What's Up?

Lately I've been asking the question What's Up? As in What's up with life being so difficult? Last night I was up late wondering what in the world I'm doing and pouring my heart out to the Lord asking for some guidance. The last few months have been pretty chaotic and I'm wearing thin. Thankfully Tuesday I got a great break and was able to process what is going on a little better.

We recently found out that our daughter Jordan has some issues with her sensory processing skills. We have know for the last couple of years that something was going on. She is a beyond precious and adorable child, but everything has been difficult with her from birth. She can't always handle normal everyday activities and certainly doesn't do well with things that are out of her norm. I thought for ever I was just doing something wrong...

I finally broke down and went to the doctor and eventually got an Occupational Therapist to evaluate her. The results were that Jordan exhibits moderate to severe deficits in the area of sensory-processing skill with statistically significant scores below age level. These areas include: tactile sensitivity, sensation seeking,  auditory filtering, and visual/auditory sensitivity. In mom terms, that means everything is a big deal and it doesn't take much at all to send her into "wild woman" mode and getting out of that mode proves near impossible. The "aftershocks" I call them can last for a few days. It was a little hard to hear and for a couple of days I was pretty sad. Not that it was a shock to me, but just hearing that your child is struggling is a hard thing to deal with. I'm sure some of you can relate.

Thankfully, I was able to receive some helpful information. The hard part is putting it all into practice. There are still things that occur everyday that leave Josh and me exhausted physically and emotionally. Which causes problems in other areas.  

Jordan has a very difficult time with transitions during the day and I think thrives on structure. For the most part, I'm pretty easy going and don't have to be on a time schedule. I have sat down and wrote out a time schedule for our day countless times and for some reason couldn't stick to it at all because everyday seemed different and there were always disturbances I couldn't account for. A couple of examples: Resistance- a 20 min fight to get in the car to go someplace or refusing to put on socks or wouldn't allow me to give her a bath or brush her hair. Brushing teeth. Going to bed. Then there are the Messes. She would sneak off an paint her whole body in lotion or paint. Pour juice on the floor and rub her hair in it, the list could go on. I feel like I can't relax for 2 seconds without something happening.

Finally last night I realized I needed a time schedule for each day of the week. Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays all look alike around our house, but Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday are all very different from each other. I don't know why this never dawned on me before. I'm praying my new scheduling tactic works and I'm able to incorporate all the needs of my family.


I'm constantly working to find new ways to simplify life. Between homeschool and Jordan's issues, I'm becoming quite the planner/organizer.