For a fellow islander

If you pray, or are even inclined to think good thoughts in someone's direction, please, please, do so for my good friend, Shannon. She is a wonderful person I know from my autism support group. She has four boys, three of whom have their own sets of "issues", and she and her husband run a farm. Right now, she is lying in an ICU in Indiana with blood clots in her lungs. Although she's hanging in there right now, this is still incredibly dangerous and scary.

Please pray for Shannon.

Awww, you shouldn't have.

Amy at In the Eyes of a Survivor bestowed upon me an Honest Scrap award. Thanks Amy, that was awfully sweet of you. I'm supposed to list 10 honest things about myself as a follow up, so I'll put on my thinking cap and give it a go.

1. As a kid I desperately wanted braces to get rid of the gap in my teeth. I've since given up and stopped caring.

2. I should be cleaning because the realtors are coming to take pictures of our place tomorrow, but I'm blogging instead.

3. I'm pretty good at a lot of things, but I'm not very good or proficient at anything.

4. I've felt more at home in foreign countries than I've ever felt anywhere in the US.

5. I wish I was one of those women who always had painted nails. I notice them quickly and admire them often and almost never do it myself.

6. I fantasize about caffeinated beverages. Oh caffeine, I miss you so.

7. I have an amazing family, immediate and extended.

8. I have true, quality friends that I cherish dearly and am very thankful for everyday.

9. My kids are cooler than your kids. ; )

10. Maybe I'm not so honest after all, I can't even come up with 10 things off the top of my head.

Actually, I'm just terrible on the spot. Aha! There's #10!

It takes a lot of work to look this good.

I do not get bedhead; My hair just doesn't have the texture for it. My daughter has her father to thank on mornings such as this.

See? I get out sometimes.

I know that I have friends, but look! Proof! I even had to leave my house to see them, and we did things and stuff. Not to mention that we've been friends for 12 years, so they must actually like me. See the bump? The one attached to the tall redhead? This is the bump who received the ill made quilt. Good times, good times (in the real sense, Steph).

A little cold and a little cozy

Yesterday it snowed here for this second time this year. It snowed all day and looked so beautiful, and then froze overnight. The sun melted a good bit of it today, but it's okay. I got my snow, and now spring can come.




So I'm done, finally. Here is my first quilt. With the help of a friend to get me started, I pieced it together by machine, and did the actual quilting by hand. Words to live by: It is NEVER a good idea to create a gift with your first attempt at a hobby. Mine is a baby quilt for a friend, and although she probably won't notice half the imperfections, I know and already feel guilty. Live and learn, my peeps, live and learn.



I'm going away on Thursday for a mini road trip to visit family and friends, but I'll be back Sunday night. Laters.

You can't say I didn't warn you.

Autism has taken over my house. I'd say about half the time, I forget that my kids have it and I am able to just look at it as normal and we go on about our day. Sometimes, this is not the case. My oldest has a tendency toward regression. Even most normal children regress a little when they're learning a major skill like potty training, but regression with autism is different. With C, it is cyclical, so every few months she has an "episode" where her abilities and her behavior take a nosedive for a while before she levels out again. Sometimes, the skills she has learned are lost and take time to return; some children lose them and they never come back.

So anyway, we're having a bit of a time in our household lately. It's fine. I'm used to it really. And every once in a while, God talks to me about it. I'll come back to my point in a sec.

When I was pregnant with C, I went to a friend's wedding shower. I was sitting against the wall watching her unwrap presents when a little blonde boy walked over to me. He was around 4 or 5 years old and had the thickest, most beautiful black eyelashes I'd ever seen. He sat down next to me and took my hand, put it on his belly and asked me to rub it. For some reason I didn't think about how odd his request was of a total stranger, I just did it. He sat there pressed up against me for some time before his mother came over and apologized profusely. I told her that everything was fine and he wasn't bothering me. Throughout the shower, he singled me out a few more times, wanting me to look at his Wiggles coloring book and help him color. His mother continued to spew out apologies, which seemed unnecessary at the time, but now I completely understand where she was coming from. The little boy had autism, an affliction almost completely unknown to me, and I still think of him from time to time and wonder how he is doing.

Not long after this occurrence, I was lounging on the couch watching a movie when I zoned out. Suddenly, I felt Someone speak to me. I didn't hear it with my ears, but I was asked a question. You know how sometimes someone will ask you something, and they do it in such a way that it comes out as a question but you get the impression that they're only asking out of kindness, they're really telling, not asking? It was like that. I was asked if I could handle having a child with a disability. I sat for a moment before saying yes, I could handle it; if He was going to create a child with a disability and it was a choice between giving it to someone who wouldn't love it or care for it or me taking the child, then give it to me. Then it was like I heard Him say, "Good, just checking".

I promptly forgot this conversation again until I realized something was wrong with C.

I know of several other mothers who experienced this, a knowing of what was to come, and I wonder if they had the same conversation with God...

I think about it sometimes and worry that I made the choice, but I know it isn't true. He was just doing me a courtesy--giving me fair warning.

When I struggle, and I'm stressed and I don't know if I can handle one more day of this, He reminds me of that conversation, and I ask myself if I would answer the same if asked again.



You betcha.