In So Many Words

Blog awards are so much fun! And this one is so pretty, too; I love it!

Here are the rules that came along with it:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs (contact them to let them know).

So, here’s a big thank you to Melissa at Someday, When I’m Famous… for thinking of me. Melissa is a great blogger and also an author, so check her out at her blog or on Goodreads.

And a few things about me (hopefully interesting ones!)

1. I haven’t eaten potatoes in over a year, since I was found to be allergic to them, and I occasionally dream about ordering a big plate and scarfing them down before remembering that I’m not supposed to.
2. I have become addicted to Netflix and have worked my way through several TV series, even though I’m sure the time could have been used much more productively.
3. I haven’t been to church hardly at all this summer because we have run out of volunteers for Michael and I don’t enjoy children’s church any more now than I did when I was a kid myself.
4. I am grateful that my friend Kelli has started a blog about reading through the Bible chronologically, because it gives me a bit of spiritual connection that I have been missing. (It’s called The Exhorter Reads if you want to check it out – we just started reading on September 1st, so you haven’t missed too much!)
5. I haven’t used any of my stamping supplies in ages and have even bought the last several birthday cards I needed at the store (gasp!). My friend and I got together yesterday to talk about getting back to it on a more regular basis again, which should be a lot of fun.
6. I have found that even a good school meeting leaves me drained and stressed, although at least without the residual anger and frustration that comes from a bad one.
7. I am looking forward to cooler weather – especially since I am so tired of having allergy and sinus problems.

Now, onto some (relatively) recent blog finds. This is a bit of a mix, although all of these bloggers have some connection to autism. Some I read for enjoyment and comraderie, while others make me think and even challenge some of my previously-held ideas – and some do both!

• A life less ordinary?
• A Mommy Story
• A Quiet Week in the House
• Autism & Oughtisms
• Autism From the Lighter Side
• Countering…
• Delightfully Different Life
• Embracing Chaos
• From Inside the Heart
• Life in the House That Asperger Built
• Mind Retrofit
• Navigating Cruz
• stark. raving. mad. mommey
• The Tumultuous Truth
• Wonderfully Wired

A note to those of you I have passed this award on to – you are under absolutely no obligation to follow any of the rules that come with the award or even to acknowledge it in any way. You can choose to participate in any way you wish or to ignore it completely. I have listed your blog simply because it has given something to me over the last few months and I wanted to let you know.

I so enjoyed posting a Friday’s Fave Five last week that I decided to do it again. It’s so nice to take time to “look back over the week and find those things that have blessed our everyday lives.”

This week I have read so many great blog posts that I wanted to share a few of them with you.

1. Things I’ve learned being a special needs Mama by Tammy at Praying for Parker – Tammy shares from her heart about the (mostly good) lessons she has learned since becoming mama to a medically fragile kiddo.

2. Practical advice on Ministering to Parents of Children with Special Needs – one of many helpful and inspiring posts at The Inclusive Church. I found myself agreeing out loud with many of the points addressed in this post and think it would be a great read for anyone who isn’t sure of the best way to be a friend and a blessing in this situation.

3. Moms who are teaching their kids, by whatever means necessary, not to be a bully, as evidenced by How It Starts by Dave Hingsburger and That’s probably what I would do, too by jillsmo. Way to go, moms!!

4. I can’t let the last day of school go by without a shout out to NO MORE HOMEWORK! Oh wait, they are sending home what? A summer packet? Well, at least we have 11 weeks to get it done. I’m sure it will be no problem at all.

5. And finally, some humor! This is a super funny video my son found on YouTube about the latest development in computer technology:

What are your favorite things this week?

I’ve just run across this meme at Callapidder Days and thought I would join in and see how it goes. It is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Basically, it’s a place to post about 5 favorite things from your week. As Susanne puts it, “It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favorite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc.”

Here’s my list:

1. This marvelous video of a middle school valedictorian giving a tribute to her brother, who has Down Syndrome. Here’s the link in case the video doesn’t show up in my post.

2. The announcement of a new CommentLuv plugin that’s coming very soon. Andy has definitely piqued my interest with his ramp-up campaign of a new video every couple of days – I can’t wait for the new plugin to be released so I can try it out.

3. Another great video, this one about Sensory Processing Disorder. The black and white stick figure drawings are fun, and my son laughed so hard at parts that he wanted to watch the video again! Here’s the video on YouTube.

4. The fact that my dental implant is in and isn’t causing me too much pain, just a bit of residual soreness. In a few months, I will be able to get it crowned and smile big again.

5. The support I have received this week since renaming/moving my blog. I have appreciated each and every comment and am surprised and thankful to see my Feedburner count going up a bit.

What are your favorite things this week?

Over the last few months, I have become less and less attached to the name of my blog, Another Piece of the Puzzle. There are several reasons for this, although it may just be that I am in need of a change.

One reason for this shift is that it has come to my attention that the use of the puzzle image in connection with autism is disliked and even considered offensive by some. While it has never been my intention to offend or to minimize anyone’s existence, I also would not wish anyone to feel excluded by my actions. I have written previously about my perception that life itself is the puzzle, and autism is just one part of it, but that is difficult to convey via a simple blog title.

