A Messy Path

Yesterday I had the opportunity to support a great organization called Project Hope.  My daughter with autism, is part of a fabulous program that provides a wonderful school environment and superb therapy services.  Every year, in November, they have the Hope Relay and she and I walk the 5K portion of the event.  Yesterday the…

The View From Above

This past week I took a trip to Austin, TX.  It has been a minute since I was on a plane. About 10 years worth of minutes.  I’m always amazed that a metal tube can get off the ground and fly above the clouds. My 9 year old asked me to take pictures of EVERYTHING,…

Being Imitators

Because Cadence is profoundly autistic, her skill set is pretty small.  As she grows into a woman her level of independence continues to grow, but it has taken years.  One thing, however, that she has always loved to do is color and draw.  At first she would just color randomly, just lines and blobs.  As…

Running out of Margin

I remember the first time Cadence, my profoundly autistic daughter, wrote her name completely on her own.  She was about 10 years old and time stood still in that moment. We had been working on that for years. Since that monumental day, her name writing has become a regular part of her life.  She writes…

Taking the High Road

My family and I were recently in NC and were looking for something to do. When we need to find something to do, we always look at TripAdvisor which mentioned a spot called Shunkawauken Falls. It said it was right on the side of the road. Easy peasy right? Wrong. Way, way, way wrong. I…

Daughters

As a mom of 5 kids I have learned that I still have tons to learn. But along this path of motherhood some of my greatest lessons have been taught to me by the very children I try to teach. Lately, I’ve been thinking particularly about my daughters. One thing that all women have in…

When Ideals Collide

About 6 months ago my teenage daughter decided she wanted to be a vegan. She had been doing some research and for better health wanted to give the vegan lifestyle a go. For those of you unfamiliar, here’s what that means: A vegetarian does not eat meat, but may still eat the by-products of animals…

Not Letting Go

Yesterday was a day of adventure and misadventure. It was be-au-ti-ful! in SC in the early part of the day. The kids were sitting around playing on their devices and hubby and I decided they needed to get out of the house. We dragged the bikes out of the garage and pumped up the tires…

Making Change in the Offering Plate

We have a valentine’s event coming up at church this weekend.  On Sunday, a friend asked me about who to give her money to so she could pay. I told her to put her money in an envelope and drop it in the offering plate with the envelope designated for the event and it would…

Why?

“Why does she do that? ” my 10-year-old asked me recently, while watching her 15-year-old autistic sister draw a picture.  The question wasn’t why she was drawing a picture.  It was why she had just drawn the same exact picture 15 times in 15 different colors and stacked them neatly in a pile. I wish…

I Feel Sorry for the Statue of Liberty

Well, I don’t feel sorry for THE Statue of Liberty.  The person I feel sorry for is the guy on the corner dressed up like the Statue of Liberty. In our town there’s a tax service that uses the Statue of Liberty as their mascot.  When January rolls around every year we start to see…

What Winning Looks Like

She didn’t roam around the store or try to take off with 15 pair of socks or shred all the price tags into tiny pieces on the floor…