Dear YMCA: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” I jest, but only a little. But I feel impressed to tell you “my YMCA story,” because it’s a good one. It was September 26, 2014. I had once again been woken up at o-dark-insanity by a child who was less than two … [Read more…]
It was 2014 and I was (once again) driving to the Christian preschool my son was attending to deal with a disciplinary issue. Once again taking time out of my respite because he wasn’t succeeding. “Broken Hallelujah” was popular that year, being still a new(ish) release to Christian radio. I found myself raising hands and … [Read more…]
This past week, my best friend Kathryn (who is a fellow military spouse, special needs mom, and blogger) came to visit me for five wonderful days. We have been online friends for eight years, but had never met in person until this week. Our motherhood journeys have had so many similarities over those eight years, … [Read more…]
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…]
*Quick note to my readers: This is the last Beauty in the Mess post that will be published publicly. From here on out, all Beauty in the Mess posts will be password protected. The password will be available to my weekly and monthly newsletter subscribers. So if you haven’t yet subscribed, feel free to do … [Read more…]
1. Never try to see fireworks that happen after a baseball game. Especially when you have small children, because it will be just your luck that the ballgame will go to 11 innings and the fireworks won’t start til 11PM. There will be an epic meltdown around 10PM, you will resort to iPhone games, and … [Read more…]
How are you feeling?!?! The question comes frequently. And at 31 weeks now, I’m slightly surprised when I hear myself say, “Pretty good!” On Sunday, when someone asked me, “So are you ready to have that baby? Are you ready for it to be over?” again, I was surprised that my immediate answer wasn’t to … [Read more…]
I really have no words for how difficult the last few weeks have been for our family. Our son’s behavior has led to both a suspension and expulsion from his private preschool (although those words were never used and the school was ever-so-gracious about both). While we are well on our way to getting some … [Read more…]