Thrive As You

Wow.  I'm humbled to say the least.   I've been given an award from Jen at Noting Grace .  Truly.. "I'm NOT WORTHY" but thank you from the depths of my soul. Now to come up with 7 things about me that you don't already know may prove to be an impossibility.   1.     I adore, ADORE Winnie The Pooh.  Classic of course.  I have a tattoo of him on my lower back.  Eeyore is actually my FAVORITE of the Pooh characters because, yanno, we're so alike. 2.     Pasta, bread, pasta, bread, pasta, bread.  'Nuf said. 3.     I really, really, really, really, really (and this is a BIG SECRET y'all) wish I knew how to sing.  Which is kind of ironic given the person who gave me this award is a massive talent in this department.   I mean, I think I could give Holly Holiday (AKA Gwenyth Paltrow) a run for her money on Glee.  **IF** I knew how to sing.  Just sayin' 4....

What the heck do I know about writing a book review?  Absolutely nothing. So here goes. Today I'll be discussing the book, House Rules by Jodi Picoult .  Admitedly, I'm the last to get on the Jodi Picoult bandwagon.  And I'd like to share with you how I got on.  I was browsing the book section at my favorite literary boutique, Costco , picked up this book, flipped it over, saw the word, " Aspergers " and put it in my cart.  Period. Those of you with children on the spectrum may be where I found myself.  When my son was diagnosed I started reading.  Everything and anything I could get my hands on.  Either in the physical sense or the virtual sense.  Books, internet, magazines, medical journals, you name it.  I read it.  And after awhile my eyes began to cross and my head began spin and my heart began to hurt and my blood pressure started to rise. And so I stopped.  For about 2 years. So I bought this book and it sat...

A few years ago, I decided to start an autism support group in my town.  It went pretty well but, as small groups tend to do.... we decided to break for the summer...and then sort of fizzled out.  I got busy with, well........ life and no one really wanted to help sooooooooo we disbanded.  Not really my proudest moment. Today we started our group up again.  Except this time we had all new faces.  And I was once again reminded why I do what I do.  Why I started the group in the first place, why I work with Autism Speaks , why I write a blog, why I get silly on facebook, why I put myself out there....... My friend Barbra Streisand said it best  ~  "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world." Truly -- without each other we have nothing.  I know that recently I myself have been in "the hole" and if I didn't have people around me to pull me out -- I'm not sure if I'd still be there or if I would be... somewhere else....

I mentioned in my last post that I'm a little bit of a quote, "ahem" whore.  I've actually been thinking quite a lot about my last post, which I usually don't do.  To be honest, my blog is a stream of consciousness thing.  I sit down, start typing, and hit "publish."  My guess is that most of you have figured that out by now!   But I think now that I'm blogging a little bit more about the things that live inside my brain and are close to my chest -- they are sticking with me.  It's a bit scary to say the least to post your inner most thoughts on the 'net for anyone and everyone to see.  There I go digressing.  Again. Maybe we need a safe word for when I start to digress?  Just sayin' So there's this quote -- that I LOVE.  I mean, it really speaks to me, and it also speaks to what I posted about last week so I want to share it here. "Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option."  U...