Category Archives: Web Schtuff

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs: Blogger Spotlight on Mary of “Passionate Perseverance”

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31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs

Choosing to do this challenge during this particular October was kind of a crazy idea because I’m currently juggling school, being a mom, my own 3+ times a week attempts at blogging, and making sure all the I’s are dotted/T’s crossed for Daniel. (That last one is separate from being a mom because it’s another full-time job on top of basic parenting.) Knowing this, I built in some “cheater” topics for busy days/weeks and one of them is spotlighting bloggers who have kiddos with special needs. There are some bloggers who were complete no-brainers in terms of inclusion: Mary of Passionate Perseverance, Kelly of This Ain’t the Lyceum!, Rebecca of Backwards in High Heels, Kathleen of So Much to Say…, Cammie of Beyond Pearls, and Sarah of Wifeytini. I’m going to spotlight Mary today and save the rest for other times!

Why I’m spotlighting this blogger: Mary is getting spotlighted because I wish she lived nearby as she is just awesome beyond words!!! (If you don’t believe me, read this post put together by a mutual friend. The author was hoping to get 7 things about Mary to post for 7 Quick Takes but got WAAAAAY more because so many of us wanted to share about her.)

Her daughter Courtney had seizures from infancy onward until she passed away on December 27, 2014 at the age of 22. She spent her life in a wheelchair, receiving tube feedings, and giving her parents and older brother scares like nothing else. I would have been the most bitter and angry person if this had been my life because Court’s level of care was so intense… and Mary *TOTALLY* isn’t. She has the same sense of gallows humor that I do, she went out of her way to encourage mamas like me even when Courtney wasn’t doing well or even in the weeks and months after Court’s passing, she made sure that Court was always dressed to the nines (we’re talking better clothes and outfits than I will ever hope to be able to put together), she chose to be authentic about what she was dealing with daily with Court and how it’s all OK (even when it absolutely sucks in the moment) because love ultimately wins, and she’s now writing books and speaking about her experiences in parenting Courtney. (If you’re in the DC area and need a pro-life speaker, get in touch with her NOW. I mean it.) After Court’s passing, she became the liturgical coordinator at her church which allowed her to be present with grieving families as they were dealing with a profoundly dark time in their lives… which is amazing because she was still dealing with her own grief. She recently made the decision to quit her liturgical coordinator job and is now writing and speaking on life with Court.

Seriously, I will be hugging her and probably bawling my eyes out if we ever get a chance to meet in person because she has been such a support to me (we’ve had Facebook chats while sitting in ER bays with children who seem to enjoy giving us scares), she has done vlogs where she encourages other mamas of special kids (with Courtney in the background making Chewbacca noises), and she just radiates happiness in her faith.

So please, go check out her blog Passionate Perseverance RIGHT NOW!

31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs: And So It Begins

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31 Days of Parenting Kiddos with Special Needs

So here we are again. The Write 31 Days challenge is upon us and I had to come up with a topic for this month. As it is constantly on my mind these days, I picked “parenting kiddos with special needs”. I am hoping that whatever I write will help to encourage or educate or at least resonate with someone and make them feel less alone in their parenting.

This post will be stuck at the top of my blog for all of October so that y’all can have links to the things I am writing.

For the sake of disclosure, the graphic for this event is a picture of Daniel taken by his physical therapist at a park date with her in December 2011 and altered in MS Paint. (Canva wasn’t doing it for me this time.)

Day 01: My Story
Day 02: Developmental Delays
Day 03: Autism
Day 04: ADHD
Day 05: IEP’s and 504 Plans
Day 06: Blogger Spotlight on Mary of “Passionate Perseverance”
Day 07: Blogger Spotlight on Kelly of “This Ain’t The Lyceum”
Day 08: Doctors
Day 09: Information Literacy
Day 10: School Choices
Day 11: You Know You’re The Mom of A Developmentally Delayed Kid…
Day 12: ID Bracelets
Day 13: Checking In
Day 14: Snarky Answers to Stupid Remarks
Day 15: Blogger Spotlight on Rebecca of “Backwards in High Heels”
Day 16: Choosing Life (I)
Day 17: Choosing Life (II)
Day 18: Autism Speaks
Day 19: A Day in My Life with Daniel
Day 20: Blogger Spotlight on Kathleen of “So Much to Say…”
Day 21: Choosing Life (III)
Day 22: Hospital Bags
Day 23: An Example of Being Thankful in the Midst of Crisis
Day 24: Marital Impact
Day 25: Mental Health
Day 26: A Re-Blogged Guest Post
Day 27: Inspiration Pr0n
Day 28: Autism Sleep Issues
Day 29: Blogger Spotlight on Cammie of “Beyond Pearls”
Day 30: Food Issues
Day 31: Vaccines and Autism

7 Quick Takes: My Somewhat Boring Life Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Write 31 Days. I’ve decided to participate in Write 31 Days again this year. I tried to make all 31 days last year but had to quit at Day 17 due to Daniel and I being forced to move up to San Jose.

