In So Many Words

I know there has been a distinct lack of posting from me lately about my son and the issues we have been dealing with related to his autism. This is primarily because things at school have not been going well for him. I honestly don’t know if any of the staff from the school read my blog, and I would hate to jeopardize anything that we are still in process on due to offending someone or to give people the wrong impression of how I feel about them based on my venting on a particular day.

I am really curious how other bloggers with special needs children handle this. Do you just let it all out for the sake of release and of letting your readers know how things are going with you? Do you only write about the positive stuff? Do you wait until things are resolved and write about it then?

I think whatever I decide, I have to go forward with the realization that anyone could be reading what I write (duh, like that’s a news flash!) and make sure that I am comfortable with what I am sharing. But I’m still not sure what that will look like.

It has definitely been a frustrating couple of months for us, and while I am relieved that the frustration and stress level hasn’t spilled over too much at home, I am alternately sad and angry about how hard school is for him right now.

So, fellow bloggers and special needs moms, can you tell me if you have grappled with this question and what decision you came to? If you already posted about it, can you point me to your post?

Okay, so there has been a lot of hype over the last few months about the Revised FTC Endorsement Guidelines, especially as they apply to bloggers.

Since I have gotten a few free books and other products to review on my blog over the past couple of years, I figured I’d better get my act together and write my own disclosure policy. I will be putting this up as an official page on my blog shortly.

I really wasn’t sure what to say though, so I checked out DisclosurePolicy.org first. They actually have a little wizard that will generate a disclosure policy for you to use on your site. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really figure out where I fit in for some of the questions and was a bit confused by the whole thing, so, I’m just going to tell you how I do things and hope I cover it all. If you have any questions about this information, you can contact me at trish1225(at)gmail(dot)com.

My Official Disclosure Policy

1. I do sometimes receive free books or other products to review for my blog. I always mention in a review if the item was given to me, and I will often pass it on via a giveaway if it is practical to do so (i.e. the book isn’t damaged or highlighted to death or it’s not a consumable product that I had to use to do the review).

2. All opinions expressed are my own, regardless of whether an item was given to me for review. I will admit, however, that I hate to slam anyone or anything and that, if I wasn’t a big fan of something, I will try to focus on the positive aspects of the book or product. If I really think something is not beneficial in any way, I will either post that opinion or decline to do the review at all.

3. I may publish paid content or sponsored posts or accept payment for a review. This will be disclosed in the post and will not affect the content of my review.

4. I am involved in affiliate marketing, including but not limited to Amazon.com and Future Horizons.

Okay, I think that just about covers it. I’m curious how many of you have a disclosure policy on your blog. I would love to take a look at what you have to see if I forgot anything important, so please feel free to leave me a link in the comments if you have one.

Thanks to Super Mommy for introducing me to this fun meme created and hosted by BeccaGirl.

So, what’s “Give Me Five Monday”? Well, here’s BeccaGirl’s description:

The ‘Give Me Five’ Monday meme is designed to share fun information with each other in a simple short list! Here’s how it works. Each week, I will put out a random topic from my list of topics and you share 5 answers of your choice on the given topic and link back here! You can add photos, links or stories or just a simple list of your own of 5 things that relate to the topic as it pertains to you and your life experiences. It doesn’t have to be in any order of importance unless otherwise specified.

This week’s topic: Give Me five of your favorite ways to be crafty or creative.

Well, I don’t usually consider myself to be very crafty or creative, but I’ll give it a shot.

1. Stamping – I really like rubber stamping, especially making cards. You can totally copy off other people’s ideas and just tweak them to make them your own. People love getting something handmade, and they have no idea whether yours is as good as the original inspiration. Also, if you mess up, you’re only out a couple of sheets of paper!
2. Writing – I love the feeling of having written something that I think people will want to read, whether it’s a serious reflection on something or a funny thing that happened. Even at work, I have a sense of pride in the training documentation I have put together (although there’s not too much of that going on with the lessened hiring these days!)
3. Blogging – This may seem similar to number 2, but I do enjoy the fun of creating a blog and choosing a layout or updating the way it works to be more functional or accessible. I do have trouble with the design aspects of it, which is why my color palette is so plain at the moment, but I am hoping the inspiration will strike me at some point and I can bring it all together.
4. Cross Stitching – This one is a bit of a stretch since I haven’t done it in a long time. I liked it because I could create something pretty using my inclination towards specific rules and order. As long as I followed the pattern and counted everything correctly, it would come out right. I don’t tend to do well with free form expression.
5. Drawing for my son – I’m listing this one because even though I don’t consider myself good at art, I have had to go outside my comfort zone to draw many likenesses of super heroes and other items my son wanted. I do feel proud of myself for doing it just to please him and engage with him and have even gotten one or two compliments from my husband (who is very artistic).

