Task Force

 We worked at the Task Force this morning. We’ve been there about 4.5 years, except for the 9 months we didn’t work during the early part of the pandemic. We always work in the store or in the sorting room (there are others who work in the offices helping to screen and counsel clients), and some days are super busy, others are slow, but by the end of our shift we always feel good…There is a community among the volunteers that is really special, I feel fortunate that we are able to be part of it.

A few pictures I took this morning…

As donations come in, they are date checked and sorted here ^^, into boxes that are dated and stored here…

We also get donations of fresh produce (during the summer) from the master gardeners in our community. These donations are washed and sorted at this outside sink before being brought directly into the store  (R frequently does this job😉).

The store is set up just like a small grocery store, and the clients are able to ”purchase” their groceries using points they are given. The number of points they can spend is based on the number of people in their household. 

That cart just coming into the picture above is loaded with donations from Panera Bread. Various stores and restaurants donate to the Task Force.. 

We worked mostly in the store this morning. Stocking shelves, checking dates, etc.

Here is Rhianna, hard at work stocking…

M loves going to Task Force but honestly, doesn’t get much work done. He visits with the clients and other volunteers, and usually works only when we are working together and I can keep him focused… Luckily, he is a popular guy there are they don’t mind that he’s not the hardest worker! 😂

Brrr....

It's a taste-of-fall kind of day. It's about 1:00 now and the temperature seems to have topped out at about 48 degrees. It's been raining off and on all day and the pasture and driveway are slippery mud pits. I don't mind too much though, we definitely need the rain and the coolness feels good. I think it's time to break out the hot chocolate mix... iced tea just doesn't sound good today.

 We had some exciting news today... It looks like M will be starting work at our local Chick-Fil-A very soon. Remember my "internship" idea? The one that got put on hold for almost a year because M developed tardive dyskinesia and I ended up spending the past 9 months adjusting meds? Well... M still isn't as stable as I would like him to be for this (we are STILL adjusting meds!) but I decided not to wait any longer and just move ahead with the idea anyway.

So a week or so ago I approached an acquaintance I know who works for Chick-Fil-A (she also volunteers at the same library we do) and told her about my idea. At first she seemed hesitant... She said she knew of other Chick-Fil-A restaurants that had hired people with developmental disabilities (in a supported work type situation), but our local restaurant never had. She said she'd talk to the owner about it and get back to me. I ran into her again today and she said that the owner said yes, and was very excited about Michael working there. She said the owner had been wanting to start working with the DD system in terms of hiring kids, he just hadn't taken the first step. So M will be that first step.... cool, huh? M is so excited, he can hardly stand himself. We have the application here and we'll fill it out together and get it back to them ASAP.

 Not much else is going on here. I got most of the things on my agenda done the other day... it was an awesome day. We've been getting school done regularly again, and life just feels like it's getting back to "normal" (or what passes for normal around here) again after our extremely busy summer.

Have I mentioned the little twin fawns that live up on the hill behind our barn? We've had so much fun watching them grow from tiny things (twice I've had to stop the car on the road in front of the house because the babies decided they needed to nurse, immediately, and mama deer stopped right in the road to nurse them! The other day I watched them playing on the hill that goes down to the gully... It was so much to watch them jumping around (and on!) each other.

 Here are a few pictures I've taken lately of mama and her babies...

 Here's mama, her babies are close, so she's watching me very carefully.



The twins, heading across the driveway...



...and the whole family down by the neighbor's barn.





Can you see the twins? It's not a great picture, but I just loved the way they were eating side by side... (my new "deer-proof" garden fence is working beautifully, so far no deer have been in the garden since we put it up although, as you can see, they are grazing as close to the garden as they can possibly get...

 Better go, quiet time is over and I should get moving.

Oh, oh, oh!

.... I have the best idea!!! 

 Yes, things change quickly here... During the first part of the week my only goal was getting through the day without having M admitted... and now I'm making plans, for him, for the next couple of years. 

 I'll catch you up, share my idea, then I need some feedback... 

First the catch up... Evidently, haldol is crucial to M's stability. Each day this week (until yesterday) was a huge challenge... He would be fine for long periods of time and then virtually nothing at all would cause him to disconnect. He was getting more paranoid (refusing his meds, for the first time in his life, believing that I was trying to poison him) and I wasn't sure we'd make it through the week without admitting him. 

 Yesterday I decided to just increase the haldol back to where it had been before. 

