Sequins in the Socks

When Josh was young, he liked to collect rubber bands. We'd go for walks and he would pick up rubber bands that were left behind along the sidewalks. Josh liked to wear as many rubber bands as he could find to put on both wrists. If it left grooves in his skin, he didn't mind. In fact, I finally figured out that what Josh really liked was the deep pressure it gave him on his wrists. He didn't have good awareness of his body, so the input from the rubber bands felt good to him. I was concerned about circulation and that it looked odd for Josh to be wearing so many rubber bands, so I bought some terrycloth wrist bands from a sporting goods store and had Josh wear those instead. The rubber bands were meeting a need for him, so I didn't want to just take them away without an alternative replacement item. But then Josh started collecting sequins that were used for art projects. Because his pockets were usually full of paper clips and other found treasures, Josh decided the best place to store sequins was inside his socks. I think it would drive me crazy to have just about anything besides my foot inside my sock, but it didn't bother Josh at all. Plus, he wasn't doing his own laundry yet so getting them out of the socks was not an issue for him. I gave Josh Zip-loc bags to store his sequins in, because in this case it was an issue of storage and not a sensory need. He was just doing a little sorting and problem solving to keep the sequins in a separate place from his other collections, and if you think about it...socks are pretty handy and convenient for storing small items. Unlike storage containers, in cold weather you almost always have socks on, and once an item or items are in the sock it's ready to go wherever you do.
Most of us wouldn't think to use our socks that way, but for a little guy like Josh with a different way of thinking it makes perfect sense.

Without power for a few days

A windstorm swept through our state, leaving us and many others without power. I quickly realized I am a wimp and would have made a lousy pilgrim or pioneer. It seemed that everything I could think of to do relied on electricity. I am so grateful for my friend, Kathy, who let me bring my entire family to sleep and shower at her house. Plus, she let me bring my freezer things and keep them in her freezer so I wouldn't have to throw everything out. I had to toss everything that was in my refrigerator, but at least most of my freezer contents were spared. It was also nice to be able to heat up some of the meals I had made and frozen, so they wouldn't have to be tossed. I was feeling ahead of the game by making doubles of some of our favorite recipes so I could just reheat them when I got home from work. I had about 6 meals made in advance, and I would have been very sad to have to throw them out. Kathy saved the day for me, and it was nice to be able to do school with Beckie in a home with electricity.