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Love overcomes

This weekend, our suburban community joined the unwilling ranks of towns directly impacted by hate crimes.   On the way to church Sunday morning, I had to tell my eleven-year-old boys about a shooting at a nearby synagogue the day before where one woman was killed and several were injured.   Where young children had to run and hide.   One of my boys simply said “why would someone do that?”   Why indeed? Sadly, since the dawn of man, we have been fighting wars, killing other humans - over power, religion, land and money.   Over our differences.   And still, I can’t begin to fathom what could put the kind of hate on someone’s heart that makes them pick up a weapon and attempt to kill another human.   Here is what I do know – Love can overcome hate.   And understanding can breed love.   There’s an internet meme that goes something like this “A Pastor, a Rabbi and an Atheist walk into a bar...And they break bread and share stories of their day and trials of t
Recent posts

Swinging for the Fences

There is a crazy amount of money plowed into Youth Sports each year (this is a blog, not a research report, so I'm not planning to quantify "crazy amount", but probably in the bazillions).  Lots of parents think their six year old kid is the next Lionel Messi - funding camps, private lessons and jerseys, not to mention club and tournament fees. For our part, we've encouraged sports with our kids from an early age.  But we are also putting away money in a college fund because we have no illusion that our kids will be doing anything professional with sports, unless it is from inside a press box or perhaps figuring out multi-state income allocations (likely scenario...we even have a family powerpoint on that topic). A couple years ago, though, I found myself not-so-tongue-in-cheek signing my emails "Youth Sports Agent" as we navigated a situation with one son's soccer team.  This fall, I'm finding myself navigating similar (if not so dramatic) water

Battles and Blessings, the Mom version

A few days ago, a Facebook group/blog I follow, The Mighty, posed a question for parents of kids with Special Needs - "What is one thing you wish your family and friends knew about your life?"  A lot of people said things like "we want to be asked to do the things" or "even though we have xxx limitation, we still yyy."  Overarching responses were looking at the bright side of our lives in the Special Needs world.  But despite my normal positive outlook, none of this really rang true for me, and this topic had been in the forefront of my mind recently.   Despite Captain Chaos' cognitive limitations, we have always tried to keep our life as "normal" as possible.  I tolerate a lot of his "isms" and "quirks" publicly, in large part to model how to interact with him and accept these sometimes unusual behaviors.  But the more and more he closes the developmental gap, the more and more these quirks become more obvious.  And he

A letter to my son's incredible friends

The fact that I am writing a post with this title is still somewhat amazing to me.  And while it has been a really long time since I've posted, I've had this topic on my mind for so long and I finally needed to get pen to paper, so to speak. First things first, a little catch-up since my post nearly 3 years ago (here:   http://twinlittlemonkeys.blogspot.com/2014/01/which-of-these-things-is-not-like-other.html ) Right toward the end of 1st grade, a whole lot of things happened really fast, including Baby A's Gen Ed teacher looping to 2nd grade, Baby B making huge academic and language strides with a lot of one on one aide support (but no GenEd kids acknowledging him at his school's field day) and Baby B's SpEd teacher calling me with these shocking words "I think he is ready for inclusion with resource support".  After hyperventilating, talking to all the people who could guide and support our decision, and a lot of prayerful consideration, we decided t

on Elf Shaming and other holiday thoughts...

The boys are now 6 1/2 years old (!?) and we are having an absolutely magical year.  Their brains are exploding with knowledge, growth, and sassy-pants back-talk.  Yesterday, I read an article that referred to "pre-tweens", an age that apparently starts at 8 years old.  Are you kidding me?!  Right now, I have these perfect little boys that I want to trap at this age.  In one day, they will act tough and 'big kid' in one breath, and then ask to snuggle and watch Disney Junior in the next. The world is coming alive for them.  For years, at the holidays, family vacations, Sunday Football games, etc, we have forced the fun onto them. But now they are living it.  They understand and remember the traditions.  They have expectations and excitement.  Now, when Larry & I want to watch Football games on Sundays (All. Day. Long.) they want to watch with us. And this year, for months, they've been talking about Christmas.  In fact, Baby B, with his special brain, love

Which of these things is not like the other?

When I was pregnant, I worried that the boys would look so much alike that I wouldn't be able to tell who was who.  We knew they were fraternal, but still...what if all I had to go on was that one had darker hair - and they started out bald?!  Lucky us, they came out looking like brothers, but other than when totally sleep deprived, easy to tell apart. When the boys were tiny (like 3-4 months old), I was part of a local twins club.  Now and then, I'd read about twin moms fighting schools, school districts, their states about whether twins should be allowed to be in the same classroom, or should be automatically separated.  So now, I could worry on that a little.  Should I fight to keep them together?  Encourage their individuality and independence?  At what age?  Then one day, I met an adult who was a twin.  He told me that he and his brother had grown up "not as close as twins usually are" because they were in different grades.  So that became my biggest worry. 

the Soccer Mom Crockpot Experience - Week 2 Carnitas

Before I write anything about Week 2's recipe, let me tell you this - these Carnitas are AMAZING.  So if you read nothing else, feel free to skip down to the recipe.  You can thank me (well, my friend Sara) for this later. Here's the deal - my family LOVES Carnitas.  While I used to use Carne Asada as my 'test dish' for any Mexican restaurant, I now use Carnitas.  And we had the Costco carnitas in our menu rotation at least every other week (you know, the kind you heat for 4 minutes, loving that it's so easy).  Well, the last time we tried the Costco one, it wasn't as delicious as normal.  Dry, not tender, needed a ton of extra salsa verde.  In short, not worth the ease of 4 minutes. So imagine my delight when my friend Sara sent me her fave Crock Pot Carnitas!  Here you go... Week 2 - Carnitas 2 lbs pork shoulder (I used boneless, but I guess you could use bone-in too) 1/2 cup orange juice (about 1 large orange, fresh squeezed is best) 1/4 cup lime ju