In So Many Words

I just happened to be going through my file of ideas for blog posts and found this cool blog award that I was given by Ellen at To The Max — in January! Guess I need to check the file more often.

Here are the official rules and regulations (which you can totally ignore if I nominate you and you have no interest in doing it):

A) List 10 honest things about yourself—and make them interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
B) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers who you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap and whose blogs you find brilliant in design or content.

10 Honest (And Mildly Interesting) Things About Trish

1. I am a voracious reader, usually finishing approximately 200 books each year. If you don’t believe me, check out my Shelfari bookshelf.
2. I skipped first grade.
3. I almost skipped sixth grade but was caught copying the answers for an assignment from a classmate (my one and only time cheating in school).
4. I’m a sucker for just about any show on the Food Network or Style. (In fact, I’m watching a rerun of Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? as I write this.)
5. I love the Chocolatier computer games and even take notes as I play so I can keep track of everything.
6. It irritates me when I am leaving a comment on a blog and both word verification and comment moderation are turned on. I just don’t see the point. Not your problem, I know, but there it is. (I am open to changing my mind on this if someone could explain the rationale to me!)
7. I have terrible teeth. They are crowded and crooked, and I have had more root canals than any one person should need.
8. I have a degree in English Education, but have never taught professionally.
9. Our ultrasound technician told us we were having a girl. I’m glad we had a boy.
10. When my son falls asleep at night, it feels as though an actual weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

So, without further ado, I hereby pass this award on to the following blogs:

• Beneath the Wings
• forever spring…
• kidz – a connection for inspiration
• Special Considerations
• Spectrum Siblings
• Three Channels
• Three Weddings

Gluten Free Twitter Party

This party has been created and organized by Bonnie at Autism Family Adventures in honor of her birthday, so be sure to thank her and wish her a happy birthday!

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Root & Sprout

April is Autism Awareness Month

P.S. There’s only two more days to enter my book giveaway!

If you are love to read, there are a couple of great challenges going on this spring. I’m planning to do them both but still need to get my list together for the first one, since it started last Friday.

Spring Reading Thing 2009

Spring Reading Thing 2009 from Callapidder Days (March 20th -June 20th). This challenge basically involves making a list of the books you plan to read this spring and then reporting back at the end on how you did. You can include reviews of the books, but you don’t have to. I’m sure reading everyone’s lists and reviews will end up making my to-read list even longer, but, hey, there’s nothing wrong with that!

Read Together 2009

Read Together 2009 from Snapshot (April). For this one, set a goal for reading with your kids. It can be reading aloud, reading the same book and then talking about it, reading as a family, whatever you choose, and then posting at the end about how it went. The goal is to connect more with your children through reading.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Even though I don’t blog to make money, I enjoy reading Problogger for the great information and ideas Darren provides. I was really intrigued as I was scrolling through my blog reader and saw this image.

Each day in April, Darren will be posting one way to make your blog better. It will include both a teaching component and a practical component, i.e. homework. You can also register your email for notifications and extra content.

Scribbit Newsletter

And speaking of signing up for things, did you see that Michelle at Scribbit is now offering an email newsletter? It will include lots of extra stuff like:
* Sneak peaks into upcoming giveaways
* Online coupons from sponsors
* Recipes and crafts
* Insider blogging tips
* More fun things to do in Alaska

You can sign up for the Scribbit newsletter here.

So, you tell me, what other cool things am I missing out on?

I had such a great time last night partying with the Ultimate Blog Party 2009! We totally crashed the 5 Minutes for Mom site trying to link up our posts (sorry ladies), but Twitter came to the rescue and we were able to start the party there until the Mr. Linky was available.

Or I should say Mr. Linkies, because they not only have separate sections for Entrepreneurs and for Dads, they also have linkups for your Twitter profile and your Facebook profile. Pretty cool!

I stayed up way too late, but I was a good girl this morning and did my chores before turning on the computer. Now I’m off to visit blogs and do some Twittering! (Oh, the hashtag is #ubp09 if you want to get in on the Twitter conversation.)

My party post is here, and you can find tons more at 5 Minutes for Mom.

It’s that time again – time for the Ultimate Blog Party from 5 Minutes for Mom! I participated a little bit last year, but I was still learning my way through the blogosphere and it also took place right around my son’s birthday, so I found it all a bit overwhelming. I’m so glad Janice and Susan were thoughtful enough to start it after his birthday this year.

