What is my intent?

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure.  I attended evoconference (#evoconf on Twitter) this week for work.  We were sponsors of the conference but I also attended as a fledgling blogger.  Two producers from Oprah spoke in one of the keynotes and said one of the questions they ask of the guests is 'What is your intent?'.  They emphasized the importance of intent in the space of social media and life in general.

So, what is my intent?  I've been pondering it a lot as I enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Park City, UT and as I traveled home again.  At a higher level it is to live a positive life, love those around me, do my best as a mother, do good in general, and be a positive contributor to society.  As it relates to blogging, I really am not sure.

I'm a Mommy.  I'm a WOHM.  I'm the mother of a special needs child.  I'm a wife.  I'm a daughter.  I'm a sister.  I'm an employer.  Some of these jobs I do better than others.  I am human, I cannot be everything to everyone.  I have a lot of opportunity areas in life.  There are many places I feel I should be doing more but I haven't quite figured out how to get there.

Back to blogging.  What is my intent?  I believe my intent is to talk about some of the challenges of all of these things.  Some days I suspect my blog will drift more to the side of raising a special needs child and Auditory Processing Disorder.  Then again, I'm not sure K has been fully diagnosed so making it an APD blog seems narrow.

So, for now, I soak in the words and thoughts shared at EVO and just keep typing.  I found the closing keynote by Brene Brown (#brenebrown and www.brenebrown.com) and Karen Walrond (#chookooloonks and www.chookooloonks.com) to be incredibly inspiring.  The concepts of authenticity and embracing your different are hard ones for many women to come to terms with on a day to day basis.  We so struggle with being everything to everyone and we simply cannot live up to such standards.

So, for now, I'm a mother, a wife, a daughter, an employee, a blogger, a housekeeper, and an employer.  I will do my best and be who I am in those endeavors.

I will also be looking forward to Brene and Karen's new books this fall.

Thanks Evo Conference for the food for thought, the good times, and the beautiful scenery.

Absolute Chaos!

Home improvement projects are painful.  There is absolutely no way around it.  If you vacate during the work, you miss errors and mistakes and come home at a point too late.  If you live in the house during it the disruption of routine, the noise, the mess, the clutter...OH MY!

We have wanted hardwood floors since we bought our house in early 2005.  We are an atopic family.  Dust allergies abounding, not to mention allergies to pretty much everything green.  So, hardwoods are perfect.  We decided to go ahead and do it this spring.  We picked our floor, got the estimates and work started last Monday.

Calamity after calamity.  Cracked boards, gauges, albino board next to dark board in prominent place.  Nothing life threatening but certainly a PITA!  The contractor is holding up their end of the deal but it is still painful.

So, do I really want to design and build the house of my dreams?  If 1,200 sq. ft. of hardwood is this painful what would a whole house be...not sure I have it in me.

M and I are traveling to Park City this week without the kids so I can attend the Evo Conference (#evoconf  www.evoconference.com) for work.  It should be a nice getaway and it should significantly help this pitiful blog ;-)   Shortly thereafter we will go to see my brother for the first time in about 7 years (I've seen him but not been to his house).  I suspect our house will be chaotic for a while.

K had his orientation for Fast ForWord this week and did well with it.  He starts July 6th...2 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks.  Fingers crossed that it jump starts him for 1st grade.

Random thoughts, mostly about K

Short business trips always end up being a time of some introspection. Longer trips I really start missing my guys, but shorter trips allow me some time to stop and think about things for a bit without getting lonely. Time with my thoughts is fleeting so I love the chance. One of my co-workers always stimulates positive thinking for me and helps me remember what is important, what to focus on, and how to keep all the balls in the air.

I’m really not sure where things are headed with K. The APD diagnosis gives us something to work with over the summer. There are other things still on the table that I have moments of worry about but then it passes too. We may still be dealing with ADHD or with Asperger’s. I have mixed feelings about both but know ‘what’ it is doesn’t matter, the love I feel for him is the same. I just want to know how to best support and help him develop. We have to work on the APD first to see if that helps the symptoms of the others.

Today was a big day for us. It was the last day of school. K has done well enough that he isn’t being held back so we are officially the parents of a first grader. I’m not sure how that has come to pass. Seven years ago this week I found out I was pregnant with K. Now he is a first grader. Somehow it seems like it was just a little while ago I saw that second line of the test.

