I'm Going to a (Blog) Party

I really don't get invited out to parties much these days. And if you don't count kids' birthday parties at Chuck E Cheese and fund raising dinners for my kids' schools?  That would be... nearly never.

But virtual parties on the inter-webs that I don't have to change out of my PJs for? I'm all over that.

So here I am at 5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party, along with a lot of other terrific bloggers, all looking to meet each other.

And I'm supposed to introduce myself, well, OK...

The Squashed Bologna in a nutshell (an appropriate metaphor here, folks):

I started blogging a little over a year ago, at a tough time in my life.  My nearly 93 year-old father was actively dying, fast, and I was taking care of him, my soon-to-be-widowed mother, and my then 7 year-old twin boys, one of whom is on the Autism Spectrum.

Pouring out all my thoughts and feelings onto the page, finding my words instead of just howling helped me to sort things out, allowed me to plumb the depths without being torn apart by the pressure down there.

I found that I loved writing as much as I had when I was a girl, a young woman who had thought she might some day become a writer.

I write about the familiar: my family.  I write a lot about Death and Autism because these things press up against me every day.  I write about ADD because not only does my son have a brain that tends that way, but so do I, so you get to come along for the wild ride.

I write about love and thankfulness because that is what underlies all the other stuff, keeps it from descending into sadness and madness.

I write about friendship because without my friends I wouldn't be here, and I appreciate them with every fiber of my being.

I don't write much about my husband because he is a private man and the story of our marriage is half his, not really mine to tell.  (But he does come up from time to time.)

I also sometimes lighten things up, share delightful stories about my sons, Ethan and Jacob, now eight and a half.

Jacob & Ethan, July 2010

Over the course of the past year I have gone from being an occasional writer to a steady, nearly every day one.  I have just rounded the corner on my "Blogaversary" and looking forward to seeing where this next year of blogging my life will take me.

Now, 2010 was a fairly crap year: My father died, my Mother-in-law died, my gall bladder punked out on me. But some mighty good things happened, too:

I started this blog and found a whole new amazing online community of bloggers, especially the Special Needs parenting bloggers.  And the Hopeful Parents site asked me to become one of their regular monthly writers.

We found a wonderful new school for Jacob that just "gets it," and where he is thriving. Ethan started to fall in love with reading and books.

But, most importantly, we didn't let our losses drive us apart, but rather bind us tighter together as a family; sad but solid.

And 2011? This year so far, after recovering from my Gall Bladder surgery, I have branched out, exploring new writing avenues and challenges.

Thanks to The Red Dress Club, an amazing, supportive virtual writers community, I have begun to plumb the depths of my own childhood, writing memoir pieces.

I began to participate in Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursdays writing meme, finding the simple alphabet prompts fun, and engendering some really interesting posts.

And most recently and thrillingly, I launched a guest blog series: Special Needs Sibling Saturdays, all about sibling relationships in families like mine, where there are children with special needs.

There are some awesome guest posters here, please come by to read on Saturdays!

And that's us. These nuts in this nutshell. I hope you've enjoyed your visit, come back soon!

Oh, and you can also tweet me on Twitter (you can find me there @squashedmom) or come like me on facebook. Thanks!



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