If you've been following my blog for a while, you should know that A. has a history of difficulty in attending church. During the height of her difficulty, I actually kept her from attending church altogether for about a period of six months. At the time, we'd exhausted every tip, trick, technique, and methodology I could think of to help her ...

In this entry from the archives, I'm amused by the way that strangers interpret A.'s obsessions and conversations, specifically when she refers to video games with which they are unfamiliar. May 22nd, 2006: Whenever A. gets obsessed with something, it becomes her opening topic of conversation for any and all strangers she happens across. For a ...

At our most recent IEP meeting, A.'s caseworker explained to me that, since A. will be turning 14 this year, we have to begin creating a transition plan for her. The transition plan will not only ease the transition from Middle School to High School, but it also helps A. shape the sort of future she wants to create for herself. It's a lot of ...

In this entry from the archives, I respond very directly and emotionally to the murder of Katie McCarron. I will confess that I use strong language here and I don't necessarily show a great deal of empathy to those with differing opinions than mine, but I believed strongly then -- as I do now -- that there is never ever any excuse for killing or ...

Over the past couple of months, A. has been struggling a bit academically in her classes at school. I'm guessing that this is in some part related to the weird scheduling of her classes this year. Basically, the school rotates classes every day in such a manner that no one has the same schedule from day to day, and it's very confusing to keep up ...

Work Hard and Have Fun I thank my husband, Tim, for this lifesaving Power Phrase for our son, Doug. This was coined not for school, not for the home, but for the job. Work hard and have fun has been used every day for the past eight and one-half years as Doug walks out the door to leave for work. This phrase is simple, short, direct, and ...

In March of 2006, I went to Chicago to present at the Conference of College Composition and Communication, often referred to in academic circles as ''The Four C's.'' When I explained where I was going to A., she demonstrated how it should, in fact, probably be called ''The Four B's.'' March 19th, 2006: A: Tomorrow is Monday for school?Me: ...

A. is in the process of recovering from the flu. For those of you who have followed this blog for a while now, it will probably not surprise you to learn that A. rarely gets sick. And for the rest of you who are familiar with teenagers in general, it will probably not surprise you to learn that illness becomes a big dramatic deal in our household. ...

For her Reading Class, A. had to pick out a biography from the school library to read. Later, she would need to work on a project and a presentation centered on this famous person. A. struggled with this assignment from the very beginning. She wasn't interested in any of the famous people in the library, and she felt like biographies would be ...

In these snippets from the archives, you get to see the sorts of conversations I had with my daughter when she was just learning how to have conversations. They were insightful, amusing, and almost always adorable. October 29th, 2005:A: Sunday is stay home?Me: Yep, we stay home on Sundays.A: Can I have one hundred to stay home? [meaning she wants ...