many thanks

I suppose I'm a day late with this post, but it's never too late to be thankful for the gifts that life has given you!

I'm thankful that, despite our financial struggles over the past several years, we've managed to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and a lifestyle that suits our preferences and our consciousness. And I'm thankful that it looks likely we'll be able to continue in that fashion!

I'm thankful for the wonderfully supportive real-life homeschooling community that I feel like we've truly connected with and clicked into this year. The kids and I all finally feel like we belong and have an integral part in that community, and it's a diverse and enriching place to be.

I'm thankful for the vast array of classes, programs, and opportunities that are available to homeschoolers, for the individuals that organize them, for the businesses and organizations who provide them, for the instructors that implement them, and for the families who participate in them. Enrichment will never be an issue to anyone homeschooling in Connecticut!

I'm thankful for the parents who entrust me with instructing their children in classes, programs and activities. And for the parents who actually include me on their list of things they are thankful for, I feel truly, deeply blessed.

I am thankful to have amazingly wonderful friends who share my parenting vision and spiritual base. They are my touchstone and my backbone, my inspiration and my mirror. Even though we can't be physically together every moment of every day, they are with me on every step of our journey, and I absolutely cherish those moments when we are able to visit face-to-face.

I am thankful for an active on-line support community of other like-minded parents. It's like one great big groovy virtual Kibbutz.


This is going to sound funny, but I'm not thankful that J's Autism diagnosis was removed this year. I AM thankful that Autism is no longer a roadblock for him, but is instead a way of describing how his brain works and why certain things are more challenging, and certain things are much easier, for him. And I am thankful that he is no longer defined by a diagnosis, even though WE of course never thought of him that way. It's just sort of cool to have the rest of the world on the same page as us.

And I'm thankful (ever so enormously thankful!) for RDI (Relationship Development Intervention), SIT (Sensory Integration Therapy), and Enki Education, the people who innovated those methods and strategies, and the professionals who brought them to our family directly, which were the keys in bringing us to this point.


I'm thankful that we are on the path we're on. There was a time (a LONG time) that The Map Man and I were adamant that we were not going to have children. It stuns the mind to even imagine what we would have missed out on. To say the kids have changed our live only trivializes it. I've changed in ways that I could never have dreamed of, and I know that I've grown more as a human being in the past 9 years than in the previous 35.

I'm thankful that, even in a culture that is inundated with technology and the next best thing, it's still possible to raise children in a simple, holistic manner, and it's still possible to find other parents doing the same thing. I'm thankful every single day that when you ask my kids what they want to do, watching TV and playing video games doesn't even occur to them.

I'm thankful for Homeopathy. While the rest of the country seems to be struggling with viral health issues, my family is riding a wave of good health, thanks to a simple Homeopathic remedy given at the first sign of trouble. I'm tempted to think it's just luck, but time and again we've staved off what's been going around with a well-timed dose of Belladonna, and at this point I'm willing to concede that it's more than just coincidence. (Of course, I could be jinxing myself even saying that out loud....)

And of course I am beyond thankful for whatever forces of nature or beyond caused me to casually mention to a friend one night almost exactly 26 years ago, "The party starts at 8. Oh, by the way, why don't you bring your roommate? Sounds like he needs to get out a bit." The rest is history.