Is it just keeping busy?

In the last few months, I have been working hard on the house. I refinished the deck. I wanted to completely redo it but I was limited by own strength and fatigue. I work for a few minutes and rest for hours. Taking that into account, I challenged myself to projects that were easy for me to complete as well as cheap. I wanted to spend little money with a focus on reusing items. Especially items that I had here at home.

The deck turned out wonderful. I rented a sander and a great time sanding the deck. A real Tim Allen moment. I wanted to grunt and drink a beer at the same time. I then purchased church pews for minimal money (the church was putting in new ones) and anchored them to the deck. I coated them with poly and drilled holes for drainage. But the best part was the table I made.

Using the kneelers and missilette holders, I made a table. A custom, unique patio set. I will brag, it looked very cool.

Now I am working on the bathroom. I fixed the leaky shower, replaced a faucet and am laying a floor. Of course, I am using easy peel and stick tile. And of course, it is taking forever to my children's' chagrin. They really want to use the bathroom.

But the bottom line is, I'm doing it. I am moving forward, feeling optimistic and getting stronger every day. With very little thoughts on cancer. Yippee!

I am also writing up our adventures on my website www.autismtravel.org. I love the therapeutic feeling of blogging.

Where Have You Been?

Where haven't I been is a better question? We returned from our trip in early July and for the past few months I have been focusing on unpacking, recuperating and in fact, planning for the next trip!

A surprise for me was the number of families who said that what we did - a long trip out west - was what they hoped to do. Their concerns were the same as our own with different twists along the way.

I came to the realization that the one good way to help people travel with their children is to demonstrate just how I did it. I hope to over the next several weeks write about the planning stage as well as the actual trip. How did we come to the decision to visit where we did? Why did we take a RV? How much did we spend? How did get the time away? How did you plan for children neurotypical and autistic? How did you accomodate for your own disabilities? and so on.

Then I will turn to the actual trip itself. Did the reality live up the expectation? Did the budget live up to the reality? How did we cope with problems? Was the trip what we hoped for?

My plan is to post something everyday so I invite you come back frequently. I will keep the posts short or like my mother says -- cup of coffee short.

The goal is to provide you the reader with some insight into what worked, what didn't and how you can do the same.

If you are interested, please visit http://www.autismtravel.org/apps/blog/