Well????

      Hi everyone!  As most of you know I started this blog to share my journey with my son as he transitions out of high school this year.  It has been quite a roller coaster so far.  First we were told that last year was going to be his last year of school.  At the very end of the school year we were told that he was to stay in school for one more year so that he would be eligible for a diploma.
      Once school was started this year, his teacher told us she would be setting up an IEP meeting to discuss his transition to vocational training.  When the notice came in October, I was thrilled.  It looked like this was going to be a rather smooth process.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  That meeting was canceled, as was the one for November, and January.  We finally had a meeting last week.  I expected some one from his new program to be there.  Turned out that only his regular group of people were there.  What we discussed was his options, yet again, for where he could go for training.  I could have sworn we had decided this last year???  Anyway, it had to be rediscussed due to budget cuts and changes. 
      In our city there appears to be three options to choose from.  There is Option A, places that don't do much training and are more like glorified baby sitters.  Option B would be the Transition Academy.  There was a plan to make a special section just for the autistic students, but that didn't happen due to budget cuts.  They tell me it will happen some day, but probably not in time for my son.  Option C would be the privately run vocational training places that work with the school department.  It looks like we will be going with Option C.  My son worked with a program for half a year, two years ago.  They got him a job at a grocery store, in the meat department, packaging chicken.  He said it was boring and not only that , it turned him off fresh chicken.  I can only hope that they have been able to increase their list of job options over the past two years! 
      The last thing we discussed was his graduation.  It seems that since the academic part of his education is coming to an end this June, he can participate in the graduation ceremonies.  Now my first thought was "oh, he can't handle that."  Then his teacher began bringing up options about how they could get him through it.  You could see that she really wanted to see him walk across that stage.  My husband got all excited too.  It appears my job is to get my son warmed up to the idea that he WILL be participating in graduation. They will find a spot for him in line and just pop him in there when the time comes and pop him back out again.  I'm not sure what to think.  I think I have my work cut out for me.  June 10th is the day!  Hopefully it will go off without a hitch. 
      As you know I like to add a recipe at the end here for a little stress relief.  This month's recipe is an old family recipe for banana bread.  My mother was from Bermuda and banana plantations used to be plentiful there when I was a young girl.  With the tourism trade becoming more and more important in Bermuda, the plantations have become less and less.  My mother got this recipe from a cookbook that her mother had.  A local church put together a cookbook to raise funds to help people shortly after World War 2.  A Miss Nettie Peniston contributed this recipe to the book. I love this recipe because it is very simple.  I find old recipes have just a few ingredients to them, but are super good.
      Miss Nettie Peniston's Banana Bread

Ingredients:
      1/2 cup of butter
      1 cup of sugar
      3 eggs
      3 bananas, crushed**
      2 cups of flour
      1 teaspoon baking soda
      1/4 cup nuts (optional)

       Combine ingredients in order given. ** Please note that Bermuda bananas are smaller that the ones we normally find in our grocery stores.  You may want to use just two good size ones.  The more banana, the wetter the batter, the longer you have to bake it. 
        Grease and flour a bread pan.  Put the dough in the pan. Fill the pan up to about 3/4 of an inch from the top. You may have extra dough depending on the size of your bananas.  Have oven set for 350 degrees.  Center pan in oven and bake until toothpick comes out clean.  For me it takes about an hour.  My dough always seems very banana-ry and thus takes a while. 
        When loaf has cooled transfer to a plate.  If any of it is too browned, just trim that part off!  It still tastes delicious! 
        Hugs to everyone!  I hope everyone has an enjoyable start to their spring.  I can't wait to get back into my garden and get my veggies growing again!
                                                                     Nancy