I was challenged today by someone who claimed that I, as a lowly parent, couldn't possibly manage to educate my children in the skills of blindness. This was my response:

I guess take this for what it's worth, since my more blind children are still preschoolers. But I do have four other children that are old enough to be allowed some freedoms away from home, one of whom has another physical disability and is autistic and is mildly visually impaired, so I'm not flying totally blind here.

It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since Kender was born at home. And yet so much has changed here in the last year that sometimes it seems much longer. Time, as always, slips away too quickly. I never feel like I got enough "itty bitty baby" time, but watching him reach each developmental milestone is so amazing that regret can't stick around.

Brenden had his first Exam Under Anesthesia (EUA) yesterday. He'd been reporting floaters off and on this year, but Dr. Trese never saw anything when examining him in the office. Because he'd seen some kids fit that profile and wind up actually having more problems when looked at under anesthesia, Dr. Trese recommended having Brenden come in for a look. It was a very long day, with Brenden originally scheduled for a 2:30pm procedure but not getting taken back until 4:30pm (he was a very hungry little boy!).

I've spent most of today working on it, but I've finally gotten the website transferred over to the new Drupal setup. Some of it I was able to automatically import, but some had to be done and cleaned up by hand, so it's been a bit of a tedious task. But it's done now. I'm really liking Drupal so far, and I have some pretty cool ideas of some new things I can do with the website now. At the very least, I've been able to make it look nice again, and it will be much easier to update and add new content! Take a look around and enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions

These are all real, live questions from real, live people, most of them asked at least once every day. In case you can't tell, they are really starting to get on our nerves.

I always tell people that if we can do it, anybody can do it! So many people think it's more work, more mess, more trouble, more smell, but it's not! We've been using cloth diapers since January 2000, through triplets and two more singletons. I love the smell of cloth diapers, I love how they feel, I love how my babies' bottoms don't get diaper rash, I love not having to run to the store and spend money for more diapers! Here's some of what I've learned about cloth diapering.

In 2004, I had a tummy tuck done to repair the damage done by the triplets and Liam. The results were...interesting. Read on to see how things went for me.

Raspberries are a pain to harvest, but they sure are plentiful and fun to eat! The black raspberries we planted in our garden several years ago have finally started to bear fruit. Plus, black raspberries grow wild in Michigan, and you can find a profusion of them down every trail and along every tree break. We have enough wild raspberries within walking distance of home to satisfy all of us!