Cultivating Connection One Word at a Time
I once shared a post that included a story from someone who identified as a "person with autism." To respect their choice of words, I used the same term in…
S8 E9 | How to Talk About Disability with Carrie Hahn
Apple YouTube Spotify More! Is disability a tragedy? Are disabled people “inspiring”? The language we use often reveals our assumptions about disability. Carrie Hahn, a pediatric speech-language pathologist and mother,…
Belonging Begins With an Invitation
One of the most heartbreaking aspects of being a mother is watching our kids get excluded. I’ve seen it at times for all three of them, but exclusion happens most…
Discouraged and Stuck? Let’s Reimagine!
I have felt discouraged and stuck. If I looked back through my journals, I’d find similar feelings detailed over the years, but that statement isn’t mine. A parent of a…
Goal Setting: From A to B to Z
I used to hate setting goals for Penny. It felt like I was measuring her worth based on how quickly she achieved them. Now I see goal setting—for her and…
Why Rachel Handlin’s Art Exhibit Prompted Me to Change My Prepositions
Happy New Year! We’ve taken down our tree and put away the gnomes and nutcrackers. The kids are back at school. We reviewed the highlights of the past year as…
Baking at Her Own Pace
Penny wants to work on cooking and baking skills this year. Usually, we are rushing around, so it is hard to let her work at her own pace. But over…
Dancing Again | Nutcracker 2024
(Keep scrolling for video!) | Our daughter Penny danced for twelve years at Fineline Theatre Arts, which included many years of performing scenes from the Nutcracker. We moved this year,…
Step by Step by Step | Increasing Independence
Step by step by step. For our daughter Penny, who has Down syndrome, the path toward adulthood and increasing independence involves many more deliberate and supported steps than it will…
Disability’s Beautiful Complication of Human Flourishing
I’ve written a lot from the perspective of a white, affluent, educated, able-bodied, married woman about the ways in which my demographic group has rates of anxiety and depression. Similarly,…