Autism Family Life Archives

How to Make a Foam Paintbrush Reindeer

We are approaching my favorite time of the year- Christmas! Though, I’ve been in the Christmas mood for quite some time already. Now it’s really time to dive in and make stuff. And decorate. And bake cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. But it’s also one of my favorite times to tap into my wannabe crafter side. Squeaker probably enjoys crafting and creating more than I do at this point. And that’s not a bad thing at all. If anything, her enthusiasm gets me motivated as well. One of our most recent crafts was a foam paintbrush reindeer. Pretty cute, huh? Supplies Needed for the Foam Paintbrush Reindeer Supplies Needed for the Foam Paintbrush Reindeer Your supply list is minimal for this and hopefully easy…

Mom Life

9 Tips to Help Moms Deal with Anxiety

ByKori

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While I was never formally diagnosed with an anxiety issue, it is something that affects me. I have had panic attacks in the past and I do experience feelings of anxiety. My mental health issues stem from clinical depression and an undiagnosed body dysmorphic disorder. I have been on medication in the past but I wanted to try and beat it without medication. So far so good. But how do I deal with the every day anxiety? For that matter, are there any best ways for moms to deal with anxiety? While I may have talked about anxiety in children and anxiety in autistic children in the past; today I want to focus on moms. Now, what gives me anxiety may not give you anxiety….

Kids Activities and Crafts

How to Make a Chalk Handprint Turkey for Thanksgiving

ByKori

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As Squeaker’s tolerance for craft and art time increases, I look for more ways to incorporate that into our day. We’re pretty relaxed when it comes to doing crafts and activities though on occasion, I don’t mind doing themed/holiday crafts. And while I’m more than ready to dive into Christmas, I also realize that we needed to do some stuff for Thanksgiving. This is our first year really celebrating Halloween with Squeaker and this year will be the first year that I really involve her with Christmas. So what do we do for Thanksgiving? Well, aside from having her help with a few cooking tasks, we can do decorations. We started with a simple chalk handprint turkey craft to go along with our K-Cup turkey….

Kids Activities and Crafts

How to Make a K-Cup Turkey for Thanksgiving

ByKori

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I’m not the craftiest person out there but I do like to occasionally tap into my creative side. One of my favorite ways to do that is by using K-Cups to make things. Sometimes they turn out to my expectations. And sometimes not so much. My latest attempt was to make a K-Cup turkey for Thanksgiving. Of course this could also be done by an older child but I don’t quite trust my toddler to use the glue gun yet. Depending on their age, this craft can be done completely by a child or it can be done with adult assistance. It really depends on your judgement and their craft ability level. How to Make a K-Cup Turkey for Thanksgiving To start you’ll need: an…

Family Friendly Recipes

Easy and Delicious Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

ByKori

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I absolutely love chocolate chip banana bread and this recipe is so easy! It started with a search for banana bread recipes that didn’t use flour as I was trying to make a gluten free option for a church friend. I did find a few recipes that I’ll try out in the near future. But this particular recipe is not gluten free. This recipe yields a regular sized loaf of banana bread but since I was making mine to take to church, I ended up using two loaf pans. Actually I can’t really call them loaf pans but they sure are handy to have! I love easy baking recipes. Like my French toast biscuit bake. A lot of the prep-work on those can be done…

Parenting an Autistic Child

The Year That I Made Santa Claus Cry

ByKori

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Holidays with a non-verbal autistic child have never been easy. In fact, some holidays have fallen by the wayside completely- I’m looking at you Easter and Halloween. That’s not for a lack of trying because we did try. And maybe some holidays were salvaged or at least scaled down. Easter just couldn’t work for us and Halloween required a little bit of savvy on my part. Thanksgiving… well, we’re mostly okay. It’s a food related holiday, after all, and as long as we had food that was okay for Sweet B; we were fine. I just never expected for her to eat what everyone else was eating. Knowing what I know, it just wasn’t realistic. So that brings me to Christmas. My favorite holiday and…