graduated out of occupational therapy and also graduated out of applied behavior analysis therapy. The only therapy he receives now is speech. He will likely always have some areas that are a struggle for him. For now we continue to implement the strategies learned through the various therapies to help him deal with his sensory challenges. He has learned how to self-regulate to a point that most of his helps are not needed in the classroom (i.e. weighted blanket). At the same time he is very easily distracted. He is nearly six years old, most six year old boys are highly distracted. If he is on task for 5-10 minutes, we are doing very good. He is one of the top performers in his class. He enjoys sharing his ideas with anyone that will listen. Most of his ideas are quirky, especially for a nearly six year old. His favorite gift from Christmas was a Shark rechargeable cordless vacuum cleaner. Most mornings he can be found pushing the vacuum around the house and using his new electric pencil sharpener. He wants to help clean the house, he just doesn't know exactly how to do that. Most recently he sprayed a lot of oven cleaner in the oven, but didn't realize that we would have to wipe out the oven before we could cook with it again. He has written several little books about his ideas (mainly cars, time machines, vacuum cleaners).

2013 also brought with it a milestone in birthdays for me -- the big 4-0. Reaching that birthday has me feeling nostalgic. I find myself looking back on my life so far. I was a career student in my 20s. By the time I finally earned my bachelor's degree I had completed over 200 hours. My thirties were spent meeting Dean and starting our marriage. Now that I am in my forties I am considering continuing my education again. Even though I have a bachelor's degree in special education, I have had very little luck landing a job even as a paraprofessional with a special education program at a public school or private school. I have applied with both public school districts and the school for the deaf and blind. I have counted my applications, it is over 200. There comes a point when I need to look into another possibility of employment.

All this is leading me to look seriously at nursing. The easiest way to start would be to get a CNA and then most likely start working at a long term care facility. The program takes about six weeks to complete and then pass the test. Then the next step is getting hired.

I am concerned that if I am away from my son for hours at a time, that he will regress. That me working will have a negative effect on all the progress he has made. I also look at it from a financial standpoint and really don't see much other choice. I wish it were an easy thing to do.