Good Stuff

I wanted to share a few good things I've come across in the last few weeks.

Pick up a copy of the July issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, flip towards the back and there's an interesting article about a family with two special needs sons who are in their twenties.  Take a look at it and see what you think.

Rage Against The Minivan has a great post about being the sibling of special needs person.  Click here to check it out.

You know how I've been telling you about all the wonderful technology there is out there for nonverbal kids?  And how parents can record words or phrases into their kids' communication devices?  Well, click here to read a fun post from Love That Max about that very subject.

It made me think of a couple things I would never put in Lily's speech device.  Things like:

"Hand over the iPad and no one gets hurt."
"I'll take every kind of noodle you have."
"But my mom always lets me have all the Skittles and M&M's I want."

A friend recently shared this short video with me.  I loved it and I know you will, too.

Enjoy!

Molly Hinka - Special Olympics athlete

Anyone else have something to share?  Leave a comment and pass it on!

Have a super Tuesday!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Call me Nancy Drew because I have a hunch.

I think Lily is making us pay for being gone last week.

A different schedule can really wreak havoc with lots of kids, but especially those with special needs.

We're lucky in that Lily has always been a fairly flexible kid.  She's not one of those who lines up her toys in certain ways or needs to eat the same thing for breakfast every day.

But for the past year, her schedule has remained 99% the same.  School Monday through Friday, family hang out time on Saturday, church on Sunday.  Then repeat for the next 52 weeks.

Take one week to basically do the same thing, minus Mom and Dad, wouldn't make that much difference, one would think.

Oh, but it does.

The Bird's therapists told us she really missed us.  My in-laws said she woke up in the mornings and headed straight for our bedroom to see if we were there.  Ryley and Reagan said she would walk around the house and they thought she was looking for us.

Kind of makes my heart hurt.  And feel like a total heel for leaving for a whole week.

But now that we are back, instead of acting like she missed us and that she's completely grateful to have us home again, she's more or less acting like a "little toot", as we say around here.

Over-reacting to the least little things.  Doing stuff she knows she's not supposed to do.  Throwing open the refrigerator door and running away.  Opening the back door to the garage and letting in all that nice trapped heat.  Stomping her feet when we say no and even though she can't say the exact words, I know she's cussing us.

So it's back to the daily grind around here.

Putting routines back in place.  Maintaining our typical schedule when she comes home from school in the afternoon.  Not letting her get away with things that her grandparents did - which is exactly what grandparents are supposed to do, by the way!  And making sure she's not eating dyes and additives and all that yucky stuff.

Speaking of dyes and additives, Lily developed a strange obsession with Lucky Charms while we were gone.  Namely, the little marshmallows in the cereal.

It's like she knows they're in the pantry so she can't stop thinking about them.  I imagine she has this little voice in her head saying, "Must get the Lucky Charms.  Must eat the Lucky Charms."  Much like the voice in my head that says, "Must get the chocolate chip cookies.  Must eat the chocolate chip cookies."

I'm hoping this goes away soon.  The Lucky Charms, that is.  Not the chocolate chip cookies.

I shared this with Reagan, who is the child we buy Lucky Charms for, and she said, "I developed that Lucky Charms obsession around age 5 and it's never gone away."

Well.  That's good news.

So my goal this week.  Are you ready for this?

I'm going to try making homemade marshmallows with natural ingredients.  Then I'm going to let them get a bit dried out, like those little Lucky Charms marshmallows.  Then I can let Lily have some without worrying about all the fake stuff in the cereal.

I could even go crazy and try tinting some of them with natural dyes.

Woo - I hope you were sitting down before I said that last sentence.  Let it never be said that I don't know how to have a good time!

Here's the recipe for marshmallows I think I'm going to try.  But if you have one that's a real winner that you wouldn't mind passing along, I'd be most appreciative.

Of course, now reading that marshmallow recipe makes me want to also try her recipe for homemade graham crackers.

Then you know what that means - s'mores!

Someone stop me now.

Things might just get a little crazy around here.

Have a great Monday!

Happy Father's Day!

