Ariana's Posts
346 posts
Every year since Andy and I married, the evening of our Thanksgiving celebration we would bring out the boxes of artificial tree and holiday ornaments to unpack Christmas. Like many families, we decorated our winter holiday times with traditions that only made a guest appearance one month out of each year. As the severity of
My very good friend Gena (who should seriously be elevated to the level of sainthood for listening to a number of “why I no longer shop at Amazon” rants over the past year) once asked me why I decided to write so many reviews during my time as one of their customers. Nothing about my
I can’t tell you that I have the answers to all of my problems (or yours for that matter), because that would be a lie. But I can tell you what I do to face an ever expanding siege of crises. Seriously sometimes it’s like my problems are breeding faster then cockroaches and I am
Hamlet was confused, but you shouldn’t be. When we were first starting our family’s diagnostic journey for Tony, I had some people express to me that I should not be seeking any sort of diagnosis for him because those labels follow a person for life. And I have been asked by some their opinions about
To Miss Rachel, for Patience and Kindness to Our Son Rachel’s period working with our family as Tony’s occupational therapist was brief. However, she recognized something that is easy to miss when a kiddo looks a lot like everyone else on the outside but functions very differently on the inside- that our little man was
Sometimes people overwhelm me with the praise they gift to the point where I can barely even look them in the eye, sweet as they are being. In so many ways I fall short- I am just a person with very real flaws trying to do the best she can on any given day. Some
As I mentioned in last week’s post, Tony doesn’t react to all losses in his life the same. Nearly a year and a half ago, we moved some of Tony’s therapy services to our side of town. At the time, we were able to find clinics that could provide both occupational therapy and speech therapy
I feel like this past month should have come with warning labels. Warning: Medications often have disruptive side effects. Warning: Sometimes this roller coaster flips of the tracks when life changes too quickly. Warning: Once you step on board, not everything that happens on this ride is in your control. So, I’m going to give
When Whitney first started working with our family, Tony would scream, cry, and hide for most of the two hours each day she was coming in. This lasted for nearly a month. Gradually, he began to respond to her patient and gentle way of working with him. This picture is from the early fall of
To Hannah, My Cherished Daughter and Blogging Partner I don’t even know how to condense the gratitude of so many years into one post. I was incredulous when the first pregnancy test came back positive, and if memory serves I ended up taking three before I stopped trying to snuff out the tentative hope of
