Maybe for a while you knew something was just a little bit “off,” but you weren’t sure exactly what that was. Parenting children with special needs can be a long, hard road and at the start it seems like you are fighting with everything you have just to figure out what is going on. Why can’t anybody give you any answers? But eventually they come. And once you finally receive a diagnosis for your child, then what? 

Some parents are still taken completely by surprise. Maybe you didn’t see it coming. Or maybe you thought it was something else. Maybe you had prepared yourself to hear ADHD, but a doctor actually said Autism. Maybe you thought you were ready to hear it, but you weren’t. Now what?

Breathe. 

Then keep a few things in mind.  [Read more…]

This year after Thanksgiving both my mom and my sister came to me and asked if I had my grandmother’s turkey soup recipe. No one ever wrote it down. Now that she is gone, we only have what exists in my memory. Before I got married I asked my mother’s mother to stay with me for a week to teach me her recipes. This wasn’t one I learned that week. It was only one we talked about years later, when she would drop it off at my door after she made a large batch. Once she gave me too much and I took half to a friend whose children had the flu.  [Read more…]

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Next week the girls and I will be heading to our first craft show so that they can show off some of the accessories they have been designing for their dolls. We already showed you how to make tutus from old t-shirts. Today we are doing some more upcycling and turning old  beaded eyeglass chains   into American Girl doll necklaces. 

I have a box of my grandmother’s costume jewelry sitting in the closet and it had lots of beaded eyeglass chains in it. These are not something I use myself, but the tiny beads do make them the perfect size for making doll-sized necklaces. We used what we had on hand and materials that would make this accessory easy for Penny, who is five, to put the necklace on the dolls herself once it was finished. 

To make American Girl doll (or any other 18″ doll) necklaces you need: [Read more…]