Spring Break Reset

Spring break vibes turn into a real-time life update with sunshine, bowling plans, and a big thank you for record downloads and new listeners. I share how I’m trying to reset my health, why I’m cautious about posting my son’s journey online, and what I’m learning about IEPs, behavior, and advocacy. 
• spring break plans with my son, from the park to bowling 
• gratitude for new followers, downloads, and longtime listeners 
• using fan mail to share topic ideas, opinions, and stories 
• keeping the podcast raw, uncut, and focused on real life 
• getting consistent with Zumba, walking goals, and the Hinge workout app 
• protecting my child and my mental health from online negativity 
• the gap between a well-written IEP and real execution 
• advocating with strategy while still building trust with schools 
• current behavior challenges and attention seeking at school 
• why in-home ABA made things worse for us and what I’d change next time 
Anyone have any suggestions? Please fanbox me because nothing's working. 
Please, if you you know use that fan mail um link on the episodes, feel free to give me a review, um, you know, on whatever platform you're listening to me on. 

Thanks for listening coffee with a twist.

Email me at: coffeewitatwist@gmail.com

Note: I don’t own copyrights to any music you hear in any of my episodes. 

Transcript

Spring Break Plans And Sunshine

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to Coffee with a Twist. You're here with Madam Balloon. I hope you had an excellent weekend. Looking forward to your week. It is beautiful out today. Little breeze. It's spring break here where we are. So I had a couple of plans with my son this week. Today, later on today, we're gonna go bowling. And as the day gets a little bit warmer, we're probably gonna head over to the park and let him get some of the energy out before we go bowling. Um, I'm sitting outside right now enjoying this breeze and the sun. Um, I think I mentioned before in my backyard, I get a lot of sun. So on days where it's like summer days, like 80-90 degrees, to sit out here is damn near impossible during the day because with the heat and the sun, it's you're boiling. So a day like today where the weather's like mid-60s, um, and with a breeze, even though the sun is out, it's it's not so it's not bad, it's not like you can't sit out here. So if anything, it gives you like a good balance. So I am trying to enjoy as much as I can sitting out here with this type of weather because I know once summer really hits, I'll only be able to sit out here early morning and as you know the sun starts to go down. So I am enjoying as most the most of it as I can, as much of it as I

Podcast Milestone And Fan Mail

SPEAKER_00 1:47

can, guys. I can't talk, so I want to give a huge thank you. I had um my stats come in for my podcast, and in one week I've gained new followers. Thank you and welcome you all, as well as over a hundred and thirty-eight downloads of different episodes of mine, and it you know, probably from some of my newbies as well, maybe going back listening to my content, and guys, that is the most downloads I've ever had in doing this podcast, and I think I've been doing this podcast close to five years. Um, so thank you all so much for uh joining, continuing to listen. Um I I was shocked, I was like, this has to be a mistake, you know, it has to be a mistake. So thank you all. And don't forget there's a new feature on my episodes now where you can do fan mail, and all that is is um you can go on there and chat with me. You can send me topic ideas if you'll like, or send me like your opinion, or send me like something that's happened to you that you want to share. Remember, this platform is just like it's just for talking, you know what I mean? Like it's I it again. My goal is not to make it like very political and well not political really at all. I don't talk about politics, but I'm just trying to talk about, even though I know it's part of the real world, I just try to talk about real life stuff that happens to me and to people in my life. Um things that I've experienced, so it's typically things that have I have experienced again. Your experience with with the same situation could be different, but I'm just trying to speak facts from my point of view with always the open mind of everyone has a point of view, and I respect that. So please don't ever think anything I say is like the gospel or like that's just what I agree with, or that's final, that's not what this is for. This had started as an outlet, especially during COVID. My son was young, and I just needed human adult time, I guess. So, this is how this started. So, for all of you that have stuck with me, thank you. Um, it's such appreciated in the new newcomers. Please go back listen to some of my old stuff so that you kind of understand why my platform is the way it is. It's raw, uncut, unedited, it's just what it is. I'm not polished at all in any type of way because this was meant to just be an outlet for me and hopefully something helpful for others, just to kind of get their mind off of certain things and just like a time to like be able to listen to me and relax, hopefully. So some days, my my episodes, I'm just rambling, and I try to let you know that before you even really listen. That way, if you don't feel like listening to me ramble, you know, click off. But yes, use the fan mail to be able to, you know, provide maybe topics or your opinion to something that I um talked about, things like that. Definitely use it. I get it directly. So the platform that I use is always like enhancing, enhancing their platform to make it where we can communicate and things, so definitely take advantage of it. Um, and I'm here, and you know, I'm always looking for new topics and things because sometimes I run out. I mean, my life isn't that exciting, so you know, I I do run out of topics um a lot, so Eli.

