Monthly Archives: April 2015

Ten things I’m Thankful

Life sometimes sucks the life right out of you. I was thinking when I first wrote my “14” post that being 14 really wasn’t too great. It was hard, life was not a Hallmark moment. Yet once I really thought about 14, I realized it wasn’t always perfect but it wasn’t always torture. In fact, looking back I would say it was 10% hard and 90% blessed. I just didn’t realize it at the time.

Lizzi from Considerings dedicates each Saturday to concentrate on what made life a little easier this week. Her belief is that concentrating on the good stuff of the previous week starts the coming week off right. So let’s concentrate on that 90% blessed for a moment and throw the 10% to the curb where it belongs.

Today I am thankful for…. Continue reading →

GASP! I was 14 and scared

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It was 1985; I was a freshman in high school. GASP a freshman. My best friend and I were going to be separated for the first time. I was scared out of my wits. She was my friend, what if she found another one? After all I stole her from Michelle. I had evidence that she could be swayed. I was the one she spent the summer with not Michelle. And they were neighbors! She had to travel to be my friend. I was fourteen and my biggest fear wasn’t high school it was losing my best friend. Continue reading →

Thank you, Bridget’s angels

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Bridget has three educational support personnel (ESP). These women are dedicated to making Bridget exceed her potential. All of the ESPs (those assigned to her and those who just work in the building) love and nurture Bridget not to the best of their ability, but beyond it. The men and women at Bridget’s school are always thinking of new programs to adapt, ideas to encourage the students to participate and generally love them like their own child. In Bridget’s case, they probably love her more than their own children since they don’t have to live with her. They are not “staff” to me, but an important teammate in raising Bridget. Continue reading →

Breathing trumps peanuts

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I have three very dear friends whose children have food allergies. They are not seasonal allergies or allergies that are inconvenient. For these children they are truly a matter of life and death. Our school is considered “peanut-aware”. They tried to go peanut-free, but there was too much outcry from the PB&J gang. Plus I bet a lawyer suggested saying the school was peanut-free would open the district to a law suit if little Max snuck in a peanut butter cup and little Lily got a rash. Instead they encourage parents and students to keep a peanut-free environment within the school. As a member of the PB&J and Fluffernutter gang myself, I too was dismayed that I couldn’t just pop a sandwich into my child’s lunch box.

Continue reading →

The Sun and the Moon

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April is Autism Awareness Month. Yet I find autism awareness tough to explain. Most people are aware that autism exists. There are very few people who have not heard the term or who haven’t come into contact with someone who knows someone with autism. The problem is in explaining how Bridget and her friend Zach can be the same age, both have autism yet they are as different as the sun and the moon. The sun and the moon are both stars, after all. Yet they present completely differently. Continue reading →

TBT–One face of autism

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Today’s Throw Back Thursday Post is perfectly timed. It was first published last year on April 2nd for Autism Awareness Day and today Bridget is again just one small face of Autism.

Today is Autism Awareness Day. While I may not (yet) be comfortable with Boo having an added diagnosis of Autism, I am getting there. There is no escaping the fact that Boo was tested and she has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. But what does this a child with autism look like?
It depends on the child. When Boo was first diagnosed my friend Julie told me that Autism Speaks has a motto: Meet one child with autism and you have met one child with autism. The children are as unique as a snowflake. Each wondrous and magical and heartbreaking beautiful.
A child with autism is born just as perfect as a child born without. Continue reading →