How a Non-Talking Paleo Girl Speaks Clearly

Craig called me to the kitchen, saying, “Lauren just told me something as clear as day.  Come here.”

I thought, ‘What?  Did she set her shoes by the door to the garage, start the Keurig, hand you your keys and pop into the bathroom?’  That’s how she clearly states she would like a car ride.  (Keurig on because Dad always brews himself a quick cup for the drive to keep himself awake.)

When I entered the kitchen, Craig waved his hand like Vanna, drawing my attention to…

Empty shelf where pans are kept:

 

 

 

 

 

:3 pans on stovetop.

 

2 packages of bacon (that were in the freezer last we knew) & a pair of scissors from the drawer:

 

 

 

“Could she say it any clearer?”

“LOTS OF BACON…”  (he says pointing to bacon packages)…

“COOK IT QUICKLY” he says pointing to the 3 pans.

And that, my friends, is how a non-verbal girl gets her paleo on.  (Yes, we ate bacon for dinner that night.)

The next bacon purchase is going into the big freezer that’s behind a locked door.

(Lauren’s communication device is broken, and we’re working on getting it fixed.  It has a “talking” picture of bacon that she typically would press if she desired to have a conversation about bacon.  Yes, “a conversation about” bacon.  It’s not a “press to request” system, or the girl would press that button 3 times a day.) 

Love, Vision, Patience and a Whole Lot of Work: DIY Home Renovation and Autism

The purpose of my last blog post was to convey the positive changes in Lauren and in our house as a result of our renovation.  It didn’t occur to me that it gave a skewed perspective of the last year of our lives.  I thought the adjective “DIY” was enough for any reader to understand that this was not a simple undertaking, and that we’re not working with an abundance of wealth here.  (If we were, we would have hired a contractor for just about everything, as Lauren can keep us busy 24/7 without anything extra on the agenda.)

We’re Back! Post-renovation Update

Nine months have passed since my last blog post.  I intended no more than six months, but…that’s life with autism.  Our DIY (with the help of friends) home renovation began (as a kitchen renovation) with the removal of an upper kitchen cabinet on Memorial Day weekend 2012.  We officially declared the renovation “complete” on Memorial Day weekend 2013. The label “complete” was for the purpose of sanity.  There is quarter-round molding to be installed, a few paint touch-ups to be made, placement of electrical switches to be perfected.  (Craig’s ability to do this himself, and Lauren’s '”interest in” light switches, results in more migrating of switches in our home than in the average home.)  Our house is exactly 40 years old this year, so there are always problems to be addressed.  So like it was before the renovation, and ever shall be, there will never be a lack of home improvement projects to choose from each weekend.

The facts that deem the renovation “complete” are:
Our home is 100% livable.  We can cook any meal without lack of any appliance.  We can have guests over (even overnight) and there is space for everyone to be comfortable.  And I am happy with the home I have to present to the world.  I no longer think, “We can have so-and-so over after such-and-such is done.”
  
So now that you know “complete” is relative, onto the important question.

Did the renovation accomplish all that we hoped it would for Lauren’s world and our relationship with her?

So . . . What Do We Eat?

My last post told what the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and Paleolithic Diet (Paleo) each entail.  It also clarified that we have been cooking (and Lauren has been eating 100%) according to the SCD since 2005; but we have all been following Paleo for quite a few months, with some very nice results.  The natural next question is:  “But what do y’all really eat?!” 
I love most of the Paleo Pros out there who are happy to share info. It Starts with Food authors and founders of The Whole9, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, have a 60 second explanation to “What do you eat?!” which they are happy to share with other bloggers.  Here is that quickie explanation:

I eat real food – fresh, natural food like meat, vegetables and fruit.  I choose foods that are nutrient-dense, with lots of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals, over foods that have more calories but less nutrition.  And food quality is important – I’m careful about where my meat, seafood and eggs come from, and buy organic local produce as often as possible.
This is not a “diet” – I eat as much as I need to maintain strength, energy, activity levels and a healthy body weight.  I aim for well-balanced nutrition, so I eat both animals and a significant amount of plants.  I’m not lacking carbohydrates – I just get them from vegetables and fruits instead of bread, cereal or pasta.  And my meals are probably higher in fat than you’d imagine, but fat is a healthy source of energy when it comes from high-quality foods like avocado, coconut and grass-fed beef.
Eating like this is ideal for maintaining a healthy metabolism and reducing inflammation within the body.  It’s good for body composition, energy levels, sleep quality, mental attitude and quality of life.  It helps eliminate sugar cravings and reestablishes a healthy relationship with food.  It also works to minimize your risk for a whole host of lifestyle diseases and conditions, like diabetes, heart attack, stroke and autoimmune.

