Head on over to 5 Minutes for Special Needs, for a post that says so much and is so real. It’s about every-day life with an inflexible kid, and differences.Also, here’s an article about a kosher supermarker it Teaneck, NJ that provided meals for those without power. Read More »

My internet got reconnected this AM, so here I am. Phones are still out, and probably will be until at least Friday, but hurray for cell phones and call forwarding (which Verizon actually got wrong three times, due to forgetting a “1″ at the beginning of the number when keying it in). Read More »

Wow, long time no posting. Holidays, craziness…The meds saga continues. We have E. on a supplement that has to be taken morning and night. We open up a decent sized capsule and mix the powder with food, not drink. It has a mild taste, but if the food is strong-tasting he doesn’t notice it much IF he doesn’t know it’s there. Read More »

I wish you all a great year to come. The idea of renewal is so powerful, but the process of starting again, especially since the work is always harder than if you’d started that way in the first place, can be daunting. Read More »

This is not a post about planning out your family’s meals a week or weeks in advance and shopping accordingly. I am not and will probably never be that person. And it’s not about planning out all the meals for the approaching three-day-yom tov (holiday). I am that person, but I’m a little behind this year. Read More »

There should be a special word for the feeling you get when your kids’ school shows up on Caller ID. And a super-exaggerated version for when it’s the principal or the nurse. I love when a teacher calls and says right off the bat, “Hi, this is Mrs. Weiss, everything’s fine.” The nurse did that for me once or twice when she was calling about forms. Read More »

Maybe I’m blocking something out, but to my current knowledge, The Little One is officially the first of the Afloat brood (parents excepted) to cut their own hair. She had a pair of child scissors and was confettying a piece of yellow construction paper, so I let her be. Later, I found a few small curls of hair among all of the yellow. Read More »

S. was in preschool and I was taking a course in the city (aka Manhattan). I dropped off her carpool and drove to my bus stop as usual, to take the 9: 00 or 9: 10 to Port Authority followed by the subway to my school.As I drove, I put on the radio to check the traffic. But instead I heard the news. Read More »

They’ve all gone back to school.Officially. As of today. Full days for everyone. I ate breakfast this morning before noon.I have seen just in the past few days that there are things I can control and things that I can’t, no matter how important it seems to be that I should be able to do so. Read More »

Sorry to keep y’all hanging. We’ve been away this past week. But Irene didn’t hit us anywhere near as hard as it was suspected it would. There was flooding and downed trees, and some power outages, but that just makes it a run-of -the-mill bad storm. We got away on Sunday, just as we had originally planned. Read More »

Six jugs of water plus a giant case of bottles, check. A bagful of large, jar-style candles, check. Batteries, check. Tankful of gas in the car, check. Treats for the kids, check. Hashem, I did my part. the rest is up to You. Read More »

When I was in the eighth grade, there was a hurricane headed for my area. The administration of my school followed the weather reports carefully, and a little before lunchtime on that day, they sent us all home. Read More »

I’ve been sending kids to camp for several years now, so I figured I was all set for how to deal with laundry. I have my order of getting it done, and I know the tricks: the duffel goes straight to the basement, use baking soda to take away the camp smell, etc. Read More »

Lately, E. has been narrating himself. We don’t know why. I’ve never even heard of this. In a way, it’s the opposite of the scripting thing he sometimes does and used to do often. Scripting is when you take entire lines and phrases out of books, TV shows, etc. and use them in your daily life. Sometimes it’s appropriate (E. Read More »

Today, while I was getting ready for Shabbos, M. came over to me and said, “Ima, you look stressed out. How can I help you?” !!!!!!!!!! Did I mention he’s a preteen? He proceeded to help set the table, carry a load of things to the basement freezer, and, under supervision, bake a cake. Read More »

Remember how the Little One missed her brothers when they were at camp? How she got so sad? The boys were told about it, and thought it was cute. At least, M. did. E. just smiled and moved on. But last week, when we were on our way home from visiting S., and the little One was kvetching, E. Read More »

I am tired, very very tired. Overall I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately, both because of actual events that have gotten me to bed late and because of being anxious about various things (E. related and not.) that have come and gone. The stresses and lack of sleep have combined to make me disconnected, irritable, and picky. Read More »

After just a day and a half of all of us in the house, S. is off to camp for the month. She’s going with her two best friends, but they don’t actually know each other (yes, they all live in the same town), so I hope it goes well.I’m going to miss her. She’s been around a lot the past month, just hanging out around the house. Read More »

Two to go, I think.The boys are home from camp.Within a minute of his entering the house, E. was off and running. He got himself food. He found his DS. He asked to use the computer repeatedly. He opened and flipped through a bunch of books. He looked into two packages that are for other people in the house. Read More »

The husband got a call from E.’s camp today. Apparently, there was a hay ride scheduled. E. told them he couldn’t go because “I’m allergic to hay.”I don’t know if he’s heard and internalized the term “hay fever”, which all the girls in the family have but none of the boys (ba”h) , or if he just got lucky. Read More »