Month: December 2019

The key to everything is patience.  You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it…Arnold H. Glasow.  I am a huge fan of southern comfort food cooking.  When it’s done right, the labor of love can be tasted in every bite.  M is blessed to have a rich history of amazing southern cooks in the family.  It’s a wonderful thing to prepare a home cook meal with your family enjoying it!  I think one of the most southern comfort food is chicken.  My grandma did an amazing herb roasted chicken with baby potatoes surround.  Oh, let’s not forget my mom slow fried southern chicken.  I remember being in the kitchen helping.  She would take a brown paper bag add flour with seasoning and toss in chicken that had been marinating in buttermilk seasoning.  My sister and I would beg our mom to let us help shake the bag.  Once done, each piece of chicken would be perfectly coated in the season flour batter.  My mom then would drop each piece in a hot cast iron black skillet.  Honestly it does take patience in preparing a home cook meal, I do miss snapping peas, shucking corn and picking greens with my mom.  Yes, to me comfort food was always collard greens, cornbread, yams and fried chicken.  One of the first meals my mother taught me to cook was a chicken dinner.  Granted, my first chicken dinner was over powered by too much black pepper and no amount of water could erase it.  Nevertheless, I have improved over the years and tried so many versions of chicken meals with M.  Since I am southern the love of bold strong flavors of chicken dumplings, fried chicken, roasted chicken, grilled chicken, bbq chicken etc…you name it I have done it with a chicken.  However with each chicken meal M senses was not impressed, until today.  I decided to make simple air fry chicken nuggets with potatoes.  M actually ate it!  Honestly, I am still in shock.  He did a little happy dance while eating it.  True, he only ate about four nuggets and four potatoes but that was huge for us.  Today’s chicken dinner was a winner, winner for M…increasing his diet palate.  Oh, I am thinking of chicken dinner endless cooking possibilities with M!

Simply an autism mom excited about chicken

As we go about our daily routine, our internal monologue narrates our experience.  Our self-talk guides our behavior and influences the way we interact with others.  It also plays a major role in how you feel about yourself, other people, and the world in general…Amy Morin.  “Calm, M….Calm M!” M repeated over and over to himself.  Lately I have been over hearing M’s self-talk,  “Ok, M…Ok M” or “Good job…Good job”  or “M, you doing…M, you doing!” are just some of the phases M has been saying to himself.  It hit me like a ton of bricks that M was repeating portions what people including myself are saying to him as part of his self-talk.  M has so much going on in his beautiful mind, he often need time to process everything even if it means talking to himself out-loud.  Honestly, self-talk can be a blessing.  After all, it’s a part of our thinking process.  Our self-talk would be connected to our self-image.  All of us has had internal conversations/self-talk about moral dilemmas we’re facing or maybe how we see ourselves behaving.  Often times we become our own worst critic.  On the other hand, we may justify or be passive in inner monologue concerning our actions.  Honestly, it’s hard to keep a balance of not nitpicking ourselves to death and being truthful with ourselves.  Teaching M to see himself the way our Creator view him, hopefully will guide his self-talk into noticing/understanding his actions without harsh self-criticism.  I recently seen a movie called ‘Float’ by Disney Pixar.  It reminded me the value of honest self-talk.  As a parent of a child that ‘Float’ you will have moments where you pray and your self-talk consist of “It’s going to be ok…you can do this…just breath” or “Don’t worry about how others perceive him/her…him/her is valued and a beautiful gift!”.  Yes M is fine tuning his self-talk confirming his self-worth, hence having fundamental individuals around him contribute to his beautiful floating light!

Simply an autism mom writing down my self-talk