I decided to create a checklist to help you better understand whether or not you’re an Ordinary Mom. This isn’t the end-all, be-all of ordinariness, of course, but if a few of these sound familiar, you might want to go ahead and hop on the Ordinary bus with me. You Might Be an Ordinary Mom if… You have to move the laundry in order to go to bed. You’ve stashed dirty dishes when company was coming and you didn’t have time to ...
The Life Plan
When you find out you are pregnant for the first time, it’s exciting, but it’s also a little scary. The idea of giving birth to a human can be a bit intimidating for any woman. Luckily, there are Lamaze and birthing classes available to help prepare you for the big event. I remember CJ and I going through those classes when I was pregnant with Corban. Something they taught us there has always stuck with me—the creation of a birth plan. Our ...
Of Mice and (Wo)Men
I like to pretend that I keep my house in order and that it’s always guest-ready at a moment’s notice. And while we all know that’s a lie, what you may not know is there are times it’s so far away from being guest-ready it would make you cry. Back when CJ and I were newly married, we lived in a cute little bungalow. It had a great sunroom that was surrounded by windows on two sides that looked out over our huge backyard. It was a great little ...
Teach to Their Strengths
Like so many other areas in life, Logan didn't learn to read the way other kids learned. He didn't know the alphabet and the sounds of each letter. He was non-verbal until the age of 5 and didn't even know the alphabet song until after that. So what do you do when you need to teach your non-neurotypical child something essential? You use non-typical methods. After Logan started to regain some language, we began to notice something odd. He ...
Welcome to Holland
How do you explain to someone what it's like to get a diagnosis and come to terms with the fact that your child isn't going to be like other children? That your child is not considered neurotypical? Through the years I've tried to express the feelings, the challenges, the fear but I never felt like I quite captured it. Years ago, a friend shared with me a poem by American author and social activist Emily Perl Kingsley. She wrote this in 1987 ...
Autism Sucks
It was a rough night in the Slacker house. Autism and teenage-dom combined to beat me and MC down while not making Bubba any happier either. These incidents make me weary. Just exhausted. And you know what kept going through my head during all of it? I hate Autism. It truly sucks. April is Autism Awareness month but I wonder if there's anyone left in this country who isn't aware of Autism. Between celebrities like Jenny McCarthy and shows like ...
How Are Your Housekeeping Skills?
In the spirit of absolute honesty and full disclosure, I have tell you what happened this morning when I finally ventured out of my bedroom. It's only because we have a sharing, committed relationship that is not based on judgment or one-upmanship that I feel I can share this with you and be so vulnerable. I feel it is my duty to share my warts-and-all life so that others will know they are not alone...or maybe just so you all feel better about ...
Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick….
You know when you're watching TV and a commercial comes on for a local burger joint, and they keep flashing close ups of that big, juicy burger? The one that's all loaded up with your favorite condiments and even though it's close to midnight and you already had dinner all you can think is, "Man, I have GOT to have a hamburger!"? But it's too late and so you just go to bed...but you wake up craving that burger and it's all you can think ...
A Cup of Courage
For the last week I have been enamored with a plastic object. It started late in the week. I was heading off to work and I saw that someone had dropped one of those insulated cups made to look like a fast food drink cup. You know the kind... This one was clear with a green tinted lid. It was lying on its side next to a car parked at the curb. It looked as if someone had accidentally knocked it out of the car as they were getting out. My ...
Let the Planting Begin…
Over our 19+ years of marriage, MC and I haven't had the best of luck with houses. There was our first house which flooded, attracted both cockroaches and mice, and had wall-to-wall linoleum--in every room. Our second house had the distinction of being only one house away from my sister, but it also came with split level stairs that were tough to navigate while pregnant and herding a toddler, a rabid squirrel that didn't take too well to the fact ...