November Thanksgiving 13

Today I'm thankful we live in a place that has four seasons. I'm thankful for the local conservatory, as a respite in times of cold weather and dreary landscape.

I'm thankful for a good mattress, electric lights, an automatic dishwasher, and the wherewithal to share with others. I'm thankful to have spent the weekend mall-free.

I'm thankful for the promise of heaven.

Thank you, Rebecca, for another month of focusing on our blessings. (I'm thankful we don't have your long winters!)

November Thanksgiving 12

Today I'm thankful for Amazon, the bookseller. I just received Libby Kumin's Helping Children with Down Syndrome Communicate Better, at a fraction of the list price.

I'm thankful for today's snow flurries. My brother's family from Florida is here for the holiday, and his sons wanted to see snow.

I'm thankful for chocolate, a working vacuum cleaner, the prospect of pumpkin pie, and Google's help with turkey brining recipes.

I'm thankful for a five-day vacation for my husband and my son. We all need a rest.

I'm thankful for how much easier the internet makes communication between school staff and parents.

November Thanksgiving 11

Today I'm thankful for:
-hot chocolate on a cold day.
-my husband and father's tickets to the OSU-Michigan game.
-the writings of C.S. Lewis, who (as Amanda reminded her readers) passed away 45 years ago today. By extension, I'm thankful for the British educational system, which contributed to the quality of his thinking, speaking, and writing.
-Trader Joe's friendly, smaller-scale grocery stores.
-Gordon Foods, for my mother's sake.

November Thanksgiving 10

I'm participating in Rebecca's annual November Thanksgiving posting.

Today I'm thankful for coffee shops, the Psalms, IDEA, money to cover the heating bill, and the essays in my Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible.
I'm thankful for the Ghost of Christmas Past, who reminds me of how blessed I've been with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and good food and conversation around a common table.

November Thanksgiving 9

Today I'm thankful for my husband's job, when so many are unemployed.
I'm thankful for a reliable vehicle for transportation.
I'm thankful for the mature trees in our backyard, their branches starkly beautiful against the sky, in every kind of autumn weather.
I'm thankful for progress our son has demonstrated in school this week.
I'm thankful for family coming for Thanksgiving.

November Thanksgiving 8

Today I'm thankful for the beauty of this morning's snowfall on the green leaves and red berries of the holly bush by the garage.
And that my husband is not a NASCAR fan.

November Thanksgiving 7

Today I'm thankful for my friends. I'm thankful my family, immediate and extended, are all in good health as we approach the holiday season.

I'm thankful for a good public library, one of the best in the country. Today we visited and found remains of the large annual book sale. I found a volume of Walker Percy's Signposts in a Strange Land, a children's picture Bible from the Taize community in France, a copy of Frederica Mathewes-Green's Facing East (for a friend), Henri Nouwen's Our Second Birth, an anthology of Jewish commentary on the Torah from medieval Yemen, and a copy of Jim MacDonald's Communicate with Your Child (for a friend). Plus a few others. (Emmylou Harris' Light of the Stable!)

I'm thankful for our beagle, who is good company, though she always wants a share of my snack, the front seat of the mini-van, and to be let in or out.

I'm thankful for houseplants, during cold months of the year. The $2.50 Wal-Mart poinsettia I bought a few years ago has grown into a small bush.

November Thanksgiving 6

I'm thankful the price of gas has gone down. Today I paid $1.99/gal.

I'm thankful we've had several days of beautiful weather, for our son's wonderful aide at school, for my husband's job, and for my parents, sisters, and brothers.

I'm thankful I survived last Friday's IEP meeting, my migraine headache ended, and the Crew won last night.

November Thanksgiving 5

Today I'm thankful for music. The local bookstore had a sale, and I came home with Kathleen Battle and Christopher Parkening's Angels' Glory and The Moody Blues' December. Christmas is coming early this year.

I'm thankful my husband helps so much with caring for our son.

I'm thankful we got to see the last Crew game of the regular season a few weeks ago, against DC United. It's one of the memories that will warm us in winter. The team plays for the Eastern Conference Championship this Thursday evening.








Crew cat

November Thanksgiving 4

Today I'm thankful for a washer, a dryer, sleep, weekends, discount bookstores, and fall weather.

November Thanksgiving 3

Some days, and weeks, gratitude is tough discipline. But for Rebecca, here goes.

