You know, it's hard being such a Princess of Home Ec.

One of my neighbors called and she invited us up to dinner to pick apricots. I started to think: I'm not sure about apricots nor what to do with them, but like everything else, I'm sure they can be canned! It's a sickness, I'm sure.

I also have been eyeing over the fruit on my plum tree. To tell you the truth, it looks like a prune tree -- the fruit is small, meaty, and really seemingly designed more for drying. It's not ripe yet, so I'll have to give it a shot, but that's what I think.

Also, the peach tree is about to burst. Some of the fruit is yellowing up -- I'm thinking peaches in a few weeks here. Those I will not make a bunch of jam with, but they will become yummy yummy jars of canned peaches. I will make one small batch of jam. I have this vision of my head of peach jam with cinnamon added in. I keep thinking of Holes where the one kid survived on canned peaches he found. I figure if the world goes to shit tomorrow, I'll have food put up, anyhow.

I had meant to mail out several diabetic friends' blackberry jam yesterday. It's mostly fruit with a smidge of splenda with lime juice to help preserve it -- very lip smackin'. (You'll have to keep it refrigerated once you open it!) It's going to go out tomorrow when I go to bring my eggs to the store in town. I think for as few eggs as the darned chickens are laying, I ought to just hang a shingle out here. I'd probably sell them all that way and I could get better money without having to go somewhere.

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Russell got evaluated for Sensory Integration. Apparently, he's got issues. One of the options is "brushing" which is something you have to do every two hours. I'm lucky if I can stay conscious for two hours, so I'm not really willing to return to the days of the two hour feeding schedule. The occupational therapist knows I'm health-compromised, so she gave us another alternative -- it's music with special headphones. Between the frequencies of the music and the headphones, it's supposed to help.

I thought it was kind of hokey, but I've talked to parents who swear by it for their kids. It's one of those things that they say you can see a difference pretty quickly, if it's going to work for your kid. It's early yet, but I think it does help him to get his stuff together better. Tonight, at the witching hour -- that time between 8-930 when his meds have worn off and he's really super bouncy before bed, he lacked the whiny butt stuff he usually has. He was bouncy without being mean, argumentative about every single point, and generally, nice. He'd just listened to the tape while walking with Dad, so I'm hesitant to say, "Wow, big difference" It seems more subtle than that, so I'm just going to give it more time and see what the cumulative difference is.

Earlier today, he was vehemently talking back about something really stupid, but he was very incorrect in his assumptions and I'm trying to talk to him nicely about it, and finally, I was starting to lose it because I needed him to do what I had asked and stop arguing. I was trying to get food and I'd forgotten breakfast, so I was just about losing my mind anyhow.

I suggested that perhaps he should try the earphones. Of course, being that he has sensory issues, he initially hates having the earphones on and he hates putting the fanny pack on that holds the cd player. Once he has them on, everything's fine, it's that 'tween spot where you can just sort of feel him crawling up a wall.

I listened to the CD briefly and I was feeling icked out by it. It made me feel a little queasy. They alternate betweeen high and low frequencies and even volume levels; I just wanted to rip off the headphones and fling them in a deep well. However, it doesn't seem to phase Russell. Either he's being a real trooper or it helps, is my thought.

Time will tell.