I Didn't Stop Following You -No Matter What It Looks Like!

Did I get your attention with my title today? Or did I get your attention when it looked like I stopped following you today?


Let me tell you what's going on in my real life the last couple of weeks. Hopefully it will explain everything to your satisfaction. I blogged last week about trying to get a signature loan from the bank because I wanted some start up money to go into business for myself. I did get the loan, with my husband co-signing (I feel so identity-less). And now I'm in the process of splitting myself into to identities. I will remain the person I've been the last decade - Scott's wife, Joshua, Jonathan and Faith's mom, so and so's neighbor, so and so's daughter, etc. I'm fine with this. I'm proud to be Scott's wife, Joshua, Jonathan, and Faith's Mom and so and so's daughter. And I will continue with this identity.


My second identity is as president, owner and CEO of Corrin M. Howe, L.L.C. I'm really excited about this new identity. For the past two months I have actually left my house and started meeting a number of fascinating people who live and work in my community. I plan to combine my love of writing with my love of advocating for others. I'm planning on blogging about the local small business owners here in Southern Maryland. For example, I sat down and spoke to Bobby Unkle for an hour last week. He and I both hope he will one day fix my shared driveway. (At the moment we have one neighbor who thinks he wants to do something different with the road.; however, he hasn't called anyone out for an estimate.)


I walked away from my meeting with Bobby with two impressions, humble and pride. Humble came to mind because it took awhile to draw him out; however, once I did, I could tell he had a lot of pride in what he's accomplished in his excavating business. This week I'm talking to Tracey Eno of Pre-Paid Legal Services. The little bit of research I've done into her company is fascinating. Wow, what a concept to be able to pay a monthly flat fee and know my family can have an attorney when needed. I also like the idea that her company  monitors my personal identity for fraud. Unlike most companies, her's not only watches my identity but it will actually clear up any theft of my identity and follow through on convicting the person who stole it!


By splitting my identities into two, I needed to organize myself or else go crazy. So I started a new Google Account under my corporation name. I unfollowed many of the blogs I follow and moved them the my new Google account. One Google account I'm keeping for my hobby of blogging and one I'll have for my business of writing and blogging. The blogs I feel fit better into my business writing and research, I moved over Corrin M. Howe, L.L.C. I'm using my same profile picture. I hope by having two separate accounts, I can keep up with reading and commenting on all my favorite blogs. I hope to have a better system in place than I've been using lately.


I can already tell you I feel much better fowarding half my email to the other account. Now both email accounts look and feel manageable. I can actually see what needs to be handled immediately and what can wait for a little bit. If you feel I lost you in the transfer, please let me know.

I plan to update my Autism Blog roll now that I've picked up some tricks while organizing myself. And I hope to clean up this site a little bit and make it "more unified" - something I learned at the SITS Bloggy Boot Camp. Something else I learned there, I can't do it all a once, so the changes will be slow. I hope you'll hang with me.


I also hope that Jonathan will start giving me material again soon. He's not been as creative, funny or as "Aspie" lately. The best that he's done recently was yelled through the main floor bathroom door, "I hate exploding poop!" Thanks for sharing, but it wasn't enough for a blog post.

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Supportive Blog Friends - Success; Attemp to be Snarky - Fail

Thank you for your wonderful and supportive comments on my last post. I was attempting to be snarky, not looking for an outpouring of encouragement. But I'll take it!


Just wanted to let you know that my husband did co-sign on the loan, so I did receive it. It's still annoying that I once bought two different houses and three cars on my own without any help. It is really sad that taking time out to give my kids a firm foundation doesn't bring any value to the market place. Sigh. But it is what it is.

* * * * * * * * *

Scott was out of town all week on a business trip. I dreaded the week alone as a single mom, especially anticipating Jonathan's homework battles during the week. Usually Scott and I divide and conquer. He takes Faith, the easy one.  I take Jonathan and sit down with him. I have to stop everything I'm doing and just sit at the table with Jonathan. My sole job is to say every five minutes, "Jonathan, sit down and do your homework." Forty minutes worth of homework takes about 90 to 120 minutes. Jonathan will get up to go to the bathroom, because his evening constitution is in the middle of homework. During those 10 or 20 minutes I call every five minutes while he's in the bathroom, "Jonathan, are you done yet?" When he's at the table (or underneath it), every five minutes, I point at his paper and say, "Jonathan, do the next problem."

Jonathan: I don't have homework this week because of MSAs. (Maryland State Assessments, which are tests to report on the teachers and schools ability to teach.)

Me: God is good!

Jonathan: God doesn't give MSAs.

Me: Yes, but Who is ultimately in control of MSAs?

Jonathan: Touché

Where doesn't he get things like "touché"? Anyway, God was indeed good. I didn't have to fight Jonathan all week to do homework. That saved me about 90 minutes of time and stress.

* * * * * * * * *

God knew what kind of week I'd have. Monday night I took my older son to an urgent care center. I called my parents, who live locally, to come watch Jonathan and Faith and get them to bed. Turns out Josh was okay, but the doctor did give him two weeks of "no sports." That lasted less than 24 hours before Joshua ignored doctor's orders.

* * * * * * * * * 

Tuesday night both Joshua and Jonathan had emotional and physical meltdowns. It got ugly. I called a good friend of the family to come over and intervene. However, Josh settled down enough on his own so I called my friend back and told him not to come over. Jonathan woke me up about four times in the middle of the early morning with stomach pains. I suspect the pains had more to do with Joshua's emotional meltdown than real sickness. (Regardless, we were both tired and dragging the next morning.)

* * * * * * * * *

Wednesday morning I forgot to give Jonathan his ADHD medication. It was apparent Wednesday afternoon. That night, we were supposed to have our weekly in home Bible Study; however,  one family had a family emergency, another family was sick, and Scott was out of town. I called my friend who was going to lead the group and told him he had the night off. And once again God was good to us. After several days of crisis, the family needed a quiet night of normal routines.

* * * * * * * * *

Thursday, morning marked 36 hours of no ADHD medication for Jonathan. It would've been funny, if it weren't so frustrating. He was back to being a sloth during the morning routine. He just stood and stared for long periods because he didn't remember what to do next. That night I had a networking function with local businesses. I was a little nervous about leaving Josh at home with his younger siblings after his emotional outburst earlier in the week. But everyone seemed to do well. Jonathan is hating school again. I think it has to do with the fact that he's been in testing all week AND the school moved his recess to the end of the day. Don't ask. The decision only makes sense to the school which made it. For Jonathan, it's too long without a break.

* * * * * * * * *

Friday morning I talked to the school VP about scheduling a break for Jonathan sometime late morning. She was very understanding and supportive. She promised to remedy it by Monday. Friday night, hubby came home late dinner time. Josh had a house full of his teenage friends to watch the Washington Capitols Ice Hockey game. Scott came in, put down his briefcase and luggage and immediately took me out for dinner. He took me to my favorite Mexican restaurant and ordered an eight ounce glass of white wine. Don't you just love a man who knows what his wife needs after a week of being a single parent? I know I'm spoiled.

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