Happy Belated Blogiversary To Me!

And to celebrate, I am doing another giveaway!

It was around this time last year that I began blogging about my family's life, the challenges of having a child with autism, and on many occasions, about nothing in particular. In the year that has passed, I have read several books on autism, treatments for it, and the stories of other parents and their trials in raising a child with autism. Some of the books have been so-so. Others I finished with an attitude of wanting to change the world, or at the very least, make it a much better place for my child and his needs.

The book that has captivated my attention and influenced me like no other is A Child's Journey Out of Autism by Leeann Whiffen. Although it is a story about one particular family's journey into and out of autism - and not a reference book for treatment options like many others I have read - it is definitely a book I know I will refer back to quite often for years to come.

With that said, I am offering a new copy (not mine! Mine is dog-eared and highlighted and well-loved.) of A Child's Journey Out of Autism as a blogiversary gift from me to whomever wins.

To enter this giveaway, please read carefully:

1. Giveaway entries will be received by emailing your street address and blog address to pnewlin@prodigy.net by January 31st. Entries received after January 31st will not be valid.
2. Please put "Blog Giveaway" in the subject line of your message.
3. If you would like to increase your chance of winning by receiving two entries into the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post in addition to sending an email to me.

My "Out With The Old, In With The New" Giveaway

Recently, I won a copy of the book Cowboy & Wills in a giveaway hosted by Chrissy over at Spectrum Hope. I am now finished reading it and have moved on to A Child's Journey Out of Autism written by Leeann Whiffen. I would love to "pay it forward" by passing Cowboy & Wills on to someone else and what better way to do so than with an "Out With The Old, In With The New" giveaway? It's kinda like I'm getting rid of the old book to make way for the new book.

To enter this giveaway, simply leave me a comment on this post regarding whatever you like. If you are not a parent of a child with autism, perhaps you could let everyone know why you want to learn more about it. Or, if you are a parent of a child with autism, maybe you could tell a little about how you came to learn of your child's diagnosis. Or you could just tell me what a fabulous blog I've got going here.

Just kidding, folks! If you wanna enter, leave me a comment about anything - assuming it is appropriate for a family-oriented blog.

January 2nd I will choose a winner at random and post the name in my blog post for that day. The winner will have until January 4th to send me a message to my email address listed at the bottom left corner of my profile page (when you scroll over "Email" on the profile page), including mailing address. Winner: Please type "Blog Giveaway" in the subject line of your email message.

Good luck!!! Have a safe and Happy New Year to ALL!!!!!!!

What Would A Duggar Do?

The photo above has absolutely nothing to do with my random bunch of rambling that will constitute as my post for the day. I just had to post it because it was one of those photos that was caught by sheer accident and turned out spectacular. It ranks right up there in the category of Best Reiss Photos Ever. And tomorrow is Picture Day at school. What a coincidence, huh???

As anyone who read my last post knows, I just finished the Duggars' book, The Duggars: 20 and Counting! It was one of those thought-provoking kind of books that has left me thinking about it day after day. There is absolutely nothing complicated about the Duggars or their book, so when I say it's thought-provoking, I mean it has me inspired in many ways.

One thing that struck me and just plain amazed me was the incredible dedication this family has to God. I knew this before reading the book but there is a part where Jim Bob writes about how he was bound, gagged, and robbed at gunpoint several years ago in his own home, which also housed the office to a used car lot he owned, while Michelle and a few of the children slept in another room. The criminal couple doing the robbing made off with a car from the lot but were caught a little later. Jim Bob took a Bible to the jail where the man was being held. He was going to give it to the robber himself but was not allowed in to see him.

I can only imagine any ordinary person would wish for such a criminal to sit and rot in a cell but not Jim Bob. His philosophy was and still is to do something nice for those who do wrong to us.

So, with that in mind, I have been trying to use that philosophy in my own life the last few days. Now, granted, it's not every day that I feel someone has wronged me - thank goodness, right??? But I've been thinking about this and here is an example of something I've done along the lines of Jim Bob's do-good philosophy....

