Hi, I'm Dee and I have Asperger's Syndrome

I've known for several years that my youngest son has Asperger's (aka, high functioning autism and/or autism spectrum disorder). It took longer to realize that I have it too. My son goes to see a psychiatrist once every 3 months. His doctor has all but confirmed that I'm an Aspie too. I would of course have to make a separate appointment for myself to get an official diagnosis. Just don't see the need in that.

When I look back on my childhood I can see so many times when I've displayed the classic symptoms of an Aspie. My mother tells me that when I was a toddler I would hold my breath to get my way. She was afraid to let me do that until my pediatrician told her just to let me. He told her that I would simply pass out and start breathing again. Apparently she took his advice, because I don't remember ever doing this.

Aspies tend to have chronic insomnia. I can testify that my son has struggled with this for years. I've been an insomniac for as long as I can remember. My mother says that she used to put me down for naps and I would lay perfectly still for at least an hour or two and NEVER go to sleep. My sister on the other hand would be out if my mom could just get her to be still for a few minutes.

I've never felt socially adept. This has always been a struggle for me. I used to have a terrible time making eye contact with others. I've had to train myself to do this. I've even learned to read most social cues.

I remember one time when I was in middle school, I'm think. I was at some sort of class party that was being held at our local community center. Everyone was playing some sort of tag game that involved the boys catching the girls to give them a kiss. I went and hid in a closet and cried. I refused to come out when my friends came to find me. Now, keep in mind that these were all kids that I went to school with every day and had since 1st grade! Not only that, but we are only talking about some 10-15 kids who showed up for this event at the most. 

At the time I couldn't explain why I was acting the way I was. However, now I know that I was placed into a situation where all the social rules had totally changed. I felt completely out of place and overwhelmed. I had no clue what the social rules were in this situation so I pulled into myself and hid away. There have been numerous other similar examples of this in my life over the years. 

For years, I've tried to understand and explain to my hubby why when he comes up behind me and wants to love/hug on me, I stiffen and resist. Poor thing took this personally for a long time. I tried to explain to him that it has nothing to do with him, but I really didn't understand why I was doing it myself. Now that I know that I'm an Aspie, it makes total sense. Aspies tend to dislike physical affection of any kind. We really can't explain why this is, it just is. I have learned to overcome much of this tendency as well. 

I also have many sensory issues which is yet another Aspie tendency. I will often find myself tapping something because I like the way it sounds, or rubbing a particular surface because it feels nice (I can't resist rubbing the silky side of the ribbon in my Bible during church). Lately I've found myself making raspberries with my tongue just because it "feels good". Thankfully, I only do this at home and I'm trying to break myself of this habit before it becomes annoying to the rest of my family.


I'm sure that I could come up with lots more examples, but this is enough to convince ME that I'm indeed part of the Aspie club. I think it is harder for adults to recognize or get diagnosed with Aspergers. Depending on where we were on the spectrum, many of us learn to adjust and deal with our symptoms. If we were not diagnosed as children, we really had no choice. No one, including us, had any clue that we had a disorder and so we were expected to behave just like everyone else. This is often true for those who HAVE been diagnosed. There is still a whole world out there that has no idea what Aspergers is.


This knowledge has freed me up to have higher expectations of my son. I've been there and survived so I know he can too. Sure I make some allowances for his disorder, but I also keep in mind that he's going to HAVE to learn to adjust. The world is NOT going to adjust to suit him.

The Olden Days!

The other night MyHero was telling our kids about how he kept himself entertained when he was a kid. He was trying to get across the point that he survived without video games, computers and DSI devices. He told them how he once made his own boardgame. RoboBoy (my Aspie) looked at his siblings and said, "Yeah, but that was in the OLDEN DAYS, when everything was in black & white!"

I started to protest that MyHero is not THAT old, when I realized the rest of what RoboBoy had said. We tried to explain to him that there has always been color in our world. He looked as us unbelieving and said, "Then what is up with all those old pictures??" I said, "Sweetie, they just didn't have color film back then."

This is a prime and funny example of how Aspergers kids tend to take everything literally. If the pictures showed black & white then the world must have been black & white. It makes perfect sense to their minds.

Attempting to Break the Mold!

I wish I could find a way to dip my entire house along with all it's contents in bleach!!! It seems like everything in my house is growing mold! Of course, I'm being overly dramatic and not EVERY thing is moldy, but there sure seems to be a lot!

I just cleaned a window sill in my kitchen today. It's the one that our garbage can sits under. Oh, my goodness!! I can't believe we lived with it like that for even a few days!! I guess it's because of where it's situated where it doesn't get much direct sunlight. Also I have a bookshelf right in front of that window which holds my bread maker and some other kitchen stuff. The height of the bread maker plus the shelf blocks the window sill and part of the window. It's just sooo hard to keep ahead of places like that where the condensation from the window sits.

We are also having to do some mold management in our bedroom. A few years ago we did a renovation in our room adding wood laminate floors, repainting and putting up nice wallpaper. I LOVE my country bedroom! Unfortunately, the mold loves the glue on the back of the wallpaper too. We are starting to see areas at the seams where mold is growing. So the wallpaper is going to have to go! We are also going to have to keep a dehumidifier going 24/7. It's such a joy living in Florida!

