Besides catching up on dishes and laundry and dental work and doctor’s appointments and little things like updating Michael’s behavior plan and adding a safe crisis plan to the IEP (more on those topics later), I have had some time over the past month to think about where I want to go with this blog.
I have loved blogging since the moment I started over two years ago, but I have also put a lot of unnecessary stress on myself trying to reconcile my analytical side that wants to write only helpful, informative posts about things like advocacy and therapies and resources with my more stream-of-consciousness side that wants to talk about whatever is on my mind at a given point in time, good or bad.
At one point, I actually did set up a separate blog called Autism Interrupted, where I would go to ramble if I felt too depressed or frustrated to write something coherent and positive for this blog. After thinking it through, I think what I really need to do is separate the two blogs by purpose rather than by how I am feeling. (Yeah, sometimes it takes me a while to figure out the obvious! 
)
Okay, so all that is to say that I have decided to continue both blogs, but with a much clearer vision for what they will represent. I even wrote a new tagline and short description to clarify my purpose here:
Another Piece of the Puzzle
Awareness, Resources and Hope for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Another Piece of the Puzzle is a blog designed to raise awareness of the challenges facing parents and children dealing with autism and to serve as a resource for anyone affected by the disorder. Through this site, it is my desire to offer information on topics such as IEPs and advocacy, behavioral and sensory strategies and a variety of therapies and treatments related to autism spectrum disorder. Above all, I want to let you know there is hope for a better tomorrow!
While there may be occasions where I cross post and include personal stuff here that relates specifically to autism, in general I am going to post about my own journey at Autism Interrupted. So for more on what’s going on with me personally, feel free to pop on over!
My regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging much lately. Although I have enjoyed the last two-plus years of blogging and all that it entails more than I can say, I am in a place right now where I must focus on some other areas of my life that are sorely in need of attention.
It really comes down to this issue I have been dealing with of recognizing your limitations and accepting them. That is especially hard for me when blogging is something I love, but I have come to accept that for right now I just cannot continue to make it a priority.
I am going to leave this blog up for the time being and may return to it in the future. If nothing else, I hope that it will serve as a resource for other moms and dads who are looking for information on autism — if you are just stumbling upon my blog now, you can use the nested menu at the top of the page or the category list and search features in the right sidebar to see if I have posted about the topic you are looking for. The Archives menu in particular includes a link to a list of my Autism Resource posts and a list of the posts I did for 5 Minutes for Special Needs.
For anyone who wishes to keep in touch, feel free to connect with me on Facebook or email me at trish1225[at]gmail[dot]com. The comments on this post will be open for a few days and then closed.
And, by the way, just because I’m not blogging doesn’t mean I’m not still decluttering, so if you committed to the challenge, you’re not off the hook! Check out Suzanne’s 365 Days of Decluttering blog if you need some additional inspiration to keep going.
Just the other day, a comment was left on my blog regarding a new service for allowing readers to link up to your blog, called inlinkz. Since I am just getting ready to start using that sort of thing with the 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge, I decided to check it out.
Here’s where you can read the whole story about how impressed I am with the people behind this, or you can jump down for the bottom line.
When I first went to the site, most of the links to more information weren’t working, but within a couple of hours, I had a comment from one of the site developers letting me know that they were actually in the process of going live at that moment and that the links would be operational very soon.
So I went back and signed up and did a test list on a draft blog post. When I entered my link and name, both items showed up as a two-column list on my blog. I realized that could get very long and messy, especially if people were linking to a specific blog post. Since the developer had left me a comment, I emailed her and let her know my initial thoughts.
To my amazement, she emailed me back and said she would add more options to the site for how to display each list and asked me to let her know about anything else I was looking for. (You can follow inlinkz on twitter to keep up with them as well.)
The Bottom Line
Inlinkz is very simple to use and configurable in terms of what shows up and how much space it can take up on your blog. You can put end times on your lists, moderate them, edit the configuration and even see stats of how much each link was clicked on.
I’ve put a simple one-column list with an end date of January 31st down below if you’d like to try it out. Just click the “add your link” button and enter a link to your blog homepage. (Fine print: links going to any weird locations will be deleted!)
I entered my own link so you could see how it will look – the text shown will be whatever you put in the “Description” field.
