Releasing Abed: The Power of Friends

"This time you'll never get out!"

One of my favorite TV shows

   is NBC's Community.  My family doesn't understand why, and my friends don't seem to find it.  It's on Thursday nights, apparently opposite some show with dancing and celebrities?
  The premise is a bunch of diverse misfits attending a community college and melding a friendship.
  Most of them are, quite honestly, jerks.
  Rarely does an episode not involve a group meltdown.
  But.
  They all learn something from each meltdown.  Each episode sees increased self-awareness from one or more characters, and personal growth.

Abed, the character with Asperger's syndrome

  The reason  Community rates a post on this blog is Abed.
  The reason for the post now is the recent episode, "Virtual Systems Analysis," which shows Abed more autistic than he has previously been shown.

Escaping the Hypnogourd

"Technology is not your friend."
                                    ~~Eustacia Cutler

  In Piers Anthony's novel Ogre Ogre, Anthony depicts treacherous gourds.
  Each gourd has a hole in it, and, if you are foolhardy enough to look into the hole, you become trapped

Wordless Wednesday: Make Reading a Habit

Cultivating  a Reading Habit Early -
It is a Reading Habit, Right?

7 Tips to Win at Your Case Conference

Who is the winner?

If you thought of an adult or group of adults, you need to rethink.

Why two sides of that big table?

You are not on opposite sides of the table to indicate you are on opposite teams.
  A round table would be nice, but realistically, illustrating the equality of those at the conference table is surely not the best way to spend educational funds.
The photos below illustrate metaphorically how you see a different view of the wonderFULL kid.
  Two of the views are directly across from each other.  Two others seem totally unrelated.  One even totally misses the big issue.  There's even a lovely rainbow.  Many, many more views are possible, some similar and some different.

Fairly Odd Neighbors

Appropriately Posted on Earth Day

  With .99 acre of ground grass you'd think there would be compelling reason to NOT replace the deceased gas pushmower with this Fiskars model.
  Especially when the euphemistic term for the condition of the ground is "rolling," and it's kind to say that the length of said grass SOMETIMES gets away from us.
  And a gas mower could've been had for fifty bucks less.
  BUT
  i can do a row or two with this  more often than i can go out with the gas mower, what with suiting up (long sleeves & long pants; hat, ear, &  breathing protection; cleanup; waiting for the mower to cool down after i've recovered from the half row - yep, outta shape)
  AND Max is pleased to take his turn with this, while we couldn't get him outside when the noisy mower was going.
  Actually, he's mowed more often than Boom since we've had this, which is not to be confused with having covered more ground.
  We may yet need to buy another power mower.  It would be cool to have a rider for this mini estate.  And we may need to hire someone occasionally for when it gets away from us.
  But if the neighbors can still stand us, we think it's the right decision for now.
  An extra worker and no two gallons to get the job done - sounds like a good deal.

Max takes a turn

A Date with a Phlebotomist

  Max's new doctor is definitely on the ball.  When i said i didn't remember when, or if, Max had  ever had bloodwork done, the doctor said we need a baseline lab.
  So Max and i went in for it today.
  Now Max is always the first one up in our house.  He gets dressed and goes downstairs to have his bowl of cereal, and settles in for TV until the bus comes.
  i talked to him about the bloodwork and how he needed to not eat.
  And there was The Sign.

Friends

We want to fix everything for our kids, but there's a lot of things we simply cannot.
Much of that is because we are their parents.
Not that we ever felt that way.
Someone unrelated, or  a sibling can express the same thought better.
It's the old saw about how dumb the parents of an 18 year old are.
Peers.  Now they can say exactly the same thing we say and really get through.
Take a look at what my friend, fellow mom Anne Higley has to say about the power of an invitation made by one of her son's friends.
Thank you, Anne, for sharing your gift with words.

Photo shows Boom and Max