Chasing A Kid Mid-Recording

SPEAKER_00 5:51

See, and my son is outside right now. Get in the house, no get in the house. Yes, this is what I'm dealing with right now. So my son ran out down to the basement and left. Give me a second, guys. Alrighty, guys, I am back. So my son, I was upstairs on the deck, and my son went out smack through the basement. And then the reason why I ran back at the way I did because I thought he went out with like no clothes on, so I'm like, oh my hearing, especially because of the way he was laughing. He was like, you know, laughing as if he's you know doing something he's not supposed to. So I'm like, what the hell? He didn't have on his clothes. Um, so he let the dog out giving him something he's back there wanting to dig. He watches the stuff on YouTube, and um, yeah, he was wanting to dig. So that is over. I'm back, anyways. Um, I'm coming back outside so I can finish up this episode.

Rebuilding Fitness With Zumba And Hinge

SPEAKER_00 7:06

I'm out of breath, y'all. I need to work out more. But one thing I'm so excited, I've been going to Zumba consistently again, at least for now. Um, I must admit last week and this week I did not walk as much as I like to. Um, I've been walking a lot. I do need to pick that back up. The walking. Um, I had started doing this app through my insurance called Hinge, and I've been doing a lot of that, and it's an excellent app. Um, I'm sure there's other apps very similar to it. Um, but my insurance company sent it to us in the mail, so I signed up for it, and I freaking love it. One of the things that I really love about it is that um some of the workouts you do, they make you be on camera to ensure that you're doing the exercise properly, as long with counting the reps for you. I don't know, I I just love the app. Um, the programs, the the classes aren't very long, they're interactive. It's just you and the like a recording basically, and at the top part of the screen is showing you how to do the exercise, and the bottom part may be you on there, you know. It shows you kind of like a skeleton and making sure your movement's correct and it and it eggs you on, like you're doing a great job. That form looks good. So I've been doing that, so I'm just really trying to get my life back in a sense. I need to lose some weight, in all honesty. Like, I can fill it in my joints and stuff if I stand too long, if I do certain things, and when your body's not used to being a certain weight, you know, you've been a certain weight your whole life, and then things change. So I'm you know trying to just be a healthier version of myself. So everything I'm telling you guys when I'm like self-care, self-care is for me too. So always keep that in mind. I'm not judging, it's just things that I know I need to hear myself. So I come on here to talk about it as well.