I know a lot of you much more crafty and creative than I am, so tell me what your top ways to express it are. Also, visit BeccA’s Buzz to read more or join in.

Edited to add: I realized later that I forgot to put a link to the new blog (although I do have a widget with the feed in my sidebar). Anyway, it’s at Autism Interrupted.

I wasn’t sure I was even going to mention this here, but I started a new blog. It’s really a place just to ramble and let it all hang out. I found a really cute, girly template from BlogU (it’s pink, which I normally avoid!).

Here’s my first post from the blog, just to give you an idea:

Why start a new blog? Well, there are actually a few reasons why I decided to start a second blog.

The main one is that I keep finding myself hesitating over things I want to share on my original blog (Another Piece of the Puzzle). Sometimes it seems too personal, or too rambling, or even too negative, so I talk myself out of it. I don’t want to be the person who writes down everything that happens to her and posts so much mundane stuff that people don’t want to read it. So here I can let it all hang out and not worry about whether anyone will want to read it.

I also struggle about how much of my blog is about autism. Yes, my son has autism and, yes, it takes up a good deal of my time and energy. But there is so much more to life, and discovering who I am behind the autism mom image is another reason I started blogging almost 11 months ago.

I think what I am finding is that I do have a passion for autism and special needs, but I also want to explore my other passions. That’s not to say I won’t talk about autism here, because I probably will, but I will likely write more about the journey and the things I am trying to figure out. I may also write more about my faith, which I haven’t done too much because it is also such a journey of changing understanding and revelation.

A smaller reason is that, even though I am glad to have moved my blog to WordPress, I miss Blogger and keeping up with all the new stuff they are working on over here! I loved playing around with my template all the time and learning new things about the code. I am too intimidated by my WordPress template to mess around with it very much.

What did you give yourself for Christmas?

One of the non-mommy, non-autism blogs I stumbled on a few months ago and have enjoyed reading is From Where I Sit by Michael Hyatt, the President & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing.

I was especially excited a couple of weeks ago to read about their new Book Review Program for Bloggers. They are trying to get a pool of 10,000 bloggers signed up in a variety of categories.

You can request one book at a time (I was offered six choices for my first one) and the requirements are to read the entire book and write a review of at least 200 words and post it on both your blog and on a consumer site such as Amazon. In return, you get the book for free, content resources for your blog post, and an external link from their site to your blog.

If you think this sounds like fun, here’s the link to Become a Book Review Blogger.

Hello to all my Saturday visitors. I am, ironically after last week’s questions, working today, so this post will be short and sweet. I was unable to find childcare to cover all of next week when my son is between his summer program and school starting, so I am working today and tomorrow to get my hours in. Thank God for a flexible boss!

Saturday 9: Children and Ages of Bloggers

1. Do you worry about your next birthday? No

2. Have you ever lied about your age in the recent past? If yes why? No

3. Have you ever lied about your age when you were young? If yes why? No

4. How much older have you been a person that you were romantically involved? N/A

5. How much younger have you been a person that you were romantically involved? Just under 4 years

6. Have you ever been considered a sibling, rather than parent of your child? No

7. If you have had children, did you factor in age when deciding to have a sibling? I only have one child.

8. If you have not had children, are you happy with your choice and/or fate? N/A

9. Do your siblings have kids? Are you close to them? Their ages? No, neither of my brothers have children.

Visit Saturday 9 to find more participants and join in on the fun!

Angela @ Becoming Me is someone whom I admire, partly for the eloquence of her writing, but even more for her willingness to talk openly and honestly about issues of the heart. So when she asked her readers to define their blog mission, I decided to take the challenge to look inward at my motivations and desires.This has been such a good experience for me – to sit and really think about what I want for my blog and, by extension, for my life. I have become aware that I need to find a better balance between my other activities and blogging, which is a great outlet for me but can also become an escape from daily responsibilities. Here is what I have boiled it down to.

Well, there you have it. Thanks for reading and, if you would like to join in on the Blog Mission Tour, simply post your mission on your blog by July 18th and link up to the post at Becoming Me. Even if you don’t participate in this event, I highly recommend taking the time to figure out your blog mission and to consider sharing it with your readers at some point.

While scrolling through the entries on BlogNetNews.com/autism, I found this neat little meme on Laane on the World and decided to give it a whirl.

