Who I Am

So, before diving into this whole blogging thing I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is MJ and I am a single mother of three extraordinary children with their own unique struggles. I have a MS in Applied Developmental Psychology and a BA in Psychology. My favorite passion is my children and reading. I also love my job working with numbers at a local higher education school.

About my Children

My oldest is my son J who is less then a week away from turning 13! The journey into preteen has been just as bumpy as I have been warned. When my son was 4 he was diagnosed with Asperger's, then has been subsequently been diagnosed with ADHD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. He loves the Titanic, Reading, and Magic the Gathering - in that order. I am sure somewhere his family falls into the list as well.

My middle child S, and my oldest daughter, is 11. She is an amazingly unique girl who is nearly as tall as me! She is extremely creative and artistic. Her favorite pastime is making things out of trash. Currently she is on an artistic duck tape trip. When my daughter was three she was diagnosed with Bipolar - despite many psychologists and therapists intentions to change her diagnosis it has always stayed as the most appropriate.

My youngest daughter L is 8 years old. She is a bundle of energy! If the Energizer Bunny and Tiger had a child it would turn out to be my daughter. When she was nine months old she began to regress into Autism. This was the same period in which my other two children were first receiving their diagnosis. Because of this I saw the symptoms early and she received intervention before she was a year old. She was officially diagnosed with PDD-NOS. That diagnosis has since been changed to an anxiety disorder.

Our Family

My ex husband was military. The simple version is that when he came back from his second tour in Iraq he no longer wanted to be a part of our family. I have been officially divorced for three years now and provide all of the care for my children. Thankfully, I live near family so I do have backup when needed! Like every family we have our good days and our not so great days - although the challenges may be a bit more over the top then most families. Either way the one thing I hope my kids take with them is that they can rely on their family to have their backs.

Our Diet

When my children were being diagnosed I decided to have our family go gluten and casein free. I saw a huge improvement in my youngest daughter, it is one of the reasons that I believe she has officially lost her Autism Diagnosis. I also learned that S does not respond well to sugar. It can throw her into violent rages. Although we did not stay G/C Free for long I took away a healthy respect for how food can affect my children's behaviors. While I was in graduate school we eat a fresh whole foods diet and their were marked behavioral improvements.

Before my current job, and just a few months ago, I was working as an applied behavioral analysis. I loved my job, and the children I had the opportunity to work with. However, the pay was not enough to support a family and the hours where when I needed to be caring for my own children. I found a more stable long term job and despite missing my other children I am very happy with my decision. Now that I actually see my children I realize how out of control our eating habits have become. My son had to be put on medication for anger management, I gained fifty pounds in the last year, S is no longer in as much control, and L has been having major panic attacks.

It is time for us to get back under control, and although we are doing that through time and routine, we are also cleaning up the way we eat. I made the decision that we are going to start eating Paleo - honestly, I think if it had a cool name and such set rules we never would have stopped the G/C Free diet. It is an ongoing journey. . . but that is another story.