Protecting A Special Needs Child Online

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Um, the only part of my life that I don't discuss much on this platform, which I want to start doing because um community is good, and what I mean by that is so I give you little dips and dabs into my my life, but I don't give you much information on my son. You guys know he's on an IEP, you guys know some of my battles with that, but you you know, you don't really know my journey with him. So I do have a special needs son. I'm in this episode, I I won't I won't be going deep either, so I do apologize for that because I know some people need to hear other people's journeys and where they're at, and how I know that is because I follow people like that as well, and it's very helpful, but um, and I commend those people who do it, like it it's amazing, and it's so needed and so grateful, and I want to be a person like that that just shares my journey, like or you know, my my life in that way. Um but with things being so public, I am a very protective mom. Even if my child didn't have a special need, I feel like I would be very protective in this way, but with him being special needs, I'm even it's even more heightened. And what I mean by that is we know social media, media can be harsh. And for any parent to get online to share their journey or just to share where they are right now or their emotions, their whatever, and about their child. No matter again, the child doesn't have to be special need, you're just sharing about your child. Um negativity can come with that, judgmentalness can come with that, and you have to be ready for that because not everything is rainbows and butterflies. Some people get off on just being negative or being judgmental or whatever. Me personally, I have to protect my even though I know it it doesn't matter what anyone else says, whatever it's my journey, or should I say our journey, my mental, I have to protect it as well. Because dealing with children in general, your mental is all over the place. Because any parent, all parents, you worry about your kids. And it's not that you worry about them in the now, you worry about their future, you're worried about what they'll become, you worry about if you're doing things right. It's you're you're your biggest critic. So I say that to say you're already triple checking yourself and double guessing yourself. I don't need negativity. Um, with everything I do throughout my processes, even with my son, I have to do it when my mental's ready because it's a lot you to be strong to advocate for someone else is hard because you don't even know if you're advocating properly, if this decision you make is it is it the correct one, or are you being brainwashed by living all this time and hearing certain things, you know what I'm saying? So I'm still not opening up quite yet with that. I'm just not there. I want to be there, guys. I want to be there because it's so helpful when you have people to talk to, or when you have platforms you can go to and here.

IEP Reality And School Trust

SPEAKER_00 13:10

So I did do a little bit about his IEP and my experience with it. I've been hearing a lot of negative experiences with IEPs and just school systems in general, and exclude including the one I'm you know, my son is in. And um, it's hard. I mean, even myself, because the thing is, you're gonna have a great IEP written out, but ensuring that they execute it is key. So, like in my last one, I'm telling you guys, I enjoy his his IEP is perfect. I enjoy and have a great connection with his teachers and the school. I really do. But how do you execute? How are they executing? Are they executing to what the IEP is? And a lot of times they're not, they're doing the best they can due to maybe resources, things like that. But how can you tell an organization you must do this, you must do that? Yes, I get that that's what you're doing. But if they don't have someone qualified, you don't want them just putting anyone, any person in your child's path because it could make or break your child, it can make a huge difference. But the wrong trained person in your child's uh life or in your child's path of learning could impact it. So it's hard, it's hard, you know, figuring out the sweet spot. It's also hard, um, especially when your kid has special needs, and depending on communication-wise and stuff, uh that you're not rocking the boat. You you you gotta have a certain level of trust in these in these schools, these teachers, these people, but they're people, they're human. And you know, you you kinda have to play the game to a degree, to a degree, and I get not everyone will agree with what I'm saying, and I may not even be verbalizing it the way that I'm meaning it. Yes, I get my son's needs met to the best of the ability I can with the team, um, with his team at school, but I also do things privately too on my own to ensure he's getting the extra. But I also don't want to put my child in a predicament, even though we know, okay, oh, it's the teacher's job to do this or do that or the right thing to do. Let's go with that. We are all human, and we gotta realize not all human beings have humanity. Some people retaliate. You hear of many cases where teachers have abused or done something to kids, and the thing is you never know how long it's gone on. Maybe not just to your child, it could have been years before, and things like that. So I say that to say, like, it's it's kind of like that whistleblower at work. Oh, who feels protected? HR guys my back. No, they don't, you know what I mean? Uh they retaliate. Next thing you know, you're jobless, or they find something. With when you're advocating for your child, it takes great strategy, it really does. And um I'm I'm still navigating that, you know what I mean? But um my son is is great. Um he you know, he's great, he uh thriving every day. A year ago to now it's changed, and I know a year from now will even be more change, improvement, progress, things of that nature.