To all the dads out there who:

willingly change dirty diapers,

pretend like they really want to wear one of those baby slings,

put together all kinds of baby gear that comes in boxes,

learn how to curl little girl hair,

drive their "cool car" with a carseat in it,

wear ugly ties and stinky cologne because the kids gave it to them,

step on legos or hot wheels in bare feet and don't curse,

teach their teenagers how to drive,

take the kids for ice cream after bedtime,

are always up for a game of catch or shooting baskets,

proudly take pictures of their child's first deer,

participate in tea parties, complete with crowns, boas, and tiny cups,

play endless games of Candy Land or Clue and make their kids "earn" a victory...

I hope you have a great Father's Day!

I know I wouldn't last for long without the love, support, encouragement, and... let's be honest here... help that I get each and every day from Ryan.

Our girls (and myself!) are so blessed to have him as the head of our home.

If you can, sit down, put your feet up, and take a load off.  

Have a great Sunday afternoon!

What Is This? A Saturday Post???

Y'all.

I know it is so hot.  Well, at least it is if you live in the Austin area.  And if it isn't over 100 degrees where you live, kindly keep it to yourself.

Because of the heat and because it's summer, I know knitwear is the furthest thing from your mind right now but I just had to share a little something with you.

My middle daughter, Reagan, is quite an accomplished knitter.  In my opinion, that alone is impressive because if you handed me two needles and some yarn, about the only thing I might could make is a pretty flimsy jump rope.

But that's not all she does.

Reagan has also created several original knitwear designs all on her own.

Mind-boggling, I tell you.

Anyway, we just found out that one of Reagan's original designs is featured on the Malabrigo Yarn website!

And for those of you thinking, "Mala-what?", Malabrigo is a lovely brand of yarn.

Click here for the Patterns Page, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see it on the left hand column.  It's an adorable infant hat pattern called Hey, Cupcake!

And if you click here, you can get the pattern details as well as see "More Reagan Rush" in the bottom right hand corner.  In that box, you can see another Reagan Rush original design, the Leafprints hat along with the One Row Button-Up Neckwarmer, her variation on another person's pattern.

And yes, that's my cutie-patootie daughter wearing that neckwarmer!

I'd like to take credit for the smarts and creativity it takes to both knit and design, but I'm afraid it doesn't come from my side of the family.  In fact, Ryan's grandmother is about the only person I know in either of our families that did any sort of knitting and I think she mostly made afghans.

No matter where it comes from, my daughter has some mad knitting skills!

By the way, she's available for hire, should you be interested in having some beautiful, handmade knitwear to give out as Christmas gifts.  Just thinking ahead here.....

Have a great Saturday!

Thank You For Being A Friend

I'm officially back home now!

And while I'm very glad to be in Austin, I really wish there was some way I could've brought the Aspen temperatures home with me.

Let me tell you, there's a huge difference between 72 degrees and 103 degrees.  Yikes!

Any-who...

Those of us with kiddos know the hardest part of heading out of town without them is just getting ready to leave.

And I'm not talking about actual packing.

I'm talking about making lists of who needs to be where when, who likes this for breakfast and who doesn't, who to call in case there's a medical emergency, who needs to be in bed by what time, who sleeps best in a particular kind of pjs, who can use the computer and for how long, which kid is allergic to what, who needs a packed lunch for school and what's going in that lunch, and on and on it goes.

It's enough to make you second guess your trip!

My in-laws graciously volunteered to keep all three kids so we could enjoy some time away alone.

Since my in-laws have moved to Austin now, they're more familiar with Lily's routine so it makes things a bit easier.  For example, I didn't need to tell them how to get to Lily's school or places to grab something for supper.  They just know those things.

Ryley and Reagan would be here part of the time we were gone so I knew they could help out.  But I also knew they would each be leaving on some trips of their own while we were still gone so I couldn't count on them to be 100% available.

I left notes taped to my kitchen cabinets like usual - notes of what to put in Lily's lunch each day and a list of important phone numbers.