I'm thankful for the Malem bedwetting alarm. A friend shared hers with me this summer, and today I was able to pass ours on to a friend.

I'm thankful we bought a house with a southern exposure for the family room. Light in cold weather is an antidote to cabin fever.

I'm thankful my grandmother's African violets are blooming again. She passed away in 1999, and the violets always found on her windowsill came home with us after her funeral. Thank you, Grandma.

I'm thankful for dental insurance and a pediatric dentist who welcomes children with special needs.

I'm thankful for the friends I've made through blogging. I have spells of being homebound and don't get to travel as much as I'd like. You're a window to the world. Thank you.

November Thanksgiving 2

Today I'm thankful for food to eat and a roof over our heads.

I'm thankful for the years I have been given. I watched part of Ted Kennedy's tribute to John F. Kennedy, Jr. a few years ago. The Senator stated, "Like his father, he had every gift but length of years." I feel I've been given length of years, some days more than others. . . .I'm thankful for the years our son has been given. Some children in our community, while not facing his challenges, have been gifted with fewer.

I'm thankful for money to buy books, most recently Kathleen Norris's Acedia. I was privileged to hear her speak at Calvin's Faith and Literature Conference. Norris's path through the topic is sometimes wandering, but always rich and discursive. Her account of her husband's illness and death is both generous and thoughtful.

November Thanksgiving 1

Rebecca's at it again.

Today I'm thankful for Intellitools, when I'm not banging my head on the wall, trying to figure out how to use it. The computer program allows us to create learning and expressive activities adapted for children who don't have the fine motor skills to use a pencil.

I'm thankful for today's warmer weather and sunshine.

I'm thankful I got to hear Karen Erickson speak at Xavier's Perlman Center in Cincinnati a couple months ago. She shared great ideas related to teaching reading to children with developmental delays.

I'm thankful for news-2-you, a newspaper adapted for children with special needs. It provides a model for how classroom curriculum can be adapted. The growing company, started by a Cleveland speech therapist, is a family affair. I met the founder's daughter, a former teacher, by their display at the Perlman Center.

I'm thankful the U.S. Presidential election will be over in four days. We got to see both McCain and Obama, and I think the job is too difficult for either one of them. The loser needs prayer. The winner needs more.

November Thanksgiving 5: good IEP meeting

Yesterday was our son's annual Individual Education Plan meeting. I had communicated some concerns to staff a few months ago, and was pleased at the response.

The moderator did a great job moving things along, getting the input of the physical therapist, occupational therapist, adaptive phys ed teacher, regular ed teachers, paraprofessional aide, special ed teacher, principal, county service coordinator, psychologist, speech therapist, and parents.

The principal was helpful and suggested several accommodations that could be made. The aide will be able to observe speech and carry that over into the rest of the week, as I wanted.

The adaptive phys ed teacher said she hasn't seen anything in her eight years of teaching like the way our son took off on the tricycle this year. It's increased attention span, direct gaze, lung capacity for speech, morale, self-confidence, etc. (He got a horn on the tricycle today. He honked at the hall intersection. The children in the hall stopped to let him cross, and clapped for him. The art teacher is going to have a few fifth graders make a little safety city, for him to work on waiting, and crossing the street. He's going to have stop signs. Another classmate might accompany him, on a bicycle. The class is studying simple machines in class, and might look at the tricycle, as an example.)

The assistive tech/Intellitools person and one of the district special ed gurus are meeting with the aide and our son's special ed teacher Monday morning, first thing, to continue Intellitools training. The special ed staff person is doing her master's on teaching nonverbal children to read!

The team will meet again for data checks 12/21.

The speech therapist is working on incorporating words from the Love and Learning videos our son has been watching for several years into Intellitools activities.

The moderator displayed (and suggested) the book Teaching Reading to Children with DS, which I have been wishing the school would use with our son. I was very encouraged.

A+

November thanksgiving 4

I appreciate Rebecca's faithfully pulling us back to the theme of the month. Time flies. I can't believe next week is (U.S.) Thanksgiving, already.

Having read Rebecca's post, I'm thankful I don't live in the Yukon, as she does, where she's thankful it's only 20 below! She brings back memories of my two years in the Great White North, when you could see your breathe freezing on the parka fur around your face. You could run around a building in snow, in very thick socks, because the snow was so dry.