My topic this year will probably be special needs parenting.

— 2 —

For girls who aren’t afraid to make some noise! A friend of mine told me about Kazoo Magazine and I wanted to share the link with y’all in case you have daughters. It’s a magazine for girls that isn’t based around the beauty paradigm and it has interesting things to do like building rafts and cracking codes. I think it’s something that would have been awesome to have when I was growing up!

— 3 —

The way the cookie crumbles. For those of you studying piano or music in general, you might be interested in what music theory looks like using Oreos. 🙂

— 4 —

The faces of some of the men who fought for independence from Britain. There exists a handful of photos of soldiers who fought in the American Revolution. All of the men were ~100 years old when these pictures were taken. I’m greatly amused by the Rev. Levi Hayes who settled in Granville, Ohio because my grandfather’s family were some of the founders of the town and I lived next door in Newark for about a year and a half!

— 5 —

Prerequisite politics take. I really feel like this is the worst election I’ve voted in thus far. Considering that my first presidential election as a voter was the 2000 election that George Bush and the Supreme Court stole, that says something. It surprises me that I’m honestly offended by Trump stickers on cars. To be fair, I’m sure that there are voters that dislike Hillary stickers on cars.

November can’t come fast enough.

— 6 —

Back to school? I’m looking at taking a couple classes online at the local community college this fall to make me more marketable when I start job-hunting again. One is on Excel and Access and the other one is practical accounting. Both are things I’ve learned on the job but it would probably be good to actually take the classes so I have something to put on my resumé. It’s been 14 years since I was in school so this should be fun.

— 7 —

125 years. My church celebrates its quasquicentennial anniversary on Sunday. It’s the second time I’ve been attending a church when this particular anniversary has rolled around so I’m pretty excited! I’m also hopefully going to be singing with the choir for it as well.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: The No Internet Edition

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7 Quick Takes

This blog post is being written on Saturday night and will be posted on Sunday when I can get to $tarbux for some Internet time. Our ISP shut off our service because we were supposed to be switching to satellite but they screwed up on a pretty large scale and we’ve been without Internet until Wednesday — something very hard for my family of geeks. So… here is a list of things I’ve done that don’t require Internet.

— 1 —

Play lots of solitare. My laptop came up with Microsoft Solitare Collection and I’ve played every type in the last few days except for Freecell. I’m finding that the ordering aspect of Spider Solitare is helpful when I’m pondering things.

— 2 —

Hang out with family. My evil twin and his long-suffering wife came up on Friday and stayed until mid-afternoon when the six of us headed south for the 30th anniversary party for one of my mom’s college friend who is like an adopted aunt to us. Other than Daniel being a pill and having a couple meltdowns, it was fun.

— 3 —

Visit farm stands for produce and local food. If I drive a couple miles west and cross the Skagit River, I’m in farmland and there are some really cool produce places around here. My goal: find some plain cheese curds and a good Italian soda. (Schuh Farms is fabulous for this.) It’s berry season here and people are picking lots of them.

— 4 —

Deep clean the house. We’re having a lot of company these days between the twin and the girl coming up as well as Jon’s visit up here next week. Mom has commented as well that she’s getting a lot more done because she can’t really spend time on the computer.

— 5 —

Watch the Olympics. The events I care about are largely over but I always like rooting for the underdog. It was also fabulous to see Simone Biles WIN ALL THE MEDALS!!!

— 6 —

Read. I had to put down Fear Babe because it stopped keeping my attention and I’m reading a Savannah Reid murder mystery right now.

— 7 —

Organize my room. I’ve got piles of papers to file, hole-punch, and/or shred. Not being able to be online means that I’m getting a lot done.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

{five favourites}: Miscellanea (LXXI)

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#5Faves

One

Michael Phelps’ face before his 200m butterfly semifinal. I think my favorite doctored gif of this is the one on this list where laser beams are shooting from his eyes and lighting Chad Le Clos’ hair on fire. 🙂 (Serves him right for antagonizing Phelps!)

Two

Breathing. I’m fighting a sinus infection that is messing with my asthma so I am definitely not sleeping well (even with the nectar of the gods) and I’m pretty sure that at least one lobe of my lung has been coughed up in the last few days. I’m compulsively checking the expiration dates on all my Albuterol because I don’t want yet *ANOTHER* Urgent Care visit to get meds refilled.

Three

USA Women’s Gymnastics. I know the gold medal tonight in the team final was pretty much a foregone conclusion but OH. EM. GEE!!!! I heard them say that Simone Biles only had to score a 7.591 on her floor routine to win and in order to score that low, she’d have to mess up three of her four tumbling passes and fall off the mat! (She scored a 15.8 which was no surprise.) I kind of wish Laurie Hernandez could compete in the all-nbcaround because she’s incredible, especially as her first international competition as a senior is this Olympics! I cannot wait to see where she goes from here in her gymnastics career.

