bountifulplate

I remember very distinctly the very strong feelings I had in the first year after I found out my son, Dominic, had Autism.  I recall thinking way ahead to his future and not having a lot of hope for what he would accomplish. My only frame of reference at the time about Autism was the movie, "Rainman."  The main character, played by Dustin Hoffman was severely Autistic and lived in an institution.  My husband and I are not young parents.  Dominic is only 7 and I would be lying if I didn't say that I think a lot about what the future holds for him. Will he always live with us? will he get married and have children of his own? I have a friend whose son is well into his 30's or early 40's.  She and I share a common bond in that both our sons have Autism.  Her son has a host of medical issues as well.   They have chose not to put him in an institution, but rather he lives with my friend and her husband.  There are lots of services available...

Throughout my lifetime, I have had more than one close call.  In January of 1982, I was on the subway heading towards what is now called, Reagan National Airport, to catch a plane to go out of town.  Further down the subway system and closer to the airport there was a bad subway accident that delayed me and made me miss my flight. I remember calling my parents and telling them that I missed my flight and wasn't sure what to do since the weather was really bad and I didn't think I could make it back home.  My dad or mom said, "didn't you hear?"  I was like, "hear what?"  They told me that a plane had crashed into the Potomac River!!  It turned out that the plane I should have been on had taxied onto the runway, but the pilot decided the weather was too dangerous (there was a bad snowstorm) and he had turned the plane around and decided not to take off. The plane right after the one I should have been on was the one that crashed!!  When my daughte...

I bet if you asked any of your friends if they are 100% happy with how their bodies look,  I would venture to say they would find at least one thing they don't like.  I think as women, we put too much pressure on ourselves to have the "perfect" body.  That is why I like the singer Adele so much!  She totally embraces her "curvy" figure.  I was reading an article in a recent issue of People magazine and she said, "I've never wanted to look like models on the covers of magazines. I represent the majority of women, and I'm very proud of that. Even when I was signing (for a musical career), most of the industry knew if anyone dared say (lose weight) to me, they wouldn't be working with me." Some women are blessed with the ideal body, but by and large most of us fit somewhere throughout the spectrum.  Before I got pregnant with my son, I had lost about 40-50 pounds.  I was super obsessed with food and exercise (to the point of gettin...

It was so much easier to dress my teenage daughter when she was little.  She would wear whatever I gave her to wear!!   She has known from an early age that my approach to clothes shopping for her is to know exactly what we are looking for, it be on sale, and to get the heck out of the store as quickly as possible. This past weekend we went looking for bathing suits and denim shorts for her.  My lone request was that both the shorts and bathing suits have adequate body "coverage."  It was a simple request (or so I thought).  Wow, has anybody out there been shopping lately for a teenage girl? Let's just say, the styles have changed quite a bit since I was a teenager!!  I can remember when she needed to find a white shirt for an orchestra performance, back when she was in middle school.  I don't even know how many stores we went to, but it was virtually IMPOSSIBLE to find a white shirt that didn't have some form of writing on it.  I th...

I write about my son having Autism, but he also has ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Autism and ADHD often go hand-in-hand.  They have similar characteristics (inattention, impulsiveness, etc.).  When he was diagnosed at 3 with ADHD, we were just getting used to him having Autism.  Those days before we knew what was going on had to be some of my hardest moments as a mom.  Our pediatrician is the one who diagnosed his Autism.  Once we had that diagnosis, he suggested we see a psychologist and psychiatrist.  I was a bit hesitant to take a child so young to a mental health professional.  We have been very lucky that both the psychologist and psychiatrist have been fantastic. We saw the psychologist first and then started seeing the psychiatrist.  The psychiatrist told us that medication might be a good idea for our son.  There are a bunch of medications for ADHD.  If you Google "medications for ADHD" it will br...

I am incredibly blessed to have two siblings, my brother who is  2 1/2 years younger than me and my sister who is about 7 years younger than me. I'm the big, bossy, older sister!! My brother's nickname for me FOREVER has been Lucy Van Pelt (yes, like the Peanuts character).   That's okay, I call him Linus!!  I have a great relationship with both of my siblings. My "baby" brother came to visit us back in December.  Since we live ten hours away from each other we don't get to see his family as much as I would like.  My brother got married before I did and had children before I did.  He married his high school "sweetheart."  He has two amazing daughters and I have become really close to them in the past year.  My brother already has a daughter in college.  When he came to visit us,  I picked his brain about all of the preparations for college that he went through with his older daughter.  He gave me a boatload of advice and I have tuck...

Nobody makes it through their lives without losing at least one person they were close to.  Throughout my own lifetime I have lost many.  2011 was an especially hard year starting in January with the passing of my mother-in-law and then in March with the passing of my first cousin.  It seemed like just about every month, either I knew someone personally that had passed or knew of someone that had passed.  Back in July of 2011, when I started this blog, I wanted a way to get some of my feelings out about what I was going through.  I would have been happy if one person read my blog and got some kind of comfort from the words that I had wrote.  When I was a teen, I did have one of those diaries with the little lock on it.  For a little while I wrote in it, but it felt more like a chore, something I had to do.  My blog on the other hand, is something I look forward to doing.  I have found an enormous amount of comfort in writing down what I have ...