Another major reason is that I find I have been moving away from the instinctive feeling that there must always be a right answer to every question. In essence, that is what the image of a puzzle represented for me – the idea that if I can just find the correct response for every challenge and the right way to control each area of my life, I will get the final picture right.

Forgive me for being so melodramatic, but I am coming to understand that the final picture will always be in flux, as every day and every situation has the opportunity to change our direction, whether in big ways or small.

So then, the question became which direction I am going now. I have written mostly about books lately, although a number of those are related to autism. I have not written much about my personal life, but I plan to return to this more in the future. And, of course, I am just as passionate as ever about sharing anything I find helpful in understanding autism.

In the end, I have decided to move my blog to a domain with my own name (http://trishdoerrler.com) and call it In So Many Words. All the content has been moved over, although the appearance is still somewhat spartan.

I am in the process of working out all the remaining logistics for the move. I have redirected my Feedburner feed and Google Friend Connect to the new URL, which should cover most of my subscribers. I will post once more on the original site and then later redirect it to this one. If anyone has a link to my blog on their blogroll or anything of that nature, I would greatly appreciate your updating it to the new blog title and URL.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you will continue to do so!

Welcome to my humble abode – glad you could come for the party! Since I know this week is a whirlwind of activity, let me give you the quick tour and a standing invitation to come hang out whenever you want.

Oh, I see you noticed the family picture.

It’s a bit out of date, but we haven’t changed too much. Just subtract a couple of inches from my hairstyle, add a bit of facial hair on the hubby and imagine some grown-up front teeth on the little guy, and there you have it – our wonderful threesome!

If you’d like to stay awhile, you are welcome to have a seat, although you may have to push the kitties out of the way first.

I know, I hate to move them too! Maybe I’ll just show you around the place a bit then. Just like me, this place is a work in progress, as a peek into my daily life will soon show you.

Be careful not to trip over the stacks of books as you move through the house. My husband swears I would be happy just holing up in the bedroom with him shoveling in the books. He’s probably right – as long as I get my Mountain Dew fix in there as well.

What kind of books, you ask? That depends on the day. My tastes range from science fiction and fantasy to contemporary novels with a healthy dose of Christian fiction thrown in. I also enjoy a good J.D. Robb or Lee Child story to liven things up a bit.

On the nonfiction side, you’ll find almost everything is somehow related to autism, since that is a big part of our lives. I also love to share anything we have found to be helpful on that part of our journey, from advocacy tips to resources on various strategies and therapies.

I will be holding a couple of giveaways in April for Autism Awareness Month, one of which is a novel about a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome, Delightfully Different by D.S. Walker.

Well, thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you’ll come by for another visit soon! I’d love for you to leave a comment so I can return the favor. And, of course, you should definitely subscribe to future posts if you don’t want to miss any of the exciting stuff to come.

Okay, so I *won* the ultimate blog award not just once, but twice, in the last few days and have the dubious honor of lying to you about myself and then passing the award on to several more unsuspecting bloggers.

(Honestly, the only reason I am doing this is because I have been beyond unmotivated this weekend and have accomplished almost nothing!!)

Oh, and the award was created by Jill at Yeah. Good Times. and was awarded to me by Jean at Mommy to Two Boys and Gina at Special Happens.

Here are the rules (edited for use on a family-friendly blog):

1. You must proudly display the absolutely disgusting graphic that I have created for these purposes (put it in your post, you don’t have to put it in your sidebar, I think that would seriously be asking too much). It’s so bad that not only did I use COMIC SANS, but there’s even a little jumping, celebrating kitten down there at the bottom. It’s horrifying! But its presence in your award celebration is crucial to the memetastic process we’re creating here. If you need a higher resolution version… I totally have one!!

2. You must list 5 things about yourself, and 4 of them must be bold-faced lies. Just make some stuff up, we’ll never know; one of them has to be true, though. Of course, nobody will ever know the difference, so we’re just on the honor system here. I trust you. Except for the 4 that you lied about, you lying bastards! But don’t go crazy trying to think of stuff, you’ll see by the example I’ve set below that we’re not really interested in quality here.

3. You must pass this award on to 5 bloggers that you either like or don’t like or don’t really have much of an opinion about. I don’t care who you pick, and nobody needs to know why. I mean, you can give a reason if you want, but I don’t really care.

4. If you fail to follow any of the above rules, I will hunt you down and harass you incessantly until you either block me on Twitter or ban my IP address from visiting your blog. I don’t know if you can actually do that last thing, but I will become so annoying to you that you will actually go out and hire an IT professional to train you on how to ban IP addresses just so that I’ll leave you alone. I’m serious. I’m going to do these things. Starting with the 5 of you I’m about to pass this award on to.

5 Things About Myself Which May or May Not Be True

1. I have not bitten my nails in over eight months.
2. I am totally excited about planning a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for my soon-to-be nine year old.
3. I wish my company would go back to a business dress code because I am really tired of wearing jeans everyday.
4. I love IEP meetings.
5. I still think the graphic looks like a bear even after seeing the “kitten” on Jill’s blog.

