Hello, my name is Andrea and I am a messy person. 

I was a messy child.  I was a messy teenager.  And I am a messy adult.   I’m married to a messy man.  And we have two beautiful messy boys.  I even have a messy cat!

I’ve been working for a long time now to overcome my messy tendencies… but they continue to creep back in.  So, after much prayer I have decided that part of my problem (the emotional side of it) is that I fear transparency.  I’m afraid of PEOPLE and so I hide behind my messes (and behind my blog ).  I decide I can’t invite anyone over (then they might really get to know me! ) because the house is a mess.  I’m afraid to make friends with people because I have this “secret” that I don’t want them to find out about. 

So, the Lord has allowed me to see that the root of my problem is that I fear the judgment of others (and therefore I fear transparency).  The Lord wants us to be transparent so that others can see that Christians aren’t perfect and that they don’t have to be perfect to follow Him.  So, I am going to do a little blog project to deal with this fear. 

In this project, I’m going to take photos of my messes… no matter how awful… and I’m going to post them on my blog as “Before” pictures.  Then… over the course of a day to a week, I’m going to conquer that mess.  When I’m finished, I’ll post pictures of the final result.  I’ll continue to do this until all the messes are conquered (and I may even continue long after that, if I feel it’s keeping me accountable).

So… I guess I’ll get started in the room that scares me the most …

Overcoming the Mess Photo Project #1:  The Kitchen

  

Pretty disgusting…
Well… I’m off to pick up my boys from grandmama’s and then I’m coming home to conquer this MESS!!

From my (messy) home to yours,

Andrea
 

I don’t watch the Simpsons (never have really, besides the occasional glance at an episode before changing the channels).  Based on what I know about the Simpsons from pop culture, I would say I am most like Lisa, but I probably wouldn’t want to be her.  Frankly, I wouldn’t want to have Bart for a brother. 

Why couldn’t you ask which Grey’s character I would want to be instead? 

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Nearly every day this week, Xander has requested to sit on the potty at least once and most of the time has actually gone pee-pee!  We do the “pee-pee in the potty” dance, and of course and he gets a treat!  The most exciting part of this, for me, is that it’s entirely VOLUNTARY! 

I haven’t pushed the potty training issue with him because of his autism and also because Sebastian wasn’t fully potty trained until his 4th birthday.  So, I bought a potty and I set it where he could see it often, but I haven’t pushed.   The first time he used it I went and bought lots of big boy underpants for him (to prepare for accidents) and I put them on him anytime he requests to use the potty.

I’m amazed to say that today he has been running around in big boy underpants or nakey ALL DAY and has spontaneously gone pee-pee on the potty ALL BY HIMSELF twice!!  The last time, he brought me the part of the potty that holds the pee-pee and said, “Mama, LOOK pee-pee!”

I am so proud of my Xander-bander buggaboo!

From my home to yours,

Andrea

Wow… so many to choose from.  I can only choose one?  Let’s see…

My favorite childhood memory is visiting my Aunt Teener’s little farm in the summer.  She had pigs and goats, chickens and guineas, a big garden and an incubator for hatching chicks.   Her house in my memory was a place of treasures and adventures.  The farmhouse had high ceilings, a wrap-around porch with a porch swing, and wood floors.  There was even a tire swing hanging from an old tree… it had everything I  love in a house. 

When my family finally moved to her neck-of-the-woods, I was 12 and things had changed… or perhaps my memory had deceived me.  The house didn’t look as pretty, the smell of the animals wasn’t as pleasant, and the treasures looked more like junk.  But, in my memory, Aunt Teener’s was a place of dreams that I’ll hold in my heart forever!
 

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

And boy is it yummy!!  It’s the seedless variety, so not quite as good as it could be… but worth it to not have to worry about the boys choking on seeds!

I bought it Sunday and waited until today to cut into it… it’s nice and cold!  Sebastian was begging for it, so I had to give in!

It’s so good… I love watermelon!  Hopefully one day I’ll live in a house with a porch and I can send the boys outside to have a seed spitting contest!  *Sigh*  It’s good to have dreams!

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

From my home to yours,
Andrea

The best way to understand why so many young people support Ron Paul for President is to listen to him speak about the way our nation should be… the way our Founding Fathers intended it to be.  When in doubt, read the Constitution!

My son, Xander, is three years old.  He loves wheels and ceiling fans.  He also loves cars and airplanes.  He likes to jump and play.  He enjoys water and loves taking baths.  He knows the alphabet and can identify all the letters and the sounds they make.  He counts to 20 and can identify numbers.  He is learning to talk, though he still struggles to communicate his ideas.  Often he babbles incoherently, though it is obvious to us that he is attempting to communicate and that he knows what he is saying, even if we do not.  He runs and enjoys racing his brother, though he doesn’t understand the concept of “winning.”   He recently began asserting himself with words like, “No!,” “Stop!,” and “Mine!”

Xander has autism.

So what?

Xander is the happiest child I know.  He isn’t suffering.  He isn’t afflicted.  There is no “normal” child locked inside of him.  He is normal.  Normal for him.  He didn’t contract autism.  He didn’t “get” autism from a vaccine.  Autism isn’t something he has, so much as it is the way he is.  And he has always been this way.  He is the way Our Father in Heaven created him to be.  No one can convince me otherwise. 

Yes, he has challenges.  Yes, he has developmental delays compared to neurotypical children.  Yes, he needs help to overcome these challenges so he can function in a neurotypical world.  But, he’s a perfectly happy, healthy little boy.  He doesn’t have a disease.  He doesn’t need to be “cured.”  He’s just different.  Different is good.

So when I hear people say that there is an autism “epidemic” or that autism needs to be “cured” I cringe.  Xander’s autism is part of who he is.  I can help him cope with it, and I can help him succeed in a world that isn’t accepting of people who are different.  But to take the autism away would mean taking away part of who Xander is.  How he thinks.  How he feels.  How he interacts with the world around him.  To wish away his autism would be to wish for a different child.  I don’t want a different child.  I want this child.  This beautiful, perfect, little child that God has chosen to give especially to us.  God has trusted us to raise him and love him and accept him just as he is. 

And I do.

No school today…

I woke up sick this morning.  This is the second time in just a couple of weeks.  Thankfully, this episode was not nearly as severe as the last.  However, I was absolutely not up to the challenge of teaching today, so we took a day off.  That’s the great thing about using a year-round flexible schedule.  I schedule 3 weeks on/1 week off and then if a day like today comes up, I just take it out of our “week off.”  That means I can take up to 5 days off every 4 weeks and never get behind!  Gotta love that!

Awesome video from YouTuber ladyjade3 illustrating the illegality of our nation’s current monetary policy!