Something to Think About

Always
Unique
Totally
Interesting
Sometimes
Mysterious


Acceptance, Tolerance,
Compassion, Patience.



~Keep on Dreaming~

Enjoy!

It's time for Sunday Savor.
I have two really yummy
recipes for you today.
So pull up a chair and
relax!

Sugar Free Banana Bread
From:  Cooks.com
3 or 4 mashed bananas
1 T sweetener (10 pkts.)
Sweet and Low
A pinch of cinnamon
(optional)
2 eggs
1 3/4 C flour
3 tsp salt
1/4 C chopped nuts

Sprinkle sweetener over the mashed
bananas and stir until dissolved.
Beat eggs and blend into the bananas.
Stir in the dry ingredients.
Add nuts and blend thoroughly.

Bake in a greased 9x5x3 inch loaf
pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes
then lower to 300 degrees and
continue cooking for 35 more
minutes.
Serves 10

Quick Homemade Biscuits
From: A Black Girl's Guide
to Weight Loss

1 C flour
1 1/2 tsp baking
powder
2 T butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C + 2 T of milk
(Maybe more for
consistency)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix all the dry ingredients
together.
Mix butter into the dry
ingredients-it will be crumbly.
Pour in the milk, stirring all
together. Don't stir the
batter TOO much, just reduce
the lumps.
Drop by spoonful on a greased
baking sheet.
Bake for approx. 15 mins.


This recipe made 6 biscuits,
so next time I will double
this recipe.
These are more of a crumbly
biscuit than a more traditional
one.


~Keep on Dreaming~


P.S. For those who wanted
to hear about Mary Poppins,
please see the previous
post. Thanks!!!

Magical

It was THAT FUN!!!

As you can see by all of these
wonderfully colored pictures
(from my program) that we
had a grand time.
This production is  A Disney/
Cameron Mackintosh/ NETworks
Presentation.
Most of the scenes and songs
were familiar ones from the
Disney movie, there were also
additional scenes and songs for
this production. 
Speaking of scenes--they were
magnificant!! Bright and colorful
and so very creative! My favorite
was their house. It was two sided-
front room, and a staircase then
it could be turned around for the
kitchen scenes. Oh what fun that
was! The children's bedroom slid
onto the stage seperately.
My favorite song was:
SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS!
If you look closely at pictures 7-9
at the bottom, you will see the
actors spelling this word out and
they added this to the original song.
It was so fun to see the kids come
in with their families. The young girls
were dressed up and so pretty and the
boys were all cleaned up and nicely
dressed for the occaision. Quite
refreshing.
I would recommend this to EVERYONE 
if it comes to your city GET TICKETS!

~Keep on Dreaming~

So Many Pieces

Here we are back on track again.

How do you communicate?
When you were small how
did you convey your wants
and needs?

Did you use--
Gestures/pointing
Facial Expressions/
eye to eye contact
How about verbalization-
Did you ask for things?


Imagine a world where you
have no clue how to communicate 
with others or how to express your
wants and needs.

Now imagine how frustrating
that can be. This is the world
of a child or individual
with Autism.

These are not skills that
children / individuals with
Autism have. They struggle
with these throughout their
lifetime.

Patience, patience, patience
is the mantra here.

As we see in all the
Autism logos--It is a puzzle.

For more information on
Autism
Google Autism or
www.autismspeaks.org 

~Keep on Dreaming~

A Little Bit of Levity

Happiness is....

images: Google



Take time to share some happiness
with family and friends. Our nation
has been under a lot of strain this
week and we all deserve to enjoy
some HAPPINESS this weekend
even as we keep all in our
prayers.


~Keep on Dreaming~

A Time for Quiet

Please keep Boston and
their residents plus those
that are in the hospitals, 
the first responders, and
those that have lost a
loved one in this terrible
disaster in your thoughts
and prayers.

A lot of healing will be
taking place in the next
several days and months.

~Keep on Dreaming~


P. S. Regular blog posts
will return in a couple of
days. I promise to tell you
about Mary Poppins soon.

A Magical Production

I'm Soooooooooooooooo excited!

Tomorrow we will be going to see
the Broadway production of
Mary Poppins.

I can hardly wait!

~Keep on Dreaming~

It's a Puzzle

April is Autism Awareness Month.
Last Tuesday's post was about what
Autism is.

Gayle at Garden of Daisies asked
why boys are more affected than
girls. I checked into this and found
many theories on this topic but the
one I agree with and found mentioned
many times was that the *gene or genes
for autism are located on the X chromo-
zome. Girls inherit X chromosomes from
both parents, but boys only only inherit
one from their mothers. For girls--it is
thought that the X from the Father is
"protected" thus making girls less
likely to develop the condition than
boys.* There is more to this but I'm
going to stop with this it could get long
and drawn out and I am not a scientist. 
(If you would like to know more-check
your friend Google)
*Info from the internet

Last Tuesday I mentioned  three areas
that are affected by Autism.