I’ve been getting things ready for the party, trying out a spiffy new layout and making sure my family had lots of videos to watch while I blog hop for the next week! Speaking of family, let me introduce you to the cast of characters.

Come on in and make yourself at home. If you need a little break from all the partying, grab a book from the shelf, sit down and put your feet up for a while. Goodness knows, you’ll find me with my nose in a book just about any time I’m not at the computer!

Besides blogging and reading, my other great passions are stamping/scrapbooking and, on the more serious side, autism awareness.

I am a total information junkie and love sharing what I have learned with others. This obsession interest led me to create a series of Autism Resource posts and also opened the door to be part of the writing team at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

Currently, I am posting at 5MFSN once a week as the host for the Try This Tuesday meme. It is a blessing and an honor to be part of that special community of people.

So that’s a bit about me and my little blog. If you’d like to learn more, you can subscribe to my feed, and I would love it if you would sign the guest book (i.e. leave me a comment) before you leave! Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t invite you to all the other great parties going on this week. Psst, one last thing. If you are a Twitterer, you can follow me here.

PRIZES I WOULD LOVE TO WIN

1. INTL 36 – Custom Blog Design by Sara*s Pixel Studio.
2. INTL 1 – Custom Basic Blog Design from Sweet ‘n Simple Design
3. 19 – $50 Gift Certificate to Target Stores from Shoot Me Now!

My other choices would be 21, 26, 68, 91, 113, INTL 61, USC56, USC47, USC15 (yes, I know, they are all gift cards – that’s my favorite thing to win, other than a blog design of my very own!)

Bonnie Sayers, who brought us the awesome Autism Twitter Day back in December, is celebrating her birthday on April 3rd by organizing a Gluten Free Twitter Party.

The hashtag to be used is #gfree, and Bonnie has lots of information on ways to follow the conversation in her RSVP post, which also has a Mr. Linky where you can put in your Twitter ID to sign up.

There will be three panel discussions throughout the day, with prizes given out during those times. The party is not just about being gluten free, but will include other food allergies and intolerances as well. Some of the topics to be discussed are:

• preparing lunches for school
• implementing a diet or lifestyle change with the whole family
• how to handle birthday parties, school parties, holidays, visiting relatives
• how to inform other parents at school if contamination is a life threatening issue
• where to get recipes
• how to cook from scratch
• which sites sell the mixes and other food related products

I was frankly amazed at the amount of information shared during the first twitter party Bonnie hosted, and at how well organized it was, and I am greatly looking forward to this one. Another bonus is getting to connect with other Twitterers who are also dealing with special diets in their lives. So go RSVP today!!

News from 5 Minutes for Special Needs

A quick heads up, everyone, there is a great giveaway for a Busy Body Book over at 5MFSN this week. And I’ve shared about our current school issues in my post on Friday, so if you are interested in all those details about dealing with inclusion and support, check out Taking the Lead.

One Lovely Blog Award

I’ve also just been given my first blog award since moving to WordPress and my own domain, the One Lovely Blog Award. It comes from Danette at Everyday Adventures, whose life with three little boys can best be summed up by looking at her URL – http://3runningincircles.com – it makes me smile every time I see it. Thanks, Danette, for the award and for sharing your stories!

Danette says, and this goes for me too, this is a stress-free award! Pass it on if and when you get a chance to, or not at all, that’s ok too. Since I wanted to pass it on, I looked back to see what the “rules” were and found this:

Copy, save and add the blog photo to your blog, share the love with 7 of your favorite blogs and be sure to mention who gave it to you (ahem…that would be me…)

So, here I go, spreading the love (you know I love all of you, but I read way too many blogs to list everyone!):

• A Celebration of Our Journey
• Autism In a Word
• Challenges and Adventures
• General Hysteria
• God’s Grace in Practice
• Sandwiched Genes
• To the Max

Funnily enough, when I went to General Hysteria for her link, I found that she had just named my new blog, Autism Interrupted, for an award of its own! I’ll post that one over there soon. (I know blog awards are a little silly, but they are so fun and I enjoy sharing some of the blogs I read with others and finding new ones that other people love!)

So the winner of my very first giveaway, in honor of Root & Sprout, is:

(drumroll, please)

Rhemashope

Here is what she had to say after visiting Root & Sprout:

Hi, I came over from 5MFSN. I have heard good things about the BOUNCE DVD’s.

