One of my dear friends lost her mother to a long, painful battle with cancer this week. My friend has a nephew with Autism. When I asked if there was anything I could do to help the family, my friend asked for assistance helping to find someone to keep an eye on her nephew during the service. He and his family will be traveling from out of town. My sweet and thoughtful friend wants her brother and sister-in-law to be able to focus on the service even if their son feels the need to get up and explore, pace or simply move around.

Last night I went to bed around 9pm. That’s unusual for me – I’m a night owl and often work or watch TV after Ethan is asleep. But, I knew I needed to go to bed early because I felt lousy. Even though I’ve been gluten-free for well over a decade, there are times I get food (either from stores or restaurants) that has been cross-contaminated and it wreaks havoc on my body. Last night was one of those nights…
That also means that this morning was one of those mornings…I awoke at 7am still feeling the effects of a migraine,

My In-laws are celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary this week. My parents will be celebrating their 40th Anniversary in December. This seems to be the year of big anniversaries for our family. As I’ve been working to plan a party to include my In-laws’ friends, neighbors and our close family this weekend, I find myself thinking about marriage – and what makes it the kind that will last multiple decades – a lot lately. (And to be honest, the breaking news of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s split only compounded my ponderings on marriage this week.)
Like most couples raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, my husband and I have had some really tough times. I wouldn’t blame all of our problems on “Autism,” because we certainly had our issues long before Ethan was born. We both brought our own issues into the marriage and we’ve done our best to work through them. Additionally, when Ethan was still very small, I realized that my husband and I have very different – sometimes even conflicting – parenting styles and approaches. All those things considered though, the “D-word” rarely seriously came up prior to Ethan’s diagnosis.