5 Bloggers To Whom I Am Passing This Award

• Julie at A Celebration of Our Journey
• Jeneil at Autism In a Word
• Gail at Challenges and Adventures
• Kajoli at Floortime Lite Mama
• Caitlin at Welcome to Normal

To anyone who didn’t win, first of all, I’m sure you will very soon, and I’ll leave it up to you if not making you do this meme means I like you or dislike you.

I first became aware of Liquid Zeolite in the fall of 2009 through a retired local pediatrician who had used it with several people and seen a good response in regards to health problems related to toxicity. He suggested that it may be helpful for some of the behavioral symptoms of children with autism who had higher toxic levels of substances such as mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic, and several local families, including us, agreed to give it a try.

I was never really sure whether it made a big difference for Michael, although I can say that it was the easiest supplement we have ever used. It is a tasteless, odorless, clear liquid, and the dosage is only a few drops which can be placed directly on the tongue.

At the time, I did note improvements in a few areas (less spinning and perseveration and better attention and focus) over the first few weeks but cannot say whether these would be accounted for by other factors. However, with the exception of his dramatic positive response to the removal of dairy from his diet and the near-miraculous effect melatonin has had on our entire household, Michael has had milder gains from most of the other nutritional treatments we have done with him, so this is not unusual for him.

Over the last couple of years, I have found that my own health problems have worsened. What was thought to be reflux esophagitis (although it didn’t really fit the standard profile for it) was found last spring to be eosinophilic esophagitis. This resulted in the additional diagnosis of several confirmed food allergies, along with milder reactions to a few other foods and some seasonal allergic symptoms. I also have issues with my weight and with depression and anxiety, so there are a number of factors working together here.

I have thought about trying the supplement for myself but hadn’t followed through on the idea until recently when I spoke with the folks at True Zeolite. They shared with me about the health benefits of zeolite:

Waiora liquid zeolite has a lot of benefits because of its ability to bind and remove heavy metals and toxins. Some of the zeolite benefits include balancing your PH level, helping with diabetes, acid reflex and digestion, headaches, allergies, preventing viruses, and supporting a healthy immune system. Waiora liquid zeolite is also 100% safe to use and natural for long-term use.

So, I am going to be giving this a trial run on myself to see if it helps in any way. I will be keeping track of my progress and will let you know how it goes and what results I see from it. And, if the last several years are any indication, you don’t have to worry about my making any other lifestyle changes in the next month to skew the results!

In the meantime, you can find a lot more information about what Liquid Zeolite is and how it works on the True Zeolite website.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a one-month supply of Liquid Zeolite at the suggested detox dosage. True Zeolite has also purchased a quarterly ad space on this blog.

Life is such a process, isn’t it? And coming to terms with an autism diagnosis in your child can certainly be a long one, with lots of ups and downs along the journey.

I was so fortunate to find a strong community of autism families in our local area when Michael was first diagnosed – six years ago now, it hardly seems like it could be that long, but it also feels like an eternity at times. One of the amazing moms I met along the way was Elizabeth Givler, and I was so excited to learn that she has started blogging, so you all can meet her too!

Elizabeth’s blog is called Autism From the Lighter Side, and here’s an excerpt from her welcome post earlier this month:

I don’t remember how long it took, but one day I saw the lighter side. I could either approach this with a sense of humor or drown in frustration and sorrow.
I chose the humorous approach. Then came advocacy, social stories, educational journeys… and I approached them also with as much humor and lightness as I possibly could.
Humor and lightness are the approaches that work for me. Yes, I still get frustrated, and yes, we still have our “moments”, however every day there is laughter in my house.
The goal of my blog is to share with you the ways I have found to lighten the load and brighten my days, and share what I have learned and continue to learn along the way.

I have really enjoyed reading her first few posts, especially the heartfelt Words and the humorous Therapies, or “Wacky things we do that seem to be therapeutic”: Musical mayhem.

Just as I found a welcoming and supportive autism community in my area six years ago, I’d love to show Elizabeth how welcoming and supportive our online blogging community is. If you can, please take a few moments to visit her blog and say hello (and feel free to subscribe to her feed while you’re over there)!

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!!

I know I already put up my Sunday Best links post today, but I decided to join in on the linky love over at The King and Eye.

Today’s Blog Gems is the fifth time Jen has published this fortnightly list, and the prompt for today is to share your first public post. All you do is link up your post and then you are asked to read and comment on the two posts listed before yours (at least!).

Visit Blog Gems #5 to link up your post or read some other entries and feel free to visit my own first post, Where to start?, while you’re at it!

I have been having a sudden influx of spam making it onto my blog posts, so I am temporarily activating the comment moderation feature. I will approve comments as quickly as I can, and I will make sure that anyone who enters the Hallmark giveaway today isn’t penalized by this action.

This is the first time I have seen Akismet not doing its job. Has anyone else had problems with it? And do you have any recommendations for alternatives?

Thanks, all!

UPDATED: I’m not sure how this happened, possibly during the last WordPress upgrade, but somehow the Akismet plugin had been deactivated on my blog. So that explains the spam going into the regular comment flow.

I appreciate everyone’s patience as I get this figured out!