Navigating life, love, kids and crafts with gracious uncertainty.
The last third of the year can become unenjoyably busy for our family very easily, with ten family birthdays and our anniversary sprinkled in among the bustle of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So in 2016 Greg and I resolved to designate one day from each weekend in October, November and December as an "at home … Continue reading The Accidental Sabbath: Plans for 2017
I hope to share more formally about our adventures in communication with June, specifically the use of American Sign Language, verbal speech development, and her assistive communication device. However, for a few months I've been savoring some much needed rest and protecting a "margin" against over-busy-ness in my life and that of the kids, which … Continue reading Adventures in Communication
One of the things I am grateful for this holiday season is Signing Time, and how it made American Sign Language easily accessible to our family. We are over at the Signing Time blog today where we have the privilege of sharing about what a big impact Signing Time has had on our family. Follow the … Continue reading Signing Time and Our Journey As a Special Needs Family
On November 1st, Texas implemented STAR Kids, a managed care system for Medicaid benefits. (See here for an explanation of how and why medically complex kids like June have secondary Medicaid.) Like most families, we could not get any specific information about the change before it occurred, like whether eligibility requirements, family responsibilities, affiliated doctors/hospitals/nursing/DME companies, … Continue reading Are *You* My Service Coordinator? The STAR Kids Switch
One week ago, the kids and I ventured out to the polls for early voting. The "big kids" (my 5-year-old, Rowan and my 3-year-old, June) had decided who they would vote for, hypothetically, by watching snippets of the debates. This was our pre-voting conversation- June contributing in ASL. Me: OK, guys, let's go vote! June: I'm … Continue reading An Election Conversation With My Kids
Our post on this year's curriculum choices is so belated that most homeschool bloggers are writing about how their first 6 or 9 weeks went. So I'll just roll that info in here, too. Last year, our approach was so informal that I put quotes around "homeschool curriculum" in the post title. Last year went wonderfully- … Continue reading Our Homeschool Curriculum, 2016-2017
I mentioned recently that I finished the "Crazy Heart Block Quilt" that I started for June last summer while she was recovering from her LTR surgery. Here's a peek at it and a few things I learned. I didn't know if my kooky idea for this quilt would work at all, because in order to do … Continue reading Crazy Heart Block Quilt- Complete!
Today we conclude the special needs family outings series with the second part of the discussion on what did not work so well for us (see part 1 here). Here we'll share difficulties we encountered during two of the most challenging travel situations we have faced: flying and handling a medical emergency away from home. … Continue reading Special Needs Family Outings: What Didn’t Work (for us) Part 2 of 2
We conclude our special needs family outings series with a discussion of what did not work so well for us when traveling. I've divided the post into two parts, the first being an assortment of issues/examples and the second will cover difficulties we had while flying and handling a medical emergency away from home. We try mightily with … Continue reading Special Needs Family Outings- What Didn’t Work (for us), Part 1 of 2
We will end the special needs family outing series with two fun posts: what worked for us when travelling near and far, and what didn't. I am excited to share this because as I mentioned in the first series post, we've done a lot of adventuring this summer! Here are a few of our travel … Continue reading Special Needs Family Outings: What Worked (for us)