1. How long have you been blogging?
Just 4 1/2 months; I started my blog on January 26, 2008.

2. How did you start?
I started reading a friend’s blog and then started reading the blogs she linked to, and the next thing you know, I had decided to put myself out there as well!

3. How often do you post on your blog?
Well, this is my 116th post in 134 days, so it averages out to almost once a day. I have had less time to write lately, but am hoping to get back into a routine with summer coming.

4. Have you made good blogging friends?
I have made so many friends through blogging already, many of them in the autism/special needs community, but several other typical moms as well.

5. Have you talked to someone on the phone you met through blogging?
No, not yet.

6. Have you met anyone from your blogging?
Yeah, there are a couple of moms from church whom I previously only knew by sight, but now we have talked IRL a bit as well.

7. Have you had a crush on anyone you have not met?
Ever? Well, maybe, but I’m not naming names!

8. Have you had a romance with someone you have met?
No, my only romance is with my husband.

9. Do you suspect you get comments from someone interested in you?
No, and I would prefer not to.

Visit Saturday 9 to find more participants and join in on the fun!

If you stopped by here in April, you are probably aware that I participated in Blogging for Autism Awareness during that month as part of a campaign organized by Genevieve Hinson. Towards the end of April, she was approached with an opportunity to keep the awareness going; BlogNetNews wanted to create an autism section on their site to provide ongoing exposure. They will also be donating some ad space to raise money for autism – more details to follow as this gets finalized.

I stopped by their site today and saw that the Autism section is now up and running at blognetnews.com/Autism. Each post shows an intro and can be shared or rated right from the feed. Clicking on the blog title will take you to a page showing all the posts from that blog; here’s what my blog feed looks like. And if a reader clicks on the post title or the ellipsis after the intro, they will be taken directly to that post on the individual blog.

You can even search the entire Autism section right from my blog – I have placed a search box in my sidebar that will return a list of all the posts from the Autism feed that contain your search term. Try it out! (Updated to add: This search function is no longer available on my blog.)

I have been having fun playing around with various features on my blog and have had a couple of questions about them, so I thought I would post about what I have done and where I got the information from.

Archives, Recent Posts & Recent Comments

First of all, I started thinking that the archives were looking a little long to scroll through, since they defaulted to having the current month open, but I didn’t like the weekly one any better, so I decided to put up a widget for recent posts and then just use a dropdown menu for the archives.

There are various tutorials for recent posts and recent comments, but before I got around to trying them out, I saw that Blogger had the option to add a feed to your blog. So I just added one page element with my posts feed and another page element with my comments feed and put them where I wanted them. Blogger will only show up to 5 items, so you probably need to use one of the tutorials if you want more than that or a different layout.

Label Cloud

When I first started blogging, I wasn’t sure if I liked tag clouds, but over time have grown to appreciate them. As I began using more labels, the list seemed too long and cumbersome to be user-friendly, so I used the instructions from phydeaux3 to make my Blogger labels appear in a tag cloud and then tweaked the color and size until I was happy with it. I think it is more visually appealing and intuitive that a straight list.

Table of Contents

I found this through Blogging Tips (this post has links to 15 different widgets or scripts for Blogger blogs, including the label cloud above). The Table of Contents instructions are from Beautiful Beta, and there is an update I will have to look at when my posts get over 100. I had to configure it a little since my column width is different from his, but it worked perfectly and was the easiest to install of everything I have do so far.

What’s cool about the TOC is that you toggle it on and off from the sidebar, but it shows up in the posts column. You can sort the list ascending or descending by post title or by date, or you can click on a label to see all posts with that label. To return to the full list from one label, you simply click the label header. Even if nobody else ever uses this, I will, and it only shows up if you click on it, so it doesn’t detract from the appearance of the site.

Related Posts

I have seen this in some of the feeds I read and inevitably find myself clicking on one of the related posts and usually finding something of interest that way. As Amanda mentions, there are two versions of this; I chose to go with Hoctro’s original hack. It is set to show up at the bottom of both the main page and the individual post pages, and I limited the number of labels and posts that would show from the original code to keep the list shorter. I’m not exactly sure how to put it in my feed, but that can wait for another day!

Other than being a lot of fun to learn, all of these things will hopefully work together to help people easily find what content is of most interest to them. So that’s what I have been up to lately, in between all the stuff of daily living.

Oh, I almost forgot, one other change I am making is to my user name, changing it from Holding It Together to WherestheBox. The choice of WherestheBox comes from my URL and the fact that I have been using that name in other places around the net, but the primary reason for the change has to do with a revelation I had recently about my need to just be myself and not try so hard to “hold it together” all the time. If I am going to do that, I felt I needed to let go of the name. Anyway, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!