Wordless Wednesday: My spot!



Boom: I caught this sneaky cat trying to get a place at dinner at my grandparents' (Valerie's in-laws) family Christmas Eve celebration in 2013.

try not to panic

Earlier this week i showed photos of the mess of writing an article on spec. 
And today i realized that, after intense (for me) work of 6months -

Rising to the challenges of a kid with autism is largely a matter of trying to see things as the kid might.  i feel like i'm constantly trying to end-run him, get whereever it is first.
Here is the Autism Society of America's latest list of hints.  There's a dozen of them, and they all come down to communicating and taking things slow & calm.

Election Day


Twenty-six states are having their general elections today.
i hear this will be a light turnout election day.
That's a shame.  While the elections are not high profile,

Indy Decorative Artists' 2015 American Wildlife Quilt, and...

We will draw the winning ticket on November 9, to be given away December 14.  Let me know if you'd like a ticket or so.  They're $1, or you may buy 6 for $5.  We give half our proceeds to Riley Hospital for Children.

Surveys to Serve Us Better

The Indiana Secondary Resouce Center wants us to know about their initiative for following up on special needs graduates.
And the Indiana Arts Commission needs the help of the public and of artists to plan their new year next four years.

Wordless Wednesday: Shooting More Sunsets & Foliage

 "Company A" arranged an outing for the clients to a local farm for a hayride this past weekend. 
While i don't have permission to publish the people photos, i can assure you a good time was had by all!

Another Update: Classes

  September 26, 1pm, at Just a Little Bit Moore in Mooresville, IN, fall leaves of my own design, geared to introducing colored pencil techniques.
  Also at 1pm, except on October 10, i will be teaching the butterflies of Sharon Carlson, CDA, at Artistic Designs Gallery in Brownsburg. 

Updated one of my pages

LONG overdue.  i've got some current stuff on my Organizations & Events page.
Looks like i'll need a new photo too sometime, since next year's retreat is in a different place.

Wordless Wednesday: fall flower

We've had balloon flowers ever since we moved in here.  Purple ones and white ones, but this plant is the first with both colors.

speech update, September '15

Blurry Max Karaoke
Maybe i make things too hard on myself about this Medicaid thing.

Wordless Wednesday: Canada Geese

  Back when Canada geese were MIGRATORY birds. we enjoyed seeing them in the spring and fall.
  Now they've decided they like us here and would like to take over.
  Boom was surprised that it was ever otherwise.

The following is a test of your parenting skills. . . .

  i am no one's authority figure.  Apparently i have influence in some quarters; authority is something different.

Wordless Wednesday: Not Your Typical Window


This room, the one i'm inside, was a small cubby-type place, used for our church library.  Later, the library was discontinued, the room emptied, and now the windows are gone.  There's french doors leading to a small cubby for the (volunteer) receptionist, not to be confused with the (paid) admin assistant.

Words on Wednesday: Reading about Joseph


  One of the things i loved about Angela Elwell Hunt's Legacies of the Ancient River series is how not only don't we lose track of book one's main character throughout, but he's actually a key figure in them all, sometimes primary, sometimes secondary, but always in the forefront.

Wordless Wednesday: i've looked at clouds from both sides now, or, illustrations for our Cloud homework

Approaching Honolulu: Cumulus?  Fractals?  Definitely a dirty airplane window!
 Max and i looked at clouds tonight & how they're named. 
The homework wasn't much of a success, but here's an excuse to look at my Hawaii photos.
Links we used are below.

More Helpful Links

 In this week's inbox were these articles:
  • http://indianapta.org/  currently has a 3minute video about common core standards.  If it's gone by the time you get there, they also have a page on their site explaining what it's about & why we need it.  (Yeah, finetuning needed, but the idea is sound - hey that sounds familiar.)
  • The national PTA site has a parent checklist.  How is my kid's school doing?  What should i ask to find out?  linking from that page is a 3page pdf with the questions.
  • Here is the calendar for the upcoming sessions of the Indiana General Assembly's' upcoming meetings.  Topics to be discussed include special education and ISTEP.  You can view the agenda, or click on a link to watch the session.  Elsewhere on the site are ways to email or otherwise contact the senators & representatives.  There are multiple sites which will help you find who's representing you, including the Arc of Indiana and Indiana PTA.

The more i know, the less i understand.


Actually i feel that way about a lot of things.  Most of them are kinda academic, but negotiating Max's services is decidedly UNacademic.
  When Max was about this age, i learned

Wordless Wednesday: Mother

Grammy reads to Max and Boom
 July 21 was my mom's birthday.  i thought i'd post some pictures about her & the center of her life.

Max's Demand

  If you've been following me, you will have seen that, last March, Max's speech person got let go by her company.

Very Frustrated

  Early this week Blogger stopped allowing me to not count my own pageviews.
  i've seen the articles about how to work around this, but they aren't working for me, and in any case don't offer much hope of going back to the way it was before, though the hotlink to what was the option window is still in the same spot.   It just pops up when i click and does nothing, until prompting me to "Try Again Later."
 This seems to me to be artificially inflating the pageviews.  i use the blogroll to access the blogs i follow, and regularly look at the pages to curate this blog.  (Which means if a post looks different when you return to it, i've seen it on the page then made changes.)
  i'll keep trying, but it looks like i'll have to live with this.

Progress in Fitting In: An Easter Seals Survey


  In yesterday's inbox i received this survey from Easter Seals, about progress in accessibility over the years.
  It's very enlightening.