Behavior Struggles And ABA Lessons

SPEAKER_00 17:05

It it it's it's amazing. Um the area where we are struggling at right this moment is behavioral. Um, he's in this stage where if it's funny to him, that's all that matters, basically. What I mean by that, if you want him to stop doing something, if it's funny to him and satisfying to him, he wants to keep doing it. Even though you're like, no, stop, whatever, he'll keep doing it. He like really uh pushes the full limit, the full boundary. So we are working on that currently. Um in the same it's worse in school than it is at home, to be honest. Um, so we're trying to figure out for him to really he he just wants attention, even if it's negative. He just wants the attention, and he's the funny guy in the room. So we're trying to work through that, navigate through that. Anyone have any suggestions? Please fanbox me because nothing's working. I did try in-home ABA, it was not good. Um, it made him 10 times worse. I don't know if it was the person, the strategy used, the what have you. And what sucks is I love the person we had. They I thought she was perfect, but what I have learned with my son, what I like and what he likes are two different things. Um, so you know, maybe if we ever try again, it maybe needs to be some more bonding. He has to like really he's very observant, so he you need to become his friend first versus just jumping in and like hey, let's do this, let's do that, because he's gonna fight the boundary. I don't know. So I haven't decided if I'm gonna try that again because it what it did, it made his the for the reasoning of me getting that ABA service and what I needed it for turned into us not using it for that because his behaviors got so bad in areas that we didn't even have problems with before, and it rolled over even into school, so I had to get rid of the service after like a month, and um it helped so um after I got rid of the service, the baseline of where my son was at went back to normal, which is fine because I didn't get her for certain things at home. It was really for at home, it was like help with potty training, stop eloping. That that was really it that I was needing help in, but it made school so bad, and that we're still feeling the effects of that. So that's where we are right now. Um summer's coming. I'm hoping we can I can help him with resetting and with his speech exploding more. I'm hoping all of those things will help with behaviors and things. I don't know, I'm at a loss there, but I do want to be able to talk to you all more and more about my journey. So I say that to say you'll notice in these episodes, you might put a little couple minutes on my son and things like that. That is my way of easing into it. All I ask, I'm not saying you have to agree with me, but I'm just asking, please, you know, keep your negativity away if if you have any. You know, it's not good for any of us. I I can take whatever you say to me, but please don't bash my my child or anything. You'll see and hear comments I've seen on like people's things where it's like, oh, it sounds like that child just needs an ass woman. That's not always the that's not always the answer, you know. Um I do understand parenting has changed since you know our errors of growing up and things, but also you notice mental health illnesses have gone up, and it could be because of the way our parenting style was. We had to hold it all in, we were never able to express our emotions. So I don't know, I don't know, but I will be trying to sprinkle some stuff in, and some of my topics will be not directly about my son, but topics that dig deep, kind of like even what I just was talking about parenting styles. Um, my next episode might actually be on parenting styles from before to now, and what do we think about it? You know, I I Don't know so any like I said, anything I say, it's not saying it's facts, I'm just going with what I think or my experience. Um, but yeah, we we're gonna figure out something with my son, but um, but yeah, I just wanted to jump on there today.

Spring Break Ideas And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Hope um, if anyone else is on spring break, uh, drop some ideas of what you guys are doing this week. Um, we are doing bowling, sky zone, course the park, backyard stuff. Um, we did some yard work and stuff last week, so just a couple of different things, but yeah, please drop some ideas that way um I can mention them in my next episode. And guys, I just want to thank you again for all the downloads and the follows. Please, if you you know use that fan mail um link on the episodes, feel free to give me a review, um, you know, on whatever platform you're listening to me on. I enjoy reading them. Uh, a lot of people like what me and my sisters are on. We haven't done that in a long time. So I'm gonna have to try to get the band back together. What are we gonna talk about? Ah, parenting styles, maybe. So um, we'll we'll see. We'll see. I'll get I'll get something going. But I'm gonna jump out of here. Thank you for joining and listening. Coffee with a twist, madam ballou.