Burgers, Yoga, and Rolled Oats

Lighthouse Conversations
Written By Matt Juzenas, Director of Strategic Operations

Lighthouse meets every other Wednesday evening from 8:30-9:30 pm (CST). If you haven’t joined us before, we invite you to come and sit awhile with this beautiful group of parents. As a community, we gather to celebrate the highs and support each other through the challenges. This is a conversation with other parents who understand what you are experiencing. Grab your favorite beverage join us. This is a program for parents with students attending Islands of Brilliance programming. Register here.

I love how as a part of this community, we are able to not only share our common experiences but our knowledge and the resources we collect along each of our personal journeys. Last week, one of our parents shared with us The Behavior Revolution. Last night, another parent shared some additional resources that she has found helpful over the years:

  • Asperger Experts is a global community for advice, emotional support, best practices and finding new friends, created by people with Asperger's.

  • Different Brains strives to encourage understanding and acceptance of individuals who have variations in brain function and social behaviors known as neurodiversity.

  • The Mighty: Autism is a community made up of autistic voices and the people who support them.

Last night we also spent much of the night on one of our favorite topics at Lighthouse…food! In the last recap of 2020, we shared a big list of winter activities. Last night we added a few more to that list!

A burger face-off

Remember the famous 2010 Travel Channel Food Wars episode that put A-J Bombers vs. Sobleman's Pub And Grill? Last night one of our families created their own face-off getting burgers from The Brick Pub & Grill and The Bay. They brought them both home and discussed the qualities and differences of the two burgers. Which favorites would you choose to compare? If you need some inspiration, last October, Milwaukee Magazine published Your Guide to Finding the Best Burger in Milwaukee…complete with a bracket you and your family can eat your way through to crown your own winner!

This idea reminded me of a fun activity we like to do in our house, Drive-Thru Roulette! According to Urban Dictionary, “It's when you go through a drive-thru and order what the car in front of you just ordered, without knowing what they ordered.” While that sounds fun, we play a different kind of roulette. We hop in the car and visit a number of random restaurants, ordering one thing off of each menu. Grab a burger from Sonic, curly fries from Arby’s, an egg roll at Panda Express, a slider from KFC…you get the idea. It gets you out of the house and everyone can get to choose a location/item for the car!

Inhale the future, exhale the past.

After all of those burgers, you might want to work them off while working on finding your center. Yoga One Studio is offering Zoom classes which they are recording and follow up with a link to the session for you to keep! So you can lie in Shavasana in your own home at your own time.

We carry tension throughout our bodies, even our hands! Milwaukee artist, quilter, and yoga therapist, Heidi Parkes has created a series of five-minute videos on YouTube exploring the practice of Hand Yoga. There’s even a 30-Day Hand Yoga Challenge on her blog! 

Can’t sleep…too excited for breakfast.

Now that we’ve balanced out our chakras it’s time to feed our bodies. Last night, one of our parents had to grab today’s breakfast out of the oven. She had made this delicious recipe for Berry Baked Oatmeal (although she prefers to leave out the banana).

Did you know oats are incredibly nutritious? Whole oats are rich in antioxidants, high in fiber, can lower cholesterol, improve blood sugar control, and they are super filling! (Healthline)

In our house, we eat a lot of overnight oats. I love that I can put them together into mason jars while I’m making dinner, and suddenly I have breakfast covered for the next couple of days! And there are so many variations to make, a few of our favorite overnight oat flavors are:

Cold oatmeal isn’t your thing? You can always heat it up gently in the microwave or in a saucepan.

I hope you all have a beautiful week. Seek the balance, whether that’s not falling over while in tree pose…or balancing last night’s burger with a healthy bowl of today’s oatmeal.

Peace and Love,
Matt and all of us at Islands of Brilliance

Matt Juzenas, Director of Strategic Operations

With a background in both special education and graphic design, Matt blends these two disciplines creating unique, engaging learning opportunities for the participants at Islands of Brilliance. In his corporate marketing and agency days, Matt was a strategic and empowering Creative Director. Guiding with compassion and kindness, he formed and led high performing teams who brought their best selves to work. As an educator, Matt takes a similarly holistic approach to each of his students.

With a passion for learning and an ongoing commitment to self-improvement, Matt is an avid reader and explorer of process. An advocate for mental health awareness, he believes that by sharing our stories we find common ground and connection, creating communities of support and understanding. He enjoys spending time playing board games, crocheting, and cooking delicious meals for family and friends.

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