Ode to our Challenges!

Welcome to Fun Friday!  This is my attempt at making you look forward to something fun each Friday, so you will come back for more and hang out with me.  Isn't that so creative of me?   One of my favorite Author's and Bloggers is Jen Hatmaker.  If you don't know her, pop over and check her out and her latest book "For the Love."  Every woman needs to read this book, to give laughter and rest for your soul.  I must give her creative credit, for she has perfected something called "Thank-You Notes," which each time I read, I nearly fall off my chair laughing.  We've all heard it said, laughter is the best medicine.  There is much truth to this.  So the following is my attempt to help us mom's who are dealing with unique challenges to laugh at the issues we deal with that the rest of the world may not get.  Be it health issues, allergies, sensory, learning differences you name it--these are the things we live with--so here I go, let me know what you think!


Thank-You Notes for My Girls in the Trenches

Thank you severe reflux for keeping my infant and me from ever sleeping, without you I would have been showered, cute and potentially thriving for the first two years of my son's life, not like I needed sleep anyway.  Thank you G-tube for giving me more gear to carry around than humanly possible--I love how heavy and cumbersome your Kangaroo pump was--naming you after a Kangaroo didn't make you any more fun to deal with!   Thank you Child Find for pointing out what I already knew was true about my child and for rewarding me with free preschool so that I could have a few moments of much needed quiet time, which I never dreamed was possible.  Thank you Occupational Therapy, for playing with my son for an hour so that I didn't have to install a climbing wall, foam pit, or inclining ramp in my own home..  Thank you Sensory Fidget Toy's for giving my son hours of chew-able fun so that his the pencil tops, t-shirts and his own lip could have a break from the constant chewing.  My clothing budget is eternally grateful.   Thank you dollar store sound devices for your ear piercing death-defying high pitched whistles, which reminds me to be grateful for a time before I had children and lived in complete silence.  I never appreciated it at the time. Yours truly, Why did the heck did the dentist put this toy in the treasure box?   Thank you noise canceling head-phones for making me have to repeat myself ten times before realizing that my son couldn't hear me anyway.  I love practicing saying the same thing over and over, and now I know how annoying my voice really is.  Thank you creative speech therapist for burning the image of the letter V,  as a warped V shaped Vampire with fangs trying to kill us.  Now my son and I will never forget what you resemble, though we still can't remember what you sound like, thanks for trying anyway.  Thank you Dyslexia and Dysgraphia for helping my son to write me a card which reminded me that I am a BASS Mom, this is way better than being the Best Mom,  I'm one step ahead all the other mothers and now I'm a great catch too.  Thank you food allergies, intolerance's and the like for making the entire world of children allergic to every food, so now we no longer have to be the only ones.  Obviously kids love pencils as Birthday treats more than food anyway, how did you know?   Thank you impulsiveness for helping my son do things before he has time to think about the consequences, you knew I needed to practice apologizing to neighbors, teachers, other parents and friends, without you, I would have more social engagements and free time than I could imagine.  Thank you hyperactivity for wearing me out every single hour of every single day.  I wish instead of living with me, you would empower me with the same energy, so that I could keep up with you!   Thank you emotional outburst and emotional dis-regulation for telling me "You are the worst Mom" and "You are the best Mom,"  within the same hour.  Guess what?  my self-worth is no longer based on your or anyone's opinion of me because you are so all over the place!  without you I would no know unconditional love.   Thank you ADHD for the boundless creativity and complete mess that my house is in right now because your hyper-focus has created more art than I can possibly keep up with; sincerely, lover of free art.   Thank you landscape yard rocks for your over abundance and lack of purpose, and for being completely free because you came with my house.  Did you realize that hundreds of you could be painted this many colors in a single day?  There is no end to stopping this so just go with the flow, you are more than a pet rock, you are a masterpiece, embrace your inner beauty!  Thank you Halloween and Christmas, for all your marketing which begins so far before the actual holiday.  By the time you actually arrive, we have already spent more money on decorations to satisfy my sons special interest's, that we have no money left to celebrate you, best of luck on Black Friday!  Thank you neighbors for allowing us to ruin the neighborhood with Christmas decorations in July and tombstones in our yard in August.  This is why we live where there is no HOA.  Thank you for believing my son really was decorating for Halloween early and that our yard isn't real graveyard (although we did bury some pets in the flower pots).    Finally, thank you understanding friends and family for embracing our child's strengths rather than weaknesses, and that reminding us that normal is just plain boring, compared to what we have!

Please share the great things about your child and what their challenges have taught you!


Hope you enjoyed this Fun Friday.  I am excited to announce that next week I'm going to have my FIRST FREE GIVEAWAY!   Please sign up on email so you will be able to participate in a Free gift from the Therapy Shoppe, a one stop place for your therapy and sensory needs!   I will be reviewing their product and I will pick one lucky winner to win one of their sensory products!


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Let's Cuddle

Today my son smiled most of the day.  This afternoon he sat next to me and said "let's cuddle."  He really has the most endearing personality.  Those of you who know him know how sweet he can be.  Just a few nights ago I was crying and I told Matt, "I really miss him."   And it was so true, for the last month or so, he has been intensely different from the child who was with me today.  Sometimes, parenting Storm is like parenting Jekyll and Hyde.  Each morning, I wake up and I'm not quite sure what I will get.  Sometimes this is hard, I try my best to be ready for it, but sometimes it takes me by surprise.  When we have an extended period of stability, sometimes I get so comfortable with the boy that I had today, that I forget that the other side of him is there.  Or the opposite happens, sometimes, when we've had several weeks of roller-coaster emotions, non-stop energy, and low frustration threshold; it is a welcomed surprised when the boy who wanted to just "cuddle" came and sat with me today.

In that moment I just took it in.  I stroked his hair, he said "I love you mom, you are the best mom."  We tossed the football, and he didn't yell or get mad at the way I threw it.  He was patient with himself and with us.  He wasn't worried about anything today.  He wasn't very sad or angry or frustrated.  He was just a boy.  He rode his scooter.  He played with some neighbors.  It was mostly quiet.  It was a good day.  Tonight I'll just keep it close to my heart.  I know the Lord knew I needed this day.

At Church this morning we talked again about surrender.  About the book of James and how we should "consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."  James 1:2-4.  That true worship, is just that, surrender.  The laying down of ourselves.

God speaks to me so deeply through song.  Here is the new song of my heart, take a moment to listen. There is such freedom in this song of surrender, the words are so true and exactly how I feel right now.  I wept so hard,  in church today, I could have laid down on the floor and not cared if anyone was near me because in that moment, it was just me and my God.  Not a distant God that sits high in a cloud, somewhere looking down on me.  But the God of the Universe, the Maker of everything, The God Who Sees, The One who knows me in and out, and loves me personally.  A God that I am coming to know so deeply in the darkest of places as He has reached out to me, and walked with me through this pain.   I offered Him my tears; tears of praise to a God that is holding me in the midst of my pain, not because I am strong--but because He is!  He loves me, and He loves you.  If you are broken inside, as the song says, give Him your life; He will not fail you.

From Elevation Worship:
"Give me faith, to trust what you say,  That Your good and Your love is great.  I'm broken inside I give You my life... I may be weak, but your Spirit is strong in me, my flesh may fail, but My God You never will"

"You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in your bottle.  Are they not all in Your book."  Psalm 56:8