Monthly Archives: March 2016

Reading

The Books of My Life: Stacey Loscalzo

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I like to start my “Books of My Life” posts by sharing how I know the person I’m interviewing. For the life of me, I can’t remember how I originally discovered Stacey Loscalzo, but I’m a loyal follower of her blog. We were also classmates for one of The HerStories Project’s writing classes. Stacey’s been a huge supporter of my Barrett posts. She used to work with special needs students as a speech therapist and reading specialist. We also connected over my road trips, as I’ve visited her hometown, and if I’m not mistaken, we also made a Virginia connection. Finally – and most importantly♥ – Stacey loves books as much as I do! Stacey’s a regular contrinutur to the fabulous book blog, Great New Books (you must check it out!).  I hope you enjoy reading her answers.

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Continue reading The Books of My Life: Stacey Loscalzo →

Autism, Writing

A New Book, Twins, Running, and Autism

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First, I want to thank everyone for their sweet comments about last week’s post on my returning to work. I really appreciate all of you! As I promised, I’m not going to stop writing and I’m working on a few Autism Awareness posts. I was going to feature my funny story about my husband today, but something else has taken priority.

As announced last fall,51BkwZZEnFL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_[1] one of my essays was chosen to be a part of a new book about multiples. Multiples Illuminated will be published on May 1st, and you can order a copy here. I’m really excited about this book, because it’s going to help new parents of twins, triplets, and more! I contributed a funny story about Barrett and Hunter and the time we tried to put them in separate bedrooms.

 

To help promote the book, I’ve written an essay about the boys and their mutual running careers. The timing couldn’t be better – since Barrett just scored a personal record in the 800 M on Wednesday, with a little help from his friends. He was really tired this race, I think because he really pushed himself hard. He stopped after his first lap and I panicked. Once he started running again, it looked like he wasn’t going to make it around the track another lap – but he did it. One of his teammates jumped on the track to run with him, and a few others ran with him on the in-field. It was amazing. His time was 3:35, which was more than a minute faster than the week before.

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So how does a fifteen year old boy with autism, who has extremely limited communication skills, become a member of his middle school’s track team? I’m glad you asked, because that’s what my essay is all about over at Multiple Illuminated. I’d really appreciate it if you could pop on over there to read and comment.

Shamelessly, I am linking up with FTSF, because there is a line in my opening paragraph alluding to my once-upon-a-time future vision of my twins playing baseball together. Kind of works, no?

Todays’ FTSF prompt is: “If I could travel in time…” Hosts: Kristi of Fining Ninee and Michelle Grewe.

Click here to read the essay.  THANK YOU♥!

Writing

Superwoman or Everywoman?

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Hello friends! How are you? As promised I’m posting a blog this week, my first (with the exception of a few “Books of My Life” posts) since early January and I’m feeling a bit awkward. Strangely, I’m at a loss for words. I have so much to share, perhaps too much, perhaps stuff you could care less about, and I’m experiencing a bit of stage fright. Where do I begin? I find myself with little time these days to craft anything with structure, so if you’ll indulge me, this is going to be a random Hodge podge of updates and observations (with minimal editing, I’m sorry)

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I got a job, a real one, working in an office. It has been quite an adjustment. A strange series of events led to this. Last fall I was painting some furniture, which was a hobby that had generated some nice mad money for me (even more than writing, sadly). I’d begun to plan our annual summer road trip and factored the costs into my budget spreadsheet and was gooblesmacked to discover Momma was in the red. There are a number of reasons for this, but I won’t bore you with them (and who knows, it may be a travel planning post one day). Suffice it to say, it was clear that if I wanted to embark on our trip, I was going to have to make some more money. Continue reading Superwoman or Everywoman? →

Reading

The Books of My Life: Lindsey Mead

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LEM Basin Harbor (3)I’m so excited to have Lindsey Mead here today for “The Books of My Life.” I’m a big fan of Lindsey’s blog, A Design So Vast, where I revel in the magic of her words. Her writing is exquisite. I discovered Lindsey the same way I found Aidan Donnelley Rowley, from reading her essay that was part of the Huffington Post series, “This is Childhood.” Lindsey is a very talented writer – I cannot adequately describe her lyrical style, but her essays about the passage of time evoke such emotions in me that I have stop and reread, because – wow! And her use of imagery, well again, wow. In one of her essays she used a cross country running metaphor to describe her daughter’s growing up and away from her childhood. As the mother of a cross country runner, it pierced my heart. I urge you check out her blog.

Lindsey is a Boston girl (yay!) and a lover of books. She reads obsessively like I do, although our tastes are a little different. Still, her book reviews and recommendations have inspired me to up my game both as a reviewer and a reader. I have ventured outside my reading comfort zone more than once, based on one of her suggestions. Without further ado – here’ is Lindsay’s interview. Continue reading The Books of My Life: Lindsey Mead →