General stories about our life. Nothing specific.
Two years! Somehow the time got away from us! It’s hard to look at our site and realize that our last post was that long ago. We didn’t set out to abandon this. We’ve had so much going on in the past two years, and we’ve thought constantly about writing about it. For whatever reason we just didn’t.
But, we’re back!
These past few months I have clearly been avoiding this blog for reasons I have yet to discover. All I can come up with is the fact that life sometimes seems too busy to do what you want to do, and then when you finally have time you are too tired to actually do it. It’s been a while, but here goes nothing.
Everyone always says “write what you know.” Well, these past few months seem to be more focused on what I don’t know, so let me tell you a little about that.
As I look back on 2017 one of the things we have been talking about doing all year is traveling. As a family, we tend to come up with a million reasons and excuses as to why we shouldn’t travel. We try to convince ourselves that we don’t have the time or the money. Then there’s that whole autism thing which seems to make everything in life just a little different for us.
Before Belle, I could never understand why people chose to continue to be stay-at-home parents when their children are in school. Boy, oh, boy, did life smack me in the face with that one! Now, I find myself wondering how families can get anything done with two parents working full time. Our little family falls somewhere in the middle. Belle’s dad works full time, and I work part time with a flexible schedule that allows me to take Belle to school, and pick her up from school every day. That is something I am incredibly grateful for, but unfortunately, most days it feels like I am just going through the motions.
Lately it seems like we’ve been having more bad days than good ones. Belle has really been on edge, which in turn puts us on edge. Every time we’ve thought things were getting back on track it’s all been thrown off again. Tempers have been short; minds have been lost; a fresh patch of gray hair has made an appearance.
It’s been stressful, upsetting, confusing, and–frankly–annoying.
I’ve found that people have this tendency to try and one-up your situation. They always have a story of their own to tell that’s equally as bad, if not worse, than whatever yours is. It’s like a ploy to minimize the importance of your story; to let you know that whatever you’re going through is nothing compared to what they’re going through. Maybe I’m just being cynical, but I’ve always been a listener, and I hear this kind of thing a lot. And it’s annoying.
Like many other families, we find this time of year to be especially busy. Not only do we have the holiday season among us, but we also have many birthdays to celebrate, as well. As much as we enjoy getting together with family and celebrating those holidays and birthdays, it also causes a lot of stress.
It seems that autism has been gaining a lot of recognition lately, which is fantastic. Since we’ve joined the blogging world, and Instagram, we’ve found that there are so many other families out there that have been impacted by autism, and are publicly sharing their stories, and knowledge. It’s even trending in Hollywood (Atypical, the A Word, the Good Doctor). The world is learning that autism really does exist.
Maybe the world needs autism.
Everyone seems to be trying to find a cause for autism. They are asking complicated questions, and expecting complicated answers, but maybe autism is simple. Maybe autism is as simple as a genetic code. As simple as how your hair, and eye color are determined. Maybe it’s in the genes–predetermined and unchangeable. Belle has brown hair, brown eyes, and autism.
I think every parent worries about their child going to school. It seems that in the current times there’s a lot to worry about. We leave them all day long in the care of someone else, and have to trust that they are doing their best to make sure our child is as safe as possible. We have those same concerns, but one thing that stands out above all others–for me–is bullying.
Bullying remains a huge problem, and anyone can be a victim to it. It’s unfortunate, and extremely sad. I want to hug every child that has experienced bullying, and explain to them that it’s not their fault. In fact, if you have ever experienced, or are currently experiencing bullying, please know that it’s not your fault. The short-sightedness of others causes them to feel threatened by anything that is different. Even adults get weirded out by little bugs, and squash them.