Four

Today’s weather. It was below 70F all day which was divine — it’s such a nice change from temps in the 80’s and 90’s (if not higher) in California.

Five

Raspberry lemonade from Crystal Light. I’m having to push the fluids and this is making it bearable. The extra vitamin C isn’t hurting either.

Go love up Bonnie, babystylista, and the others.

7 Quick Takes: Political Fun, History, and Grizzly Bears Scarfing Down Salmon

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

A little fun with all the political drama going on right now… Stephen Colbert goes to the two conventions as the character “Julius Flickerman” (brother of “Caesar Flickerman” from The Hunger Games with his pet weasel Caligula

— 2 —

History made this week. Even if Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn’t win the election in November, she is still the first woman to secure the nomination of a major political party as a presidential candidate. (I emphasized that part because she is not actually the first woman to run for president, as various people have been pointing out all week.)

— 3 —

Yeah… no. In her beautiful speech at the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama pointed out that she lives in a house that was built using slave labor. Fixed FOX News pundit Bill O’Reilly disputed this, mansplaining and whitesplaining to the First Lady that they were well-fed and were local moochers. Hate to break it to you, Bill, but the First Lady is correct. She is backed up by primary source material from Abigail Adams and by the Smithsonian.

If you want a good read on our tendency to whitewash some of the negative effects of slavery and our inability to deal with our society being complicit in it even if some of our ancestors weren’t in the country yet, I recommend this piece by a woman who used to lead tours at a southern plantation.

— 4 —

More fun related to the DNC. Quartz Magazine posted this piece talking about Bill Clinton and his speech on Tuesday night but did it in the style of a puff piece about a woman’s appearance giving the speech rather than the content of it.

— 5 —

Radio Free Babylon for the win! Sometimes Frequently, Coffee with Jesus manages to communicate the truth better than I can articulate it.

Closed to Dialog

— 6 —

Green smoothies. It’s hot here this week (translation: it’s in the 80’s) so I’ve been doing lots of green smoothies for meals because it helps to keep me cool. My recipe: a little bit of whole milk, some Greek yogurt, a handful of frozen fruit and a handful of spinach. Yum.

— 7 —

Something to watch when bored. Have you ever had the urge to watch grizzly bears in Alaska eat salmon and go fishing? Here you go!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: Mississippi State Reps, Donald Trump Insults, and the Like

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Out of touch. So I haven’t actually read my Bloglovin’ feed in probably… a month? If anything fabulously interesting has happened and you’re someone whose blog I read regularly, could you leave me a comment? Please and thank you! 🙂

— 2 —

Why I am thankful I don’t live in Mississippi… The mother of a little girl with type 1 diabetes was having a tough time getting Medicaid/CHIPS to pay for her daughter’s insulin and diabetes supplies (which cost ~ $2500/month) so she wrote to her state lawmakers to see if they could help. One of them, Rep. Jeffrey Guice decided to reply:

“I am sorry for your problem. Have you thought about buying the supplies with money that you earn?”

*facepalm*

Simcha Fisher responds more politely than I would.

— 3 —

Scottish insults to Donald Trump read by a true Scotsman. I’ll throw up a trigger warning for language and for negative Donald Trump content because some people don’t like reading that their presumptive candidate is a bloody moron. In any case, it’s incredibly funny and involves David Tennant.

The next night, there was some follow-up discourse on Brexit. Again, there’s a trigger warning for language.

— 4 —

I have mad skillz, yo! I took this lovely Buzzfeed skills inventory and got 81 out of 100 based on my inability to cook eggs (to which I am allergic), drive a stick-shift, change my own oil, and sew. My great-aunt Jean saw it on my Facebook wall, took the inventory herself, scored a 92, and left a note on my Facebook wall to let me know her score and that I need to keep learning these skills all my life. Yes folks, she’s she’s 93 years old and she’s on Facebook. She still lives on a farm outside of Kalispell, Montana and raises ornamental chickens to show. If I was close by her again, I would totally declare a girls weekend and road-trip across Highway 2 (through Glacier National Park) for some one-on-one time to learn the skills I don’t have which I’d love to have her teach me.

— 5 —

Nice kitty… A video of a cougar swimming in a lake has gone viral.

What a bucolic scen– wait… I know where that lake is! (It’s an hour from me.)

— 6 —

Required baseball take. THE GIANTS BEAT THE A’S. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! THE GIANTS ARE 6 GAMES AHEAD OF THE LOSERS IN LA IN THE NL WEST STANDINGS. YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

— 7 —

A well-deserved shout-out. I showed up for worship at my grandparents’ church here and the priest spoke before worship… well, actually she *chanted* before worship that the organist was out of town so all of us sitting the pews were the musicians for the day. The hymns were all very well-known ones and one of the choir members played the opening notes so we could at least start in tune. Rev. Helen is an amazing vocalist and she led us in chanting the psalm. I think the best part was the recessional hymn which was “Amazing Grace” and people were singing it in 4-part harmony. It was awesome to have people there other than myself who can sing and lead music!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.