“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
— Steven Furtick
While browsing on Facebook (in a diligent effort to avoid cleaning the house or hearing my arguing children), I read that people who spend a lot of time on Facebook are less happy than those who spend more time in person with friends. It makes sense. After all, the right picture or quote can make anyone’s life seem magical, while mine pales in comparison.

Case in point: in the above picture, you can see pure joy on our faces. It was Lizzie’s first ski trip, and it was perfect! We took her up to the top of the mountain, and she grinned ear-to-ear with excitement over this new adventure! It was as if the snow ski fairy had sprinkled Lizzie with fairy dust. As we hopped off the ski lift, she began to ski with ease. She was a natural! At the bottom of the slope, we all gave her a group family hug! We were all smiles! Perfect!
This is all true. At least, that is what the picture shows, right? Ha! I wish.

Rock bottom for me is when I find myself sitting in my car eating a Cinnabon. I am likely wearing jeans that I have not washed in two weeks to keep up the facade that I have not gained the holiday weight, and I am drinking a Diet Coke, of course.
It is time for me to get serious about eating healthy again, which means no more sweets and no more Diet Coke. It has been 525,600 minutes, exactly one year, since I had this same conversation with myself. I guess I will add it to my list of New Year’s Resolutions again.
Having the same goal over and over each year can become demoralizing at the very least. Whether it is a small issue like losing a few pounds, or an enormous issue like a goal that my child with autism never masters, it takes all the willpower I have to not throw in the towel and just accept life as “good enough.”

If you’ve followed my blog for much time, you probably know that I’m very concerned about how changes to our environment in the past 50-100 years have affected the health and wellbeing of our entire society, but especially our children’s generation. With Autism Spectrum Disorders, asthma, life-threatening allergies, ADD/ADHD, diabetes and so much more at record numbers and on the rise in our littlest population, I’ve come to the conclusion that many variables must be to blame for these frightening increases.

Our chocolate Lab is now 12 ½ years old. While she’s been a pretty amazing – and tremendously patient – pet for Ethan throughout the 8 years of his life, her health is declining. During a recent trip to the Vet, we discovered that our sweet girl now has a heart murmur. The vet is running some blood work to see how her other organs are doing before suggesting any potential medications.
In the past year as we’ve watched her gradually slow down, we’ve been discussing with Ethan how large dogs don’t typically live much past about 12. Thankfully death isn’t something Ethan has experienced much yet in his short life. He has lost a couple of pet hermit crabs, but he wasn’t especially attached to them. So I’ve been a little concerned about how he will take it when our one and only dog passes.
Then, a couple of weeks ago when Ethan was looking through our DVD collection for something new to watch on a Friday night, he discovered “My Dog Skip.” It was a relic of our pre-kid days and as I recalled, was a touching and endearing movie about a boy and his dog.

Okay, I know we’re behind the curve…I realize that most American families have owned a Nintendo Wii for years now. Recently we decided to let our son, Ethan, (who just turned 8) save his money and buy a Wii. (That’s right – we made him buy it!)
We've held off this long because there are already so many demands on his time; between school and therapy, we didn’t want to add anything else that would compete for his attention and focus. However, for Christmas last year, we bought Ethan a Nintendo DS. His older cousins each had their own DS systems and he was constantly asking them to share. We decided that he was finally old enough (at that time he was 7), but we set strict daily time limits so that it wouldn’t take over his life. (Like most children with Asperger’s Syndrome, Ethan has a tendency to fixate on certain activities or topics of interest.)

Jacob has a friend. Wait, let me say that again. JACOB HAS A FRIEND!!!
This is big. Kids like Jacob generally play side-by-side without much interaction. We have watched him play next to but completely ignore other kids for years. I have spent so much time protecting other children from him and making sure they have an acceptable distance between them, and that doesn't lead to much bonding with the children around him.

Shock + Fear = News?
A few weeks ago I was honored to play a role on a Fatherhood Panel at the 41st National ASA Conference. The gentlemen that participated were extraordinary. Fathers. Sons. Fathers and Sons. It was a very special time for all of us. Each panel member had the floor for a short bit and shared their personal story about the relationship with their father, what is was like raising a child on the Autism Spectrum, and what it was like having Autism. Each participant played one or multiple of those roles and this gave the panel a great deal of depth in my opinion.

I've never thought of myself as having a shortage of friends. While I would love to have more friends that I could go hang out with on a moments notice, I know that period in my life is long behind me. I've been blessed with some great lifelong friends that despite changes in our lives, if given the opportunity, could pick right up where we left off.