Self care is so important for special needs parents. Over the last two years, I have very much evolved in how I have accomplished self care in my life. Below are my top must-haves for my personal self care. I say no to everything unnecessary, and I constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the definition of “necessary.” … [Read more…]
A pumpkin spice candle flickers on my mantle. The boys are playing together as peacefully as two rowdy boys can. And my favorite music is streaming from Pandora on the living room TV. It is the perfect recipe for a fall afternoon full of self-care. My music tastes began shifting a few years ago – away … [Read more…]
We took family pictures last weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a photo session quite so much. We got to dress the boys in matching clothes: an 18 months shirt that Ezra wore for our 2011 Fall photos and the matching shirt in 5T that he wore for our 2014 photos. I … [Read more…]
By guest author, Michelle Cuthrell Three and a half years ago, my husband and I fell in love with an 18-month-old boy from China. He was precious. He was perfect. And he had medical special needs. Having two biological children of our own at the time, we had no prior experience with caring for children … [Read more…]
“Balls dropping everywhere!” I mutter in frustration while seeing my husband out the door for work. He grins gleefully like a pimple-faced middleschooler because he’s a guy and I said “balls.” But for me, it’s my way of saying, “I did it again. I dropped the ball. I failed to manage one of my responsibilities.” This happens … [Read more…]
“For so he giveth his beloved sleep…” Our Sunday School teacher reads the words, and I literally laugh out loud with a snort. Let’s just say that I wasn’t feeling all too holy that morning. Once again, our special-needs five-year-old is in a disregulated phase, resulting in freakishly early mornings for this tired mom. For … [Read more…]
It’s that time of year, when kids get out of school for the summer and everyone seems to have an opinion on the best way for kids to spend the next two months. “After all, our kids need to be bored. It is the lost art of childhood.” – My Kids WILL Be Bored This … [Read more…]
I really hate that there are stigmas attached to both breastfeeding and formula feeding. I hate that this is a matter of contention between moms. Most of all, I hate the role I have played in it all. For three weeks, my firstborn would not nurse. Five years later, I still have no idea why. … [Read more…]
I’ll get to formula and FODMAPS in a second, but before y’all go up in arms at my use of foul language on my faith-based blog, I have to explain: We play this game in the car sometimes. It’s a game I learned from my mother. It’s played like this: One person thinks of an item and … [Read more…]
This post is an unplanned followup to my post, What I’m doing differently with my second baby (based on 5 years of parenting a special needs first baby). As babies grow, we learn more about how to raise them. With this post, I’d like to share more realizations I’ve had about Little Brother, Ezra, myself, and parenting in … [Read more…]
This week was one of those weeks – the kind of week where I really was too tired to be a good wife. Little Brother was going through his sixth week of not sleeping through the night. (He has cut six teeth in five weeks while simultaneously figuring out hands-and-knees crawling AND pulling up – “wonder week” would be … [Read more…]
Let me tell you a tale of two children. The first, now five, was a horrible sleeper. He hated to be alone and needed to be rocked, nursed, cuddled, and patted to fall asleep. The moment he was shifted to another location he would awake. He woke every 1-3 hours at night for 19 months, … [Read more…]
I am SO enjoying jumping in headlong to the Amazon Associates Program! In so doing, I’ve been scouring the website looking for gifts and items that I and my readers would LOVE to buy. Y’all? There’s a lot of fun stuff on Amazon. Aaaaaaaand, since I’m turning 29 this weekend, I thought I would take this … [Read more…]
I will view self care as a priority rather than an indulgence. I will get better at asking for help. With these resolutions, I entered the New Year. I was tired but happy, and felt like our family was going in a good direction. But then it happened: the same thing that happens every January. … [Read more…]
So I’ve gone ahead with another month of Le Tote, a clothing subscription service. You can read more details about Le Tote in my first review here: Finding my sense of mom-style and this crazy thing called Le Tote Le Tote is a splurge, don’t get me wrong. A fun, cool splurge. So let me … [Read more…]