My mother and I have a pretty rocky relationship. No, that's not quite right. That would imply that we argue often, however, we just don't talk much at all anymore. She lives several states away and moved there right after Reiss was born. Apparently, when her possessions got moved, so did her caring a hoot about me or my family.

While I did try to do the right thing and call and send birthday cards and gifts at Christmas and so on, my actions were never reciprocated. Now don't get me wrong - don't think I'm one of those people who only does that sort of thing to get a big ta-da out of the recipient, because I'm not.

Well, after a few years of my mother barely acknowledging me, let alone my children, I gave up. I told myself I don't have time for people who don't have time for me. I realize this may be very difficult for people who have very close relationships with their own parent or parents to understand. At the same time, please know that because of the way I was raised, it's just as difficult for me to even imagine a close relationship with a parent.

Anyway, so a few days ago it was my mother's birthday. I did not send her a card. I did not call her. But all day I thought about it being her birthday and even though she doesn't have much to do with me, I do still think about her in the days before her birthday and for much of the day on her birthday. I wasn't really feeling guilty about not doing anything for her this year but I wasn't feeling like I was doing the right thing either. And then I thought about Jim Bob and thought, "Hmmm...what would a Duggar do in this situation?"

At around 9:30 that evening, I got on my facebook account and posted "Happy Birthday!" to my mother's facebook "wall." No, I'm fairly certain that's not exactly what a Duggar would have done but I felt pretty good doing it and I even got a "Thank You!" out of it. Again, I didn't need the "thank you" but I felt good in knowing that what I had done was the right thing to do and that it was recognized and maybe just that little bit of do-good attitude will result in my mother doing something good for someone else. It's kinda like those commercials for some insurance company where the people watch others doing good deeds and then they do something nice for someone else and then that person does something nice and so on and so on....

I believe in God and I believe in doing right simply because it's the right thing to do. It's sad that I sometimes have to remind myself of this. Shouldn't I be doing right anyway?? Just because???? It's kinda pathetic that I need to read a book that's not even religious in nature to remind me of this and if I'm this way, I know I can't be alone. Hey, I know I can be an oddball...but....BUT.......

Anyway, here's a challenge for anyone reading this (Is anyone reading this??): The next time you feel someone has wronged you or hurt your feelings, ask yourself "What would a Duggar do?"

Easy Readin'

You know how you get those flyers in the mail asking you to join this book club or that?

No? Well, I do, and they seem to come almost weekly. Back in the day - that is, before I became so frugal that I rarely purchase books - I used to take these companies up on their offers.

Not anymore. No, I got smart and now whenever I receive one of those flyers I mark the pages with all the books I'd like to read. I then set it aside and place it on my to-do list for me to log on to my library account and put holds on the books that sound interesting to me.

On Thursday, my number came up for two of the books I had placed holds:
The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar
Hungry Girl by Lisa Lillien

After taking lunch to Daddy's work on Friday, the kids and I headed to the library to pick up the books. Anything Duggar-related always gets me a little excited so I was eager to get my hands on this book.

Did I mention we have a Duggar dance in our house? Yes....It's a bit hard to visualize but it basically consists of waving both arms above our heads in a strange fashion while half-yelling "Duggar! Duggar! Duggar......" over and over. We do this on Tuesday evenings just before 18 Kids and Counting airs on TLC. Call us weird. I know and I don't mind.

I finished reading the Duggars' book yesterday. This is unheard of for me A.C. (after children). During my B.C. years, depending on the book, I could breeze through most books in less than 24 hours. A.C. I am lucky if I finish most books in 24 weeks. Sad. I miss reading but what can ya' do?

The Duggar book is a very easy read and flows nicely in an almost-conversational tone. Here are some of the things I liked, disliked, and couldn't get enough of...