Then Ryan and I headed off to the airport, preparing to enjoy an entire week away, just the two of us, something we hadn't done in about seven years.

And in less than 24 hours, we remembered why we never go away for any length of time on our own. Things just never seem to run as smoothly as planned.

Ryan's parents were called out of town due to a death in the family.  Actually, two members of the family passed away within hours of each other and Ryan's dad would be doing the funeral.

So they needed to get to Indiana.

Before Lily Bird, this really would not have been that big of a deal to solve.  I mean, our big girls are 17 and 14 years old and pretty self-sufficient.

But adding Lily to the mix creates that little extra layer of excitement.

Not just anyone is up for taking on The Bird.

Ryan and I were preparing to head back home when he decided to make one attempt at getting someone to hang out a couple days with our kids so we could stay in Aspen.  It needed to be someone Lily knew and felt comfortable with.  And someone who felt comfortable with her as well.

Ryan made one phone call and enter....  "Carla and The Team".

Carla is the Children's Minister at our church and we affectionately call her group of friends, "The Team".  They hang out together and many of them work at the church.

Carla, Kathy, Amy, and Terre are the kinds of ladies you call when you need something D-O-N-E done! That saying, "If you want something done well, just do it yourself" does not apply to these ladies. They are go-getters, they all have hearts to serve, and they do everything with the most positive of attitudes.

Most importantly (to us!) is that they all know and love our Bird.

One phone call to Carla and she quickly reassured us that she was up for the challenge.

She called The Team and before we knew it, there was an around-the-clock schedule in place, all kids were accounted for and taken care of, and we were to stay in Aspen the entire time we planned and "do not worry about one thing!".

Well OK.

And that's just what we did.

We would never have been able to stay, let alone relax and enjoy the time away without the help of these wonderful ladies.  We knew things would be fine at home while in their very capable hands.

Ryan's parents were able to be back to spend the last two days with our kids.

Isn't it great to have friends and family who drop everything to help out?

I mean, lots of us say we want to help, and we really do want to, but when push comes to shove, it can be hard to move around the things we've already planned to help someone out.

It's not always convenient. Or easy.

But speaking from experience, it means more than words can say to those of us who need some occasional help that you're willing to be inconvenienced just for us.

Or our kids.

I hope that I can be that exact same way for someone when the time comes.

So to my in-laws and Carla and The Team, Ryan and I thank you.

And we promise not to go away for a week again for at least another seven years!

Hitting the Road

Since I'm flying home today, I have travel on the brain.

Times sure have changed from when I was a kid, sitting in the back seat of my parent's Oldsmobile, arguing with my little brother about crossing the invisible line that divided his side of the seat from mine.

No DVD player to keep us entertained - just those travel bingo games with the little red plastic windows you slid over when you spotted something out the window.

Thank goodness I loved to read and didn't get carsick. I passed many a mile lost in a book with my dad begging me to look out the window at the scenery. At that time, I felt like if you saw one mountain, you'd seen them all. I was much more interested in what Ramona the Pest or Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle had going on.

Though my kids still enjoy a very competitive Alphabet Game, I know that sometimes it takes a little more than that to reach our vacation destination in peace. And in one piece!

And since it's summer, the time when many families are hitting the road or flying the friendly skies, I thought I'd share some great tips I've come across recently on making traveling with kiddos just a little bit easier.

The blog www.traveling-kids.blogspot.com is a great resource for flying with children, among other things. I especially love this post about how to maintain a sense of humor when traveling with your kids.

Click here for an airplane scavenger hunt that will keep your kiddos flying with their eyes peeled. A small reward for whoever spots the most might provide some good incentive.

And here's a great article on how to make your car kid-friendly, both for long trips and just running around town.

Family Fun has some terrific travel games to play while you're on the road. They even have some fun printables you can stash in the glove box and bring out when the kids need a little pick-me-up.

In my mind, the most important thing to remember when traveling is to be prepared. And while kids today really have no idea how easy they have it when it comes to entertainment while traveling, the trip is certainly more peaceful for the parents when they take a little time to plan ahead.

And I'm all for keeping the peace.