Not sure if it's a product of living with the mold but I ended up with a very painful ear infection. I spent a couple of sleepless nights due to the pain from it. When I went to the doctors she said there was green gunk inside my ear! She gave me antibiotic ear drops and a pain med so that I could get some sleep. I believe the infection is all cleared up now, thank you LORD!!! Now if we can just get a handle on all this mold maybe I can manage to stay well for a while!

Making Learning Meaningful

Ok, so I haven't blogged in what feels like forever! To tell the truth I got a bit burned out on writing for a bit there! I didn't even think that was possible for me! I needed to write 24 150-200 word articles within a week. My brain was sore at the end of that week but I did it! Now I've got the writing bug again!

I went to a Homeschool Conference this past weekend. One of the speakers, a dear friend of mine, encouraged us to find out what our children's strengths are. We should then use that knowledge in our homeschools to help inspire our children to soar in their strengths while improving in the areas they are weak.

So last night I pulled out the book I'd ordered months ago but hadn't gotten around to actually reading, "How to Discover and Develop Your Child's Strengths" by Jenifer Fox, M.Ed. I'm barely into the first chapter and I'm already being challenged and feeling inspired.

In chapter 1, Ms. Fox says, "True learning is all about making connections between what you learn and how it makes for a better life or a better world. Without these important connections, children are not engaged in learning. When children are not engaged in learning, they stop paying attention. This is where the downward spiral into weakness begins."

I had to stop and think about that for a little bit. Then I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to put the book down and go online to search for a math program that would help my children make those connections. My first thought was, "Ok, after I finish this chapter." But I felt like I needed to do it right away.

I set the book aside and googled "relevant math". That didn't give me very many relevant options. So I googled "meaningful math" instead. That brought me to this site: http://www.cornerstonecurriculum.com/. Now we're getting somewhere! The more I've read on this site the more I'm convinced that this is the program that I want to use with my kids. Dare I even go so far as to say, this is the curriculum God wants me to be using with my kids?

You see, my kids have been struggling with math for far too long now. I hate to admit it but my 7th grader still hasn't mastered his multiplication. It has been very frustrating for me as a mom who also struggles with math and math concepts.

MyHero says that we need to wait to purchase these books after we see how much it is going to cost to repair our only vehicle. It currently refuses drive over 10 mph and is consequently staying the night and possibly more at the dealership. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting these books. I may actually learn to enjoy teaching math!

My Newest Blog

I've been blogging all day! Whew! Got seven months worth of blogging done! That's half of what I need to do for this project. Ok, so it was 6 1/2 months worth. The first post will publish tomorrow and then every 5th and 20th of each month after that. Here is the link to check it out: http://fifthgradeconlineurriculum.com/

My Possible New Job!

I'm working on a major project! I've been given the opportunity to show what I've got with my writing! The company that produces the online curriculum that my kids use for school has offered me this chance. It involves me writing 24 articles, each 150-200 words within a week. They are to be posted within the blog they will assign me and be scheduled to be published every 2 weeks for a year.

If I do well and like the work, (that's a funny one! If I like the work!) then they will give me another blog and I'll start getting paid! Woohoo!!

This is especially exciting for me since I've always wanted to be a writer. Even when I was in High School it was my goal. I used to write stories in my notebooks all the time. I chose to study Journalism in college because I figured it would be a better "living" than writing in notebooks.

It was in my Junior year, I think, maybe it was my Senior year?...it's been WAY too long ago. Anyway, I realized I don't have the personality to be a journalist. It seemed too late at that point to change my major. So I graduated with a Bachelor's in Journalism. Then life happened, I found myself traveling and just working to make ends meet. I got married and had 3 kids and the dream of being a writer pretty much ended up on the back burner.

Now that my kids are getting a bit older and the Lord has led me to let go of some of the other things that have monopolized my time, I can pull that dream back to the forefront.

I've already got 6 of the 24 articles written and waiting in a special folder on my desktop. I'm just waiting for the details on how to log in to the blog they are assigning me. Once I have those details I'll also post the name of that blog on here so that my followers can follow that blog too.

I'm officially FREAKED!

That was really weird!! I just tried to log into my blog, I was going to write about the fun time I had with RoboBoy at an Origami Workshop at our local library last night. However, when I tried to open my blog, I got a strange error message that said, "We're sorry but we are unable to locate that blog" WHAT???

I reported the error like a good little blogger should. Then I did a little research. That didn't help much. On a gut instinct I decided to check and see if I could log into my google account. Hmmm, the plot thickens! I got a message there telling me that my e-mail account had been terminated due to "suspicious activity" on it. I had to give them my phone # and then type in the code they called me with to verify my account. Once I was able to get back into it, I looked and didn't see any "suspicious" e-mails.

My friend Mrs. B suggested that it could be because of the pictures I included in yesterday's blog post which came from Wikipedia. If you'll notice I have now removed them. I wonder if it has anything to do with what I was saying about North Korea. Either way, it's pretty freaky!