While I have been a Duggar fan for quite some time and knew a lot of the information surrounding how the Duggars became self-sufficient and debt-free, it did not make me enjoy it any less reading the minute details of each investment and sale the couple went through to get to where they are now. I really wish more of the public would pay attention to this amazing story not only because so many people seem to think this family must be destitute with that many children, but also because I think a good percentage of Americans could learn a lot from people who truly live debt-free lives such as the Duggars do.

In the book, Michelle not only provides organizational tips for how she keeps it all in order but the names of the resources from which she borrowed the ideas and customized to fit her family's needs. There is an awesome resource list in the back of the book that I actually plan on having James make a copy of at work (he owns the business - we're not stealing office supplies from someone else).

The book answers many of the most frequently asked questions the Duggars receive via email. And although many of the questions were very good ones, I was still left wondering some things.

For instance, Michelle discusses "correction" which is Duggar-ese for disciplining bad behavior. She also described "blanket time" (which I may even begin training Milla on) for infants and toddlers in order to keep them occupied. But many times when Reiss is misbehaving I ask myself how Michelle Duggar would handle such a situation when timeouts and taking toys from Reiss is not effective. Michelle doesn't have any autistic children (that I'm aware of!) and has probably not been in a situation where she's had to handle a child who is wired so differently than typical children but I can't help but think whatever she would do would be done in a very peaceful manner.....which can prove very difficult for me when Reiss continues to say, scream at the top of his lungs in the car even after having a timeout, after having whatever toy he has with him taken away, and still even after we have given up and decided to go home from wherever we were going.

Sometimes nothing seems to work. It's hard to stay ahead of the game when even the professionals working in the field of autism and teachers of special needs children tell me they have to switch things up often because many times disciplinary methods become ineffective after a period of time with autistic children. Just the other day, Reiss' teacher was telling me how they sometimes have to switch their disciplinary method two, three, or four times throughout the school year. Right now they use a stick system (where the child starts the day with three popsicle sticks in their wall pocket) but she said she is usually surprised if they make it to Christmas without the children making every day a challenge against the system.

Getting off-track here, as usual. Seriously....sometimes I don't see how you guys can even stick with me through to the end the way I so often get off-topic.

Long story short, regarding discipline, I was left wondering if there are never any serious disciplinary issues in the Duggar household or if they were simply not discussed.

I wish Jim Bob and Michelle would have gone further in-depth on things like how they handle going places with all the kids. Do they try to stick to naptimes? Or do they just go and if the kids take a nap, great, if not, whatever? How often do they leave the house? With that many children, even with older ones to help out, it seems like leaving very often would sometimes be more pain than it's worth. What about family planning? Do they really try or not? I was aware prior to reading the book that they do not use birth control because of the miscarriage years ago that their doctor felt happened because they conceived while Michelle was on the pill. Michelle briefly discussed their views on birth control and some things mentioned in the Bible but she never came out and said one way or another if they actively try to conceive or if babies just seem to happen easily for them.

Moving on to the topic of the Duggar mansion....I don't know that I would call this house a mansion like many people do. There is a floor plan of it in the book and yes, it's a large house but when I hear the word "mansion" I tend to think of a grand estate with lavish furnishings - something the Duggar house is anything but. Their house is very child-friendly, as anyone would imagine it to be.

Would I love to have their house? Honestly, I don't know. It has many features I would love such as the industrial size and equipped kitchen, the huge laundry room and amenities, and the indoor playground that is comparable to some businesses where outlandish admission fees are charged for children to spend an afternoon, but beyond that, it is missing some other things I would love to have if I had a house that large. I mean, if I'm going to have a 7000 square-foot house, it had better at least have a larger master bedroom than the Duggars made theirs. And I would want a library. And a media room. Yes, I know the Duggars don't watch a lot of television (and neither do we, for that matter) but now we're talking about MY 7000 square-foot house now, not theirs. Or, at least, the one it would be if I had one.

And oh yeah, I forgot, I'd want it to be somewhere other than Arkansas. Hey, I'm just sayin'......