Lately I have really enjoyed questing through my eye shadow collection to see if I can dupe looks I could produce by a newly launched palette containing a color story I like. Today I slowly moved my way through stash-shopping and creating my own variant of what is the most likely look to be produced from Huda’s latest Lovefest palette. Everything is in slow motion because my body has just been tired this week. I am on antibiotics for a urinary tract infection, and my body is telling me daily that it’s still recovering and needs a little bit more self-care. I found I could definitely dupe the vibes of that particular palette with what I already own, but not the collection fragrance (which I really like), so I got the travel size bottle.

Self-care sometimes just can’t be duped either. That can be very tricky in circumstances such as mine, where right now I am the only acting habilitation therapist working with our son…so any time off I take results in missed therapy opportunities. But sometimes that just has to be done. So I prioritize what I consider to be his most important goals and focus on those…if I am physically able. For this week, it means I have focused mostly on his community safety and public therapy goals, reducing other therapy times so that I can lie down and do that extra bit of resting.

Community safety before makeup, spending lots of time in the bathroom not just while applying makeup, and doing our second session of practicing community safety skills near the end of our day yesterday. All photos by Ariana.

This isn’t always an easy choice, because often with too many routine and schedule changes, our son’s behaviors can worsen. So a balance has to be struck between the level of change and the level of behaviors that can happen before resting isn’t even possible regardless of whether therapy is being done or not. And sometimes, like this week, life just gives us a triple whammy of things: other therapists calling out sick, Hannah’s first week back and school, and me not feeling well. Tony is not pleased with the amount of routine disruptions, but he’s showing how far he has come on his path to becoming King of the Changes that we’ve not seen a huge spike in self-harming and his cooperation in most therapy sessions has still been close to the usual level.

I will also cut things out then, if I am able, in other areas where I can. Which means, this is all I am writing for this week. I wish each of you the best of health and happiness this upcoming week. <3 Ari