I'm still very concerned about the TD... We are talking to the pdoc about options, and she's consulting with the pdoc in town who specializes in childhood schizophrenia. But trying to decrease the haldol just wasn't working... 

 As soon as I increased the haldol again, M settled down. He made it all the way through yesterday without any problems. It's so good to see him doing better again... 

 So here's my idea... "Internships" for M as a way to teach job skills, social skills, and maybe even find a "niche" for work he can do as an adult. I'll approach businesses in our town about M working for them. I would ask that he be required to fill out an application, but basically it would be volunteer work... they wouldn't have to pay him. He would need to comply with their dress code (uniform etc) and I would stay on site to act as his job coach. He would answer to the manager of whatever business he's working at, but I would one-on-one him, helping him to understand what's expected of him, keeping him on task, etc. I'm thinking about keeping each internship short, working at each business an hour or so every week or two for just three to four months, then rotating into another internship someplace else. Rotating like this should keep him engaged (the novelty of trying new things) and also give him the chance to try out different kinds of jobs, working for different kinds of people, learning different skills etc. 

I'm thinking about trying to put to arrange two 3-4 month internships a year, giving him some time off around the holidays and between "jobs". (If this works, the length of the internships would increase as he gets older.) 

We'd keep our volunteer job at the library as well... I need help thinking about businesses I can approach about this... I'm going to ask the manager of our Chick-Fil-A (he's a very nice guy, who already knows M), thinking that M can clean tables, hand out free samples, etc. I also thought about asking at the senior center and the animal shelter. 

 Any other ideas?? 

 M isn't good around other kids, but is very social and good with adults. His speech isn't clear enough to answer phones or anything, and he's too unpredictable to be around cooking (hot surfaces) or food preparation equipment (sharp things). He would be good at snack bar kind of work... (Hmm.. maybe the movie theater?) He's good with Gameboy and computers, and he can make change, so I think he could run a cash register (if someone was willing to donate the time to teach him). 

Our town is small enough to have some smaller family owned businesses, I think those are the places I'll have to approach... although I might see if Wal-Mart might let M be a greeter (or work with one of their greeters). 

 What do you think? Ideas, thoughts, suggestions?? 

 *edited to add* I've already been given several very good suggestions... Thanks, keep them coming! I'm going to make a list of ideas here and add to it as people leave comments (and ideas!) for me...

1. stocking shelves
2. assembly work
3. fill boxes for shipping
4. pet store clean up/odd jobs

picture post

This has been a wild week... M has gotten more unstable again, which makes everything more difficult, and for some reason R has had insomnia the past few nights and been up to (and AT) all hours! 

Last night I just crashed... R was still awake (but quietly staying in her room) and I fell into bed and didn't wake up until 6:00 this morning. Eight hours sleep in a row.... I can't remember the last time I got that much sleep! 

It feels very good to feel rested... 

 Anyway, I think it's time for a picture post. We worked at the library yesterday and after our shift I checked out the sale room and found a bunch of American Girl books. I was so excited, and had to buy them all! R is loving having so many new books to read, and I keep finding her curled up here or there, totally immersed in Addy or Felicity's life. 

 I've loved raising daughters.... I hope R doesn't grow up too fast. (I'm not ready to be done yet!)

 

 This picture was taken at Girl Scout camp last summer, and I love it. R, still smiling, after spending an entire day, in the heat, dust and bugs of camp! (During GS camp week it was in the 90's every day but one!)

 

 M got a digital camera for his birthday and has been taking LOTS of pictures... Many of them are very cool, in a weird sort of way. (The date on his pictures is wrong.... I need to reset that for him!)

 

 He also takes some nice, "regular" photos too. I really like this one he took of me after my surprise birthday dinner. I'm wearing the scarf my sister made for me on her loom... Isn't it amazing? I can't wait for the weather to get cold enough to wear it! I'm also wearing (if you look closely!) the St Brigid's cross my brother sent me from Ireland. It is absolutely beautiful, and I haven't taken it off since it got here...

 

 (For anyone with eagle eyes. No I don't usually keep a trash can in my living room, LOL... That evening was so cool we started a fire and that black trash can is full of kindling) 

Here are some pictures I took... 

I took this one a couple of weeks ago (sorry it's a little blurry, I had to zoom in from far away). The deer are grooming each other. We haven't seen this very often, so I thought it was cool and had to try and get a picture of them... 

