You’re going to have to bear with me. The husband is out of town and I’m writing this during naptime (even though no one is napping). I can hear them above my head throwing large objects at the door and the walls. I’m in the throws of it. Literally. My daughter just threw up on all over herself and her car seat on the way to the zoo…and then again three times on the way …

If you’ve lived in the world of special needs parenting for more than a millisecond, you will have heard of the “Disability Paradox,” the notion that people with disabilities tend to report their happiness levels as equal-to or greater-than everybody else. I will be the first to admit this truth in Charlie. His birthday video will testify. Truthfully though, the term always irked me. Why does his happiness have to be an anomaly? So, in …

Embracing the Spotlight. A Sunday Thoughts Link Up. LUKE 22:54-62 54 Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55 And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56 A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man …

Travel is hard with kids…more an “adventure” than a “vacation.” But even an adventure can be more than its worth when you have a child with special needs who must miss routines and the therapies that are crucial for development, for releasing energy, for having fun. So this one’s for all you special needs parents who want the to get the most out of your hard wrought traveling. Here are my 16 ways to sneak …

Snow in March isn’t pretty. It’s wet and heavy and nobody cares about it. We don’t want to dig out the sleds or the snowsuits. But it’s melting and the daffodils are up and the buds are budding and the robins are tweeting and the light is brighter and longer. Sandals are replacing shoes and socks. The mower is giving you the eye from the garage and the grill is beginning it’s siren song. So …

I don’t know why I can’t just do it…can’t just make my mouth move in the shape of the words “I’m sorry,” when it comes to my husband. My face freezes up like a screen saver on the fritz. With the kids, it’s no problem. I do it ALL DAY LONG. Half the time it’s a “sorry-not-sorry” turn of phrase for them, but we’re working on it. They have to hug it out too which …

I loved going to visit my grandparents in the summer. I didn’t even mind the eleven hour drive to Oklahoma. I stretched out in the back of out van as big as a whale and read books listed to jukebox hits with my mom. This was before iPhones and vans with handy dandy DVD players. It was awesome. Fishing off #9 landing and picking okra in the garden and sleeping in the same bed as …

March is Cerebral Palsy Awareness month and I still catch myself thrown back four years ago to that jolt, that hammering of the gavel that carried into our existence Charlie’s “official” diagnosis. In so many ways it was a good thing. In so many way I dreaded its arrival. Sharing that moment when we “went public” on Her View From Home and with Meg for a little five-year review. What power has naming something given …

Sunday Thoughts Link Up #14 1 JOHN 3:16-18 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or …

I’ve traveled a lot in my life. I’ve been lucky to do so. And every time I take a trip or make a move, it feels like a fresh start, like capping a dried out pen and cracking open a new one. But there have been times when the magic just didn’t happen. I couldn’t shake my old self enough to embrace the new. When I became a mother, I thought my new shiny pen …