The article that caught my eye was “A Case For Dress-Up Play.” I have an NT 2-year old who loves to dress up and pretend. She just got some new costumes for Christmas. It’s a new experience for me b/c her older sister with ASD seems to have no interest in this. I am hopeful that my 2 year old will be a great model of pretend play for her big sister.

Thanks a lot for the giveaway opportunity!

And thank you to everyone who entered. It was great to hear everyone’s thoughts on the articles they read. Remember to look for new content at Root & Sprout each month!

When I was contacted by Skin MD Natural a few weeks ago to try out their Shielding Lotion with SPF15 Sunscreen, I was intrigued to find out more about it and whether shielding lotion was the next greatest thing or just another way to sell a product.

Of course, the first thing I had to do was look up shielding lotion and find out what it is. I found this definition on Wikipedia:

Shielding lotions are lotions that bond with the dead skin cells of the epidermis, forming a protective layer with the outer-most layer. This protective layer is virtually the same as what was naturally formed with the outer-most layer of skin cells and the skin’s own natural oils and lipids, up until about 100 years ago – before modern life and frequent hand washing stripped it away. This protective layer helps prevents irritating substances from penetrating the skin and getting into its deeper layers. Additionally, it helps to retain the natural moisture and oils, which are responsible for the skin’s elasticity and integrity, thus helping the skin to rejuvenate itself.

Sounds interesting; now to see if it works. This is definitely the best time of year for a trial, since my skin gets very dry during the winter season, and I am constantly reapplying moisturizer throughout the day. I was also happy to hear that this product could work on the face, hands and body, since so many hand creams are too greasy to use on your face.

After using this skin care product, I have to say that I am really impressed. I noticed right away that it is not greasy and absorbs into the skin instantly, leaving your skin feeling smooth. I was able to touch things and go about my business right away instead of waiting for my hands to “dry,” so to speak.

Then I realized several hours later that my skin still felt smooth and moisturized, which is virtually unheard of with the other lotions I have. Between this and the fact that you do not have to use a large amount of it, I think the 4 oz bottle will last longer than some of my larger bottles of other lotions. The SPF15 sunscreen is an added bonus, in my opinion, although you can purchase the shielding lotion without it if desired.

Over the last couple of weeks, the shielding lotion has been put to an even bigger test. I had gotten what I thought was a really bad cold in mid-December when I suddenly developed a rash and was diagnosed with scarlet fever. One of the effects of this rash is extremely dry skin that often peels after the rash is gone. Although I did have to apply the shielding lotion more often during this period of time, I am happy to say that there has been no peeling, and that the Skin MD Natural helped take away the feelings of dryness and itchiness I was experiencing.

So if you are interested in natural skin care, I would highly recommend checking out Skin MD Natural’s Shielding Lotion, with or without sunscreen.

Wow, I can hardly believe a new year is here already! And it is almost one year ago that I started blogging – so much has happened in such a short time that I can hardly take it all in. In the interest of reminiscing over the last few months, Looking Back and Moving Forward is my topic today at 5MFSN. I hope you’ll visit and also offer your suggestions for topics and issues to be discussed in the coming year.

And to start off the new year on the right foot, I am having my first giveaway! It is in honor of Root & Sprout, which many of you know I have been a fan of since its inception. Not only is it a great site filled with useful articles designed to help your relationship with your children grow and flourish, but there is also a social community called Grow Together where members can connect with each other and pursue opportunities to write for R&S.

How do I enter?

To enter the giveaway, simply visit Root & Sprout, take a look around and leave me a comment here naming one article you read and what you liked about it. You can leave multiple comments if you find more than one article you like; just make sure each comment gives the name of the article and what you found helpful or interesting.

You can also earn extra entries by writing a post about this giveaway (leave me a comment with the link to your post) and by joining Grow Together (leave me a comment with the link to your GT page). Each qualifying comment will be entered in the random drawing for the giveaway. Entries will be accepted through Friday, January 9th, and the winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday, January 10th. This giveaway is open to US mailing addresses only.

What do I win?

Well, I’m glad you asked; the winner will be receiving three volumes of the Bounce DVDs from Spectrum Connections.

Bounce is a series of developmental DVDs that uses music as a teaching tool. The host draws on her music therapy background to encourage cognitive and social learning for young children or children with special needs. The titles in this giveaway are Let’s Talk!, Routines!, and Let’s Go!

You can also visit Three Weddings for more Root & Sprout giveaways. Thanks to Debbie Yost for this great idea!