There is a movement on Twitter, #ToTheGirls. The premise is what would you want your younger self to know? What would you want your daughter/niece/any female child to know? Yes, of course we want boys to know stuff as well. As the mother of two young daughters, here are ten things I want them to know: Continue reading
I’m having a holy crap moment. Yesterday I received a notice from Facebook that a friend congratulated me for being honored by BlogHer as a Voice of the Year. For those who don’t blog it’s the Oscars of the Blogging World. Or not, but still freaking huge (I’ve used the word freaking more in the past 24 hours than in my life). Continue reading
A personal guest post from my dear friend, Laura. She is a warrior mom to her son, Zachary. Her son is gorgeous. Like a mini-Elvis gorgeous. You know before he got old. Laura is an incredible photographer, gorgeous inside and out. Her smile lights up a room.This is her feelings on autism awareness and why she struggles to define what it means to her.
A day where many Facebook posts are made showing supporters wearing blue shirts, lots of puzzle piece memes floating around, and posts declaring support for family and loved ones affected with autism.
I struggle with this day for so many reasons. Mostly I’m grateful for the support and recognition for my son and his friends who live with autism. But I also try so hard to be a little vulnerable and allow people to see into our world of struggle, meltdowns, heartache, therapy, triumph and successes. But this is where the ‘awareness’ part of ‘autism awareness day’ comes in. I have to be strong and let people see that we do struggle daily with our own ‘norms’ and having the outside world understand what our ‘normal’ looks like. Continue reading
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
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
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
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.
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
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
I try not to share my friend’s personal lives here on my blog. Try and fail often. But this story is too good not to share. Yesterday a great friend posted this on Facebook (edited slightly for privacy):
Hey …who is feeling generous? I run a program at a local homeless shelter. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving this place, like many others, is inundated with donations….but who thinks about Easter? The shelter says the Easter Bunny does not visit them So – Here goes…I’m putting together 9 Easter Baskets for the children that live there (8 kids under 5 and one newborn). I will be delivering these baskets Saturday night…what I need is the following:
16 chocolate bunnies – all the same (8 moms, 8 kids), 8 bubble-type toys – all the same…drip/spill free would be great, 8 plush bunnies – at least all the same size , 9 packages Easter Grass , 4 rolls of cellophane, 1-2 pair baby “rattle” socks, 2-3 infant toys (nothing big), 9 board books, 2-3 bags individually wrapped assorted candy that will fit in plastic eggs, 6 set fairy wings (dollar store has them), 2 toddler size nerf footballs (dollar store has them), Baby Shampoo/Baby Wash and Baby Wipes
Please either comment here or pm me if you’d like to help. I’d like to get this all together by Thursday/Friday. Thanks in advance!
Now why am I sharing this? One because this Facebook group is beyond incredible. The list above was filled within 15 minutes of my friend’s outreach. In addition to the above, cash donations were made and offers to cook/provide Easter dinner were offered. But more importantly it served to remind myself and others that compassion, empathy and generosity does exist in the world.
Each fall/winter shelters are inundated with donations of food, clothing, toys and gift cards/cash. Yet homelessness doesn’t just happen in the holiday season. It happens on Mother/Father’s’s day, Valentine’s day, the Fourth of July and today.
Sadly, it will happen tomorrow as well.
Yet we can help. More importantly we want to help. My friend Michelle participated in random acts of kindness in celebration of World Down Syndrome day. My neighbor above had a small social group of townies participate in making sure the Easter bunny arrives at the local shelter. Kindness does exist in small forms and extravagant gestures.
Today I want to ask that you help make sure the Easter bunny does not miss a child in a homeless shelter. Drop off a basket, drop off a bunny (stuffed, not alive) to a local shelter or speak to your school nurse and ask if there is a family in need you can help. Get your PTA involved; get your kids involved, your neighbors or your friends. Contact a shelter and ask what is needed. Post it on Facebook and be amazed at the results. It doesn’t have to be much, it could just be a baked treat or a ham or a stuffed bunny or a package of bubbles but your generosity will spread good.
And spreading good? That’s what matters.
To find a shelter near you, please check out this website.
(Un)Diagnosed and still okay 