For the rest of the post from which I borrowed this quickie explanation, check out: Nutrition in 60 Seconds
But what does our little family eat?  How do we mix it up and not get bored?

Weird Things We Did This Week—July 21, 2012

Cut a hole in a wall.   Okay, so I could try to sell the cutting a hole in our wall as a renovation design choice.  But let’s face it.  I would never have considered the hole in the wall as part of our remodel design had I not been problem-solving around autism. 

The Real Story of the Last 10 years: Part IV: Awesome Kids and a Stronger Marriage

Here is another, and the LAST, of some other valid perspectives on “the rest of the story” or “our family’s last 10 years with Lauren.”

We raised some awesome kids and grew a stronger marriage.

This is the last, and one of my favorite, perspectives of the last ten years.  I’ll start with the awesome kids.  Lauren is our awesome kid that my book and this blog has told much about  and will tell more about; so this post is really to mark some appreciation for our other awesome kid—the unsung typical sibling, Bryn.  Bryn happens to be a lover of virtually all things that life has to offer, a fine musician, a talented artist, a creative crafter, a respectful daughter, and a good friend.  But the pictures I’ll post here are representative of the thing that she is that has brought the most unexpected, happy tears to my eyes over the years—she’s a sincerely loving sister.

The Real Story of the last 10 years: Part III: Dear Friends and Loving Gestures

Here is another of many valid perspectives on “the rest of the story” or “our family’s last 10 years with Lauren.”

We were surrounded by dear friends and loving gestures.   That’s also a great description of what our life with autism looked like over the past ten years. 

There’s no way I could remember the many blessings in the order they occurred.  I don’t have files with dated invoices and names on top for each occurrence like I do to help me recount the medical history.  (Wow, that makes me reflect on what I obsessively save in a highly organized fashion!)  But even without such memory aids, these events are what I can retrieve easily in my brain, whereas, for the life of me, I can’t remember the name or office location of the last neurologist Lauren saw.

So here’s more of the REAL rest of the story with a perspective of gratitude, with a promise that the first mentioned isn’t necessarily “first,” and the last mentioned isn’t necessarily “last.”  Every memory and person included should be considered FIRST in that it/he/she are important to who Craig, Bryn, Lauren and I are today, and was worthy of mention in this blog post. 

The Real Story of the last 10 years: Part II: We Homeschooled

 We homeschooled. That’s actually what happened over the past ten years. We homeschooled.

Here is another of many valid perspectives on “the rest of the story” or “our family’s last 10 years with Lauren.”

We homeschooled.   And we celebrated life.   That’s also what we’ve been doing for the past ten years. 

The Real Story of the last 10 years: Part I: I Prayed for a Dog

I prayed for a dog. That’s actually what happened over the past ten years. I prayed for a dog.

My last blog post told about our family’s last ten years, with Lauren’s health and healing at the center. It was a story that needed to be told, but it was a very limited perspective of the experiences of Lauren and our family over the past ten years.

Today I looked at our old dog, Trooper, and realized that he provided another quite valid perspective to the story. Because I began praying for that dog about the same time my prayers for Lauren became quite frantic. And then I thought about the many good and sweet things that have happened over the past ten years and what a shame that “Lauren’s story” couldn’t include those aspects. But it can. And it shall. Yes, it needs to be a whole new blog post, or maybe multiple posts, so our readers don’t unplug and throw their computers in fear of a long-term commitment each time a new post comes in from our site. So here’s another of many valid perspectives on “the rest of the story” of our family’s last 10 years with Lauren.

I prayed for a dog. And we hiked. The two actually go together.

Photos of Lauren at 20

So that our readers have a visual of whom they’re reading about (and maybe for whom they’re praying?. . . I can only hope), I looked through all the snapshots I took of Lauren over the past year. I’d hoped to post a good one that would represent her at 20 years old (or close enough). Well, I have not a single flattering picture of an anxiety-free Lauren making eye contact!

But today it was almost 70 degrees! (Gotta love mid-winter in Georgia.) So Craig, Lauren and I took a walk in our neighborhood. I brought the camera with plans to snap away the whole walk, knowing success is statistically proportionate to number of attempts. And that Lauren has been in a fabulous mood all day. (Okay, this may be an even better indicator of success in Lauren’s case!) So here we are. I didn’t get just one keeper, I got quite a few. Here are the many (happy) faces of Lauren at 20.