I was so touched to be named as an inspiring blogger by Mia of General Hysteria, especially after being so hit and miss this summer. I am so hoping to get into a better routine now that school has started, although the first week was very up and down for us!
For those of you who don’t know how these shameless bits of linky love work, here are the rules:
• You must thank the person who has given you the award.
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
• Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
• Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
• Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
• Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
• Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.
So, now onto my lists:
7 Things About Me You Might Find Interesting
- My maternal grandmother was born in Scotland, although her family moved to the U.S. when she was around three or four.
- My paternal grandparents used to take each of us three kids camping once a week each summer. They were in a camping club, and it was a highlight of our summer (well, mine anyway, I don’t know about the boys).
- From the house I lived in (in Rock Island, Illinois), you could reach the Mississippi River by going either one mile west or one mile north.
- Our high school mascot was a rock. (The Rock Island Rocks, get it?)
- There really is a giant rock out front of the boys’ gym at the school, and the rival team in the next town over would occasionally spray paint stuff on it that had to be sandblasted off, thus making the rock ever so slightly smaller each time.
- We just put over 2300 miles on our car to drive out to Illinois and visit my family and show our son where I grew up. Ergo, the litany of hometown related facts.
- I am also slightly punchy after composing a very long email to the special education supervisor over our school describing an unfortunate incident that occurred on Thursday wherein the school secretary picked up my seven year old son and carried him into a room that he did not want to enter and, in fact, had told his classroom teacher he would rather die than go back into.
7 Kreativ Bloggers You Will Definitely Find Interesting
Storm at All Things Cherished – I always look forward to her Thought of the Day for encouragement or just something to make me think.
Lisa at Crazy Adventures in Parenting – She is so much more than just the person who holds me accountable for my to do list, although that’s how I found her.
Territory Mom at Delayed But Not Denied – Another encouraging mom walking the special needs path; I love her First Diagnosis & S-List.
K at Floortime Lite Mama – A sweet and genuine mom who shares from her heart about her journey with a child on the spectrum.
Anissa at #FreeAnissa – The beloved and funny mom from Hope for Peyton is striking out in a new direction and is definitely keeping it real.
2Shaye at Miller Memories – An all-around great lady whose blog I found not all that long ago but highly recommend.
Stimey at Stimeyland – An always entertaining look at life, autism, and gerbils.
Best Blog Award
by Trish on November 8, 2009 · View Comments
in Blogging & Social Media
Well, I by no means think I am deserving of this award, but I am thankful to Leah at Just Me for letting me know I am appreciated. If you haven’t met Leah, she is a pastor’s wife and mom to 4 girls, one of whom has special needs. She has also embarked on a spiritual journey that she is blogging about at 90 Days of Solitude.
I’ve been somewhat on again/off again with blogging in recent months, but every time I question whether I should continue, I realize how much it means to me to have this little place of my own and to connect with so many wonderful people. So I am working on not feeling guilty for posting irregularly or for not having time to visit other blogs and comment. I just try to enjoy the time I do get to spend online.
I have, however, spent a little bit of time working on my blog admin lately, and one of the things I did was to close the comments on posts older than 90 days. I hope it doesn’t turn people off, but it has really cut down the amount of spam considerably. Anyone who wants to contact me directly with any question or comment can still easily do so through my contact form.
I’ve also been playing around with the new version of my blog theme (Thesis 1.6) and was very happy to see the ability to assign colors right from the options page. With the nested navigational options, I was able to include my main categories at the top along with the pages I wanted but not have it look too cluttered or overwhelming. I can easily change the background image whenever I want and modify the text/link colors to match.
A couple of other things I did were to add a widgetized fat footer (thanks to this super-easy tutorial from Thesis Theme Tools) and to put my blogroll back in the sidebar. The blogroll only shows the most recently updated blogs, but you can still see the entire list via the Blogroll link in the footer.
Oh, and one last thing. Through a post on Howtomakemyblog.com, I found a plugin that allows you to add your Twitter ID in your comments on my blog. You just enter your Twitter username (no html or @) in the box below the comments box before you submit your comment, and a link to your Twitter profile will appear below your name. You only have to enter your Twitter ID one time and then it will save it just like it saves your name, etc.
Let me know what you think about any or all of the changes. I’d love any feedback or other ideas you have.
And then go visit some blogs that truly deserve a Best Blog Award —
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