Unringing the Bell

Calendarly Speaking; 31 for 21

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October truly is a Down syndrome month in my family. I just got home from a board meeting for our local DS Parent group and holy cow, I have a lot on the calendar. One Bull,Shrimp & Oyster Roast (this, by the way, I have learned after 3.5 years here is a very DC/Baltimore thang) fundraiser for our parent group, another for the hockey team, we're heading to northern VA in a couple weeks for the Buddy Walk, a welcome social for new parents at the end of the month, and that's just October! (Not to mention 31 for 21.)

November we have the Fall Fling (a dance for teens and young adults with DS) which I am hoping to rope some of my advisees from the church group along to volunteer (who doesn't want to volunteer by, essentially, DANCING??), December the holiday party, January another in our educational "lecture" series, and on and on.

But October. October is pumpkins, Halloween, Rainer's birthday (3!!!) and Down syndrome.

It also happens to be my favorite month.

I don't say this by way of complaint. But sometimes, like after a board meeting, I think. "Wow. We do a lot of things that are rather DS-centric."

However, on all those opposing weekend days and when I am not at DS board meetings, my life is made up of church things--the small group ministy, the silent auction, a youth group car wash, and...get this...I think I am going to help plan an entire service, if not an Adult Religious Exploration session on disabilities and radical inclusion!

When it's not DS or church, it's just life. School stuff, social stuff, family stuff (and occasionally we do laundry).

I like it. And a big reason is because I like the PEOPLE.

I am, as the saying goes, a people person.

Despite myself.

Who knew?

And...lest it sound like some culty thing. The DS-centric stuff in my life doesn't feel all....hmmmm....what's the word....

well, it doesn't seem like I am living in a DS world. It just seems like life.

And because I am exhausted (and have a million things to do before I go to sleep) I'm just going to leave it at that.

Also. I like this picture of Georgia and I that I snapped in the hammock this afternoon.

So it begins...

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Day One

I have to organize my brain.

First things first, thank you to everyone who has signed up. I was worried, given my relative absence from the blogging world of late, that I wouldn’t have much interest this year, but thanks to the diligent advertising from you bigwigs of the blogging world, I think the word has spread.

Welcome to everyone, newcomers and veterans alike, to the 4th Annual 31 for 21 Blog Challenge! I know life can get in the way, but I hope you will try to post something (even if it is a picture post--which are sometimes the best posts) everyday.

 Blogging is 20% of your grade. And you WILL be tested on this. 

I kid.

 Now. What the heck am I going to write about?

I have a list of topics I’ve been hoping to get to on this here public (eep!) diary. Some have set in Post-It purgatory for hours, some days, some…I hate to admit it, but I betcha’ I have a list floating around the pile on my desk from YEARS ago. In fact, I know I do. Stuck to the wall of my computer hutch are the words "the leaves the day Rainer was discharged." I've been meaning to write about that for almost two years!

Alas, I am at the library and I can’t consult my lists. It was raining to rival Noah’s record today and I needed to get out of the house (yikes, I am totally giving it away that I am drafting this post a day early! (That is TOTALLY allowed, by the way.)). There’s something about the library, just in it’s bookiness that makes it easier for me to think. It reminds me of writing my Plan of Concentration in college. Back in those days I LIVED in the computer lab of the science building on campus--this was before personal computers and certainly, the internets, were de rigeur, folks. Am I dating myself?

Around me this evening, there are people typing, reading, looking through magazines. An older gentleman just cursed at his laptop. I tell you, it brings me back!

There is a comforting hum from the HVAC system.

But what do I want to write about?

I’ll tell you some of the things I hope to have the time (and energy) to touch on this month.

1. Sorry to leave you hanging on that whole discriminatory preschool fiasco. I will follow up on that.

2. I went to a toilet-learning seminar hosted by a highly respected behavioral therapist from KKI and I am totally going to give you her step-by-step tips on how to get your kiddo going on the potty…er…step one, call it a toilet. (More on this.) By the by, I am not giving away any secrets or anything, this was a free talk she did for our DS parent group. She speaks to people like us regularly and I am sure she would be happy for us to share info. In fact, she invited us to.

3. I want to talk about Rainer this month. After all, it IS his month…his birthday just happens to fall on the last day of it! As I alluded to, my goal is to FINALLY write up his birth story!

4. I have a lot to share from the inclusion training I have been doing. It’s a journey, this whole thing. Really wrapping my brain around it. Learning how to make it work. Figuring out how to stave off the panic attacks after going to local SECAC meetings (that’s Special Education Citizen’s Advisory Council (I think, I always forget about that last ‘c’) for those of you keeping score) and discovering just how clueless some folks in the local administration are about what inclusion even MEANS. But truthfully, I am really learning, myself about what GOOD inclusion means, and LOOKS like, too.

5. UDL, baby.

6. And yeah, those panic attacks. It’s not just a joke. I have them. I might talk about that fun topic as well. We'll see. It might give me hives. One thing? My daughter comes by her anxiety honestly!

No doubt some of these topics will come to fruition, while others will meet their destiny by the wayside for now, again, you know. Certainly I’ll phone it in at least once—October is BUSY and I am traveling two out of the…however many weekends. So there will be pictures, which will appease the grand folks, at least, I think.

Blogging. It’s what’s for dinner. Enjoy!