The students (at the residential bush high school where I served) didn't go home for November Thanksgiving; that was a U.S. holiday. We celebrated the Canadian one, in October, with a big meal. Around the third week in November, we were a little homesick, thinking of family gatherings down south.

I'm wondering what the Yukon climate is like for older people. Even down here, they like to head south. What must it be like, to grow old in the Yukon? Where do Yukoners go to retire? I wonder.

It will reach the low 40's here today, and that's cold enough, for November. :-)

November thanksgiving 3: three gifts

Today I'm thankful for leftovers. We're having last week's lasagna, recycled from the freezer.

I'm also thankful for the progress our son has made riding the adaptive tricycle, at school. He pedals so fast his aide has to scurry to keep up. He's learned to back up, and pedal without the footstraps. He's getting better at steering. I appreciate the principal's willingness to let us make riding the tricycle a goal at school. Some schools don't allow it, in the elementary grades. They consider it a preschool skill.

I'm thankful for my two sisters.

Further reading: Rebecca Writes' thanksgiving posts

November thanksgiving 2: the internet

"You're caught up in the Internet
You think it's such a great asset
But you're wrong, wrong, wrong.
All that fiber-optic gear
Still cannot take away the fear
Like an Island song."
--Jimmy Buffet, in Holiday

Yes, Jimmy, the internet has its limitations, but I'm still thankful for it. As a parent, I can get access to a volume of ideas for special education that would have been an experienced professional's dream, ten years ago.

My newest find*: AAC Intervention.com

For today, I'm rich, rich, rich.

Additional finds (added): abcteach, offers 5000+ free printable pages and worksheets(received Learning Magazine's 2007 Teacher's Choice Award)
Connective Technology Solutions, Dan Herlihy's new site. Dan, an Intellitools guru, develops solutions for adapting curriculum in the classroom, for children with special needs.

*This is actually a re-find, but glad to encounter it again, at a different point in the journey.

November thanksgiving 1: hearing from old friends

Rebecca from Rebecca Writes is coordinating another round of November thanksgiving this year. I enjoy reading about what people are thankful for. It gives me a window on life in other places, and points to good things in my own life.

Today I'm thankful for the letter from an old friend that came in yesterday's mail. She's been buried in the news business, since I last saw her, nine years ago. I'm looking forward to renewing a friendship.

Further reading: Powerful lesson on kindness learned during night visit to ER
Tending earth’s bounty renews connection to the land
A book keeps on giving despite yellowed pages

August thanksgiving 9: school staff

Today I took my son over to school to meet his teacher and see his new classroom. She was very kind, and I think he will have another good year. I was happy to find he will have the same aide he's had the past two years. He has made great progress working with her.

I am thankful for the school district we live in, and for the staff at the building where our son attends, in particular. The principal, teachers, and aides have always made him feel welcome and are positive models for the children, in the way they relate to our son. They accept and affirm him, communicating his right to be part of the group. We are fortunate.

August thanksgiving 8: work of the Schaeffers, and an update

I've appreciated reading the books of both Francis and Edith Schaeffer for many years. They were a great encouragement to me during my last two years in college.

I was happy to find a small window into L'Abri as it is today. Stephen West, the attorney, writer, and owner of a record label who blogs at Outwalking, recently posted about his plan to develop The Tapestry Project, detailing the personal story of the Schaeffers and the history of their ministry at L'Abri.

Mr. West and his partner traveled to Switzerland this month to do on-site interviews for the Project. He shares impressions and photos from that journey in The Tapestry Project mini-blog. They interviewed John and Priscilla (Schaeffer) Sandri, Udo and Deborah (Schaeffer) Middelmann, and Edith Shaeffer, in Switerzerland. They traveled on to Cambridge, England, where they interviewed Ranald MacCauley, husband of the Schaeffer's daughter Susan. In Oxford, they were able to meet with Joe Martin, husband of the late Linette Martin (whose conversion story is told in L'Abri) and Deidre Ducker, one of the young school girls who visited the Schaeffers at their first chalet, in Champery.

Mr. West and his partner collaborated earlier on an audio biography of the life of Ruth Bell Graham. I get the impression this project is also slated for audio format, with sounds of life in the Swiss Alps serving as a backdrop for the Swiss interviews.

I've occasionally thought of Edith, since Francis passed away, and hoped she was doing well. Stephen lets us know that she is. I look forward to the completion of this project.