Parenting and a GOAL!

Being a parent isn't an easy job.  Being a parent of a special needs child is even more difficult.  But when they're adults, and still special needs, well, that takes a different kind of patience.

My son is visually impaired, has been since birth. His measurable vision is 20/200 , there aren't lenses strong enough to correct that.  Add to it, he has nystagmus, where the eyes wiggle back and forth involuntarily, which makes it take longer to focus.

As an adult, he has learned to deal with his limitations.  But he still has issues as well.  He gets overly frustrated when things go awry.  Today, his checkbook balance was overdrawn.  And it makes him very upset when it happens.  It doesn't happen often, thank goodness.

His gas powered bicycle broke a drive chain coming home from work Monday night.  In his angst and frustrated state, he ordered one online and used his debit card instead of a credit card.  Ooops.  He thought he could beat it to the bank to make a cash deposit, but nope, things go through really quick being online.  Then the part he ordered, the chain is too short.  Needless to say, he's extremely frustrated and upset, and when he doesn't know how to handle it, he tends to do things .......

He used to just shoot up the yard with his paintball gun, but he sold those.  Tonight I came home and found he'd been throwing the hatchet into the trunk of the palm tree. Now she's scarred, he will have to look at that every time he's in the backyard and know he did it.  I'm sad for him, but don't know of any way I can help him get over that.  He lets his frustrations mount when I'm not home, and lets loose.  If I'm around, he can usually just talk about it, and I can soothe it over, offer solutions.

Yep, not easy being the parent of an adult special needs kid!

On a good note:  Total steps today 13,752 a new personal best!
I also got in some weight machines as well...
and reached my goal 30 mins = 2.0 miles!
Yep, that took a little extra oomph
that I wasn't sure I had in me,
as I'm a little bit sore in the leg muscles!

That calls for a reward..... any suggestions?????
(chocolate comes to mind... lol )
256#

Do you walk?

I love to walk!  That's been my mantra for some time now, especially since I moved to Arizona, where the days are awesome enough to walk just about every day of the year!  Yes, even when the heat is at its highest, we can still walk in the early morning.  Just before the sun rises is our coolest temp, a great time to be out walking!

By the way, Arizona is one of the few places where you drive to work with your heater on, and drive home with the AC blasting.  *laughs*


I've been wearing my SparkPeople tracker for about 3 weeks faithfully now, and seriously tracking the number of steps I take every day.  10k is my minimum goal.  If I get home and haven't reached that number, off I go for another walk with Sadie!   Lately, I don't have that trouble,

During the day, I can check my progress by tapping this.  All the way around lights up when I reach 10k steps.  When I get home and turn on the computer, it automatically uploads into my tracker so I have a record of how many steps, and tells me minutes if I keep the walk going for more than 10 minutes.  While I get a great number of steps in at work, its a few steps, then stop, then steps again.  The ones that last longer than 10 minutes are the ones that really count when it comes to weight loss or getting into shape.  I saw our local radio personality, NinaDonline, was wearing ankle weights to work to help with her #fitgirl goal.  Kudos, Nina!   (Wonder if that would work for me??? hmmm )

Today, I went to the gym - two days in a row! woo hoo!   Skipped the weights, just cardio today.

Elliptical 30 mins 1.97 miles.
11,956 steps (just 260 steps shy of my personal best!)
Almost at my goal!
Gotta work harder tomorrow :)

Speaking of work, I finally decided that I needed to talk to management about my problem child, Elvis.  Even the manager noticed and mentioned "You've been carrying him for a long time..." based on what they've observed when I am there, as opposed to when I'm not there.   There will be more discussion, I am sure.  I dislike having to deal with problems like this, but ... its not just a bother to me, it costs the company money as well.