Summertime

School’s over and done with until August, so Mark is home now. Just in time for my week of appointments — dentist, eye doctor, family doctor, new therapist.

Slowly the garden is taking shape. The lettuce row is fabulous. I forgot about the spinach, and it’s bolting already, but I keep pinching off the flowers and we’ll keep eating it. The chard is looking good. Everything is coming up and growing, some faster than others. I’ve been slowly weeding, and Mark mowed with the push mower and dumped all the clippings in the garden for mulch. I need to get out the tomato cages and stakes.

Amy continues to amaze… today while we were reading Dr. Seuss’s ABC, she recited the alphabet from H (I’d read the G page which recites A-G) to S. There are a few books she can recite with very little prompting. She remembers and talks about all sorts of events and people.

She sometimes has surprising (but short) meltdowns, especially when she is tired. She gets a little easily frustrated with fine motor tasks like putting a plastic puzzle together or sitting a tiny doll on a tiny chair. She seems to like to respond to frustration physically — shoving the toys or throwing them — so I have shown her how she can wave and bang her blanket on the ground as a physical but safe response. Banging the blanket also usually distracts and amuses her.

Yesterday afternoon, I thought perhaps it is possible to have faith that life is meaningful and worth living even when I feel it’s not. I’m not sure how capable I will be of exercising such faith in the midst of a despairing moment, but at least the idea is there. A DBT thought — feelings give us important information, but the thoughts in them are not always real / true.