iNFORM

11/21/2025

So important.

Video description: A person with short brown hair,glasses and a button-down denim shirt uses ASL, which is spoken by an interpreter who is not on screen.

11/21/2025

In my professional career, I have worked both full-time and part-time but one thing I have never had to do is clock in and out. My time either hasn’t been tracked, or I have been able to log my time based on my schedule.

My current employer, though, is having its employees start using a timekeeping system that requires that I clock in and out. It isn’t going well, folks. This old dog with ADHD is struggling with this new trick, which requires that I remember to insert an arbitrary task before I start work, when my attention is usually focused on the first actual work task. Since starting to attempt this new system, I have been remembering that I was supposed to clock in after completing about 2-3 hours of work. 😬

The time I start isn’t always the same, so timers won’t save me. I start in a different location 3/4 of my days and some days start with me opening my laptop while some don’t, so post-it notes aren’t going to get me out of this one. So…I’m resorting to my old childhood system. Before adulthood, a note on my hand was the most reliable way making sure I didn’t forget about something.

I showed older my hand…and he showed me that he has his own reminder. You know what they say about apples and trees. 😄

Image is a two-pic collage - a hand in each. One hand has ‘clock in’ written in black on the palm and the other has ‘BAND FIELD TRIP’ written on the back.

11/15/2025

A few of my musings on disability being represented in play.

11/15/2025

I just found this delightful podcast and wanted to share.

A podcast hosted by Madison Tevlin. New episodes every week.

11/15/2025

Braille facts.

11/15/2025

Awesome!!

11/15/2025

My fellow people with disabilities...if you know, you know. 💔

11/14/2025

Younger and I were walking in a public place this afternoon. An adolescent boy looked at me and said ‘He’s blind?’ I said ‘Yep.’ Younger said ‘How did he know that, Mom?’ and I said it was because he saw the cane. While I was answering younger, the boy said something but younger and I were talking so I didn’t hear what he said. Younger went back to talking about my cold hands, per usual 😆, and I felt like the boy was still looking at us so I turned around just as he was saying ‘That’s sad.’ I think he was repeating himself. I made eye contact with him but didn’t say anything. Thankfully, younger didn’t hear him and me addressing it would have meant me telling him what was said, which would likely have caused him to be upset.

So I went with a different way of responding: going on enjoying my son, so that the boy would witness no evidence of sadness. We talked and laughed and I’m hoping that living out our non-sad existence spoke its own response, loudly and clearly.

Chapter 4: “That’s So Sad:” Disability as a Tragedy

‘Take the time to confront your own feelings about disability. If you find yourself reacting with sadness, or what you perceive to be compassion, dig into those feelings. Is it because the person seems to be suffering in some way? Or is it because you have determined that suffering is an automatic part of disability?’

Alt text: Don’t tell someone you feel sad about their disability unless they have told you they feel sad about their disability. Many disabled people don’t feel sad about their disability, so you shouldn’t either.

11/12/2025

Love this!!

11/12/2025

Hey…she looks familiar. 😉

I really enjoyed this conversation. Thanks to Amy Julia Becker for having me!

11/09/2025

I find the serenity prayer both powerful and beautiful and, as I have gotten older, I have grown to be able to understand that it is simultaneously simple and complex. Truth be told, though, I have been pretty privileged in my life, in regards to the things that I cannot control and, therefore, have to accept. There has been little in my life that I have felt desperate to change, and I know that makes me extremely lucky.

Parenting a child with severe mental illness, though, has put me in a position of learning how to accept something that you are desperate to change. We have, and have had, resources. My child has been in therapy for more than half of his life and gets support at school. He has a qualified psychiatrist and is on medication. We have had the good fortune of being able to bring help to my child. And yet, the reality is that my child still suffers. My whole family suffers.

A stark reality of mental illness is the absence of control. Certainly there are resources but, sometimes, they aren’t enough. And when this started to sink in, and I made it past bewilderment and denial and anger at the injustice of it,is when I started frequently finding the serenity prayer on my lips.

I pray to be ok when neither he nor I are actually ok. I pray that I may keep a cooI head and a soft tongue and a bleeding heart when self-protection says to armour up. I pray that I might hold the hand of my child so that he isn’t alone in the depths of his despair while still making sure my head is above the water so I have the breath to keep ship afloat.

I’m not sure if serenity is a fair goal when your child is suffering. But serenity, I will continue to seek.

Image is a background with shades of pinks, purples, reds and teals and the words ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.