Why I can't even put a decent post together

I cannot tell you how glad I am that garden season is almost over. I am exhausted. I already called it quits for the season. But then for some pathological reason I brought home a half bushel of sweet red peppers and eight pounds of green beans. We WILL have pickled beans and roasted peppers all winter even if my husband is seriously considering an intervention for me over my compulsion to preserve vegetables. And I don't even want to tell you about the pumpkins, Charlie Brown! So, if I haven't responded to your e-mails? If I haven't sent you that money I owe you? If I haven't sent you that box full of baby stuff that is all packed and sitting by the front door? (But it's coming this week, I promise!!) Well, please don't think badly of me. I have a serious vegetable habit that I'm trying to kick.

But, there ARE a few things happening here that are unrelated to the vegetables:

1. Sami's new school rocks! It is a Sudbury-type school with about ten students ranging in age between 5 and 11. I love watching the kids plan, create, negotiate, debate and just plain have fun. (All these things, by the way, I would have totally taken for granted if not for Oliver's autism because these are the very things that don't come easily to my boy. Watching it happen naturally, easily, it just blows me away.) Every Monday there is a circus class and Sami is thrilled to learn how to juggle, which is very funny because pre-, pre-school he somehow got it into his head that one learned how to juggle in school. Go to school. Learn to juggle. That's just the way it worked in Sami-land. And Lo and Behold!: a circus class! So awesome!

2. I have decided that I can no longer really, truly say that Oliver is non-verbal. I finally feel like I can have a kind of, sort of, conversation with my boy. It seems like kind of a funny thing to put waaaay down here in the post -- it is a such a Grand Statement, isn't it? -- but it has been happening so gradually over the course of this year that it doesn't feel like such a huge Ta-dah! kind of announcement. But definitely an awesome for the Oliver column! Of course, I feel the need to qualify this a bit: we still have a loooong way to go. I would love it if Oliver was able to offer a comment or ask a question. But he can answer questions, tell me how he is feeling, and let me know what he wants. Plus, his echolalia is skyrocketing and I finally feel much more secure that we will get there someday -- which is an awesome in the Mama category.

3. Resident Teenager (RT) has moved in with us full-time. Life is a roller-coaster that ends in squeals of delight every evening when two little boys are tucked into bed by the biggest boy -- an awesome for the entire house o' boys!

That is all for tonight. Dilly Beans are cooling, peppers are roasted and I've hung up my apron for the season.

I hope.