It's All About The Journey

Mostly Wordless Wednesday : The Euphoric, Unrestrained Joy Of A Cardboard Box

It's all about life's simple pleasures:

A Note To My Daughter's Friend: Please Don't Even Go There

My daughter is lucky enough to have many wonderful friends, all of whom I love like they were my own. Today one of them was over and she, Anna and David were playing in the above-ground pool. They were having a fine time, splashing, laughing and dunking each other. David sometimes gets a bit over-exuberant and I have to remind him not to splash too much or dunk too long.

Somewhere in all the horsing around, David needed to be pulled aside by me and threatened with being taken out of the pool because he was jumping on the girls and wouldn't stop. This is not a huge thing, but as a child with autism, it's hard for him to know when he's going too far or overdoing something, and redirection and correction need to happen or he'll never learn.

It was in the middle of that when Anna chimed in with "Oh, and he put his hand down ---'s swimsuit."

What?

They're Not The Only Ones Taking A Big Step Up And Away

This morning, my daughter re-revised the previously revised revision of the earlier revision of the "First Day of School" outfit. Welcome to seventh grade, ladies and gentlemen.

I asked her brother what he wanted to wear today and his reply was: "I don't know...a shirt and some shorts?"

Anna had to wake up an hour earlier, to catch the 7:14 a.m. older-middle-school bus. She leaped out of bed at 6 o'clock in the blessed a.m., bright-eyed and ready to take on the whirling social world of a new school year. I have no illusions that this will be a regular occurrence. I imagine I'll be shrieking like a harpy around 7 a. m. by the end of the week.

Don't Forget To Sigh. Whatever You Do, DON'T FORGET TO SIGH!

Kissing pointers, circa 1911:

Time to buy some Listerated Pepsin Gum. After all, I'm going to be dating soon.

Hey, I really do feel like sighing.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Autism Is Not A Tragedy

The shirt says it all:

Help! I’ve Got Nothing To Blog About! Five Great Sources For When You’ve Got Blogger’s Block

When I first signed on as the Divorce Blogger for Woman’s Day Magazine, I remember a feeling of pure panic as I wondered how in the world I was going to come up with something to write about (related to one subject, no less) five days a week.

I’ve been doing that over three years now, and through hundreds of blog posts, I haven’t missed a day yet. And I still get that feeling of panic, believe me. My deadline is 2:30pm and I still have many days when I’m staring at the keyboard at 2:15 mumbling “C’mon, Ellie….it’s in there….think!”

When Someone Calls Your Child A Wild Animal, You Should Be Allowed To Tear Them Apart With Your Bare Hands

Hold onto your stomachs, your tempers, and your tears. I know I was unsuccessful doing any of that, but fair warning, this is ugly.

My Twitter feed today featured this picture of a letter, shared by @lennonandmaisy, who shared on behalf of their good friend, who has a child with autism. Take a look:

I read this, then read it again, then made myself read it a third time. I hoped it was fake. In fact, part of my mind said it just had to be. Who would write a thing  like this? How could they look at themselves in the mirror every morning? Please, don't let it be real.

But it is.

And sadly, as the mom of a child with autism, and friend to countless other parents of children with autism, and friend to numerous children and adults on the spectrum, as well, I knew it could probably be true even before I saw that it was.

The Great And Fantastic Calling-In-Favors-And-Taking-Donations Spur Of The Moment Vacation

What a week!

For starters, this is my vacation week, but I wasn't feeling the love. I got the word two weeks ago that I might be losing my job, and was asked to re-interview for my position smack in the middle of my vacation week. Awesome.

So, of course, I cancelled any plans I had for a few days at that nice little lake resort with the reasonably priced hotel rooms, and planned to spend my vacation watching my kids go stir crazy around the house.

And then the donations came in.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Toes On A Hotel Bed

Crashing together after a day of fun and running around. Snuggled in and snuggled on, and the world is full of love.

Movie Review: Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters

I took the kids to see the newest Percy Jackson movie tonight, expecting an adequate flick, because, let's face it, that's what the first one was. And even though it has one of my personal cougarish I-know-it's-so-wrong-to-look-at-him-that-way crushes (Jake Abel), I wasn't expecting to be wowed.

Surprisingly, I was kinda wowed.

A New Study Shows That Induced Labor May Have A Tie To Autism

This has been studied numerous times in smaller groups, but the largest study of its kind stretching over 8 years and 625,042 births suggests that there may be a tie between labor induction or hastening and autism, particularly with male babies.

Yikes.

My David was a scheduled c-section, and they induced labor a full week before my due date. I don't know whether that made a difference or not, but I guess the study shows it was a possibility.

And once again, the autism mom guilt rears its ugly head. What if? Why didn't I? I should have known....

I know, I know, I couldn't have known. But maybe with more studies like this, we can all know and make informed choices.

She Walks In Beauty

In a riot of color, in the middle of a playground in the late afternoon sun, she walks.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Summer

Beach day! Yeah, baby!

Just Me, A Monk, And A Cupcake

One of the occasional challenges about being a blogger (particularly if you blog on multiple platforms, like I do) is finding something to write about. Some days the blog fodder flows like a river thanks to life situations, or current events in the news or the occasional bolt of bizarre inspiration.

Other days, you're scraping at bits and pieces, discarding a mountain of crap ideas and finally settling for some goofy inspirational quote or photo just because you can't brain today.

And today is one of those days.

Oh yes, today is one of those days.

Monday, Monday....

Write A Post About A Penis, And The World Is Your Oyster

My post about men sending pictures of their parts was featured as an editor's pick on BlogHer.

Which just goes to reinforce, again, that we'd rather talk about a penis than see a picture of one in our inbox. Go figure.

Anyway, it's a nice way to end the week. Peer recognition for the predicament of over-photographed penises. A girl could do worse, I suppose.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Dwayne Johnson, Get Thee To Africa

There are 1600 calories in a pint of hippo milk.

Right now, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is filming "Hercules" and has to bulk up appropriately, eating something like 6,000 calories a day. He could avoid all those huge, filling meals simply by chugging a half gallon of hippo milk every day.

Because if anyone could successfully milk a hippo, it would be The Rock, amiright?

Just a thought.

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