because joy is the goal, not perfection
More than six years ago I started what I though would be a humor / homeschooling / Catholic parenting blog. I didn’t share many photos of myself or my kids in those early months, not wanting to let the obvious fact that two of my sons were physically disabled dominate content or conversation. Sure, we …
Continue reading “Why You Should Start A Special Needs Blog”
It’s SMA awareness month! Time to spread some awareness. Some years I’m more motivated than others, and after several years of blogging about SMA and special needs parenting, I sometimes feel like I have nothing new to say. But, while driving in the car craving Sour Patch Kids, I tried to mentally think of any …
Continue reading “How to Teach Your Kids About Kids Like Mine”
Yesterday Fulton turned 10. T! E! N! Or as he put it, “I’m all ten fingers now!” Every year in June, I can’t help but reflect on Fulton’s diagnosis and his first birthday (which fell a little over a week after we got the news). Addie was six when Fulton turned one. Having a ten-year …
Continue reading “What Has Helped Me On My Journey As a Special Needs Mom”
A little while back Christy wrote a great post about her daily routine as a SAHM and how it’s changed, and hasn’t changed, through the years. I’ve been meaning to write my own thoughts on the matter, so here we are, three months after Christy’s post with my Jack Handy deep thoughts. THat in itself …
Last week, Tony and I slipped out for a couple hours alone while the kids watched a movie. As long as Fulton and Teddy are healthy, or at school, we’re comfortable stopping by a nearby restaurant for lunch, dinner, drinks or just uninteruppted adult conversation. Taking a walk after lunch or dinner is also no …
Colleen did a great post recently entitled “The Care and Feeding of A Big Family”. I loved the look inside Colleen’s home and how she makes everything work as a family of nine. Now my family isn’t as big as hers but I thought I would share how my big family makes things work. If …
Continue reading “A Big Family Balancing Act: Juggling It All”
I’m using my takes this week to tackle a tough reader question: Maintaining a house while homeschooling and dealing with special needs child: can it be done? Personally I think keeping an immaculate house while people are living there 24 hours a day is impossible. – Torey C Yes Tory, you’re right. It is impossible, …
Continue reading “Keeping a Clean House While Homeschooling: The 13th Herculean Task”
One of the joys of having bigger kids is the many way they can (theoretically) help around the house. Our house still gets messy, but now, I’m not the only one picking up the books and Legos. Same in the kitchen. There are lots of hungry mouths in this house (Byron counts as about three …
Continue reading “How To Raise Kids Who Cook And Who Won’t Destroy Your Kitchen In The Process”
The ushers came around and Tony handed Fulton our envelope. Teddy insisted it was his turn to put money in the offering basket, so Tony handed him a dollar to stop the complaints. Both happily put the money in the basket as it passed. But this Sunday for some reason, something clicked. As our older three …
Continue reading “The Struggle to Raise Generous, Financially Savvy Kids”
This week, Dr. Kelly is back answering the urgent questions of readers who wanted help weeks ago. Hopefully their problems resolved themselves, but if not, let’s see what this bottle of Pinot Noir / life experience can help me come up with. 1. Why do children always ask “Why?” no less then 1,983 times …
While it seems like a lifetime ago, it wasn’t that far back that I had a three kids, three and under. Then four kids five and under. And six years ago, when Teddy was born, Addie had just turned 8. Things are so different now with no babies in the house it’s almost hard to …
Continue reading “What To Do When You’re Outnumbered By Tiny Humans”
My final post regarding special needs parenting is inspired from a status another SMA parent posted on Facebook a few months ago. This father was very open about his struggles to maintain his faith. He was mentally keeping track of two columns, and the column for tossing aside what little Christian faith he had left, contained the …
Continue reading “How Can We Keep Our Faith When Bad Things Happen To Our Children?”
I remember the first time Fulton asked me if he would be able to walk when he was an adult. I was getting him ready for bed, when BAM I was hit between the eyes with his innocent question. I remember answering him in a matter of fact way, “No, you’ll always need a wheelchair.”, …
Continue reading “The Sadness We Bring To A Diagnosis Should Not Become Our Child’s”