T starts two day a week preschool in August. It will be the start of a transition. He is growing and developing so quickly. It really makes M and I step back and realize how much we missed with K. T is so much more verbal, knows many shapes, identifies letters, and counts. All stuff that K didn’t do until far later. Layer on top T’s physical strengths and abilities and boy do we feel like cruddy parents who missed a lot of signs that K was struggling. That said, nothing we can do to change that so keep working to help and support him as much as possible.

Work has been busy. Good busy, but crazy busy. M is going to come with me to EVO in Park City later this month. It is nice when work and life briefly coincide. The kids will stay here but we are really looking forward to the time together. Work is sponsoring the conference so that part will also be very interesting. I’m hoping to get a clue about blogging while I’m there and this will hopefully be a better place to visit come July.

The weekend after EVO we are visiting my brother and his family in NY and we are VERY, VERY excited about that. The cousins have a blast together. Stay tuned for pictures.

Crazy Couple of Months

Wow, what a crazy couple of months it has been. I need to get on here more frequently as an outlet. I've been letting my desire for perfection get in the way. So, what has happened since I last posted?

2 more teeth came out
T sprouted 3 new teeth
K, Mommy and Daddy went to Disney for Easter weekend
Work has been INSANE including travel
K was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder
K has passed one round of allergy testing which indicates he MAY be outgrowing his peanut allergy
T is becoming increasingly verbal and making M and I feel badly about not realizing K had issues earlier
Family vacation planned to visit my brother in New York

I am sure I'll be back to post more about APD. I'm trying to find my way through it and figure out what we need to do. K is signed up for Fast ForWord this summer and I've spoken to the speech therapist we will work with during the school year. Of course, NONE of it is covered by insurance as it is not due to disease, illness or injury. Also trying to figure out details on an FM transmitter for the classroom.

I'm battling some crud which I believe is the culmination of a couple of months of stress. Every now and then the body has to throw up the flag of surrender and recover. Thank goodness for antibiotics!!!

Sorry for my shoddy blogging. I just started playing with the blog in January and haven't had time to figure out what I want to do with it. Perhaps I'll get some ideas at EVO in Park City. It may end up morphing a bit to be more about APD or it may stay as a general blog about the kids. Who knows???

Bloody mouth and bloggers. What a week!

Such interesting weeks we are having these days. We had a very good weekend and started our week off well. We knew it was a busy week but nothing out of the ordinary. Things were going well with a good offsite meeting for work and then the dreaded text came at 4pm from our Nanny 'Call me ASAP.' The words that make a mom's heart sink. The first words I heard were 'we are on the way to the ER.' Yep, it REALLY was that call.

We sorted things out a bit and I figured out it was an oral emergency and after a quick phone call we discovere K's pediatric dentist was able to get us in as soon as we could get there. I met them at the dentist and about puked when I saw him. He had a huge bloody fat lip and his top left tooth was dangling from bloody gums. I try to not be a helicopter mom but I am a mom who does not let her kids run down hills. I cringe when I see kids running downhill on hard surfaces because I worry about them falling on their mouth.

Well, I am so proud of my little guy. The x-rays showed no concerning damage to his permanent teeth or any of the other baby teeth. K didn't whimper, cry or even flinch when the dentist pulled the tooth without any numbing. He has three other teeth that are now loose and will likely fall out early. Once we got in the car he declared it THE.BEST.DAY.EVER! He was tickled pink that he got two stickers and an army man from the dentist and that he got to have ice cream and applesauce for dinner. Not to mention that the Tooth Fairy would be coming too.

How our little ones remind us of the true joys in life, no? Ice cream for dinner is a pretty darned good day, no? He really reminded me that the little things in life are quite often the really good ones. We are thankful it happened now instead of once the permanent teeth were in and also thankful it wasn't an arm or leg.

I had a chuckle when I got over the initial panic of the situation. The reason is because of the way the accident happened. K was at his weekly Occupational Therapy appointment doing an obstacle course that helps him with his balance and spatial awareness. He tripped over a balance beam and fell face first onto a ramp they use with a scooter board. Final score: Ramp 1 - K's mouth 0. Well, I guess we have some pretty good reasons to continue the OT ;-)

As for bloggers and what they have to do with the week? A couple of weeks ago I noticed there was going to be a Social Media Forum here in town. I sent in my RSVP and then found out a co-worker was going to be on the final panel of the session. Well, the co-worker ended up sick and asked me to fill in and viola, there I was on stage having a great time with it. It went pretty well for my first time doing something like that. I was impressed by the fact that our panel was all women and I felt we did a great job of addressing some of the issues of social media in business. If you want to know more search #knoxsummit on Twitter.