Today my arm muscles ache, my blood sugar is higher than it should be, my feet hurt, and my heart is overflowing with happiness. Why? Because my dear niece got married on Saturday night. She is my daughter's life long friend, so when she asked her aunties to make forty pies for the wedding reception, I responded the only way an auntie can. "Yes," I said without hesitation, knowing full well … [Read more...]
Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
"I was already on a spiritual journey, but engaging this process with my son and ASD has me on another level!" - Monica, mom of an 8 year old boy diagnosed with autism. The Blissfulness of Same Autism means dealing with lots of the same thing, over and over, and over again, often mixed with compulsion and vigor. My son's high need for control triggers my own and we both study to create as much … [Read more...]
The Kids Are Alright
It’s hard not to feel as if the world’s on the brink of collapse these days. Five minutes of the evening news is enough to warrant Zantac. It doesn’t help that I write on policy (among other things), and so I am often online digesting politics with my morning cereal. Guess what? Politics doesn’t naturally lead to gratitude. Who knew. Right now, people seem inscrutable, rhetoric is flammable, … [Read more...]
My perseveration, God’s rescue
What Is It? In an autism household, I get a lot of practice dealing with perseveration. What's that, you ask? Here's the verdict from Mr. Webster: perseveration: "continuation of something (as repetition of a word) usually to an exceptional degree or beyond a desired point". That can look like the endless buttoning and unbuttoning a shirt, repeating a word over and over, requiring an activity … [Read more...]
Double the Fun
It seems a strange thing to be grateful for, but I’m thankful both boys are on the spectrum. Not every day. But most days. Weird, right? But I get good things in twos: Both boys love to slam each other on the ground, on each other, on the bed. They love the pressure of their daily matches, and neither one complains that the other is being too rough. That’s because short of a puncture wound, … [Read more...]
Stop Renting God’s Word, Start Owning God’s Word
We were dealing with serious meltdowns with our son Connor. He would go into a frenzy when he didn’t get his way, and we knew it wasn’t just a child acting out. It seemed like a stronghold in his life that we could not help him work through. I remember one time Connor got so upset that he threw himself on the floor and started slapping his hands on the tile of our house. Then he got up and ran … [Read more...]