...always get me down. Maybe I should write a song.

Good Morning from the frigid South...a whopping 14 degrees on my themometer, which always makes me wonder if it's now that "h*ll has frozen over"!

I awoke at my usual 5:30 am to get this week crankin'. Much to do, as on Friday, Super Dad and I head to Savannah for his birthday and so he can run a half-marathon. (He celebrates oddly, I know!)

My to-do list was already packed full: Blog, file quarterly tax statements, get ADN letters out that are LONG overdue, do an invoice... more

"We now interrupt your regularly scheduled life…and hormones…to bring you perimenopause."

YIKES! Yesterday was the third time in the last few months where I just had some “weird” symptoms. First it was a headache that wouldn’t go away. Not quite a migraine…but a nagging persistent pain. Did I need to go to the chiropractor? Was it a brain tumor?

Next came some severe joint pain. I’ve been having joint pain of varying intensities for probably a year now. I attributed it to a family tendency to arthritis and went on. But this was intense and all over. Next came this kind of out-of-body... more

Yesterday’s Boston Globe ran an article about credit card debt and medical bills. Seems many Americans are putting their medical costs on credit cards and hospitals and doctors are encouraging this. The article went on to say that on average, those with credit card debt that was medical in nature had $3,700 more debt than those who had credit card debt that wasn’t for medical expenses.

The article told of families who have insurance,... more

One of the “signs” of healing or progress, we’ve been told, is a developing sense of humor. Children who are able to “get” jokes are progressing developmentally and emotionally. The first time LuLu understood something was funny and laughed (only a couple of years ago), was a monumental occasion.

Since then, LuLu has tried to figure out “what is so funny” about a variety of things we laugh at. As a family, we’re hooked on humor. It’s what keeps us sane. We prefer comedies to other types of movies, watch stand-up comedians, read the comic... more

I realize that the Martin Luther King holiday is over and everyone is headed back into our weekly routines this morning, but felt compelled to comment.

Erin over on Transracial Adoption blog posted this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Martin Luther King Jr.-"Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 April 1963

And my thoughts went immediately to what is going on here and now in Atlanta –... more

One of the beauties of schooling LuLu in a one-on-one environment, is the concept of unit studies. We structure her reading, language arts, social studies and science lessons around things of great interest. Once I started to get the hang of how to do this, it’s been kinda’ fun.

We’ve done a unit on volcanos: reading books about them (for reading); researching on the internet about where volcanic activity occurs (geography and research skills); building a working volcano (art and science). We’ve done a unit on bones (reading about it; researching calcium... more

LuLu is a paradox. On Friday, as usual, she took her weekly spelling test. I administered the test as I was also doing an IM meeting with our ADN conference committee. So I sat with my back to LuLu, who was working at her desk. And I was working at my computer.

I didn’t notice that she had laid one of her spelling assignments on the floor next to her, where she could easily copy the words as she was tested. BUT, when she finished the spelling test and proudly brought it to me she said, “Did I get them all right, Mom? I only had to look at this... more

Taking a cue from the gals over on the Birth/First Parent Blog, I’d love the readers of Parenting Special Kids to SPEAK UP as well.

Just who is reading all this stuff? And what are you thinking?

Here are some specific things I’d love to know about my readers:

1. Are you the parent of a child with special needs, planning to adopt a special needs child, or wanting to be prepared (just in case)? Or are you reading this blog because you’ve been bribed, coerced or are under... more

Writer's Note: Run out of cheese yet? Julie's still whining! And then there’s the regular stuff of “life”. Spiritual growth, physical exercise, friendships, date night. Each is vital, but easily ignored when so many immediate “fires” are burning.

Each day’s list of things to do is long, varied and difficult to put in any kind of priority. I had fooled myself into believing that it would get better with time. That it would be like taking on any new job and I would eventually get into a groove, a routine. It hasn’t happened... more

Writer's Note: Get out more cheese...Julie's whine continues! In addition to wrapping up work with my clients as quickly, neatly (and professionally) as possible, I had to figure out how to teach 3rd grade. And not just regular 3rd grade, but 3rd grade to a child that has a host of processing disabilities. Knowing her as well as I do helped. But I had not been her teacher…I was her mother…and the relationship is different. Knowing how to push, when to push and which issues to push in which order…well it was like starting a whole... more