Today we will touch on:
Verbal and Nonverbal
Communication
Communication issues vary from
individual to individual. Some may
have a delay in expressive language
and some may never develop
meaningful speech.
Their language can seem rote
or scripted, repetitive, or lacking
meaning--talking about something
that does not relate to "right now."
Most do not use gestures or give
any indication of their wants and
needs. This is where our "Sherlock
Holmes" skills come into play. We
learn to "read our kids.
Most do not have the ability
to carry on a verbal conservation.

In my class I have three boys
with Autism, two who are
nonverbal, they are able to
follow directions with lots
of verbal prompting and
gestures that we do. My boys
do not do a lot of gestures on
their own but we are making
baby steps in that area.
We have communication devices
for the kids to use and they are
their voices. These are very
helpful during "meltdowns" due
to frustration becasue they can't
say what they want or what the
problem might be.

Our third student has limited
language. He does gesture and
most of the time we can satisify
his wants and needs. Some of
what he says is "his own
language", and we have to
pick up his meaning for things.
example: Cheerios are Yoyos.

I would say that having a lack of
speech or limited speech is one of
the most frustrating things these
individauls deal with. My students
would agree with this.

Next time we will touch on
Social Interaction.

~Keep on Dreaming~

Yummy for the Tummy

Welcome to our Easter table.
Today for Sunday Savor I
am going to share a recipe
that everyone enjoyed. It
was a new recipe too!
So pull up a chair and
relax.

Red Asian Slaw

12 #  Red Cabbage
2   Medium Onions
3 C  Sugar or Splenda
2 C  Soy Sauce
3 C  Apple Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 C  Brown Sesame Oil
3 T Siracha
2 tsp celery seed
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper

Chop cabbage and onions medium fine.
(I chopped mine a little bigger.)
Mix the last eight ingredients together
and add the cabbage, onion mixture to it.
Let sit, gets better with time. I made
mine early in the am and served it
in the afternoon. YUM!

**This is a recipe from one of our fave
BBQ restaurants. I asked if I could have
the recipe and they gave it to me!!!
I believe this will make a lot so I cut the
recipe in half and had just the right amount
for six people.
My bottle of Sesame Oil was not very big,
I had just enough though. You might try
to find a bigger bottle if one is made.

If you make this let me know what you
think.

~Keep on Dreaming~

Thrify Thursday

I was browsing through one
of my favorite thrift stores
the other day and while strolling
through the book section I saw
these three treasures.
Now, let me assure you that I DO
NOT need another cookbook BUT
I WAS NOT leaving these.
Especially the two in the top picture.
Gooseberry Patch cookbooks and
calendars are fun to look at and
the "helpful hints" are fun to read.
The price was right too. The Goose
berry Patch books were $2.99 each.
Brand new they run around $16.95. 

The titles of these books are:
The Cozy Home Cookbook-Tasty
recipes and year round decorating
ideas for your cozy home.
Holidays at Home-Favorite family
recipes, decorating ideas and
magical memories for a homespun
harvest and cozy Christmas.

This 592 page with 1,200 collected
recipes cookbook was $ 3.99!
This cookbook picks up where "The
Martha Stewart Cookbook left off.
The 1,200 recipes are from the first
decade of her magazine. There are 19
chapters that cover the basics, breads,
soups, veggies, meat (s), vegetarian
main courses, and so on.
I'm not sure how many recipes will be
used from this book but it just looks
like a cook book that should be in a
kitchen and it's fun to look through.

See I told you they had to come home
with me! Who could pass up these
prices too?
Fun stuff I tell ya!

~Keep on Dreaming~

It's a Puzzle

April is Autism Awareness Month
and several of my posts this month
will be about this puzzling disorder.
(Hence the puzzle logo)

This subject is near and dear
to my heart because so many
of "my kids" (aka: my students)
have to deal with this on a daily
basis as do their families.
When I started in the field of
Special Ed many years ago,
Autism was fairly unknown
today it is a very prevalent
disorder.

What  is Autism?

It is described as a complex
disorder of early brain
development.
The most obvious signs and
symptoms of Autism are seen
around the ages of two and
three with varying degrees of
the disorder.

Areas affected are:

Social Interaction
Verbal and nonverbal
communication
Repetitive Behaviors


According to statistics:

1 in 88 American children
are diagnosed with Autism.
This is a ten fold increase
in prevalance in 40 years.

Studies also show that boys
are 4 to 5 times more affected
than girls. An estimated 1 in
54 boys and 1 in 252 girls
are diagnosed with Autism.

The increase of those diagnosed
is due to improved treatment
and awareness.


My goal for these post is to give
you a peek into a window that you
may or may not have looked in.

~Keep on Dreaming~