 (You can also see the neighbor's horse, Chance, in the background. He'd gotten himself stuck in the fence, trying to sneak into my pasture...)

 

 Remember when I talked (here) about the deer starting to get their winter coats? Here is a doe wearing half her summer (brown) coat and half her winter (gray) coat. 

 

 Oops... she caught me!

 

 Well my playtime is over... the sun is up, the animals are yelling for food, and I'd better run....

a taste of fall (and some rambling and whining)

Brrr.... it's cold this evening! After an gray, overcast day, and rainstorms this evening, it's cooled down to a crisp (for August!) 55 degrees and I'm enjoying a nice hot mug of cocoa for the first time in weeks. 

I love the fall, and have been looking forward to it... but I have to admit, when I walked through the cool evening to the barn tonight and started thinking about breaking ice from the watering trough, and trudging through snow drifts to get to the barn, I also started counting my blessings that we probably have another month to six weeks before it starts to get very cold. 

 I've been canning and freezing the riches from our garden, and now have about 20 pts of tomatoes, 8 pts of bread and butter pickles, and a couple pints of pickled jalapenos in the cupboard, as well as green beans and (WAY too much) zucchini in the freezer. It's been a lot of work, but it's worth it to get to enjoy the taste of garden veggies this winter. 

The tomatoes are still producing, and the green beans are just getting started. The cucumbers and zucchini seem to be slowing down (hopefully) and we have at least a half dozen good sized pumpkins on the vine, just waiting for Halloween. 

 I spent this morning canning and this afternoon making more phone calls. I'm still trying to track down some in-home support for M. I haven't found anything great yet, but I have gotten a good education about what's out there... I found one program that is very well known in this area. They send "trainers" into the homes of people with developmental disabilities to help the family learn to deal with problematic behaviors. The trainers counsel the family and actually do some family therapy (this I learned speaking to families who have used this organization). We've started doing an intake with them, and during this process I asked about the qualifications of their trainers. The director of the program said they don't have any PhD level trainers, but some have a Masters Degree. She said it's hard for them to keep trainers with graduate degrees however, because they can't afford to pay much. (We would pay $50. an hour for the trainers, but much of that is eaten up by overhead). So I asked what the minimum qualifications for trainers are. The answer floored me. Trainers are only required to have a GED, preferably with some work experience. 

What?! 

Why would I pay $50. an hour for someone with no qualifications to come into our home and work with M? (shaking my head in puzzlement) That's just crazy! 

 I also called another organization that I've been avoiding for years. It's director, a psychologist, called me several years ago and asked me to come and train his staff on FASD. I said I would but ended up having an emergency with M and having to cancel (not last minute, I gave him some notice). I offered to reschedule but he was really snippy about it, and wouldn't reschedule the training. I've hesitated to call this organization, even though they provide in-home services, because I figured they wouldn't have called me to train if they knew more than I do about FASD. That was several years ago though (and I'm running out of places to call), so I decided to give them a call. The same psychologist/director who had been so snippy to me answered the phone (hmmm... no receptionist, money must be tight over there). I didn't tell him who I was, just asked about the services they offer. He was arrogant and borderline rude in answering my questions and started the conversation by saying they work with many, many, kids just like M. (With the attitude of how could I be so stupid to even ask that question!) When I said that I was surprised by that because childhood onset schizophrenia is so rare, and having it co-occurring with FAS is even rarer, he questioned the schizophrenia diagnosis, saying it might not be accurate. He was so full of himself he was funny, and I couldn't help pushing his buttons a little... asking questions specific to FASD and, when he answered arrogantly and patronizingly (while at the same time showing his ignorance), calling him on it. Finally he stated that he "knew of no reason why specific interventions are needed for FASD" (versus other developmental disabilities) I thanked him, told him I'd found out all I needed to know, and hung up. 

 Hmmm... maybe I should call back and offer to train him and his staff! ;) It sounds like they need it... 

 I'm still finding mostly dead ends in my search for supports and services for M, but I am learning more about what's out there, and it's been a good reminder to me that what we are doing some good stuff here at home. Our "program" is looking pretty good compared to the "real" programs I've found out there! 

 We work at the library tomorrow morning, and have a co-op class afterwards. I'm hoping it warms up, the class is at the park and a little sunshine would be very nice! The kids will be learning how to use a Chinese jumprope, so it ought to be exciting. :)