a reference

      I actually had a conversation about gay rights and religion with my 10 year old. Seriously. I was in the kitchen and he came through the living room, the news was on, and he says, "Is (I think Ukraine, but can't remember country for sure) a dictatorship or what? I mean, why do they think they can make being gay illegal?" So we begin a wonderful conversation about being gay, and religion, and why some people "even care" about whether other people are gay or not. We talked about the Bible, heaven and hell, laws regarding gay marriage, medical laws when you're not married, etc. He even put his butt up on the counter to continue this mini soap box he was on. Priceless.
     I'm going to be flat out honest, I am not religious, never have been. My wish for my children is that I can educate them on religion, all of the religions and beliefs around the world, and they can decide for themselves where they stand. I believe in tolerance, understanding, and empathy for other human beings, regardless. My hope is that my boys learn to be all of these things with confidence.

     On another note, I think we're having a bit of an issue with one of Jacob's teachers. We have it set up that he leaves every class a few minutes early in order to navigate the hallways when it is still quiet, and get to his next classroom without all of the "chaos", as he calls it. Now I talked to this particular teacher a few months ago, because he kept bringing her up, and I had never met her. I have learned that when he does this, it is my cue to meet with whoever he keeps talking about, because there is an issue. So I email for a meeting. Instead, she calls me that afternoon sounding helpful at first, but as the conversation went on, I found myself more and more frustrated. I won't repeat the whole conversation, but at one point she actually says to me, "And I just don't feel sorry for him at all because I know that we are giving him all of the accommodations he needs!" Seriously? Who says that to any mom, much less a mom of a child with disabilities? I realized at that point two things. 1) It was time for me to take over this conversation that she had so far been dominating. 2) This lady did not "get it" and she was never going to "get it". Clearly anyone who would say this doesn't and won't. Jacob has been doing so well, and everything has been so much better, and all teachers seem to be on board with the program... except this one. So I explained to her what was going on with him (as far as how he is responding to her and the environment) and asked her to just talk to him about how he is not in trouble. She said she could do that, I didn't hear anything for a while so all was good. Then, last week he tells me that when he leaves certain classes during the week, he has to go to the nurse to get his meds, and he does not make it to his next class before the chaos ensues. So I email one of his teachers and ask her to talk to the two teachers of the two classes about him leaving just a few more minutes earlier, stating that the one teacher has maybe not been so understanding in the past about his leaving early. She must have passed along that part of the info too. (Some teachers read my blog, so I'm being vague on purpose.) So he comes home telling me that she pulled him aside by saying, "Jacob I need to talk to you." Now you must understand, that alone is enough to send his anxiety sky high. So apparently then she says to him, "Jacob, why did you tell your mother that I haven't been letting you leave early?" So, 1) that is not what I said 2) DO NOT address Jacob with this, it will freak him out. And it did. So here I go again, setting up a face-to-face. Don't worry dude, Mom will fix it. :-)

        The other night at the dinner table I said something, and Luke says, "I'm not sure I'm understanding your reference... that was a reference, right?" Geez.

    Both Luke and Ryan are sooo into the Harry Potter books! Either Luke, Dad, or I (although rarely for me I'll admit) read these books out loud and they get sooo dialed in. And then want to talk and talk about it. It's so great to see, I love watching them get so excited about reading.