In So Many Words

As a board member of ASD HOPE, a small non-profit organization helping parents get started once they receive an autism diagnosis or move to this area of the country, I am always looking for ways to raise money to fund our efforts at providing HOPE (Help, Options and Parent Empowerment).

In addition to covering the printing and mailing costs for our Parent Information Booklet, ASD HOPE holds Parent Chats for “new” parents and EmPOWERment Workshops on a variety of topics. We also have a GFCF Support Group for families wanting to implement the diet.

GoodSearch is an easy way to support your favorite charity or non-profit organization, and we would be honored if you chose to support ASD HOPE in this way.

There are several options for how to use it:

• You can add GoodSearch to the search box on your browser.
• You can download the toolbar with Yahoo! powered search (Internet Explorer only).
• You can simply go to the Good Search home page when you need to search for something online, or the GoodShop page when you need to purchase something.

So now that we are on the second whole day of a new year, Michael feels very strongly that he cannot wait to be 7 and has been asking all day about it. Is it my birthday yet? Look at my hands – they are too big to be a six year old’s hands. When will it be March 10th? How many days is it? Can’t I be 7 now?

Now he is perfectly able to understand the concept of dates and time and knows exactly when March 10th is; he is just so impatient about it coming that he wants to talk about it constantly. I think a lot of the feelings come from the fact that Daddy’s birthday is on Monday and mine was last Thursday, so he feels like he should be part of all the celebrations.

So, onto other topics…

I am really enjoying having this blog; I am already getting to know a few other bloggers better through it, and I feel like it is helping me be more focused and productive in other areas as well. One of the (many) things I am hoping to do this weekend is sit down and brainstorm ideas for the blog I contribute to biweekly (5 Minutes for Special Needs).  I have a oouple of thoughts but need to flesh them out and see if they will work.

One of the things I am involved with in real life is a local non-profit organization called ASD HOPE, which helps “new” parents, meaning people whose child has recently been diagnosed with autism or who are new to this area, with information about local resources and services.  We have an information booklet that we send out to people, and we hold parent seminars three times a year to go over this basic info, plus occasional workshops related to special diets and biomedical information.

 All that to say I have several things I need to do before our first board meeting on the 12th, including finishing updates to the booklet so that it can be reprinted, putting together an agenda, and going through the emails to see what else needs to be done.  I do enjoy the work; it’s just that somehow I never get to it.  I need to just block out a couple of hours and force myself not to check email or go on Facebook or Twitter.

Well, I had better shut this down as it is almost tomorrow.  Before I go, I just wanted to mention for anyone that may be interested that I am having my first giveaway over at Another Piece of the Puzzle.