It's Friday!!!!!

We have done so well this week in keeping our trips to town down to one.  I can't believe it...only one trip to town.  Woohoo! That is probably why I feel so refreshed and not frazzled.  No running around hither and yon. We picked Wednesday to be our big day out.  We got school done then off to kids counseling, playground/picnic, weekly visit to Sams/Walmart for groceries, quick stop at Ross, dinner at the park since the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and then church. We packed an extra large cooler with ice so the food was okay in the van while we were running around and at church.  It made for a long day, but it was nice to have the rest of our week at home doing fun stuff. 

We have a night every other week dedicated to Justice and last night was his night. We leave all the younger kids at home with a sitter and Justice has us all to himself.  The first year Justice was with us we worked on basic skills such as taking care of himself, manners, etc.  The second year we worked on him coming out of the bubble world he seemed to live in, strengthening his body, braces, doctors visits regarding his legs, etc. This year we have been working on social skills and adult living skills.  He does his own laundry, is learning to cook for himself and others, learning how to take care of a car, etc.  We needed to find something to help with his social skills as well.  We had tried all kinds of different things.  Homeschool group get togethers, youth group outings, normal things, but Justice just doesn't know how to work the social thing yet.  He ends up wandering around by himself or standing behind a group of people unsure of how to enter into whatever is happening.  So after looking around we found a group that is for teens like Justice that focuses on teaching them social skills.  It has been wonderful for him.  For the first time in the two plus years he has lived with us Justice can walk into a room and not be the one that stuck out like a sore thumb.  He was excepted from the second he walked in the room.  This group is for teens who have Aspergers, Autism, or are somewhere on the spectrum.  The whole purpose is for teens to get together with one adult (usually a trained therapist) who guides them in playing games that help them with social skills then they have a time of eating and mingling with the adults.  The parents sit in another room and talk about just everything.  Kind of like a support group.  Tim and I have been blessed by the other parents in the group, but beyond anything we get from this, it's about Justice.  I'm so excited for this opportunity and what will come of it.  We are enjoy sharing this with him and he seems to be enjoying us tagging along! :)

I was so thankful for the gorgeous weather we had today.  It was hard keeping the kids focused on school and not on the hundreds of things they would rather have been doing outside.  We succeeded though in getting done with hours left in the day for them to accomplish the important things outside.  It's been so wonderful having a week to stay home and enjoy all the beautiful weather.

Tonight was Friday Family Fun Night or FFFN!  The kids and I made a Spaghetti feast for dinner.  It was so much fun to make together. (Lots more mess with the littles, but they so love helping and what can you do when you have little eyes looking at you excitedly?)  Everyone got involved in the making of this said feast from Holland up to Tim.  (He makes killer garlic bread!)  We usually have a whole night of fun like bowling competitions on our Wii, or kickball at a park, but tonight we are headed to bed early because Tim is taking us on an adventure tomorrow!!!!! 

 Johnston enjoying his bread!  Lots of happy kiddos actually!

Holland and Jameson barely said a word the entire dinner...they REALLY enjoyed it!  It was all over their faces...LOL!

After dinner Tim helped Jackson work on his car.  I am so thankful for a hubby who tries everything to fix it himself first before shelling out who knows how much for someone else to do it.  So far we've only once in 11 years of marriage paid someone else to fix something on our cars.  I cannot even begin to think of how much we have saved over the years.  It's wonderful to see him helping our son work on his car and our other boys helping them.  What a great way for fathers to bond with their sons and even daughters? Tim eventually had to come in to get ready for tomorrow, but Jackson finished it and now has a running gas guzzler again!

While Tim was outside helping Jax, the middles and oldies cleaned the dinner mess up for me so I could snuggle up with a couple littles who asked to watch a little something before bed and I will not say no to snuggles with these two cuties!

 Holly Bolly all smiles and cutie-pie yumminess!

 Jameson wanted me to make sure I had Bumblebee in the picture!  LOL!

Waiting for their Psalty musical to come on...Precious!

Morgan surprised us with homemade chocolate chip cookies for us to munch on while we enjoyed our latest Bones episode after all the kids Max down were tucked into bed.  She is so sweet and thoughtful! Her latest thing is baking.  She has told me that she likes cooking....um....not so much....but she does really like to bake.  So she has been making yummy breakfast muffins, granola bars, and healthy goodies for the kids.  Tim and I are throwing around the idea of finding a cake making class for her.  We shall see!

 Jax, Morgan and I are the only ones up now.  Jax is down doing his thing on his computer, while I am blogging on Tim's laptop and Morgan is using my laptop to Skype with her best buddy Rachel who lives down in Alpharetta.  Lots of laughing gone on from that duo!!!!  It's been a long day and I'm hours away from going on an adventure with the JeffriesClan so I had better get to bed.

~Blessings