That Time it Worked

This post has a sense of deja vu about it. We went back to church again this week. Again…

Quick refresher brief: along with my little boys being autistic, I have my own set of health issues that necessitate taking medication that suppresses my immune system. This makes it hard for my body to fight things off and hard for it to heal. And I had the fantastic adventure of starting this medication at the beginning of the pandemic. Because of this, there’s a lot of time at home and I have to be thoughtful about where and how I spend my time. Now, back to the post 🙂

So yes, I have written something similar to this post before, last year, when we went back after being out for over a year because of health concerns. But it was short lived. When the Delta variant started picking up speed in our area, we started staying home again. And while we were still fighting that, Omicron came in and my area was fighting two variants that overlapped. But things eventually got better, even if they took longer than we wanted, so we tried again.

Our congregation is quite a bit different than it was even last year. I had the opportunity to sit down with new people and try to figure out how to help the boys slide back into things as easily as possible. It was nice to sit and talk about what they needed to know to help them and to let them ask questions so they could best help my boys.

So this Sunday, we gathered things the day before. We made sure things were packed away in the bags I bring so we wouldn’t be scrambling the next morning. The boys and Bandit were clean and spiffy. We went over the things that needed to happen the next morning so we were on the same page. Everything was set… except…I got the start time wrong 🤦🏻‍♀️

We scrambled, panicked, made back up plans for seating since we weren’t there as early as we wanted to be, and had to remember to breathe. Lots of deep breaths later, we walked through the doors. I don’t know how it happened, but the exact spot we needed was still available and we were able to get settled in easier than I anticipated.

Isaac looked a little shell shocked and unsure at first, but quickly settled in. JJ was tense and careening to the fight, flight, or freeze stage of panic that happens when our routine changes and new things are coming at us. We know to expect this now though, and we’re usually prepared. And this is where Bandit comes in…he regulates JJ because JJ’s not able to regulate himself in these types of situations yet (We’re working on it).

Touching Bandit is all it takes to help J’s heart rate start to even out.

Petting Bandit calms my son even more.

THEN, that’s when JJ is ready to interact with me (or others) and let them help him. We have hugs that are really, really helpful, but if J isn’t at this point we can’t use them.

Bandit made it easier for J to sit in church – and he was actually able to focus on what was being said. I know that, because he shared it at dinner with the people who weren’t able to be at church that day.

I remember helping this little boy try to handle the sensory issues that came his way at church (or anywhere really). It wasn’t easy. And we worked on it for YEARS. But after two+ years of watching church from home, that little champ slid into that church pew like no time had passed.

All because of Bandit.

And it’s reasons like this that we do the hard things.

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, info about our organization will be linked below.

XOXOXO

To visit the Paws 4 Autism page please click here: Cool Stuff

To visit JJ’s fundraising page, click here: Really Cool Stuff

That Time I Made Lots of Mistakes

Today, I learned a lot.

Mostly I learned what not to do.

But there is value in making mistakes, if we’re willing to learn from them.

I was playing with an idea to sublimate Bandit’s name onto a few things. I’m trying to put together an emergency bag for him that’s ready to go, including first aid items. We live in Tornado Land and it is that time of year. But we’ve also had ice storms in the winter that knock out power for four days. Gas leaks. People sitting in front of our house watching it…and more, I’m sure, because my life is NOT boring lol.

I found these bags at a good price, so it was worth experimenting with, especially because this one would stay in the basement unless we needed it. And if we need it, it will have character 🙂

Here’s what I learned:

1. Nylon straps melt at high temps. I’m sure I would have remembered if I’d taken time to think about it. In the future, I’ll just cut off this particular strap. I’ll get a better image that way, too. But I do have to clean the melted nylon glob off my heat press. Luckily, I have a teflon sheet attached to it. If I can’t clean it off, I can replace it. You can see some of the melted strap I’ve already scraped off on the silicone mat.

2. I learned that not only does the nylon strap melt, it impedes the transfer of the image. You can see that on the right hand side of the picture. In this set up, there was no way to move it far enough out of the way for a good transfer. But then again, it also wouldn’t have mattered since the strap melted. On the other hand, I also learned that I CAN sublimate on these bags, and the temp and time seem to work.

3. I also learned that the melted strap I hadn’t gotten off the teflon, was over further than I thought…Maybe I should have tried harder to clean it off, but I thought I had enough room to do the last transfer. I should have paid more attention to exactly where the glob would land. Because some of it got on to the other piece I was sublimating lol. You can see where it transferred on the bottom left. But again, this is an emergency bag, so this gives it character 😉 And I now have a matched set 😀

In addition, the transfer on the bottom left is a little light. So I learned I need to move the image up just a little more to stop the seam from interfering.

4. I learned that the top inside of this bag…melts a little 🙄

When sublimating, it’s usually wise to use some blow out paper on top of the image and under the substrate you’re sublimating on to, to catch any of the ink that could transfer to somewhere you don’t want it to go. The white part inside the zippered pouch…that’s the blowout paper. It’s stuck to the top of the bag now because the material above it melted a little. You can also see the blue tape I used to keep the blow out paper in place…it may also be a permanent part of the bag now lol. But now I know.

I learned I was right to use another teflon sheet inside that zippered pouch. It was placed after the blow out paper, because I wasn’t sure about the material there and how it would react to heat. If it *did* melt a little, I didn’t want it sealing off this pocket and limiting the options I have for this bag.

I learned a lot. Not everything I did was a failure, I saved some of the project by making smart decisions. But other parts, I really messed up on, and learned from them. Knowing what NOT to do can be as important as knowing WHAT to do.

I have another bag like this. It’s for use in the car or for traveling so the labeling will be similar, but a little different. Now, I can take my mistakes and the knowledge they created, and apply it to this other bag 😀

Thanks for stopping by! Bandit and JJ appreciate everyone’s support on this journey ❤️

To find out more about our organization, you can visit us and check out the pups in our program here: Paws 4 Autism

To find out more about JJ and Bandit, you can find their page here: JJ’s Magic

XOXOXO